Honey Honey - Citrus & Honey Rolls

Citrus & Honey Rolls

Honey. Aw Sugar, Sugar.

"Like the summer sunshine, pour your sweetness over me."

I'm jonesing hard for some spring/summer weather after the longest winter ever. I decided to make a recipe using some of my favorite spring flavors, lemons & honey! (I'm not sure if those are traditionally spring flavors, but I was inspired so I went with it.)

I created this recipe from scratch! And it's dairy-free!

INGREDIENTS

2 tsp active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 tsp raw sugar

zest of 1 lemon

zest of 1 orange

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup light olive oil

1/4 cup honey

1/8 tsp kosher salt

2 scant cups bread flour (plus extra for dusting)

Combine yeast, 1/4 cup warm water & raw sugar in a large bowl to activate yeast. Leave for 5-10 minutes.

Whisk together lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, olive oil & honey in a small bowl.

Add flour and salt to yeast, mixing slightly, then add liquid ingredients.

Mix by hand, forming dough into a ball.

Knead in bowl for 5 minutes.

Let rise for 1 hour in a warm place.

Separate dough into 8 even pieces.

Dust countertop with flour & roll each  piece into a snake (you know, like you did with play-doh) then twist into knots by crossing the ends and fitting one end through the center hole.

Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and let rise for 1 hour.

Pre-heat oven to 400°F.

Bake at 400° for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool slightly. Serve warm.

I ate mine with Earth Balance soy butter. It was delicious. (Though I might have needed a little more salt in the dough.)

It's Like A Cranberry Christmas (New England Cranberry Duff)

I'M BACK!!!

Just before Christmas and I've been trying out some recipes for my family Christmas. I can't wait to see them and have a lovely little North Carolina Christmas.

I've been craving cranberries since Thanksgiving so bought a bag recently. Then I went in search of a recipe for them. Here's the first of 2 I tried: New England Cranberry Duff. Thanks, Martha!

I did change the recipe a little (of course I did). I subbed Earth Balance Original for unsalted butter and since it is pretty salty I used a little less salt than called for.

Cranberry Duff, as it turns out, is an upside down cake so there were a few moments of worry when I attempted to flip my beautiful smelling dessert.

Pre-flip

Post-flip

It got a little stuck, but for the most part remained intact. I was a little worried when I had to stand over it for about 4 minutes waiting for it to separate from the baking dish.

So it smelled great and since the recipe said to serve warm, I dove in. It tasted great! A little sweet for me (I'm guessing because of the sugar sprinkled over the cranberries and pecans before the batter) but I'm betting people with a sweet tooth would be pretty darn happy with it.

I'm making this for my family next week and I think I'll use more cranberries so that it looks more like Martha's (and because I love cranberries) and lighten up a little on the sugar. Luckily, my family are used to being my test subjects.

After a stressful year, I'm just going to be happy to spend time with loved ones.

Baking with Style

I've missed baking something fierce lately, but unfortunately it's too hot to bake in my apartment in the summer and now that winter is coming, I'm moving. I'm still hoping to get a few loaves in before I move, but until then I have found this fun baking video. Just imagine that I look this cool when I'm baking.

Links to my genius!

I named someone else's cake!

My favorite blog posted a really awesome looking cake and I commented on the post. My comment became the new name of the cake!

Here's the link to the cake! P.S. I love this whole blog! Basically, this is my baking inspiration.

Angry Banana Cake

Banana Bread Caramel Cream Layer Cake (AKA the angry banana cake)

Scroll through the comments to see my genius!

Now for what I baked this week...

Pumpkin Muffins for my friend who helped me get to class since I broke my foot a week and a half ago.

Here's my original pumpkin muffin post:

Pumpkin Muffins

I tweaked the original recipe a little, of course. I used raw sugar and still used 1/2 cup less of it. I used no chocolate chips this time.

I have no pictures of these muffins, but I have this picture for you:


Funny Animals

And just FYI, remember to buy everything you need for a recipe before you start. It turns out that I didn't have toothpicks for testing doneness and kind of over-baked the muffins. They still tasted good but they could've been better.

Cinnamon Raisin Scones in the Big City

2 weeks in Chicago!

I baked something last week. But the lack of internet access in my apartment has caused me to be a little less connected than usual. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing...Anyway...

Cinnamon Raisin Whole-Wheat Scones

I tweaked a Paul Hollywood recipe for this one because I didn't want anything too challenging for my first attempt at baking in a gas oven.

I used his Whole-Wheat Scone recipe from 100 Great Breads. I used Earth Balance instead of butter because I don't really buy butter unless I'm making some kind of French pasty where I think butter is necessary, but I digress. I also added a half tablespoon of cinnamon and the suggested amount of golden raisins (PH has that as an option alongside the recipe). I used raw sugar instead of superfine, which may have caused them to turn out a little less sweet. Also I used 1 and 1/2 large eggs because that's what I had (instead of 2 medium), but it was still a little too wet so I ended up adding quite a bit of flour to keep from having baked pancakes (ew).

The oven time thing was a concern for me (and rightly so) since a friend had told me before I moved that gas ovens don't heat as evenly as electric, so I kept a close eye on the scones while they were in the oven. I may have actually taken them out a little early, but I was scared of burning them. They were bouncy when they came out, and more bouncy the next day (instead of brick-like as my scones have tended to be on the 2nd or 3rd day in the past). Bouncy is the best word I could come up with to describe the texture. They didn't taste weird at all, except that they were a little less sweet than I would have liked.

But enough with the talk...here's what they looked like...

A little paler than I would like even though I sprinkled them with raw sugar right before going in the oven...I think I have to be a little less cautious with oven times in the future.

Also, in reference to the awesome picture at the top of this post...it's not mine. I haven't made it that far downtown yet. Maybe I'll make it before the snows start.

Love and carbs to all!

More Bread to Come

Hi there Bread Heads! Sorry I've been AWOL lately. Been very busy moving. Arrived in Chicago yesterday to start my new life as a grad student. Will be posting some new breads ASAP. Well, as soon as I get internet access (so ASAIGIA).

Love and loaves,

K

Focaccia? Yeah! Peppers? Oh Yeah!

Focaccia with Tomatoes, Garlic, Mushrooms and Roasted Red Peppers

Try saying that 5 times fast.

I found some really great local red peppers the other day and couldn't think of a meal to make with them so I made bread! If you make this bread you'll want to share it. It's that good. (If I do say so myself).

I created my own recipe based on Paul Hollywood's Focaccia Pugliese with Tomatoes and Garlic.

Ingredients

4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1/3 cup olive oil

scant 4 cups white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

1 tablespoon salt (I used kosher, but any will do)

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon dry active yeast (activated per package instructions)

1 cup water

salt water made from 1 1/2 tablespoons salt (kosher, again) dissolved in scant 1/2 cup warm water

1 roma tomato, thinly sliced

1/8 cup chopped roasted red pepper*

2-3 baby portabella mushrooms, thinly sliced

Add garlic to the olive oil, let infuse while preparing the dough.

Put flour, salt yeast, half the infused oil (leaving the garlic in the remaining oil) and all the water in a large bowl and mix for 4 minutes (it will look kind of piecey). Tip out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for 6 minutes, return to bowl and let rest for 1 hour.

Line a baking sheet. Roll dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Place on baking sheet. Brush lightly with salt water mix, then the remaining oil. Prick the bread all over with a knife and place tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms on top. Let rise for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 425°. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Eat warm.

*Making your own roasted peppers is super easy! Place your washed and dried pepper on a baking sheet in a 500° oven for about 30-40 minutes turning every 5-10 minutes to blacken the outside (it doesn't need to be completely black). If the pepper pierces when to try to rotate it it's probably done. Remove pepper and place in aluminum foil until cool enough to handle. The skin should just fall off. Slice it open and remove the seeds. You can chop it or not but to store put the pepper in an air tight container and drizzle with olive oil. Yay Peppers!

Serve it with a salad for a light meal!

This bread was soooo good! Make it and try it yourself and if you like it "give it away".

P.S. I've been very busy lately getting ready for grad school and a big move to Chicago.