Vanilla Icing

Bubble Bread

Mmmm....cheddar.  This afternoon I had such a hankering for extra sharp cheddar cheese that I decided to do something about it.  Now, I don't know if you knew this or not, but any cheese consumed while grating it for something else is calorie free.  I only had to find something to make to use up all that grated cheese.

Out in blog land, there seems to be a lot of Monkey Bread being baked and it gave me a good idea what to do with all that cheese.  Make Cheesy Bubble Bread!

I enjoy rolling the cheese dough into lots and lots of small balls probably a little more than I should.  It brings back my days of playing with play-doh.

Each ball is rolled in melted butter and oregano and stacked willy nilly in a casserole dish and then baked.  Play-doh never saw this sort of treatment!

Decadently rich cheese bread with just a hint of oregano to give it that little extra kick is nearly a meal in itself.  And everyone, young and old enjoys pulling it apart to eat.

Bubble Bread

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup milk
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 - 3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese---extra sharp is best!

1/4 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon dried oregano

In your mixing bowl, combine 1 cup of flour and the yeast and set aside.  In a saucepan, warm milk, 1 tablespoon of butter and the salt until 120-130 degrees.  Pour milk mixture into flour mixture and beat for 2 minutes on high speed.  Scrape the side of the bowl as necessary.  Add the cheese and slowly add the flour until the dough forms a ball.  You likely won't use all 3 cups of the flour.

Knead for 6-8 minutes until smooth and elastic.  Don't be surprised to find that you can no longer see the cheese.  Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise for an hour or until doubled.  Preheat oven to 375.

Turn dough out onto an oiled counter and pat in a rectangle approximately 6 by 8 inches.  Using a sharp knife or a pizza wheel, cut into about 48 squares.  Let rest while you melt the remaining butter and combine it with the oregano.

Carefully shape each portion of dough into a small ball taking care to stretch the ends under to form a smooth taut surface.  Roll each ball in the butter and place in a oiled 1.5 quart casserole.  You will want to stack them smooth sides up.  Cover and let rise until double, about 30-40 minutes.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.   Cover with foil the last few minutes if you find it browning too quickly.   If you tap the underside, it should sound hollow.  The bread should slide out from the dish neatly and easily.  Serve warm.

Weissbrot Rising

A few days of holiday celebrating makes one forgetful of everyday necessities such as bread.  Okay, I'm fibbing a bit...bread is never far from my mind.  What I mean to say is the baking of bread was put on a few day hold around here while we visited family.   But a stray thought around 10 am will inspire a rapid paging through a bread book for a quick and simple --but new!-- recipe for bread for lunch.

Have you ever seen a rise method quite like this one??
                        From these murky depths will come....

....bread as big as my head!  Please pardon:  the mirror--it's the orginal glass and is full of imperfections.  the flower--pipe cleaners + tissue paper + a 7 year old = a vaseful of flowers that I forgot to move.  me--fresh off the treadmill and the shower but not a single other thing put into my appearance!

Weissbrot slices very well even when it's piping hot.  <---A bread no-no but there were 4 hungry children and myself to feed.  I think we tried it every way--with turkey and cheese, spread with soft butter, smeared with spicy cinnamon butter, and topped with melted cheese.  The inside was soft and tender; the crust a little thicker than one would normally expect to find on white bread.  Perhaps that is because it's German White Bread?  

(It's because the dough gets sprayed with water at the onset of baking and partly through baking that helps it develop its crackling crust. It's also baked like a hearth bread; it is formed into a boule and allowed to bake free form.)

Net Weight 50 Pounds

I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season.

It's time to get back to baking around here.

Dear King Arthur Flour,

  At 4.59 at the grocery store for 5lbs and nearly $5 + $6.50 to ship our love affair, sadly, I think is about to end.  I can't keep buying these piddling little bags with only 5lbs of flour and frankly, I don't like the looks and questions I get when I try to buy more than 2 of you from the grocery store.   I'm afraid to say that unless you can start being shipped to me in bulk, preferably for free, I might not be seeing you again for quite some time.  Please don't feel badly; your legacy will live on in my starter whose roots began with you.  My love for you will never leave my heart.

Sincerely,
   Michelle

Gingerbread Kids

Whew! It's been a busy few days around here and I've neglected my poor blog.  But never fear--among all the cleaning (all done) and baking (maybe just one more thing today) I remembered to grab my camera to take some pictures.   Except this picture.  I didn't take this one but I suspect Rick or one of the kids did.  Our tree is a bit crooked, has colored lights (blah) and displays an eclectic mix of ornaments that the kids chose/made but it's ours and we like it just the way it is.

Normally I show you pictures of the things I bake but today I am going to show you some pictures of what Tristyn and Maia baked.  Together, they read the recipe and gathered the ingredients.

They measured them out and took turns operating the mixer.  All I did was stand on the sidelines and repeat:  Don't put your fingers in there!  That paddle will catch them and break them!  Of course their little fingers weren't in danger; they used the pouring shield and told me that I should too next time I use the mixer!

Tristyn and Maia did everything themselves except for putting the pans into the oven and taking them out.  I think they could have handled that with me supervising but they have both watched how many times their clumsy Mummy has burned herself getting things in and out of the oven and left that job to me. 

Oh, you've probably noticed the presence of wine bottles.  I don't have two rolling pins.  Or even one rolling pin.  I use unopened wine bottles to roll out dough.  They work remarkably well I think because they have some heft to them and can be chilled if working with a very soft dough.  Tristyn finds this very funny as you can see.

Decorating is serious business.  Tristyn and Maia wanted lots of colors.

Tristyn's first cookie.

Maia's first cookie.

I pestered them to pose for a picture together for me but I had a hard time getting them to agree.  I couldn't figure out why they didn't want to anymore than I could figure out their odd expressions.

Hey!!!   I just figured it out!  Come back here and help me clean up!!!

Pretzel Dogs Revisted

I always planned to share recipes on a regular basis at some point in the future when my audience increased.   Well, my audience hasn't increased but I do seem to have a few devoted readers.   I don't think it's fair to hold out on those people who are kind enough to visit my blog more than once.  I do hope that if someone does make any of my recipes that they will tell me how it turned out. 

First up, I'd like to revisit Pretzel Dogs.

Because of my aversion to store bough breads, I have to include hot dog buns in that list of things I no longer buy premade.  I haven't tried my hand at hot dog buns because a) a hot dog bun pan has not magically shown up on my doorstep and I've no desire to free form them and b) pretzel wrapped dogs are so much better.  They are easy too!

Don't be afraid that you will need lots of time to prepare these because they have yeast in them.  I guarantee you can have these on the table in less than an hour.

PRETZEL DOGS

--11 ounces all purpose flour
--2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (that's 1 packet)
--1 teaspoon sugar
--1/2 teaspoon salt
--7-8 ounces of warm water 

--1/2 cup warm water
--2 teaspoons sugar

--8 hot dogs of your choice

--2 tablespoons melted butter
--Pretzel salt, kosher salt or other coarse salt

In a bowl, combine flour, yeast, sugar and salt and stir to combine.  Beat in the water slowly until it forms a rough ball.  You'll want to go slow because you'll find in the winter you'll probably need the greater amount of water, in the summer the lesser, etc.

Knead for about 5 minutes by hand or mixer until it's a soft ball.  If you are mixing by hand, do NOT add additional flour.  Spray your counter top lightly with spray oil if you find the dough sticking.  Otherwise, simply knead with sure quick movements.  When properly kneaded it shouldn't be sticky to the touch but instead will be quite smooth and relaxed.  It should pass the windowpane test.

Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turn once to coat and cover with a piece of plastic wrap.  Let it rise for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 500.  Make a slit lengthwise down each hot dog allowing the knife to slice about a third of the way through.

On a lightly greased surface, turn out the dough and divide into 8 equal pieces.  Allow it to rest for 5 minutes, uncovered.  Then, roll out each piece into a long rope about 25 inches or so and wrap around a hot dog.  The dough will cover the dog from end to end.  Quickly dip the entire thing in the 1/2 cup water mixed with sugar, place the dog on the baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Be sure your ends of dough are tucked under the dog.   Repeat for remaining 7 dogs.  Let all the dogs rest for 10 minutes.

Bake the dogs for about 8-10 minutes or until they are golden brown.  Brush the dogs with the butter.  It will seem like a lot of butter but really it's not a lot at all and it IS all needed to keep your pretzel delicious and soft.  Serve immediately.

Black Bottom Pudding

I've been feeling a little guilty ever since the confession divulgence of my butter usage and I thought I better do another one of those frugal posts. 

I recycle food.  Does that scare you?

It shouldn't.  When two 3-day old brownies become the base for black bottomed pudding it's a good thing.

They also provide a good garnish!

Peppermint Bark

There's a lot of articles floating around right now about Frugality at Christmas time.  Well, I've got reason to be frugal around here---and it's to support my baking habit which requires um....several pounds of butter and flour a week month.  Yes, a month.  Mmmmhmmm.  That's right.  And that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anyhow, back to how to be frugal Vanilla Icing style.  Look at mail and excitedly peruse one of  favorite catalogs  with the initials W.S.  Gape at price of Peppermint Bark.

$26.00 a pound!!!  

That's about 14 pounds of butter!  24 pounds of King Arthur Bread Flour!  I'm sorry W.S., but in this particular case I'm not going to defend you.

I rummaged through the cupboards and pulled out semi-sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips.  I snagged some candy canes off of the Christmas tree.  Then, I made Peppermint Bark and it wasn't $26 a pound.  And it doesn't require some fancy recipe.

Peppermint Bark Vanilla Icing Style

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
2 candy canes

Using two double boilers* melt each of the chips over low heat.  While they are melting, place a sheet of waxed paper on a plate or in a small pan for support.  Unwrap candy canes, place in ziplock back and crush into small pieces.  When the semi-sweet is melted, spread in a thin layer of desired thickness onto wax paper.  Carefully spoon the melted white chocolate onto the semi-sweet and spread.  Be careful not to mix the two OR go wild and swirl them together gently.  Sprinkle the crushed candy canes on top.  Drizzle additional semi-sweet chocolate on top if you are feeling decorative.

*I don't actually have a double boiler.  I set a small bowl or pan over a pot of water.  Sometimes I even put a heavy, thick bottomed small crockery bowl into a frying pan that has about two inches of water in it.

Struan

I'm sorry about that half chomped down sandwich.  It was lunchtime.

Lots of good stuff in this bread.

Old Dancing Pictures

Yesterday, Maia was invited to go with her friend's family to go see her friend dance in a Christmas play.  Maia, being young, didn't feel weird at all attending a dance recital for a dance class that she no longer attended and was happy to go and see her friend.

While looking on the dance studio's website to see what time the show started (and consequently didn't hear my phone vibrating in the next room!) so I could make sure Maia was ready when it was time for her to go, I came across a few pictures from when Maia did attend.  The best I could guess was that these pictures are from mid 2007.

Maia is on the far right.  She's got some air!

I showed her these pictures and asked her if she missed it.  "No," she said, "I'd rather play soccer and softball."   I was very glad to hear that she didn't regret her choice and wouldn't feel sad watching her friend (who isn't pictured btw) dance.  Maia was able to go and enjoy her friend's performance who had not only dancing parts but speaking parts.  She said her friend did a good job and she enjoyed the show.  =)

Thank You Monsieur Monfort (and Mr. Clayton!)

This morning I realized I had never gotten around to making the pre-ferment last night so that I could make French Bread today.  I had a few extra children around to distract me but Tristyn and Maia really enjoyed having friends to stay overnight so that was okay.  But--how was I to make French Bread?   I really like the recipe I normally use but that was out....

Lucky for me, I still had Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads checked out from the library.  I hadn't baked a thing out of it but as I was flipping through it in search of a one-day French Bread recipe I found ....

...these words:  "In a small one-man boulangerie in the resort town of Benodet, in Brittany..."

There was something about 'one-man' that appealed to me and I kept reading and by the time I read a second paragraph, "Two things were quickly apparent during my visit with M. Monfort and each contributed importantly to the making of his excellent French loaf."

French Bread---Aha!!  I kept reading and sure enough it was a one-day French Bread.  Score!

"M. Monfort's recipe takes both of these factors into consideration--the temperature of the room and the consistency of the dough.  Becasue of the extended period allowed for resting the dough at lower temperatures, 5 to 6 hours are needed to prepare, raise, shape and bake the bread."

Over the last year, I've developed a much better sense of the proper consistency of various doughs (but I've a long way to go still, I'm sure!) so that part wasn't a problem.  Nor was the lower temperature--our house is about 68 during the winter, unless I'm baking bread and then I dial it up to 70.  <--and feel guilty about it the whole time, too.

The dough has 3 rises which is a bit uncommon but it respsonded well and rose the third and final time in two cloth lined baskets.  I scored the dough in a tic tac toe pattern but as you can see I wasn't as bold with the lame as I should have been.  One of these days I shall have to make 10 or 12 loaves all at once and brandish my lame a la Zorro until I've got the knack of it. 

*Quotations from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads