Bacon Bread

UPDATE:  This post was originally for white bread - delicious, simple, vegan white bread.

Then Bacon entered the picture, double smoked slab Bacon specifically, caused a ruckus and well, I had to update the post.  The instructions haven't changed that much, just note the part where you lace the dough with Bacon.  Veggie and vegan friends - my apologies, just ignore the meat.  I was weak and heeded the siren call of...BACON!

I used to be intimidated by bread.  Never mind my attempt to avoid carbs - the very thought of baking bread made me think I'd rather walk through a blizzard to buy a slice than try to bake a loaf at home.   So over the last couple of weeks I've spent time talking myself into getting over it and trying to bake a loaf.

As a kid I used to go to Deb's house where her mom Susan would make these loafs of bread and we kids would tear into them before they'd even cooled, slathering them with butter and enjoying all the yeasty warm goodness!  I'll forever associate the smell of bread baking with Susan Alan!

But I thought there was no way I could pull it off...what the hell was I afraid of????  Determined to conquer my fear I set off.  So to speak.

I did  some research, and looked at about a dozen different recipes trying to learn what the major tips and tricks were and to find a recipe I could deal with, and I cobbled together the bits.  Things like make sure the room is warm when the bread is rising, make it rise twice, use cooking spray instead of flour to keep the dough from sticking when you knead it, stuff like that.  Plus I had to find a way to make a loaf of bread without the much coveted Kitchen aid stand mixer.  I live in NY, I have a NY kitchen, I don't have anywhere to put one of those no matter how bad I want one.  And I DO want one.

So I had to work this out manually - and it was so much easier than I thought!  The result is a loaf of bread that's dense and chewy but still fluffy with a slight salty sweetness and a heady yeast aroma... hard not to eat the whole loaf at once...Oh and now there's Bacon.

Stuff you need (in two parts, makes two loaves):

Part 1:

• 1 packet of active dry yeast (1.5 tablespoons)
• 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 2 1/2 cups of bread flour
• 3 cups of very warm water (I used hot water from the tap)

Part 2:

• 1/2 cup All Purpose flour (I actually used a quarter cup, plus a quarter cup of wheat flour just because I had it around the house.  And it made me feel like I was somehow making this bread healthier.  Dumb, I know.)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt (skip the teaspoon if you're making the bacon version)
• 5 additional cups of bread flour (possibly 4, but have 5 ready)
• Half a cup of bacon, cooked and diced - I use Schaller and Weber double smoked because that's what's available to me but there are some spectacular shops out there that turn out heavenly bacon...

• Non-stick cooking spray (like Pam)

In a big bowl, combine the yeast, white sugar, 2.5 cups of flour and three cups of warm water and whisk vigorously until smooth - like pancake batter -  about two minutes.

Now add the half cup of AP flour, the canola oil, and the salt.  Whisk again, till fully incorporated.

Now you're going to start to add the bread flour - I've made this bread several times, and it was 5 cups each time.  Add the flour one cup at a time making sure to incorporate it completely before adding another.

I switched to a spatula at this point to make mixing easier, then after about the third cup of flour, I just dove in with my hands as the dough starts to form and is easier to manipulate by hand.  Somewhere between the fourth and fifth cup of flour, you'll find the dough starts to form a ball and pull away from the bowl entirely.  Keep going mixing and kneading until the dough forms a smooth ball.

Once you've got all the flour incorporated, keep kneading for a couple of minutes (like 5 to 10 min) until you've got a slightly tacky but not sticky ball of dough.

Put this dough into a well greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth.  The dough will rise better if it's in a warm spot with no drafts.  My apartment was freezing this morning so I turned the stove on and put the bowl on the stove top near the vents with great results!  Now let it rise to about double it's size - it should take anywhere from 45 to 90 min depending on the temp of the room, and the humidity.  You'll know it's risen as far as it's going to go by poking it - when it's completely risen the place you poke will remain indented.

Cook the bacon while you're waiting for the dough to rise if you haven't already, drain on paper towels and set aside.

 When the dough has risen, you need to punch it down once and prepare it for a second rise.  Just stick your hand in the middle (weirdest sensation), and push the dough down.

Turn it out onto a surface sprayed with non stick spray  (counterless Chi, used a greased cookie sheet) and  divide the dough into two equal parts (my halves are nearly always off) and prepare two loaf pans by spraying with non stick spray.  Starting with one half of the dough, roll it out to about half an inch thick, cut that sheet into three parts and braid it together for an interesting finish on the bread.

If you're adding bacon, take one of the three parts of the braid, and flatten it a bit more - lay the bacon in the center of the strip, and pinch it closed.  Braid the bacon filled rope with the other two sections.

Place each batch into your loaf pans and cover with a damp cloth for a second rise - about 30 min  - until the bread reaches just the edge of the pan.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 - 375 and bake on the center rack until the top is golden brown (usually between 28 and 35 min, ovens vary).  Remove from the oven and pop loaves out onto a cooling rack.

Cut off a slice and see if you can resist eating the whole loaf...

Top with tomato and avocado and a smear of home made mayo (I didn't have lettuce) for a B.A.T. featuring built in Bacon!

Or slice and slather with a batch of home made butter!!

If your bread lasts a day or more, cut thick slices dip them in a batter of milk, eggs and sugar and make them into salty sweet French toast!

There's really no going wrong with this...There, de-mystified bread! Bacon'ed up - even better!

Enjoy!

Five min. Fudge

The nice thing about chocolate is it's delicious no matter how it's served.  Or is it just me? And to think I really prefer savory/salty things over sweet any day - so why fudge do you ask?  I'll tell you why!

If you're on Facebook with me, you know I've been obsessed with Marshmallows  lately - the most recent incarnation being a 'red velvet' version, designed to mimic red velvet cake with it's slight cocoa flavor, bright red color and white outer coat.

Combine a fat fluffy marshmallow with hot cocoa and you get yourself a warm melty treat that makes a winter blizzard (we've had three this year so far) look like a sparkly day!

But instant cocoa, while not bad, could be improved upon, and after a little poking around online, I found a couple examples of hot chocolate on a stick!  I had to try making a batch!

Things you'll need;

A batch of marshmallows - whatever flavor you want Marshmallows ;

For the fudge (based on the recipe from Nigella Lawson) ;

• 14oz of semi sweet chocolate broken up into small pieces (or chips)- I actually use half semi sweet, half unsweetened for the hot-cocoa-on-a-stick, as the marshmallows are mostly sugar, and there's no one readily available to peel me off of the ceiling.
• 14 oz (one can) sweetened condensed milk 
• 2tbsp Butter
• scant 1/4 cup heavy cream (by scant, I mean don't feel compelled to fill the cup to brimming, it can be a bit under quarter cup.  Skip this if you intend to eat rather than drink the chocolate, it's here to make it easier to melt when making hot cocoa.)

In a heavy bottom pot over medium low heat, dump everything in the pot.  Now stir;

It's going to look messy.  Keep going;

The whole mess will suddenly become a glossy fudge paste - you might find it difficult to keep your fingers out of it.  (wouldn't recommend it, you're on the stove, it's going to be hot.  Just saying.)
Turn off the heat - all the bits may not be entirely melted but that's OK you're going to keep stirring until it's all smooth and all the chunks are melted.  Leaving the heat on here is a bad idea as you'll find the chocolate burns rather easily and becomes grainy.  Not pretty.

Dump the whole mass into a pan that you've sprayed with non stick cooking spray - you'll thank me for this later.  If you want to shape the fudge you'll want to let it cool to room temperature, cut it into even portions and dip in cocoa powder then shape;

The cocoa powder makes them easier to handle and keeps them from sticking to one another.  Alternately you can cut the fudge into squares and skip the dusting of powder.

For the hot chocolate on a stick, use a lollipop stick or popsicle stick to skewer one large marshmallow along with one piece of fudge.  Heat milk (not water) until it's steaming - do not boil.  Add the fudge and stir until melted, then top with a marshmallow!

These make great gifts;

Enjoy!!

So Delicious - Soffritto

For Christmas I received a couple of cookbooks - yes I am vaguely aware that for most women that might not be the best present but the giver in this case knows me well, and I found myself delighted as I tucked into "Salt to Taste" by Marco Canora - a beautiful volume of recipes  from Northern Italy.

The pages on basic broth and soffritto alone are worth the price of the book.  After reading a bit about the soffritto, I was fascinated and decided I had to try making it.  I've come to one conclusion - my life appears to have been incomplete until this point.  Naturally I had to share. I love aromatics.  I's official.

Soffritto is Spanish in origin, but appears to pop up in various Latino and Italian cuisines, and a couple of my wise ass Latina friends seemed surprised I'd never heard of it.  You guys have been holding out on me.  I'm talking to you YOU Lillian and Cassandra.

While there seem to be hundreds of variations, Salt to Taste covers a version which you could easily use as a base and alter depending on what you're making for dinner and personal taste.  As usual I winged it a bit but here's my version, based largely on Salt to Taste combined with a couple recipes I found online.

Stuff you'll need:

• Large carrots 
• Onions (I used sweet onions, Canora appears to have used red)
• Celery 
• Olive Oil

You need to mince stuff.  I mean a lot.  A lot a lot a lot.  the finer the mince the more flavorful the soffritto so this is no place to take shortcuts.  The recommendation is to use a knife, particularly for the onions, because if you're food processer blades are dull, the onion will get juicy and runny.  Not the goal.

This isn't minced enough yet...just a start. but you get the idea.

There are various suggestions on the ratio of onions to carrots to celery - I went with 2 cups of onion to 1 cup of carrot to 1 cup of celery and I'm loving the results.

In a fairly deep pan, heat about half a cup of olive oil over medium high/high heat - you're going to want to have enough in the pan to coat all of the veggies.  When the oil is hot, drop in all of your minced veggies - listen for the sizzle, you're aim is to fry the veggies, so keep the heat on the high side - I had to turn the heat down to a steady medium-high in order to see the steam come off the pan.

For the record, I wasn't buying this part - I thought there was no way I would be able to get soft caramelized veggies over high heat - boy was I surprised!

The sizzling veggies will release a bunch of steam - you want it to happen, apparently this is part of the trick.  Stir occasionally to ensure even heating and continue to cook until the veggies stop steaming.  If you've added enough oil and veg to the pan, this will take somewhere close to an hour.

Keep an eye on this now - once the steam heats off, things move quickly...

There are three levels of color you can target for the soffritto - blonde, amber and dark - I suspect this might be an Italian thing, as the various Spanish versions I found didn't mention any such differentiation.  The blonde is the palest with the crispest veggie flavor - you'd pull the pan off of the heat the moment the steam stops.  The amber has more caramelization to it - richer in color, and a bit sweeter.  Keep an eye on the pan because letting it go a bit longer will result in a dark soffritto - sweeter still, and a great light chocolate color.

Once you've got the batch to the color you like, make sure there's enough olive oil to cover, and put it in a tightly sealed jar in the fridge.  So far tonight, I've added a heaping spoonful to a quick version of a stewed beef ragu, and to the stock for a pot of slow cooked short ribs.  This is after I ate a spoonful or so as is.

You could add this anywhere you want to turn up the flavor - the aromatics in the mix enhance all manner of sauce, stew and soup.  That is if you don't just snarf it down as it is...

Enjoy!

Pizza for grown ups

I love pizza - and as a kid there was nothing I enjoyed more than a pizza party with my friends.  And when I say kid, I mean well into my adulthood...

However at one point or another you might find yourself in a situation where it's not appropriate to have boxes from the local delivery joint piled up in the kitchen (it'll likely be just about the time when you realized you need to pour that beer into a GLASS on this particular occasion...)

So I came up with a grown up version of my favorite treat that's easy to pull together for any occasion.

Oven to 405 degrees.

Stuff you'll need (in no particular quantity or order):
1 container of pre-made pizza dough - I used Pillsbury - one can of dough makes two pizzas for me as I cut the dough in half the long way to make two long skinny slabs
Everything else is optional and entirely up to your taste here are a couple recommendations

BLT pizza;

• Double smoked bacon - I buy slabs to keep around for just such an occasion - diced and browned
• cherry tomatoes halved
• Fresh arugula (I add mine after baking for color and taste)
• Shredded mozzarella cheese

Fig and Goat Cheese

• Fresh black figs if you can - dried figs soaked in wine if you can't
• Goat cheese (or Gorgonzola)
• Pine nuts

Caramelized onion and mushroom with Gorgonzola

• Caramelized onions (check the link on how to do this)
• Mushrooms - sauteed with dried herbs
• Gorgonzola crumbles (or goat cheese, Brie, Parmesan etc.)

Ham and Cheese

• Diced ham
• Grated Cheddar 
• Grated Jack (or pepper jack) cheese
• Red onion (raw) rings
• (add pineapple for Hawaiian pizza!)

Sausage and mushroom

• Chicken apple sausage
• Diced sauteed mushrooms
• Caramelized onion
• Mozzarella cheese

Open the pizza dough, and turn it out onto a floured surface.  Stretch the dough out to make an even sized rectangle pinching any holes in the dough together while you go.  Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough in half the long way.

Top with whatever mix of toppings you like -one of the suggestions above perhaps? Or pepperoni and cheese?  It's up to you!  I recommend pre-cooked toppings as this will make this dish so much easier on you...

Place the pizza on a baking sheet (I use a silpat under mine to prevent sticking, parchment is another option) and place in the oven for about 12 min or until the cheese melts and the crust begins to brown.

Slice into finger food portions and serve warm - presto! Instant appetizers!

Enjoy!

Marshmallows!

They look pink in the photo but they really aren't...

I'm not sure when or why I got it in my head to make marshmallows.  I've wondered from time to time what they're made of, but I'm not even entirely sure I like them, and I would usually rather have a bag of sunflower seeds rather than something sweet, but this seemed like it would be fun so - here here we go!

Being winter I'm def. thinking more 'top-some-hot-cocoa' rather than 'make-a-S'more,' so I'm starting with this batch in mint (they didn't have peppermint extract at the market, just mint so I've got a spearmint/peppermint mix in this batch) although you could easily substitute other flavors - vanilla, orange - whatever flavor extract you'd like.  (Based mostly on Martha Stewart's recipe)

Stuff you'll need:

• Non-stick cooking spray (like Pam)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 4 packages (1/4 ounce each) unflavored gelatin
• 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract (or any other flavor really, I think I'm going to make vanilla next)
• 2 large egg whites
• Couple of drops of red food coloring (for marbling if you feel compelled)
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• Powdered sugar for dusting

You'll need several bowls for this, including one very large one - if you have a big one, and you think it's big enough, find a larger one.  The marshmallow fluff reaches pretty impressive volume - even the largest bowl I have could have had higher sides for less collateral splatter.  Also, Martha's version requires a stand mixer which I don't have so I used an electric hand mixer for the mixing which I think impacted my whipping time. 

You'll also need a pan for molding the marshmallows.  I used a glass 8x8 pan for this, found it made for easy clean up.  If you're creative you could probably use different shapes, or no pan at all for marshmallow 'chunks'!

Spray your pan with the cooking spray, then line the bottom with parchment - I used a strip of parchment that covered the bottom and folded out over the edges of the pan.  With the parchment in the dish, spray again - this stuff sticks like fluffy glue.  The spraying part - crucial although you could skip the parchment (makes it a hell of a lot easier to get it out of the pan)

To start, pour 3/4 of a cup of water into a heat proof bowl (or double boiler with a handle -you'll thank me later).  sprinkle gelatin over the water and set aside for a couple min. to soften.  meanwhile boil a bit of water on the stove for your double boiler.

In a separate sauce pot, combine 3/4 cup of water, with the sugar, and corn syrup.  Over medium heat, simmer until the sugar is melted into a simple syrup.  Turn the heat up a bit and using a candy thermometer, simmer until the syrup reaches 260 degrees.

Put your gelatin mix in the bowl over a bit of hot water, and whisk until the gelatin is fully dissolved, add your flavors here - my most recent batch had orange blossom water in it - then set it aside.   

 In your biggest bowl, whisk your egg whites using your electric hand mixer (or standing mixer if you have one) until you have stiff (but not dry) peaks. Set it aside for a moment.

Slowly whisk the gelatin and sugar mixture together (pour gelatin over sugar while whisking).  The hot sugar is going to react rather violently bubbling up and trying to spill over the edge of the pot, so go slowly especially for the first couple of drops.  (Sort of like tempering an egg mixture)


With the mixer on, pour the gelatin and sugar mix into the eggs.  Now this is the part that's going to take some work - you need to whisk the combined mix on high speed until it thickens significantly.  It took me just under 10 minutes with my electric hand mixer - but most instructions I found online specify somewhere from 12 to 15.   Honestly at 10 min the mixture got so thick it started bending the tines on my whisk so I had to stop.  Essentially you want to stop when the mixture starts to get kind of stiff - when the bubbles hold for a while or don't pop at all.  If you keep whipping, you'll find the mixture difficult to work with which is fine, it makes neat shapes, but if you're going to add marbling or want to shoot for somewhat evenly shaped final marshmallows, stop while there's still some fluidity :)

Scrape the mixture into your prepared pan, on top of the parchment and spread it out evenly (or try to).  You could probably use a second piece of greased parchment to help flatten it out - I didn't bother, I kind of like that remedial home made look.   If you want to this is where you want to drip a bit of red food coloring onto the surface, then using a chopstick or toothpick, swirl it around a bit to make designs.  Mine looked a little more Halloween Massacre than wish-you-a-merry-Christmas at this stage, but don't worry when you cut the marshmallows they look very festive!

Let the whole pan set for a minimum of three hours at room temp, uncovered (or lightly covered overnight) to set and dry.  Cut (scissors work well for here rather than a knife) and dust with powdered sugar to serve or store.

Here they are in 'Red Velvet' flavor.  Substitute chocolate extract for mint, and add red food coloring (a ton of it!) I would recommend using gel food color to minimize impact of the color on the consistency of the marshmallows. 

I dusted these with white powdered sugar (to represent the cream cheese frosting) and they'll be going on a stick with a chunk of chocolate fudge for hot cocoa on a stick! 

Enjoy!!