Coconut Milk Rolls

little poofs of goodness

Hello blog.

It is fall. Time for bread baking and scarf wearing. Only we live in Louisiana so it is not cold enough for scarves yet. But the weather has turned enough to justify making these rolls. These only bake for about 20 minutes - your air conditioning can totally compensate for that.

These rolls turn out so soft and poofy you would swear they are store bought. They have a slightly sweet flavor, but do not taste like coconut, so don't fear feeding these to a picky eater.

I used this recipe from Eating Appalachia. I originally found it while I was searching for a recipe to use up some left over coconut milk. Now I just make these rolls and wind up with the left over coconut milk anyway.

I followed the above recipe with the following modifications:

1. I used 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast rather than a packet

2. I switched 1/4 cup unsalted butter for the earth balance

3. In place of the 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour I used 1 1/2 cups AP flour and 1 cup of white whole wheat flour

yeast blooming

mixing wet and dry

    

post kneading

it has risen

rolls formed - now into the oven

Stealing Innovation or How I Learned My Oven is an Evil Little Devil Out to Ruin My Bread

I haven't been doing too much food innovating lately,  but I have been trying out a bunch of new recipes, some with more success than others.

A few weeks ago at the Farmer's Market I encountered a cushaw pumpkin for the first time. The woman at the farm stand told me they were similar in taste to pumpkin once cooked, only sweeter. It is traditional in Louisiana to use them in place of pumpkin and sweet potatoes. After purchasing a giant one ($2) I took it home with the intention of making a pie with it. Somewhere along the way I found myself drifting towards bread recipes, and then next thing I knew I was making this Good Housekeeping pumpkin bread recipe, substituting baked and mashed cushaw for the pumpkin.

Couldn't resist a bite before the photo

The bread turned out well and I recommend the recipe, even if you are just using plain old pumpkin. The yogurt was a really nice addition - I think it kept the bread extremely moist.

My next new discovery was a recipe I found browsing around the food section of the New York Times. If you haven't ever given their recipes a look I highly suggest it. In particular the Recipes for Health section is a goldmine of great ideas. The Indian Style Roast Beets were well received by both Erik and me - we left out the cilantro (gross) and pomegranate seeds. I'm very interested in learning to cook Indian food that is a tad more complicated than my standard "indian vegetable curry/dal" fare but I am often intimidated by overly complicated recipes. This dish was totally feasible. Now on to making homemade paneer?

With my attempt at Chatapi - fail :(

Erik's parents were here for a weekend and we ate at some lovely restaurants with them. Dick & Jenny's and Brigsten's were particularly good. When they left Erik's mom gave him directions on how to make a delicious meal and he very successfully prepared an awesome dinner for me.

Notice our fancy paper towel napkins

Next up: Harvest Apple Challah bread from a King Arthur recipe. Now I suspect this would have been good if it weren't for my errors.

Looks good but sadly overcooked 

First I broke one of my own whole wheat baking rules. I was too ambitious with my substituting. Of the 4 cups of flour the recipe called for I used whole wheat flour for 3. My next mistake was really due to my unfortunate oven circumstances. My oven is pretty old and there seems to be no actual relation between what the temperature is set at and what temperature it choses to cook at. I thought I had figured out that it cooks about 50 degrees warmer than the dial is set for, but after ruining this bread I am pretty sure it just does whatever the heck it wants. I am in serious need of an oven thermometer.

Horns!

Tonight we are carving pumpkins and I am excited to roast the seeds. Next week I will show you all (not quite ready for y'alls yet) how to make your own granola bars with them! Anyone have pumpkin carving ideas? Also, when did "halloween lights" become a thing - was it when I was living in the saddest place in Boston aka Dorchester?

Fail!

I am on a streak of failed meals. I can't get my cooking chi together, maybe I need to paint my door red or something.This week, I experienced my first two days of summer vacation and they were joyous. What could be better than a fine homemade pizza to cap off a nice summer day? In effort to make the meal "healthier" I decided to make a whole wheat (ww) crust.

It should be noted that while I am a big fan of whole grains, many ww products are gummy and disgusting (ww pasta is the WORST!). Daniel, however, claims that he does not mind the off putting texture and consistently is pushing me to try more ww products.

I make a yummy regular pizza crust, so I figured that it couldn't be too different to make a ww crust. Turns out that while it is not difficult, it was fairly gross. So gross, in fact, that I will not bother to include a recipe.

What is this??? It looks like the top of a cobbler. I tried to spread it out but it was almost like cookie dough, it had no elasticity.

It turned out lumpy, gummy and not crispy at all. Daniel said he did not mind it, and polished up the leftovers for lunch today. At least the toppings were good (tomatoes, mushrooms, olives).

Does anyone have a better recipe? Suggestions? Mine was from the Better Homes & Garden cook book. Wish me good luck on my next cooking adventure...I need it.

Zucchini Bread

Instead of making my usual wheat bread this week (I have an amazing new bread making method to share with you all in the future), I decided to sneak some extra veggies in and made zucchini bread. I used a recipe from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, and I was sadly unimpressed.

While the recipe was very healthy (minimal sugar and oil), it came out quite dry. (Don't worry, it was still great sliced thinly with butter.) I was disappointed the loaf lacked substantial moistness.

Does anyone have a great, moist zucchini bread recipe? (Preferably one that doesn't rely on a gallon of oil to achieve said moistness...)

...cause I can tell that we're going to be friends...

Everyone has posted such delicious meals these last few days! I have been trying to find something new for breakfast. Usually I have my cup of coffee and a box of Multi-Grain Os (that's right, I am too cheap to buy the name brand) that I keep in my car. As I drive to work in the morning I throw handfuls of MGOs into my mouth this ritual results in my car appearing as if I drive a toddler carpool. Anyhoo, I love me a banana bread but my Betty Crocker recipe has a LOT of sugar in it. Seeing as I just downed 3 peeps, you might assume that sugar reduction is not a concern for me but, as Elle and I have recently discussed, we will be shortly announcing the first LOTC (Lord of the Chard) challenge to reduce sugar in our diet (details to follow).

So I tried making a healthy version of the nanner classic. (Elle could you provide the citation?) (This recipe is from The King Arthur Flour Cookbook which I wholly recommend - E)

Banana Crunch Bread

1 c. oat flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

3 medium mashed nanners

6 oz. cup plain yogurt (I used greek for extra protein)

1 t. vanilla

1 t. pumpkin pie spice (I used Penzey's Apple Pie spice)

Topping:

1/2 c. oats

1/3 c. brown sugar (I used less)

1/2 t. cinnamon

2 T. butter

1/4 c. nuts

Preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8x8 pan. Whisk the first three ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate large bowl cream butter and brown sugar and then beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in dry mixture and bananas, alternating until both are integrated. Add yogurt, vanilla and spices. Pour into pan. Mix all of the topping ingredients together and spread over the top of prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes (our oven in on the fritz so it took 50ish minutes).

A shout out to my guinea pigs, and friends of the blog: Tammy and Eric (Daniel's parents) who have very discerning palette. Here are their comments!

Tammy-"I love it, full of banana flavor and really moist cake. I like the topping and don't think it is too dry. Filling breakfast."

Eric-"Somewhat dry...but good flavor. Recommend eating it over the sink. Like raspberry chocolate torte better."

These comments pretty much sum up how I felt: I too felt that the topping was a bit too dry (in the above recipe I cut down the oats by 1/4 c. I think this will do the trick next time). But it did have a really good flavor and, of course, I felt good about eating it (unlike the chocolate torte)!

Coffee is a perfect friend to this bread!

Whenever Bread

Things have been rough this week at Lord of the Chard's northeastern headquarters. We have had chemistry midterms, toothaches, and snow! TWICE! SNOW TWICE THIS WEEK! This bread has helped me persevere.

Unlike Leanne and Laura, I sadly do not have my own bread machine. I have tried a lot of homemade bread recipes, and honestly a lot of them were not worth the effort - trader Joe's makes a great whole wheat tuscan pane that is giant and costs something like $1.99. But this no timetable bread IS worth it. Now it takes a long time, I am not going to lie. But 98% of that time is rising time and there is very little work involved. It might seem like a lot of work, but it is really easy and you basically can't ruin the bread. All of the rising time is subjective and you can just do whatever works for your schedule.The original recipe from Smitten Kitchen (one of my favorite food blogs) is here, but I found the recipe a little confusing and changed some of the steps so my version is below.

Dough after rising overnight.

How I roll up my loaf: First stretch out the dough into a rectangle shape. 

 Then just roll it up like a giant cinnamon bun.

Until you get to the end. There smush the seam together.

And place it seam side down into your bread pan. I use a 9x5 loaf.

The finished product. Note that I was unable to display self control and had a slice off the end before I snapped a photo!

Hello lovely.

When it snows the first day of spring all you can do is eat bread fresh from the oven with split pea potato soup in your pajama pants.

Ingredients:
1.5 c AP flour
2 c whole wheat flour
2 t ground flax seed (optional but an awesome addition FIBER!)
0.5 t sugar
0.5 t active dry yeast
1 c H2O
0.5 c milk (I used soy milk because I never have real milk on hand and it worked fine)
extra flour for kneading

1. Mix your flours, flax, and sugar together in large bowl.
2. Separately mix lukewarm H2O, milk and yeast. Add the liquid to the flour and mix it up.
3. I learned this tip from Alton Brown (I think?): Let it hang out in the bowl for a little while (10-15 minutes). This gives the flour time to absorb the water and softens the wheat grains.
4. Knead for a little while, say 5 minutes and then roll in flour and put it into a bowl to rise.
5. I usually put it together after dinner and let it rise overnight. The long rise time will make this the fluffiest, most flavorful homemade bread.
6. Whenever you get back to it knead it again, and then put it back into the bowl to rise. I do this is the morning before I leave for school.
7. When you get back to it, punch it down, knead it again and shape into loaf.
8. I usually let it sit for one final rise once I have it in the pan. Brush with either water or egg white and pop it in the oven at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.
9. The Smitten Kitchen recipe says to turn the oven down to 425 and cook for another 5-20 minutes, but I have found mine done after the 30.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I love baking with my bread machine. It turns something that is normally labor-intensive and time consuming, into something easy!. I have an Oster 2lb breadmaker, bake bread weekly, and am very happy with this machine.

Here is my adaptation of Oster's "Springtime Favorite Bread":
Measure and place in bread pan:
1 cup water (room temp)
1/4 cup room temperature butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 teaspoons almond extract

In a separate bowl, sift together:
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons (more if you like!) cinnamon
Pour dry ingredients into bread pan.

Create a well in the dry ingredients with your finger, and carefully add 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast to the well.

If your bread machine has a "sweet" setting, use that one. Select crust setting, I like a dark crust. Push "start!"

At the raisin/nut signal, add 3/4 cup raisins.

In my opinion, this bread is best toasted with butter and honey.