Category Archives: BREAD, ROLL, AND MUFFIN RECIPES

SLIDER BUNS (REGULAR HAMBURGER BUNS TOO)

Now that spring is definitely here it’s time to think about picnics and fun food. And a slider, one of my favorites, is fun to both prepare and consume. First of all, sliders are just stinkin’ cute! Now I don’t usually go for “cute” food, but even those of you with a cynical bent have to admit that sliders are nothing if they aren’t cute! And when they taste great too, well that’s just all the better. And although Mr. C. and I don’t usually go out for happy hour (we live on an island and the local restaurants aren’t exactly notorious for being outstanding “happy hour” purveyors), we have had occasion to sample a couple of sliders that are just out of this world.

So I thought I would share two of my favorites with you over the next couple of days. And in my humble opinion, the filling of a perfect slider isn’t worth its weight in ground meat without a perfect bun. And I know, some of you think a perfect bun isn’t all that necessary. Well, too bad. It’s my blog and I am not going to leave the rest of you searching for slider buns at your local grocery store! Because, undoubtedly you will find what I did when I was in a hurry recently and decided to purchase buns rather than prepare my own. For some ungodly reason, grocery stores charge an exorbitant price for slider buns that are fully half the size of regular hamburger buns. Now, I may not be a math genius, but I know when I am being hoodwinked! Let’s see, half the ingredients, twice the price. What about this equation just does not compute? And that’s if your grocery store even deigns to carry slider buns in the first place! Now granted, the slider buns I have purchased (not from my local grocery store, I assure you) have been really good. Pricey, but good. Not as wonderful as homemade of course, but tasty none-the-less.

So next time you get a hankering for a truly fabulous slider, remember this recipe. The buns are inexpensive to make and terribly easy to prepare. If you have yet to tackle yeast bread, this recipe would be a good place to start. And because it’s just the size of your cutter that determines how small or large your buns eventually become, you can use this same recipe for regular sized burger buns too. Of course there is the old adage that “the larger the buns you consume, the larger your own buns become”, so I think personally, I’d better stick to the smaller cutter. Wish me luck on that one!

1 c. warm water
1 T. or 1 pkg. active dry yeast
¼ c. sugar
1 ¼ tsp. salt
4 T. butter, room temperature, divided
1 egg, room temperature
3 ½ c. flour (or more)
vegetable oil

Combine warm water, yeast, sugar, salt, 2 tablespoons butter, and egg in the bowl of your stand mixer. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes to *proof. Add enough flour to form a soft dough. Pour a very small amount of oil over the dough, form a large ball with your hands, cover the bowl with a clean tea towel, and let rise for 1-2 hours or until nearly doubled in bulk. Punch down and divide in half. Shape each half into a rough disk. Roll dough to about 1/4-inch to 1/3-inch thickness. Cut out with a 1 1/2- to 3-inch cutter, depending on whether you want slider buns or regular sized hamburger buns. Repeat with the remaining dough. You will end up with quite a bit of left over dough. Combine it into a ball and let the ball rest for about 20 minutes. Roll out again and make as many more buns as possible. Arrange on a lightly greased baking sheet about 2 to 3 inches apart. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter; brush each bun. This will give them a soft, golden crust. Bake the buns in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, or until they are a light golden brown. Cool on rack. Split and use with any of your favorite fillings.

Proof: After 5 or 10 minutes, the yeast should begin to form a creamy foam on the surface of the water. If there is no foam or any apparent action in the bowl, the yeast is dead. Time to start over with a new packet of yeast.

TOASTED COCONUT AND LEMON SCONES

Mr. C. and I recently spent the day on Orcas Island. Mr. C. had been wanting to go on this one particular hike on Mt. Constitution for some time. So when a beautiful spring day presented itself, we jumped in the car and headed up to Anacortes to catch a ferry. While Mr. C. was playing mountain goat (I don’t do mountain goat hikes anymore), I drove into the big town of Eastsound and tried desperately to spend some of the kids inheritance on a piece of art, but nothing followed me out of a shop except a lemon coconut scone. And as it turned out, it actually wasn’t a lemon coconut scone. It was a blackberry scone. Thus begins my little tale of the pleasantries associated with rural life.

Since we retired from our jobs in Seattle and moved from the big city of Bellevue about 5 years ago to a rural setting, I have learned to truly appreciate how pleasant it is to be treated with respect by people working retail. Unlike what often passes for “customer service” in a city, most people who wait on the public in small towns actually treat their customers as friends. (How weird and refreshing is that?) And living on an island seems to further deepen that bond. There just seems to be something that happens to folks when they live on an island. People change gears, life slows down, and strangers aren’t assumed to be bad folk just waiting to do you wrong. And good customer service is rampant. I mean you can’t walk in a parking lot or into a store without someone saying hi or offering you an unexpected level of thoughtfulness. Which brings me back to scones. (Isn’t thoughtfulness always a natural progression to scones?)

Anyway, I had parked my car a couple blocks back from the town’s main drag which runs along the water in Eastsound. After slowly sauntering around town I realized I still had about an hour before I needed to pick up my weary hiker. So knowing that there would not be time to get dinner before we needed to catch our return ferry, I decided to go into a nearby coffee shop and fetch us a little nibble to tide us over until we reached Anacortes and the safety of a good hot late dinner. While I was in the shop buying my scone, I asked the nice proprietress where I could go to enjoy a view of the water while I read my book? I told her I wanted to leave my car parked where it was and walk. She directed me to a lovely place to sit and enjoy both the afternoon sun and the amazing water view. I thanked her for both the scone and the information and went on my merry way. Since my car was right there, I stashed the un-tasted scone in the car and started my long 3 block walk to my reading destination.

I was walking along the waterfront road (Main Street), when a gentleman on a bicycle peddles up to me and asked if I was the lady who had just bought a scone at Teezer’s? I said I was indeed that woman. He then preceded to hand me a scone explaining that I had been given a blackberry scone by mistake. I told him I didn’t have the other scone with me; that I had left it in my car. He said he didn’t want the wrong scone back. The shop keeper merely wanted me not to be disappointed when I realized I had not received what I had ordered. Now that my dear readers, is what I call fabulous customer service!

So next time I am on Orcas Island and need an espresso or a sweet, you can bet your last chocolate covered coffee bean that I will head directly to Teezer’s Cookies and Coffee House, 330 North Beach Rd., in Eastsound. And even though I enjoyed bites of both the scones, the lemon coconut scone was simply off the charts good. So of course, I had to recreate this fabulous scone at home. So in gratitude to the lovely folks at Teezer’s for both their superior customer service and baking skills, I dedicate this recipe and this post to them. And next time I’m in town, I will be stopping by to say hello. And yes, I will probably order another lemon coconut scone, because they are just that delightful. So if you ever find yourself on Orcas Island, in the charming little town of Eastsound, stop in at Teezer’s and tell them Patti sent you!

2 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. sugar
4 T. cold butter, cut into small dice
2 T. vegetable shortening
zest of 2 lemons
1 c. toasted coconut*
3/4 c. whipping cream
1 egg
lemon juice
powdered sugar

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in the bowl of your food processor. Whirl until mixed well. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse until butter broken down into small bits. (Don’t over process.) In a separate bowl, whisk together the cream and eggs. Stir in the lemon zest and toasted coconut. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until combined with a table knife. (One of the best stirring tools in your kitchen, by the way!) Dough will be very moist. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Pat dough out with your flour covered fingers into an 8×8-inch square. (Using a bench scraper dipped in flour works great to create straight sides.) Cut the dough into 16 pieces and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet fairly close together.(As the scones bake they will spread into each other.) Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 15 minutes or until firm to the touch. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Whisk about a tablespoon of lime juice with enough powdered sugar to make a semi-stiff frosting that can be drizzled easily. (I make my drizzle in a glass measuring cup with a spout. Makes drizzling frosting easy.) Add more lemon juice and/or powdered sugar if you feel you need more drizzle. Some people like just a tiny amount of drizzling frosting; others want almost all the top covered. Remember, you can always start small and make more drizzle as needed. Allow drizzle to harden before storing the scones in an airtight container.

*To toast coconut, place it on a baking sheet in a single layer. Place pan in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 6-7 minutes or until some of the flakes start to turn a nice golden brown. Watch carefully the last couple of minutes. Cool before adding to recipe.

CRANBERRY ORANGE SCONES

Since I am getting close to the end of my St. Patrick’s Day recipe series, I thought I better include a recipe for scones. Now, to be perfectly honest, I don’t think these scones would actually qualify as Irish. They are just a little too healthy to be categorized as such. But before you abandon this recipe because of what it isn’t, first let me tell you about what it is! First of all, these scones are delicious! When I first bit into one, I thought I might have made a mistake in not using more sugar; that the scones weren’t sweet enough. I also found the scone to be a bit on the heavy side because of the whole wheat flour; not as tender as most of the scones I prepare. But the more I chomped away, the more I began to enjoy actually being able to taste the whole wheat flour and the lovely tartness of the fruit. By the time I had finished my scone, I was hooked. The scone was actually sweet enough and the complimentary tartness of the fruit was refreshing. And because these scones are prepared with less sugar than most, and contain at least some whole wheat flour and fruit (don’t forget we are supposed to eat several servings of fruit a day), they are in general healthier for us than some varieties. And yes I know no scone is the embodiment of nutritional virtue. That’s a given. But some scones are inherently less harmful to our bodies than others. (That’s my justification for eating these scones, and I’m sticking to my guns with reduced capacity ammunition clips on this one!) Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

2 c. whole wheat flour
1 ½ c. unbleached white flour
6 T. sugar
5 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. allspice
10 T. unsalted butter, chilled, cut into pieces
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. diced candied orange peel
2/3 c. half and half
2 T. orange juice
2 large eggs, room temperature
milk
course white sugar, opt.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and allspice. Take about a quarter cup of the flour mixture out and combine it with the dried cranberries and candied orange peel in a separate bowl. Set aside. (Coating sticky fruit with part of the flour in a recipe helps ensure that the fruit doesn’t clump together when you add it to your batter or dough.) Add the cold butter pieces, and using your fingers, rub the mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Stir in the reserved fruit. In a separate bowl, whisk together the half and half, orange juice, and egg. Add the liquids to the flour mixture and stir till the dough just comes together. (I use a plain table knife for this purpose. It does a wonderful job without over-mixing the dough.) Transfer the dough to a thoroughly floured work surface, knead it a couple of times, and shape it into a 9 ½ x 11-inch square. Cut the square into 24 scones. (The best implement for this task is a bench scraper.) Transfer the scones to a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush with milk, and sprinkle with coarse white sugar, if desired. Bake the scones in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until they are a nice golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature unadorned or if you are feeling particularly worthy, with a smearing of unsalted room temperature butter and a dollop of honey. Life is good my friends, life is good!

SODA BREAD

I love quick breads because they are well, quick. (The department of redundancy department is going to love that sentence!) And this lovely bread is my “go to” bread when I don’t have time for a yeast bread to rise. (Darling little yeasty beasties take time to work their magic, after all!) And since you were wondering why that is, I thought I’d offer you a brief explanation of how leavening agents work. (Think of this as really simple baking chemistry 101.) Active Dry Yeast (a living microscopic fungus) is activated by giving it a nice warm bath and then something yummy to eat. (Sounds like the start of my day, but without the coffee!) Yeast works as the leavening in bread dough by eating the sugars (sucrose and fructose) or by converting the starch in flour into sugar. The byproduct of all this sugar being gobbled is CO2. When CO2 is released it is trapped in the bread dough’s elastic web of gluten, in much the same way air is trapped when a balloon is inflated. And although yeasty beasties are hungry little cuties, they can only eat so fast! Thus the time it takes for yeast bread to rise. In this recipe I am using 2 other types of leavening agents, baking soda and baking powder. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is alkaline in nature, and when combined with an acid and a liquid, in this case the acidic buttermilk, it creates carbon dioxide bubbles, giving rise to the dough. Baking powder, which is basically a blend of an acid like sodium acid pyrophosphate and an alkali (sodium bicarbonate – baking soda), produces the same chemical reaction when added to a liquid. Again, carbon dioxide is the byproduct. The interesting part about baking soda when mixed with an acid liquid, and baking powder when mixed with any liquid, is that in both cases, gases begin to be released immediately. (No waiting time required.) And in the case of Double-acting baking powder (which is mostly what you find in your average grocery store), it releases leavening gases on contact with moisture and again during the baking process. A double whammy of leavening action! When a recipe calls for both baking powder and baking soda, like this recipe does, the baking powder does most of the leavening. The baking soda is mainly added to neutralize some of the acid and to help ensure a tender crumb. Note: baking soda and baking powder are not considered interchangeable in a recipe. Bottom line (and what would be on a pop quiz if I were mean enough to give you one): Yeast takes time to release enough gas to raise dough. Baking soda, a simple alkaline, has to be paired with an acidic liquid to begin its task of immediately releasing leavening gases. And baking powder, since it is a combination of both an acid and an alkali just requires liquid to start its gaseous behavior. Whew – that hurt my brain! So now that you know more about leavening agents than you ever wanted to know, give this bread a try. It’s delicious, even if it does contains bicarbonate this and acidic that.

2 c. flour
4 T. sugar + 1 tsp. for sprinkling
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
¾ tsp. baking soda
3 T. cold butter
1 c. buttermilk

Whisk together the flour, 4 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Using your cheese grater, grate the butter on top of the flour mixture. (Butter right out of the refrigerator is at the perfect temperature for grating.) Then using your hands, gently squish the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make a well in the flour and add the buttermilk. Gently mix the buttermilk into the flour. Do not over mix. (I find the best implement for mixing soft, sticky dough like this one is a regular table knife.) Gently scoop the dough into a lightly greased 9-inch cake pan. Don’t bother smoothing out the dough or trying to make it pretty in the pan. As it bakes it will smooth out and look lovely. Sprinkle the dough with the remaining 1 teaspoon sugar. Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the top is brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before transfering to a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

CHALLAH

You might be wondering why I am including a recipe for a type of bread that few people besides the Jewish faithful eat routinely. (Challah is a yeast-risen egg bread that is traditionally eaten by Jewish people on Shabbat (Friday – the Jewish day of rest), on ceremonial occasions and during festival holidays.) Well my dear readers, I am including this recipe for two very good reasons. 1) Challah (pronounced correctly sounds like a soft “k” before halla.) is lovely. Like Brioche, Challah is slightly sweet and quite rich from both eggs and fat. Where Brioche uses butter instead of oil, and more of it, Challah uses more eggs. Both are quite decadent and absolutely delicious. 2) The second reason I decided to include this recipe is because I am going to post my Bread Pudding with Spiced Rum Sauce recipe next. And my bread pudding uses cubed Challah. So I wanted you to know how easy and affordable it is to build before I posted the bread pudding recipe. (Also, Challah can be a little spendy to purchase, not to mention difficult to find.) Remember, I am on your side. If I can help you cut cost while you prepare delicious food at home, I feel I will have justly deserved the very large income I receive for writing this blog!

1 pkg. dry yeast (1 tablespoon)
3 ¾ c. bread flour, divided
¾ c. warm water
3 lg. eggs, room temperature, divided
½ c. vegetable oil
1 ½ tsp. salt
¼ c. sugar
poppy or sesame seeds, opt.

Combine the yeast, 3/4 cup of the bread flour, and the warm water in a large mixing bowl. (I use the bowl of my Kitchen aid mixer.) Let the yeast slurry stand uncovered for 10-20 minutes, or until it begins to ferment and puff up slightly. Add 2 eggs, oil, salt, and sugar into the puffed yeast slurry and beat until the eggs are well incorporated and the salt and sugar have dissolved. Add the remaining 3 cups flour all at once. Knead the dough until smooth and soft. Cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for 2 hours or until doubled in bulk. (The dough can be refrigerated before it has been allowed to rise, but it will take an additional 30 to 60 minutes to rise after you take it out of the refrigerator.) After the dough has doubled, punch it down and divide into 2 pieces. Shape into 2 elongated loaves and place on a lightly buttered baking sheet or parchment paper. (Alternatively, the dough can be divided into three-six equal balls, rolled into skinny strands, and braided for a more traditional appearance.) Beat the remaining egg with a few drops of water and brush the loaves/loaf. Allow the loaves/loaf to rise until doubled. Brush again with any remaining egg wash. Unless you are using the Challah for bread pudding or French toast, sprinkle the braided loaf with seeds before baking in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes or until the loaves/loaf sound hollow when gently tapped. If the Challah is browning too fast, gently tent with aluminum foil. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Note: Challah bread makes incredible French toast. Just dip thick slices of bread in a mixture of eggs, milk, a wee drop of vanilla, and a dash of cinnamon; fry in butter. Serve with warm maple or fruit syrup topped with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream.

REFRIGERATOR WHOLE WHEAT ROLLS AKA HONEY BUNS

One weekend a month Mr. C. and I provide food (or help provide food) for in-home jazz concerts. The first concert of the weekend is at someone else’s home Friday or Saturday night. The second concert of the weekend is at our own home on Sunday. Often the Sunday concerts begin at 2:00pm, preceded by a large lunch at 1:00pm. (By-the-way, for more information on these in-home jazz concerts, please visit www.jazzvox.com.) And most of the time when I do my planning for the Sunday meal, I include some sort of homemade bread. As was the case this past weekend, I was not home at all on Saturday (I absolutely hate it when that happens), so I needed to do as much of the prep work as possible on Thursday and Friday for both the Saturday night concert at our friend’s home, and the Sunday afternoon concert in our home. (Did I not casually mention on an earlier post that I am just ever so slightly out of my flippin mind?) Well keeping that in mind, and knowing that I wanted to serve hearty whole wheat rolls at Sunday’s luncheon, I decided to be brave and mix my dough on Friday, place it in the refrigerator, and bake it off Sunday morning before my guests arrived. (Why I always further stress myself out by not trying my little ideas in advance, I will never know. But luckily for me, the rolls turned out beautifully. One of these days however, that is not going to be the case, and I am going to find myself up that proverbial creek without a KitchenAid paddle!) But like I stated, the rolls worked. I did get a bit of a shock however when I removed the plastic wrap Sunday morning and got a whiff of the dough. It smelled fermented. I think it’s because the dough contained buttermilk. That and the fact that I had used locally grown and milled organic whole wheat flour, with nary a trace of anything in it that I couldn’t pronounce. (I always try to stay away from products that contain words in the ingredient list with more than 16 letters or that require a degree in chemistry to decipher!) So between the buttermilk and the whole wheat flour that contained no preservatives or additives, I think we had a little party happening right there in my very own refrigerator. Whatever happened, the result was fabulous. So next time you know you are going to be short on time but would still like to serve homemade rolls, make room in your refrigerator and try this recipe. Your dough may not start to party in your refrigerator like mine did, but when you bite into one of these rolls, your taste buds will feel like it’s party time for them!

1/2 c. warm water
2 T. active dry yeast (or 2 packages)
1/2 c. honey
1 ½ tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter, room temperature
3 eggs, room temperature
1 c. buttermilk or milk, room temperature
4 c. course or stone ground whole wheat flour
unbleached white flour
1 T. olive oil
kosher salt or course sea salt for sprinkling

Place warm water in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer. Add yeast, honey, salt, butter, eggs, and buttermilk. Mix just until blended. Let rest (proof) for 5 minutes. Add the 4 cups of whole wheat flour and mix thoroughly. Knead dough for 15 minutes by hand or a few minutes by machine, adding white flour as needed to prevent sticking or until dough no longer sticks to the bottom of the mixing bowl. (Don’t add too much flour at this point. You want a fairly soft dough for this recipe.) When fully kneaded, pour the olive oil into the bowl, and using your hands, pull dough away from the sides and bottom of the bowl until dough is in a ball and all sides are greased. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled or place in refrigerator for up to two days. When ready to bake, punch down the dough and form into 28 balls of equal size. (The easiest way to divide dough into equal parts is to roll it first into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Then cut the dough by either using a bench scraper (my choice) or a buttered knife into the desired number of equal sized pieces.) With your hands, roll each piece of dough into a ball and place in a buttered 10×16-inch baking dish. The pieces should be close to each other, but just not quite touching. If, while placing the dough balls in the pan you find you have extra dough, form it into a loaf and place in an appropriate sized buttered loaf pan. Sprinkle each roll with a tiny bit of course salt. Cover pan with a tea towel and let rise in a warm place until about doubled (about an hour) or up to 2 hours if the dough has just come out of the refrigerator. Tip: When the rolls are ready to be baked they will look soft and bloated. When you touch the dough, it will feel soft and your finger will leave an indentation when the dough is lightly pressed. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

FOCACCIA

Focaccia is a flat Italian yeast bread that is easy to make and absolutely delicious. And even if you’ve been baking bread for as long as I have, I’m sure you will love the ease with which this bread goes together. First of all, there are only 6 ingredients in the dough! What’s not to love about that? And none of those 6 ingredients is exotic, expensive, or hard to find. (I’ll get to the fleur de sel part a little later. For now, let’s just bask in the relative inexpensive merits of the recipe thus far!) In addition to being very easy to prepare, a rustic appearance is almost mandatory. In other words, no presentation points are awarded for straight lines, in fact demerits are given if the bread looks too perfect! But the best reason to bake Focaccia is still its’ lovely flavor and the fact that this soft thin bread is exceptionally versatile. Obviously Focaccia is great served as part of an Italian dinner. But straight out of the oven, sliced in fairly small pieces, Focaccia is also a fabulous appetizer. Serve it with a small bowl of dunking oil (extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, chopped garlic and parsley, kosher salt, and pepper) and your guests will be very happy with you. But in my opinion Focaccia is at its best when used to sop up recalcitrant sauces that take little walk-abouts on your plate. (Some people are fussy about different foods “touching”, and this bread is a life saver in that regard.) Focaccia is also delicious dunked in thick soups and stews and as a mop for those last little bits left on the sides of your bowl or on your plate. (It is ever so much more socially acceptable to use a piece of bread as a mop than say licking your bowl or plate or using your finger. I’ve seen both done, believe me. Remember those 4 kids I mentioned earlier in my blog?) And speaking of earlier, I did mention I would talk about fleur de sel.

According to Wikipedia, fleur de sel (flower of salt) is a hand-harvested sea salt collected by scraping only the top layer of salt before it sinks to the bottom of large salt pans. Traditional French fleur de sel is collected off the coast of Brittany, most notably in the town of Guerande. Due to its relative scarcity and its labor-intensive production, fleur de sel is one of the more expensive salts. Although I love to use fleur de sel on this bread, it is definitely not necessary. Kosher salt and a less precocious sea salt are perfectly acceptable substitutes. Just remember not to use too much. There is already ample salt in the bread dough itself.

1 1/3 c. warm water
1 T. or 1 pkg. active dry yeast
2 tsp. sugar
1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil, divided + more for pouring over the dough
3 1/2 c. flour
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
fleur de sel, large crystal sea salt, or kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Pour water into a mixing bowl, sprinkle with yeast, and stir in sugar, salt, and ¼ cup of the olive oil. Let rest (proof) for 5 minutes. Add 3 cups flour and knead for 4-5 minutes adding flour as needed to make a smooth and soft dough. Round dough up in the bowl, pour a little olive oil over the top, and turn dough with your hands (the best tool in your kitchen, by the way) until the entire surface is coated. Cover with a tea towel and let rest for an hour. Pour about a tablespoon of the remaining olive oil on a rimmed baking sheet. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on the greased baking sheet. Pat dough out until it is about ½-inch thick. (Remember, it should not be a perfect rectangle.) Poke holes all over the surface. Slather enough of the remaining olive oil over the dough to completely cover the surface. Sprinkle with chopped garlic, rosemary, salt of choice, and a couple of grinds of black pepper (not too much). Let rest for about 30 minutes. Bake in a pre-heated 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let bread stay in pan for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Try adding kalamata olives, onion, sun-dried tomatoes, or Italian seasoning to the dough for a nice flavor surprise. (Add along with the flour.) Serve Focaccia warm or at room temperature.

PICNIC BUNS

There are just some recipes that bring back memories that make you feel good. This recipe and this way of shaping dinner rolls (my grandmother always called them picnic buns) take me back to my childhood. I grew up on 2 ½ acres in Kenmore, Washington. There were two homes on this parcel of land. One home was occupied by my dad, mom, two younger brothers and me; the second residence belonged to my maternal grandfather and grandmother. We had fruit trees, various types of berries, a couple of cows, a lot of chickens (my grandfather sold eggs for a living), a creek, a copse of trees, and the biggest vegetable garden you could ever imagine. My mom, the dear woman, could not find her way out of a recipe if her life depended on it (in other words, she was not a good cook). And my grandmother, who on a regular basis could not make jello, did make two types of food that were sensational. She made the best bread and pies imaginable. Why she could bake a pie that tasted like heaven and cookies that were almost unpalatable will forever remain a mystery? But her Banana Split Pie and Mince Meat Pie were heaven sent. Also, any kind of bread she baked was perfect in every respect. So in memory of my grandmother, who was patient, loving, taught me to appreciate art, kittens, clouds, and how to bake bread, I offer you her signature rolls. I hope this recipe brings back good memories of special food you too once shared with loved ones.

¼ c. warm water
1 T. or 1 pkg. active dry yeast
¾c. warm, scalded milk (not too warm or your yeasty beasties won’t be happy)
¼ c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 egg, room temperature
¼ c. Crisco (sometimes I use butter – sorry grandma)
3 ½ c. or more flour
Vegetable oil

In a large mixing bowl, (I use the bowl of my Kitchen Aid mixer), combine the water, yeast, milk, sugar, salt, egg, and Crisco. Let proof for about 10 minutes. Add 2 cups of the flour and mix thoroughly. Add enough remaining flour to form a medium stiff dough. Pour about a teaspoon of oil over the dough and roll into a ball. When dough ball is completely greased, cover the mixer bowl with a tea towel, let rise for about 90 minutes or until doubled. Punch down and let rise again until doubled, about 30 minutes. Butter a 9×13-inch pan. Punch down dough again and divide into 18 pieces. (I just squeeze off small balls of dough as I place them into the prepared pan.) Cover with a tea towel again, and let rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until a nice golden brown. Serve warm.

BEER BREAD

Every time I make this bread I am transported back to when my children were young and weekend dinners with our extended family were very common. None of us had very sophisticated tastes in those days, mainly because things were quite different in the 70s and early 80s, than they are today. There were no micro breweries, or wine tasting rooms (“good” wine came in boxes), or fresh herbs in every grocery store, or the Food Network……the list goes on and on. We felt lucky if we had a good meat market or seafood store in our vicinity! Times and food were just simpler then. It was very common in those days for one of the couples to call, even as late as a Saturday morning, for an impromptu dinner that evening. The hostess would usually prepare something like spaghetti or chili and the rest of us would bring beer or wine. There were no fancy appetizers or drinks, just lots of good food that we knew everyone would enjoy. There were always at least 2 generations at every meal, and never less than three dogs. The kids would join in the adult conversations or play games or watch TV, while the parents and often grandparents shared stories about their week, the state of the union, sporting events, etc. I often spearheaded these get-togethers, and when I did I would usually bake bread to go with the meal. And when I made this bread recipe, my son Sven would fill up on bread and ignore most of the rest of the meal. (Oh, he always saved room for dessert however, being the intelligent lad that he was.) What fun we had at those dinner parties. All the noise, confusion, and mess with never one argument or shedding of tears (among the adults that is). Just evenings spent with the best and dearest of friends eating, drinking and enjoying each other’s company.

12-oz. bottle of beer (I like Alaskan Amber)
¼ c. water
2 tsp. kosher salt
2 T. sugar
2 T. butter
2 T. yeast (or 2 pkgs.)
5 c. flour
cornmeal

Heat beer, water, salt, sugar, and butter until very warm. Pour into the bowl of your stand mixer. Allow to cool to proper temperature for yeast to be added, about 105 degrees F. Add yeast; allow liquid mixture to sit (proof) for about 5 minutes. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough. Knead for about 5 minutes. Cover and allow dough to rise until doubled, about 45 minutes; punch down. Let rest 15 minutes. Shape in 2 long rolls on cornmeal covered pan. Let rest another 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place a rimmed baking sheet on the bottom rack in your oven. When the oven is hot and the bread is risen and ready to be baked, being very careful not to burn yourself, pour two cups of very hot water in the pan in the oven. Quickly close the oven door to capture the steam. Next, place bread in oven on a rack above the pan containing the steaming water. Bake for about 25 minutes or until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when lightly tapped. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.

CHEZ CARR CUISINE

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