Updates on bread, freezing and pie

This is a couple of updates on recipes that I have previously posted, the first is nut bread which is the latest in experimentation of additions to my basic bread recipe.

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the finished bread, but believe me when I tell you it was beautiful.  The picture above is what it looked like just before placing in the oven. I made my foccacia bread recipe let it raise for 1 hour then added 1 cup of roasted nuts.  I had on hand 1/4 cup pecans and the remainder was pumpkin seeds. I cooked this bread in the same way as the  no knead bread in order to give it a crusty exterior.

The nuts were a great addition, though in fact in this picture you can hardly see any, the flavour of the nuts permiated the whole loaf.  There were 4 couples for dinner and this bread was completely gone before dinner, eaten with some wonderful flavoured olive oil and balsamic vineger.

Update number 2 is Peach pie.  At the end of the day, I believe peach pie is my favourite pie, and as we had some good friends coming down from the Okanagan with some fresh peaches I had to make a pie.

Pita bread and late summer greek dinner on the deck

Monday evening was the last vestiges of the labour day weekend the traditional end of summer.  The weather was sunny and warm, but there is a feel of fall in the air and we were trying to squeeze one more summer evening meal outside. As I had some fresh local lamb in the fridge (oh happy day) we picked Greek as a theme.  I have never made pita bread before so decided to give a go.

This was a bit of an experiment for me, but actually they turned out rather well I thought. I used a recipe I found on the internet on middle eastern food

1 package of yeast
1/2 cup of warm water
3 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 cup of luke warm water

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy.

Combine flour and salt in large bowl. Make a small depression in the middle of flour and pour yeast water in depression. Add 1 cup of warm water, and stir with wooden spoon or rubber spatula until elastic.

Place dough on floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes. When the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic, it is ready.

Coat large bowl with olive oil and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated.

Tomato, olive flat bread

I was making bread as an appetizer on the weekend and I had harvested two large plum tomatoes from my deck and wanted to hilight them as they are the first large tomatoes I have grown in over 30 years.

To concentrate the already wonderful flavour of the fresh tomatoes I roasted them in the oven first.  I sliced them thinly, sprinkled with salt and pepper and olive oil and then roasted in a 300 oven for 20 minutes.

Before roasting

This dries the tomatoes a little and intensifies their flavour.  If you did not want to go through this extra step, you could use sun dried tomatoes.

I made my favourite foccacia bread but before baking it I brushed on olive oil and then placed the roasted tomato slices and a few olives sliced evenly over the top.

Crusty Olive bread cooked on a barbecue

The oven up at my friends place in Pender Harbour was acting strangely on the weekend, so when I wanted to make bread I had to use the barbecue.  Of course as it was really hot this was not a hardship and in some ways is a good way of dealing with making bread without heating up the house.

I used my basic crusty bread recipe, but after the bread was kneaded and just before leaving to rise I added about a cup of chopped pitted green olives.

I kneaded for about one more minute until the olives were evenly distributed through the dough and then left it to rise as normal.

We heated up the barbecue to 600, then turned one side off and put in the trusty cast iron pot.  When this was heated through I plopped the dough in put the lid on the pot and cooked with the top down on the barbecue for about 20 minutes when I took the lid off the cast iron pot.

Crusty bread in less than 2 hours

I love the no knead bread and make it occasionally, but I have to say remembering to start 12 hours before I want the bread is sometimes a challenge for me.  So I wanted to see if you could use the same cooking method using a regular dough and successfully get the wonderful crunchy crust.

And I am happy to say as you can see by the picture you can.  Any way this is how you can impress your family and friends with a crusty loaf of bread pretty much any time.

1 package of yeast (1 ounce)
1 1/2 cups of warm water
1 teaspoon of sugar
3 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of salt.

Mix the yeast with the water and sugar to ensure and leave for about 10 minutes to make sure it is live.  A slight froth should appear on the surface of the water.

Put the flour and salt into a large bowl and pour in the yeast and water.

Mix with a fork until the dough comes together, if you need to add a little more water.  If the dough is too sticky then add a little more flour, there really is no way to stipulate exactly the right quantities with bread, it is not that important, it is just important to get the correct texture.  It should be a soft dough but not sticky.  Then knead for a few minutes and return to the cleaned out bowl.

Corn bread

I bought some corn bread pans in the shape of ears of corn many years ago in New York, and though I do not use them too often I have to say corn bread made in these does look very pretty.

Since we were going to a Texas themed pot luck I thought that these would be appropriate to take along with my salad.  If you are not lucky enough to own corn shaped tins, regular muffin tins would work well.  Or you can use a cast iron frying which is what the original recipe suggests.

I got this recipe from one of my all time favourite cook books by Jon Hadamuscin "Special Occasions" and other than I usually do not cook it in a cast iron frying pan, I follow the recipe exactly! This quantity makes 1 10" cast iron frying pan or about a dozen muffins.

3/4 cup of flour
2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 1/4 cups of ground yellow corn meal
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh sage
1 large egg beaten
1 cup of milk
3 tablespoons of melted bacon fat or butter
1/2 cup of grated cheese (I used white cheddar)

Pre heat the oven to to 425 generously grease either a 10 inch cast iron frying pan or corn pone pans or heavy duty muffin tins.

No knead bread

This is a miracle bread that I found a couple of years ago when cruising around on YouTube  click her to watch .  It is a miracle, because it takes about 5 minutes of active work and in any home oven you can come up with a bread that looks like this.

The only downside is that you have to wait 12 hours from when you start, but if you start the process in the evening, the next morning while you are showering and getting ready for work the bread can be baking and you can amaze and delight all your colleagues at work with fresh baked bread.

3 cups of flour

1/4 teaspoon of dried yeast

1 teaspoon of salt

1 1/2 cups of cold water.

So after cleaning the kitchen up after supper pull out a large bowl add all the ingredients and stir in to a sticky fairly wet dough.

foccacia bread

Foccacia bread is one of my favourite breads to make and there have not been very many occasions where I have entertained and I haven't produced a couple of loaves.  I like it because it is easy and tastes so good .

4 cups of all purpose flour
1 package of dried yeast or about a 2" cube of fresh
1 1/2 to 2 cups of water
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt

mix the yeast sugar and 1/2 the water together and leave for a few minutes until some bubbles start to form, this shows that the yeast is alive.

Place the flour and the yeast mixture along with the olive oil and salt in to a food processer.