No Knead 4-ingredient Bread

Ingredients:                    Full                      Half                  ¾         
325ml 100º warm water  [11.5 oz]              [6 oz]                [9 oz]
3g yeast                           [1 tsp]                  [½ tsp]              [1 tsp]
425g bread flour              [3 3/8 cups]         [1¾ cups]         [2¾ cups]
   (I used plain flour; worked fine.)
10g salt                            [1 2/3 tsp]            [¾ tsp]              [1 tsp]
Plus a little flour (for dusting)

• My first attempt was with half a batch. I added olives and roasted garlic and olive oil. Worked well. Tasty. 
• Second attempt, also half a batch, but the dough was too firm. Added more warm water and 2 TBSP olive oil. Accidentally gave it more time to prove. Liked it a lot!
• Updated to ¾ size later. Seems to fill a loaf pan better.

Instructions

- Once you’ve added all of the ingredients, use a spatula to bring it together the dough will be quite sticky.

-Cover and allow to rest for an hour in a warm place (on top of an active oven seemed to work).

-After the dough has rested, dip your fingers in water to avoid sticking, and bring the dough together stretching and folding each corner of the dough toward the center.

-Rest the dough for maybe 30 mins in a warm place.

-Make sure you flour the surfaces well. Tip the dough onto your work surface. Cut into 4 or 5 portions. Shape the dough as you like. 

- Free-form loaves on a floured parchment or silicon baking sheet, or in a floured or oiled baking pan.

-I shaped one piece into a small loaf, and slathered the other in oil (oil the bread pan before loading it, oil on top) and pushed some roasted garlic & green olives into the surface before baking. More oil on top.

-Bake in 400 degree (200c) oven until golden brown.

• The basic loaf [left] was fine. The oiled-up loaf with garlic & olives [above] was really nice. 

• Opinion: This dough would likely work pretty well as a pizza dough, or as a wrapping for meat rolls.

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Alternative: Split the (half recipe) dough in half, spread out to a rectangle, spread dried tomatoes, roasted garlic (both cubed), and green olives and rolled them up, placing them in an oiled & floured half-size bread pans.

Proved them for maybe 30 minutes and popped them into a 400 degree oven, which I reduced to 350 when I saw how much they were rising. They took 25 minutes to reach golden brown. 

Later filling: 

¾ cups coarsely chopped kalamata olives
6 cloves garlic, roasted & coarsely chopped
½ cup dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 baby red pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp Herb de Provence seasoning
¼ cup chopped parsley
¼ cup chopped cashews
1 TBSP Dukkah mixture
2 TBSP olive oil
Mix it all together & spread across dough, mixing it in. Much better.

 
Next time: half olives & half roasted garlic cloves or chunks of sun-dried tomato? [Tried it. Very nice. Next time add balsamic vinegar and chunks of feta cheese & roll the dough thinner.]

Some time I want to use the same technique, but fill it with meats and roast peppers, fajita style. Add shredded cheese before rolling up. Maybe.

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients 

2 TBSP butter
1 medium (or ½ large) onion, peeled and chopped (alternate: 1 shallot)
1½ celery stalks, trimmed and cubed
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
1 medium potato, peeled and cubed
3 TBSP all-purpose flour, plus extra to dust
1 cups chicken stock
½ cup light cream
Sea salt and black pepper
½ lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cubed
(5 oz?) pie crusts, or ready-made all-butter puff pastry
1 medium egg mixed with 1 Tbsp water (egg wash), for glaze
(Consider adding chopped/crumbled bacon before adding the top.)

Instructions
Melt the butter in a large, wide pan and add the onion, celery, carrot, and potato. Saute gently for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. 

Add the flour and stir well. Cook, stirring frequently, for another 2 minutes to cook out the flour.

Pour in the stock and cream and season well with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring, for about 5 to 10 minutes until thickened. 

Add the chicken and simmer for 5 minutes or until the pieces are just cooked through. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Take the pan off the heat and let cool slightly.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Spoon the chicken filling into one medium or 2 individual pie dish(es) or cast iron frying pan to fill to just below the rim(s).

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured counter to a large circle, 1/8 inch (3mm) thick. Cut out a circle (or 4 small ones) large enough to form pie lid(s).

Re-roll the trimmings and cut long strips to fit around the rim of the dish(es). Brush the rim(s) with water, position the pastry lid on top and crimp the edges to seal. If you wish, decorate the top of the pie with leaves cut from the pastry trimmings. 

Brush the pastry with egg wash to glaze.

Bake the pie in the oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot. Let stand for a few minutes before serving.

Ham & Tater Cheese Soup

Ingredients:

• ½ TBSP. extra virgin olive oil
• ½ medium onion, chopped
• 1 ribs of celery, diced
• 1 lb. Yukon gold or red potatoes, peeled and diced (approximately 4 cups)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 teaspoon roasted garlic powder
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• dash cayenne or lemon drop pepper, more or less to taste
• 2 cups chicken broth, low-sodium
• 1½ cups milk, divided
• 1½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup cooked ham, diced small.
  

Instructions

1. In a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, add the oil. Once hot, add the onions and celery and saute for 3-4 minutes until they start turning clear. Then add in the garlic and continue to saute for another minute or two.
2. Add the peeled and diced potatoes, salt, and pepper to the pot.
3. Pour the chicken broth over the potatoes and make sure that they are covered, adding additional water as needed.
4. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until fork tender.
5. While the potatoes are boiling, pour ¼ cup of milk in a large bowl and whisk in the flour until smooth. Pour the remaining milk in the same bowl; set aside.
6. Optional: Once the potatoes are fork tender, use an immersion blender to partially blend the mixture - you want about 1/4 blended to make a creamier soup.
7. Add the milk mixture to the pot and continue to simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Add the sharp cheddar cheese and diced ham. Continue to simmer until the cheese is melted and ham is heated through, stirring constantly.
9. Remove from the heat. Serve immediately with additional cheddar cheese, green onions, and bacon on top.

Bread Box Toastmaster Bread Machine

Recently, I've been disappointed with the bread results from my nice Hitachi bread machine.

I've not had a good loaf of bread in ages, possibly in more than a year. 

The bread has always been tasty, but incredibly heavy: it hasn't risen. 

 

So this week, we were visiting a store for used household goods, and I found this little Toastmaster Bread Box for $10.00; I brought it home. It came with good documentation (a good part of the value), so I read up on it. 

Two primary differences from Hitachi:  

▪️ It's a much smaller loaf: 2¾ cups of flour rather than 4 cups, and

▪️ There were two differences in the basic recipe for white bread: 

    🔸 The instructions insisted that the liquid be added first, before the dry ingredients. That's directly contrary to the way I have been doing it. & 

    🔸 The instructions called for lemon juice in a white bread recipe.

I've been making bread in bread machines for decades, even researching and inventing new recipes. And I've never seen lemon juice in a yeasted bread recipe. 

But I tried it, as specified. Well, mostly as specified: I didn't have lemon juice, so I used lime juice.  

  Oh, my goodness! That is the best white bread I've had in a very long time! 

 

Wonderfully open, light. Toasts remarkably well. I don't taste the lime in the bread (it was only a teaspoon), but it was really good. 

 

Ingredients: (and apparently the sequence is important): 

⅞   cup warm (80ºf, 27c) water
1½ TBSP olive oil
1    tsp lemon (or lime) juice
1½ tsp salt
2   TBSP sugar
1   TBSP powdered milk
2½ cups plain (or bread) flour
1¼ tsp active dry yeast.

Instructions:
• Put everything into the bread machine in this sequence!
• Press "Go".
• Come back in 4 hours when it's done & enjoy your bread.

Also note: Wheat bread:

Update: The 1½ pound loaf of White and Wheat, with 1½ tsp good yeast plus ½ tsp old-and-tired yeast, cooked on the French Bread #6 setting worked wonderfully.