Mini Pita Biscuits

I like the idea of biscuits. 

 The easy to roll out, perfectly round, individual portions - in other words the Perfect Biscuit.  However, I have never discovered this holy grail.  Most recipes leave you with a messy counter, crumbs of flour and butter and are hard to mix together.   If a recipe says anything about 'pea sized' bits of cut in butter, I know I won't have fun making that recipe (even though I will probably suffer through making it).

Yesterday, I was planning on making pizza, so I started to make some dough.  I only had 2 hours to make it from yeast poof to eat, so I decided to make my favorite pita bread recipe for the crust.  Then I thought, "Why can't I make this dough into biscuits?" 

And Behold!  The Mini Pita Biscuit was made!

This dough is really nice and easy to handle.  It is dream dough!  The pita biscuits are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside AND they still taste great the 2nd day.

Mini Pita Biscuits

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp instant (also called: fast acting or bread machine) yeast

2 tsp baking powder (secret ingredient!)

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 cup water

2 Tbs veg. oil

Combine all the ingredients to form a shaggy dough.  Kneed dough for 5 mins. in an electric mixer or 10 mins by hand, until it's smooth.  Place dough in a lightly greased bowl and let rest in a warm place for 1 hour.

Heat oven to 500F degrees.

  Turn the dough out onto your work surface - kneed gently a couple times- Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick (the thick the dough the higher they will rise in the oven).  Cut into circles with a biscuit cutter or squares with a pizza cutter. 

Place biscuits on lightly greased cookie sheets and bake for 5 mins until golden brown.

Remove from oven and enjoy!

Rosemary Focaccia

Rosemary Foccacia

Dough: 1 1/3 cups lightly packed cooked potato

1 1/2 tsp rapid rise yeast

31/2 cups flour

1 cup warm water

2 Tbs olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

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Toppings: 2 Tbs olive oil

2 Tbs fresh rosemary

1/4 tsp coarse sea salt or kosher salt

(make sure you use coarse salt - reg. salt will melt into your dough-I speak from experience - trust me, it's weird tasting - use coarse salt)

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It doesn't look like much, but this is the best foccacia bread ever. Actually, this is the only foccacia bread I've ever made. If you have the best recipe, why try another?

I've been making this for years, probably since I was 12. It's very popular at parties.

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In a large bowl mix together yeast, 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water. Set aside until bubbly, about 20 mins. Add remaining dough ingredients, including potato. Mix until dough is smooth and elastic-about 5 mins.

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Transfer dough to lightly oiled bowl and cover. Allow to rise until doubled in size - about 1 hour.

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With wet hands (to prevent sticking) press dough into well oiled jelly roll pan. I like the crispy edge pieces best, so I make 2 10x6 rectangles in the pan. Cover and let rise for 1 hour, until puffy.

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Preheat oven to 423F degrees. With wet fingers gently press dimples into dough. The dimples hold the delicious toppings.

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Drizzle with olive oil - more is better. Sprinkle with salt and rosemary.

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Bake for 23-25 mins. Until crispy and golden brown.

Pulla - Finnish Cardamom Bread

I have been spelling cardamom wrong for the past month!

Since I love it so much, I should probably spell it correctly.

Cardamom is a rich and decadent spice.

It adds flavor depth.

mmmmmmm

Ok Recipe.

This recipe is from The Winter Vegetarian by Darra Goldstein.

It's a great book.

But I think there is something wrong with this recipe.

She says to add between 7 to 8 cups of flour and knead the dough.

I added 8 cups of flour and had batter.

There was no possible way to knead it - I tried.

I added some more flour, but it was still to soft to knead.

Which is fine!

Egg/milk bread shouldn't be kneaded.

But then how much flour is necessary?

Who knows!

Someday I want to work this recipe out, but for now here is the recipe from The Winter Vegetarian

Finnish Cardamom Bread - Pulla

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2 1/2 tsp. yeast

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1 teaspoon plus 3/4 cup sugar

2 cups lukewarm milk

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. ground cardamom

12 Tbs. butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted

4 eggs

7 to 8 cups flour

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1 egg white, lightly beaten

3 Tbs. pearl or colored sugar

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Dissolve the yeast in the water with 1 tsp. of sugar until bubbly. Stir in the milk, remaining 3/4 cup sugar, salt,cardamom, melted butter, eggs and 4 cups of the flour. Beat well. Gradually add just enough flour to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured board and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 mins. (Good luck with that!)

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Place the dough in a large greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover and leave to rise until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Punch down the dough and let rise again until nearly doubled, about 1 hour.

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Divide dough into 3 pieces. Divided each piece into 3 balls of equal size. Roll each ball out between your hands into a rope about 12 in. long. Braid 3 ropes together, turning the ends under. Place the loaf on a lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough. Cover the loaves and leave them to rise until slightly puffy, 20 to 30 mins.

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Preheat the oven to 375 F. Brush the loaves with the beaten egg and sprinkle them with the sugar.

Bake for 25 to 30 mins.

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I obviously didn't braid them.

I made 4 round loaves instead.

Ricotta Souffle Strata

Last month Marx Foods sent me a box of fun stuff.

Mushrooms, chiles, vanilla sugar and smoked salt.

Mmmm, yummy!

Look at it all! Amazing!

I took Lobster and Black Trumpet mushrooms, added some Japones chiles and a little smoked salt. Then with a little help from the girls....

I took 11 eggs.

Yeah, eleven.

6 I used in the strata and 5 I used in the ricotta souffle top.

I layered left over challah bread with artichoke, crab, diced red pepper, the mushrooms, chiles and a little black pepper/salt.

Then I mixed 6 eggs with a cup of whole milk and poured that over the top of the strata.

Then I mixed the remaining 5 eggs with 1 cup of ricotta cheese.

Spread that over the top of the strata and baked it at 325 degrees for 40 mins.

I just wanted to show you how shiny the top was.
It was the tastiest old bread I've ever had.

Best Ever Challah

I'm sort of obsessed with potato water.

You may have noticed that I've used it in a lot of my recipes recently.

It's so wonderful!

The potato water makes such a difference in this bread.

It's silky, smooth and easy to handle.

Easy to handle is very important in challah, because of the 'fancy' braiding.

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Best Ever Challah

Sponge:

1 cup flour

1 cup potato water (liquid reserved from boiling potatoes)

2 tsp yeast

In a large bowl mix flour, potato water and yeast. Cover and let sit for 45 mins.

Dough:

3 1/3 cups flour

1 3/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

4 large eggs

Add flour and butter to the sponge ingredients. Mix until combined then add the rest of the ingredients. Turn dough out onto your work surface and knead. Dust with flour and knead again.

Place dough into a well greased bowl and cover it.

2 ways to continue: 1. Let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours OR 2. Place covered bowl in the refrigerator for a few hours.

I chose option 2 and left it in the fridge for 18 hours. I made it the night before and baked it when I got home from work the next day. Perfect!

Either way you choose - Next, punch down dough and divide it in to 3 equal pieces. Roll the 3 pieces into 12-14 inch long ropes. On your well greased/silpat covered baking sheet braid the 3 pieces together.

Let rise for 1 hour, until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Egg wash:

One egg, beaten with a little salt.

Before baking, brush loaf with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds.

Bake for 40 mins or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Challah with butter and my Pure Gold Marmalade.

Don't let the braiding scare you away from trying this.

I literally made this up and figured out how to braid it, just because I had 4 eggs to use up.

Try it!

And let me know how it turns out.

Pickles and Bread

I baked and canned before work on Thursday -

Golden Egg bread, banana bread, peaches and garlic dill pickles.

I added grape leaves to the pickles They are supposed to keep the pickles crisp.

(Golden Egg bread recipe below)

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The life of a dill pickle:

Hanging on the vine.

And canned.

Golden Egg Bread

Make sponge:

1 cup flour

1 cup warm water

2 tsp. yeast

Let sponge sit covered for 45 min. in a warm place, until bubbly.

Dough:

31/2 cups flour

1 3/4 tsp. salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

3 large eggs

Mix sponge and all dough ingredients in an electric mixer.

Dough will be very sticky.

Place dough into a well greased bowl, cover and place in a warm location.

Let rise until doubled - 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

With wet hands (dough is very sticky) shape dough and place it into a bread loaf pan.

Let dough rise for 1 hour.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 min, until bread sounds hollow when the bottom of the loaf is tapped.