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.

Home made granola

A friend of mine very kindly gave me a bag of her home made granola a couple of weeks ago. I have been enjoying this on my yogurt every morning, but when it ran out I missed it, so I figured I had better make some for myself.  I did a little research and it looked like this would not be too hard to do.

The base of all granolas seems to be rolled oats, but over and over I was told not the quick cooking type so I bought 2 cups of traditional rolled oats.  After that it seems to me it was about what nuts and fruit you like, so this is what I used, but from what I can gather it really does not matter which nuts or which dried fruit.

2 cups of traditional rolled oats
3/4 cup of slivered almonds
3/4 cup of pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
3/4 cup of maple syrup (or you could use honey)
2 tablespoons of sunflower oil or melted butter
1 cup of dried fruit - cranberries, crystalized ginger, blueberries, crystalized orange peel

Combine the rolled oats and nuts.

Combine syrup and oil in another bowl and then thoroughly mix all the ingredients together.  Spread the mixture out evenly on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

Valdosta Pecans

This is a recipe that I got from my good friend and fellow blogger Cottagers wife she made these and brought them over one evening when they were here for dinner.  And my husband just loved them, he loved them so much he tried making them.  Now my husband is a very good person with many talents, but cooking is not one of them.  But after two attempts and a little prodding in the right direction he made some very tasty pecans.

So now that the holiday season is here I thought they would make a great addition to the snacks and appetizers at our annual carolling party.


SAUCE
2 Tbsp orange juice
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp white sugar
2 Tbsp butter (best) or margarine
Pinch of salt

ADD IN
1 and 1/2 cups whole pecans
1 tsp finely grated orange peel aka zest
1 tsp course salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries

METHOD
Heat oven to 300 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

In a medium sauce pan combine sauce ingredients and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until bubbling. Cook one minute longer, then remove from heat.