I Spy a Pizza Pie

Okay, so after an inexcusably long break from this blogging business, I'm back! A couple of updates from the past few months:

-I graduated (yay!) and moved away from New York City (boo.)
-I had to fortune of dining at Per Se. A culinary dream come true. 

Behind the scenes. There's a live feed to the French Laundry on that TV screen.

-This post was Certified Yummly
-There's a new resident in my kitchen. It's pretty and shiny. Look! 

This has been on my wishlist for quite a long time but my trusty hand mixer has proven itself to be the little mixer that could so I never really needed a stand mixer. I still use it often since sometimes bigger is not necessarily better (like stove top mixing for hollandaise sauce? More on that in a later post...) However, its bigger, more powerful sibling makes baking as easy... as pizza pie. 

If you're a pizza aficionado, there are a few extra steps you can take to make a stellar pizza. The dough can be made with a special flour and the pizza can be baked on a pizza stone in a blistering hot oven. I don't make pizza often though, so bread flour and a plain ol' pizza pan on the bottom rack of my oven will do. I made half barbeque chicken (barbeque sauce+grilled chicken+caramelized onions+mozzarella) and half margherita (tomato sauce+fresh basil+mozzarella). 

Tips and recipe after the jump...

Really Short and Sweet: Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of those favourite and easy recipes that I keep going back to time and time again. I think there's something about the scent of bananas that boosts the butteriness of this quick bread and makes it so irresistible. It's completely delicious on its own, but this "deluxe" one is packed with chocolate chunks and walnuts too, just for extra oomph.

(Recipe after the jump)

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

I want a sandwich... and as delicious as that bread was, a BLT on brown sugar raisin bread just won't fly. Which is why it's time to make some good whole wheat bread.

The old recipe I used to use called for the dough to be shaped into a round and baked on a baking sheet. The resulting loaf was dense (or I guess you could call it "rustic") and it was awkward to slice and fit into a toaster. So off I went to find a new recipe.

When there seems to be a thousand recipes floating around out there for the same thing, I often turn to allrecipes.com. Plugging in "whole wheat bread" into their search yielded 83 recipes. This 5-star "Simple Whole Wheat Bread" was rated 414 times. I had to try it, of course.

The results are a big improvement over the old doorstop of a loaf I used to make. Brushing the top with melted butter before and after baking creates a pillow-soft crust, rather than the crisp shiny one an egg wash creates. The bread smelled like warm honey and butter when it came out of the oven and had a mildly sweet flavour. Delish. I added some sunflower seeds to it, but I like my bread "seedier" so there's room for improvement next time. I'd probably also let it rise longer for a lighter texture. But for now, please excuse me. My ham and swiss on whole wheat is calling.

Simple Whole Wheat Bread

Yield: 3 loaves

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup honey
• 5 cups bread flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 1/3 cup honey. Add 5 cups white bread flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.
2. Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1/3 cup honey, and salt. Stir in 2 cups whole wheat flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky - just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch. This may take an additional 2 to 4 cups of whole wheat flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.
3. Punch down, and divide into 3 loaves. Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes; do not overbake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely.

Recipe from allrecipes.com (Nita Crabb)

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The Breakfast Club: Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I was in a bread baking mood today so I decided to make this loaf of cinnamon-swirled goodness. It's a cross between raisin bread and cinnamon buns. The dough is leaner than a typical sweet dough recipe because it uses less butter and sugar, which I like because it makes eating one or two thick slices of this for breakfast a little more sensible. It's absolutely divine toasted and buttered up, or even better, spread with some cream cheese.

I kneaded the dough by hand since I'm not prepared to fry the motor of the electric mixer. It takes about 15 minutes to work in enough flour to develop the gluten in the dough. You can tell you're done kneading with the "windowpane test": take a small piece of dough and stretch it out. If you can stretch it into a thin, translucent "window" without the dough tearing, you're good to go. 15 minutes of kneading is a lengthy arm workout, but it's totally worth it.

The recipe makes two BIG loaves, but I made cinnamon buns with half of the dough. Those were consumed straight out of the oven. Unfortunately, no physical or photographic evidence remains.

Brown Sugar Raisin Bread:

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. active dry yeast

3 Tbs. granulated sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water (105° to 115°F)

1 cup warm milk (105° to 115°F)

3 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted

1 Tbs. salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

6 to 6 1/4 cups bread flour, plus more
as needed

3/4 cup golden raisins

3/4 cup dark raisins

For the filling:

2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
mixed with 4 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

In a bowl, sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of the granulated sugar over 1⁄2 cup of the water and stir to dissolve. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the remaining 3/4 cup water, the milk, butter, the remaining granulated sugar, salt, egg and 2 cups of the flour. Beat on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the yeast mixture and 1⁄2 cup of the flour and beat for 1 minute. Add the raisins, then beat in the remaining flour, 1⁄2 cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Switch to the dough hook. Knead on medium-low speed, adding flour 1 Tbs. at a time if the dough sticks, until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes. Transfer the dough to a greased deep bowl and turn to coat it. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1⁄2 hours.

Lightly grease two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Divide the dough in half and roll or pat each half into an 8-by-12-inch rectangle. Lightly sprinkle each rectangle with half of the filling, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. Beginning at a narrow end, tightly roll up each rectangle into a compact log. Pinch the ends and the long seam to seal in the filling. Place each log, seam side down, in a prepared pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until the dough is about 1 inch above the rim of each pan, 1 to 1 1⁄2 hours.

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Bake until the loaves are golden brown and pull away from the sides of the pan, 35 to 40 minutes. Turn the loaves out onto wire racks and let cool completely. Makes two 9-by-5-inch loaves.

Adapted from Williams Sonoma-Bread

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