Hot Cross Buns

Tags

baking, bread, Easter, food, Fresh from the Oven, holiday, Hot Cross Buns, sweet, yum

When I found out the Fresh from the Oven challenge this month was Hot Cross Buns I was a bit delighted. I don’t recall ever eating one, in fact I didn’t really recall the nursery rhyme either, I just knew there was one.  There was a vague thought that something existed called a Hot Cross Bun and that it must have a long history, going way back in time. After all if there is a nursery rhyme about a food, it must be good and a pretty old recipe!  I was not disappointed, these are very good.  I’m eating one as I sit here typing.

They are a sweet bread but not too sweet. Not close to a muffin, more like a sweet roll.  They usually have spice in the batter and fruits, with a glaze over the top.  They also have a cross on the top and are traditionally served during Easter on Good Friday.  According to Wikipedia they may even pre-date Christ although the first recorded use of the term Hot Cross Bun was in 1733!!!!  I get to make something that’s been passed along since then, wow!

There were a few recipes out there so I read the ones I could find and decided I wanted to stay with a more traditional recipe…meaning no chocolate for now.  I love reading Chica Andaluza’s blog and she had just posted a Hot Cross buns recipe!  So I used hers with a few additions of my own.

Hot Cross Buns

• 300 g milk
• 50 g butter
• 550 g flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 100 g sugar
• 7 g yeast (I used instant)
• 1 egg
• 50 g dates
• 50 g prunes
• zest of 1 Meyer lemon and 1/4 ? grapefruit
• 1 Tb mixed spices (I combined ginger, cardamon, all spice, clove, nutmeg & cinnamon)
• 1 tsp anise seed
• 1 tsp orange flower water

For the cross

4 Tb rice flour (you can use regular flour) and water until you reach a pipeable consistency.

For the Glaze

3 Tb apricot jam, 1 Tb orange marmelade

Traditionally raisins are used but I don’t really like them. I found chopped dates & plums (prunes) in the store so used them. I also had used anise seed and orange flower water in a Spanish cookie I recently made and loved the flavor they added so I decided to throw that in too!

My additions

Bring the milk to an almost boil, drop in the butter, cool to room tempurature and add in the tsp of orange flower water. In a mixer combine the flour, salt, yeast, spices, sugar and anise seed.  Add the milk mixture & the egg and mix on low for 4 minutes, then on med for about 6 minutes.  The dough will be sticky.  Turn it out onto a floured surface and flatten the dough and add the fruits & zest and knead until it is well combined.  You will want to add flour if necessary to stop it from sticking.  Put in a greased bowl and proof for an hour or until doubled in size.  I forgot to take a picture of this stage, sorry. Punch down the dough and divide into 24 pieces, shape into rounds & proof again for about an hour. (The amount you make depends on how large you want the buns to be, but remember they will grow a bit).

After the hour, preheat your oven to 375 F (200 C) and prepare the flour for the crosses.  I used rice flour becuase I wanted a crispier cross and I knew the flour makes a whiter color too.  Anyway add water to whatever flour you use until it is wet enough to pipe on the crosses.  I had read that you should slash the crosses first and pipe over the slash and I had read without slashing so I did some of each.

Pop them in the oven and let bake for 15-18 minutes.  They should be a golden brown.  Meanwhile heat up the jam for the glaze.  I’ve also read of people using golden syrup for the glaze. I think in the States we call golden syrup, light corn syrup? But I thought jam would be more flavorful.TaDa!!!

They were delightful to eat.  I took them to a friend’s for Easter dinner and they loved them, even the 9 year old!  I remember being a kid and not liking sweet bread with fruits in it. I think every culture has a version of this idea. In Greece it’s called a Tsoureki, in Italy a Panetone, I believe Mexico’s Day of the Dead bread, Pan de Muertos is a sweet bread too.  Check out Wikipedia on Hot Cross Buns it’s an interesting read.  In fact when I read this part “If hung in the kitchen, they are said to protect against fires and ensure that all breads turn out perfectly. The hanging bun is replaced each year.^”   I realized I might just have to hang one in the kitchen! Hmmmm, I wonder how Jason would feel about that?  And the dogs?! They would probably be jumping for it….nevermind….I’ll just eat them.

First time Bagels!

Tags

bagels, baking, basil, bread, feta, food, fresh from the oven challenge, oregano, savory, snack, sun dried tomato, yum

I decided to join a baker’s challenge group Fresh From the Oven because of another blogger Sam of From Samwiches to Samosas. She recently posted some Jalapeno/Cheddar bagels that looked amazing and talked about the challenge so I decided to join up as well.  Thanks Sam!  But what to make?  I love Jalapeno/Cheddar as well but she had just done it.  I decided to go with my heritage and give them a Greek flavor with basil, oregano, sun dried tomato and feta! Yum!  But would it work?  How would putting all those things in there affect the dough?  Experimenting is the whole point of a challenge correct?

I got the recipe straight from the challenger’s site.  You can find the original here.

• 450 g white flour (I used all purpose unbleached)
• 7 g fast acting yeast
• 2 tsp salt (I reduced to 1 because feta is salty)
• 250 ml warm water
• 2 Tb honey
• 1 Tb veg oil

My additions

• 1/2 tsp fresh  oregano
• 1/2 tsp fresh basil
• 1 tsp diced sun dried tomato
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta

In a bowl mix the flour, yeast, basil & oregano.  Add the warm water, honey & oil.  Mix this together and then add the salt, tomato & feta.  Mix on med for 10 mins or by hand. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let sit until doubled, 1-3 hours.  (I let it sit three because I was doing other things!) 

Risen dough

Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a floured work surface.  Divide the dough into 7 equal pieces.

Now the fun part.  You have two options, one roll into a sausage shape and form a ring and seal the ring shut with some water. OR…..form the dough into a ball, push your finger through the middle and spin around your finger!  Turns out Jason is really good at this!  We made a video for your enjoyment.  Cover the bagels and let them rise again for about 20 minutes.  You’ll notice we also have a braid instead of a ring.  Jason got carried away with the spinning and decided the hole was so big it should be turned into a braid.  The bagels will expand during this stage and during the next (water) stage so make sure your holes are large enough.  I had a few that ended up not really having holes….so lesson learned.

 

Preheat your oven to 425.  Fill a large skillet with enough water to float the bagels and bring to a  simmer.  Gently place the bagels in the water, don’t overcrowd as they will expand a bit here and poach for about 90 seconds a side.  Turn them with a slotted spoon or spatula.  Let the water drip off and then place on a baking sheet.  I used a silpat, the directions said to grease the sheet, parchment would probably work too.  Oh! AND you’re supposed to brush with a beaten egg before baking but I forgot that part.  It didn’t seem to affect them too much so do it….or don’t!

Bake them in the oven for 15 minutes, turn and then bake another 10.  I put the baking sheet on a pizza stone in the bottom of the oven and the last 10 minutes browned the bagels more than I would have liked.  Next time I will cook them in the middle of the oven without a pizza stone.  Oh and my pizza stone cracked!?!!!   It’s been in the oven all the time and I’ve read about the cracking problem.  I think I will go buy some quarry tiles at the local home improvement store and try those.  I’ve heard that thicker stones don’t crack as easily.  The bagels were good but I also think that next time I should add more of everything.  The feta seemed to melt into the dough as it was being mixed so I’m not sure when to add it.  Maybe next time after the rise the feta can be mixed in?  It will be fun to experiment on this and other flavors.

An unexpected dinner

Tags

aloo paratha, bread, dinner, food, potato, savory, snack, yum

All day I was planning on having leftovers from last night for dinner.  Jason never eats the leftovers during the day…in fact I have no idea what he eats when I’m not around, although I can imagine.  Things like cereal, sugary sweet cereal and pastries he buys at the store and these Chinese peanut type snacks we call Crack!  Because they are highly addictive.   But as we were walking the dogs before dinner and I mentioned that we were having leftovers he got this little smile on his face and I realized he had eaten it….all.  Now what? The contents of my refrigerator raced through my head.  In a flash a page of the book I had recently borrowed from the library light up in my head.

Aloo Paratha!  YES.

The book was Bread, A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes.  What is Aloo Paratha you might ask.  It’s an Indian stuffed flatbread, similar to naan.  I kept the bread part of his recipe but expanded on the filling (of course).  I knew it needed more if it was going to be dinner.

Dough

• 300 g whole wheat flour (I used two thirds whole wheat, one third all purpose)
• 3 g salt
• 225 g water

Mix the ingredients together and either knead by hand for 10-15 mins or in the mixer ofr 5 on med.  Put in a bowl and cover with plastic for 30 mins.  Or put in the refrigerator and use the next day.

Dough just sitting around

Filling – now this is definitely NOT traditional

• 2 potatoes
• 1/4 c peas
• 1/4 c baby lima beans
• 1/2 c chopped spinach
• 1/2 grated zuchinni
• 1/2 onion
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds (I only had ground so used 1 1/2 tsp)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 2 T mustard oil *
• salt

To make the mustard oil toast black mustard seeds in a skillet and then crush in a mortar, place in a dish with 2 Tb veg oil and let sit for awhile.  Meanwhile boil the potatoes whole in their skins. When they were almost done I added the peas & lima beans since I used frozen, to take the freeze off.  I then put the chopped spinach (I used fresh) in a colander and poured the boiling water over it to soften. Then I peeled and grated the potato   In a skillet I toasted the cumin seeds, added the mustard oil, onion, grated zuchinni, ginger & ground  coriander and cooked over med until the onions were soft. I then added the potatoes, peas, lima beans and spinach and mixed it all together and let it cook.  I then salted it and let it cool down.

Now take the dough and put it on a floured surface, cut it into 6-8 equal portions. It will be a bit sticky so flour your hands, flatten it and shape it into a little cup in your hand.

Put filling in the dough.

Then pinch the dough together and seal in the filling.  Make sure it’s really well sealed so the filling doesn’t come out.

Now the fun part!  Heat up a big skillet or if you have a super well stocked kitchen, a flat Indian tava, on med heat.  Roll the dough pocket on a well floured surface until it’s rather thin.  Try to make sure the filling is well spread out and don’t roll so hard that the filling bursts through.  You want an almost pita bread thiness.

You can see if your skillet is hot enough by sprinkling water on it. If it sizzles away it’s ready.  Place a paratha on the skillet and cook for about 2 minutes each side.  You will see nice brown spots on each side.  Brush with oil or ghee after it gets the brown spots and flip onto each oiled side for about 30 seconds or so.

Oh so yummy!

These can be eaten right away or if there are any left (yeah right) you can reheat wrapped in aluminum foil and put in a 300 oven.

If you want to make these the traditional way the ingredients for the filling are potato, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, ginger, chopped green chilies, cliantro and mustard oil.  I didn’t have the chilis or cilantro (next time) and just wanted to make them more filling.  These are so good and really so easy.  The filling I made was actually enough for a double batch so I made more for lunch tomorrow!

I’m submitting this recipe on Lisa’s Kitchen, she is having a contest and giveaway, vegetarian, Indian food submissions here.

A tale of two doughs.

Tags

artisan, baking, bread, sourdough, wild yeast, yum

I decided to make sourdough bread from my wild starter again this weekend. Last weekend the bread turned out fabulous, looking like this…

Beauty!

The taste was as amazing as it looked.  You can find the directions for having your own wild yeast starter here.  I am using the sourdough recipe from Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson, a most amazing book.  My sister lives near San Francisco so next time I’m visiting my plan is to go to the Tartine Bakery and taste his bread!  Anyway, I’ll write the list of ingredients first and then explain the process. This recipe is for two loaves.

Water – 700 grams plus 50 grams (warm water about 80 degrees F)

Leaven – 200 grams

Total flour is 1000 grams broken down into 900 grams white flour and 100 grams whole wheat flour.

Salt 20 grams.

Measuring everything is a bit of a pain but to do this properly you have to get the measurements right. A cup of flour can weigh different amounts depending on whether it’s packed into the cup etc.  So….I measure….and I think my cheap scale is not completely accurate. Oh well.

For the leaven…you use 1 Tb of your wild yeast starter and mix it with 200 grams 50/50 flour (half white, half whole wheat) and 200 grams warm water. Mix it together, cover and let sit overnight.  In the morning add 200 grams of the leaven (it will have grown and be bubbly) to the 700 grams of warm water, mix it up .  Add the 1000 grams of the flour, mix it by hand until there is no dry flour and cover and let sit for about 45 mins.  This rest period called the autolyse is super important as it allows the protein and starch in the flour to absorb water.

Don't be afraid to get your hand right in it!

After the rest period, add the 20 grams of salt and the remaining 50 grams of warm water and mix it with your hands again.  Now we wait.  The dough has to rise, called the bulk rise, for up to 4 hours.  This is to develop the flavor and strength in the dough.  Every half hour for the first 2 hours you have to turn the dough. This is in place of kneading.  Place the dough in a large bowl to rise, I used plastic. To turn it, you wet your hand so the dough doesn’t stick to it and grab the underside of the dough, stretch it over the top, then turn the bowl and do it again until all the dough has been stretched onto itself.  You will notice the texture of the dough change from the first time you do it to the last time. You can do it every hour for the last two hours but be very gentle at that point because you don’t want to press too much gas out of the dough.

 When the four hours or so is up, pull all the dough onto an unfloured work surface. Lightly flour the surface of the dough and cut into two pieces. Fold the cut side of the dough onto itself so that the flour stays on the outer surface of the dough or what will be the crust. You can flour your hands at this point to make it more manageable. Shape the dough into a round shape with your hands and a dough cutter. Let the rounds rest covered with a kitchen towel for about 30 mins. This is called the bench rest.

Now on to the final shaping and rising. This is my favorite part because you get to fold the dough. I love how it feels in my hands.  I made a video showing how to do it…

Now at this point the dough has to rest again and you have TWO choices really.  One is put it in a “basket” to rise for up to four hours. I used a plastic bowl, a kitchen towel and rice flour to keep it from sticking.

It needs a rest poor tired thing.

Or you can wrap it in plastic and put it in the fridge overnight to develop even more flavor!  I’m doing both versions since I have two loaves to work with and want to know if there is a taste difference or anything.  I use a cast iron Dutch Oven to bake the bread. The reason is that professional bakers use steam injected ovens to get that crispy crust and you can get a similar effect with a covered baking dish at home. I have a cast iron Dutch oven and it can withstand the heat needed.  You preheat the oven to 500 with the Dutch oven inside, cover and all.  After about 10 mins take it out of the oven and place the dougn inside, slash the top to allow the dough room to expand, otherwise it may split along the sides. Cover and place in the oven, reduce heat to 450 and bake 20 mins. After 20 mins remove the cover and bake another 20 mins.  The first loaf…

Lovely

Not quite as bursting as that first one but gorgeous nonetheless.  The second loaf came out of the fridge and I folded it right away and put it in a towel lined bowl, sprinkled with flour and let it rise for about  2 1/2 hours. I baked it the same way as the other, in the Dutch oven. Well actually Jason baked it!  And it looks gorgeous. It tastes a bit more sourdoughy (is that a word?) than the other one.

Where the wild things are

Tags

artisan, baking, bread, food, sourdough, Tartine, wild yeast, yum

Here is where my obsession started.

The baker and author of this book also loves surfing so we are sympatico from the beginning.  He makes artisan bread in San Francisco and tells you how to do it at home.  Preferably from a “wild yeast starter” aka “sourdough leaven”. Well how could I possibly resist? Complicated? Dedication and obsession required?  I’m all over it!  

The process…from the book “A culture is created when flour & water are combined and the mocroorganisms – wild yeasts & bacteria present in the flour, in the air and on the baker’s hands – begin to ferment spontaneously.”  I kinda feel like a microbiologist! Scientists are my heroes so this is great.

We start

Basically you mix up half white and half wheat flour. This will be used for the starter and for later feedings.  I mixed up the flour with warm water in a jar with my hand, until the consistency was like a thick batter. (He doesn’t give proportions, I had to discover that on my own) Cover with a kitchen towel and leave in a cool place for about 5 days. Smell it every day. Yes your nose is very involved in this process.  Also start to look for bubbles forming.  I was very anxious during these first few days. I was worried that it wasn’t working, that I did it wrong, that it would be rotten. Don’t worry. It is a natural process that should work regardless of your anxiety!  The smell will be yeasty and then more sour as it gets closer to being ready. He describes the smell as stinky cheese, but I’ve smelled some very stinky cheese in France and this wasn’t even close!

Sucess! Bubbles!

 

 There may be a layer of dark water at the top, or a crusty darker layer, this is normal. When you get to this stage, dump out about 80% of the mixture and feed it.  Feeding:  equal amounts water & white/wheat flour mix. Add to starter, mix it together and re-cover and let it sit again. Repeat this process every 24 hours, about the same time every day. (Didn’t I say dedication?) You will notice that after the feedings, the starter will rise up and then collapse after a few hours and there will be bubbles.  It will be fresh and flowery smelling in the beginning and then get more sour as the day progresses.

He uses it at the fresh and flowery stage for a more delicate flavor in the bread. If you like a more sour flavor in your bread, use an older starter.  I really suggest you get the book, or research online about wild yeast starters because actually using the starter in a bread is an entire process on it’s own.  I will be posting the bread I made (which turned out beautifully) in another post….maybe tomorrow.

My new AMAZING Bosch mixer!

Tags

baking, banana bread, Bosch, bread, dessert, food, German engineering, lemons, Mixer, yum

I got a new mixer!!!! My old one was my two hands and the sometime help of a hand mixer. A 16 year old that I know commented the other day that the hand mixer was older than me.  It’s avocado green so that tells you the time frame it came from.  First things first…

 

Feels like Christmas all over!

 

 J. wanted to get me a mixer for Christmas but since I’m a fanatical researcher and want to make the right decision, this wasn’t ordered until after Christmas.  I was going to get the mixer that everyone has, the one that is pretty in red, the one that will remained un-named.  I found so many terrible reviews of it, especially if it was used for bread dough that I was at a loss.  Hobart mixers (which used to make the un-named mixer but then sold it to Whirlpool) are SUPER expensive. They are used in professional kitchens and just cost too much for a mere mortal.  I went to a well known bread making forum and looked at what these people were using.  Two names came up over and over….Bosch and the Electrolux DLX. I have a love hate relationship with all things German…it’s a long story….but their engineering is usually top notch.  I got it through a wonderful woman named Rhonda  here  who sells grain, mixers, grain mills and more.  It has a 800 watt motor and a three year warranty!!!!! Because it’s made by Germans they have thought of everything. You can buy a blender attachment, food processor, meat grinder, pasta maker and probably much more and just use this base for all that instead of having to buy heavy separate machines. Look at it!!!

Love at first site!

  

So needless to say I had to test it out immediately. 

 

I made:

Lemony Snicket banana bread.

Lemony banana!

   

Tortas bread (Tortas are mexican sandwiches made on these small breads).

 

Tortas

And finally some French style bread. 

YUM!

I have BIG plans for this mixer. Lots of test runs and delicio things to come out of it. I forsee a long and happy future for us.