5-Hour No Knead Bread update

On Monday Paddy requested bread. Like a dummy, I packed all my cook books but two of them. I did not leave out my bread cook book. Sigh. I made Caine's 5-Hour No Knead Bread. I also put in garlic powder(1 tsp?), ground chipotle powder(2 tsp?) and some chopped fresh cilantro (handful?) It was so good I made 4 more loaves on Tuesday to use up all the fresh cilantro bunch.

We had it for lunch. We had it for dinner. I'm having it for lunch again. The toddler is in love with it. She's going to start pooping loaves of bread. It's all she asks for. "Brrrrrread? Brrrrread?" She seriously asked for it for breakfast.

Flour Fail

Paddy and I talk about buying the 25 pound bag of flour at Whole Foods all the time but don't because we're moving "soon" (in 3 months ish.) I have started baking bread very regularly to use as sandwiches for our lunches to save money on eating out. I now go through large amounts of flour, so we went to Whole Foods to get the 25 pound bag.

The bag is really a 50 pound bag. We got it anyways because it's just $1.00 a pound and organic and bread flour (has more gluten than regular flour.)

On the way home the umbrella stroller that was also in the trunk with the sack o'flour put a hole in the bag. Not at the top, or the bottom. Right in the middle. Paddy did some cursing bringing it into the house, as I was putting the weentsy one down for a nap and 22 weeks pregnant. (See moms? I do responsible pregnant things like not carrying the 50 pound bag of flour or teh 50 pound bag of sand.) Did I mention we also bought a 50 pound bag of sand to make a mini sandbox for Weentsy? It's not as much sand as you'd think.

Since we're moving "soon" I have packed up all non-necessary containers and kitchen things. Including my new gallon and half gallon sized glass containers which would be super helpful right about now with a ripped bag of flour. Instead I have a canning pot filled with flour. And a soup pot. And that took enough flour out of the bag to get it below the hold level.

Paddy is now dreaming of loaves of potato bread. And sourdough bowls. And dinner rolls. I'd better get baking.

Jane's Chili

I just made this up today. I make up my chili recipe every time I make a pot. But I make this for Jane because the girl loves chili and beans and I sneak in lots of veggies and some grains. Then I don't feel as bad letting her have an Oreo for dessert.

1/2 pound ground meat (I used beef today.)
1 onion
4 stalks of celery
1 quart canned quartered tomatoes
1/2 bag of frozen chopped broccoli
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
broth (I used turkey)
garlic powder
cumin
chili powder
ground red pepper
quinoa

In a soup pot, brown the ground meat. Do not drain. Add onions and celery. Dump in tomatoes with juice and half the bag of chopped broccoli. Feel free to add other veggies. I have used carrots, beets, corn, etc. in the past. Drain and rinse beans. Add to pot. Also feel free to use what ever kind of beans you'd like or to soak up some dried beans over night. I was being lazy today and used the canned ones. Season with chili seasoning. Make it as hot, or not as you'd like. Jane can handle some burn. ;)

Add broth. I probably added about 6 oz. I have homemade broth frozen in silicone cupcake cups. Each one is about 1.5 oz and I think I tossed in 4 ish. It happened to be turkey stock. Use whatever you have or like.

Bring pot to a boil and let simmer for a while. Mine probably was around an hour, but I wasn't really paying attention. Cook until the veggies are tender. Pour in some quinoa (or any other grain) I probably added 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of quinoa. The goal is to absorb the extra liquid and thicken things up. Cook for however longer your grain needs to properly cook.

Serve. Freeze in smaller sized portions to defrost.

Jane after 2 bowls of her chili and an Oreo.

Caine's 5-hour No Knead bread

3 c flour (dip, level, pour please)
1.5 tsp salt
7 grams yeast
Mix em (I use a whisk.)
Add 1.5 c water
Fork it til it's "wet and shaggy" (Caine says, it will look wrong.)

**Please us a fork, too. I was lazy and kept using the whisk. It worked, but was a bitch to get the dough out of in the end.**
Cover with plastic wrap(I usually mark my plastic wrap with a sharpie so I remember when it's 'done.')

Wait 3 hours
Turn it out onto an (olive)oiled board and fold it 2 times
**This is where you can fold in other yummies, like roasted garlic and/or herbs. I just added home dried basil because I was too lazy to roast garlic and it was late. Next time, Gadget!**

Cover it on the board for 30 min
Preheat dutch oven and lid to 400°
Put dough in dutch oven w/seam side up (Can also pour some olive oil on dough. Paddy really 'poured' too.)
Cover and bake for 30 minutes
Uncover and cook for 15 minutes

Slice, slather with butter, eat.
Start your next loaf.

French Toasted Banana Bread

Make banana bread with recipe below. Slice 1/4" slices. Beat 4 eggs with some milk. Dip slices in egg/milk mix. Coat well, even let soak in a good amount. Cook in hot fry pan, flip over when ready. Eat. Then lay with your stuffed belly up. Rotten bananas never tasted so good.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
4 Tbsp sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup mashed banana (2-3 bananas)
1 dark chocolate raspberry bar (or whatever chocolate you want to add. or just leave plain.)

**I often substitute apple sauce for eggs, other dairy or dairy like products for sour cream. I have also halved the recipe because I only had one banana.**



Directions:

1. Cream butter, sugar and bananas. (I use wand mixer here and just toss in whole bananas) Add eggs, beating well, then add sour cream and vanilla.

2. Mix dry ingredients. Add to creamed ingredients. Smash chocolate bar with meat mallet in ziplock bag, then mix into batter.

3. Pour into well-greased loaf pan. Bake in 350° pre-heated oven for 1 hour-ish.

Seventeen hour Cinnamon Buns

This recipe comes from my beloved Betty Crocker cookbook that was my Nana Jane's. They don't actually take seventeen hours. It just seems that long while you're waiting for dough to rise when you really want to be eating cinnamon buns. Totally worth the wait. Don't be silly. Just make 2 batches.

1/4 cup warm water
1 pkg. active dry yeast
3/4 cup luke warm milk* (I used rice milk)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/4 cup soft shortening (I used Earth Balance "butter")
3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups flour

In a bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Measure flour by dip-level-pour method or sifting(if you are so anal retentively inclined.) Add milk, sugar, salt, egg, shortening and half flour to yeast. I say half because a Polack doesn't read directions well and had to fish out mostly half of the flour. Seriously, who lets me in the kitchen? Mix with a spoon until smooth. Also, may have considered using the wand blender here next time. Add enough remaining flour to "handle easily." I ended up adding all the flour and then a little more.

Round up in greased bowl, bringing greased side up. Cover with cloth. Let rise in warm place (85°) until double, about 1 1/2 hours. Or in my case an hour because I used the warm oven Paddy had just made bacon in. Punch down; let rise again until almost double, about 30 minutes.

Roll dough into oblong, 15x9" approx. Mix 2 tbsp. softened butter, 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon. (Okay, I used about 4 tbsp "butter", 1/2 cup sugar and 3 tsp cinnamon. No one ever complains about too much butter, sugar and cinnamon in their cinnamon buns, right?) Spread all over dough.

Roll up dough tightly at the wide side. Seal well by pinching edges of roll together. Even up roll by stretching slightly if necessary. Cut roll into 1" slices. Place in a greased 13x9" glass pan. Cover and let rise until double, 35 to 40 minutes. (See? Isn't the wait killing you right about now?) Heat oven to 375°. Bake for 20 minutes.

Mix a little bit of milk into a lot of powdered sugar to make the icing. Yeah, eyeball it. You can do it. Frost cinnamon buns while warm. EAT!