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Aug 22 2011
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Banana Nut Bread

Banana-Nut Bread

Adapted from All Recipes.com – Banana Banana Bread

  • 2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup of room temperature, unsalted, butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas
  • 1 cup of chopped mixed nuts (I used a combination of cashews, almonds, hazelnuts and pecans)

Preheat the oven 350 degrees F. and grease a 9×5 loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and nuts. In the bowl of a mixer cream butter and sugar. Add the eggs and mashed bananas and mix thoroughly. Create a well in the flour mixture and stir banana mixture into it until the dry ingredients are just moistened.

Bake the banana loaf for 60 – 65 minutes, rotate the pan half way through baking. Let the bread cool for ten minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Additionally, you can create a crunchy nut topping for your loaf by combining a 2 tbsp of granola, 2 tbsp of chopped nuts, 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp brown sugar, and sprinkling it on the top of the loaf before baking.

Enjoy!

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Jul 16 2011
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Black Pepper and Pamesan Scones

With an abundant supply of delicious strawberry jam on hand I’ve been looking for some different ways of consuming it. I never really have been one to eat a lot of sweets, I would rather have seconds of anything savoury than eat dessert. So this recipe is a nice balance of sweet and savoury, the black pepper cuts through the sticky sweet jam and the Parmesan cheese provides an intense depth of flavour to the scone. These scones would make great vessels for home-made breakfast sandwiches with prosciutto or serrano ham and a nice soft egg with a runny yolk. Please adjust this to your taste if you don’t like black pepper perhaps you will want to pair it down or leave it out all together.

Black Pepper and Pamesan Scones

  • 2 cups of flour, plus about a 1/4 cup for dusting the counter and your hands
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 cup of grated parmigiano reggiano
  • 6 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces
  • 3/4 cup butter milk ( No Butter milk on hand? In a liquid measure add 2 tsp lemon juice. Then fill to the 3/4 cup mark with milk. Let sit for five minutes.)
  • 1 Egg, beaten

If you are making your own butter milk, it is a good idea to do it first so that it will be ready when you need it. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and line a large baking sheet with parchment, ready to receive the little clouds of dough. In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and black pepper. Using a whisk will help to aerate the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until it reaches a crumb consistency. Stir in Parmesan cheese. Now stir in the butter milk and egg, just until the dry ingredients are moistened, do not over mix! Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead three to five times. Dust the surface of the dough and roll out 1/4 inch in thickness. Using your favourite cutter, cut out the scones and place them on the baking sheet. Dip the cutter in flour before each cut is made to prevent dough sticking. Now all your dough should be used up, and your scones are sitting nicely spaced on the baking sheet, they are ready for a quick spritz of cooking spray, or an egg wash. I think the cooking spray method is easiest, less mess and very quick; however scone purists will tell you to beat an egg yolk and brush the tops of each scone to help them brown. Bake them for 25 minutes, until browned.

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Jun 18 2011
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Balsamic Caramelized Onion and Parmesan Focaccia Bread

Caramelized Onion and Parmesan Focaccia Bread

Recipe adapted from Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook by Audrey Alsterberg and Wanda Urbanowicz (2001)

Makes one 10″ x 16″ loaf or two 15″ pizza crusts

  • 1 3/4 cups (420 ml) warm water
  • 1 tbsp (15 ml) baking yeast
  • 1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) honey
  • 2 tsp (10 ml) salt
  • 1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil
  • 4 cups (960 ml) unbleached flour

Topping

  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • Crushed Red Chili Flakes
  • 2 tsp Coarse Salt
  • 4 cloves of minced garlic
  • Balsamic Caramelized Onions
  • Olive oil
  • Black pepper

In a large bowl, combine the warm water, yeast and honey. Let it stand for approximately ten minutes or until the mixture had foamed. With a wooden spoon stir in olive oil, salt and one cup of flour. Continue to sir in flour one cup at a time, until you can no longer stir the dough. Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and proceed to knead until the dough has a smooth elastic appearance.

Place the dough in a large lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean, damp tea towel and let the dough rise until it has doubled in volume, about an hour and a half. Punch the dough down and let it rise until it doubles in size.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, placing the rack in the middle of the oven. Take a well oiled 12″ x 16″ baking sheet and stretch the dough out to roughly fit the dimensions of the pan. Remember the loaf is a rustic style, do not worry if the sides are not even in length. Brush the dough lightly with olive oil making sure to cover the surface. Add the minced garlic, coarse salt, chili flakes, black pepper, caramelized onions and cheese. Press into the dough with the tips of your fingers to create a dimpled surface. Let the dough rise for another 15 minutes.

Bake the dough for twenty minutes, making sure to rotate the pan after ten minutes to ensure the bread bakes evenly. Serve warm.

You can have fun with this recipe and change-up the toppings. Try adding sun-dried tomatoes, pitted black olives, and finely chopped fresh herbs like rosemary or sage.  If you’re making this for pizza, split the dough in two after punching it down after the first rise. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and let it rest for  ten minutes. Lightly oil a pizza pan and dust it with cornmeal, I use the bottom side of a large commercial baking sheet so I can easily slide the pizza off onto a cooling rack after its been baked, and stretch the dough out to fit the pan. Cover the dough with a damp tea towel and let rise for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, brush the perimeter of the pizza dough with olive oil to ensure a golden crust, add sauce and toppings (Don’t over load the pizza, less is more in pizza making, purchase high quality toppings and spread them evenly over the surface). Place the pizza in the bottom rack of the oven and reduce the temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the cheese is melted. Serve the pizza with fresh herbs sprinkled over the top.

Enjoy this recipe! It’s by far the best I have come across and tried.

What are your favourite toppings on focaccia or pizza? Please comment below.

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Feb 28 2009
4 Comments
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The evils of procrastination… NK Bread

Saturday February 28th 2009… READING BREAK IS OVER! WHAT?!? I managed to outsmart my essays and clay project this week… I managed to find better other ways to spend my time this week… Blogging, cooking, shoveling snow. Now I’m here wired on extra strong coffee(thanks to my Krups grinder!), babbling about how I should have started essaying or at least playing with clay. I guess I should pull out my books at least… or maybe wash another load of laundry, can’t forget to unload the dishwasher, heck I know ! I should bake a loaf of bread!

Starting the night before allows you to make bread without the hassle of kneading it!

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  • 3 cups bread flour ( use all purpose if you don’t have bread flour)
  • 1 5/8th cups of room temperature water (purified, filtered if you have it)
  • 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1 tsp salt

In a large bowl, add flour. Create a well in the middle add salt and yeast. Add H20. Stir to combine. cover with cling film and put in a warm dark place for 14-18hrs.

on a flowered surface tip out the wobbly mess. (Use a wet spatula to get it from clinging to the dough!) fold the dough over itself three or four  times. At this point you have two options. I have been using a baking release sprayed loaf pan for the second rise so that I can just toss it into the oven. The other method involves using a floured tea towel, which I honestly think is a hassle and makes a mess. Let the dough rise again for 2 hours. This is the interesting part. I don’t have one of those fancy $5,000 steam injection ovens that all the boulangeries use. Instead take out a large roastingpan (the one that 15lb turkey roasts in twice a year ;) ) and put a baking rack in the bottom. Fill it up with water up to the bottom of the rack. Put the lid on and toss it into a 450 degree oven half an hour before your ready to bake your bread. Take out that hot little steam oven you’ve created, be careful not to burn yourself on the steam that escapes when you open it, and place your loaf pan inside. Put the lid on put it back in the oven, turn the temperature down to 425, bake for 30 minutes. No peaking! After thirty minutes has passed remove the lid and bake for another 10 -15 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned. Alternatively, if you do want to mess around withthe floured tea towel, instead of building your own steam oven you will need a heavy duty crock pot with a heavy lid. This method creates a rustic boule style loaf. Heat the pot an hour before baking. Tip the dough out of the tea towel into the pot, cover and bake in the same manor as the other method!

boulestyleloaf

Click here for the original recipe!

See how great I am at procrastination! I’ve baked a loaf of bread and shared it ! … whats for dinner?

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