Homemade Bagels

These are probably the most complicated thing I’ve made.  Yeast and two different risings and boiling dough and ahhh!!  Though it took a lot of careful reading and re-reading and nervous peeking into the oven, these bagels turned out awesome.  This recipe makes about 10 (random number, right?) but one of my bagels had an accident when it was time to boil, so I had 12 (9 bagels, three nubbins).  I’m really proud of how they came out but also a little weary because I know soon my inbox will fill with “MAKE MAKE MAKE” emails from Justin.

Ingredients & Method (adapted from Melinda Lee):

• 3 1/2 C bread flour (or sub regular)
• 2 pks dry yeast
• 3 T sugar
• 1 T salt
• 1 1/2 C hot water (120-130 degrees)
• 1 1/2 t barley malt syrup (or sub sugar)
• 3 quarts water
• 1 egg white, beaten with 1 t water
• cornmeal for sprinkling
• toppings of your choice (sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic, rosemary, anything!)

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Dark Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

Sometimes my boyfriend asks me why I’m not more like Steven.  I guess I haven’t been making enough sweet things for him lately since he emailed me a link to Steven’s homemade peanut butter cup recipe with the subject MAKE MAKE MAKE MAKE!!

I searched a few of my favorite recipe sites, and saw that Sues over at We Are Not Martha made these muffins for Valentine’s Day and thought they’d be delicious for breakfast this week.  I made a few changes to her recipe and they came out perfect.

Ingredients & Method (adapted from We Are Not Martha):

• 2 C flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 C sugar
• 14 Tbs butter, softened (cookin’ like Paula y’all!)
• 3/4 C plain yogurt
• 1/2 C water
• 2 eggs
• 4 oz. dark chocolate, chopped (I used 60% cacao, but next time I think I’ll go darker)
• 5 oz raspberries
• 2 T granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 375.

Cream the butter and sugar - there is a GREAT slideshow about proper technique over at Serious Eats - and add the yogurt and eggs, mixing until smooth.  Combine with the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Fold in the chocolate and raspberries and mix until well incorporated.

Pour the batter into muffin tins - fill almost to the tippy top.  According to the recipe, this is supposed to make only 9 muffins, but I wound up making double, so I guess it’s all about the amount you put in the cups.

Bake for 30-40 minutes and let cool.  You’ll probably eat at least 3 right away.  Save the rest.

For extra deliciousness, pop them in the microwave or toaster oven for a few moments to get the chocolate all melty - they’re seriously delicious and I guarantee won’t last long wherever you keep them.

(meg)

Irish Soda Bread

As someone who grew up in Boston in a very Irish neighborhood, St. Patrick’s Day has always been a celebrated holiday.  The best part about it is that in Boston it’s also an actual holiday, Evacuation Day, and not having school when I was growing up was the best.  Now that I’m older I have to work, but that doesn’t stop me from eating good food and drinking good beer on that day. This year I decided to try making my own Irish Soda Bread as opposed to buying it from my favorite bakery.

Ingredients & Directions:

• 4 to 4 1/2 cups flour
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup craisins (You can use raisins, but I love craisins so I substitued them)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Whisk together 4 cups of flour, the sugar, salt, and baking soda into a large mixing bowl.  Using a pastry cutter or two knives (can also use your fingers), work butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, then stir in craisins.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add beaten egg, buttermilk, and cinnamon to well and mix in with a wooden spoon until dough is too stiff to stir.

Dust hands with a little flour, then gently knead dough in the bowl just long enough to form a rough ball. If the dough is too sticky to work with, add in a little more flour. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and shape into a round loaf.  If you over-knead, the bread will end up tough.

Transfer dough to a large, lightly greased a baking sheet. Using a serrated knife, score top of dough about an inch or so deep in an “X” shape. Transfer to oven and bake until bread is golden and bottom sounds hollow when tapped, about 35-45 minutes.

Remove pan or sheet from oven, let bread sit in the pan or on the sheet for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool briefly.

I sliced the bread and toasted it with a little butter for my breakfast during the week.

(Steven)

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

When it comes to making desserts there is nothing better than chocolate, but what’s even better than chocolate?  That would be chocolate & peanut butter.  I saw this recipe for homemade Reese’s peanut butter cups the other day and knew immediately I needed to make them.

Ingredients & Directions:

• 12 Mini Foil Cupcake Liners
• 1 C Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 C Peanut Butter, plus 2 heaping T to mix in with chocolate
• 1/4 C Powdered Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla

Melt chocolate chips in microwave or a double boiler (microwave is much easier).  Heat in short intervals (20-30 seconds at a time and mix in between) so you do not burn them.  Let cool for a minute and then add in the 2 heaping T of peanut butter until thoroughly mixed together.

Put 12 liners into a cupcake pan to make this next step easier.  Drop a large teaspoon of the melted chocolate mix in to the foil liners.  Spread the chocolate all over the sides and bottom of the liners.  You should have about 1/3 C of chocolate left over for the tops (set this aside). Place the pan in the freezer for a minutes until chocolate hardens.

Stir together peanut butter, vanilla, salt, and sugar.

The chocolate shells should be ready.  Drop a a little bit of the peanut butter mixture into the center of the shell and spread around.

Top each cup with a bit of the remaining melted chocolate (you may have to heat it again).  Be sure to cover all the peanut butter with chocolate.

Chill in refrigerator or freezer until ready to serve.

These were so good and definitely didn’t last as long as it took for me to write this post.

(Steven)

Workday Breakfast vs. Weekend Breakfast

On the occasion that I muster up the energy to make breakfast in the morning before work I usually like to eat eggs.  One of my favorite things I own is the Egg Poacher Pan from Crate & Barrel.  Sure, I can poach eggs the regular way in a pan with water, but with this pan it’s simple fast and I can do other things at the same time and not worry about it.

I will poach one egg and throw it on an english muffin or a mini-bagel with a piece of cheese.  Sometimes when I am feeling ambitious I will make Eggs Benedict, but I usually save that ambition for Sunday morning.

(Steven)

Chocolate Chip Scones

I have been reading cookbooks as part of my reading goals for 2010 & Karen DeMasco’s Craft of Baking was the second cookbook I read from cover to cover.  The very first recipe from that book is this recipe here.

Ingredients & Directions:

• 1 3/4 C Flour, plus some extra for rolling
• 1 T & 1/2 tsp of Baking Powder
• 1/4 C plus 2 T Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 6 T Chilled Butter (cut into small pieces)
• 1/2 C Chocolate Chips
• 1 C Heavy Cream, plus 2 T for brushing scones
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 T Sugar for topping (original recipe called for Demerara sugar, but I didn’t have any)

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.  Add the butter.  Put bowl in freezer for 5 minutes.  The beat the mixture (on a low speed if using a mixer) until the butter is broken up into pebble-sized pieces, about 3 minutes.

Add the chocolate chips & mix.  Pour in the heavy cream and vanilla and mix until the dough comes together.  Using hands knead dough until it comes together completely.

Turn out the dough on to a floured surface and roll into a 7” round shape, about 3/4” thick.  Using a sharp knife cut into wedges (I cut it into 8 wedges, but you could cut them smaller if you wanted).

Place wedges on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap.  Place in freezer for 15 minutes.  While chilling preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Brush the scones with with remaining heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake the scones, rotating baking sheet once half way through, until they are golden on the edges and bottom, about 20 minutes.

Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar and serve warm.

(Steven)

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Today was a gorgeous day in Portland, and as I traipsed around the city in my sunglasses and t-shirt, I thought I should make something yummy to celebrate the good weather.  I’ve been wanting to try out Alton Brown’s carrot cake for a while, and I’m glad I did today because it was incredible!  As far as baked goods go, Alton Brown can do no wrong, and this cake is surprisingly simple to make.

Ingredients & Method (adapted from Alton Brown)

• 2 1/2 c flour
• 6 medium-sized carrots
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/3 c sugar
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 6 oz. yogurt
• 6 oz. vegetable oil (I subbed, as usual, applesauce to make the cake a bit lighter)

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Grease a 9x3 circular pan with butter, then dump a teeny amount of flour in and kind of tap it around until the pan has a light layer to prevent sticking.  Put parchment paper over the pan and set aside.

Shred the carrots; I used a peeler and listened to MGMT which provided an excellent metronome for my peeling rhythm.  This isn’t in Brown’s recipe, but I definitely recommend getting some music to peel to.  In a food processor, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices until they’re well blended.  Pour the mixture over the shredded carrots and toss until the carrots are well coated.

In a deep mixing bowl, mix the sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and yogurt on a medium speed until well blended.  Add the oil (or applesauce) while mixing.  Don’t be afraid of the consistency - it looks really soupy, but Alton Brown knows what he’s doing, okay?

Combine the two mixtures and pour them into your pan.  Stick it in the oven and bake at 45 minutes at 350°, then drop the temperature to 325° and cook for another 20 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then pop out and leave it on the rack until fully cool or until your boyfriend starts saying “caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake” “caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake” under his breath.

The recipe for the frosting is really easy, and I totally forgot to take photos of it, mostly because I was trying my hardest not to just eat the frosting with a spoon.

Mix an 8 oz container of cream cheese with 2 tbs of softened, unsalted butter and 1 tsp vanilla until smooth.  Add 2 c powdered sugar in increments of 1/2 c, mixing well after each addition.  Refrigerate for 5-10 minutes before using.

This cake is so good and really moist, and I have a feeling it won’t last long in the house.

(meg)

Arancini

You know how sometimes you go out to eat and think, “Oh, that would be so easy to make at home.  I should just do it.”  Then you get home and think, but that seems like so much work and remember the last time you made risotto & how well that turned out?

Anyway, I have been out to eat a few times in the past few months and one thing I keep seeing everywhere is Arancini.  It’s basically a ball of rice/risotto, some cheese in the middle, covered with breading (typically panko) and then fried.  It’s like that SNL sketch, Delicious Dish, where all you want to do is talk about how good these balls are while you are eating them.  The first time I had them they were bite-sized & served with nothing.  The next time I had them they were large and served with truffle honey.  I found a recipe online that served them with marinara sauce and I thought that would be a great accompaniment with the Chicken Marsala that I was going to make for dinner.

Ingredients & Directions:

• 3 C cooked mushroom risotto, cooled
• 12 mozzarella cubes, 1/2 inch
• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 C Panko bread crumbs
• Vegetable oil for frying
• 1/2 C of marinara sauce
• 2 T of Parmesan Cheese (I actually used Asiago)

I made the mushroom risotto beforehand following this recipe (without peas..I hate peas!).

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The Garlic Zoom

One of my new favorite kitchen tools is the Garlic Zoom from Chef’n.  I got this in the swag bag from the We Are Not Martha 2 year Blogiversary.  This is super easy to use and what I think is the best part is how easy it is to clean.  The blade pulls out and you can just rinse everything.  I use garlic in almost everything I cook. Granted I could just use a knife to cut the garlic, but what fun is that?

(Steven)

Peach Ice Cream

I don’t know what possessed me on the coldest weekend we have had in Massachusetts this winter to make ice cream, but I did.  My parents have had this ice cream maker in their basement for about a year and I thought it might be a fun thing to do with my boys.  The ice cream maker comes with instructions on how to make different kinds of ice cream and that’s where I got this recipe.

Ingredients & Directions:

• 1 quart Half & Half
• 2/3 Cup Sugar
• 2 T Vanilla
• 1/2 C Peaches diced (I used canned, fresh would better)
• Ice
• Rock Salt

Put the rock salt in to the maker.  (Sea salt or kosher salt will work too you may just need to double the amount)

Simply pour the half & half, sugar, and vanilla into the maker.  Shake for ten minutes.

Dice the peaches up into small cubes.  I used canned peaches here because the peaches at the grocery store didn’t look too good.

After shaking the maker for the first 10 minutes open it up and put the peaches in.  Continue to shake for 5 more minutes.  Open the maker up, scrape the sides, close and shake for another 15 minutes.  It took approximately 35 minutes of shaking to get really solid ice cream.

I packed all the ice cream up into containers and put it in the freezer to eat later.  It was delicious.  Next time I will probably puree some of the peaches as well as leaving chunks of peaches in for a more overall peach flavor.

Also if you don’t have an ice cream maker I have made it using plastic storage bags before and it works great.

(Steven)