Dinner Rolls

When I think of dinner rolls, I think of a dough enriched with some butter to make the bread tender and some sugar to sweeten it a bit. These rolls made with part white flour and part whole wheat flour, a very mild and light bread- a great dinner roll. This dough also works well for making stuffed buns. You can stuff them with all sorts of things, ham and cheese, or caramelized onions and maybe some roasted butternut squash... anything you could possibly think of! In an upcoming blog I'll come up with an example or two for you. For now, here is the recipe for the rolls, sorry it may be a little late for Christmas dinner, but once all of the excitement has died down give them a try! I am making them tonight for Christmas dinner tomorrow and have made the dough but am letting it rise overnight. Tomorrow I'll shape, proof and bake the rolls fresh for dinner tomorrow. These can easily be done in one day- in about 3 hours or it can be broken up over two days. Or you can make the rolls ahead of time and then freeze them.

Dinner Rolls (makes about 18 rolls)

1 1/2 cups (360 g) water, about 75 degrees
1/3 cup and 4 tsp (30 g) non fat dried milk powder
1 3/4 cup (225 g) whole wheat flour
3 cups (400 g) bread flour
2 1/2 tsp (12 g) salt
2 3/4 tsp (8 g) instant yeast
1/4 cup (60 g) sugar
1/4 cup (60 g) butter, room temperature

Mix the water and milk powder in a bowl. In another bowl mix all the dry ingredients together, stirring to make sure everything is equally distributed. Add the water and butter to the dry ingredients.
To Mix by hand:
Grab the dough and start squeezing the dough through your hand and keep incorporating everything until you no longer see any dry ingredients. As you are grabbing the dough, focus on the spots where there are dry ingredients still visible. After it is all mixed in, let it sit either in a bowl covered or on the counter with the bowl over the dough (to prevent it from getting dried out). Let the dough rest and hydrate for 5 minutes then knead the dough until it's smooth and developed.
To Mix on a mixer: put all the ingredients into a mixer and mix on low speed for 10 minutes.
After the dough is developed put it into a clean greased bowl and let it rise for 45 minutes (or if letting it rise overnight, let it sit out for 30 minutes, then re round the dough and put it into a covered bowl and into the refrigerator. The next day take the dough out, portion, round and let the dough proof.). After 45 minutes, turn the dough onto the counter and gently pat down and fold the four sides in and turn the dough over and let rise once more until the dough has doubled in size (about 30-45 minutes depending on the temperature in the kitchen). Turn the dough out on the counter and either using a scale portion out the dough to 2 oz pieces, or you can just eyeball it and cut them into 18 equal pieces. Pat the dough into a flat disk, and then gather all the edges up, and pinch to make a tight seam. Putting the seam on the counter, cup your hand over the dough and roll in a small circle to tighten the top of the dough and seal the seam. Place them on a greased sheet pan (or on a parchment lined sheet pan)and then cover them with a cloth or some plastic wrap (loosely so the dough has room to rise) and then let them rise until they are double in size. If you want them to be shiny, brush them with egg wash (a mixture of egg and a splash of water well mixed) before baking. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the rolls are a dark golden brown. After they come out of the oven put them on a cooling rack to cool. Have a wonderful holiday season!

Thumbprint Cookies

This is a simple recipe with lots of room for variations. One of the reasons I love thumbprint cookies is because I love jam on anything and everything! In this particular batch I made them using a cranberry jam I recently made. I have also made these cookies by hiding a chunk of chocolate inside the cookie and leaving the thumbprint out all together! You could also put that piece of chocolate on top in the middle of the thumbprint maybe with some raspberry jam? Yum! The possibilities are endless. You could leave out the coconut and substitute cornmeal with a apricot jam perhaps? There is some cinnamon which could be left out or joined by some other spices and maybe some plum or fig jam in the center? Another option is to leave the jam out when baking and then after they come out of the oven fill them with lemon curd. Or what about substituting 1/4 cup of flour for cocoa powder and then fill the centers after they come out of the oven with caramel? I just may have to try that out next time! Feel free to leave the almond meal (finely ground almonds) out or substitute for another nut. If you don't have any whole wheat pastry flour feel free to use a regular all purpose flour.

Thumbprints (makes approximately 2 dozen)

6 TBS butter
1/3 cup brown sugar (or white sugar if you want)
1 egg
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup almond meal (finely ground almond- if you are unable to find it you can grind your own in the food processor. Feel free to substitute another nut)
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut


Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix until completely emulsified. Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together and then mix into the butter mix. Add the coconut and almond meal and mix until combined. Using a tablespoon or small scoop portion out the dough. Roll to a round ball using the palms of your hands and place on a sheet pan lined with parchment or lightly greased. Using your thumb, make a large deep indent in the middle of the cookie (as it cooks this will rise up slightly so make it fairly deep and wide. Bake for 10-12 minutes until almost cooked through. If the center has risen too high you can push the center down a little, and then spoon in enough jam to fill the center. Put them back into the oven for 5-7 minutes, until they are golden brown. Alternatively you can bake them all the way through and then fill them with jam afterward. By baking the with jam for the last half of the baking, it helps the jam to gel and stick inside of the cookie. Keep covered and they will last for a week, if you can keep them that long!
You can also freeze the dough in the balls (with indents already made) on a sheet pan until hard and then place them in a zip lock bag to bake as needed. They can go frozen right into the oven. The baking time will increase slightly. Before adding the jam, the cookies should be pretty much cooked through, but won't have much color and then the second baking will be done after they turn a light golden brown.

Applesauce & A Quick Lesson in Canning

What's a girl to do with 2 20 gallon pails of apples? I did pick them, so I had a few things in mind, but the work never hits you while you are picking apples only when you get home and start unloading the car and filling up your kitchen with apples! Ever since I was a child I have been eating fresh homemade applesauce- nothing compares. Every Friday night I would peel apples that would go into a crockpot for the night. Saturday morning we would wake up to fresh applesauce and make pancakes to go with them. To this day pancakes simply aren't as good if they don't have warm applesauce to go with them. Nobody ever warns you as a kid that the things you eat will follow you into adult hood whether you like it or not!
As I discovered how easy and rewarding canning is, one of the first things on my list was applesauce (right above apple butter). I try to can enough applesauce to last me through out the year, but it never lasts that long. Applesauce is simple, and it's easy to find good apples so who says you can't make another batch? The apples should be sweet and full of flavor, if they are not as sweet or flavorful, you might have to resort to some sugar for flavor. Golden delicious work really well, but even better is a mix of a few different kinds. I have made applesauce many different ways and only recently have discovered absolutely hands down, the easiest way.

Homemade Applesauce
All you have to do is wash your apples and cut out the cores- don't worry about the peels. Chop them up into 4-8 pieces depending on the size of the apple. Put them into a dutch oven (a large oven safe pot with a lid) or even a roasting pan covered with some foil. Add a little water just to cover the bottom. Careful, too much water will dilute the flavor of your applesauce. After the pan is full of apples (and you can fill it to the top) put it into the oven at 300 degrees until the apples are so tender they fall apart with the poke of a spoon. Depending on how large and how full your pot was this will be anywhere from 45minutes to 2 hours. I usually like to check on them once or twice and give them a stir. Once they are tender, take the pot out of the oven and turn it off. Let the apples cool briefly and then using a food mill (this piece of equipment is necessary unless the batch is small then you can push the apples through a fine mesh sifter) process all the apples through and what you should be left with is little more than all the skins! At this point you have two options- freeze the applesauce or can it. Freezing works well but I prefer to can my applesauce (there are too many things already that I freeze to put up for the year).

A Quick Lesson In Canning

So the second part of my post is dedicated to how to can. I had eluded to it in my earlier recipe for the cranberry sauce, that I would be following up with some how -to's to show you how easy canning really is.
Canning is one of those mysterious things in the culinary world that puts everyone in two groups. There are the people who think that canning is very complicated and involves lot's of special equipment and expertise, and then there is the other half that may have thought that at one time but have come to realize that canning runs the gamut of complication. It only needs to be as complicated as you make it... if you want to keep things simple, can items that don't require much work or specific pH's . What things are easy to can? Anything high in acid or sugar. Like jam and pickles- these are the things that are very widely canned. Both of these ingredients make for a unfriendly environment for bacteria to live... There are other things like vegetables or legumes or meats that have low pH and high protein contents that are very inviting for various bacteria and require a little more education and equipment, namely a pressure canner. For items with a lot of sugar or a high pH a water bath canner (ie a large pot with water a inch above the jar) works beautifully.
Investing in a few tools makes the job so much easier. That would be a canning pot with a rack (you don't want the jars directly on the bottom of the pot), and some tools to help maneuver the jars in and out of hot liquid. and then of course the canning jars, tops and rings (to hold the tops on). The jars you can keep and reuse, same with the rings. It's just the lids you need to use a fresh one each time you can (because of the rubber seal that needs to seal to the jar). If you are at all familiar with estate sales, these can be great places to find all the canning supplies you'll ever need, or second hand stores...
Be organized! Clean your kitchen, have everything ready to go before the filling is done and needs to be filled in the jars immediately. This includes giving yourself enough room to work comfortably. This may mean temporarily cleaning your counters off, but this is one of the keys to smooth and easy canning that will keep you coming back for more.
Realize that your first few times canning may be slow and a little awkward, but if you stick with it soon you can do it with your eyes closed (well almost). It's like any new recipe, the first time or two you spend a lot of time going back and rereading the steps to make sure you are doing it correctly and you have everything right. But after it's become a favorite and you've made it several times you find yourself not even looking at the recipe at all.... the same will be for canning. With that said, start out small. I made the mistake of doing marathon canning my first time and I had several different things to can and a lot of each item and I spent ALL day in the kitchen and was overwhelmed and exhausted by the end. It will be a lot more enjoyable as you are getting the hang of things if you stick to one item and only make several quarts (5-7).

Before you can a large batch of something (like tomato sauce) try the recipe and method out first and make sure you like it before you are stuck with 10 quarts of it. Yes, I am speaking from experience! Not every recipe is created the same!

So, to begin, get your applesauce started. Once you fill your jars, you want everything to be hot, so when you put it in the water bath canner (which needs to be back up to a boil before the processing time can start) the hotter the jars, the quicker the water will come back to a boil. There are many different ways to sterilize jars, if you have a dishwasher with a short/small cycle on it, by all means put the jars in there and time it so they are ready and hot when the applesauce is. Or if you're like me and maybe your dishwasher is loud and takes a while, you can sterilize the jars in boiling water. I'll usually wash them with hot soapy water first since most of my jars reside in the garage for a better part of the year, then I'll fill up my canning pot about 2/3's of the way up and bring that water to a boil (we are talking about a HUGE pot of water that usually takes up two burners so don't underestimate the amount of time this will take to boil). After it's boiling, I'll put my jars in the water and let them gently boil for 10 minutes. The rings, need to be washed in hot soapy water and dried, and you can set those aside until you need them. The lids need to stay warm until they are used, so what I'll do about 10 minutes before I can I'll bring a small pot of water to boil and take the pan off the heat and place the lids in there until they are ready to be put on the jar. Then when the applesauce is done and has been through the food mill I'm ready to put it in the jars. If it will be a little while until you actually put the applesauce in the jars, put it in a pot and keep it warm on the stove or in the oven. When everything is ready and you have everything in place you can take the applesauce off the heat. Using a ladle and a funnel (wide mouth for canning) take the jars out of the water, emptying all the water from inside the jar back into the pot, fill the jars up leaving 1/4" of head space at the top*. Make sure the rim is ABSOLUTELY clean- any little particles of food will prevent a proper seal of the jar. Every thing is set and ready to go.

Timing is something that takes practice but when you do have it down, canning is a very easy and smooth process.

Everything is in a line, the the pot at one end, then the unfilled jars, then the rings and lids... all in the order in which they are needed. It keeps everything clean, neat and accessible.

After all the jars are full, wipe around the rims of the jars with a clean cloth and place the lids on the jars. Top each with a ring and tighten lightly. After all the jars are done, pull the rack out of the canning pot, fill with the jars and put back into the water. Let the water come to a boil then time it for 20 minutes (for canning quarts, pints will have a slightly less processing time). Make sure it is a gentle rolling boil. After the required time, take the jars out carefully making sure to keep them right side up, and place them on the counter. Let the jars cool undisturbed until you hear a pop (this will be the jar cooling off and creating the suction which will keep all the oxgyen out of the can and seal the jar). If you don't hear a pop, and when you try to pry the lid off (gently) if it, it comes off, you can either keep that jar in the refrigerator or reprocess the jar again. I would empty out the contents and heat it back up while sterilizing the jar and start the process all over again. I would only go to this trouble if a number of my jars were unsuccessful in the seal. Otherwise, keep it in your refrigerator or freeze it in a plastic bag. Make sure to label and date your product, so 6 months down the road you know what it is and which jar to use first (the oldest!).
Hopefully this has taken some of the mystery out of canning and I have inspired you to try it for your own. There is nothing like going to garage for a jar of summer peaches or applesauce and to open it up, and for it to taste as good as the day it was made or the day the peach was picked! It's a great way to eat locally all year round but be spoiled by summers bounty in the cold dark days of winter!

www.pickyourown.org is the website that I get most of my canning information and guidance from. Here is the link for applesauce in case some of this information is very unfamiliar or you need to see some visuals for the tools that are helpful for canning- this page can be a great resource

Couldn't resist adding this picture of our loving lab- Puma who for the record we encouraged to jump up and help himself to an apple- normally he is very polite and will not touch human food!

* head space will vary for different products. It's important to follow the recommendations. Too little room and your product could come out of the can before it seals and too much air or headspace left inside can leave an inadequate seal. I've been off (too much room) before by a 1/4 " an inch or so without a problem, but I have put too much in before and it bubbles out of the jar as it is processing... not good.

Daring Bakers Challenge- Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

After a few months break from the Daring Bakers Challenges, I am back with the November challenge of the Caramel Cake. I was intrigued by this recipe for several reasons, the caramel sauce that went into the cake itself and also the caramel browned butter frosting. Overall the cake was great, nicely balanced- not too sweet and the cake had a wonderful texture. With only my husband and I around, I was hesitant to make an entire 9" cake so I used some small cake pans to not only make the cake for the challenge but play around with some other ideas that came to mind. With the rest of the batter I came up with a wonderfully simple caramel poached apple cake finished with a little strussel on top requiring very little else. I'll share the details at the end of the post. As you can see I was inspired by the apple theme and also used apple chips to decorate the top of the cake.



Dolores of Culinary Curiosity co-hosted this months challenge with Alex of Brownie and Blondie and Jenny of Foray into Food. The recipe was given to us by a fellow blogger Shuna Fish Lydon at Eggbeater

CARAMEL CAKE WITH CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING
as published on Bay Area Bites

FOR THE CAKE:
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 Cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
2 eggs, at room temperature
splash vanilla extract
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F

Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt, and cream the mixture until light and fluffy.

Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift flour and baking powder.

Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}

Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.

Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.

Cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

FOR THE CARAMEL SYRUP:

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelization process)

In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.

When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.

Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.} ***

Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

FOR THE CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING:

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.

Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Note: Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month. To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light.

This is the variation I had mentioned up at the top. I took some of the leftover caramel syrup and mixed it with equal parts apple juice and added 1 tsp of mulling spices to the pan and gently poached some apple quarters until they were tender but still firm. Ideally these should sit in the poaching liquid overnight or at the very least allowed to sit in the poaching liquid until both the pears and liquid are completely cool. After that I put some cake batter into the pan (filled about 1/3 of the way up the pan) and then placed the apples on top and then sprinkled some strussel on top (optional). I made one cake without the strussel and worked out as well. With the fruit it no longer needed the frosting making it a little more casual and not quite as sweet. This cake was definitely a keeper and the frosting as well!



***I found that I may not have cooked the syrup down quite as far as I should have, I found that the bottom of my cake was a little dense and I have a feeling it may have been from a little too much liquid in the batter. When I was boiling my syrup I temped the syrup at 220 F and next time I would go up to 224 F and I think that would eliminate the problem. For those without a thermometer just follow the original directions using your fingers as your guide!

Wild Mushrooms and Leeks with Pumpkin Polenta

Here's a lighter meal that shows off the beautiful flavors of fall, I know I'm a little late but should you come across some wild mushrooms here is a great way to use them. Even if you don't have any wild mushrooms or want to bulk it up with some less expensive alternatives, cremini and or portabello mushrooms would make a good stand in. The pumpkin polenta is subtle but slightly sweet and a great way to sneak even some more vegetables into your dish. This makes a satisfying hearty supper that can be served on it's own or paired with... maybe some leftover turkey?



Wild Mushroom and Leeks (adapted from Cooking Light November 2008)
(6 main dish servings)

2 Tbs butter
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced leek
12 oz wild mushrooms sliced
2 tbs chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 tsp fresh sage finely chopped
3 tbs dry sherry
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the leeks in the butter over medium high heat. After the leeks begin to soften add the mushrooms and cook until all the moisture has evaporated. Add the sherry and the herbs. Season with a sprinkle of salt and pepper to taste.

Pumpkin Polenta

1 cup polenta
4 cups of water or stock (vegetable or chicken) or a combination of both
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cups Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the polenta and water and or stock in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and let simmer for 15 minutes or so until the grain is soft and fully cooked. Keep and eye on it and stir every few minutes. After the polenta is done cooking keep the heat on low and add the pumpkin puree, Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste. Let it briefly come back up to temperature after adding the puree. Turn off and serve immediately, or it can be made ahead of time and gently reheated.

Tea Spiced Cranberry Sauce

I thought that I should be posting something season appropriate, maybe something to inspire an upcoming holiday meal menu. Many different items came to mind, which I will post as time goes on but for now I setteled on one of my favorite things at a thanksgiving meal (aside from stuffing), cranberry sauce. This is a great recipe for cranberry sauce that I found in Sunset Magazine a while back. While it does use some spices and earl grey tea, it provides a subtle background of flavor that makes this cranberry sauce really well balanced, not too sweet, not too tart and with a lingering flavor of a hint of spice and tea. Give it a try!




I made a large batch a while back and canned it so I'm ready to go for the year! It's very easy to can, and you would do it the way you can any normal jam. There is enough sugar that things don't get to technical or require a pressure canner. In one of my upcoming posts I am going to blog about how I make my applesauce and will go more in depth about the steps I go through when I can a product. Until then, make a batch of this and enjoy all the great food this time of year brings!

Tea Spiced Cranberry Sauce (taken directly from Sunset Magazine)

In a 4-quart pot over high heat, combine:
1 3/4 cups water
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 whole cardamom pods
3 whole star anise
3 cinnamon sticks
Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 10 minutes.
Add:
5 Earl Grey tea bags
and simmer exactly 2 minutes. Remove tea bags and spices with a slotted spoon.
Add:
8 cups whole cranberries (about 2 1/2 bags, fresh or frozen).
Increase heat to medium-high and simmer, stirring often, until cranberries soften and split their skins and sauce thickens, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature before serving (the sauce will thicken further as it cools). Or cover and refrigerate up to 4 days.

Sunset, NOVEMBER 2006

*Notes* I have found this lasts quite a bit longer than 4 days in the refridgerator. Before straining out all the tea bags and spices, make sure to taste the soultion, in the past I have found that 2 minutes isn't long enough and will let it sit (with the heat off) for 10-15 minutes or longer, until it's fairly strong tasting and then I'll proceed with the rest of the recipe. I have also tried this with other black teas (can be loose leaf) and have had great results.

Strata- variation

I love the idea of the vegetable strata I posted a few weeks ago and recently tried another version of this. I wanted to share this because it's completely different than the previous version. This recipe is more of an idea and you can really use whatever you have lying around. In this version I had some beautiful rainbow swiss chard that I needed to use up and I had also brought home some rye bread that had been sitting on the counter for a few days, and these turned out to be great components for the latest strata. In the previous recipe it made a full 9X13 pan which can serve at least 8, but this time, not only did I not have enough ingredients for a full recipe, but I also didn't want as many leftovers.



Rye Strata with Swiss Chard and Golden Raisins

There aren't any measurements this time, I started with an 8x8" pan and layered the bottom with thin slices of rye bread. Then I spread a layer of swiss chard that had been sauteed with some diced onion and seasoned with salt and pepper. On top of that I sprinkled some golden raisins and then repeated the layering process ending with another layer of bread. I cut the custard recipe in half- 1 cup of milk to 2 eggs and seasoned that with some more salt, pepper and nutmeg then I mixed in about 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan. I baked this at 375 until it felt firm in the middle. Use this as an inspiration for creating your own versions. I will continue to post more successful variations!