Rustic Potato Loaves—Tuesdays With Dorie, Baking With Julia

I made the Rustic Potato Loaves for Tuesdays With Dorie, Baking With Julia and took one of them to a neighbor I helped with dinner. 

This was definitely “rustic” since the potato skins are left on the potatoes that are used in making the dough.  I actually peeled the potatoes about 3/4 of the way and I kind of wish I would have peeled them all completely.  I thought the little pieces of “gray” skin that were flecked throughout the dough wasn’t very pretty.  The bread did end up tasting fine, so that’s good!

I followed the recipe instructions exactly and knew also that the shaping of the dough would be a little strange with the seam of the dough on the top.  I had a feeling it would open up on the top a bit while it baked.  And it did.  But it was still good with a nice crust and tender inside. 

If I made this bread again, I’d definitely go for less rustic and peel the potatoes and I’d shape the loaves differently.  The cooked potatoes are also beat in the mixer as well as the dough, which really gave my mixer a workout.  Sometimes “kneading” bread in a stand mixer is a little rough.  It made it through, but sure worked the bowl in to sticking to the stand like the dickens.

Our host with the recipe this week is Dawn at Simply Sweet. Check out her bread that she so creatively stuffed with cheese, bacon and green onions, just like a baked potato!

Focaccia Bread—Tuesdays With Dorie, Baking With Julia

Grilled Chicken Pesto Focaccia Sandwich

This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie, Baking With Julia recipe is Focaccia.  I hadn’t made focaccia before (and can’t for the life of me spell it without looking it up every time).  I decided to make it last Friday and play around with a couple ideas for dinner.

I followed the recipe exactly, which you can get from our host this week.  Sharmini from Wandering Through is the host with recipe. 

After making the dough, it rises for an hour or so.  Then it is punched down and rises again.  After that, it then needs to spend 24 hours in the refrigerator, which is what develops all the bubbles focaccia is known for. 

Here it was ready for it’s second deflating.

After spending a day in the fridge, the three balls of dough are ready for their future.

For the boys, I just made a quick “pizza” with olive oil, mozzarella cheese, a little parmesan, and some pepperoni.  They ate it up!

Scott said he loved it just as it was with some dried (I didn’t have any fresh herbs) oregano and basil.

For Kevin and I, I carefully sliced open a couple pieces and made sandwiches like the one in the top picture.  Grilled chicken breast, some basil pesto I had in the freezer that I’d thawed, some roasted red pepper and some sharp cheddar cheese, I made them in to a panini to melt the cheese and toast the bread.  It was delicious!

With this third one, we didn’t eat it until the next night.  With our spaghetti dinner, I sprinkled mozzarella cheese and some more parmesan cheese on it and put it under the broiled (forgot to take pictures).  It was cut into breadsticks. 

I’d say it was all quite delicious and fun to play with.  You should try it.  It’s not difficult at all (the mixer does all the kneading).  You just need to plan ahead so you can make the dough a day earlier than you want to use it. 

Best-Ever Brownies by Rick Katz—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking With Julia

Way back in February of 2010, the Tuesdays With Dorie group made Dorie’s adapted version of these Best Ever Brownies by Rick Katz.  Reading back through that post, I remembered that I didn’t make those exactly as the recipe said, on accident.    So today was my second chance at these brownies, since they happen to be in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking From Julia, that the Tuesdays With Dorie group is now working through. 

Now comes the question of whether they are “best-ever”.  This time I did make them exactly as the recipe is written.  They were fudgy and gooey, just as the recipe said they would be.  They are fine.  They are good.  I would have to say in my own opinion, they are not the best-ever of brownies that I’ve made.  Kevin, my husband’s opinion—way too fudgy (he hates fudge—silly, silly man) ;)  He is still not sure he’s had what he thinks would be a perfect, best-ever brownie, but he wants chocolaty and chewy, not fudgy.  I’ve made a few that he really likes and would have to have them all in one place for him to compare.  Sounds fun to me.

I did bake the brownies in a 9x13 inch glass baking pan even though it is suggested to bake them in a 9x9 pan.  When we made them for TWD a couple years ago, I did the smaller pan and decided I’d try them in the bigger pan this time, knowing they would just be thinner brownies.  It worked great!  I think they baked up perfectly in thickness. 

That first photo is brownies I cut as soon as they were at room temperature.  After chilling the brownies for a couple hours (which is what I prefer with brownies, then serving them at room temperature if you’d like), here is the brownies.

If you’d like the recipe for these brownies, Monica blogging at A Beautiful Mess is hosting this week and will have the recipe. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Rolls—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking With Julia Rewind

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Roll, adapted from Baking With Julia’s Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaves

Today for Tuesdays With Dorie, we get to do a rewind recipe (one that we might have missed that has already been done by the group).  The one I’m sharing with you today was just made the first week in October.  I didn’t realize then until the Monday before that TWD post was due that the recipe took some time with an overnight stint in the fridge and then another six hours on the counter the next day, so I wasn’t able to get it made in time.  It worked perfect that this month has five Tuesdays and with the extra one, the group decided to make this a rewind week.  I didn’t want to miss the pumpkin loaves, which are a yeast bread, but also made with pumpkin puree' and delicious fall spices.

I started the dough, but instead of adding the suggested walnuts, raisins and fresh cranberries, I decided to use mini chocolate chips.  The recipe really is not difficult at all, but included many steps.  I like that the mixer did the 15 minute kneading session and the refrigerator did all the chillin’.  After the chilled dough sat on the counter for my busy morning hours yesterday, I decided when I was ready to finish the loaves to only make one of the small loaves.

It rose beautifully and baked up perfectly.  With the remaining dough, you might have already guessed, I decided to make cinnamon rolls!  I rolled out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness, spread it with some softened butter, then liberally sprinkled on brown sugar and cinnamon and a few more chocolate chips.  Rolled up the dough, sliced it in to 10 rolls and they did their rise time.  I have to say, they baked up beautifully as well.  This was a great dough/recipe!

The rolls would have been just fine as they were, but of course, I had to put icing on them.  I just happened to already have some orange-tinted icing leftover from something else, so I thinned it out just a little and drizzled it over the rolls.

You’ll want this Tuesdays With Dorie--Baking With Julia recipe.  Rebecca from This Bountiful Backyard hosted and the link is for her post with the recipe.  

Bagels—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking With Julia

Sure had fun with the Tuesdays With Dorie--Baking With Julia recipe this week.  We made bagels!  I had never made bagels before.  It turned out to be quite the process! 

First, I made the dough (half recipe, made with bread flour and no pepper as mentioned optional in the dough) late a couple nights ago and after letting it rise on the counter for an hour, it did its time in the refrigerator for the night. 

The next morning, I read through the whole recipe, got everything ready and started making five perfect and delicious bagels.   Though it was quite the process to get to a finished bagel, none of it was hard to do.  The bagels were formed and ready for a short time in a boiling water bath.

Each bagel spent about two minutes in the water.  The oven was preheating to super hot with my pizza stone in it.  Some ice water was ready to throw in the bottom of the oven after setting the bagels on the pizza stone.  It all went really well.

I didn’t really want savory bagels, so I sprinkled two of them with some cinnamon-sugar—

two of them were topped with a little sea salt—

and one was left plain.

These turned out nicely crisp/chewy on the outside and not to heavy/dense on the inside, they were perfectly bagel-y.

Kevin ate one of the salted bagels.

I had some yummy fun with the cinnamon bagel by dousing it in some cinnamon-sugar melted butter.

And then because I couldn’t go a week without chocolate somewhere it just only seemed right to add a little chocolate to the plain bagel to the tune of some Nutella. 

I was thinking there’s no way I’d ever go through all it took to make bagels again, but they are good and it really wasn’t that bad.  I think it would be fun to try them again with some other flavors.  The boys (including Kevin) all whined that they only like blueberry bagels—sounds like a challenge to me and now I know where to turn for a great bagel recipe.

If you’d like the recipe, Heather from Heather Bytes is hosting this week and she’s posted the recipe.  You know, if you’re one of the few who don’t have Dorie Greenspan’s Baking With Julia in your cookbook collection. ;)

Whole Wheat Loaves—Tuedays With Dorie—Baking With Julia

Fresh from the oven, Baking With Julia—Whole Wheat Loaves

We made bread for Tuesdays With Dorie this week.  The bread recipe was simple (the mixer did all the kneading), and it rose up nicely.  It tasted great, too! 

Can I tell you, I am lucky to be able to record old Baking With Julia shows on PBS every Saturday.  And one of the things I love most of all is Julia’s cute little snort-laugh in almost all the episodes.  If you are able to catch any of the episodes, look for her laugh.  Makes my day!

What is a gal to do with two loaves of fresh bread?  Give one to a neighbor who is having a birthday.  Worked perfectly this time. 

Told you it rose nicely.  Baked it for exactly 35 minutes. 

The bread was easy to slice with a perfectly crisp outside and soft inside. 

Here’s where someone will need to help Kayte at Grandma's Kitchen Table sit down, she might pass out when she hears that I didn’t do anything with chocolate for this one.  I know, I could have at least spread some Nutella on a slice or something.  You’ll never know, maybe I did and just didn’t photograph it. ;)    I’ll never tell.

Butter—yes.

Raspberry jam—check.

Everyone liked the bread around here.  I have a question or just a little something that I don’t’ get—why can some bread be called whole wheat when it doesn’t only have whole wheat in it?  This bread has about half whole wheat and half bread flour.  So in my book, it’s not really whole wheat bread.  This bread is whole wheat.  100% whole wheat, I guess that’s how some recipes get away with just calling them whole wheat is by not saying 100%.  Just a little beef, I’ll get over it. 

This is a great bread, not too whole-wheatty for those who don’t want that much fiber in their diets.  My only other issue with it was by rolling up the flattened out dough, it left big air holes through the loaf.  I did just what the recipe said to do.  Hmm.  Oh well.

Want the recipe?  Teresa from The Family That Bakes Together and Michele from Veggie Num Nums are the hosts this week and will have the recipe on their blogs. 

Peach Upside Down Cake—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking With Julia

Peach Upside Down Cake

For Tuesdays With Dorie--Baking With Julia this go-round, we were to make the Nectarine Upside Down Chiffon Cake.  Check out our hosts’ posts for the recipe. 

Susan at The Little French Bakery and Marlise at The Double Trouble Kitchen are the blogs to visit for the recipe. 

I sort of veered off the written recipe.  I couldn’t help it.  When I looked at the cake, I decided I just couldn’t make a cake that had six eggs.  I need to cut back on so many decadent, fattening treats a bit.  But I did stick with a couple things as they were in the recipe from the book. 

*The original cake is supposed to have nectarines, but I used peaches.  I did a quick water-boiling bath to remove the skins and sliced them into eight slices each.  I used three peaches. 

*When I saw that the butter/brown sugar layer for the peaches to rest on had one cup of brown sugar, I decided it didn’t need that much sugar, so I cut it from one cup to only half a cup.  I think it was just fine.  I should have cut the butter, too.  It would have been just fine with less butter as well.

*I did make the streusel just how the recipe was written, except I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour.  The streusel was one of my favorite things about the cake. 

*And finally, I didn’t make the chiffon cake.  Instead I made this French Yogurt Cake, with just the vanilla extract.  And I again used whole wheat pastry flour.   Making this “lighter” cake, which has oil instead of butter and of course, yogurt (I used fat free, plain Greek yogurt), I felt better about having some of the dessert when it was done.  I also baked the cake in a 9-inch springform pan, though the recipe says to use a 10-inch pan.  I don’t have one.  I think it was just fine in the 9-inch, but I’m sure the French Yogurt Cake didn’t have as much batter as the chiffon cake would have made.  

  I have a little laugh for you.  I prepared the cake, put it in the oven, set the timer for 30 minutes and went about my business.  The timer beeped.  I opened the oven, saw that it looked like it still needed more time, so I set the timer again for 10 more minutes.  When the timer beeped again, I opened the oven and noticed the cake didn’t look any different.  Hmmm?   What could be the problem?  Why, yes, yes I did “bake” the cake with the oven off!  SIGH  It never occurred to me until after that 40 minutes that the oven wasn’t even on!  What a goofball!  I know, I’m not the only one to do such a thing, but silly me! 

I removed the cake from the oven while it preheated.  I think one of the reasons I didn’t realize the oven was off was because it was still warm from baking the streusel.  I like to think I would have noticed a cold oven.

My family prefers Cool Whip to fresh whipped cream.  I only obliged this time because we happened to have a tub of it in the refrigerator.  Sometimes, it is just so much easier to dollop a little Cool Whip on things—you know, there’s nothing quite like a little hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup to top off a great, healthier cake.  sigh

TWD—Baking With Julia—Popovers

Today’s Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking With Julia recipe for Popovers just might be the easiest recipe in the book!  I can’t believe I’ve never made popovers.  I think I always thought they were difficult.

Take some milk, a couple eggs, salt, flour and some melted butter and blend them in a blender for a minute.  Pour the batter into some custard cups (or muffin tins) and bake.  It’s fun to turn on the oven light (but DON’T open the oven door) and watch them pop up over the cup.  Even the boys got a kick out of it.  Taylor saw me pour the batter in to each cup and wasn’t thrilled that we were having that for part of our dinner.  But he was excited to see the risen popovers!

I don’t even have much more to say because it was so simple and they tasted great!

I have six 3/4 cup glass custard cups, as the recipe suggested, but it was supposed to be nine.  I was ready to put a little batter in some mini muffins cups, but after filling each custard cup with 1/3 of a cup, I was out of batter when only the six were filled.  I didn’t actually measure the 1/3 cup, just eyeballed it, so I’m sure that was why it was all used up.  No matter, six popovers were perfect for us.  Everybody ate one and followed suit with the suggest dripping butter and honey.

So simple.  If you’d like the recipe, our hosts this week are Paula from Vintage Kitchen Notes and Amy from Bake With Amy.  They’ll have the recipes.  What would my life be like without Tuesdays With Dorie? ;)  Well, I can certainly say I have loved every minute of it and baking new recipes that I often would not have ever tried otherwise.  After finishing Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours, I was torn about sticking with the group and starting on Baking With Julia, but I’m really glad I’ve done so!

TWD—Baking With Julia—Blueberry Nectarine Pie

Blueberry Nectarine Mini Pie

Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking With Julia this week was a pie.  I made the pie crust for this pie last week.  It chilled in the fridge for a few days.  I thought I was going to get the pie made on Saturday, then Sunday, then yesterday it was then or I wasn’t going to get it done in time.  It worked nicely to already have the pie crust dough made.  I was excited to see how the dough rolled out.  I’ve tried so many pie crusts over the years and some really are hit or miss.  Dorie said with this recipe that it will be one you’ll always want to have with you and use. 

I followed the filling recipe almost exactly, except that since we have a freezer full of blueberries, I used frozen blueberries even though the recipe suggested fresh ones.  I also added an extra cup of frozen blueberries to the mix, using four cups instead of the three.  I did use fresh nectarines, using only two as each one cut up was a cup.  I decided to do more of a dice on the nectarines as I didn’t want slices of it throughout the blueberry pie.

   While the blueberry/nectarine filling cooled, I started rolling out the crust.

The dough was quite sticky and no matter how I tried, it stuck to the counter every time I tried rolling it out and lifting it up to put in the pie plate.  Grrr.  Never fear—I decided to try making mini pies and hoped I’d have better luck with smaller amounts of dough.  It actually got to where the more the dough became closer to room temperature instead of cold that it was easier to work with.  I thought that was strange since it is usually preferred that a pie dough be cold when you’re working with it.  Maybe I just hadn’t made the dough the right consistency before chilling it?  At any rate, I starting rolling out four inch pie crusts and placing them in my two mini tart pans and two mini cake pans and ended up with four great looking mini pies. 

I decided to just bake one pie and the other three are in the freezer.  My parents are coming to stay a weekend in two weeks before they go on a mission for our church for a year.  They will be serving in Omaha, Nebraska which we think will give us great reason to go visit our Midwest friends and see them within the next year.  Anyway, I decided my mom would love her own mini pie, since she doesn’t eat chocolate and that is often included in the goodies I make.

 

I played around with different edges to the pies.  After being so frustrated with the dough, it became much nicer to work with the more it was “played with”. 

I baked one pie for about 35 minutes.  When I scooped all the filling in to each pie, I did not add all the extra filling juice that was there, it seemed like a lot.  Probably since I’d used frozen blueberries.  The pie that I baked turned out great.

So glad I made the TWD recipe this week.  If you’d like the recipe, our hosts this week will have them on their blogs.

Liz at That Skinny Chick Can Bake made a great looking lattice for her pie.

Hillary at Manchego's Kitchen made her pie with blueberries, raspberries and nectarines and made a crumb topping.

Have I ever mentioned I like pie?

Yep, I do. ;)

TWD—Baking With Julia—Hazelnut Biscotti

Well, aren’t I the lucky one—I get to be one of the hosts for today’s Tuesday's With Dorie recipe from Baking With Julia.  When I saw that biscotti was one of our recipe this month, I threw in my vote to host because I love biscotti.  I was happy to be chosen to host.  I’m hosting along with Jodi of Homemade and Wholesome.  Check out her biscotti, she’ll have the recipe posted, too.  I’ve mentioned before, but the “old” shows of Baking With Julia are on my local PBS station every Saturday and I record them.  It is so great to see some of the episodes where we are making or have made the recipes I’m watching on the shows. 

From simple and well-worded directions for getting the skins off the hazelnuts by boiling them in water and baking soda, to the cookie dough coming together easily with a bowl and spoon, these biscotti are great!

One word of warning though, and I’m just saying this hypothetically—don’t use cornstarch instead of baking soda when boiling the nuts—the skins simply won’t come off.  Okay, okay, so I did that.  I was surprised to see that the cornstarch congealed and was just strange.  I’ll spare you the photos I took all the while not realizing I wasn’t supposed to use cornstarch but baking soda.  Here’s the boiled hazelnuts with baking soda in the water.  Just as the recipe indicates, the water will turn black when they are ready.

I thought removing the skins after the nuts were boiled was the most tedious and annoying part of the recipe, but it still wasn’t that bad. 

After making the dough, two cookie dough logs are put onto a baking sheet.  The recipes suggested that with the sticky dough you flour your hands.  I got mine a little wet with water instead.  I have done this before with biscotti and liked how easy it was to form the logs. 

The first bake of the biscotti went off without a hitch!

 

After cooling for a short time, I sliced the “logs” into half-inch pieces.  The biscotti were placed on a wire rack and baked for ten minutes in their second baking.

The biscotti really was enjoyable enough as-is.

The biggest surprise to me with these is that Kevin (who hates crunchy cookies) has been eating them dunked in milk and said they are actually pretty good.  I’m glad he likes them so I don’t eat them all. ;)

And of course, if you know me, like many of you know me, I just couldn’t leave well enough alone and I couldn’t leave chocolate out of these—or off of them.  Drizzle, drizzle!

Here’s the recipe--

Hazelnut Biscotti, from Dorie Greenspan, Baking With Julia

Makes about 4 dozen biscotti.  It’s the baking soda in the dough that gives these biscotti their wonderful open, crunchy texture.  Although they’ll tenderize over the course of a few days (if they last that long), just-baked, they’re exceptionally dry and crackly.  It’s also baking soda that makes easy work of the usually pesky job of peeling hazelnut—they’re boiled in a baking soda bath and emerge ready to shed their skins in a flash.

This recipe can be doubled and the choice of nuts varied.  You can make the biscotti with almonds, pistachios, or even peanuts; you can add raisins, or try chocolate chips.  And you can make the dough easily either by hand or in a mixer with a paddle.  If you choose the mixer, whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl, beat the liquid ingredients and sugar in the mixer, then add the dry ingredients to the liquid and continue with the recipe.

2 cups water

3 tablespoons baking soda

2/3 cup unblanched hazelnuts

1  2/3 cups all-purpose flour (200 grams)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons hazelnut liqueur, such as Frangelico, or brandy (I used Torani Hazelnut flavoring syrup instead of liquor—Katrina)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup sugar (150 grams)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Preparing the nuts:  To skin the hazelnuts, bring the water to a boil in a medium saucepan, add the baking soda and the nuts, and boil for 3 to 5 minutes, until the water turns black.  To test if the skins have loosened sufficiently, drop a nut into a bowl of cold water and rub lightly against the skin—if the skin just slides off, the nuts are ready to go.  Turn the nuts into a colander and run cold water over them.  Slip off the skins, toss the nuts onto a towel, pat dry, and transfer to a jelly-roll pan.

Place the pan in the oven and toast the nuts, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes, or until evenly browned.  The best way to test for total toastiness is to bite into a nut—it should be brown to the center.  Remove the nuts from the oven and cool.  Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

When the nuts are cool enough to handle, coarsely chop them and set them aside.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and reserve until needed.

Making the dough:  Put the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and whisk just to blend.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, liqueur (flavoring), vanilla, and sugar.  Add the dry ingredients to the liquid and stir with a wooden spoon to mix.  Add the nuts and continue to mix, just until well incorporated.  (Since the dough is stiff, sticky, and hard to stir, you might find it easier just to reach in and mix it with your hands.)

Flour your hands and life half the dough onto one side of the parchment-lined baking sheet.  Pat and squeeze the dough into a chubby log 12 to 13 inches long.  Don’t worry about being neat or smoothing the dough—it will even out as much as it needs to in the oven.  Repeat with the other half of the dough, leaving about 3 inches between the logs.

First baking:  Bake the logs for exactly 35 minutes.  Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes.  At this point, the logs can remain on the pan overnight, if that’s more convenient for you.

Second baking:  Using a serrated knife, cut the logs into 1/2-inch-thick slices, cutting straight across or diagonally.  (You can make the biscotti thinner or thicker, as you wish, and adjust the baking time accordingly.)  Lay the biscotti on their sides on a cooling rack—you may need to use a second rack—then place the cooling rack in the 300 degree F oven, directly on an oven rack.  (Baking the biscotti like this allows the oven’s heat to circulate around the cookies, so there’s no need to turn them over.)  The cookies may need to bake for as long as 15 minutes, but it’s a good idea to start checking them after about 10 minutes.  When the biscotti are golden brown, dry, and crisp, remove the cooling rack(s) from the oven.  Let the cookies cool to room temperature before packing them for storage.

Storing:  The cookies will keep in an airtight container for about a month.

Contributing Baker—Alice Medrich