Lussekatter

For many years, I have enjoyed Martin’s mother’s lussekatter around Christmas, which is why I knew I had to talk about these here.  I have fond memories of staying cozy under a blanket, drinking dainty cups of glögg heaped chock-a-bock full of raisins and slivered almonds and nibbling on these tasty saffron-infused buns.  This year, I finally tackled them on my own and got to use our kickass Sweden 2010 souvenirs.  Double win!

There are many, many recipes out there but I picked the one featured by the Scandinavian and Nordic Cultural Association.  For that extra level of authenticity, you know?  I ended up having to tweak it slightly because some of the measurements seemed slightly off, so I’ve included it below.

I looked at many recipes first and each one always listed a saffron measurement in weight and volume, which usually followed a ratio of 1g to 1/2 tsp.  However, I diligently bought 1g of saffron from the spice store and it was probably 1 tbsp in volume.  The store associates also told me that the saffron was quite potent, so for my recipe, I took a teaspoon of saffron threads and crumbled it between my fingers.  I had a devil of a time getting the yellow to come out of my fingers afterwards!

While I was mixing the dough, I fretted about the saffron measurements and continually ask Martin to gauge the Swedishness of my bread.  He assured me that it would be fine, even if it ended up as a worthy entry for But I Suck At Cooking.

Here they are, shaped and formed.  This was my favorite part, as it involved rolling the dough out in long ropes and then curling the ends up on each other. At first, they seemed too small but the dough puffed up beautifully right before I shoved them into the oven.  Martin even had a hand in these, dabbing the egg whites on there to help with the browning.

Here they are, fresh out of the oven.  I am not sure if they are supposed to be this fluffy, but I firmly believe you can never go wrong with soft, fluffy bread.  I have never eaten a bad lussekatter and Martin’s mom makes truly great ones, but fresh out of the oven is a completely different experience.  They are slightly warm and so amazingly soft and fluffy!  I had to restrain myself from eating at least four right then and there.

The ultimate test came the next day, when we took the lussekatter to a Swedish Christmas party.  I am normally quite shy and critical about the results of my food, but I can’t help but share that two Swedish-born women came up to me at the party and told me that my lussekatter was delicious.  I thought that the ultimate of compliments.

Lussekatter
Adapted from the Scandinavian and Nordic Cultural Association Recipe

1kg white flour at least (more will be needed) (approx. 4.5 cups)
5 dL milk (2 cups)
1 tbsp. active dry yeast
1 tbsp. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp saffron threads (uncrushed)
175g butter
2dL sugar (approx. 3/4 cup)
Raisins
1 egg, lightly beaten

Dissolve 1 tbsp. yeast and 1 tbsp. sugar in enough water to cover and dissolve the yeast and sugar.

Melt butter in a pot, then add milk.  Heat to 110-degrees F or until lukewarm.

Crumble saffron between fingers (or grind in a mortar and pestle) and add to milk mixture.

Pour the liquid into the bowl of a stand mixer and gntly stir in the 1kg of flour in half cup increments until a soft, sticky dough has formed.

Add the yeast mixture, 2dL of sugar and egg.  Mix to combine.

Snap the bowl into the mixer and put the dough hook in.  Slowly keep adding dough (I lost count here but probably at least another 2 cups) until dough is soft, thick and pliable.  The dough will still be fairly sticky to the touch and will not remain firm like other breads when shaped, but if you stretch it into a boule, it will keep its smooth outside shape.

Oil a bowl, place bowl in, flip to coat and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Turn the dough out and break into small pieces, about 40g in weight.

Roll into long ropes, about 10″ in length.  Coil each end in to make compact S-shapes.  Place on parchment covered baking sheets and press a raisin into the center of each spiral.

Cover and let buns rise until approximately doubled in size again.  Preheat oven to 375-degrees F.

Gently brush a beaten egg onto the buns and pop into oven.

Bake until golden in color and puffy.  Let buns cool and serve.

Yield: Makes approx. 50 buns (if each rope of rolled dough is approximately 35 – 40g in weight)

These refrigerate and freeze well.  Take them out of the freezer the day before you need them and let them thaw in the refrigerator.

Raincoast Crisp Wannabes

Dear Raincoast Crisps,

You are my new favorite snack.  I can’t seem to quit you, which is unfortunate as you’re considered gourmet / artisanal / something that means you comes with a high price tag.

I like you just the way you are, but you really shine when paired with cheese.  You’re crisp and chewy, sweet and salty, all at the same time.  Are you suffering from an identity crisis or just trying to appeal to all my senses at once?  If the latter, kudos, it’s working.

I admire how you’re not afraid to let your true colors shine through.  You’re so real, with your nuts, grains and dried fruit.  When I look at you, I can see exactly what you’re made of, and I like that.

Please know that I will always love you, but I think we would be better off as just friends.  It’s not you, it’s me.  Really.

XO, Melanie

PS. This won’t make meeting at the occasional party somewhat awkward, will it?

So yeah.  In case it wasn’t really obvious, I really like these crackers.  Unfortunately, it’s price tag makes it hard to justify as a regular purchase so I researched online and found a substitute recipe.  It’s a little more work but it yields me a small mountain of these crackers for about the same price.

Let’s make some crackers, shall we?

The recipe can be summarized as such:  mix ingredients (in one bowl, weeee!), pour into loaf pan, bake, cool, slice, bake.  Yes, bake it twice.  To make the slicing part easier, I line the loaf pan with parchment and lift it right out after it’s done baking.  Then I freeze the loaf overnight before slicing with a mandoline.  I tried slicing the loaf in half length-wise and then slicing, but the v-shaped mandoline of my mandoline makes it harder as the soft edges catch on the mandoline and rip.  Instead, it’s better to keep the loaf intact and then slice in half.

Look at all that color!  Sooooo yummy.

Sliced and ready to bake again.  See what I mean about it showing its true colors?

After they bake, they turn a darker shade of brown, more like what you’d see if you bought an actual box.

So go bake some (or come on over here!) and we can enjoy some together.  I’d serve these  paired with a triple-cream brie or a p’tit basque (my new favorite cheese, a semi-hard sheep’s milk).  Add in wine, good company in the form of a girl’s night and not much can beat it, in my opinion.  🙂

Raincoast Crisps Wannabe
from a ChowHound post, slightly tweaked

2 cups flour (I typically use white wheat flour)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup honey
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts (or other nut)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F and line 2 loaf pans with parchment paper.

Combine 2 cups flour, 2 tsp. baking soda and 1 tsp. salt together and mix to combine.  Add in 2 cups buttermilk and 1/4 cup honey, mixing gently to combine.

Add in 1 cup dried cranberries, 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts, 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, 1/4 cup flax seeds, 1/4 cup sesame seeds and 1 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary.  Mix gently to combine.

Pour into 2 loaf pans (a good trick is to weigh your mixing bowl before and after mixing the batter, then splitting that number into 2 to determine how much each loaf pan should weigh with half the batter in it).

Bake for 45 minutes at 350-degrees or until springy.  Cool completely on a rack, removing from loaf pan after 15 minutes.  Put in freezer to set before slicing.

Slice thinly (about 1/8″ cuts) and lay on baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 300-degrees F.

Bake each side for approximately 10 – 15 minutes, until crisp and darker brown in color.  Let cool completely, then store in airtight container (storing while still warm will lead to condensation and less-crisp crackers).

Servings:  about 60 crackers

Rosemary Focaccia

I had a (happily) busy weekend this weekend.  I’ll talk about it in our other blog, but a quick summary is that I went to a bachelorette party on Friday and wine tasting in Sonoma on Saturday.  It was tons of fun but I took advantage of having nothing planned for today and took care of all sorts of small things around the apartment.  I went running with Emily and Kjersti, tided up around the apartment, watched Food, Inc., made homemade yogurt for the first time in a long time and also a batch of candied cherries for an ice cream recipe I’ve been dying to make for months.  Overall, what a great weekend, full of friends, food, wine, laughter – all my favorite things!

I’ve been meaning to talk about tosemary focaccia for a good while now.  This was actually the very first bread recipe I ever attempted and I have made it several times since.  This will probably be a boring post, but I’m going to point out some of my tips that I’ve since learned that I wish bread recipes would just spell out, instead of assuming one already has bread-making experience.  My friends Penney, who is going through culinary school, and Jordan, who is crazy about bread-making, are probably in a better state to comment on these things than me on how to make bread.  Penney and Jordan:  hopefully, I’m not doing anything egregiously wrong but if I am, feel free to correct me.  🙂

So, overall, I think this is a very foolproof recipe.  I’m sure I was doing a lot of things wrong the first few times and it still came out really tasty.  It’s also on the shorter end of bread-making, as it takes only about 4 hours from start to finish, which includes 2 rises.

First, I always keep my yeast in the refrigerator, so it lasts longer.  I bought it in bulk for something like $5 for a whole pound.  I haven’t used anywhere near half yet, but it’s been one of the best investments I ever made.  Buy yeast in bulk!  You only need to make 8 recipes calling for a packet of yeast each to make it worthwhile.  It’s been over a year and my yeast is still going strong.

Take the yeast out when you start heating the water to let it come to room temperature.  The water should be about 110-degrees, +/- five degrees.  I think running warm tap water can also achieve that temperature, but I heat it and let it cool, to make sure I hit my target temperature.  Instant thermometers are your friend!

After I mix the water and yeast together, I let it sit for about 10 minutes.  Then I look at it and usually there are small spurts or blooms that appear on the surface.  That’s how I know it’s good.  🙂  I tend to err on the side of caution and if I don’t see the blooms appearing, I’ll throw it out and start again.  That’s just me, though.

When using the mixer, I start with the paddle attachment at the lowest (stir) setting just until everything is combined.  I also add only about 75% of what the recipe calls for.  Then I switch to the dough hook and add up to the total amount of flour in tablespoon increments, waiting until the dough absorbs each tablespoon before moving on.  If the dough seems dry (it stops sticking to the bottom of the bowl), I’ll add a bit of water to adjust and stop adding the flour.  After it’s all been mixed together, I ramp up my mixer to at least setting 4 or 6 for about 5 minutes.

The recipes always say to stick the dough in a warmish place.  I usually throw mine into the oven with a light turned on.  Also, recipes say to transfer the dough to another bowl and coat with oil.  I’ve stopped doing that, because I’ve started to get lazy about washing extra dishes.  Instead, I take the dough out, splash a little oil in my mixer bowl, then turn the dough to coat.  I haven’t noticed any detrimental effects from this.  (If these are really obvious hints, I’m sorry!  I guess I just wasn’t making bread smartly before).

After the first rise is over, I stretch the dough out.  If the dough doesn’t take the shape I want right away, I stretch it out as much as possible, then stop and let it rest for about 10 minutes before stretching again.  Then cover and let it rise again.

The olive oil in the dimples doesn’t really bake into the bread so I like to make lots of dimples for lots of olive oil flavor.  That isn’t really a tip, just personal preference.  Also, one time I forgot to sprinkle salt on it (but luckily, there was salt in the dough).  It made me realize how much of a flavor intensifier salt is, so don’t forget that step!

Oooh la la, bread!

Rosemary Focaccia

slightly modified from The Gourmet Cookbook

Ingredients

2-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

1 pinch sugar

1-2/3 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)

5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tbsp. olive oil

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Directions

Stir together in the bowl of a stand mixer and let stand until the blooms appear, about 5 minutes:

• 2-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 pinch sugar
• 1-2/3 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)

Add the following to the yeast mixture, making sure not to add any more flour than specified:

• 5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2-1/2 tsp. table salt

Beat with paddle attachment at lowest speed until a dough forms.  Replace with dough hook and beat at speed 4 or 6 until soft, smooth and sticky, about 3 – 4 minutes.  The mixer will most likely rattle around and the dough will slap the sides, but that’s okay.

Oil the bowl and the surface of the dough and cover with a towel.  Let rise in an oven with the light turned on until doubled in bulk, about 1 – 1.5 hours.

Brush a sheet pan generously with olive oil and gently stretch dough to shape.  Let rest for five to ten minutes if resistant, then finish stretching.  Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 425-degrees.  Stir together the following:

• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary (approx. 1 long stick of rosemary)

Brush dough with rosemary oil, allowing oil to pool in the indentions.  Sprinkle the following evenly over the focaccia:

• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt

Bake in middle of oven until golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Immediately invert a rack over pan and flip focaccia onto rack, then turn right side up (or use a spatula under the bread to slide it onto the cooling rack). Serve warm or at room temperature.

Paninis!

I actually cannot believe I haven’t talked about paninis before, because I love them.  I mean, even ignoring the fact that they’re awessome, I don’t see how it’s possible to not love a panini, they’re so crisp on the outside and usually have some hot melty cheese action going on.

They’re like a hot pocket, without the pocket-ness.  Or the weird crust.  Or the tendency to burn your mouth.  So really, I’m not sure where I was going with this analogy, as they are not like hot pockets at all, except for the whole you-eat-them-with-your-hands factor.  Hot pockets!

My current favorite panini is brie, prosciutto and figs on ciabatta:

Fresh figs are best, but since they’re no longer in season, dried are still doing very nicely.  I actually got this panini idea from a restaurant that my friend Kjersti introduced me to.  One bite and it was love.  Of the panini.  Not Kjersti.  I don’t think I need to bite Kjersti to know she’s awesome.  🙂

Tommy and Penney gave us our panini maker and it has truly been a workhorse in our kitchen.  I think we use it about once a week, which is not bad for an appliance with pretty much only one purpose.  Some of the best hints they gave me was that ciabatta always makes awesome paninis (TRUTH, it does!) and to brush the bread with olive oil before use.  The olive oil does help with crispness and browning so it is not to be missed.

I am always on the quest for new ideas, so what are some of your favorites combinations?  Have you tried any that were a complete flop?  I can chime in and say cheese panini:  not as yummy as you might imagine.

Uncle Kit’s Stuffing

What’s this?  Talking about Thanksgiving stuffing in March?  Well, I never talked about it last November and it’s recently taken on a new level of meaning for me.  My hands-down favorite part about Thanksgiving has always been my Uncle Kit’s stuffing.

I’ve only recently started learning what an amazing life he’s led and what a generous spirit he has.  He trained in Switzerland as a pastry chef after going to college.  He’s a voracious reader on pretty much any topic you could imagine and he is fiercely loyal to NC State basketball.  Everyone says it so much, it’s probably become cliched, but he really would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.  For so long, he was always just there, Uncle Kit, quiet and steady.

Because he’s so amazing, I know for the rest of my life, I will never host a Thanksgiving dinner that doesn’t have his stuffing on my table, even if I have to serve multiple stuffings.  And it doesn’t hurt that I think his stuffing is the bee’s knees.  🙂

When I asked him for the recipe to make it last Thanksgiving, it was given in terms of a man who had made it so many times, he no longer really followed any recipe.  I was a little scared of messing it up, so I did a search online for similar stuffing recipes and found this.  It’s pretty much the same, except my uncle’s is simpler.

This recipe, for example, calls for 3 eggs.  When my uncle described the mixing process, he definitely said, “add eggs one at a time until you reach the right consistency.”  What?  What!?!  So I’m glad this recipe was able to step in and guide me a little.

As a note, my uncle’s stuffing does not include extra sugar, apples, celery or the fresh herbs.  His favorite herb blend to use in flavoring the stuffing is Italian.  My uncle would also bake it separately from the turkey in round cake tins and I loved the contrast of textures.  The top would brown nicely and become crispy, while inside, the white bread had turned soft, almost creamy.

Sticky Caramely Buns

My friend Leslie and I took a page out of Julia and Julia and decided it would be fun to work our way through one cookbook together.  We debated for a long time on which one until inspiration struck:  The Bread Baker’s Apprentice!  We both love bread and we both feel we have so far to go in learning bread technique that it seemed like a good choice.

I think it is still a good choice but here is what we found out:  most of the recipes need some sort of overnight proofing.  Not so good, because we didn’t factor that in at all – we had assumed we could do each recipe over the course of one day.  We still haven’t made a recipe that called for an overnight proof, so we’ll see what happens when we hit that road block.

The first recipe we tried out of this book was the Sticky Toffee Buns, mostly because it was one of the few recipes that we could do in the time we had.  This is also where I learned how wrong I was when it came to kneading.  The recipe called for kneading in a stand mixer for 10 minutes at a certain speed (6, I believe).  Looking at the result of doing that was so different from what I had previously made, I know I had been doing something wrong all this time.

And it really showed when it came time to roll out the dough.  Usually, I have the worst problems rolling up cinnamon buns because the dough is too soft.  It stretches too easily and soon I have oblong buns instead of round ones.

But check them out this time around:

So they’re still not quite smooth and disc-shaped, because in the process of cutting them, we probably used too much downward force and they bulged out.  Next time, I would use a knife with an actual blade rather than a dough cutter, I think.  But other than that — don’t they actually LOOK like cinnamon buns?!

We split them up into two groups and put them into 2 square pans.  Then we made the sticky caramel topping.  The book warned us that it might be hard to tell when the buns are done, because the tops may look finished even if the bottom is not.  That definitely happened to us.  We took them out and the sauce was still a little separated (you could see some butter, rather than all sticky caramel goo).  So we popped the other one in for a bit longer and it was much better.

What were our thoughts?  Leslie and Martin both said they didn’t like the presence of lemon in the buns, they would have preferred just vanilla.  I was a bit unsurprised about that, from Martin.  He can eat lemons straight up but he hates lemon flavored things.  Seriously hates it, which is a bit sad because I like a little bit of lemon juice or lemon zest sprinkled into vegetables to brighten the flavors.  Overall, very good but very heavy.

Also, even though we made the “small” size, we thought the buns were still just huge!  We could not imagine how big the “big” buns would be … one is definitely more than enough for one person for a filling dessert!

Sticky Buns
from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart

Days to Make: 1
Active / Resting / Baking Time: 15 minutes to mix, 3-1/2 hours fermentation/shaping/proofing, 20 – 40 minutes to bake

The Dough
6-1/2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
5-1/2 tbsp. butter
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp. lemon extract
3-1/2 cups unbleached bread or all-purpose flour
2 tsp. instant yeast
1-1/8 to 1-1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk (or 3 tsp. powdered milk and 1 cup water)
1/2 cup cinnamon sugar (6-1/2 tbsp. sugar + 1-1/2 tbsp. cinnamon)

Caramel Glaze
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 lb. unsalted butter
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 tsp. lemon, orange or vanilla extract

Cream together the sugar, salt and shortening on medium-high speed in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. If using powdered milk, cream the dry milk with the sugar, but wait to add the water with the flour and yeast.

Whip in the egg and lemon extract until smooth. Then add the flour, yeast and milk.

Mix on low speed until a dough ball forms.

Switch to the dough hook and increase speed to medium, mixing for approximately 10 minutes, until the dough is silky and supple, tacky but not sticky. Add water or more flour as necessary to achieve this texture.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for approx. 2 hours, until doubled in size.

While waiting for the dough to rise, go ahead and made the caramel glaze. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine sugar, brown sugar, salt and butter. Cream together for 2 minutes on high. Add the corn syrup and extract and cream together for 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Spread in a 1/4″ thick layer on the bottom of a pan that is at least 1-1/2″ high. Any extra can be stored in an airtight container and can keep for months.

Mist the counter with spray oil and transfer dough to counter. Shape buns into a rough rectangular shape, 2/3″ thick and 14″ x 12″ wide for large buns, 18″ x 9″ for smaller buns. Rolling the dough too thin will cause the buns to be tough rather than soft.

Sprinkle cinnamon sugar all over the surface and roll the dough into a cigar shaped log. With the seam side down, cut the dough into 8 – 12 even pieces about 1-3/4″ thick for large buns or 12 – 16 even pieces that are about 1-1/4″ thick.

Lay the pieces of dough on top of the caramel glaze, spaced about 1/2″ apart. Mist dough with spray oil and cover with plastic wrap.

Proof further for 75 – 90 minutes or until the pieces now tough and have doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees F and put the rack on the lowest shelf.

Bake the buns for 30 – 40 minutes, until golden brown. The bottom is really the top, so the heat has to penetrate through the pan and into the glaze to caramelize. The tops become the bottoms, so they may appear to be dark and done, but the key is if the underside is baked.

Cool the buns in the pan for 5 – 10 minutes, then remove by flipping over onto another pan. Wait 20 minutes and serve.

Servings: 8 – 12 large buns or 12 – 16 small buns

Pizza and Pizza Crust

For quite some time, when I’ve wanted to make homemade pizza, I’ve been using the pizza crust from Chef John of Food Wishes.  Before I go on, I’d like to say that if you haven’t ever checked out his site, you should!  I find his short videos on how to prepare his dishes very enjoyable … they’re short, to the point and extremely informative.

I really like his pizza crust, but one drawback is that it takes a very long time to make, requiring 2 proofs that last half an hour each, in addition to a final rise.  Today, when I went to find his pizza crust video, I googled something along the lines of “pizza crust food wishes” and a link popped up from Chef John about making Wolfgang Puck’s pizza crust.  I wouldn’t normally have clicked it, except I happened to want to make Wolfgang Puck’s Smoked Salmon and Caviar pizza.  Maybe I should go all the way and make everything in the style of Wolfgang Puck?

When I watched the video, I was happy to learn that prep time for Puck’s crust would be under an hour, a definite plus in my book for today.  Another plus in its favor was that I’d never made it before, so I was very curious to try it.  Much like a new chocolate chip recipe, I can never resist seeing how it compares to the old favorite.  So I warmed up some water and got to mixing.

This is after kneading it in my stand mixer for awhile:

Check out that round ball-like shape.  Can you believe I’ve been “making” bread for 2 years or so and it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that I finally figured out I hadn’t been kneading my dough for long enough?  Now I finally get what people mean when they say to make sure that the dough passes the windowpane test.  And my dough actually formed a ball this time instead of sort of slipping into a dough puddle in the bowl.  It’s great to know that I am making progress, but I am sure I have a long way to go yet!  🙂

I slipped this into a warmed oven to rise, then split it into four sections to make four miniature pizzas.  Or rather, 3 pizzas, we were too full by the time the third one popped out of the oven.  Because I’m leaving on Monday to go to NC for the holidays (yay!), I am trying to get rid of all perishables before I go.  So I basically emptied out our entire crisper and julienne-sliced anything I found (thank goodness for mandolines) and piled them on in combinations I thought might be tasty, making for a very hodge podge meal.  Also, none of them had pizza sauce, which posed an interesting conundrum:  is a pizza a pizza without tomato sauce or is it considered some sort of flatbread … thing?

Here’s what we made:

Pepper, Onion and Feta Pizza – This was my least favorite, but Martin’s favorite.  I’m not a huge fan of feta, though, so I was a little biased.  This pizza was a bit dry (I think I confused feta with chevre and thought it would melt in a satisfying way upon baking), so I think next time I would add a few spoonfuls of sauce.  Overall, a pretty good vegetarian pizza.

Brie and Apple Pizza – I basically brushed the crust with olive oil, cut the rind off some brie and pulled apart pieces and dropped them onto crust.  Then I topped it with rings of red onion and slices of an apple (roma or pink lady, I can’t remember).  I think this one was my favorite.  The brie was so creamy and warm, the apples were sliced so thin they managed to caramelize while cooking and the red onions added a bit of bite.  Delicious!

Smoked Salmon and Caviar Pizza – When I was researching how to make the appetizers from our wedding, I found out that Wolfgang Puck had based that dish on his signature pizza, and I made a mental note to try it one day.  After eating it, I think the combination was better on a potato pancake but it was still tasty.

So there you have it.  Pizza for 2 on a lazy Saturday!

Waffles!

Surabhi and Ziga thoughtfully gave us a waffle maker and a teapot as a wedding gift and they have been serious workhorses in our kitchen.  I don’t think a day goes by where we don’t use the kettle, as I am a tea fiend (and slowly turning Martin into one!).  We may not use the waffle iron as much, but I get just as much enjoyment out of it.

Martin isn’t too much of a waffle fan, so if I make waffles, I’m pretty much making them just for me.  Far and away my favorite recipe is the Light, Crisp Waffle from Fine Cooking, introduced to me by Brian.  He and I both love the same style of waffles and I consider Brian a discerning food individual, especially when something as important as WAFFLES are on the line, so I knew this would be a winner.

As Brian points out, the recipe is a little extra work since you have to beat an egg white.  For the record, one time, I accidentally separated my whites into the milk mixture, so I couldn’t beat it before adding it to the batter.  I didn’t feel that the waffle lost a significant amount of lightness, though the batter was a bit runny.  So if you are ever so anxious for waffles that you speed through the recipe too quickly and accidentally drop the egg whites into the milk, it will all work out – take it from me!

The smell of freshly cooking waffles is one of my favorite smells.  I feel like the vanilla really comes out and it’s as addictive as the smell of fresh baked cookies, with the added benefit that you get to eat one every three minutes hot off the iron.

The cold, hard (or hot, crispy??) truth is that I love these waffles so much, I will unashamedly eat them standing by the waffle iron.  Having no pressure to share with anyone, I pop them out of the waffle iron, immediately start cooking another one and dig into my hot, hot waffle.  I don’t even add any toppings or anything – I just pull them apart into their quarters and chomp away.  It’s the best feeling in the world.

I use a heaping 1/3 cup of batter per waffle and this makes more than 5 waffles … probably along the magnitude of 8, which I can actually eat all in one sitting.  Also, following Brian’s recommendations are key.  I found that using my own timer, using a quick blast of cooking spray and making sure it always stays on the lowest setting consistently produced amazing waffles.  My timing preference is 3.5 minutes, I like them a bit more crisp.

Cinnamon Rolls

It seems like just yesterday that I made these for the Morning After Mark and Emily Got Married Brunch.  But it wasn’t yesterday, it was more like yestermonth.  As you can tell, I’ve been slow with the uploading of pictures.  But I’ve just completed a giant batch, hopefully enough to last me through my next upload dry spell.

I used this recipe for the first time that day.  I woke up early-ish to make them in time for the brunch and was a little worried.  The dough didn’t look like it had risen properly, it was still somewhat soft and the filling kept inconveniently oozing out.  It took about half an hour between putting the time I sliced them and put them into a pan and the time they started baking (aka, the commute to Tara’s house).  I like to think of that half hour as when the magic happened, as they puffed up even more while sitting in the pan.  The oozing filling also created a nice caramelization affect wherever it wasn’t covered by soft bun.  And, best of all, three pans of this stuff were devoured.  I think that is a testament to deliciousness if I ever saw one

Sadly, since I was in a rush to create, this is the only picture I took of the cinnamon rolls:

That’s right, it’s the remains of the cinnamon and flour on the counter space that I used to roll them up.  And that’s it.  No pictures of them in pans, no indication of how amazingly they puffed up given another 1/2 hour to rise, no nothing.  So you’ll have to trust me.  These cinnamon buns look mighty tasty coming out of the oven.

Because the recipe I took it from makes an insane number of rolls and I didn’t always do the best job halving stuff (butter, I am pointing at you), I am going to go ahead and transcribe it.  It came from one of my favorite sites, The Pioneer Woman.  She does not hesitate to use butter.  And that’s how it should be.

Cinnamon Rolls

2 cups whole milk
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup sugar
1 pkg. (2-¼ tsp.) active dry yeast
4 cups AP flour
½ – 1 cup AP flour
½ heaping tsp. baking powder
½ scant tsp. baking soda
½ heaping tsp. salt
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
Cinnamon

1- Combine milk, vegetable oil and sugar in saucepan.  Heat until 105 – 115 degrees F.

2- Sprinkle yeast on top and let sit for a few minutes.

3- Add flour and mix to combine.  Mixture will be soft and soupy.

4- Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for approximately an hour or until doubled in size.

5- Add ½ cup AP flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix together.  If mixture is still a little soft, add a little more flour.

6- Generously flour surface and pour dough onto surface.

7- Roll dough out into a rough rectangle.

8- Melt butter and pour on top.  Spread with a pastry brush if necessary.

9- Sprinkle sugar on top.  Top with a generous sprinkling of cinnamon on top.

10- Starting on the side furthest away, start rolling cinnamon up.

11- Cut into ½” pieces and place in a dish to bake.  Preheat oven to 400-degrees.

12- Let rise for ½ hour while oven is preheating.

13- Bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven.

14- Brush with glaze of choice and serve warm.

Servings:  3 pans of 9 each.

Rosemary Focaccia

When Martin and I were invited over to a friend’s house for dinner, I wanted to bring something over so I thought and thought … and thought and thought.  I probably spent way too long trying to figure out what to bring.  Dessert is generally my go-to, but Tara had already said she had it covered with a divine-sounding orange dreamsicle cake.  So … I decided to bring bread.  I hadn’t worked with yeast in a while up until that point and hadn’t made focaccia in an even longer while.

The first two times I made focaccia, I was completely new to the bread-making process and just blindly followed the directions of two different recipes.  One created a VERY dry dough I could barely pull into shape and one created one so wet, it was pourable out of the mixing bowl.

I don’t know if one of those ways was actually a right way, but I know I didn’t really like the bread it produced.  So I decided to go by my favorite method, the “slightly tacky, sticking to the bottom of my bowl but NOT the sides” method.  I mixed away and let it do its first rise before pouring it out onto a sheet pan.  I don’t actually have the size pan they were calling for … so I made do.

“Make do” is code for “ghetto-rigged something.”

Spreading it out was kind of a pain.  I had to stop once to let the dough rest for a few minutes before I could get it to fill the pan.

After the second rise (where I absolutely could not believe how much it rose again), I dimpled it with my fingers and brushed it with olive oil and rosemary from my herb plant:

And baked it:

Woah!  This actually kind of looks like focaccia!

Then I cut it up, arranged it prettily in a bowl and brought it to the dinner party.

Arun was there and when he saw the focaccia, he said that it was his favorite type of bread and immediately started digging in.  That made me feel so ridiculously happy, sort of like when you give someone a Christmas present and it turns out to be their favorite one of the year.

So there you go.  Rosemary focaccia bread, like the Gourmet cookbook taught ya.

Note:  I added the flour in increments and probably only used about 3.5 – 4 cups of flour.