SylviaH's blog

These are the most delicious tasting waffles and a keeper recipe for me.  They are crispy and light with a wonderful flavor.  Very easy to make and were perfect to feed my hungry husband Mike after his very early morning bike race.  He had stayed up after working his swing shift and went directly to the race.  9 AM he was home and hungry.  I had prepared my batter that night and only had to heat the waffle iron add eggs and baking soda to the batter and wisk.  I made some poached eggs while the waffles baked.  This recipe comes from the popular BreadTopia site.  They are perfect for freezing and so easy.   I would suggest doubling the recipe if you are feeding more than 2. 

The night before:

Heat to melted and cool

4 oz. (1/2 cup - 115Gm) Unsalted Butter

8 oz. ( 1 cup - 225Gm) Milk

Add To:

9 oz. (1 cup - 225Gm) Starter - my starter was 100% hydration

1 tsp. sea salt

1 TBsp. Brown sugar

6 oz (1 1/2 cup - 170 All Purpose Flour

Mix - Thick Batter - Cover - 8 - 14 Hours

Pre-heat waffle iron 10 - 15 minutes

Uncover batter whisk in 2 large eggs and 1/4 tsp. baking soda

3- 5 minutes in iron or longer for darker waffles.  While my waffle iron pre-heated I put a large stainless steel fry pan with lid and about 2 - 3 inches of water on to come to just boiling point.

We love poached eggs..

When the waffles went into the iron I cracked my egg directly onto the counter.. ' not on edge of bowl ' no shells this way.. put it into a very small bowl with a lip and very gently slide it into the simmering hot water ' no bubbles boiling '.  I use a handled round skimmer to take them out of the water and drain..using a paper towel so absorb any extra water.  Served with poached eggs and strawberries.

            Sylvia

Nice recipe for some one day buns for sandwiches, hot dogs, or burgers.   Adapted from a Beth Hensperger recipe.  I had just written out the recipe with instructions and deleted the whole thing ; /   So here goes again!

8 oz. Spring Water

1 Large Egg

4 TBsp. soft unsalted Butter

2 TBsp. Sugar or Honey

15 oz. Bread Flour with extra to adjust hydration if needed.  I used Gold Medal Bread Flour on sale here for less than 2 bucks a 5 lb. bag.

1/4 cup King Arthur dry Milk Powder

1/4 cup mashed potato - I used a microwaved potato.  Fast and easy

1 1/2 tsp. sea salt

2 1/4 tsp. IADYeast

  1 egg yolk plus 2 Tbsp. water and 2 Tbsp. milk for glazing

   Sesame and Poppy seeds, springs of fresh Rosemary.

Add liquid ingredients to KA Mixer, add dry ingredients,  I sift my flour and dry  milk powder together.  The KA Dry Milk Powder tends to be sticky and can clump together and become hard if left with moisture for to long..so I just always sift it with my flour..using a wisk or a wire scoop.  Mixed until shaggy adding more flour as needed to adjust hydration.  Cover and rest 25 minutes.  Knead until gluten formation just begins.  Stretch and folds 30 minutes apart until gluten has formed nice windowpane.  Pour out onto counter, shape even weighed rolls, I made 8.  Place on parchment lined pan and press down to shape buns.  I pressed a biscuit cutter nearly all the way through just for a little extra pattern on rolls.  Let rise till nearly double.  Glaze and sprinkle on seeds.  Baked 350F in a convection oven setting till nicely browned..about 20-25 minutes.

                                             The pattern from the biscuit cutter was not very pronouned..

                                                          I called these my Aussie Sandwiches : )  

        Sylvia

I was putting in this blog and we had an after shock from the 6.9 earthquake that just hit Baja, Mexico.  It was said to be felt as 3.2 here.  Really shook the neighbors up too!

I baked a...you guessed it...Buttermilk Chocolate Cake with Buttermilk choc. frosting requested by Mike my husband.  I'm trying the new unbleached cake flour from King Arthur and also their double chocolate coco powder.  I also thawed out a Sourdough Potato bread for..maybe a sandwich snack later on this evening from our Roasted leg of lamb dinner.

Wishing Everyone a Happy Easter!

                                    Double coco chocolately and moist...the frosting pours on warm and firms onto the cake.  Lovely flavor..now for the movie and cake!

Sylvia

For years I have always made Hot Cross Buns for Easter and leaving the cross off enjoy them year round.  This is the first time I have made them with buttermilk.  Using buttermilk in baking is one of my all time favorite ingredients. The flavor was delicious with a wonderful crumb.  Just what I had hoped for and the recipe is very convenient because you can prepare it the night before and bake the buns up fresh in morning!  The recipe is at http://www.cookingbread.com/  I made these changes in the ingredients and also did a mix with a 25 minute rest and then kneaded to just all the ingredients came together and a gluten formation was just beginning.   I added 1/2 tsp. cloves, golden raisins instead of the cranberries, lemon and orange candied peel, bakers sugar, Golden ISYeast, KAAP and adjusting the hydration, the dough was still tacky before shaping.  Next time I will leave off the flour/sugar crosses as we prefer the sugar glazed crosses.  These are now my favorite HCB.

                                                            My 15 inch deep dish pizza pan filled with large HCB

                                        Sylvia 

This is my version of Sourdough English Muffins recipe I found the other day on the net.  It is from http://www.bakingbites.com/2005/12/cooking-school-sourdough-english-muffins correction to this link..hopefully this one works! The recipe comes from Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, California.  These muffins are delicious and make a wonderful Eggs Benedict brunch.  Though these are wonderful tasting and very easy to make I have to say the English Muffin recipe I have from Northwest sourdough are absolutely devine and still my number one favorite.  Teresa's recipe has been temporarily discontinued until published in her new book.

                                                                             To open up my EM I poke a fork around the edges and pull it open

                                             My version of Eggs Benedict for brunch!

                                Sylvia

I made some Irish Soda Farls this morning for a quick fix me upper for breakfast.  My favorite way is to bake soda farls is on my electric grill..but being in the hurry to have these ready..I chose my iron skillet..which bakes them up great.  You do have to watch the pan doesn't get to hot..pre-heated and set about med-low works good.  I bake them for about 10 mins. on each side...in a dry pan..no extra grease and if your pan is pre-seasoned good with some crisco..wipe it dry..otherwise the farls tend to brown darker...as mine did!  Well they must have been good.  Sliced warm I enjoyed mine and my husband's response was.. ' I have to be careful..I can hurt myself on those.'   Last year I posted a recipe for my mom's soda bread on my blog..I always use the same recipe posted here with some photos to show how to mix.  www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11028/Sylvia0393-irish-soda-bread

                                                                            Goes great with hot cup o tea

                   Sylvia

Stuck indoors with a head cold and raining all day..What would you do?  Surfed on my PC and landed at Steve's Bread Cetera blog.  http://www.BreadCetera.com   I thought the 100% White Whole Wheat looked delicious and then I saw his lovely Croissants...my husband and I love pastries and the neighbors get a sample too,  after seeing the wonderful posts on Shiao Pings blog with meat pies in puff pastry and TaxFarmer's  croissants, my sweet tooth took over...last night I made the poolish for both.

                             Just out of the oven and cooling.  Crumb shot tomorrow.  I hope it looks half as nice as Steve's.

                                      ADDED:  The bread is made with King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour using Steve's recipe posted on BreadCetera.

                                                   The Pastries are not made with white whole wheat flour.  I used the recipes posted on BreadCetera for Croissants for the pastries.

                          Perfect for sandwiches.  I can detect the nice honey and butter  just right in the mellow wheat.

                                      I used the Moreno Cherries from Trader Joe's..I think they are the next best thing to the canned Oregon brand sour cherries

                                       I thickened them in their own juice, almond extract with a little corn starch.

                                                                             Cherry-Cream Cheese Danish - 

                                     I added fresh egg yolk, fresh lemon juice, vanilla and bakers sugar in the cream cheese.

                                                                                              Cream Cheese Pockets

                        Sylvia

These scones are lovely and moist and have a wonderful flavor.  They taste great with jam and butter.  I enjoyed a wedge with mascarpone cheese.  They make for nice looking Easter scone.

My variation on a lemon scone recipe.

8 oz. plus extra for some light kneading and adjusting hydration - I used Pillsbury All Purpose Flour

2 Tablespoon Sugar

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 cup Unsalted Butter

2 teaspoons Lemon zested

2 teaspoons Fresh Rosemary - clipped into small pieces

2 Medium Eggs

4oz. whipping cream - I only had heavy cream so I mixed half heavy cream and half milk

Sparkling sugar for sprinkling about 2 Tablespoons -

In a Medium bowl.  Wisk all the dry ingredients, lemon zest and rosemary in a medium bowl.

Using a pastry cutter add the butter until the butter is in very small pieces..the flour will look crumbly.

In a small bowl.  Lightly mix 2 Medium eggs and cream.

Make a well in the flour mixture and add the egg, cream mixture into the center.

Mix quickly and gently until all is moistened.  I use a fork.

Dump out onto a floured surface and gently knead and shape into a round.  

Brush with some cream and sprinkle with sparkling sugar.  Make slices with a wet knife into eight wedges.

Bake 400F pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes or until lightly golden brown.  I baked for 20 min. on 400F convection.

Sylvia

This is a very simple recipe 'White-Wheat Rolls' from Maggie Glezer's book Artisan Baking!  Great easy recipe for using up that little extra sourdough.  I made bun shaped rolls using King Arthur Organic White Wheat and King Arthur All Purpose Flour.  I hand mixed the dough using stretch and folds.  Adding sesame seeds and poppy seeds with the suggested sourdough gave nice flavorful buns with a crispy thin crust and a nice chew...great for sandwiches.  I doubled the recipe and also have 2 loaves baking.

Two small 41/2 X 81/2 loaves and 10 buns.

Sylvia

Recipe from 'Lorenza De Medici's - Tuscany The Beautiful Cookbook'

Like most Italian Cakes, this sweet Florentine pizza is linked to a religious feast: "Carnival".    At one time lard was used instead of butter, which added to the flavor.

    After seeing this recipe in my cookbook,  I searched online for more recipes of this Sweet Carnival Pizza.  The only ones I was able to find were  written in Italian.  This was a frustrating and unfamilar dough for me to handle which resulted in me not following the exact procedures discribed in the recipe.  I was sure I had a total disaster on my hands.  After seeing and tasting my final bake...I may...may attempt it again!  It is a delicate delicious buttery flavored cake, lightly sweet with a lovely hint of lemon and would go perfectly with a glass of wine or a cappuccino or just a big glass of milk.

If anyone is feeling venturesome and care to give this recipe a try I have written it down with just a couple of modifications.

                     6 fl oz - 3/4 cup - 180 ml        Lukewarm water (105F to 115F)                    

                                              1 oz (30g) fresh cake yeast or 2 packages (1 scant tablespoon each) active dry yeast-  I used the

                                              Gold IDY because of the extra sugar in the recipe.

                                              11 oz/330g  All Purpose (plain flour) flour  - I used KAAP flour

                                              pinch of salt

                                              3 oz/90g  Unsalted butter, plus extra for cake pan  -  I used my round metal pizza pan

                                              3 oz/90g Granulated sugar  -  I used Extra fine baking sugar

                                              grated zest of 1 lemon   -  Large organic off my tree

                                              2 Eggs

                                              1 Tbsp. Confectioners' sugar  -  I used extra for added sweetness

      Place the lukewarm water in a small bowl.  Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and let stand until dissolved and foamy, about 10 minutes.

      Heap the flour on a work surface and make a well in the center.  Pour the dissolved yeast into the well and add the salt.  With a fork, gradually work in the flour until all of it is absorbed.  On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.  Shape the dough into a ball.  Transfer the dough ball to a lightly floured bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

      Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface.  Punch down the dough and gradually work in the 1/3 cup (3oz/90g) butter, granulated sugar, lemon zest and the eggs, one at a time.  Lift the now-soft dough and slam it down on a hard surface several times.  Using the heel of your hand, knead until the dough is no longer sticky.

      Butter a 9-in (23-cm) round cake pan.  Shape the dough in the bottom of the prepared pan.  Let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour.  Meanwhile, preheat an oven to 400F 9200C).

      Bake the cake until just golden, about 30 minutes.  Remove from the pan and immediately transfer to a wire rack.  Sprinkle with the confectioners' sugar.  Cool to room temperature before serving. 

Sylvia