Monthly Archives: April 2009

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

baking, breakfast 16 Comments

This. Is. Heavenly. This is without a doubt the softest, best-tasting bread that has ever come out of my oven. And part of it is whole wheat! I was a little intimidated by the recipe, never having attempted such a thing, but it came out great. I’ve been having this with my coffee every morning, and I can’t WAIT to make french toast with it! This is adapted just a bit from the King Arthur flour recipe.

You will need for the bread:

  • 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 7-9 ounces lukewarm water (use more or less depending on humidity where you are)
  • 4 ounces KAF white whole wheat flour
  • 8 3/4 ounces KAF all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/4 ounces sugar
  • 3 ounces butter at room temperature
  • 5/8 ounce dry milk
  • 1 1/2 ounces instant mashed potato flakes

You will need for the filing:

  • 1 3/4 ounces sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons AP flour
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tablespoon water

Now put it all together:

  1. If you’re using anything other than instant yeast, dissolve the yeast with a pinch of sugar in 2 Tbsp. of your lukewarm water; I use instant yeast, so I skip this step
  2. Mix instant yeast (or dissolved yeast) with the rest of the bread ingredients. Knead everything together until dough is smooth. I plop it all in the bread machine set to the dough cycle. Easy! If you knead with a stand mixer, knead for about seven minutes on the second speed; it’s okay if it sticks at the bottom of the bowl a bit. We don’t want dry bread!
  3. If you’re using a bread machine, let the dough cycle run all the way through the first rise. If you’re hand- or mixer-kneading, put the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover it with a tea towel. Let the dough rise at room temperature till it’s almost doubled in bulk — about an hour, but may take longer if you hand-kneaded
  4. While the dough is rising, use a fork to mix together the sugar, cinnamon and flour for the filling mix
  5. After it’s risen till it’s nice and puffy, move the dough to a lightly greased work surface or a silicone mat and pat the dough into a 6″ x 20″ rectangle
  6. Beat together the egg and water, and brush it onto the rectangle
  7. Sprinkle the cinnamon/flour/sugar mix evenly over the dough
  8. Starting with a short end, roll the dough into a log, and pinch to seal at the ends and along the seam
  9. Put the bread, seam-down, into a greased loaf pan and cover with greased plastic wrap
  10. Let it rise till it’s just above the rim of the pan while you’re preheating your oven to 350F
  11. Bake the bread for 15 minutes, then tent lightly with aluminum foil
  12. Bake for an additional 30 minutes or so, until inside of loaf reads 190 degrees
  13. Loosen sides of pan with a knife if needed, and turn bread onto a rack. Brush the top of the loaf with butter and let that soak in while the bread cools. Then slice and enjoy!

Chicken Pot Pie

slow cooker, supper 7 Comments

This is one of my top three comfort food meals — the other two being chicken and dumplings and macaroni and cheese. Mmmmm…. Anyway, this cooks up beautifully, travels well, freezes well and reheats well. What more could you ask?

There are three main parts to this dish: the chicken, the pie crust, and the sauce.

Let’s start with the chicken.

You will need:

  • Three boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • A few stalks of celery if they’re just lying around
  • Salt, pepper, onion or onion powder

I do this part in a slow cooker the night before; you can also just boil the chicken the same day if you’re in more of a hurry.

  1. The night before you’re going to to eat half a chicken pot pie serve this for supper, put the chicken breasts in the crock pot with a few stalks of celery, some salt and pepper, an onion if you have it (or onion powder on the chicken) and fill it up with water.  Let it cook on low overnight
  2. The next morning, put the chicken on a plate and let it cool, then refrigerate
  3. Strain the chicken broth that’s now filling your crockpot and save one cup of it for this recipe. Refrigerate or freeze the rest

Now the pie crust (modified from Alton Brown’s recipe). You will need:

  • 6 Tbsp. butter, chilled
  • 2 Tbsp. shortening or lard, chilled
  • 1 cup AP flour + more for dusting
  • 1 Tbsp. water
  • 1-2 Tbsp. vodka (yes, really; here‘s why)

In a perfect world, you’ll also have this nifty pie crust bag, which makes everything a little easier. Now:

  1. Chop butter and shortening or lard into little pieces, and put them in two separate bowls in the freezer for 15 minutes
  2. Measure out 1 cup (or 6 oz.) flour and put it in the freezer too
  3. When everything is chilled, put the flour and 1/2 tsp table salt into the food processor and pulse three or four times to combine
  4. Add butter and pulse till texture looks mealy; this took me about 6 or 7 pulses
  5. Add lard and pulse another 4 or 5 times
  6. Slowly drizzle in one tablespoon of water, dispersing as much as possible, and pulse 5 times
  7. Slowly drizzle in one tablespoon of vodka and pulse again
  8. Check it at this point. If you squeeze the  mixture together does it hold? If not, add more vodka. If so, it’s ready. It will not immediately look like pie crust, even when it’s ready; it will look like this:

Now put it in your nifty pie crust bag or a zip-top bag, squeeze it all together in a ball, then press into a rounded disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

While that’s chilling, we’ll work on the white sauce. You will need:

  • 3 Tbsp. butter
  • 6 Tbsp flour
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup chicken broth (which you ever so prudently reserved from your earlier chicken cooking)

To make sauce:

  1. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat
  2. Whisk in flour and keep whisking until your sauce is smooth and bubbling
  3. Remove the pan from heat and slowly pour in the chicken broth and milk, a little at a time, whisking like a crazy person to keep it smooth
  4. Return the pan to the burner and bring to a simmer
  5. Cook, stirring insanely often, until it thickens up. Add salt and pepper to taste (plenty of it for this, I think)
  6. Once it’s nice and thick, set it back off the burner

Now assemble your pie!

  1. In a food processor or by hand, shred or chop your cold chicken breasts into pretty small pieces
  2. In a large bowl, stir together your white sauce, your chopped chicken and one bag of frozen mixed vegetables (still frozen — easy!)
  3. Remove pie dough from refrigerator and roll out two crusts (see Alton’s recipe for lots of technique info, but we’re not blind baking ours)
  4. Put one crust in an ungreased pie plate and spread in your sauce/chicken/veggie mixture. See how pretty it is?
  5. Put on your top crust. I actually don’t put it all the way to the edges because I like it to have lots of steaming room. Also cut vents in the top of your crust, like so:
  6. Just in case, put your pie plate on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Foil is easier to clean than the bottom of your oven
  7. Bake at 375 until top is browned — remember everything in it is cooked, so you’re just heating. Let sit for a good 15 minutes to cool before you cut into it. Then go nuts!

Your total ingredient list for this pie:

  • Three boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • Celery, onion (optional)
  • Salt, pepper, onion powder
  • 6 Tbsp. + 3 Tbsp. butter, chilled
  • 2 Tbsp. shortening or lard, chilled
  • 1 cup AP flour + 6 Tbsp + more for dusting
  • 1 Tbsp. water
  • 1-2 Tbsp. vodka
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1 bag frozen, mixed veggies

Ways to shortcut this recipe:

  • Buy a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and shred the meat from there
  • Use rolled, refrigerated pie crust
  • Use two cans of cream of chicken soup instead of the white sauce

Guinness Cupcakes

baking, dessert, tools 7 Comments

You know this is going to be good, don’t you?

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and LovesToEat.

You will need:

  • 1 cup Guinness beer
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2/3 cup sour cream

Now:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F
  2. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners
  3. In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, melt 1 cup of butter and pour in 1 cup  Guinness; bring to a simmer then whisk in cocoa powder till smooth. Set pan off the burner
  4. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl to blend
  5. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl
  6. Add slightly-cooled stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture a little bit at a time and beat just to combine
  7. Add flour mixture and beat on slow speed for about one minute
  8. Using rubber spatula, scrape down bowl and fold batter until completely combined
  9. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way
  10. Bake until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean — this took me about 20 minutes, but check after 15 just to be sure
  11. Put cupcakes on a rack until completely cooled

Now is a good time to revisit my previously mentioned lesson: Know Your Bakeware. I cooked 12 of these in my silicone Kitchenaid muffin pan; it was a wedding present and has never failed me. I also cooked 12 of these in my heart shaped stand-alone silicone muffin cups from Wilton. Although these worked beautifully for the cherry limeade cupcakes, something went horribly wrong here. See?

Lovely, right? I honestly have no idea what happened here. I used a scoop, so they were all filled with the same amount of batter. Any ideas? The only thing I did differently this time was to put paper liners in the silicone cups. Anyway, the good news is that all but four of them were salvageable with a little cleanup and a good cover of icing.

Speaking of icing! I used Wilton’s buttercream icing.

You will need:

  • 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract (I don’t use the Wilton-recommended clear, just the regular stuff)
  • 4 cups sifted* powdered sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
  • 2 tablespoons milk

*A note on sifting: I hate sifting. So I don’t do it. A few seconds whirring around in the food processor breaks up any clumps, aerates the sugar and doesn’t make me want to spork my eyeballs out the way a sifter does.

To mix it up:

  1. In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer
  2. Add vanilla and mix again
  3. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating well on medium speed — adding it gradually helps incorporate it really well and keep it from being at all grainy when you’re done
  4. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often (unless you have a cool Beater Blade. Which I don’t. Humph.)
  5. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

Now ice away to your heart’s content! I used disposable icing bags from Wilton, and a fantastic giant star tip I ordered on Etsy from Bake It Pretty. And it is giant. Here it is next to a 1-cup measuring cup:

So, the finished product:

I set aside a few of these (including the four Fail Cupcakes) for us to enjoy at home, and the rest I took to The Yankee at work today in my awesome carrier from Costco:

And that’s it! Go bake, people! Oh, unless you have a brilliant theory as to what caused Cupcake Fail, in which case please leave me a comment and then go bake.

Chicken broth

slow cooker, soup, supper 6 Comments

Remember when we made the French chicken and I told you to hold onto the gizzards from the chicken? Here’s why:

Throw them in a pot or slow cooker. Or a pressure cooker! Whatever floats your boat. Now throw in half an onion and a couple stalks of celery. If you have some carrots or a bay leaf, go crazy — throw ’em in.  Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the whole mess. Now fill with water, turn it on low, and walk away. For about 12 hours.

When it’s done simmering, strain it through a mesh strainer, drain off any excess fat (although there won’t be much from just the gizzards), and store it however you see fit. I usually put a quart in a Mason jar in the fridge, then put quarts of it in freezer bags in the deep freeze so I have it on hand.

Now after you’re done with your French chicken and you’ve had supper and sandwiches with the meat? You guessed it. Throw the chicken bones (“bones” sounds prettier than “carcass” does it not?) in a pot with the other half of your onion, and whatever combination of celery, carrots, bay leaves, salt, pepper, etc. you arrived at earlier. Fill the pot with water and repeat the process. Then shake your head at yourself that you ever spent $4/quart on the store-bought stuff, which isn’t nearly as good as yours is anyway.

And now that you have all this yummy chicken broth on hand, you have no excuse for not making risotto! Or, as I like to call it, Chicken Broth’s Best Reason For Existence.

French Chicken in a Pot

supper 3 Comments

This is another one of those recipes with a fuzzy background; I’m not sure where it originated (maybe Cook’s Illustrated?), but I can tell you where it ended up: in mah belly!

I use my gigantosaurus 6.75 quart Le Creuset. It’s almost a crime to own such a pot and not cook this chicken in it. It’s that good. Also, it’s one of those meals that has very little hands-on time, but looks really impressive in the end. I love that!

You will need:

  • One whole chicken, giblets removed (but save them — here’s why)
  • Half an onion
  • A stalk or two of celery
  • Olive oil for pan-frying
  • Kosher salt and ground black pepper
  • Fresh garlic – I used jarred (gasp!)
  • 1 tsp lemon juice

Now:

  1. Put an oven rack to the lowest position and preheat your oven to 250 F
  2. In a food processor or by hand, chop your onion and celery — size doesn’t really matter — and add in the garlic
  3. Unwrap and pat the chicken dry with paper towels
  4. Heat a couple Tbsp. of olive oil in your dutch oven till hot, then ease in the chicken, breast side down, watching for splattering oil
  5. Sprinkle in your onion/celery/garlic mix along with some salt and pepper on and around the chicken
  6. Cook until the chicken is lightly browned (about 5 minutes), then stick a wooden spoon in the chicken and flip it over, breast side up
  7. Repeat browning on the other side
  8. Remove the pot from the heat, then cover with foil then the lid (we’re going for a mega-seal here)
  9. Now slide the pot into the oven and cook until breast registers 160 and thickest part of the thigh registers 175; this took me nearly two hours, for a 5.5 lb bird. If you’re using a smaller chicken (say around four pounds), check after an hour. A medium size one (up to five pounds or so) will be somewhere around 90 minutes, but always check the temp to be sure
  10. Transfer the chicken to a carving board, tent it with foil and let it rest for 20 minutes

While the bird is resting (because, let’s face it, it’s had a hard day), you can make up some gravy:

  1. Strain the pot juices through a strainer or cheesecloth into a fat separator; you can throw away the onion/celery/garlic now
  2. Let that sit about 5 minutes to let the fat separate, then pour the juice into a saucepan — ideally you’ll have about 3/4 cup of juices
  3. Add about 1 tsp. lemon juice to the pan and simmer while The Yankee carves the chicken (have I mentioned how handy it is to have a husband who used to be a butcher?)
  4. Serve the gravy/sauce with the chicken. You can also thicken it with a bit of cornstarch* if you’re so inclined.

I served this with roasted broccoli and — what else — artisan bread.

Finally: stick the chicken giblets, the other half of the onion and a couple celery stalks in a bag or container and stash them in the fridge or freezer. Homemade chicken stock to come!

*Cornstarch now always makes me think of Eugene on Top Chef protesting, “Loooootts of housewives use cornstarch!” And I do, Eugene. 😉