No-Knead Bread

I think everyone has their list of foods they'd like to try to make themselves, but are intimidated by them. I'm sure most of my list is fairly common: pie (namely the crust), bread, fancy bakery cakes, pasta, and cheese. I'm over the pie-making fear, and the break-making one too. Does making homemade gnocchi count as making one's own pasta? :)

I am here to tell you that you should make your own delicious bread, because it really is easy, cheap, and doesn't take a lot of effort, or really even a lot of equipment. My house standby is the No-Knead Bread recipe from the New York Times. We used to make it all the time, then summer came (= NO BAKING ALLOWED!), then we got all caught up in the fall, and now just realized how much we missed it. I was starting to get so good at buying bakery loaves and looking the other way instead of wincing at the price of it. But no more! New Year's resolution is a go. Those photos up above are introducing you to our first loaf of 2011 (isn't she pretty?).  We hope to progress to more complex recipes, but for now we're going to keep this the routine for a while. 

The routine, as it turns out, is key. So I'm going to lay it down for you, timing and all, in hopes that it helps you check bread off of your list (if you haven't already done so).

1. Throw the ingredients together into a large bowl right before bed, say 10 or 11 PM. Flour, salt, yeast, water -- that's it! No priming the yeast either -- just toss it in and stir. (note: this loaf was 1/2 unbleached white, 1/2 whole wheat flour)

2. The end of the standard workday is handy for the next step as far as timing goes. At ~5:30, I take the bread out of the bowl and fold it over itself on a floured surface with plastic wrap over it (reuse saran from step #1).

3. The next step as far as handling the dough is in 15 minutes, so you can prep for it (efficiency!) in the meantime. Get a cotton towel (not loopy terry; a flat woven one is what you want) and coat it with some cornmeal (or flour, or wheat germ, we just prefer the cornmeal crunch). Go hunt down a container for baking the bread -- we use a big Fiestaware cassarole pot thingy. The key features are that it is a) oven safe, and b) has a lid. 

4. Once the 15 minutes are up (~5:45), flour your hands and then shape the dough in a ball and place it on the towel, seam side down. Sprinkle a bit more cornmeal on it, and then fold the towel over it (or use two towels if need be). The dough now goes through a second rise for two hours. I put it in the microwave to avoid kitty-sized paw prints in the dough (it is cute, and I'm sure it has got to be fun to squish it between your toes, but I don't appreciate it very much). 

5. At ~7:15, put the ovenproof pot in the oven and preheat to 450 F.

6. At 7:45, carefully take the pot out of the oven and flip the dough into it. Put the lid back on, and bake for 30 minutes.

7. At 8:15, take the lid off.

8. At 8:45, turn off the oven and take the beautiful golden loaf out! Hooray for bread!

9. Once it is cool enough to touch, take the loaf out of the pot and cool it on a wire rack completely before storing it.

broccoli & cheese soup

Okay, so I may not have posted in a month (gulp!), but a lot has been going on behind the scenes to make 2011 an excellent year for food blogging!

1. Husband, being the tech-efficiency whiz/sweet guy that he is, got me a blog-conscious holiday gift! Meet the Eye-Fi: I now have a memory card for the camera that is linked to our wireless network, so whenever I snap a photo,  I get an email letting me know it has been uploaded to my computer! AMAZING! One thing that always bogged me down was waiting for the effin' camera to sync with my computer. Now all I have to do is type up the recipes. :P
2. New iPhoto on my computer = better organization = better blogging.
3. Although I swore I wasn't allowed to get any more new cookbooks, I got four for Christmas, so there's more new things to discover and make! (sneak preview: I now own a dog biscuit cookbook! And these hilarious cookie cutters!)
4. The house New Year's resolution is one homemade loaf of bread per week. I may tweak this to be "anything that involves yeast and flour", as I realize that pizza dough and cinnamon rolls should *totally* count. We are partial to the NYTimes No-Knead Bread, but once we get that one down I'm sure we'll get more adventurous. In fact I just took loaf #1 of 2011 out of the oven. Maybe I'll just have to go snap a photo...
5. I am now all kinds of outfitted to make my own cakes from scratch. Now if I can just get over being so very intimidated by making them (and frostings! with a hand mixer! eek!). Any encouragement would be appreciated. :)

So yeah, today's recipe comes from my fave standby, A Beautiful Bowl of Soup. Last night I started out feeling pretty uninspired, feeling like mac & cheese was going to be the solution. Then I decided to guilt myself by looking through our produce in the fridge and I was stuck on the broccoli (most likely because we tossed a soupy head of it before we left town for the holidays -- gross). I consulted a few other sources and the recipes seemed either too simple or too full of heavy cream. I made a few adjustments to this one for what I had in my pantry, and ta-da! Delicious soup!

Broccoli & Cheese Soup

ingredients:

3 T. unsalted butter

1 carrot, chopped

1/2 c. onion, chopped

1 stalk of celery, plus a sprig of leaves, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 T. all-purpose flour

2 c. veggie stock

1 1/2 c. small broccoli florets

4 tangerine-sized red potatoes, cubed

2 c. milk

2 c. shredded white cheddar cheese

1/4 t. dry mustard

1/4 t. parsley

S&P

directions:

1. Melt the butter in a dutch oven over medium heat. 
2. Add the carrot, onion, celery, and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are tender, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the flour; stir constantly over low heat for about 2 minutes.
4. Gradually add the veggie stock, stirring until mixture is smooth each time.
5. Meanwhile, in a separate pot, steam the broccoli.
6. Add the potato, mustard, and parsley to the veggie mixture. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce the heat; cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are tender, about 10 minutes.
8. Stir in the milk, and off the heat.
9. Using an immersion blender, puree the veggies and milk.
10. While the soup is warm, gradually adding the cheese and stirring until melted. 
11. Add in the broccoli, season with S&P if needed, and warm if needed.
12. Serve and enjoy!

salty chocolate cookies

You need to make these cookies. 

Warning: Once you share them at a social event, you will be expected to make them pretty much every time. Seriously, once I made a double batch (~80 cookies) and they were gone. I was impressed.  I'd probably make them for an upcoming holiday potluck, but I'll all out of brown sugar from making hot buttered rum. Poor me. ;)

Salty Chocolate Cookies (of deliciousness)

tweaked from post on Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. flour

1/6 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/6 c. dark cocoa powder

1/2 t. baking soda

11 T. unsalted butter, at room temperature (very important! don't rush it!!)

2/3 c. dark brown sugar

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1/2 t. salt

1 t. vanilla extract

kosher salt for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Whisk together the flour, cocoa and baking soda in a small bowl; set aside.

2. Beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.
3. With the mixer off, add the dry ingredients. Turn the mixer on and off low speed (pulse) for a second or two about 5 times so that the flour mixture gets incorporated. Then mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, just until the flour disappears into the dough (the dough will look crumbly).
4. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide it in two. Shape each half into a 9-inch log (oh yes, you know what this looks like). Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (Sometimes I make the batter logs before bedtime and bake 'em over breakfast the next day. The dough can be refrigerated up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you don’t need to defrost before baking – just slice the logs into cookies and baking the cookies 1 minute longer. Brilliance!)
5. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
6. Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are ½-inch thick (really, I use a ruler!). Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them. Sprinkle a small amount of extra salt on top of each round.
7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 8-10 minutes – they won’t look done, and won’t be firm, but that’s how they should be. I take them out once they are puffy; don't wait too long or you get some very sad looking burnt wafers.
8. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.