40 minute buns rock!

Just a quick post to give a mention for these great 40 minute hamburger buns. I started making them 5:30 and they were ready at 6:30. I did let them rise for more than the 10 minutes suggested. And they were huge for our tiny burger patties, haha! I usually make really big patties too. Oh well!

These are so soft and delicious you just want to gobble them up with out the burger! Definitely try this recipe from the Fresh Loaf:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/18873/40-minute-hamburger-buns-or-rolls

Here is recipe:
Ingredients
* 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
* 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water (110° to 115°)
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 3 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions
* In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oil and sugar; let
* stand for 5 minutes. Add the egg, salt and enough flour to form a
* soft dough.
*
* Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about
* 3-5 minutes. Do not let rise. Divide into 12 pieces (I make 6-8 depending on how big I want the buns to be); shape each into a ball. Place 3 in. apart on greased baking sheets.
*
* Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Bake at 425° for 8-12 minutes
* or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.
* Yield: 1/2 dozen to 1 dozen.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins with Uber topping!

So sweet, more of a dessert than good afternoon snack for the kiddos, but I couldn't help but topping these bad boys with large doses of brown sugar and white sugar mixed. It bubbled and melted and turned the tops into little sugar houses that was so sweet and flaky you just couldn't stop gobbling them up! Here they are just out of the oven. What's missing is all the mini muffins that are already in our tummies! No just kidding, they are still in the oven baking. ;)

Orignial Recipe Click here

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I left this out, I think I must have finished up our vanilla!)
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I'm sure I put more)
• Mix a 1/3 cup with 1/3 brown sugar 2/3 white sugar and use it to top the muffins.

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the egg, oil, yogurt and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in bananas and chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Cover tops of muffins with sugar mixture and check back to make sure they are still sugar covered before you toss them in the oven. I always put too little but this time it was PLENTY! Bake at 350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. 

sourdough introduction - pizza dough & garlic knots

My sourdough experience began about 6 weeks ago with some failed starter. Now that I have a good starter, Carl's 1847 Oregon Trail starter (click to find out how to get some of your own free starter), and have aged it a bit I decided to try a couple recipes. Started out with some flapjacks and biscuits. The biscuits were terrible little bricks but the flapjacks were great and we could taste the sourness and it was amazingly delicious!!! I had never eaten flapjacks before so it really confused me when they came out so thin! I thought I did something wrong but my hubby said they were perfect. So yah!

Next I made pizza dough and garlic knots. The pizza dough came out too crispy, I think I won't par bake it next time. The garlic knots were amazing, soft and light yet crispy and buttery. I must say that there is A LOT of butter in the recipe and I really can't make these too often. Here is the recipe as they looked looked about the same: Sourdough Pizza Dough

Park Baked Sourdough Pizza

 

I think my pizza might have been a little less crispy buttery fried if I had not par baked it, although it was great the night of I prefer a soft crust. Not doughy but not crispy either. I will try this recipe again with out the pre-baking and I'm sure it will be perfect.  We always eat the end result so fast I forget to take pictures. I tend to make the same style each time - Mediteranean. You can put all or some of the following toppings: pesto sauce, cheese, sun dried tomato, mushroom, olives, feta, and artichoke. I also added fake pepperoni last time just for fun. 

Great to Par Bake if you plan on freezing though!

Now the Garlic Knots (modeled after The Great American Pizza company's "doughnots") were AMAZING! At least for my first try I was pretty happy. I basically just used the pizza dough recipe but kept adding flour until I had a dough ball I could work with and knead because the pizza dough was really wet, and I added Vital Wheat Gluten to the pizza dough which I didn't add to this batch. Here is recipe I kinda looked at over my should while trying to "wing" my knots. http://www.foodmayhem.com/2009/08/garlic-knots.html These are also WAY more delicious than these rolls that I made here, they ended up way too dry and I haven't gone back to make them again but not so dry. Soon but I'm enjoying playing around with my sourdough starter.

Also just a quick note that when I made these, I then melted the butter and poured it all over the top while it sat in a foil bowl that I then closed up tight and put in the oven again on a low setting just to sizzle in the butter. Yum yum butter.

Challah Challah!!

I <3 <3 <3 Challah! So I thought it time to share my recipe. ;) This recipe makes the equivalent of 3 small braided loaves or 2 larger braided loaves. I like splitting it into 2 loaves and braiding it as suggested and then putting it into a bread pan for nice slice-able bread (and even better for french toast!! yummie) Also I make one a chocolate challah and the other a plain. Pictured above is my most recent chocolate challah. Each of the ropes where rolled out with the rolling pin and filled with chocolate chips (or nutella) and then rolled up lengthwise and then as I braided it I put more chocolate chips in. End result was not enough chocolate! I want it like Hadassah's famous chocolate challah at the Marin JCC ECE! It was layer's upon layer's of chocolate with bread in between. That's my kind of chocolate bread. As soon as I figure it out I will post more about it. :)



Challah Recipe

* 7 cups flour
* 1 T salt
* 1/2 cup sugar (or honey)
* 2 pkg yeast + 1/3 cup warm water
* 1/2 cup oil
* 4 eggs
* 1 cup boiling water
* 1/2 cup cold water

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beat eggs in a small bowl.

In a large bowl mix oil, sugar and salt.

Add boiling water to large bowl and stir until all is dissolved.

Sprinkle yeast into a measuring cup with 1/3 cup warm water. Wait a few minutes, then stir.
Add cold water to mixture in large bowl. (The stuff in the bowl should now be the right temperature to add yeast. If too hot, wait a few minutes; if too cold, put the bowl in the microwave to heat it.)
Add yeast to large bowl.
Add eggs to large bowl, reserving about 1 tablespoon.
Add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.
Turn out dough onto floured board and knead for 5 minutes, adding more flour as needed (but not too much). Dough is ready if it springs back after being poked with a finger.
Put back into bowl, cover with dishtowel, and put in warm oven (heated to 170-200, and then turned off beforehand) until doubled - about 1 hour.
Turn out onto floured board and knead for 1-2 minutes.
Divide dough into thirds.
Take one of the thirds, and knead for another minute. Form into 8-12 small "snakes" for bulkies, or 3 large snakes for braid. Make bulkies by knotting each small snake and pinching the ends together. Place bulkies close together pinched-end down in greased pan (I use a silicon mat covered baking sheet or a oil greased bread pan). For braids, pinch ends of 3 large snakes together and begin braiding. Pinch ends together when done. Place in greased loaf pan.

Repeat for 2 other thirds. Put formed loaves/bulkies into oven (pre-heated and then turned off, as before) for about 45 minutes.
Remove from oven. Turn oven to 350.
Brush tops gently with reserved egg. Sprinkle with poppy seeds, if desired.
Bake for about 30 minutes (loaves) or 20 minutes (bulkies). Times will vary. Watch for moderate browning on top, but be careful not to allow scorching on bottom.