There is Nothing Quite Like Toast

Not only for breakfast, but almost any kind of meal can benefit from the addition of toast. Cookbook author Susanna Blake provides a wealth of recipes and ideas for toast (and we’re not talking the Wonder Bread white variety here). Some of the simplest —yet tastiest— snacks and meals can be made with toast.

Written by Ian McKenzie on March 8th, 2007 with 1 comment.
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Food Bites - February 16

• Arroz Con Pollo Recipe – the classic Spanish chicken and rice dish.
• Chocolate-covered cars – a waste of good chocolate.
• No-Knead Bread – A bread recipe that requires no kneading, but takes plenty of time.
• Love is a big rare roast – Lynette creates one of her great sounding meals for Valentine’s Day. Lucky Cakes!
• The Fundamentals Of Running A Restaurant - A Forbes.com article on what is involved in running a restaurant. (Hint, it’s not all Food Network glamour.)
• Roasted Garlic - Getting Back to Basics – Just thinking about roasted garlic gets me salivating in a Homer Simpson kind of way.
• Breville 800ESXL – on my wish list.
• Pork. Chop. Noodles. – Who needs to eat out when you’re preparing food like this.
• Yogurt Panna Cotta with Raspberries – A simple, elegant, light dessert.
• Spicy Beef Curry Stew for the Slow Cooker

Written by Ian McKenzie on February 16th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on European and Main Dish and Mediterranean and Tools and Equipment and Indian and Poultry and Holiday Recipes and Pasta and Pork and Bread and Coffee and Dessert and One Pot Meals and How To and Oriental and Slow Cooker.

Spicy Mini Corn Muffins with Cheese

Makes 2 – 3 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1/2 medium red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese, jack or old Cheddar
• 3/4 cup Yellow Cornmeal
• 1 cup Flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 cup Milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 Tablespoons melted shortening, or bacon fat

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease mini muffin pans.
2. Place jalapeno, onion and bell pepper in food processor and process for 10 seconds. Add shredded cheese and pulse a few times.
3. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in the frozen corn and the pepper, cheese and onion mixture.
4. Add the wet ingredients and blend well.
5. Drop by heaping tablespoon full into muffin cups and bake for about 20 min.

If you like things really spicy, you could increase the jalapenos by one or two more. This is a good accompaniment to chili or other Tex-Mex style dishes. It multiples well if you want to feed a large crowd.

Written by Ian McKenzie on October 4th, 2006 with no comments.
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Basic Italian Bread

Ingredients:

Biga:

• 1/2 Teas. Active Dry Yeast
• 1 Cup Lukewarm water
• 2 Cups Unbleached, All−purpose Flour

Mix the yeast and water together, and then slowly start adding the flour, mixing well. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for up to 6 hours. Refrigerate overnight.

Bread:

• 2 Cups Warm Water (about 90 degrees F.)
• 1 Pkg. Active Dry Yeast
• 5−6 Cups All−purpose, Unbleached Flour
• 2 Ts. Salt

Directions:

1. Place the water in a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast overtop and mix well.
2. Let sit 10 minutes until bubbly. Add the biga, flour, and salt and stir with a wooden spoon until everything is mixed. The dough will be fairly wet and sticky at this point. Cover and let stand in a warm spot for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours until doubled in volume.
3. Punch down the dough, folding it over on itself two or three times, cover and let rise once more until doubled, about 1 hour.
4. Turn out your dough onto a floured baking sheet, and without overworking it too much shape into one large or two smaller round or oval shaped loaves, using as much extra flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Slash across the tops of the loaves with a sharp knife just prior to baking.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and place a casserole dish with boiling water on the lower oven rack. Bake your bread 30 minutes, turn the baking sheet around, and reduce the heat to 300 degrees and bake for another 30−45 minutes.
6. Cool to room temperature and serve.

Written by tubaism on May 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Pita Bread

Pita Bread
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence and JoAnn Cianciulli

1 package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
11/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon salt
31/2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon olive oil

In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the yeast, sugar, and warm water; stir to blend. Let the yeast stand until foamy, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Stir in the salt. Add the flour, a little at a time, mixing at the lowest speed until all the flour has been incorporated and the dough gathers into a ball; this should take about 4 minutes.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it’s smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turn it over to coat, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until double in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

Place a large pizza stone on the lower oven rack, pre-heat the oven (and stone) to 500 degrees F.

Punch the dough down, divide it into 8 pieces, and gather each piece into a ball; keeping all of them lightly floured and covered while you work. Allow the balls of dough to rest, covered, for 15 minutes so they will be easier to roll out.

Using a rolling pin, roll each dough ball into a circle that is about 8-inches in diameter and 1/4-inch thick. Make sure the circle is totally smooth, with no creases or seams in the dough, which can prevent the pitas from puffing up properly. Cover the disks as you roll them out, but do not stack them up. Put 2 pita rounds at a time on the hot pizza stone and bake for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the bread puffs up like a balloon and is pale golden. Watch closely; they bake fast. Remove the bread from the oven and place on a rack to cool for 5 minutes; they will naturally deflate, leaving a pocket in the centre. Wrap the pitas in a large kitchen towel to keep them soft.

Food Network: Pita Bread

Written by tubaism on May 27th, 2006 with no comments.
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Good Morning Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups grated carrot
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup medium shredded coconut
• 2 cups chopped apple
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F and grease 18 muffin cups
2. In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients
3. Stir in the carrot, raisins, walnuts, coconut and apple
4. In a separate bowl, beat the liquid ingredients.
5. Stir into the flour mixture until batter is just combined. Do not over mix.
6. Spoon into muffin cups, filling to the top.
7. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

Technorati Tags: Baking, Muffins, Recipes, Breakfast

Written by tubaism on May 20th, 2006 with no comments.
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One Bowl, No Knead, Crusty French Bread

* 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
* 1-1/2 cups warm water (110-115F), divided
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Directions are for use with a stand mixer. By-hand instructions are included in parenthesis.

1. In mixing bowl of mixer (or large mixing bowl), drop yeast in 1/2 cup warm water, and mix in by hand with a wire whisk. As long as your water heater is set so that the hot water won’t scald flesh, hot water straight from your tap should work. If it won’t burn you, it won’t kill yeast. Let the mixture sit in the bowl for 4 or 5 minutes, until yeast is dissolved.

2. Add sugar 1 cup water and 2 cups of flour to the bowl; mix with mixer (or with wooden spoon) until smooth. Let stand for 10 minutes or so, until mixture rises and bubbles a little in the bowl.

3. Measure in salt, oil, and 1/2 cup flour; mix. Continue adding flour 1/2 cup at a time and mixing it in until it is all added. When the mixture gets thick, you’ll need to switch to a dough hook before adding more flour. (If you are making this by hand, keep using your wooden spoon and bulging biceps.)

4. Dump the ball of dough on the countertop, but don’t knead. Grease the mixing bowl with a little oil or shortening, going right over any flour or dough that is adhered to the side of the bowl. Return the ball of dough to the bowl and cover with a damp towel.

5. Put the bowl of dough in a warm place and let rise until double, about one hour. A sunny window, the top of a stove that is being used for other cooking projects, or by a radiant heat source are all good places to let the dough rise. If none of these are available, don’t worry. The dough will rise in any temperature that isn’t freezing; it’ll just take longer.

6. Turn dough onto a floured surface and roll, push, and pull until you’ve shaped a 16 inch (or so) long loaf. Place the loaf on a greased baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. If your baking sheet is shorter than the loaf, you can place it diagonally to make it fit.

7. Cover the loaf with the still damp towel and let rise until double, about 45 minutes.

8. Make 6-8 diagonal slashes in the top of the loaf using a very sharp knife.

9. Bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes or until nicely browned. Cool on wire rack.

10. If you want to make two loaves, mix them separately, one right after the other, rather than doubling the recipe.

Rebecca Writes: One Bowl, No Knead, Crusty French Bread

Written by tubaism on May 8th, 2006 with no comments.
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Irish Soda Bread

A little something for St. Paddy’s day.

INGREDIENTS:
* 4 cups all-purpose flour
    * 4 tablespoons white sugar
    * 1 teaspoon baking soda
    * 1 tablespoon baking powder
    * 1/2 teaspoon salt
    * 1/2 cup margarine, softened
    * 1 cup buttermilk*
    * 1 egg

DIRECTIONS:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and margarine. Stir in 1 cup of buttermilk and egg. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place on prepared baking sheet. Use a sharp knife to cut an ‘X’ into the top of the loaf.
3. Bake in pre-heated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean, about 30 to 50 minutes. You may continue to brush the loaf with the butter mixture while it bakes.

*In the absence of buttermilk, put 1 tablespoon of white vinegar in a measuring cup. Fill with milk to the 1 cup mark and let sit for ten minutes before using.

Technorati Tags: Baking, Recipes, Bread, Quick+Breads, Irish

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Written by tubaism on March 17th, 2006 with no comments.
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Orange French Toast

Serve with bacon or sausage

Ingredients:
8 -10 slices of day old French bread, cut 3/4 to 1 inches thick
6 large eggs or 8 small eggs
grated rind of 1 large orange
1 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract
2/3 cup (150 ml) unsweetened orange juice
1/3 cup (75 mL) orange liqueur
3/4 cup (175 mL) half & half
3 tbsp (60 mL) sugar
4 tbsp (55 g) Butter
Icing sugar for dusting

Directions:
Generously butter a 9 x 12 inch non-stick pan. Lay bread slices evenly in pan. Whisk together eggs, orange juice, liqueur, half & half, vanilla and sugar. Mix in grated orange rind. Pour egg mixture over bread. Dot with remaining butter, cut in small pieces. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Uncover pan, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until puffed and light golden brown. Dust with Icing Sugar and serve with syrup. Serves four

Written by tubaism on December 20th, 2005 with no comments.
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