No-Knead Bread

OK, let me just note that to say I am deficient in the area of baking would be a huge understatement. 

First of all, I am lazy.  Too lazy to beat, pound, and fold dough.  Too lazy to measure so precisely as to think one is administering life saving medication. Too lazy to worry with setting up, cleaning, using and cleaning again my Kitchenaid. Not happening anytime soon really. 

Second of all, I feed on a "craving" schedule.  This means if I want bread now - it is not likely I can wait for several hours to eat fresh homemade bread (or cookies, or cake, or meats, or, or, or). I have lost all ability to be patient in life. Gone. I only make "plan ahead" items to share.

Now, with all that being said - I STILL LOVE BREAD.  The only reason I do not eat more of it is most store-bought bread is stale before you get it.  We here in this area missed out on the great bakery-store concept that the Europeans and Mexicans figured out years ago. No corner deli, cafe or bakeries around here that I see.  There are a few restaurants that bring GOOD fresh bread to the table and I do like it - A LOT. Problem is, I will stuff my chubby cheeks with the bread and butter to the point of not eating anything else that I ordered.  Actually, I almost always end up with a doggie-bag that I forget in the car and end up literally giving to the dogs (or running from the car, holding the bag out from me as to try to leave the vapor-stank-trail behing me and behind my nose, to the trash. Then airing out said car).

So, back on point - I found a recipe.  Actually, my daughter found the recipe.  No-Knead Bread.  Woot! Yes!  Say it isn't so?  Lazy girl yeast bread making?  Yes, YEs, YES!  Daughter made this bread last year while visiting me. It was pretty darn good - not to mention oh-so-easy.  However, my laziness level was so high, I could not even be bothered to make the bread until this week.  Sad...

This rustic loaf is crusty on the outside and savory goodness on the inside.  The style of baking I am about to outline allows for rather large holes in the bread. A course bread. It is absolutely perfect for slathering on room temp European or Amish butters and dipping into heavier soups and stews OR simply dipping in whatever decorated Olive Oil you feel the need to sop up!

The initial recipe was developed by Sullivan Street Bakery and has been passed around and around and around the blog-o-sphere for a couple of years now. My daughter posted it in her notes and I am now writing about it and my experience with it.

Note, THIS recipe is good for WHITE all-purpose flour or bread flour in general.  As I found out this week - WHOLE-WHEAT flour is another story. A different set of steps to produce a tasty end-product. Rye, same thing.  There ARE flavor variations on this "No-Knead" theme, so be patient (LOLOLOL, good luck) and I will get some more posted as I make them.


In the Dutch Oven!

No-Knead Bread
 3 c. bread or all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. instant yeast
1 tsp. table salt
1 1/2 c. warm water
Spatula
Large mixing bowl
Have a fully oven-proof pot with a lid (dutch oven is what I think is best - enameled or a well seasoned cast-iron one). No plastic parts as you will be baking at 450f degrees. Pyrex and metal pots are acceptable as well. But, as you can see, I do have a preference.

Shower caps for your food If you can still find them.

In a large mixing bowl mix the dry ingredients together. Some people sift the flour, some do not. I tend to sift so that I can sift them into the flour to make sure it is all evenly distributed before adding liquid.  Add the water and mix just until all dry ingredients are incorporated.  Take special care of the bottom of the bowl as the dry ingredients tend to stay there.   Cover the bowl tightly with Saran wrap or a lid. I use plastic bonnets that you can purchase in the same store sections as plastic wrap.  Let the dough sit, undisturbed, in a warm place for 12-20 hours*.  (NOTE:  I did not touch mine for 24 hours due to my work schedule.) The warmth helps the yeast do its thing and bring on the rising!  How do you like that for a scientific explanation! So, when we say leave it undisturbed, it means do not bother the dough for 12 - 20 hours.  There are reports of people moving on to the next step at 8 hours, but I suggest you go by the recipe your first time out (to get your baseline to start from and judge by) and then start playing with it to suit your environment, flour characteristics and etc.

When you are ready for the next step, grab you a spatula and wax paper.  Trust me on this!  Unless you like getting dough in your nails, DO WHAT I AM PREACHING NOW! Place a nice size sheet of wax-paper down on your counter, cutting board, dough board or what-have-you. Dust a generous helping of flour onto it.  Uncover your dough, wet the spatula (re-wet often), tip up the bowl over the floured wax-paper and use the spatula to pry the dough away from the bowl and down onto the wax-paper. Lift up one corner of the paper at a time and pry dough away from it, using the damp spatula, folding dough over on itself. I actually dusted the top of the dough with flour, but that is up to you. You do this like 4 times. You might need to dust a little more flour over the wax-paper.  I did it about 8 times because I am a rebel without a cause!

Then I totally break with the instructions temporarily.  I pick up the wax-paper with the dough in it and place it back down inside that same dirty mixing bowl. I know - don't say it, "pig, nasty, nut-bag".  I told you all I am lazy...  I recovered the dough with the plastic cover per the recipe and let it rise 2 more hours.  At 1.5 hours in (30 minutes before second rise is done), start preheating your oven and Dutch-Oven to 450f degrees.  You want to heat for 30 solid minutes.

At 30 minutes of heating (assuming your oven works better than mine and is now actually AT 450f degrees, dump the dough into the Dutch-Oven, shake the Dutch-Oven around a little to spread/smooth out the dough, cover with its lid and place back in the oven. Let bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake an additional 15-20 minutes.  Keep an eye on the dough to make sure you do not burn the surface. Remove the Pot from the oven, dump the bread out on a cooling rack.  You might have to use a utensil to loosen the bread from the pot bottom.

Grab your best bud, a bread knife and room temp butter and have a friggen party y'all!

Thoughts:

• I poured a little olive oil (very little) in the bottom of the hot pot before dumping dough in.  My thinking here is it will help keep it from sticking.
• I brushed olive oil onto the bread surface after taking the lid off the Dutch-Oven to brown the bread. This gives it a nice color.
• I only baked uncovered for 10 minutes because the bread was golden brown and I was happy with it.
• There is a school of thought in placing the dough, after it has done both risings, into the refrigerator for up to 8 days to further develop the flavor. You can also double the batch and keep one half of the dough in the refrigerator so that you can eat on the first loaf then bake the second loaf.
• The Dutch-Oven method allows for a small level of self steaming of the bread.
• Whole-wheat takes more liquids and oils than does regular flour. I will post the Whole-wheat recipe later.
• Place the pot closer to the top coils of the oven than the bottom. This should keep the bottom of the bread from crisping then burning/sticking to pot.
• To reheat bread, wrap in aluminum foil in heat in the oven at 350f degrees.  Daughter states it is a moist bread and the crust will soften. If you do not like this, crisp it in the oven at 350f degrees.

Takeya ThermoFlask - Insane Review

I realize this isn't a recipe, but it is food/drink related in my book!

So this week several co-workers were drinking out of these huge metal bottles and I poked a little fun them because these bottles were rather large (40 oz.) - looked like little babies drinking out of a bottle!

Then they told me - "these keep cold products cold for up to 24 hours."

And I said "where did you get these?"

"Costco - $35 for a two pack."

I go over to Costco and search the mondo-shelves and found the two pack crate. There were tons of the stainless and green combination. None of us were very impressed with the Green color and I would say, by the number of two packs containing the green, a lot of folks don't like them. I dug around and I think I saw a pack with a white flask - not my thing. I found a stainless/black combo and off I went to checkout to buy my 'big baby bottle 2-pack'...

I reveled in my $35 buy since they are going for $31+ - EACH - online.

I loaded up the black one with ice at 5:30am the next morning, poured tea in, and headed off to work. That was Wednesday this week. It is now Friday morning and there was still a little ice floating.

26 hours after filling with drink and ice

Thursday morning I poured more tea in and headed off to work. This morning, at 6:00am, there was a little ice left. Not enough to matter, but obviously the water in there was cold! So, we are talking 2 full days and nights.  I admit I did not pour new drinks more than 3 times - but still...

The only issue is I still feel like I am drinking from a huge baby bottle. I need to see if they have a huge straw attachment.

The ice is level with my thumb at 26 hours

Spiced Candied Orange Peel

I am sitting here waiting for citrus peels to simmer and thought I would try to get back into blogging. With a new (100+ year old house), time seems to slip by busy with house stuff. So, one way to get back in is to type less and get to the meat of the deal!

I use orange, and other citrus fruits, for teas, juice, wine and etc. I hated that I had nothing to do with the peels, then I remembered my daughter liked the orange/chocolate combination, so I figured she liked candied orange peel.

She does.

First, Let me just say that this works on Lemon, Lime, and other citrus peels.
I have a batch on with two navel oranges, two tangelos, one lemon and one lime right now.
It is a good way to up-cycle when using citrus in other recipes.
And, just an FYI, cooking these up works nicely to give the house a wonderful smell!

Ingredients:

4 Oranges worth of Peel (give or take) - washed
2.5 C sugar for cooking
1 C raw sugar for coating
2 C water
1 Vanilla bean, split down the middle
10 Whole black peppercorns
6 Cardamom pods, smashed
3-4 Cinnamon sticks
3-6 Cloves, whole
3 Allspice, whole

Option: Ginger - a touch
Note: Use simmering spiced sugar water to sweeten anything you wish!

Cut the peels to maybe 1/8" thick and take off as much of the white pith as you can. Cuts down on bitterness.

In a saucepan on the stove, Bring the cut peels, and enough water to cover, to a boil and cut back heat to simmer for 3 minutes and drain the peels (I use a wire colander). Repeat this 2 more times. It helps cut the bitterness.

Let peels drain and wash the pot.

Add the water, sugar and all the above spices to the pot and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Cut the heat to a simmer and add back the peels. Simmer the peels, stirring every 10-20 minutes, for maybe 1-2, or so, hours. At least until the peels become somewhat transparent.

While the peels are simmering, I use my spice grinder (otherwise known as a cheap coffee grinder by most everyone else in America) to grind down raw sugar for coating - and pour it in a flat storage container with a lid. I like the raw sugar (you can use what you want) for coating the peels. I think it adds a depth to the color and flavor.

I also pull out a rack to drain the peel - and place it on wax paper layer to catch drips. You can use whatever you want - to make clean-up easier.

Once the peels have reached a translucent and softer texture, use tongs to fish them out of the liquid (syrup) and place on the cooling rack to drain. Discard most of the whole spices. I actually take the vanilla bean and place it in my 'vanilla extract bottle" and top it off with vodka to cover. I have a rolling extract system.....

I place a layer of the peel in the container and shake around to coat. Depending on how big the container, you can spread all the peels out and coat and shake around a bit. Clean and dry the rack. Pull the coated peel slices out of the sugar and place back on the rack. Wait an hour or so and re-coat the peel slices. Let them sit in the sugar for maybe 15 minutes.  Pull them out and let them dry on the rack for 2 days if you have time. It helps them be more crispy. If you do not have time - that is ok! Package them up in a smaller container with some of the coating sugar in it.

Normally I have photos, but I cannot seem to get them to post! Boo....

Chili on the Fly

So I was off today. MLK day. I got up this morning and decided it was a good chili day.  I didn't feel like making my usual Beer Chili today. So, I just made chili up using what I had in the house.  I didn't feel like leaving the house to the store either.....

Besides, it's time to use stock up and by fresh...

So out comes the slow cooker.

In the end I used:

A big can crushed tomatoes.

About a pound of ground turkey that I bought some time ago, fried up and froze for just such times like this...

3 cloves garlic peeled, crushed, chopped.

Half a large sweet onion, finely chopped.

A small can tomatoes paste.

One bottle light beer.

A half cup water, heated.

5 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in that hot water.

Salt/pepper to taste.

1 tsp sugar (cuts the acid).

A few dashes hot sauce.

A few dashes LIQUID smoke.

Half pound cranberry beans, dehydrated and pre-cooked.

4 tsp chili powder.

3 leftover strips of bacon, fried, and broken up.

I poured all LIQUID and spices into a slow cooker and turned it on high.

I cooked bacon in fry pan. 

I thawed the ground turkey and put it in the bacon grease, fried it a little further along with the garlic and onion.

I rinsed the dry beans, and quick soaked them per package directions. Then cooked the beans.

I tossed everything left into the slow cooking mixture.

Turned it down on low after an hour, stirring whenever.

Served with the classic choice of saltine crackers and shredded cheddar on top.

Dinner done.

And, I used up the dried cranberry beans that no one liked cooked alone and finished off a package of bacon that needed used up before it got old.....

I'm trying to cut down on unnecessary waste.

Seasoning: Taco Seasoning

I like taco seasoning. I typically buy packets and add them to recipes.  Obviously I add it to ground beef, but it can be used on chicken breasts and in dressings (both used in Southwest Salad), note it can be used in the Picante Peach Pork recipe....  If you make up your own mix, you are able to adjust flavor and heat.

The below recipe makes about 1 cup of dried Taco Seasoning Mix. I only mixed up half the recipe. I learned that I used most of the seasoning I mixed up for one go around with the Southwestern Salad.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Ancho Chile Powder (mild heat, sweet fruity flavor)

2 T chile powder

3 T ground cumin

1 T dried cilantro

1 T sweet paprika (not hot paprika, unless you like it hot)

1 T fine grind sea salt (or slightly less regular salt)

2 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. fine grind black pepper

Optional

1 tsp. ground Chipotle Chile Powder or Cayenne for more heat

Instructions:

I combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir them together. 

You can have a more finely ground mixture by grinding ingredients into the bowl attachment of blender or a small food processor, and process them for about a minute. I don't have either of these, but I do have an old coffee grinder that I kill spices with periodically....

Store Taco Seasoning Mix in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Start with 2 T per pound of ground beef for regular ground beef tacos, then taste to see if you want it more spicy.

I can now use there in my Picante Pork recipe, spicy saltine recipe, and Southwestern salad recipe....