Makin' Bread

It was pretty cold last weekend and I really wanted to make some bread, so I went about looking for ways to proof dough.  I've successfully used the microwave before, but my present microwave is barely big enough to reheat a plate of food, certainly not big enough for a big ball of bread dough. Then I remembered I had this:

I looked it up, and found a few sites that said a crockpot should work just fine for this purpose.  You want to use the coolest available setting (this one here is warm, low, high.... warm is the option to go with).  

Next step was finding the recipes.  I gave Scott my pinterest boards for baking to look through and two caught his interest, so I decided to make both.

#1 - Rosemary Olive Oil Bread - from A Hint of Honey

I did make a bit of an error, in that I forgot to mix in the olive oil in my dough formation.  It is quite possible that forcing it in after the first rise gave me a different result than doing it right would have given me.  But my failure to follow instructions and make up the difference still resulted in a lovely bread.

The ingredients are pretty simple (especially because I have some wonderfully full rosemary bushes in my front yard)

And using the crock pot, with a parchment liner and plastic wrap cover worked really well for the proofing.  It did come out a little warm to the touch, but the rising worked nicely, both times.

After first rise completed

2nd rise I put back in the crock pot and cranked the dial to high... covered with new plastic wrap and some dish towels for added insulation.  The goal was to attempt to bake it this way.

Unfortunately, after 45 minutes it was still doughy at the top center.  I pulled it from the pot at that point and finished in the oven.  It tasted great, but lacked that lovely crust I would have gotten with a traditional baking.

#2 - Chewy Pretzel Buns from Savory Simple

These were wonderful.  I always imagined that pretzels and pretzel rolls would be really hard to make. That is so far from true.  The dough starts just like any other, basic yeast, flour, salt, water and a touch of sugar.  Pulled together with the dough hook on my kitchen aid, but would have been possible the old fashioned way (lots of elbow grease and a bit of time).

Again I looked to my crock pot for the initial rise, then for the second time around as well.   Set my cookie sheet atop the heated bowl, covered with a tea towel and left it alone.

Once they finished their second rise, they each got a quick bath in some water & baking soda.  

This part was a little like magic.  Even though they had some time to proof, they opened up just a little bit more after their hot water bath and made this novice baker really excited to see the finished product.  Little bit of patience needed for the x marking, the soda water makes the skins a little tough so the dough was hard to score without using too much pressure.

A short time later with the help of a hot oven, these beauties were ready to eat and boy were they delicious.  All the wonderful flavor you expect from a pretzel, and no more time than it takes to make a regular kneaded yeast bread.   I think I'll be making some more tomorrow.

Walnut Sweet Bread & Apple Pie Rose Bites

Last Monday was the birthday of a team member Ana. She was born & raised in Romania and I wanted to make something special for her. Having just finished up the holiday season I was a little bit sugared out on cookies & cakes, but I knew I wanted to make her something sweet that was also traditional Romanian. 

What I opted for is a Walnut Sweet Bread, aka Cozonac cu Nuca I won't give you the recipe here, but I can provide the ingredients list at least.

It has a lovely light taste, somewhere in between the flavors of a Hawaiian King Bread & Challah. It does take a bit of time to make (2 rising times) but it is definitely worth it and I think I'll be making it again around Easter time.

Ingredients
0.6 oz (16 g) Dry Yeast or 2 oz (60 g) Fresh
8.8 oz (250 g) chopped Walnuts or Pecans
2.3 lb (1 kg) All Purpose Flour
10.5 oz (300 g) White Sugar
5 Eggs
2 cups (500 ml) Milk
8.8 oz (250 g) Butter, melted
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tbsp Cocoa Powder
½ cup Raisins
¼ cup Vegetable Oil
1 Zest from one Lemon

+ 2Tbsp warm milk, 1 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp flour
+ 2 more Tbsp sugar

The link above is a pretty good guide by I do have a couple of notes to add.
1) Notice the inclusion of Vanilla in the ingredients, but not in the instructions. Another Romanian friend who was able to try the bread, remembers making this with her mom as a child.  She said you should add the vanilla into the egg white/sugar/nut mixture.

2) There are a couple of places where you will need too add additional milk or sugar & flour.  The first time it tells you how much, the second time it doesn't.  I opted for 2 Tbsp of sugar on the second time, it came out delicious.

3) The recipe is intended to create 3 full size loaves.  I wanted to be able to make a small gift loaf so I modified it just a bit and one of my main loaves is a bit smaller.  The sweet roll pan is filled with the ends from my 4 loaves.  Somehow I ended up making one loaf to wide so I had a little bit of extra width to cut.
(this makes amazing sweet bread by the way).

I also made some apple roses.  This was really fun to do and they came out great. They had a lovely delicate flavor and texture.  My only complaint is that my single pie dough recipe only left me enough to make a small amount of roses... 18.  Because the dough was a little over worked and I wasn't going to get it to pull together for a successful additional few, I used some of my leftover apples and the pie dough to make a gallete.  My husband and I had that for dessert and it was a perfect little sweet treat.

 

The recipe I went with is this...

Select 4-5 red apples (I used Pink Lady, but it doesn't really matter...you want a nice sturdy apple that can hold up to boiling)

4 cups unsweetened apple juice

2 cups sugar

a mandolin slicer & apple corer could make this easier too

1 pie worth of pie dough or even puff pastry - pick your favorite. I used Alton Brown's recipe

No need to peel your apples, but what you do want is even and thin slices, I cut mine down the center vertically, then in half again.. took those to the mandolin and sliced them straight into water (to keep from browning).  Once all your apples are sliced, boil in the apple juice & sugar for 10 minutes.  

Drain carefully, reserving your apple juice (collander in a bowl works great).

Give your apples some time to cool so you don't burn your fingers and put your juice back on the stove to reduce further.  (You'll end up with a really nice apple flavor syrup that is not only used to drizzle over the top of your finished roses, but makes a really great pancake syrup).

Peek over here to see how they are assembled.  

Bake at 400 Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes.  This was more like an experiment.  Yo might find a lower temp and longer time gives better results. I was watching for my dough to be cooked through and the tips of my roses browned.  

After removing from the oven, drizzle your apple syrup over the top, let cool and enjoy.