Food For Me

No-Knead Crusty White Bread

No need to have The All-Purpose Baking Companion for this No-Knead recipe. I did, however, use the book for this recipe. The main difference is the website has a whole blog post on storage.

Onto the experience. Cooking this was a charm. I needed bread. I wanted it to be easy so I could have something crusty and good for dinner. I started this loaf early in the day, right before work. Since I work remotely, this meant I set it up for the first rise like one minute before work.

It is a simple loaf — four ingredients — and then let time do the rest. After the first rise, you have to put the dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours or up to 7days. Really, the recipe describes a spectrum of similar loaves. This time allows for the flavor to develop. As the recipe explains, seven days allows for the loaf to taste like sourdough. I opted for the much shorter route, because I wanted bread that day. So two hour rise and about 7 or 8 hours in the fridge.

As the recipe says, the dough will rise a lot and it lives up to that. I used my kitchen aid mixing bowl and the dough was reaching for the top.

I gently divided the dough into three parts. I opted for shaping them into ‘logs’ instead of ‘softballs.’ By the time they were oven-ready, they looked like flat ciabatta . The recipe promised that they would puff up in the oven.

The recipe calls for water to be poured into a hot pan and I have seen enough cooking shows to know that this can be a dangerous process if you are not quick so take care to avoid the steam.

The loaves puffed up, on schedule and turned out beautifully.

If you did not get into the quarantine sourdough kick or have given up on your starter altogether, but still want all that delicious flavor, this is a great recipe for you. It is also a great recipe if you are feeling a little crunched for time and want bread by the end of the day.

Three rather misshapen loaves, fresh from the oven

Classic Blueberry Muffins

I had too many blueberries and not a lot of time to eat them, so I went to the index of my King Arthur Baker’s Companion. I was about to go hiking over the weekend and I found that muffins might be just the ticket for car snacks and post-hike calories.

This recipe is very simple and straightforward. (You can find it here on the King Arthur baking site.) The main difference I found from other blueberry muffin bakes was that this one had me crush about a quarter of the blueberries.

The recipes says that it makes about 12 muffins. I made twelve muffins and a small loaf of blueberry muffin with the excess.

This is an incredibly simple recipe (part of the reason I enjoy a muffin recipe is the simplicity). I also learned a fun little fact while working this recipe. At the bottom the recipe informs you that “Muffins left in the pan will steam, creating a tough crust.” While I rarely allow any muffins to sit in a pan for more than like five seconds, this has been something to keep in mind. Especially with larger batches like the Spiced Peach Muffins.

The muffins were a great success and lasted at room temperature throughout the weekend of hiking. I kept several in the fridge while I was gone and had a couple days of breakfasts from them.

Ciabatta

I am pretty sure that at some point I have eaten ciabatta, but I am also pretty sure that it was used for a sandwich and I had never really looked too hard at a loaf. That being said, I decided that ciabatta would be the best option for a little picnic with pesto pasta.

First off, the picnic got rained out by thunderstorms and I am afraid that might have been foreshadowing for my bread. What King Arthur’s All-Purpose Baker’s Companion describes a homely, started out as a normal seeming dough starter called a Biga. Biga is different than my sourdough starter. It is doughier and seems as though it could be used to make a small pizza, if I wasn’t planning to leave it sitting out overnight.

The next morning, I pulled the biga out. I should have put it in a different container. Silly me, apparently in my Friday night sleepiness, I put it in a 2 cup container when a 3 or 4 cup was more appropriate. The lid was sitting on top of the biga which had risen a half inch out of the container. I shrugged it off though. Bread can be finnicky, but hopefully that did not cause any failings.

The dough is super difficult to deal with and I cannot imagine kneading it by hand. This recipe did not even give you an option for that, though.

Due to the rather sticky nature of the dough, I did struggle with the shaping. One of the two loaves ended up being a bit flatter and wider. The other a bit more on par with the suggested dimensions. The rise seemed to go well. It was a pretty warm southern spring morning so the temperature was prime for rising.

The result has been a little underwhelming. Although the King Arthur folks did warn me the the loaves tend to look “like a homely, comfortably broken-in slipper,” I was nervous that the bread had not risen correctly and had failed outright.

The bread turned out to be delicious. There are no two ways around that. It worked wonderfully with the pesto pasta we had and I made delicious sandwiches with the leftovers.

Zucchini Bread

I have started looking through the index of the King Arthur All-Purpose Baker’s Companion when I have extra ingredients. Turns out we are getting to summer around where I live and that means a lot of extra zucchini.

I have never really been a fan of zucchini bread in the past so I had been avoiding this particular recipe for a minute.

That being said, I had several large zucchinis that needed tp be eaten and so I turned to the index of the Baker’s Companion and found Simple Zucchini bread. (It also can be found here on the King Arthur Website.)

It lives up to its name.

I feel like this recipe has three main steps: grate the zucchini, mix the wet ingredients, mix the dry ingredients. It is very easy to throw together in a few minutes. That being said, the bake time has gotten me one of the two times that I have made this loaf. I started it a bit late in the evening and ended up delivering the loaf to a friend at 10pm. Not my goal, but the bread was well received nonetheless.

The recipe gives all sorts of options for the liquid in this recipe. I opted for milk because that is what I had. I also only had an 8×4 bread pan which did make the baking time slightly longer. I also opted to add the optional cinnamon.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really enjoyed this loaf. I have had a slice many times with breakfast. I am looking forward to making more of these and maybe even a couple miniature loaves this summer.

Zucchini bread during the 10 minute cooling time.

Spiced Peach Muffins

Another recipe from the King Arthur’s All-Purpose baking companion. I had extra peaches this week from my local CSA delivery.

I will admit that I was a bit shocked to see the sheer amount of flour that went into this bake. However, once everything was measured, the recipe was super easy, a couple of mixes and then the batter was complete.

The recipe says that it will make 18 muffins and, boy, did it. I only have a 12 cup muffin tin and filled all of those muffins generously. Due to the sheer amount of batter going into each cup, I was afraid that they would spill over but the batter was made of stiffer stuff. They baked and domed beautifully.

Out of the oven, the first batch smelled amazing and I was able to get 7 or 8 more muffins out of the rest of the batter.

I will admit that on the first day I probably ate 5 of these muffins. They are fantastic and I am such a fan. I think this will be a great recipe to have in my back pocket as peach season ramps up.

A couple of the muffins next to a cheese plate

Ricotta Soufflé Pancakes

I just happened to have some left over ricotta. I think my boyfriend left it here after making some recipe, but we agreed that using it to make pancakes would be a great adventure.

King Arthur Flour’s All-Purpose Baker’s Companion has a fantastic recipe. The book describes it as “unusually airy and lofty” and ethereal. I’ll admit, I had a bit of a chuckle at the exaggerated language. I could not imagine what an ethereal pancake would be like.

The recipe was less work than I thought. Throw all the ingredients into 3 bowls and whip them up according to the recipe. One of the bowls contained egg whites. This helped the recipe to be light and airy. My favorite waffle recipes tend to have egg whites whipped into stiff peaks.

The one ingredient I was not sure about was the ricotta. Ricotta is great–don’t get me wrong. However, were there just going to be chunks of cheese that were scattered about like in chocolate chip pancakes? Yes and no. There definitely were ricotta chunks but they blended so pleasantly with the rest of the pancake that I hardly seemed to notice them.

My main difficulty with the recipe was getting the griddle temperature right. I have an electric griddle and with the Simply Perfect Pancake recipe, they had a temperature suggested. I used the same temperature range initially, but ended up lowering the temperature to something in the 400-425F range.

The result surprised me. I found that the pancakes were the softest, lightest pancakes I had ever eaten. That being said, they filled me up way faster than I expected. I guess that is what happens when you throw cheese in a pancake.

The leftover ricotta pancakes. I think they might last for another meal or two.

Similar recipe from King Arthur Baking Company: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/lemon-pancakes-recipe

Making a New Kind of Pancakes

Recently, I decided to purchase the latest edition of the King Arthur (KA) Flour Baking Company’s The All-Purpose Baking Companion. Generally speaking, I love to just read cookbooks. I like the little snippets about the food — the history, the different variations, the stories. I also enjoy daydreaming about the different things I could make.

Pancakes are not usually part of the day dream. I have a recipe that my dad makes when I go home and he has made that recipe for my entire life. As a result, I have continued to use that recipe. However, last week, I finally decided to branch out. I made the “Simply Perfect Pancakes”.

The KA recipe had the same amount of baking powder and sugar but more liquid (an extra egg, more milk, and added vanilla) than my dad’s recipe. The result was quite good. They have certainly mastered the standard pancake recipe and flavor.

Altogether, the pancakes were exactly as offered. They were the perfect pancake that you can get in nearly every restaurant that offers a standard pancake. The recipe was plenty simple and had an option to change it up to make waffles!

In the end though, I think I will continue to use my dad’s recipe. Nothing wrong with a little taste of home every Saturday morning.

Three pancakes on a white plate with a fork — The results of the Simply Perfect Pancakes recipe.

Review: Crispy Cheesy Pan Pizza

I cannot count how many times I have made this pizza in the last couple months. The dish is so flexible in every way — which is exactly what I need when under a stay at home order. The King Arthur Flour Cheesy Pan Pizza has been a staple.

The dough is made 12 – 36 hours in advance. This allows me to make the dough on Thursday or Friday morning so I can choose any day during the weekend to enjoy fresh pizza. I often opt to go for the full amount of time. This allows the flavor of the crust to develop more.

I follow their instructions to the letter. Except I add different cheeses and toppings. The original recipe is an excellent base to play with. While adding toppings, I take care to not add too much extra weight to the dough. I have had some of the pizzas deflate slightly due to the weight of the ingredients. As soon as you have your ingredients on the pie, throw it in the oven to avoid deflation as well.

When finished, the crust is delicious. Due to the majority of the cook time being spent on the bottom of the oven, the crust turns out crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. When serving, I crack the edge of the crust like I am breaking the top of creme brulee (or at least that is what I have been told), then I cut the pizza. I do this to avoid crushing the crust.

To reheat, I recommend using a toaster oven, if available, or a regular oven, set to 400 F.

My edits

I have also accidentally added an extra 1/4 teaspoon of yeast to the dough. That created a fluffier dough, held its shape just fine, and did not cause the dough to over proof.

My favorite toppings are currently jalapenos and pineapple.

Review: Simple Blueberry Muffins

During the Stay at Home order in my state, I recently started ordering a home delivery veggie box. This has been invaluable for me. Not only am I eating more fruits and veggies, I also look forward to the box. It’s a bit like a mini Christmas morning every two weeks.

Blueberries have been common this spring but I cannot always eat them all. So I turned to Nancy Harmon Jenkins’ Simple Blueberry Muffins recipe.

This recipe is not too sweet and incredibly easy. My first batch used blueberries that were not particularly flavorful, so the muffins were rather boring. I drizzled a little honey on them, though, and enjoyed them greatly.

I have found that substituting strawberries and some peaches (from the back of my freezer) for the blueberries created more of the flavor profile I wanted. It was a better contrast to the batter than the blueberries.

Altogether, if you want a quick recipe for some sort of fruit muffin, this very flexible one should do the trick. I am thinking I would like to try it with apples and cinnamon next.

Easy Black Bean Chili

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of vegetable or olive oil
2 medium onions
1 large red bell pepper
4 cloves of garlic
1 (15 oz) can corn, undrained
2 tablespoons chili powder
1.5 teaspoons dried oregano
1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (16 ounce) can tomato sauce
toppings (especially cheese)

Directions

Heat 1 T. oil in 2 quart saucepan over medium high heat. Add onion, pepper, garlic, corn, and seasonings
Cook for 4 minutes, stir often.
Add beans and tomato sauce.
Simmer for 20 minutes.

Serve with baked potatoes for days to come. This recipe makes for excellent meal prep. And freezes well too.

Easy substitutions: Dried beans need to be cooked before making this dish, but taste just as good. Two cups of frozen rice topped off with water can be substituted for the canned corn. The spices can easily be played with, but I never use less than two tablespoons. I have replaced the bell pepper with potatoes or other vegetables from time to time. Altogether, this is a particularly flexible dish.