Bagels

I’m a fan of bagels, and since I’ve been eating bagels for breakfast recently, I decided to just try my hand at making some. I found a recipe here that has produced some great results.

Ingredients
4 cups bread flour
1 tbsp sugar
1.5 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast
1 tbsp canola oil
1.25-1.5 cups warm water

I typically just go ahead and proof the yeast with the sugar and water for a few minutes. The yeasty mixture then gets added to the flour and salt, along with the oil. I usually do this in my stand mixer, and just let the dough hook do its thing for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth. It will be a pretty stiff dough. Turn out onto a work surface, and cut the dough into 8 equal portions. Let the dough rest for 10-20 minutes. At this point, put on a pot of water to boil (I usually add a tablespoon or so of sugar to the water as well). Shape the portioned dough into bagels by rolling the dough into a snake, and then smashing the ends together to make a circle (I’m still working on this part of it-they’re ok, but not quite as smooth as I hope they will be some day). Let the formed bagels rise for another 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 and grease a baking tray. When the bagels are ready, drop them gently into the boiling water in batches, not crowding the pot. Let them boil for 1 minute, and then flip them over to cook the other side. Place them on the baking tray, and when all the bagels have been boiled, bake for 20 minutes, flipping half way through.

These bagels are pretty tasty, and they have a good chew to them (which is a requirement for any good bagel).

Schlotzsky’s-Style Bread

Chris and I both really like the Schlotzsky’s sourdough bread. We decided today to try to come up with a recipe for it. Although it took a couple of tries, we ended up with a bread that really is remarkably like the sourdough loaf at Schlotzsky’s. The original recipe came from here. We tweaked the recipe some.

Ingredients
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the water and milk, and heat to lukewarm. Add the sugar and yeast, and let proof. In the bowl of a mixer, put the flour, salt and baking soda. Mix, slowly adding the milk and yeast mixture. When this is incorporated, let mix for a few minutes. Add the remaining 1/4 cup water. The dough will be very loose and sticky. Prepare a pan (I used a 9″ spring-form cake pan) by greasing, then dusting with cornmeal. Pour the dough into the pan and let rise for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Before baking, spray the top of the dough with cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool for about an hour. This resulted in a loose, chambered structure that does taste remarkably like the Schlotzsky’s bread. In the future, I’ll probably divide the dough into two portions and bake in some 7″ or 8″ round pans.

Whoopie Pies

For those of you who aren’t familiar with these, this is a sandwich cookie/cake concept that look kind of like oversized oreos. That’s where the resemblance stops. The cookie portion from here is like a cake (Chris thought the dough would make great cupcakes). The filling (from here is a fluffy vanilla frosting. I’ll repost the recipes here together.

Cookies
2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar until light. Add egg and vanilla and continue mixing until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk in alternating batches, beginning and ending with the dry. Portion the dough out onto greased cookie sheets (the original recipe said 1/4 cup a cookie, but I think next time I’ll do closer to 2 tablespoons). Bake 11-13 minutes, until the cookie springs back when touched.

Filling
1 cup milk
1/4 cup AP flour
1 stick butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar

Mix milk and flour in a microwave safe bowl. MIcrowave, stirring occasionally, until the milk and flour turn into paste. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and shortening, and add the sugar. When the mixture is light and fluffy, add the vanilla. When the milk mixture is cooled, add it to the sugar mixture, and whip until combined.

When cookies are cooled, spoon some filling onto the flat side of a cookie, and sandwich with another cookie. Consume over a sink or large plate (this can be a messy process).

Low Sugar Chocolate Cake

I’ve made this cake several times for diabetic birthdays and celebrations. I’ve tried several low sugar cakes, and this is by far the best one I’ve tried.

Ingredients
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups splenda
2 cups buttermilk
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oil, egg and vanilla. Add sugar and splenda. In a seperate bowl, mix dry ingredients. In alternating additions, add buttermilk and dry ingredients, starting and ending with the dry goods. When the ingredients are incorporated, add the water and stir. Divide the batter into two prepped cake pans, and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Granola

Yep, granola. We both enjoy yogurt (especially a nice Greek yogurt) with some granola on it, but the store bought granola are just over priced and typically not very good. After trying Alton Brown’s Granola Recipe, which was tasty enough, but not quite what we like, I scoured the internet and found this recipe. This batch turned out much better (and really, a better batch size for the two of us).

Basic Recipe:
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
2 Tbs. dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup almond (I’ve used both slivers and slices-I like slices)
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbs. flavorless oil, such as vegetable or canola
1 Tb. water

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix liquid ingredients in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer (I’m not entire sure what this step does-next time I’ll do a side by side, one with this, one without and see if there is a difference). Pour liquids over the dry ingredients, and mix together. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Coat a sheet pan with cooking spray and spread out the mixture (let it clump some-those are the best parts). Bake for 35 minutes, then check on it. It may need more time at this point, but it may be done, depending on how fast your oven is.

I also made a batch of this for my Grandparents. I put the zest of one orange (next time I’ll use two), and mixed that with the liquid and omitted the vanilla. I also put in about 3/4 to 1 cup of pecans instead of almonds. Then, after it had baked for 30 minutes, I sprinkled some chopped dried cranberries over the top and let it bake another 15 minutes to try them out a little more. The end result was a pleasant citrus and cranberry mixture.

A note on sweeteners: For the first batch (Alton’s recipe), I used a mixture of mostly maple syrup (real stuff-from an actual tree) and a little honey. It was good, but I found that the delicate perfumes of the maple were rather lost during baking. The honey is a nice, more neutral sweetener. For a future batch, I’m going to try some cane syrup we have in the cupboard, just for giggles. I wasn’t a huge fan of the sweetened coconut in the first batch we made-it got a bit over toasted, and I really didn’t miss it in the second. If I add any again, I’ll go with a non-sweetened (to not alter the grain/sweet flavor balance), and add it later in the cooking process (probably when dried fruit is added).

Pita Breads

Since we’ve been working on the great hummus experiment recently, I’ve been wanting to come up with a good, easy pita recipe (because $2 for 5 pita, while not a terrible price, gets old). Yesterday I did a side by side of two different recipes I found online. The first recipe, a Greek pita recipe, was ok. I used this recipe to make pita chips today, and they turned out quite well. The recipe is repeated here for modification:

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 cup of warm water
4 cups of bread flour
2 teaspoons of salt
1 cup of warm water
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Proof yeast in 1/2 cup of water, with sugar. Mix dry ingredients, then add the liquid and bring together to form a smooth dough. Let rise until doubled, then knead briefly. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Portion dough out into small amounts-I was able to make about 12, although you could probably get 16 pita easily as well. Roll out to about 1/8″ thick, and place on a greased sheet pan. In the future, I won’t dock the bread, as I’ll be using this for chips, and in that case, pocket pita does work better. Bake for about 3 minutes on the lowest rack of the oven, then flip pita and bake for another 3-4 minutes.

To make chips, cut pita into 8 wedges and brush with oil and lay out single file on a sheet pan. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle pita with salt and pepper, and any other herbs or flavorings you care for-in the restaurants around here, zatar seasoning is popular, but it’s up to you. Bake for 6-7 minutes, then flip chips over and bake for another 5-6 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy. These go great with hummus, the cannellini bean dip, or a baba ghanoush.

The second recipe was found here. We both preferred this second recipe as soft pita for simply eating or dipping. Now, neither of us are too keen on the typical pocket pita (aside from the aforementioned chip application), as they tend to be dry and rather styrofoam-like.

Ingredients:
1-1/4 cups milk, warmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups bread flour.
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon yeast

Proof yeast in milk with sugar. Mix the remainder of the dry ingredients together, then add the liquid and oil. Bring together, kneading as necessary to form a smooth dough. Let rise until doubled. Knead dough, and divide into 10-12 small balls. Roll out to 1/4″-1/8″ thick, and let rise for another 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place on a greased sheet pan, and punch down slightly with the knuckles before baking for 4-5 minutes on the bottom rack of the oven.

For the next round of pita I make, I’m going to get some whole wheat flour and substitute about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of the bread flour for it. Hopefully that will give it some extra bite and and good grain undertone.

EDIT: We finally made these again, and used a ratio of 2 cups of bread flour to 1 cup of whole wheat flour. These were awesome. A deeper wheat flavor, and they retained more moisture too. Definitely an adjustment we’ll be keeping.

Great Peanut Butter Cookies

Chris is a huge fan of peanut butter cookies, but I’ve always been disappointed with the results from the traditional recipes. I poked around online until I found this ridiculously simple peanut butter cookie recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix ingredients. Roll into walnut sized balls and smash down with a fork. Bake for 13 minutes.

Peanut Butter Cookies-Fresh from the oven

We also did this with splenda and we both like it better. It was more cookie-like, better texture. For that, we only used 3/4 cups of splenda instead of the full cup of sugar. Baking time is the same.

Dinner Rolls

On I whim, I decided to pick up my copy of The Joy of Cooking and starting flipping through it. I stubbled upon a recipe for some no knead dinner rolls, and decided to give them a try. They turned out quite well. Best still warm from the oven, they remind me of a better version of the brown and serve rolls you can find at the store.

Ingredients
1/4 cup warm (tepid) water
1 pkg yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 cup hot water
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 stick butter
1 egg
2 3/4 cup AP flour

Method
Mix warm water and yeast, and let proof. In a large mixing bowl, mix sugar, salt and butter, and pour hot water over them and let melt. When the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, mix in the yeast mixture and the egg. Add flour until it forms a loose dough. It will be sticky at this point. Let rise until doubled in a greased bowl. Punch down and divide into muffin tin. Let rise again. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. When rolls are doubled, bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden brown and delicious. If the rolls are browning too fast on top, put a sheet of aluminum foil over the top.

In the future I think I’ll sub out half of the water for milk. That may make it even more soft and tender.

The rolls-one didn't survive long enough to make it to picture taking...:-)

Low sugar chocolate chip cookie

Since both my mom, and Chris’ mom are diabetic, we’ve been trying some low and sugar free recipes. We’ve made a few recipes with varying levels of success, but I’ve found we have better results using the splenda for baking blends at half amounts. With this in mind, we pulled out one of our favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes, Alton Brown’s Chewy cookie recipe as a base.

Ingredients
2 sticks salted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tbsp splenda sugar blend for baking
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp splenda brown sugar blend for baking
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (more or less-we always use more)
2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (the higher cocoa, the better)

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Melt butter, and once it’s cooled some, add the sugar blends and mix until smooth (it may take a while). Add the beaten egg and yolk to the mixture and stir in, along with the vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients, then add to the wet. Mix until mostly incorporated. Add the chocolate chips, and mix in. Portion onto parchment lined cookie sheets, and bake for 12-14 minutes, until golden on the edges.

One thing to mention is that cookies baked with splenda don’t spread as well as full sugar cookies, so you’ll want to smush the cookie down a little so you get a cookie shaped cookie, rather than a bombe shaped cookie.

They turned out well, a little more crumby than a typical cookie, but in the future, I may try AP or cake flour instead, just for giggles.

St. Louis style Pizza

If you’ve ever had a St. Louis style pizza, you know they’re different. Generally, people either love it, or hate it, without much middle ground. I’ve only had St. Louis style pizza at Imo’s, a St. Louis chain that has a location in the KC area.

What is St. Louis style pizza? Basically, its a thin crust pizza, very crunchy, that utilizes a pasteurized-process cheese known as Provel. Yes. Process cheese. I know. Ick. Well, actually, Provel is pretty good for processed cheese, a darn sight better than the typical American cheese slices.

Provel is essentially a mixture of Swiss, Provolone, and white Cheddar, with a slight smoke flavoring.

St. Louis style pizza sauce is generally pretty sweet, but in this case I used sauce I had in the freezer. It was made with a 28 oz can of tomato puree, a couple tbsp of double strength tomato paste, 1 onion minced, and Penzey’s pizza seasoning – and possibly a couple pinches of sugar. If you don’t have a pizza sauce seasoning blend, basically you’ll want to start with a pinch of salt, 1/2tbsp dried crushed oregano, a pinch of time, and and pinch of basil.

The interesting thing about St. Louis pizza is that the pizza crust is unleavened, which means there’s no yeast, no rising time, no waiting.

Dough:
2 cups + 2tbsp AP flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp oil (olive, canola)
2 tsp corn syrup (I used dark)
1/2 cup + 2tbsp water.

Mix ingredients until a stiff dough is formed. I found I needed more water, but not much.

Roll it out on a floured board, as thin as you can without breaking it.

Put it on a pizza stone or pan. I think ours is 18″ or so.

Preheat oven to 450.

Top the dough with around 1/4 cup sauce, and about 2 cups of Provel (I think I used around 1 cup of Provel, and 1 cup of mozzarella, since Katie isn’t a big fan of the Provel). Other toppings included fresh basil, oregano and thyme, as well as about 15 or 20 slices of turkey pepperoni.

Bake at 450 for about 10-13 minutes, so that the crust browns on the bottom.

Oh, and unless you want to be a St. Louis pizza pretender, cut it into squares, not those wedge shapes everyone else uses.

Our St. Louis style pizza