Dutch Oven Bread

So, I haven't been baking at all lately. The cold hard (as opposed to the warm, gooey) truth is that I gained about 75 pounds while pregnant. It's not exactly a number I'm proud of, but it just kind of is what it is. Honestly, I ate pretty well and exercised through the whole thing, so I'm not even sure how it exactly happened, but it did... so oh fucking well.

The good news is twofold:

1. At roughly five months post-partum I am down about 40 pounds and getting plenty of regular exercise.

2. Thanks to my so-called, "maternal fat stores," I've been able to continue sustaining Henry, and that is something I am glad for.

Anyways, all that said, I got this le beautiful Le Creuset dutch oven for last winter's Festivus celebration, and wanted to try the apparent internet phenomenon of a crusty bread baked in a dutch oven.

Only, most of the recipes I found called for something called "instant yeast," (which I refuse to acknowledge based on name alone), and required a 12 hour rise. I was definitely not operating with 12 hours of forethought on this project. So, thanks to some Mormon mommy blogs (it's a whole thing, let me tell you), I was able to figure out a recipe that would only take an afternoon. 

The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of yeast, which pretty much just gives the dough an insanely fast rise time-- about 20 minutes. I think you could definitely reduce the yeast significantly, if you didn't mind waiting a little longer for your dough. Also, the recipe requires you to pre-heat the dutch oven, and the first time I made this recipe I skipped that step... I ended up with a delicious, cake-y bread, which is great, but I was going for crust.

Anyways, without further ado... 

Adapted from around the Mormon Blogosphere

Dutch Oven Bread

4-5 Cups All Purpose or Bread Flour

2 T Yeast

2 T Sugar

1 t Salt

2 Cups Warm Water 

1. Combine water, yeast, sugar, and salt and allow yeast to begin to bubble.

2. Add 3.5 cups of flour. Knead in additional flour as needed in 1/2 cup increments. Knead dough until it is smooth and comes together in a ball (just a few minutes). 

3. Cover dough ball and allow to rise in a warm place for at least 20 minutes.

4. Preheat oven with dutch oven to 400 degrees. 

5. Coat the bottom of the dutch oven with flour, transfer dough ball and coat the top with flour.

6. If you are brave you can attempt professional looking slits on the top of the dough... I tried and failed.

7. Bake for 30 minutes covered. 

8. Remove lid and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until brown and crunchy looking. 

9. Transfer to cutting board and enjoy with butter and/or jam!

Sugar Pie

Matt bought me this very rotund sugar pie pumpkin after witnessing my elation over a very large butternut squash.  

After an adequate period of admiration I cleaned, halved, baked, and pureed my pumpkin-- committing it  to pie duty.  

This was the first pumpkin pie I've ever made, and (as with most first time projects) I learned some things..

1.  Crust needs to be pre-baked when there is a custard filling involved.  People actually use pie weights  for this, as the crust will shrink without support.  I improvised by pre-baking the crust with a smaller pie pan supporting it.

2.  Pumpkin pies take a really, really long time to bake. Knifing the middle 12 times will not expedite the process.

The pies (I ultimately made two) were quite delicious.  I used this all butter crust recipe, and (after some heavy research) amalgamated several filling recipes.  It went something like this:

Pumpkin Pie Filling

3 eggs

1.25 cups half and half

2 C Pumpkin Puree 

.5-.75 C Brown Sugar (depending on desired sweetness)

1.5 t grated fresh ginger

1.5 t cinnamon 

1 t nutmeg

.5 t cloves

Whip eggs very well by themselves. Then, add half and half, pumpkin, spices, and sugar and whisk everything together very well.  Pour into an egg coated, pre-baked pie shell. Cook for a long ass time, and try not to poke the middle with too many knives...

Breakfast Muffins

My father appreciates the simple things-- bike rides, big lake trout, strong coffee, and crunchy cookies. I assume that not all of his peers are as affable in their interests, so I appreciate this quality of his a great deal. 

Now I'm not trying to get too Freudian (because that gets way too weird way too fast), but Matt is strikingly similar to my pops in this regard. The list even remains nearly identical, but definitely requires the distinct addition of, "any donut that ever existed." 

The reverence of deep-fried dough and sugar makes perfect sense to me, but in the interest of remaining diabetes-free, here is our household's alternative to the morning donut. These muffins are full of the good stuff, and might even include enough carrot to qualify as a vegetable (by public school standards, at least).

Apple Carrot Spice Muffins
Ingredients:
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 cups rolled oats
1 T cinnamon
1 T nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp salt
2-3 medium sized carrots
1 apple
4 eggs
.5 cup milk
.5 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 T molasses
3 T maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
1/3+ cup raisins
1/3+ cup crushed walnuts
Brown Sugar (optional)

Directions:
Preheat Oven to 350° F

Use a food processor to grate the carrots and half of the apple. Dice the other half of the apple into chunks. Set the fruits and veggies aside with the raisins and walnuts. In a different bowl mix together the flour, oatmeal, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, (there are some dirty dishes involved) stir together all the wet ingredients: milk, eggs, oil, vanilla, molasses, and syrup. Slowly combine all 3 bowls (wet, dry, fruits/veggies), and stir until just combined. Do not over stir. After putting batter into a greased muffin in pan, lightly sprinkle brown sugar over the muffins (if desired). Cook muffins in greased muffin pan at 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Makes 13-14 large muffins.

Friday Baking

Last Friday I ended up with some unexpected free time. The weather was fairly unpleasant, so I headed to the store for three items: butter, sugar, and cream cheese. I used to avoid butter, but these days I'm a butter evangelist. We've all got to believe in something, eh? 

With my loot I baked two things: cookies and cupcakes. My "relaxing afternoon," resulted in a sugary weekend, but we both made it to Monday sans diabetes. Victory.

First up are the cookies....

I have made these cookies several times, and they are top notch. Plus the recipe only uses one stick of butter, so they are practically health food. I realized we had no brown sugar after I made my trip to the store, so I ended up just adding half a tablespoon of molasses (as brown sugar is just sugar + molasses). The molasses made these cookies even better than usual.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies  (adapted from this recipe)

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 T molasses

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups oatmeal

AT LEAST 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat Oven to 325°  F

Cream together butter, sugar and molasses with a stand mixer (paddle attachment), or with a hand mixer. Add vanilla and egg, and mix. Add all dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, oatmeal, salt) and stir together until dough comes together. Do not over mix!  Mix in chocolate chips, and then drop large spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes! 

Now for the cupcakes...

All week I'd wanted carrot cake. I'm not sure if it is normal to want cake for so long, but by Friday I decided to go ahead and eat some damn carrot cake. However, I decided the carrot cake must be homemade, which prompted my afternoon of baking.

I started with a recipe from All Recipes, and then reduced the sugar, upped the carrots, added some whole wheat flour, doubled the cinnamon, added nutmeg, etc. I failed to record any of this, so all I can do is show off my nice looking cupcakes. To make the frosting I used the whisk attachment on my mixer and combined 8 oz of cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, and all the powdered sugar I could find in the cabinet (maybe a about half a cup). 

Yum.

And don't worry Mother, if you are concerned about my blood sugar levels you should know that on Sunday I gave away no less than seven cupcakes. I think that cancels everything else out. 

Welcome to Fall

It's official. The sun has disappeared, the wind is whipping, and the rain is pouring.

There are some decent consolations for the crummy weather. Among them are beautiful leaves, pumpkins, apples, and muffins. Muffins might be my own addition to the list, but I think I am on to something very important.

Personally, I am 99.99999% less likely to complain about the weather if there are treats involved. It is possible that I am a slave to my stomach, but it is also completely possible that I have achieved enlightenment.

 

According to my "impartial" reviewer (Matt), these are "amazing." Who knows, but here is the recipe just in case...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (adapted from this recipe)

• 1 cup sugar (I used half white and half brown)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1.5 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1+ cups chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
2. 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. DO NOT OVERSTIR. Ever.
3. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.

On a different note, my family lost an important canine member last weekend.  Robert was a gentleman and a scholar. I will miss him.

Daily Bread

I've been trying to figure out bread making for the last several months. Truthfully I've had pretty mixed results, and staying committed to whole wheat flour has really thickened the plot. However, seven months since I began dabbling, I think I'm starting to get the gist.

After our trip, I decided to commit homemade bread (the forethought takes a little work, but it's good for me, and less plastic/money!). I have recently settled on using this recipe most of the time. It's pretty damn good. Especially covered in butter. 

The recipe is clear that the ingredients should not be over kneaded, and this has been one of the more useful bread making tips I've come across in the last several months. Initially I'd assumed that bread dough must be kneaded for several minutes, but apparently this habit results in a rubbery brick. Enlightening. 

Lately I've been splitting the dough into one loaf and a batch of buns... 

I appreciate that bread making is incredibly fruitful for the time involved. The dough only takes about 10 make, and sure it has to have a couple rises and eventually bake, but the actual labor time involved can't be more than about 20 minutes. 

The bread starts to get crumbly after about 5 days (no preservatives and all). We usually just keep eating it, but I also sometimes cube it and fry the pieces in olive oil and toss with salt to make croutons. Bread recycling!

Cinnamon Rolls

One of my goals this summer has been to improve my yeast working skills and confidence (ah, ambition). I've mostly made bread, but wanted to branch out (well maybe I really just wanted to eat some cinnamon rolls). I didn't stray too far from my recipe, and ended up with delicious whole wheat cinnamon rolls.

Sweets don't last too long at the homestead, and these puppies were gone in about two days. Definitely worth the sugar rush.