Old-Fashioned Yeast Breads

In an effort to be frugal & occupy a cold, dreary Saturday afternoon, we decided to whip up a few old-fashioned loaves of bread. Through our number crunching, we found that it cost us about $2.39/homemade loaf while specialty breads of similar or lesser quality cost anywhere from $3-5. After a short trip to the grocer, all you need is time (preferably a lazy day at home) & a little knowhow.


Most recipes will make 2 loaves so we chose 2 different recipes & made 4 loaves from this ancient bread cookbook cerca 1969. It suited us well since we don't have the technological aid of a bread machine. We did some modifying since I had RapidRise yeast instead Instant yeast.


Bingham wanted a more traditional bread so he chose "Old-fashioned White Bread with Wheat Germ." Bing already bought the wheat germ in bulk so that worked out nicely.

Bingham's Bread:
2 cups hot water
1 stick unsalted butter
2 pkgs (or 2 tbsp) RapidRise Yeast
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp crystalized honey
1/2 cup wheat germ
6 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

First off we warmed the liquids in the microwave: 2 cups water & 1 stick butter for



When your liquids are between 120-130 degrees, add in the yeast & sugar. The heat wakes up the yeast while the sugar feeds the little guys. We let it sit for a few minutes covered in plastic wrap until the yeast started fermenting (you should see rising & foaming of the liquid).


Wheat germ & flour were added in about 3 installments & mixed with a wooden spoon - a little elbow grease required.



Being a semi-veteran, I showed Bingham how to knead the bread, which is really very simple & didn't take very much instruction. For any of you rookies out there, my explanation is as follow:
1) After turning out the dough on a floured surface. Simply, push the dough together to make sure it is in one big clump
2) Take one side of the dough & fold it over towards the center, then push down with hard with the heel of your hand.
3) The dough should kinda resemble a cannoli after this, now take the short end (the part where the cream would show in a cannoli) and fold it over toward the middle & push down hard again.
4) Keep this folding & pushing in this way, the pattern will result in a circular motion around the dough.

Bingham kneaded for about 10 minutes until the dough was smooth & springy.


Kneading complete, turn the dough over & in a tuck into a ball. Place in a rinse & grease bowl, then grease the dough with cooking spray. Kinda roll the dough around in the bowl to make sure the sides are lathered up also. Cover with your butter wrapper (an extra measure to prevent sticking) & then with a warm, damp tea towel (preferably a very light one).


The dough then needs to rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour). Since it was a cold day, we put the oven on 150 for a minute or so then turned it off and put in the dough.

Now onto the second recipe - For something a little more nutrient rich I (Katie) chose the "Whole Wheat Bread" & threw in some soy flour to bump up the protein (a signiture twise). The steps for this recipe are similar to the other so I will just focus on the difference.

Katie's Bread:
2 cups warm water
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup honey
3/4 cup milk
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 pkgs (2 tbsp) RapidRise Yeast
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup soy flour
2 1/2 cup wheat flour
2 3/4 cup unbleached white flour

In my bowl, I mixed some sink-warm water with the sugar, salt & honey. TIP: Spray the measuring cup for the honey, it comes out a whole lot easier.



Warm the milk & butter together in the microwave until very hot then add to the bowl mixture. The temp should be 120-130 again (you may have to reheat/cool down).


Added the yeast and wheat germ & let it liven for a few minutes.


Now, when you're using Soy Flour as a substitute for regular flour you can only swap out 15% since the flour is protein-rich & can affect the rising. An easy way to measure this, is to place 2 tablespoons of soy flour in your 1 cup measure & then fill the rest with the usual flour. I did this for both the 3 cups of wheat flour & 3 cups of white flour.



I kneaded the dough & placed it in a greased bowl just like Bingham did before & let it rise.


After a good rising in the slightly warmed oven, we got good results:

Now its time to punch down the dough to deflate it. Bingham cut his dough in half, kneaded each shortly, then formed them into loaves. After placing the loaves in greased loaf pans & greasing the dough itself, we let them rise under a wet tea towel in the slightly-warmed oven until they doubled again.


Because my dough was a little denser with the wheat & soy flour, I let my dough rise again for extra lightness (after punching it down & reforming it.) For the 3rd and final rising, we punched it down again & divided it into loaves.


FINALLY! All of them baked at 400 for about 20 min or until the top is golden brown & sound hollow when tapped (we would suggest doing it at 400 for 10 min then turning it down to 375 for the last 10-15 to ensure none of the crust burns).
We also brushed them with butter after.

Bingham's White Bread:

Katie's Soy Wheat Bread:


Nothing beats warm bread fresh out the oven!

The texture of the white bread was better: light, fluffy, silky (the adjectives could go on forever). Sacrificing texture for flavor, the soy/wheat bread had a little nuttier, earthier taste. Needless to say, both were divine.

Toast yourself a slice of one of these luscious babies, slap on some butter & jelly and you've got yourself a damn good breakfast.

Stuffed Pork Chops

One week of school under our belt and we're jonesing for some tasty weekend eats. Perusing the meat isle always gives me little chills up my spine. Not just from the nippy refrigeration temp, but because of the huge potential for delicious dishes. Thinking of my waistband and my wallet, I chose these beautiful, thick center cut pork chops. Being at least 1 inch thick, my first though was to grill these boneless babies, but we instead traveled into the unknown, the land of stuffed meats.



With the help of Food Network's "Cleavage Queen" ,aka Giada De Laurentiis, we found our recipe. And what goes better with meat? Other than more meat, the answer is POTATOES! Steak cut, oven fries, to be exact.


Leaving the skins on, we cut the potatoes in wedges and drizzled with white vinegar and balsamic vinegar & let them soak for a few minutes.

Then they're tossed in olive oil, to prepare them for the sheet pan. After they're evenly spaced, season with salt, pepper, thyme, and basil. At 450 bake for 15 minutes, take out, flip wedges, season other side, continue baking for 15 more minutes.

Voila!

On to the stuffing. As the recipe calls for, we threw in garlic, herbs, spinach, and sun dried tomates into a skillet and heated for a few minutes. Next, transfer mixture into a bowl with your goat cheese and cream cheese.




Once throughly mixed, set aside and grab your sharpest knife. Cut pocket-like slits on the thickest part of the chop. This was my first time doing this and it was easier than I thought.





Try to get the stuffing deep in the meat to maximize the meat to stuffing ratio. And attempt to close the pork around the stuffing. This was hard for us, but we made it work. Salt and pepper the pork before cooking for 8-10 minutes per side over med-high heat.



First batch I under cooked a little, purposely, so they would be our "left over chops." Nuke these bad boys in the micro for a very filling lunch the day after; they come out fully cooked, and as moist as ever.


This second batch came out better. There was a slight crunch on the outside that held in the juices beautifully. They then sat under a foil tent and waited patiently as the sauce was made.


The sauce was created by deglazing the pan with chicken stock, lemon juice and zest, and dijon mustard. Scrap up the brown bits, reduce, then enjoy the fruits of your labor.


This incredible shot was gobbled up by yours truly in about 8 seconds. Remembering how it tasted, so I can write this, is honestly making my mouth water.

The stuffing was goat cheese nirvana because we added an extra ounce, it was an amazing match up with the sundried tomatoes. Granted I love goat cheese. Also, I'd recommend adding a few more sun-dried tomatoes than the recipe calls for. Ours was a little weak in that department. The quality of meat surprised me, but this depends on your local meat market.

Tangy spinach , moist pork, crunchy fries...Yup, a well spent Friday night.

Round 2 - Zulu King Cake

More King Cake please! My last king cake, the traditional version, was so good I had to do another. My work friend from California asked for something with chocolate & what better than a Zulu King Cake to meet the request.



It was pretty difficult to find a recipe but I decided to use the dough recipe from my "King Cake Face Off" post, and swap out cinnamon/pecan filling for a coconut/chocolate/cream cheese filling from a fellow blogger & the satiny chocolate glaze from allrecipes.com.

I didn't have a standing mixer this time, so for the dough I just used used a hand mixer for the first, medium-speed mixing of the hot liquids w/ the yeast, sugar, flour & salt and again for the 2nd, high-speed mixing after the addition of eggs & 1/2 cup flour (see previous post for more details). I then mixed the remainder dough with a wooden spoon & my hands. I mean people have been making dough for centuries without standing mixers & hook attachments so why start now?


I only refrigerated my dough for about 4 hours this time which made my life much easier when it came time to roll out the dough. I also decided to divide the dough in 3 equal portions first, knead each one individually & then roll each out into a 28x4inch rectangle.
A little trick I found out - roll the dough out as long as you can then fold it in half on the long side (hot dog, not hamburger)& keep rolling - this makes getting a long but skinny rectangle much easier.

Now for the filling:
6oz lite cream cheese, softened
3 Tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


I filled each rectangle with the coconutty deliciousness, rolled the dough into a rope & sealed by pinching the seam. A little water on my hand helped seal the seam.



I made the 3 ropes one at a time, but in retrospect you should roll them all out before filling because the ropes with start rising on you before you braid them. But, you do what you can with a tiny kitchen & little counter space.

I brushed the braided dough with melted butter to prevent any drying out (and a little flavor bonus). For 1 hour, I let the dose rise in a slightly warmed oven. It was a rainy, warm & very humid day so I had optimum dough rising.


Baked the cake at 375 for 20 minutes. I baked my last cake a little longer & it turned out a little dry the day after so I decided to shorten the bake time since I was bringing it to work the next morning.


And now the melty, titillating, sinful chocolate glaze:
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

I melted the glaze in a double-boiler. I suggest doing this about 5 minutes before the cake is ready to come out of the oven b/c you will need to pour it on while it is warm.


I drizzled the warm glaze over my cake & sprinkled some coconut on top ...at this point its pretty much impossible for any olfactory sensing animal to resist. Bingham convinced me to slice in while it was still warm... how could I say no!



Finger-lickin' good.

I sealed up the remainder in my new cake carrier (thanks Rachel & Paul!) to keep in the moisture. This worked very nicely, the cake was not dry at all the next morning.

Grilled Baba Ghanoush

MLK day brought our freinds together, so I figured what better to honor the great black leader, than by making Baba Ghanoush. Of course!

It's a savory dip of cooked eggplant along with an array of spices. I choose to grill the eggplant on the pit in order for the pulp or meat of the eggplant to have a smoky taste that pairs nicely with the velvety smooth texture of this dip.

While the coals are getting ready, place a whole eggplant on rack. I do this almost every time I grill. Prep for the eggplant is fairly simple. Stabbing slits in the skin allows room for expansion and are like little pockets to stuff garlic in.



The 2 pork tenderloins are half wrapped in bacon. Why not fully wrapped? Whatever, that was my roommate's doing.

The eggplant is getting good and charred. The more blackened the crust, the better. Ours could have stayed on there a little longer even. I'd say about 10 minutes a side, depending on your fire. For the meat of the eggplant to become tender throughout it has to get fully burnt on the outside.

The best way to yield the most amount of eggplant with the least amount of effort is to snip to top of it, towards the stem, and squeeze out mushy flesh and seeds into a food processor. The garlic I stuffed in there earlier is putting off a delightfully pungent aroma.




Added to the blend is a couple cloves of garlic, some fresh parsley,2.5 tbsp of tahini, the juice of one lemon, 1 or 2 tbsp of salt and pepper. Mixing in some honey helps if your eggplant is a little bitter. We didn't need any though.






After everything is pureed its serve cold in a dish, drizzled with a little olive oil, and fresh parsley is added for garish. Pita is the authentic choice for dipping, but pita chips are more inviting. No pictures of the final result...I got a little toasty.



Tanner whipped up some fried chicken for the drunkards in my new cast iron skillet. He is one of the few people I know personally that meet my requirements for "knowing what good is."

Crispy, homemade fried chicken. This food porn is replacing our normal "Happy Plate" photo.

King Cake Face Off!

It's King Cake season down in the bayou & for a year I have been dying to make a homemade king cake. The store bought one's are never quite as fresh as I'd like & are always loaded with too much icing.


So I started looking for an authentic recipe remembering that my friend's mom has been known to make very tasty King Cakes. With the help of Mama Lisa's (my mother) investigative works, I found out that ...brace yourself....my friend's mom uses a box mix. Mom tried to convince me to give it a try but without any hesitation I said "HELL NO!" We instead found a recipe in The Advocate, but my mom went out & bought the box mix at Calandro's to try it out anyway...and so the baking face off began...

Katie vs. Box Mix

The Advocate Recipe called for:
4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 pkgs rapid rise yeast (not active dry)
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup melted butter (1/2 stick)
1 tbsp cinnamon

In a standing mixer bowl, I combined 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, salt & undissolved yeast.


I heated the milk, water & butter in the microwave until 120-130 degrees. The mixture was too hot at first so I waited for it to cool off. You can never be too careful with yeast so I used a thermometer.


To activate the yeast, I poured the heated mixture into the dry ingredients & then beat(with whisk attachment) for 2 min. on medium speed with Mom's new fancy mixer.


Throw in eggs & 1/2 cup flour, mixing on high for 2 min.


Put the rest of the flour in & mix with hook attachment to make a stiff batter. Covered it tightly with plastic wrap(I used a rubber band around the bowl to secure) & refrigerated for about 20 hours (recipe says 2-24 hours).


Mom (who is making the box mix since I refuse to touch it) followed the directions on the box adding heated milk, butter & eggs to make the challenger's dough (no need to refrigerate like mine).

Katie's luscious dough vs. cheater's dough

Okay, so the box dough looks softer & lighter, but I'm not fretting just yet. Mom then set her dough aside to rise for 30 min until doubled (she swears by covering it with a wet towel)


For my dough, I flour dusted my table & plopped out the very cold dough.


WARNING: Kneading & rolling out cold dough be not for the weak & timid!!

After kneading the dough for about 5 minutes...and yes I did break into a sweat. I prepped the filling (1 tbsp cinnamon & 3/4 cup sugar) & melted 1/4 cup of butter.


After what seems like hours of rolling the cold dough (I had to take a break to remove my sweater & release some heat), I created a 28 x 12 inch rectangle. Perhaps next time I will let the dough come to room temperature before dealing with it.


I then cut the dough into 3 equal sized strips, brushed them with the melted butter, sprinkled on the sugar mixture (only using about half of what I had), and my own little addition of pecans. Patted down the sugar & pecans to make sure they stuck.


After Mom's boxed dough rose, she rolled it out (more easily & quickly than mine) into a 35 x 5 inch rectangle & added the boxed "praline" sugar & some pecans. I won't lie, right about now I'm thinking "oh shit, that dough looks really soft, I'm in trouble."


To make my 3 "ropes" of dough, I rolled up each section of the dough & sealed by pinching the end seam (with a little help from a brush of water).


With an extra hand from Mom, I braided the 3 ropes & pinched the ends together forming an oval on a greased baking sheet. I also buttered the top of the dough.


According to the box directions, Mom rolled her dough into 1 roll & then created the oval shape by sealing the ends (a much less dramatic appearance if you ask me).


Both doughs required another rising, so we turned the oven on 150 degrees for 2 min, turn it off, & put in both the shaped doughs in. Mine required 1 hour of rising, the box's only required 30 min.

At this point, as Mom put it, my dough took on a life of its own & grew like crazy (a definite good sign).

I then baked my cake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, a little longer than the box cake required. When I took it out the oven, I was like a 2nd grader on Christmas morning but it was just so pretty!!!


I made my glaze (while the baking was happening) with:
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3 tbsp heavy cream
2 tbsp softened cream cheese (my own little spin)

I then spread it over the warm cake, sprinkled on a little colored sugar, & stuffed the baby in from the bottom


Mom did the same for the box cake although she opted out of using the box's glaze mix & did her own with butter & powdered sugar.


My Dad, nicknamed "The Golden Mouth" by my Mom for his aversion to mediocre food & love of all things delicious, was elected judge and without any opposition did the tasting.


And the verdict is.......

KATIE'S HOMEMADE KING CAKE!!!

Dad said without contest my cake was better. He could taste the "artificial-ness" of the box cake. I thought the box's cake had a "doughier" consistency but did in fact lack the yeasty, home-cooked taste of my cake. I have to say that this king cake is probably my most successful baked product yet, the dough was so light & fluffy!

I brought the rest of the cake to my friends' apartment & we ate pretty much all of it.


Definitely, happy plate worthy.