Pretzel Rolls

These pretzel rolls (or pretzel buns) have a definite pretzelish flavor. I assume you could roll them into a snake and cook as a soft pretzel, although I think you could actually make a pretty decent bagel this way as well. I made these as hamburger buns, so I shaped them more flat, but for an actual roll, you'd shape them more spherical. In the blog post, Mel's husband asked if she bought them from a fancy store; Kirsten also asked if I had bought them somewhere. I made half the recipe and ended up with 8 well-sized hamburger buns. Also, I cooked them on our pizza stone with a little cornmeal under each.

Mel's Kitchen Cafe: Pretzel Rolls

INGREDIENTS

Dough:
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
• 2 cups warm milk (about 100-110 degrees F)
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (about 100-110 degrees F)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 1/2 - 8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Water Bath and Extras:
• 3 quarts water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup baking soda
• Coarse salt for sprinkling

DIRECTIONS

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer (or you can do this by hand in a large bowl), stir together the yeast, oil, milk and water. Add the salt and two cups of the flour. Add the rest of the flour gradually until a soft dough is formed and knead for 3-4 minutes. You may not need to use all the flour depending on many different factors - add the flour until a soft dough is formed that clears the sides of the bowl. It is similar in texture to bagel dough and should be slightly more stiff and less sticky than, say, roll dough, but definitely still soft and not overfloured.
2. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover it with greased plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in size (1-2 hours).
3. Portion the dough into 16 pieces and roll each piece of dough into a lovely little round ball. Here's a great tutorial on how to do that quickly and efficiently.
4. Lay out the rolls on lightly greased parchment or a lightly floured counter. Make sure the dough balls won't stick! Let them rest for 15-20 minutes.
5. While the dough rests, bring the water, sugar and baking soda to a boil in a large 5-6 quart saucepan.
6. Working with one piece of dough at a time, carefully take it off the parchment or counter, flip it over in your hand and pinch the bottom to form a little pucker and help the dough form a nice, taut ball. Take care not to deflate the dough; you should pinch just the very edge of the dough.
7. Place 3-4 dough balls in the boiling water and boil for 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side (the longer you boil, the chewier the baked pretzel roll will be).
8. With a spatula, remove the dough from the boiling water and let the excess water drip off into the pan. Place the boiled dough balls onto lined baking sheets (lined with parchment or a silpat liner).
9. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
10. Using a very sharp knife or razor, slice 2-3 cuts into the top of each unbaked roll about 1/4-inch deep or so. It's important to use a very sharp blade so that it cuts the dough without deflating it. It's ok if the dough looks wrinkly and kind of funny. It will work itself out during baking. Lightly sprinkle each dough ball with coarse salt.
11. Bake for 20-22 minutes until the rolls are deep golden brown. These rolls definitely taste best the same day they are made; however, lightly warmed in the microwave for a few seconds will do wonders for pretzel rolls 1-2 days old.

My favorite banana bread

1 1/4 c sugar
1/4 c butter
1/4 c applesauce
2 eggs
1/2 c plain yogurt
3-4 mashed ripe bananas
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 1/2 c flour
Chopped nuts(optional)

Cream butter, applesauce and sugar, add bananas, eggs, yogurt, vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients until just mixed.

Pour in greased pans and bake at 350. Time depends on pan size. I usually do 2 small pans and 1 medium sized pan. The small ones bake for 30-35 min, until done. The bigger pan bakes for about 40-45 min. If you did 1 big pan, it would take about an hour.

Focaccia Bread

At Cheryl's request, here is the focaccia recipe I made for Thanksgiving. It comes from Peter Reinhart's book, American Pie. The recipe takes advance planning, and the extensive instructions may seem daunting, but great bread demands a little extra time and effort. One other thing—I highly recommend using bread flour as opposed to all-purpose flour.

Phase One: The Dough

• 5-1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 2-1/4 instand yeast
• 2-1/2 cups ice-cold water
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Stir together flour, salt, yeast, and water in an electric mixer. Mix on low speed for 2 minutes, or until all the ingredients are hydrated and begin to form a wet ball of dough. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. Add the olive oil, and resume mixing on medium-low speed for 3 to 4 minutes, or until all of oil is incorporated and the dough is stick, supple, and smooth; it should clear the sides of the bowl and stick just a little to the bottom. If the dough seems like batter and does not have sufficient structure to hold itself together, mix in more flour by the tablespoonful.

Form the dough into a ball and place it in a bowl brushed with olive oil. Turn the dough to coat it with oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and immediately refrigerate it overnight. The next day the dough should have nearly doubled in size. Allow it to sit at room temperature for about 2 hours before making the focaccia.

Phase Two: Raising

Line a 12 x 17 inch sheet pan with baking parchment (or a silicone pan liner). Drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil onto the parchment and spread it over the surface. Dip a plastic bowl scraper into water and, working gently, use it to scrape the dough from the bowl into the prepared pan. Be gentle with the dough so as to degas it as little as possible.

Drizzle 1/4 cup of olive oil over the surface of the dough. Using only your fingertips, press down on the dough, creating dimples and pockets all over the surface for the oil to fill. Do not press the dough outward toward the edges of the pan; instead, simply press downward at a slight angle toward the edges. The dough will spread on its own; any attempt to force it toward the pan edges will tear it or cause uneven sections. The dough will probably fill the pan a little more than half full before it begins to become elastic and spring back toward the center. When this occurs, stop pressing and let the dough relax at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Do not worry if some of the oil slides off the top of the dough; it will all be absorbed eventually. The pan of dough does not need to be covered, as the oil will protect it from developing a skin.

Repeat the dimpling process, beginning at the center and gradually working out toward the edges of the pan. This time the dough will nearly fill the pan. Try to keep the dough somewhat even across the top. Again, let the dough relax at room temperature for about 15 minutes.

Repeat the dimpling. This time the dough should fill the entire pan. Do not degas the dough any more than necessary as you spread it to fill the pan. Let the dough rise at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours.

Phase Three: Baking

Preheat the oven to 500ºF. Just before baking, sprinkle seasoning over the top of the dough. I used a mix of sea salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and rosemary (I also added grated Parmesan during the last few minutes of baking). Place the sheet pan on the middle shelf of the oven, lower the temperature to 450ºF and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes longer, or until both the top and underside are golden brown and slightly crisp.

Remove the finished focaccia from the oven and, using a spatula, loosen it from the sides of the pan. Slip the spatula between the focaccia and the parchment and lift up the edge of the focaccia. Then jiggle the focaccia out of the pan onto a cooling rack, leaving the parchment in the pan.

Let the focaccia cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting and serving.

Zucchini Muffins

My kids love the banana muffins so much that Dave posted. I came across this zucchini muffin recipe on Real Mom Kitchen. I had to try them and the did not disappoint. Here is the recipe as it was posted.

Zucchini- Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder (I upped it to 1 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup finely shredded zucchini
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
¾ cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional, I didn’t do the nuts)

Position rack in middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper liners. Spray the paper liners with nonstick spray. (This is key, or the muffin will stick to the liner)
In a medium bowl, stir the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar to blend them smoothly. Whisk in the oil and vanilla until blended. Use a large spoon to stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Stir in the zucchini, then stir in chocolate chips and walnuts (if using) until evenly distributed.
Pour about 1/3 cup of the batter into each paper liner.

I didn't add walnuts but them would be delicious. I made them in mini muffin tins just sprayed with Pam and baked them for 12 minutes. I increased the baking powder like she did, but I don't know why she did that.

Dough Boys

Hopefully summer will run late this year based on how long winter and spring seemed to hang on, so there's more time to cook with these.

Wrap a biscuit around a dough boy stick, cook over the fire, and fill with nutella, pudding, pie filling...

...fajitas, Phillies, bacon & eggs...

...in no particular order.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

From Allrecipes

3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

Notes: My kids love mini muffins, so I made them in mini muffin tins and baked them for 12 minutes. I made the batter last night and baked them this morning, they were delicious with yogurt and Christie's granola recipe.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Here is the recipe for the muffins I made at the cabin, which I found on All Recipes as usual. Depending on the size of your muffin tins, this should make somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-18 muffins.

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

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. Bake at 350 degrees F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.