Low-Carb Flax Seed Crackers

From La Carihuela we rented a car and drove to my dear cousin Lucy and Larry’s place in San José, about 3.5 hours from La Carihuela. We spent the next three weeks in their beautifully renovated flat overlooking the Mediterranean. They were kind enough to create a beautiful kitchen for us, including my favourite, an induction stovetop. Induction is definitely the way to go in Europe, in fact, it outnumbers gas and electric by more than 70% in the stores. It is far more efficient, and apparently not nearly as bad for the environment as gas. Have you ever cooked on Induction?

Here are a few pics of the flat:

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We were still trying to maintain a low-carb diet, during our stay in Spain in February-March, but it was a lot more difficult than at home. Ingredients that I have come to rely on like Lupin Flour, vital wheat gluten, and oat fibre were impossible to find so I had to improvise. Flax seeds were readily available so I created a flax seed cracker. It’s similar to the almond flour cracker but not nearly as heavy so you could have a few more without filling up.

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes about 2 x 20 cm x 30 cm sheet (2 x 8 inch x 12 inch sheet)

Ingredients:

• 150 g flax seeds, ground but some left whole
• 1 egg, beaten
• 5 g olive oil
• 30 g hard cheese, grated
• 2 g granulated onion, finely ground
• 2 g ground pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and process until thoroughly combined. 
3. Spill out the mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Using a second piece of parchment, roll the dough out until it is approximately 20 cm x 30 cm sheet (8 inch x 12 inch sheet). Remove the top parchment and bake until it is lightly golden (the crackers will stiffen up as they cool).
4. When cool, break the crackers into bite-sized pieces.

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Low-Carb Flatbread

Stop right now! You have to make this if you are doing a low-carb diet. This is literally the best low-carb flatbread I have ever created. They’re fabulously chewy and springy. They fold perfectly to cradle the kebab and resist cracking or breaking apart. 

This flatbread has been a long and difficult journey. JT has had to endure some pretty bad flat bread samples. True, it’s pretty easy to make a flatbread that is thin and holds your kebab, but the difficulty lies in the chewy and springy texture that the original flatbread has. It’s mandatory for flatbread. This recipe has it all. 

Low-Carb Flatbread

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes 8 flatbreads

Ingredients:

• 320 g water, about 60° F
• 2 g sugar
• 8 g instant yeast
• 80  g Lupin Flour
• 170 g Vital Wheat Gluten
• 38 g Oat Fibre
• 30 g psyllium husk, ground
• 48 g Erythritol
• 8 g Sea Salt
• 20 g baking powder

Directions:

1. Combine the water, and yeast and set aside to allow the yeast to bloom.
2. In the large bowl of your stand mixer, combine the erythritol with vital wheat gluten, oat fibre, lupin flour, psyllium husk, and salt, and stir to mix well.
3. Once the yeast has become foamy, add it to the flour mixture and knead with the cookie dough paddle until the dough has come together. Allow to rest for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the salt and baking powder onto the dough and continue to knead for 15 minutes. Form the dough into a ball with your hands and cover to rest for 30 minutes.
4. Once rested, divide the dough into 8 equal portions, roll out each piece into an oval, rub with EVOO and allow to rest for 10 minutes covered with a clean kitchen towel.
5. Preheat a cast iron pan on medium heat. Cook each flatbread until golden, flip and continue until all have been cooked. Freeze in an airtight container/bag. Defrost in the refrigerator and reheat, slightly dampened with water on each side.

The kebabs fit into this flatbread perfectly.

 

Low-Carb Flat Bread Nutrition for 1 flatbread

Notes:

1. The sugar gets completely eaten by the yeast, although I have included it in the nutitional ingredients.

They are quite foldable, they won’t crack.

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Low-Carb Cauliflour, Vital Wheat Gluten and Lupin Flour Gnocchi

Well, our journey through low-carb cuisine has not been bad, as attested by JT. I have been slowly converting many of our high-carb recipes to low-carb versions and it’s been rather fun. My latest creation is low-carb gnocchi. It has the chewiness and puffiness that regular flour gnocchi have without the carb-load. JT was impressed.

They are predicting our first really heavy snowstorm for this afternoon. Glad I made a few of these tasty morsels.

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

This recipe makes 246 g of gnocchi dough about 50 gnocchi. 2-4 servings

Ingredients:

• 115 g cauliflower mash (see notes)
• 57.5 g Vital Wheat Gluten
• 57.5 Lupin Flour
• 10 g Parmesan Cheese, finely grated
• 11.5 g egg, beaten

To fry:

• 15 mL EVOO or butter

Directions:

1. Combine everything in the large bowl of your food processor and process with the plastic blade until entirely combined (the dough may not come together in a ball, but you will be able to form it into a ball).
2. Pour it onto a lightly floured* surface and form it into a ball. then divide it into smaller pieces to make into a roll. I weighed mine so they would be more accurate but you don’t have to.
3. Cook into boiling water immediately or freeze on a baking tray so they don’t touch each other.
4. Cooking is similar to regular gnocchi, they sink when they are raw and float when they are done.
5. If you’ve cooked them and wish to crisp them, heat a frying pan with the EVOO or butter and fry each gnocchi so they are golden and crisp on each side.

Low-Carb Gnocchi in a creamy Gorgonzola Sauce sprinkled with lemon zest to freshen it up.

This is a dinner I made with Cod wrapped in Serrano Ham and had gnocchi as a side.

Notes:

• Cauliflower mash is simply roasted cauliflower with a little EVOO until soft and blended with an immersion blender until smooth, I usually have leftovers so I made gnocchi with the leftovers.
• *Use Lupin flour or vital wheat gluten to dust your work surface.
• These are best fresh but do freeze well. I detected a slight change in texture while JT did not.

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Low-Carb Fajita Shells

I can honestly tell you that Vital Wheat Gluten and Lupin Flour are a game changer for my low-carb world. The vital wheat gluten gives you the strength and resilience of bread flour and the lupin flour gives a bit of a whole wheat feel and because it’s so high in fibre, it really lowers the net carbs in recipes. I have made a few breads using almond flour but I just find they are far too heavy for my taste. The Lupin Flour and Vital Wheat Gluten are the perfect combo. I found this recipe on Reddit here but I kept losing it, so I thought I would do a post about it so that I can find it whenever I need fajita shells.

These have the same chewy texture that white flour tortillas have with some extra fiber for texture. JT loved them.

Low-Carb Fajita Shells

Makes 8 small fajita shells (about 12 cm (5 inch) diameter

Ingredients:

• 77 g vital wheat gluten,
• 32 g oat fibre
• 25 g lupin flour
• 15 g coconut flour
• 2.5 g baking powder
• 4 g salt
• 0.75 g xanthan gum
• 105 g warm water (more or less as needed)
• 32 g olive oil
• Olive oil cooking spray

Directions:

1. Add all of the ingredients to the large bowl of your stand mixer, and using the scraper paddle, start mixing everything together.  Continue with the scraper paddle for 5 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky but should come away cleanly from the bowl.
2. Collect the dough and press it into a nice round ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and allow it to rest for 20 minutes at room temperature. This allows the vital gluten to relax so it is easier to roll.
3. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and roll out to about 3 mm thick or as close as you can. Run each piece through the pasta maker attachment from “0” to “4” so each ball becomes one long piece of dough. Cut the dough into 12 cm circles using a cookie cutter or a knife and a plate as your form. Re-use the leftover dough to make more fajita shells.
4. Heat a cast iron pan to medium heat (325° F), spray the pan with the cooking spray, and cook each side for about one minute or less, until they are golden brown. Use immediately or freeze layered with parchment paper. Defrost in the refrigerator, overnight and gently heat to use.

Notes:

• I like using the scraper paddle for lupin flour dough, it seems to work the dough better than the hook.

• To cut perfect circles for my fajita shells, I use an inverted bowl that has the same diameter as my pasta maker has width, that way I get the largest fajita shell I can from the sheets.

• This dough is very difficult to roll out, that is why I used my pasta maker attachment but it does leach oil when it is pressed through so have a cloth under the pasta maker to control the mess.

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Brown Butter Banana Bread

About a week before Christmas, I had lunch with my cousin. I met her at her gorgeous new home in Don Mills. I noticed she had several overly ripe bananas sitting on her counter so I asked what she planned to do with them. She said she already had 16 in her freezer so I suggested I would take three off her hands, and thus was born the following brown butter banana bread!

Nutty brown butter with the flavour and moistness of bananas!

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes 1 loaf about 21 cm x 11 cm (~8.25 inches x 4.5 inches)

Ingredients:

• 113 g butter, melted, browned and cooled
• 150 g light brown sugar
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, combined and whisked
• 330 g ripe bananas, mashed
• 280 g all purpose flour
• 7 g baking soda
• 3 g salt
• 2 g nutmeg
• Sliced almonds for sprinkling on top

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F on the convection setting. Prepare a small loaf pan by lining it with parchment paper.
2. In the small bowl of your food processor, combine the melted, brown butter with the two sugars, process well.
3. Combine the whisked eggs with the mashed bananas and add it to the sugar mixture while processing. Set aside.
4. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and whisk until no longer lumpy.
5. Pour it into the prepared pan and sprinkle with the almonds. Bake for 70-80 minutes or until a wooden tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a towel on the counter.

These are amazing toasted.

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Unleavened Turkish Lavash

Part of our escape from winter next year will be going on a luxury cruise from Istanbul, Turkey to Athens, Greece. I wanted to become more familiar with Turkish food so we went to a Turkish restaurant and loved it so much I thought we should experiment with a few recipes. I made these lavash to go with Adana Kabobs (lamb and beef kabobs) for dinner one night. To say it was a success is an understatement, they were extremely delicious! I can’t wait to try this in Turkey next year.

Soft and chewy, the perfect texture to wrap a brightly-flavoured Turkish kabab.

Makes 6 small-medium-sized lavash

This is a combination of several recipes.

Ingredients:

• 250 g bread flour
• 4 g salt
• 100 g water
• 15 g Greek yogurt
• 30 g EVOO

Directions:

1. Combine flour and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer and give it a quick mix.
2. In another container, mix the water, yogurt, and oil. While the mixer is on low speed, pour in the wet yogurt mixture. Mix until the yogurt mixture is entirely combined with the flour. Allow to sit for 10 minutes.
3. After 10 minutes, continue to knead the dough until no longer sticky and is firm and smooth (10-15 minutes).
4. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
5. Divide the dough into six equal portions and roll out each one to an oval or a circle adding flour as necessary, if sticky.
6. Using a cast iron frying pan, on medium-high heat, cook each lavash until golden but not hard.
7. Serve warm with kabobs.

These are the kababs we had in a restaurant. I am hoping to get the appropriate kabab skewers in Turkey next year!

Notes:

• Freeze lavash in a ziplock bag with most of the air removed. To reheat, slightly dampened from frozen on a medium-heat frying pan.

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Potato Buns

As 2023 summer came to an end, we started to panic to get in as many BBQs as possible. And what better to BBQ than burgers? A few years ago, we discovered a wonderfully light burger bun made with sweet potatoes! Because who wants a heavy, overpowering bun? I had some leftover mashed potatoes from a recent dinner party and decided to turn them into these buns! What a great way to utilize leftovers! These were plain, ordinary whipped potatoes made with cream and butter and a little salt. They turned into the most delicious, light buns.

You’ll notice that there is also one egg and some melted butter in this recipe that allows the dough to have that gorgeous brioche structure without being heavy. These are truly the best burger buns.

These are sturdy enough to hold a burger with condiments but they are light enough that they won’t fill you up too much

Makes  about 11 buns, about 65 g each (unbaked) with a tiny “tester” bun left over.

Ingredients:

• 454 g leftover mashed potatoes
• 65 g all-purpose flour
• 125 mL warm water
• 8 g quick-rising yeast
• 1 large egg
• 45 mL unsalted butter, melted
• 10 mL honey
• 7 g sea salt, finely ground
• 240 g bread flour, or slightly more as needed

Egg wash:

• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon water
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, or to taste

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix together the 65 g flour, warm water, and yeast, and whisk until smooth.
2. When the yeast mixture is frothy (about 10 minutes), pour it into the large bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the creamer paddle. Add the mashed potato, the egg, the melted butter, the honey, and the sea salt and mix until well incorporated. Switch the paddle to the kneading hook and add the 240 g of flour in batches. Knead 4 minutes. If the dough is still too sticky, add an additional 30 g of flour and knead until the dough is soft, elastic, and shiny (about 8 minutes). Stop and allow the dough to rest for 15 minutes. Once rested, knead again with the dough hook for an additional 10 minutes.
3. Turn the dough out into a well-oiled bowl and cover. Allow to rise until double in size (about 1 hour).
4. After it has doubled in size, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and stretch and fold a few times. Measure out the dough into 10 equal portions (about 65 g each, with one tiny “tester”) and roll each portion into a smooth ball. Allow to rest for 45 minutes or until doubled in size on a covered baking sheet.
5. Preheat your oven to 400° F. Combine the remaining egg, and water and mix well. Brush each bun with the egg mixture and sprinkle each with sesame seeds.
6. Bake in a hot oven until golden or when the internal temperature is 200° F (about 15 minutes).

Would you like one or two burgers?

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High Hydration Rosemary Focaccia

High Hydration Rosemary Focaccia

Makes one 23-cm x 33-cm pan focaccia

Ingredients:

• 50 g EVOO, plus more for drizzling
• 10 g fresh rosemary leaves
• 10 g sea salt
• 400 g All Purpose, unbleached flour
• 5 g quick-rise yeast
• 320 g of very cold water
• 5 g fresh rosemary leaves, plus more for garnish

Directions:

1. To make the rosemary-infused olive oil, simmer the rosemary and olive oil for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool completely. Strain well. Top up with more olive oil to make 50 g. Then add the salt and stir well.
2. Combine the yeast and the flour in the large bowl for your stand mixer and fit with the dough paddle. Run the paddle for 15 seconds to combine.
3. Keeping the paddle on the lowest setting, slowly spray about two-thirds of the water into the flour, allowing the flour to absorb the water as you spray. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes and then add the strained olive oil and salt mixture very slowly into the dough and mix well. I switched my dough paddle to the scrapper paddle to make sure the oil incorporated well. You will need to speed up the paddle speed to fully incorporate the oil. Then finish spraying the remaining water to make a soft, sticky dough.
4. Turn off the machine and allow it to rest for another 5 minutes. Then continue to knead the dough on high speed until it pulls away from the bowl and the bowl is pretty clean. The dough is still sticky and soft but not as sticky as before.
5. Add a little more water to the spray bottle and spray a little water on the counter, the spatula, and your hands and flip the dough out onto the board. Using your hands stretch the dough for a few minutes to develop the gluten. Allow the dough to rest for a couple of minutes. When rested, work the dough again by pulling, stretching and folding it adding the 5 g of fresh rosemary as you stretch and fold. When the dough becomes smooth and the rosemary is well incorporated, make it into a smooth ball, cover it with a little more olive oil and allow it to rest covered with a bowl for 1-2 hours.
6. When ready to bake your focaccia, stretch the ball into a lightly oiled 23-cm x 33-cm pan right to the edges. If it bounces back, allow the dough to rest a little while longer. Once stretched, make indentations with your fingers or with the end of a wooden spoon and decorate with additional rosemary leaves. Drizzle more olive oil on top, sprinkle with flaked Malden sea salt, and allow to rest while you preheat your oven to 400° F.
7. Bake the focaccia for 20 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer reads 200° F in its thickest part.

Drizzle some EVOO on top just before putting it into the oven.

Deliciously spongey focaccia.

Notes:

• This is an adaptation of the High Hydration Pizza Dough posted earlier this month.
• You may use any other fresh herb for this focaccia.

 

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Spicy Cornbread

• 105 g finely ground corn meal (not corn flour)

• 100 g all-purpose flour

• 50 g granulated sugar

• 3 g baking powder

• 2 g salt

• 1 egg, lightly beaten

• 175 mL milk

• 2 finely sliced green onions (~30 g)

• 50 g finely diced jalapeños or hot chili peppers (or more if you really like it hot!)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400° F with your cast iron pan until the pan is smoking.

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Bacon and Gruyére Scones

Scones are so easy to make and they are always a crowd-pleaser. Plus, they freeze beautifully with quick defrost in the microwave or oven. I whipped these up for the soup I posted about last week and the bacon went beautifully with the green vegetable soup. 

These delicately flakey scones have a strong gruyère aroma, particularly when you reheat them.

A kitcheninspirations original recipe

Makes 7 5 cm (2 inch) scones

Ingredients:

• 280 g AP flour
• 50 g granulated sugar
• 15 g baking powder
• 6 g salt
• 34 g cold butter, in cubes
• 16 g bacon fat
• 1 L egg
• 120 mL buttermilk
• 100 g grated Gruyére cheese
• 2 slices bacon, well done, chopped roughly
• 5 mL milk or cream

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425° F.
2. In the large bowl of your food processor, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and chopped bacon and pulse to combine.
3. Whisk to combine the egg, buttermilk, and the cooled bacon fat and slowly add it to the dry ingredients while running the processor. Change the blade to the plastic blade and add the cheese. Pulse to combine.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the scone dough to about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thick. Cut into even squares. Lay on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spaced out about 2 cm. Brush the tops with milk or cream. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden. Serve warm.

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Lupin Flour Low-Carb Brioche Buns

We’ve struggled with a low-carb diet, particularly the lack of bread. I’ve tried the almond buns, made with almond flour but they tend to be so heavy, that I find it difficult to eat it like normal bread, you become way too full. The discovery of Lupin flour paired with Vital Wheat Gluten has changed my life. We have gone back to enjoying the foods we’ve loved before low-carb and feeling rather good about it. These dinner rolls are 2 g net carb compared to a regular brioche bun which is 34 g of carbs! 

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Lupin Flour is related to soy and peanuts so if you have an allergy to either or both, you will probably be allergic to Lupin Flour.

Makes 8 hamburger-size buns or 12 slightly smaller buns or one 24 cm loaf

Ingredients:

• 236 g Filtered water, slightly warm
• 4 g Sugar
• 6 g Instant yeast
• 3 Large Eggs, room temperature, divided
• 55 g Butter, softened
• 45 g Erythritol
• 80 g Lupin flour
• 38 g Oat fiber
• 170 g Vital wheat gluten
• 3.5 g Sea salt

  
  

• 10 g Sesame seeds, toasted

Directions:

1. Combine the water, sugar, and yeast in a container and allow it to bloom for about 10 minutes.
2. In a bowl, combine two eggs and Erythritol and whisk until the Erythritol has dissolved.
3. In the large bowl of your stand mixer, whisk the lupin flour, vital wheat gluten, oat flour and sea salt together. Combine the egg/Erythritol with the bloomed yeast and mix well, add it to the flour mixture and using the scraper paddle, mix until well combined.
4. Once incorporated, add the softened butter to the dough and mix with the scraper paddle until the butter has been fully incorporated into the dough.
5. Rest the dough for ten minutes. Then knead it with the kneader hook in the stand mixer for 10-15 minutes to activate the gluten (do not skip this step, it is vital).
6. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper. Weigh the dough and divide the total weight by 8. Cut the dough into eight equal weights and roll into a nice bun and place it onto the baking sheet. These buns will roughly double in size. Repeat with the remainder of the dough. Cover the buns with a clean cloth and allow them to proof until doubled in size (mine took just shy of 2 hours).
7. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Whisk the remaining egg and brush the bun tops generously with it, Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if using. Bake the buns for 18-20 minutes or until the internal temperature is 200° F and the tops are golden. Cool completely on a wire rack.
   

Notes:

• If the tops of the buns get too dark while baking, cover lightly with foil to complete baking.
• The sugar with the yeast gets totally eaten by the yeast, not affecting the carbohydrates.
• You can make this into a loaf and get about 18 slices of bread, lowering the carb count even more!
• This dough is easily divided in half, you’ll just need 2 eggs instead of 3!
• If you’re like me, you’ll want to eliminate the Erythritol or reduce it and I suggest that you don’t. Lupin flour does not taste like wheat flour so the sweetness helps bridge the gap a bit. I have made this recipe without the Erythritol and although the texture is not affected, the taste is and it’s definitely better with the Erythritol.

Just look at that crumb, it really has a lot of spring to it.

Just look at that gorgeous crust.

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Sourdough Pull-apart Christmas Tree Rolls

No Knead Sourdough Pull-apart Christmas Tree Rolls

Makes 18 Dinner Rolls about 10 cm in diameter

Ingredients:

• 340 g bread flour
• 140 g AP unbleached white flour
• 200 mL kefir, room temperature
• 215 g active sourdough starter 
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 50 g granulated white sugar
• 5 g sea salt
• 75 g softened butter, plus more for brushing the tops when baked.
• Olive oil
• Pickled red peppers for garnish

Day one:

Making the Dough:

1. Whisk to combine the room-temperature kefir and the starter in a large bowl and whisk in the eggs and butter until well mixed (the butter will be in little pieces, that is OK).
2. Sift the bread flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, and salt and add it to the bowl with the kefir and the eggs. Use a wooden spoon or my favourite tool to mix, making sure to incorporate all of the flour, until a shaggy dough has formed.
3. Cover the dough with a tea towel to rest for an hour; every 20 minutes complete three rounds of stretches and folds.

Fermentation:

1. Coat the dough with olive oil to prevent from drying out. Cover the dough with a large plate and set aside to rise at room temperature for about 4-6 hours. The dough should double in size during this time.
2. Refrigerate the dough overnight to continue the fermentation process.

Day Two:

Shaping

1. Lightly flour a clean surface and turn the proofed dough out onto it. Knead a couple of times so it becomes pliable.
2. Weigh the dough and divide the weight into 18, cut the dough into 18 equal pieces by weight.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. Make each piece of dough into a smooth ball, by rolling it in your palms.
5. Place each ball (not crowding) onto the parchment-lined baking sheet in the shape of a Christmas tree and cover with a clean kitchen towel until doubled in size.

Baking

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F with fan (convection on) and place the rack into the middle.
2. Decorate the Christmas tree with pickled red peppers to look like garland.
3. Bake the rolls for 20-24 minutes or until they are about 200° C inside. Brush the buns with some melted butter.
4. Serve the buns warm.

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Cheddar Cheese and Onion Kefir Scones

Hearty winter soups are a staple when we are in Canada and I just love to serve soups with scones. This recipe is an old favourite but I had run out of fresh onions so I used my handy dehydrated onion flakes in this easy recipe. There is just a little time to rehydrate the onions and you’re good to go. 

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 9 large scones

Ingredients:

• 260 g AP flour
• 15 g sugar
• 15 g baking powder
• 5 g salt
• 2 g cream of tartar
• 56 g cold butter
• 155 g frozen, shredded sharp cheddar cheese, plus more for topping
• 200 mL buttermilk, 15 mL for brushing the tops
• 30 g dehydrated onion flakes

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Rehydrate the onions flakes in the buttermilk for 5 minutes.
3. Combine the dry ingredients in the large bowl of your food processor with the blades and mix well.
4. Cut in the cold butter until it resembles a coarse meal. Replace the blade with the plastic dough blade.
5. Add the buttermilk onion mixture and cheese to the flour and pulse to combine into a ball (cheese should still be frozen or at the very least, extremely cold).
6. If it’s really warm in your kitchen, it’s best to refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. With very little flour to prevent sticking, roll the dough into 1 cm thickness and use your favourite cookie cutter to cut even shapes (I used 5 cm squares with scalloped edges.
7. Place each shape onto the prepared baking sheet about a centimetre apart and brush the tops with the extra buttermilk. Add a pinch of frozen shredded cheese to each top, if desired.
8. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

So flakey and delicious!

Notes:

• I buy my cooking/baking cheese on sale in 400 g logs and I grate them into zip-lock bags and freeze them. If you break up the shreds as they freeze, they won’t stick together in clumps.
• The frozen cheese will help make these flakey.

These are the grey days that just kill me.

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Super fluffy Keffir Pancakes

We had some dear friends over for brunch in early October and I thought I’d make a “Biggy Breakfast” for us. You know the ones on the menu at your local greasy spoon: eggs, bacon, sausage, home fries, and pancakes! Overboard, indeed, but it’s the type of breakfast that is easy to share. These pancakes are my favourite, so light and fluffy. I normally make them with buttermilk but I had some unflavoured Keffir on hand so I thought, why not?

Ingredients:

• 200 g all-purpose flour
• 200 mL keffir
• 100 mL water or milk
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 30 g sugar
• 10 mL vanilla extract
• 7 g baking powder
• 7 g baking soda
• pinch of cream of tartar
• pinch salt
• 1 nonstick cooking spray

Directions:

1. In a bowl sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.
2. Beat egg white and cream of tartar on high speed until stiff peaks form but not dry.
3. Beat the egg yolk with the sugar until creamy, pale yellow and thick; add the keffir and the water or milk, vanilla and beat until smooth on a slow speed.
4. Fold in the sifted flour mixture gently (don’t over mix as we don’t want the glutens activated).
5. Fold the beaten egg white into the batter and mix together gently, do not over-mix!
6. Spray your skillet with non-stick spray set to medium temperature (or 350°F).
7. Drop about 125 mL of batter on the pan for each pancake and spread out to about 15-20 cm and cook until you see a few bubbles on the surface of the batter. Flip the pancakes and cook for about another 1-2 minutes and the pancake is not too wobbly when you touch the centre with your fingers. Repeat until you have used up all the batter.
8. Keep warm until you have made all the pancakes and serve warm with butter, maple syrup, fruit, and whipped cream!

They are the fluffiest!

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Retro Olive Balls

You may have noticed from my other socials that we have escaped Toronto and finally headed to Spain. Our first trip in February was cancelled by you know what. We are here for 51 days. The sun and relative warmth have been life-altering. I wake up just to see the sunrise on the Mediterranean (it’s not that bad, 7:30-ish during our stay).

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Our kitchen in the flat (my cousin’s flat) is challenging from a size point. I have fitted it with most of my favourite tools so I can do most things but finding a place to do them can be a challenge. Most people who rent do take away or go out to one of the many restaurants in this little village. The Spaniards like to eat late (9pm would be considered an early dinner) but I find it difficult to eat that late, so we end up going out for lunch and having a light dinner around 7pm. Although the first few attempts to lunch were failures as many places don’t open until at least 1:30 (we don’t eat breakfast) and they close between 2-5pm for Siesta. Don’t get me started on Siesta, it is a beloved ritual in the smaller centres. This little recipe was developed to take us through cocktails one evening. 

Retro Olive Balls

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 8 pastry-wrapped olives

Ingredients:

• 15 g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 60 g cheese, we used manchego
• 60 g flour
• 15 g roasted garlic purée
• Salt, pepper to taste
• water to bind
• 8 olives

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Combine everything but the olives in the small bowl of a food processor and process until combined. If the dough still doesn’t come together, add a few drops of water and pulse until it comes together.
3. Divide the dough into eight equal portions. Roll each portion into a small circle and wrap around each olive, rolling in your hand until it is smooth. Repeat until all of the olives are wrapped.
4. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet until golden, serve warm.

A delicious buttery pastry enveloping a Manzanilla Olive.

Notes:

• I used unpitted Spanish Manzanilla Olives because it is what I had at home, black olives or even pimento-stuffed olives would be lovely with this recipe. Make sure you mention to your guests that the olives are with pitts.
• Double or triple this recipe for more tasty little balls.

 

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Turk-ish Eggs

I saw this Nigella Lawson recipe on my friend Mimi’s socials and in reading Nigella Lawson’s description of it made me want to try it. I was able to source the Aleppo pepper flakes at my favourite spice store in Kensington Market, Carlos’ House of Spice. I called it Turk-ish because I altered the recipe somewhat but you can click on the original here.

Creamy and tangy against the rich Aleppo butter sauce.

The Aleppo pepper flakes are not burning hot, there is mild heat but even I can take it so it’s pretty mild. It has a lovely fruity taste that comes through in the nutty brown butter. The tangy yogurt is beautifully mellowed by the brown butter sauce. It’s a lovely dish that is totally guest-worthy.

Turk-ish Eggs

Please click here for the original recipe

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 200 mL Plain Greek yogurt
• 10 g roasted garlic purée
• 2-4 g Sea salt flakes or kosher salt
• 30 g unsalted butter
• 15 mL extra virgin olive oil
• 2-5 g Aleppo pepper/Turkish red pepper flakes
• 2 large eggs, cold
• 10 mL lemon juice, divided
• 1/2 avocado, mashed with a fork
• Toasted bread

Directions:

1. Whisk the yogurt and roasted garlic in a bowl over a bain-marie and gently warm the yogurt, set aside.
2. Warm two bistro bowls.
3. Melt the butter and gently cook until the milk solids turn golden brown, remove from the heat and stir in the olive oil, Aleppo pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt. Set aside.
4. Gently bring a low-sided pan, filled with water to a light boil and turn it down so there are no visible bubbles. Meanwhile, crack each egg into a fine-mesh sieve and allow the loose whites to drain away, slide into a ramekin. Add 5 mL lemon juice into each ramekin with the drained egg. Gently lower each egg into the simmering water and cook until desired consistency (we love runny yolks 3-5 minutes).
5. To serve, divide the yogurt into the two bowls evenly spoon the mashed avocado into the centre. Place a poached egg on top and drizzle with the Aleppo butter sauce. Serve with lots of toast.

Notes:

• The addition of avocado is not authentic in this recipe, I had a half that needed using. It was a beautiful creamy texture against the yogurt.
• If you think two slices of toast will do, make two more, you’ll need it to soak up the yogurt-butter-egg sauce!

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Easy, Quick Flatbread

We’re getting into patio season here in the Big Smoke and patio season means glasses of vino and cocktails with friends on our cozy covered patio. I never like to serve alcohol without something to nosh on and I had a couple of dips in the freezer that needed a little flatbread. This recipe whipped up very quickly and because it is not a yeasted dough, no rising was required. They do puff up quite a bit, so roll them on the thinner side.

Quick & Easy Flatbread

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 4 flat breads about 20 cm (8 inches) in diametre

Ingredients:

• 300 g “00” flour
• 8 g baking powder
• 2 g baking soda
• 160 g Greek yogurt
• 20 g olive oil
• 45 g water
• 125 mL olive oil for frying

Directions:

1. Mix the dry ingredients well; combine the wet ingredients and whisk well. Combine the dry and the wet and kneed for a minute or two.
2. Divide into four equal balls (mine were 133 g) and roll out to about.5 cm thick.
3. Heat the olive oil to 350° F and fry each side of the flatbreads until the inside temperature is 150° F. Cool on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil. Serve warm or grilled and cut into wedges.

Notes:

• Freeze cooked flatbreads in a ziplock bag.

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Kartofdzhyn (Cheese and Potato Stuffed Bread)

I started watching a couple of Ontario-guys on Facebook who try to prove or disprove crazy videos they’ve seen, mostly of food but it can also be science or cleaning and such. They are a bit goofy which makes them rather charming. Their girlfriends sometimes participate in these videos by making some outlandish foods. This traditional Georgian potato, cheese-stuffed bread was one of them. The recipe looked so good, I had to do a little research and make my own. Their recipe was fairly straight forward using baking powder and not yeast bread dough, but the research showed that most of the recipes were yeasted bread dough, so I went with that. Then I found a few that had egg in them which gives the bread a wonderful, chewy texture. Then there is the mashed potato and cheese stuffed inside. OMG, so good. My recipe makes four disks about 20 cm in diametre, cut into eight portions.  The bread freezes very well. Remember to put it in the refrigerator overnight to defrost, then allow it to come to room temperature before baking. We went through two bad boys in two days and I sent a third one to a friend who was going to visit her parents! The fourth one is under lock and key in the freezer, I’m saving it for a special time! I will definitely be making this recipe again and again!

Soft, pillowy mashed potatoes with the sharp feta (or goat) and gooey mozzarella makes for a more-ish starter.

Kartofdzhyn (Cheese and Potato Stuffed Bread)

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 4 stuffed bread rounds about 20 cm (8 inches) each

Ingredients for the Bread:

• 6 g quick yeast
• 8 g granulated sugar
• 120 mL milk, at 110F
• 460 g bread flour
• 6 g salt
• 215 g Greek yogurt
• 2 eggs
• Olive oil for the dough
• 1 egg yolk, whisked for brushing the dough

Directions:

1. Combine the yeast and sugar with the warm milk and allow to proof for about 10 minutes (it should froth up)
2. Add the flour and salt to the large bowl of your stand mixer and mix lightly.
3. Combine the Greek yogurt and eggs with the frothy yeast mixture and whisk until well combined.
4. Add the liquid ingredients to the flour and knead with the hook for 10 minutes. Stop the mixer and allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes, then resume kneading for about 15 minutes or until the dough comes away from the bowl.
5. Coat the dough with olive oil and allow to proof for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

Ingredients for the Filling:

• 2 medium yellow potatoes (about 230 g), boiled
• 30 g butter
• 30 g roasted garlic purée
• 2 scallions, finely chopped
• 100 g feta cheese or goats cheese
• 230 g mozzarella
• 6 g salt

Directions:

1. Mash the potatoes with butter and roasted garlic, then beat with a whisk beater until light and fluffy. Fold in the scallions, cheeses, and salt and set aside.

Directions for the dough disks:

1. Divide the dough into four equal portions. Roll out each portion evenly to a circle about 25 cm (10 inches). 
2. Add one-quarter of the filling to the centre of each round and pull in each side to form a sealed disk. Flip over and gently roll out to about 20 cm (8 inches). Pierce the top of the disk with a fork and brush each dough disk with the egg yolk. Set aside while the oven preheats or freeze on a baking sheet and transfer to a plastic zip-lock bag for the future.
3. If baking at the moment, put a cast-iron pan into the oven and pre-heat the oven to 400° F. Add one disk to the hot pan and bake for 20 minutes. When done, remove from the heat and brush the top with some more olive oil. Serve warm.

 

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No Knead Olive Oil Focaccia

NOTE:

I have been alerted that there may be a problem commenting through Facebook or Twitter, I am looking into it. Thank you A.

We hosted another couple for New Year’s Eve, it was supposed to be two couples but, you know, Covid; the other couple cancelled because they were not comfortable in coming over by transit (they don’t have a car any more) not because they had it. I made a series of tapas for the evening to tried and spread out the night as much as possible and one such dish was a replica of a burrata dish with golden beat carpaccio that we have had on several occasions at a local Italian restaurant. They serve it with the lightest, fluffiest focaccia so I, of course, had to recreate it. The crust is only slightly crispy, just like theirs, which I achieved by brushing the top with water about 5 minutes before the timer finished.

A deliciously chewy and flavourful bread.

Ingredients:

• 670 g Italian “00” Flour
• 10 g instant yeast
• 10 g milk powder
• 15 g salt
• 10 g Fleischmann’s Bread Booster
• 500 mL warm water
• 60 mL Extra Virgin Olive Oil (plus additional for drizzling)

Directions:

1. Spray a 28 cm x 39 cm pan with cooking spray or EVOO and drizzle an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of EVOO on the bottom.
2. Combine all of the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the olive oil to the warm water and mix vigorously. Pour the olive oil water into the dry ingredients and whisk vigorously with a Danish Dough Whisk until entirely combined. The dough should appear very loose and shaggy.
3. Allow to rest in a warm dark place for about an hour or until doubled in size.
4. When doubled, pour the dough into your prepared pan and spread it out as evenly as you can pressing your fingertips into the dough to achieve the traditional pock marks on a focaccia. Pour another 45 mL Extra Virgin Olive Oil onto the top. Allow to rest another 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 375°F. After dough has rested, bake for 30 minutes or until golden. If you prefer a chewier crust, brush the top occasionally with water. Allow to cool slightly before slicing into it. 

1. 1. This is the Danish Dough Whisk I use.
   2. Use a flavourful Olive Oil.
   3. Bread freezes very well. Make sure you take out as much air from the bag as possible.

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Jalapeño Jack Scones

 

Jalopeño Jack Scones

Makes 9 5 cm (2 inch) scones

Ingredients:

• 280 g AP flour
• 50 g granulated sugar
• 15 g baking powder
• 6 g salt
• 56 g cold butter, in cubes
• 1 L egg
• 120 mL buttermilk
• 100 g grated sharp cheese (I used jalapeño Monterey Jack)
• 5 mL milk
• 10 g Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425° F.
2. In the large bowl of your food processor, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter and pulse to combine. 
3. Whisk to combine the egg and buttermilk and slowly add it to the dry ingredients while running the processor. Change the blade to the plastic blade and add the cheese. Pulse to combine.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the scone dough to about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thick. Cut into even squares. Lay on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spaced out about 2 cm. Brush the tops with the milk and sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on the top of each scone. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden. Serve warm.

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Ham, Cheese and Apple Bread Pudding

 

Ingredients:

• Butter to coat pan
• 4 large eggs
• 375 mL milk
• 2 g sea salt
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 180 g sourdough bread cut into largish cubes
• 1/2 apple, like gala, cored and sliced thinly
• 100 g ham, cut into ribbons
• 70+ g Gouda or Gruyère, divided

Directions:

1. Brush the melted butter along the bottom and sides of a 9” x 9” decorative baking dish.
2. Whisk the eggs, milk, salt and nutmeg.
3. Lay the bread evenly in the prepared baking dish, place the ham and apples evenly throughout, then sprinkle 70g of the cheese over it tucking it into the spaces.
4. Pour the egg mixture over the bread, ham, apples and cheese evenly. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
5. The next day, remove the prepared bread pudding from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature, about an hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and bake for 40-45 minutes or until set. All the bread pudding to sit for 10-15 minutes to fully set.
7. Serve with yogurt and Dijon maple syrup.

Ingredients

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Herbed Bread Knots

I have been following fellow blogger, Lorraine Eliott over at Not-Quite-Nigella on Instagram and in August she posted a photo of the most beautiful bread knots I have ever seen. I knew the moment I saw them, I’d have to give them a go. They are not only beautiful, but they are also very tasty and quite easy to make so I’m sharing the recipe here so that I will remember to make them again.

I made 12 knots but to be honest, they were a little too big so next time, I’ll make 14!

Makes about 12 -14 bread knots. For the original recipe please click here.

Ingredients:

• 6 g instant dried yeast
• 250 mL warm water (around 110° F)
• 400 g flour
• 6 g granulated garlic
• 3 g Salt
• 15 mL EVOO
• 70 g unsalted butter, softened
• 25 g roasted garlic purée
• 100 g Parmesan cheese, grated
• Variety of herbs to make up about 20 g, chopped or julienned
• Eggwash to glaze

Directions:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water, set aside. In the large bowl of your stand mixer, add the flour, garlic and salt and mix well.
2. Add the yeasty water to the bowl with the flour mixture and knead for 2-3 minutes until it is roughly incorporated. Allow the dough to sit for 20 minutes. Then start the kneader up again and knead until a beautiful shiny dough is achieved (around 10 minutes). Grease the bowl and the dough with the EVOO and allow to proof in a draft-free location for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
3. Meanwhile, cream the butter, the roasted garlic, the Parmesan cheese and the herbs until well mixed.
4. Once the dough has doubled in size, roll out to 35 cm x 50 cm. Spread the butter mixture all on the dough, right to the edge. Fold it length-wise into thirds (like you would making croissants) and lightly roll out to a slightly larger rectangle (careful not to put too much weight in rolling, otherwise the butter mixture will ooze out).
5. Cut the dough into 12-14 equal widths and make an additional length-wise slit down each width without going right to the edge. Lift by each end and roll into a beautiful knot, carefully twisting each roll so that the cut sides are exposed and you can see the herbs. Tuck each end into the knot and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Make all of the knots and allow the knots to rest for 30 minutes covered with a clean cloth.
6. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Bake the knots for 18-25 minutes or until the centre registers about 200° F. Serve immediately, but they also freeze beautifully. Reheat in a 350° F oven for a few minutes until they are warmed through.

They are a cross between bread and a laminated dough, the layers are scrumptious!

Notes:

• Any herbs would work, I used basil, parsley and thyme.
• I may not chop the herbs as finely next time.
• I can’t wait to try sundried tomatoes and basil with mozzarella cheese or a sweet treat of cinnamon butter and sugar.

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Pulled Pork Revisited

This recipe made its first appearance on the blog in 2012. I thought it was time for an update.

This is a surprising recipe that uses pork tenderloin instead of pork shoulder which is the traditional cut for pulled pork. The tenderloin is significantly less fatty than the shoulder so it makes a healthier dish. I’ve reduced the sugar considerably in the Barbeque sauce which is traditionally made with ketchup (about 90% sugar) and includes 110 g of brown sugar; I’ve used passata with a dash of balsamic and only 45 g of sugar. It’s still sweet but not sickly sweet. The baking soda helps reduce the acidity in the passata which in turn makes the tomato sauce taste sweeter. It was well balanced. JT couldn’t stop eating it. I’ve served this dish at parties and die-hard pulled pork aficionados couldn’t tell it was tenderloin!

This is the pork pulled after I removed it from the sauce. It moistens up considerably after it is re-entered into the sauce.

Ingredients for the Barbeque Sauce:

• 250 mL San Marzano passata
• 60 mL balsamic vinegar
• 45 g erythritol or sugar
• 125 g finely chopped onion
• 15 mL soy sauce
• 15 mL Worcestershire sauce
• 15 mL prepared mustard
• 15 mL roasted puréed garlic
• 8 g espresso coffee powder
• 2.5 mL baking soda

Pulled Pork Ingredients:

• 600 g pork loin or tenderloin with silver skin and excess fat removed and cut into manageable chunks.
• 1-2 tbsp canola oil (or an oil with a high flash point)
• About 350 mL BBQ sauce from above
• 1 cup water

Directions:

1. Sear the pork on all sides in a heavy cast iron pan. Add the pork to the slow cooker set on high.
2. In the same cast iron pan with a splash of oil, caramelize the onions. Add the remaining BBQ sauce ingredients with the exception of the baking soda and cook until the sugar has melted and everything is hot. Add the water and mix well, then add the baking soda and stir until the fizzing has subsided.
3. Add the sauce and water to the slow cooker and set the timer for 1 hour, then reduce the temperature to low and cook, stirring occasionally for 6 hours or until pork can be pulled apart with a fork.
4. Remove the pork from the sauce and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes. Pull the pork apart with a fork.
5. Serve on slider buns, topped with your favourite coleslaw.

We had the pulled pork on homemade tangzhong brioche buns that were slightly toasted and topped with a lovely vinegary coleslaw. It was pretty good even though the lighting sucked.

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Tanzghong Brioche Slider Buns

Buns that are used as a vehicle for other food are a very important part of the equation. You don’t want a bun that is too heavy or dense otherwise it takes over the other food, you don’t want it too light and fluffy because then it falls apart and doesn’t accomplish its primary role of transporting the other food. These buns (originally seen here) are the perfect vehicle for burgers and pulled pork we had recently. They are sturdy enough for the juicy burger with oodles of toppings and saucy pulled pork and yet they don’t overwhelm the dish with bread-y-ness. The Tangzhong roux is supposed to help preserve the rolls for longer than those without, however, they never last that long in my house, so I cannot confirm this theory.

Tanzghong Brioche Slider Buns

For the recipe inspiration, please click here.

Makes 18 slider buns (for 65 g burgers)

Ingredients:

• 60 mL warm water
• 8 g dry yeast
• 25 g sugar
• 500 g unbleached, all-purpose flour, divided
• 125 g milk (yes grams)
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 5 g sea salt
• 125 g butter, softened
• 1 egg for egg wash
• 40 g Sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Combine the yeast, sugar and warm water allow to proof for 10-15 minutes.
2. Combine 50 g of the flour with the water and cook over low heat until a smooth paste is formed. Allow to cool for a bit. Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, combine the remaining 450 g flour, yeast mixture and salt. Pour in the flour paste/egg liquid and knead until the dough comes together. Add the softened butter a little at a time and knead on medium for 30 minutes or until the dough is no longer as sticky and comes away from the sides of the bowl.
4. Grease a bowl and add the dough, cover and set in a warm, dark place for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
5. Shape into 18 buns (about 55 g each) and set on a baking sheet covered with a clean cloth for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.
6. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
7. Brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the internal temperature is about 185° F to 190° F.
8. Allow to cool before serving.

Notes:

• The original recipe called for instant yeast or bread machine yeast but I only had the regular kind so if you choose to substitute with instant yeast, you need not dissolve it in the 60 mL water, just add it to the flour along with the sugar.
• These buns have excellent structure and would hold up for burgers, pulled pork or anything saucy.

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Croque-Monsieur taken up a notch!

A good friend received a Pullman loaf pan for Christmas, it had been on her list for many years. I had no idea what it was so I researched it and found that it was a loaf pan that makes a perfectly square slice of bread! Click here for a little history on the loaf. And of course, I fell down the rabbit hole on what this specific loaf can be utilized in and discovered that Croque-Monsieur can be one such recipe! I looked at a number of videos creating this delectable treat but landed on Binging with Babish’s Brooklyn Nine Nine recipe. Babish had made the leap and used a beautiful brioche for one of his renditions so I thought I’d pull two recipes together and made a Pullman Brioche loaf. Of course, I don’t have a Pullman loaf pan, but it’s easy to adapt your existing loaf pan (as Babish does in his video, however, I used a flat sheet sprayed with non-stick spray inverted onto the top of the loaf pan with a weight (small, cast iron frying pan) placed on the top). My loaf didn’t turn out quite square but I saved myself close to $50 in buying a pan for sandwich bread. The brioche recipe I chose wasn’t particularly good so I won’t list it here but the overall inspiration is exceptional. This is definitely not a calorie-reduced sandwich but if you feel like splurging, it’s totally worth it.

Here is the Brooklyn Nine Nine Croque Monsieur moment (the croque monsieur moment goes only to 49 seconds so you needn’t watch the entire clip).

A deliciously cheesy, hammy mess of a sandwich.

Makes 2 Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 4 thickly sliced brioche bread
• 120 mL béchamel sauce
• 10 mL Dijon mustard
• 2 slices of good quality, thinly sliced ham (I used an Italian ham)
• Grated cheese (traditionally Gruyère)
• Butter

Directions:

1. Toast the brioche slices on one side. Butter the on untoasted side of each slice.
2. Add about 30 mL of béchamel to each toasted side of the bread. Add some cheese to both sides of the béchamel and press down.
3. Spread about 5 mL mustard on each piece of ham. Fold each piece of ham to fit onto the bread and place on top. Add the second piece of bread on top of the ham, cheese side down. Place into a pre-heated cast iron pan.
4. Press down on the sandwiches to compress slightly. Cover and cook each side until golden and cheese has melted.
5. Cut each sandwich into two and serve with a dill pickle.

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Sourdough Baguette

We have been trying to eat fewer carbs, but sometimes you just need a little carb therapy. These crusty baguettes sure did the trick. We paired them with some wonderful cheese we picked up from our favourite cheesemonger in the city.

I was searching for vital gluten for another recipe and came across a new product, “Fleischmann’s Bread Booster”, it boasts that it enhances the original yeast in the recipe, so I thought I’d try it. You add about 3 grams per 150 grams of flour.

Sourdough Baguettes

Makes 2 baguettes

Ingredients:

• 350 g unbleached “00” flour, plus more for the starter
• 215 g filtered, room temperature water, plus more for the starter
• 80 g active sourdough starter
• 9 g booster*
• 8 g finely ground sea salt

Directions:

1. The day before baking, allow your starter to come to room temperature and feed it with 50 g “00” flour and 50 g filtered room temperature water. Set aside for 3-5 hours.
2. For the bread, combine the remaining flour, booster, room temperature water and starter and mix well until it comes together (about 3 minutes in my stand mixer). Cover and allow to hydrate 1.5 hours.
3. Knead in the finely ground salt for a couple of minutes. Cover and set in the refrigerator overnight.
4. Remove dough from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature. Divide it into two by weight and shape into baguettes. Rest on lightly floured parchment for 45 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 500° F. Add a large baking pan with sides to the hot oven. Set your baguette tray over the steamy water.
6. Slash baguettes and bake immediately for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 450° F and continue to bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Cool before cutting.

Crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside, perfectly heavenly.

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Sourdough Cheese Sticks

 

Over the holidays, I received some lovely sourdough starter and I made sourdough bread (as though we needed it!). I’m always a little distraught discarding some of it so I adapted an old recipe I brought back from Hungary to utilize the discard and a little of the fed starter, it worked out very well. I’ll definitely keep this in mind for future baking.

Makes 1 30 cm x 42 cm sheet, cut to whatever size you desire.

For the original recipe, please click here.

Ingredients:

• 300 g all-purpose flour
• 150 g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 100 g discard sourdough starter plus 30 g fed starter
• 125 g Greek Yogurt
• 100 g shredded cheese (sharp cheddar works well, freshly grated Parmesan is best)
• 5 g Salt
• 20g shredded cheese

Directions:

1. In the large mixing bowl of your stand mixer with the scraper attachment, blend flour, butter, starters, 100 g cheese and salt until incorporated, then switch to a dough hook and add the Greek yogurt and knead until smooth ball forms.
2. Allow to rest in a warm dark place for 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 375° F
4. On a piece of parchment paper, roll out dough to about 1/2 cm thickness.
5. Cut into 7-10 cm x 2 cm sticks.
6. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
7. Slide cheese sticks on the parchment paper onto a baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is golden and melted.
8. Re-cut sticks, if necessary, while still warm. Serve warm or at room temperature.

These are very tasty served warm.

Notes:

• Use a flavourful, hard cheese (like cheddar, gruyere or Jarlsberg) is best for this treat.
• I use a pizza cutter with a kitchen ruler to cut the sticks, it makes it very easy. If you cut the sticks after you sprinkle with cheese, your cutter will take up most of the cheese!
• In the original recipe, there is an egg wash on the top, I omitted this time because I figured the cheese would stick regardless, but it does add a lovely sheen which I will not omit next time.
• These cheese sticks freeze well. To reheat, spread in a single layer, cheese side up on a baking sheet and bake at a low 200° F for 10-15 minutes or until defrosted and slightly warm.

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Seafood Stew in Sourdough Bread Bowls

Happy New Year! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, spoiling your loved ones! Wishing you a new year filled with joy, good health, good friends and good food! Love from Éva

I do apologize for not being more present with my blogging buddies, but we’ve only just returned from our month-long sojourn in Arizona. We had three sets of dear friends visit us for 5-6 days each during our stay; it was a fun-packed time away, also enjoying our dear friends who currently live in Arizona.

I made this delicious winter stew for friends just before we left for Arizona. It was a perfect way to begin winter. The stew was filled with succulent seafood drenched in a creamy béchamel. And if you’re super hungry, you can eat the bowl, or part of it!

Seafood Stew in Sourdough Bread Bowls

Please click here for the original recipe.

Serves 4-6 depending on size of bowls.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp grapeseed oil
• 1/2 a sweet onion, finely diced
• 2 celery ribs, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 8 mini potatoes
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
• 1 tsp dried tarragon
• 2 cups whole milk
• 500 g mixed firm seafood — peeled shrimp, scallops, lobster meat, mussels, calamari or white fish (cubbed)
• 1 cup shredded flavourful white cheese, like Gruyère and Asiago
• Kosher salt (to taste)
• 4 sourdough bread bowls

Directions:

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil and sauté the onions until translucent.
2. Add the potatoes and carrots and sauté until about half-cooked. Add the celery and sauté for about 2-4 minutes.
3. Lower the heat and add the butter and allow it to melt. Sprinkle the flour into the vegetables and mix well. Cook for a minute or so. Add the dried herbs. Slowly add the milk, stirring to mix into the floured vegetables and bring to a slow simmer, stirring and allowing the mixture to thicken. You may bring this to room temperature and refrigerate until required.
4. If you have refrigerated the vegetable mixture, simmer on low until the vegetables are thoroughly cooked through. Add the seafood with the longest cooking first (shrimp, scallops, calamari and lastly, mussels). Cook the seafood through.
5. Add the shredded cheese, mix well and taste for seasoning. Serve piping hot in hollowed out sourdough bread bowls.

Here is that gorgeous winter light again.

Notes:

• I like to spend as much time with our guests instead of stuck in the kitchen cooking dinner so I try to make as much of the dishes in advance as possible so that my time spent in the kitchen is minimal while we have guests. Because I cooked most of the stew earlier that day, I was able to reheat it and cook the raw seafood quickly without missing too much of the evening.
• I gently warmed the sourdough bread bowls so that they kept the stew warm a little longer, things cool down so quickly in the winter.
• I used a mixture of Wild Argentinian Shrimp, Bay Scallops, Mussels, and Chopped Calamari for this dish but white fish would also work beautifully.
• If the thought of adding cheese to a fish dish offends you, please omit it. The original recipe called for cheddar but I did not wish to add red cheese to discolour the sauce. The cheese adds a nice background flavour with a little body, it’s really not enough to make it stringy.
• The smooth béchamel flavoured with the tarragon and thyme made a lovely background for the seafood. Our guests loved it, the homemade sourdough bread bowls helped! 😉
• It’s a really heavy meal, I hollowed out the bread bowls so that there was only about 1 cm of the bowl all around, even so, most of us couldn’t finish it!

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No-Knead Sourdough Bread

I have had a love/hate relationship with sour dough starters. We start off loving each other, fully enjoying the dependant relationship but soon after I get bored and lose interest and the poor blob starves to death. Yes, I’ve tried putting it into the fridge to hold but it eventually dries up and I’ve a horrible mess to clean. Sour dough starters and I just don’t work. Until now!

I started this starter about a month ago. My first bread was a flop. The bread I made with it did rise but not much. But I wanted to give the starter another chance so I put it into the fridge to think about its incompetence. Then about a week or so later, I pulled it out of the fridge and within hours it overflowed the jar into a bubbling, beautiful mess! I danced with glee! My starter was alive, and not just alive, it was a living, breathing, blob of natural, yeasty, goo! We will have sour dough bread on the weekend!

As many of you have experienced, it’s not difficult to make a starter, it just takes patience. Finally, I achieved undeniable success! And the bread was awesome!

This is the recipe I used. My version was much shaggier than that in the video, so I might add a bit more flour into the mix next time (I used the weight measurements), but the bread had an awesome chewiness that was extremely moreish, so I may just leave it be. I can’t wait to try this again using an older starter, hopefully it will be a bit more sour. Bottom line is that I loved it!!

Makes one 25 cm boule or 4 personal-size sourdough bread bowls. Please click here for the original recipe.

Ingredients:

• 50 g live, bubbling starter
• 350 g water at about 110F
• 500 g AP flour
• 9 g sea salt, finely ground

Directions:

1. Follow your regular directions to bring your starter to life (if refrigerated), about 2-4 days before you need the bread.
2. The day before you wish to bake the bread, make the dough by mixing the starter with the water, then slowly add the flour and salt mixing with a wooden spoon and then your hand, until it comes together like a shaggy dough. It will be sticky, very sticky.
3. Return it to the bowl and cover it with a clean, damp cloth and allow to rise in a warm spot overnight (until it doubles in size).
4. The next day, scrap the ball onto a lightly floured surface and fold the dough onto itself, a few times, tightening up the boule. Flip the boule onto the folded side and cover with the bowl and allow to rest for about an hour (should rise a bit again but not a whole lot).
5. About 30 minutes into the rise, preheat the oven to 450 F with a cast iron Dutch oven (including the lid). Keep the Dutch oven in heating up for 20 minutes after the oven has reached 450F
6. Remove the Dutch oven and sprinkle inside it with cornmeal. Carefully cut the boule across the top. Then gently lift it and carefully roll it into the Dutch oven. Place the lid on and bake for 20 minutes, remove the lid and continue to bake for 30 minutes until golden. Cool completely before slicing. Enjoy!

Notes:

• The covered Dutch oven steams the bread at first, giving it the gorgeous, chewy texture.
• Make sure the knob on your Dutch oven can handle the high temperature, we had to get a special Le Creuset knob.
• This has the traditional chewy texture of sourdough bread.

Here’s a little peek of what I served in personal-size sourdough bread bowls!

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Fresh Fig Scones

Why do the cold temperatures always surprise me? I’ve been doing this fall thing for a long time and yet, every year when the temperatures plummet, it’s like a cold, hard, slap in the face! It happens from one day to the next; on Saturday, we are lavishing in the sun, cocktailing on the back deck and enjoying al fresco meals and then on Sunday, we are dawning our socks and woolly sweaters to avoid the chill INSIDE, let alone outside! JT and I are typical Canadians, we are stubborn about admitting that its fall and winter is coming; we delay turning on the furnace at all costs because that would mean defeat, we have acknowledged the cold and succumbed to it! But eventually, we give in. I like to rebel and I generally continue to wear sandals until I can no longer feel my toes. My feet understand they don’t like to be encased in socks and shoes…they were meant to be free in flip flops and sandals!

It was on one such day that I needed a little heat-help in my chilly kitchen that I decided to make scones, and to use up some figs that were leftover from a shoot (what can I say, no one wanted them!), so I came up with this tasty treat. This recipe is very delicate and light. They are best eaten right away with sweet butter but freezing them also works. Use the oven to reheat them, the microwave doesn’t do it justice.

Fresh Fig Scones

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes about 10 scones

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/4 tsp green cardamom, finely grated
• 1/2 cup unsalted cold butter, cut into small bits
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 160 g fresh figs (chopped)
• 2-3 tbsp milk or yogurt for brushing the tops.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in the large bowl of your food processor and pulse to mix.
3. Add the cold, cubed butter and pulse until it resembles a coarse meal.
4. Slowly pour in the buttermilk while pulsing until the dough comes together. Remove and pour into a large bowl.
5. Fold in the chopped figs carefully.
6. Place largish spoonfuls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush the tops with yogurt. Bake for 15-17 minutes.
7. Cool for 10 minutes and serve with sweet butter.

The light was still good when I shot them.

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Gluten-free English Muffins

When the reno finished, we had a couple of weekends of non-stop entertaining! We were excited to show off our new space and our friends were excited to see it. On one such weekend we had dinner guests on Friday, brunch guests on Saturday and cocktail guests on Sunday! Fortunately, I was able to gang up some gluten-intolerant friends so I made a small batch of Gluten-free English muffins. They are a bit denser than their glutenated cousin but they are not bad.

Although I did split them using a fork, they don’t have the same traditional nooks and crannies as the glutenated versions do.

Gluten-free English Muffins

Makes 4 regular-size English Muffins. The original recipe came from Bob’s Red Mill here.

Ingredients:

• 4 g quick yeast
• 15 mL Honey or Sugar
• 60 mL Water (about 110°F)
• 180 g Bob’s Red Mill, 1 to 1 GF flour, divided
• 30 g tapioca flour
• 12 g finely ground Psyllium husk
• 12 g Baking Powder
• 380 mL water (110°F)
• 1 large egg, whisked
• 30 mL white vinegar
• cornmeal for dusting

Directions:

1. Combine the yeast, honey and water and whisk. Allow to stand for 3-5 minutes or until frothy.
2. Combine 150 g gluten-free flour with the tapioca, ground psyllium husk and baking powder, whisk to combine.
3. In a tall measuring cup, combine 30 g of gluten-free flour, water, egg and vinegar and blend until smooth.
4. To the flour/tapioca mixture, add the yeast and the flour slurry and knead until combined. Knead for an additional 5 minutes. It should look like super thick cookie batter.
5. Prepare a baking sheet by lining with parchment paper. Measure the dough and divide into 4, (mine were 116 g each). Roll into rounds and flatten with your palm until the size of a standard English muffin. Lay each muffin on the baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly on both flat sides with the cornmeal. Cover with a clean tea-towel and allow to rise for 1 to 2 hours in a warm, draft-free place (I use my oven with the light on). Cross your fingers that they will rise a little!
6. Pre-heat the oven to 325° F. Using a cast iron skillet on medium heat, cook the muffins on each flat side until golden. Place on the parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 15–20 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 205°F. Allow to cool before splitting.

They toast beautifully.

Notes:

• The original recipe calls for gluten-free sourdough starter which I did not have on hand so I improvised and made a slurry instead.
• Gluten-free breads never quite double in size during proofing, so even 20-30% is a gift, which is what happened with this dough after about 2-3 hours!
• You may use English muffin rings but I did not see much need for them.

 

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Tanzghong Brioche Hamburger Buns

On March 30, we woke up to snow. Not much, just a light covering, but it still was distressing. Throughout the day, it snowed some more, not enough to shovel, but enough to put a damper on the last Sunday of March. Believe me, we were in dire need of Spring.

Since it was such a gloomy day, I decided to bake tanzghong brioche burger buns after being inspired by my dear Aussy friend, Lorraine, who was also experiencing some gloom on a rainy fall day in Australia. Hopefully, these buns will inspire the weather to begin behaving as it should in the springtime and not like February.

It’s May 6 today and we’ve finally had a spring-ish day. Temperatures were around 17C (62F) which is a far cry better than we’ve had. Garden cleanup has begun. Planting in these parts must wait until the Victoria Day weekend (traditionally known as May two-four weekend, which will be May 18-20 this year). It’ll be the official beginning of spring! Roll out the barbecues and burgers! Patio season has begun!

For the recipe inspiration, please click here.

Makes 8 burgers buns (for 125 g burgers)

Ingredients:

• 300 g unbleached, all-purpose flour, divided
• 125 g water
• 3 eggs
• 8 g quick yeast
• 25 g superfine sugar
• 5 g sea salt
• 125 g butter, softened
• 1 egg for egg wash
• xx g Sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Combine 50 g of the flour with the water and cook over low heat until a smooth paste is formed. Allow to cool for a bit. Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, combine the remaining 250 g flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Pour in the flour paste/egg liquid and knead until the dough comes together. Add the softened butter and knead on medium-high for 30 minutes or until the dough is no longer sticky and comes away from the sides of the bowl.
3. Grease a bowl and add the dough, cover and set in a warm, dark place for about 1 hour.
4. Shape into 8 buns (about 93 g each) and set on a baking sheet covered with a clean cloth for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.
5. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
6. Brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the internal temperature is about 185° F to 190° F.
7. Allow to cool before cutting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tangzhong Dinner Rolls

I was recently awed by some wonderful buns made by my Canadian friend A-Boleyn. Of course, I have seen these beauties on my Australian friend’s blog, Not Quite Nigella, too! I have been wanting to bake these bad boys for a while but have not had an opportunity since we’ve been trying to reduce our carb intake. But, during a particularly grey day in March, with an upcoming brunch ahead, I decided to go for it.

They don’t take much more effort than a normal bun but OMG, they are so light and fluffy and ever-so-tasty! Many-a-bloggers have indicated that converting a normal bread recipe just takes it to a higher level, so next time I’m looking for a high-carb treat, I’m going to Tangzhong the recipe (is that a thing?).

Tangzhong Dinner Rolls

For the original recipe, please click here.

Makes one 10 rolls about 71 g each (before baking)(see notes)

Ingredients for the Tangzhong:

• 20 g “00” flour
• 100 mL water

Ingredients for the Dough:

• 350 g “00” flour
• 7 g rapid rise yeast
• 50 g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp milk powder
• 125 mL milk (I used 3%)
• 1 large egg
• 50 g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 egg for glaze
• Sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Combine the flour and water in a small saucepan to make the Tangzong and cook stirring often until thickened like wallpaper paste. Set aside to cool.
2. Combine the milk, egg and Tangzong and whisk until smooth. In the bowl of your stand mixer, sift together the flour, yeast, sugar and milk powder. Add the milk mixture and mix on low speed until combined.
3. Add the room temperature butter and knead on high speed until the dough becomes stretchy and separates from the sides (it is seriously, about 15 minutes).
4. Lightly oil another bowl and transfer the dough into it. Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rest in a warm, dark area for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
5. Shape the dough into 10 equal portions, rounding them out like dinner rolls (mine were an even 71 g each, see notes for next time). Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rest another hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Brush the dough balls with the whisked egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds if using.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until deep golden in colour (internal temperature should be 200° F). Transfer to a wire rack and cool slightly before serving. Store in an airtight container for a day or two or the freezer if storing longer.

Notes:

• I will definitely make these significantly smaller next time, even though the original recipe made 8 and I made 10, these rolls are HUGE, perfect for burgers! For dinner rolls, I think I would make them 50-60 g instead of the 71 g each.

 

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The Worlds BEST Low Carb Buns

We’ve been making a huge effort to cut out carbs from our diet. The one thing I have been really missing is bread. Not that we ate that much bread, but a sandwich every now and again is a nice treat so I have been trying to make carb-free bread and failing miserably until I came across a delicious keto bun at a local craft sale. It had a similar texture and crumb as flour bread, but made with almond flour and coconut flour. At the time, the lady would not share her recipe, so I made every recipe on the net trying to find her secret, sadly failing. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and I get an email from her out of the blue sharing her recipe! How serendipitous! It turned out that it was one of the first recipes I tried but obviously did not get it right so I had abandoned it. She had made a few adjustments to the original recipe and shared them with me, and I made further adjustments to make it my own. It’s easier to make than normal yeasted bread (really is more like quick-bread as you make it) and the result is quite surprising. It’s a lot more expensive to make this bread than it is to make regular flour bread (the recipe below is about $12 for 8 buns).

Those nooks and crannies are like real bread!

Most flour-free buns are usually eggy and super dense because of the nut flours used and the lack of leavening, but these buns are light and have a great spongy texture and fantastic crumb, they never disappoint, time after time! The original recipe had great texture but lacked the flavour that yeast imparts in real bread so I experimented and came up with this augmentation. If you don’t feel like messing with the yeast, just omit it along with the granules of sugar but keep the water the same. You will not be disappointed.

How many would you like?

Makes 6 medium-sized buns. For the original recipe, please click here.

Ingredients:

• 100 g Almond flour (see notes)
• 30 g Coconut Flour
• 33 g Psyllium Husk Powder, finely ground (see notes)
• 10 g Baking Powder
• 6 g Sea salt
• 10 g Cider vinegar
• 100 g Egg whites
• 8 g Instant Yeast
• a few granules of sugar
• 280 g Boiling Water, divided
• 1 egg yolk
• Sesame Seeds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F (170° C). Prep a baking sheet by lining with parchment paper. Prepare a hand mixer ready to use and a timer.
2. Combine the yeast with the sugar in 57 g of warm water (about 43° C or 100° F) and allow to froth.
3. To a large bowl, add almond flour, coconut flour, psyllium husk powder, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the cider vinegar, egg whites and proofed yeast and mix on low speed, for a short time, to combine evenly.
5. Boil the remaining water (223 g). Pour the water all at once into the almond flour mixture and blend for 30 seconds to make a smooth dough (do not over blend).
6. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions (mine worked out to be about 94 g) and roll into a smooth ball with generously wet hands. Slightly flatten each roll so it’s more like the shape of an English muffin (don’t worry, they rise enormously).
7. Brush each bun with the egg yolk and top with sesame seeds and bake for about 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is 95° C (200° F).
8. Cool completely on a wire rack, before slicing. Serve toasted or plain with your favourite topping.

Notes:

• I use Anthony’s Premium Blanched Almond Flour which may be purchased on Amazon. I have heard that the Costco Kirkland brand also works, but I haven’t tried it. I will eventually try the finely ground almond flour Bulk Barn sells because Anthony’s is pretty expensive.
• I use psyllium husk powder from Bulk Barn, but I grind it to a super fine consistency with my coffee/spice grinder.
• 100 g of egg whites is more or less 3 large egg whites.
• Many of these recipes call for room temperature ingredients, I have done both room temperature and right out of the refrigerator and they resulted in more or less the same buns.
• When working with the dough, generously wet hands are imperative for a nice smooth crust.
• Mixing the boiling water into the batter with a hand mixer for 30 seconds ensures that it’s entirely blended but not overworked.
• For Christmas, I received a bottle of Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel seasoning and it is awesome on these buns!

Nutritional Breakdown:

Per 1 piece

• Calories: 178
• Net Carbs: 5 g
• Protein: 7 g
• Fat: 12 g

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No Knead Spelt Boule

You may have noticed that I’ve been radio silent for much of December and I apologize, we were in Arizona for about a month. Although not quite as warm as our last month in Arizona, it was a far cry warmer than home. I’m so glad I had lined up my blog posts because I literally had no time! I hope you understand. I’m back on schedule notwithstanding the holidays which are going to be busy. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas or whatever you celebrate and a happy and healthy new year.

I have long wanted to experiment with alternative flours in bread making and a few months ago, the opportunity arose, we were having my BFF from University for brunch and she is gluten intolerant but can tolerate spelt! I did a little research and discovered that spelt was a great bread flour and also discovered that WE LOVE IT! It has a light nutty flavour and a great bread texture. I would say it is more like a Ciabatta than a French stick. I slice it thicker for dinner, but for toast, I use my handy electric slicer for even 6 mm slices.

This is one sticky dough, but I experimented with varying quantities of spelt flour and always came back to the original. You may not want to proof it in your Banneton (proofing basket) unless it is very heavily floured, even so, one experiment stuck so badly, it took me nearly an hour to clean it out!

I used a proofing basket for this boule.

Makes one 981 g boule.

Please click here for the original recipe.

Please click here to print this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 565 g spelt flour
• 450 g water
• 56 g honey
• 10 g salt
• 4 g instant yeast (1/2 packet)
• good pinch of cornmeal

Directions:

1. Combine the ingredients with the exception of the cornmeal (not corn starch), in a large bowl and mix well. The dough will be a bit stickier than regular bread dough and a little firmer (you may need to put a little elbow grease into it to combine the flour entirely). Set aside covered for about 12 hours (this step is best done overnight or if you wish to start earlier, allow it to rest covered in the refrigerator).
2. If the dough rested in the refrigerator, bring to room temperature. Prepare your proofing bowl with a little spelt flour.
3. Shape the dough into a nice boule by pulling up the sides into the centre using a spatula and gather them tightly to form the bottom of the boule. Flip the boule so that the pulled area is now at the bottom and roll it into the proofing bowl so the pulled area is now at the top (this will make it easy to flip the boule into the hot pan so that the smooth area is on top). Sprinkle a little spelt flour on top and allow to rest, covered for 60 to 90 minutes.
4. About 30 minutes into the proofing of the boule, pre-heat the oven with your 23 cm (9 inch) oven-safe cast iron dutch oven to 450° F (the original recipe suggests that you place the pot on a baking sheet to insulate it a bit more so that the base of the boule doesn’t burn).
5. When the boule has risen, about double in size and the pan has been pre-heating for about 30 minutes, add a parchment circle to the bottom of the pan and sprinkle a little cornmeal over it. Gently roll the proofed boule into the pan. You may make some tension slices into the top so it breaks artistically, or you may let it break on its own. Bake for 35 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid and bake for additional 10 minutes. The internal temperature should be 195° F to 200° F. Allow to cool and serve sliced with your favourite stew or just with butter.

There were several versions baked up until I got the best version.

Notes:

• This is a very sticky dough. I added the parchment because no matter how much cornmeal I put in the hot pan, it stuck quite badly.
• I tested this recipe with more flour and it made it too dense, so even though it is a sticky dough, it is the right amount of water and flour.
• A larger dutch oven will yield a wider and flatter boule, like the first photo.

Spelt flour can become over-worked quite easily which will make a heavier, denser loaf. The no-knead recipe is a perfect way to get a light texture.

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Sweet Potato Buns

From the recipes on this blog, you would think that we eat a lot of bread, the reality is that we do not, I make bread when we entertain, but I do love making bread. I was drawn to this recipe from my friend, A Boleyn’s blog, Cooking is fun. She made the most beautiful buns I have seen in some time. They were golden, perfectly round, fluffy and very soft looking AND they had an unusual ingredient: Sweet Potato! This bread’s texture reminded me of Hokkaido milk bread, which I have been meaning to try my hand at, it has a simple roux “starter” technique known as tangzhong that gives it a light, fluffy texture. While this recipe isn’t Hokkaido milk bread, its finished texture reminded me of the technique, plus there is a bit of a starter with flour, water and yeast.

The buns did not disappoint; this recipe will definitely make my go-to bread recipe repertoire, to be honest, I’ve made three batches by the time this post goes live!

This is a soft, slightly sweet and quite addictive bun.

Recipe makes 16 buns, about 60 g each (unbaked)

For the original recipe please click here.

To print this recipe, please click here: SweetPotatoBuns_recipe.

Ingredients:

• 454 g sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 65 g all-purpose flour
• 125 mL warm water
• 8 g quick rising yeast
• 1 large egg
• 45 mL unsalted butter, melted
• 10 mL honey
• 7 g sea salt, finely ground
• 240 g bread flour, or more as needed

Egg wash:

• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon water
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, or to taste

Directions:

1. Cook sweet potato in salted water, until soft. Strain well (reserve cooking liquid for the yeast) and mash with a fork or potato masher; measure out 260 g and allow to cool completely. Reserve leftovers for another use (like gnocchi).
2. In another bowl, mix together 65 g flour, warm water (cooking liquid) and yeast, and whisk until smooth.
3. When yeast is frothy (about 10 minutes), pour it into the large bowl of your stand mixer, add the mashed sweet potato, one egg, melted butter, honey, sea salt and about 210 g of flour. Mix well using the dough hook attachment and knead for 2 to 4 minutes (I needed 4 minutes). If the dough is too sticky (mine was OK the first time but subsequent times it was too wet), add the remaining 30 g (or more) of flour and knead until the dough is soft, elastic and shiny (about 2 minutes).
4. Turn the dough out into a well-oil the bowl and cover. Allow to rise until double in size (about 1 hour), I did this in an unheated oven.
5. After it has doubled in size, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press out the air bubbles. Using your fingers, press the dough into a rectangle about 2 cm thick. Divide the dough into 16 equal portions (about 60 g each) and roll into a smooth ball. Allow to rest for 45 minutes on a covered baking sheet.
6. Preheat your oven to 400° F. Combine the remaining egg, water and mix well. Brush each bun with the egg mixture and sprinkle each with sesame seeds.
7. Bake in a hot oven until golden or when the internal temperature is 200° F (about 15 minutes).

Notes:

• I used bread flour because I did not have enough All-Purpose flour. I have since made it with all purpose flour and it was equally as delicious.
• I have made this recipe three times, the last time the dough was much too wet so I had to add more than the 30 g of flour (probably closer to 80 g).
• Use some of the water you used to boil the sweet potatoes for the yeast because it has flavour and nutrients.
• The 454-ish gram sweet potato yielded about 330 g. The leftover 70 g of the sweet potato will make a generous amount of gnocchi.
• The 70 g of sweet potato leftover was mixed with the remaining egg (after I egg washed all the rolls) and enough flour to make a gnocchi dough and some grated Parmesan Cheese. I freeze uncooked gnocchi on parchment on a cookie sheet and then pop them into a ziplock baggy. I got enough gnocchi for about three smallish servings.

The gnocchi made an excellent lunch with a blue cheese cream sauce.

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Sun-dried Tomato, Basil and Parmesan Straws

In late March/early April, we spent two glorious weeks in Arizona. We stayed with friends for this duration because we had offered to puppy-sit (Jordan) while they took a quick 7 day holiday in Ireland. We had never puppy sat before but their beautiful black lab, Jordan is quite possibly one of the laziest dogs we have ever met so she was really no problem at all. We did get her used to three walks per day, that is, until we bumped into a woman carrying a black light, walking her dog after dark. I had to ask and yes, it was to detect scorpions. That was the end of our after dark walks. Period.

I like to arrive with gifts in hand and these basil Parmesan Straws were the perfect hostess gift because I had a bunch of basil that needed using a couple of days before our departure. Plus they are pretty tasty. Jordan thought so too.

Sun-dried Tomato, Basil and Parmesan Straws

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes about 75 pieces

To print this recipe, please click here.

Ingredients:

• 290 g flour
• 10 g Fresh Basil, finely chopped
• 50 g sun-dried tomatoes in oil, roughly chopped
• 10 g garlic, finely minced
• 110 g unsalted butter (cold)
• 30 g  grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten separately
• 15-30 mL water or milk
• Sea salt

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°F.
2. Put all dry ingredients into a food processor, including the basil, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic, and process to mix well.
3. Add the butter and process to coarse granules.
4. While the blades are running, pour in the egg and process until a soft ball forms. If this does not happen, drizzle little bits of water until a soft ball forms.
5. Remove from processor and using a small amount of flour, roll out the dough to about 1/2 cm thickness. Cut into 8cm x 7 mm straws and position evenly on a cookie sheet. Brush with second egg and sprinkle with sea salt.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden.
7. Remove and allow to cool. This will store well in a cool, dark place or freeze.

Notes:

• I like to use a plastic ruler to cut the straws evenly. My ruler is a dedicated food ruler that never is used with pens or pencils or markers!
• This type of rolling pin gives you evenly thick dough, but as I have mentioned previously, it is a pain to unscrew the disks and I inadvertently have to wash all of the disks each time I use it.
• This dough is a bit wetter than some of my other recipes because of the sun-dried tomatoes and fresh garlic.

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Sizzling Mushrooms with Sour Dough Baguette

I created this recipe in 2012, modeled after an appetizer at an old favourite restaurant which sadly closed down many years prior to 2012. Like many of my old posts, the photos are dark and dreary and deserve an update so here it is. I also threw in a sourdough baguette, the recipe can be found here. I used this starter which, frankly took a long time and was not as sour-doughy as I had hoped but I found the liquid ingredient intriguing so I gave it a go. I will try this starter used in the recipe next time.

It’s still a winter picture, so give me a break!

Sizzling Mushrooms

Serves 2-4 as an hors d’œuvres (about 112 g of cooked mushrooms and onions, without the feta)

Ingredients:

• 20 g unsalted butter
• 150 g mushrooms, stems removed and sliced medium thinly
• 60 g sweet onion, thinly sliced
• 4 g garlic, finely minced
• 30-60 g sheep and goats milk feta, crumbled (see notes)
• 30 mL cognac (optional)
• 2-4 sprigs of fresh thyme, roughly chopped
• sea salt to taste

Directions:

1. In a small frying pan, melt the butter and add the onions, cook until caramelized (about 10-15 minutes).
2. Add the mushrooms and cook until they are no longer wet (about 5-10 minutes) and have also caramelized. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Season with sea salt if using, but remember the feta is also salty so season sparingly.
3. Deglaze the pan with the cognac, stirring to loosen any of the bits stuck to the pan. Remove from heat and add the fresh thyme and stir. Sprinkle the crumbled feta over the hot mushrooms and serve immediately with thinly sliced sourdough baguette (fresh out of the oven, no less!)

Notes:

• I used a 50/50 combo of shitake and cremini mushrooms, but feel free to use whatever mushrooms you desire.
• We prefer actual Greek Feta made in Greece of Sheep and Goats milk, here in Toronto there are many imposters so try to find this one.
• We typically don’t use pepper, but if you like it, use white pepper to avoid the harsh dark specs on the feta.
• This recipe cooks beautifully in a cast iron pan, if you have a small one, use it. My small one was a bit too big for this amount.

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Chocolate Brioche

It has been beyond cold in these parts. Entirely opposite to what Australia is experiencing. Our windchills (and humidity) take the cold over the top, for example last week it was -13C with 30% humidity and a windchill that makes it feel like -25C at 8am! That’s wild. Your skin can freeze in 10 minutes. It’s a battle of being chilled and too hot at the same time; imagine having to take literally 10 minutes to put all your outdoor gear on, you’re already sweating because you’re inside, then going outside, walking – expanding energy, getting warm in your coat, and then popping into a warmly heated shop! You just can’t undress fast enough! It’s brutal. Staying home is easy, you just don’t feel like the battle.

Having the oven on makes the kitchen a wee bit cozier during this deep freeze so I baked this old favourite. Plus the aroma is intoxicating. It is an old recipe that I posted in 2012 here but I remade it with a small addition and reduced it to one loaf so I thought I’d post the revised version. The biggest change was that I added about 50 mL of melted Belgian chocolate to the chocolate part which really enhanced the flavour without making it too doughy. I also brushed the dough with an egg yolk to make it gorgeous and shiny. We had it for New Year’s Day breakfast along the side of the Smoked Salmon Roll-ups. It was delicious.

The chocolate flavour was richer using the melted Belgium Chocolate with the cocoa powder.

Makes 1 relatively good sized braid. Original recipe was modified from Baking with Julia.

To print this recipe, please click here.

Ingredients:

• 7 g dry yeast
• 65 mL tepid water (80°F to 90°F)
• 30 g granulated sugar + a pinch, divided
• 50 g unsalted butter, cut into smallish cubes
• 125 mL whole milk
• 10 g salt
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 420 g all-purpose, unbleached flour, divided
• 14 g unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
• 30 g icing sugar
• 50 mL Belgian chocolate, melted and cooled
• non-stick cooking spray or olive oil

Ingredients for the glaze:

• 1 large egg yolk
• splash of water

Directions:

1. Spray two large mixing bowls with non-stick cooking spray, or rub with butter or olive oil and set aside.
2. Whisk the yeast into the water with a pinch of sugar in a measuring cup and allow to proof, about 5 minutes.
3. Heat the milk with 1/3 cup granulated sugar and the cubed butter until warm to touch and the butter has entirely melted. Stir in the salt until melted. Allow this mixture to cool to 110°F.
4. Once cooled, pour the milk mixture into the large stand mixer bowl attached with a whisk and add the eggs one at a time, mixing well to combine. You should have about 1 litre of liquid. Divide into two portions of about 500 mL each and set one portion aside.
5. Put the cookie paddle onto your stand mixer. To one portion, add about 100 g of the flour and beat on low for about 3 minutes or until it comes together. Now switch to the bread dough paddle and add the remaining flour or as much as needed, kneading on medium-low speed to make a soft dough that is clean off the sides of the bowl. Now knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Transfer to one of the bowls that has been prepared. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm dark place to double in size (1 or 1 1/2 hours).
6. For the chocolate portion, sift 210 g of flour with the unsweetened cocoa and icing sugar.
7. Retrieve the second portion of the liquid and add the cooled melted Belgian chocolate and mix well.
8. Add about 100 g of the sifted flour, cocoa and icing sugar and beat on low for about 3 minutes or until it comes together. Add the remaining flour or as much flour as needed kneading on medium-low speed to make a soft dough that is clean off the sides of the bowl. Now knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Transfer to the other bowl that has been prepared. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm dark place to double in size (1 or 1 1/2 hours).
9. When dough has doubled in size (both the chocolate and the plain versions) punch down and deflate them. Cover again and allow to rise until doubled in size (about 45 minutes to 1 hour).
10. Line a large baking sheet with parchment. Divide the plain, white dough in 2 equal portions (I find a scale very helpful) and roll into approximately 16″ lengths. Divide the chocolate dough into 2 equal portions. Combine the four ropes on a lightly floured surface and braid. Press together the ends and fold under the braid. Place on lined baking sheet and allow to rest for 40 minutes.
11. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Combine the egg and cold water or heavy cream and mix well. Brush the braid with the glaze and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush the expansion joints of the braid and return to bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes or until the internal temperature is about 200°F. If they brown too quickly, cover browning parts with a little piece of foil.
12. Cool before slicing. This can be frozen in an airtight plastic bag for about 1 month.

Note:

• Stale slices of this bread makes excellent French toast or Bread Pudding!

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Home Made English Muffins

I am a fatalist, which means I believe in fate. There are too many things in this world that seem like coincidences but were totally intended by the universe. Case in point: on more than one occasion, I have decided to make something with the intent of searching for a recipe and before I can even open Google, up pops a recipe a blogging friend has posted on Facebook or Instagram! The very thing I had decided I would make! Coincidence? I think not, it’s fate!

That is my story of the English Muffins. I was walking back from getting a mani-pedi in our hood, thinking about the upcoming weekend visit with our dear friends from Wisconsin/Arizona (they have two homes) and I realized that I didn’t have a breakfast planned for one of the days and I remember wanting to try baking English Muffins, so on my walk home, I decided that I would bake English Muffins!

Upon my return, I sat down at my kitchen desk to catch up on Facebook and low and behold, dear Lorraine has reposted her recipe for…wait for it…English Muffins! That is fate! I was destined to bake English Muffins that afternoon.

Makes 6-8 English Muffins.

Please click here for the original recipe.

Please click here to print this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 200 mL (7 oz) milk
• 5 g (1 tsp) sugar
• 3 g (1 tsp) instant dry yeast
• 20 g (1 oz) butter
• 320 g (2  1/2 cups) AP unbleached flour
• 2 g (1/2 tsp) salt
• 2 g (1/2 tsp) baking powder
• 1 small egg
• cornmeal for dusting

Directions:

1. Heat the milk to 37° C (100° F), sprinkle in the sugar and yeast and mix well. Allow to proof for 10 minutes or until frothy.
2. Melt the butter and set aside to cool a bit. Add the butter to the milky yeast (once proofed) stir in the egg and mix well and set aside.
3. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together in the large bowl of your stand mixer, add the liquid all at once and beat/knead for about 10 minutes or until smooth and silky.
4. Lightly cover with oil and set aside in a draft free spot for about 1 hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 325° F (160° C).
6. On a lightly floured board, turn out the dough and roll out to about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thickness. Cut 8-10 cm (3 1/4″ to 4″) rounds. Dust with cornmeal (brush off any excess) and cook over a low heat in a cast iron frying pan for about 3 minutes each side (do not oil). Finish baking in the preheated oven 20-25 minutes or until the internal temperature is 199° F (93° C). Allow to cool slightly, and then separate each into two using a fork to maximize the nooks and crannies!

The top one is perfect!

Notes:

• If you cannot get small eggs, then take 1 large egg and whisk it to incorporate both yolk and whites, weigh it and divide by 2. Use half in this recipe and save the other half for something else.
• In hindsight, my English Muffins pictured puffed up way too tall, so I have modified the instruction to roll out to half of the original thickness. Plus you should get a few more that way.

Like Lorraine, I like a little English Muffin with my butter.

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