Breads, Rolls, and Biscuits – Photo Gallery | SAVEUR.
While many of us may rely on one of the guests to bring some bread to our Thanksgiving or holiday meal, if you have some time ahead of the day and want to make something on your own, Saveur Magazine has put together a great collection of different recipes for breads, rolls and biscuits that you can make for your holiday meal. There’s lots of good choices here, so check it out!
Michelle likes to make a homemade breakfast on Sundays and this past weekend was no exception. She had asked me what I felt like having and I had suggested biscuits and sausage gravy. I know it is far from the healthiest breakfast out there, but it tastes really good and it is something we almost never have. I found this recipe from Cook’s Country that was simple and quick to make and didn’t use any ingredients that we didn’t already have in the house, which made it even better to try.
Homemade Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
Biscuits:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
Sausage Gravy:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground fennel seed
1 teaspoon ground sage
1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
1 1/2 pounds bulk pork sausage
3 cups milk
Salt
For the biscuits: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pulse the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, and shortening in the food processor until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Stir in the buttermilk until combined.
On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough until it is smooth, about 8 to 10 kneads. Pat the dough into a 9-inch circle, about 3/4-inch thick. Using a 3-inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut out rounds of dough and arrange them on a prepared baking sheet. Gather the remaining dough, pat it into a 3/4-inch-thick circle, and cut out the remaining biscuits. You should have 8 biscuits in total.
Bake until the biscuits begin to rise, about 5 minutes, then rotate the pan and reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes, then transfer the biscuits to a wire rack and let them cool.
For the sausage gravy: Combine the flour, fennel, sage, and pepper in a small bowl. Cook the sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until the sausage is no longer pink, about 8 minutes. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the sausage and cook, stirring constantly, until the flour has been absorbed, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in the milk and simmer until the sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and serve over split biscuits. The biscuits can be stored in a zipper-lock bag for 2 days to be used again later on.
It’s a very simple meal that makes a great breakfast. You could just have this alone with your coffee, tea or juice or serve it with an egg over easy or scrambled eggs and you have a really nice breakfast for a weekend. We actually made extra so there was some left over for me to have another day. I just heated some of the sausage gravy up and added a little milk to it to loosen it up and had some with a biscuit. It was pretty darn yummy.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. As always, there’s still lots to come, including more Thanksgiving ideas and recipes to use. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
I still had some pizza dough leftover from what I made recently and decided to put it to use last night. I had made a pot of turkey chili, one of Michelle’s favorites but one of Sean’s least favorites. Michelle and I both like it but Sean is not a big fan and was looking for something else to eat. I decided to make use of some leftover items such as the pizza dough and sausage and make a stromboli. I have made one before using Scott Conant’s recipe and it was very good, but I decided to try something a little different this time and gave this one from Emeril Lagasse a shot.
Stromboli
1 pizza dough portion from the Food Processor Pizza Dough recipe
1/4 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, removed from casings and crumbled
1/2 cup sliced onions
1/4 cup thinly sliced red bell peppers
1/4 cup thinly sliced yellow bell peppers
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 pound sliced ham
1/4 pound thinly sliced pepperoni
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon of water
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Oil a large baking sheet or place a baking stone in the oven to heat.
In a large skillet, cook the sausage over medium-high heat until browned and the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels. Discard all but 1 tablespoon of the fat from the skillet. Add the onions and bell peppers and cook, stirring, until very soft, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and Italian seasoning and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove the skillet from the heat and allow the mixture to cool.
Punch down the dough and on a lightly floured surface roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 10 inches by 14 inches. Spread the cooled sausage mixture across the dough, leaving a 1-inch border on the edges. Overlapping slightly, layer the ham, pepperoni, mozzarella and half of the Parmesan cheese over the top of the sausage mixture. Using a pastry brush, paint the border of 1 long edge with the egg wash. Starting at the opposite long end without the egg wash, roll up the dough into a cylinder, pinching the edges to seal. Place on the prepared baking sheet and allow the dough to rise for 20 minutes.
Brush the top of the stromboli with the egg wash. Bake until nearly golden brown and starting to crisp, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle the top of the stromboli with the remaining Parmesan cheese and return it to the oven until the cheese is melted and the dough is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the stromboli to stand for 10 minutes. Slice thickly and serve.
The great thing about stromboli is that you can really put anything inside it. Sean is not a big fan of the peppers, so I left them out and put some extra ham and cheese inside instead. You could just as easily put leftover chicken in there or any other vegetables you may like and have on hand. You can even just do vegetables and cheese if that is what you prefer. I am guessing Sean liked it since he devoured it.
Since I still had a little bit of pizza dough left, I decided to make some small breadsticks with what I had leftover. This is a very simple way to make use of some leftover pizza dough if you happen to have some around.
Homemade Breadsticks
1 portion pizza dough from the Food Processor Pizza Dough recipe
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Place the pizza dough on a lightly floured surface. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray it with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Roll the dough into a rectangle and cut the dough into 12 to 15 thin strips. Place the strips on the baking sheet and cover the dough with a towel and allow it to rise for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle the olive oil over the dough to coat the breadsticks. Sprinkle the breadsticks with the Italian seasoning and the Parmesan cheese and bake in the oven until they are golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.
You can use the breadsticks to go along with any type of meal, like spaghetti and meatballs or any other dish that you like. Michelle and I used them with our chili and they were quite tasty. They came out perfectly with just the right amount of seasoning.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for some more recipes to try. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Ever since I got the issue of Cook’s Country magazine with the cinnamon buns on the cover I have been wanting to give the recipe a try. Granted, it’s not something we eat very often, but they just looked so delicious and the recipe seemed so simple that I just had to give it a try. I had always thought that making them would take a long time and I think a lot of people just find it easier to get the prepackaged rolls with the little glaze packet and make those instead. I can tell you that the time it takes to make these is relatively quick, well worth the effort and cheaper than it costs for a package of those rolls.
Quick Cinnamon Buns
Filling:
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dough:
1 1/4 cups milk, room temperature
4 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, melted
Glaze:
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup confectioners’ sugar. sifted
For the filling: Combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter and vanilla until the mixture resembles wet sand; set aside.
For the dough: Grease a 9-inch round cake pan, line it with parchment paper and then grease the parchment paper. pour 1/4 cup of milk in a small bowl and microwave it to 110 degrees, about 15 to 20 seconds. Stir in the yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar and the mixture sit until it is bubbly, about 5 minutes.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and the remaining 5 teaspoons of granulated sugar together in a large bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the melted butter, the yeast mixture, and the remaining 1 cup of milk until the dough forms. The dough will be sticky. Transfer the dough to a well-floured counter and knead it until a smooth ball forms, about 2 minutes.
Roll the dough into a 12 by 9-inch rectangle with the long side parallel to the counter edge. Brush the dough all over with 2 tablespoons of the melted butter, leaving a 1/2-inch border on the far edge. Sprinkle the dough evenly with the filling, then press the filling firmly into the dough. Using a bench scraper or metal spatula, loosen the dough from the counter. Roll the dough away from you into a tight log and pinch the seam to seal it.
Roll the log seam side down and cut it into 8 equal pieces. Stand the buns on their ends and gently re-form the ends that were pinched during the cutting. Place 1 bun in the center of the prepared pan and the others around the perimeter of the pan, seam sides facing in. Brush the tops of the buns with the remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Cover the buns loosely with plastic wrap and let them rise for 30 minutes. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Discard the plastic wrap and bake the buns until the edges are well browned, about 23 to 25 minutes. Loosen the buns from the sides of the pan with a paring knife and let cool for 5 minutes. Invert a large plate over the cake pan. Using potholders, flip the plate and the pan upside down; remove the pan and the parchment paper. Re-invert the buns onto a wire rack and set the wire rack inside a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and let them cool for 5 minutes.
For the glaze: Place the cream cheese in a large bowl and whisk in the butter, milk, vanilla and salt until it is smooth. Whisk in the sugar until smooth. Pour the glaze evenly over the tops of the buns, spreading the glaze with a spatula to cover the buns.
While the total time of the recipe is about 1 1/2 hours, this is a lot quicker than other traditional cinnamon bun recipes that can take up to 3 hours to complete. I think you get the same great results from this recipe and the buns were very tender and tasted great. They smelled awesome the whole time they were cooking and everyone couldn’t wait for them to come out of the oven. Of course, the three of us split a warm one with glaze on it right away and it was wonderful. I would make this again for a dessert or even as a great brunch item when you may have a brunch party.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. I still have a bunch of new ones to try and I am always finding some new and fun things to do. I may even do a few Halloween themed recipes this week that might be fun. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
I have been doing some special cooking over the last week since we had some family staying with us and a friend over for dinner. I didn’t make anything too fancy, but I did try a few new things. The downside for me about doing cooking like this is that I very often forget to take pictures of what I have made so I don’t have any photos to share of some of the things I have made recently. I did remember to take a couple of pictures of some of the side dishes, so I have those, but I forgot pictures of the main meals themselves so we’ll have to do without photos of them when I post those recipes. Sorry about that. Anyway, one thing I made the last week to go along with the London broil meal we made was Parker House dinner rolls. This is a variation on the original recipe that dates back to the 1800’s from the Parker House Hotel in Boston and from the Fannie Farmer cookbook of that time period. The recipe I used I actually got from Willams-Sonoma and looks more like traditional dinner rolls instead of the half-ovals that the traditional Parker House rolls look like.
Parker House Rolls
1 1/2 cups milk
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cut into 8 pieces, plus 2 tablespoons melted butter
4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic flakes
1 teaspoon white sesame seeds
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk and the 8 tablespoons of butter. Heat until the butter is melted, about 7 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool to 105 degrees to 115 degrees. Add the yeast and stir until it is dissolved. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the 4 cups of flour, the sugar and the kosher salt and beat on low-speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Add the cooled milk mixture and knead until the dough forms into a ball, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium-low and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the mixer bowl, oil the inside of the bowl and return the dough to the bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Divide the dough in half.
Grease a 13-by-9-inch baking pan. on a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece of dough into a log about 12 inches long. Using a bench scraper, divide each log into 12 equal pieces. Using the cupped palm of your hand, roll and shape each piece into a taut ball.
Arrange the dough balls in the prepared baking pan so there are 4 rows of 6. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. in a small bowl, mix the sea salt,garlic flakes and sesame seeds.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the plastic wrap from the baking pan. Brush the tops of the rolls with the 2 tablespoons of melted butter and sprinkle the tops with the sea salt mixture. Bake the rolls in the oven until the rolls are golden and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of a roll registers 190 degrees, about 18 to 20 minutes. Invert the rolls onto a wire rack, then turn them right side up onto another rack. Let the rolls cool slightly before serving.
Wow, these rolls were good and very easy to make. They were the perfect size dinner rolls and came out nice and brown and crunchy on the top and soft and buttery in the middle. Everyone gobbled them up and I only had 3 left after the meal, just enough for Michelle, Sean and I to have for dinner the next day with our meal. The other great thing I noticed about these rolls is that they would be perfect to use as slider rolls for sliders as an appetizer, snack or meal. I will definitely be making these again as they did not take very long to do and you get a good amount out of the recipe, so you can always throw a bunch in the freezer and just re-heat them for your meal as you want them.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for some more recipes. I still have the London broil with creamy horseradish sauce, a pan-seared rib eye with red wine sauce, simple sautéed spinach, a wonderful fall vegetable risotto and more. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Banana bread is one of my favorite snacks. I love a slice with a cup of coffee in the morning. It just seems like a great way to start the day. I have tried several recipes for banana bread before and most of them have been pretty good and tasty. I have yet to come across one that makes dry, crumbly bread that you wouldn’t want to eat. When I saw this recipe from America’s Test Kitchen for the Ultimate Banana Bread, I knew I was going to have to check it out and give it a try to see if it really lives up to all the hype.
Ultimate Banana Bread
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
6 large very ripe bananas, peeled
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 large eggs
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped (optional)
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.
Place 5 bananas in a microwave-safe bowl; cover the bowl with plastic wrap and cut several steam vents in the plastic wrap with a paring knife. Microwave on high power until the bananas are soft and have released liquid, about 5 minutes. Transfer the bananas to a fine-mesh strainer placed over a medium bowl and allow them to drain, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. You should have about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of liquid.
Transfer the liquid to a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, stir the reduced liquid into the bananas, and mash the bananas with a potato masher until they are fairly smooth. Whisk in the butter, eggs, brown sugar and vanilla.
Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined with some streaks of flour remaining. Gently fold in the walnuts, if using. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Slice the remaining banana diagonally into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Shingle the banana slices on top of either side of the loaf, leaving about an 1 1/2 inch space down the center of the loaf to ensure an even rise. Sprinkle the granulated sugar evenly over the loaf.
Bake the loaf until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 55 to 75 minutes. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove the loaf from the pan and continue to cool it on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Now calling it the ultimate banana bread may be bragging a little on their part, but it is a pretty darn good bread. it has some of the best banana flavor in bread that I have had in a while and I do like the bananas on top of the bread too. With the sugar they almost caramelized and candied a bit, making them quite tasty.Microwaving the bananas and getting the liquid out of them really helps to give the flavor and keeps the bread from getting too mushy with this many bananas in the recipe. Both Sean and Michelle agreed it was one of the best banana breads, so I’ll be making this one again.
That’s all for today. Check back next time for another recipe. I have a bunch of new ones to choose from, so we’ll see what comes up next. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
I have always kind of shied away from making bread. I don’t really have any counter space to roll and knead dough out properly. Our kitchen is about the size of a closet with one small counter to do work on, so I have always been limited in what I can do. That being said, I have tried to get a little more adventurous and try some dough that can be done in the food processor or in a stand mixer. I love ciabatta bread, so that was immediately one of the first that I tracked down a recipe for. After finding a good one, I set about making it. You need to know you are doing this one a day in advance, so make sure you give yourself time to do it. It takes a lot of waiting but it’s worth it.
Homemade Ciabatta Bread
1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons warm water
1/3 cup warm water
1 cup bread flour
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons warm milk
2/3 cup warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
To make the sponge: In a small bowl, stir together the 1/8 teaspoon of yeast and the 2 tablespoons of warm water and allow it to stand for 5 minutes, or until creamy. In a medium bowl, stir together the yeast mixture, the 1/3 cup of warm water and 1 cup of bread flour. Stir together for 4 minutes, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Allow the sponge to stand at a cool room temperature for at least 12 hours and up to 1 full day.
To make the bread: In a small bowl, stir together the 1/2 teaspoon of the dry yeast and the milk and allow it to stand for 5 minutes, or until it is creamy. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, blend together the milk mixture, the sponge, water, olive oil and flour at low-speed until the flour is just moistened; add the salt and mix the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Scrape the dough into an oiled bowl and cover it with plastic wrap.
Let the dough rise at room temperature until it has doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. The dough will be sticky and full of air bubbles. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured work surface and cut it in half. Transfer each half to a parchment sheet and form it into an irregular oval about 9 inches long. Dimple the loaves with floured fingers and dust the tops of the loaves with flour. Cover the loaves with a dampened kitchen towel. Let the loaves rise at room temperature until almost doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
At least 45 minutes before baking the ciabatta, place a baking stone on the oven rack with the lowest position in the oven and pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.
Transfer 1 loaf on its parchment paper to a rimless baking sheet with a long side of the loaf parallel to the far edge of the baking sheet. Line up the far edge of the baking sheet with the far edge of the baking stone in the oven and tilt the baking sheet to slide the loaf with the parchment onto the back half of the baking stone. Transfer the remaining loaf to the front half of the stone in a similar manner. Bake the ciabatta loaves for 20 minutes, or until a pale golden brown. Cool the loaves on a wire rack.
I was a little skeptical before I even tried the recipe how this would come out, but it was really good. The crust is perfectly crunchy with a great texture to the bread itself. Sean and I each had a slice while it was still warm and it was awesome. I then made a sandwich with the bread later on for dinner and it was fantastic. Michelle took a sandwich for lunch herself today. The only thing I might change is the shaping of the loaves. I did not shape them in the oval as recommended and went for a little bit of a longer loaf. I think the oval would work out much better and give you larger slices to work with. I will definitely be making this again. I know around here they get about $4.00 a loaf for ciabatta and I figure the cost of making two loaves at home is about a dollar, so it is certainly worth the time you put in. Most of the time is actually waiting for the dough to rise, so you don’t have a lot of effort to put in for great results and savings.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another new recipe that I have tried this week. We have tried several already, so I have a bunch of new ones to choose from. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
A suggestion had been made to me a while back about making my own bagels. I had thought about it before and it always seemed like there was a lot of work involved in doing it so I never really gave it much thought until recently. I did some looking around for bagel recipes, trying to find one that would not be difficult to make and could be done in my small kitchen without a lot of fuss. After doing some searching, I came upon this recipe from The Sophisticated Gourmet and it seemed basic enough and easy enough that it would be worth my first shot, even if it is 95 degrees outside. Who doesn’t love a nice bagel for breakfast or as a substitute for your bread on a sandwich?
New York-Style Bagels
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (you may need 1/4 cup more, I used a little more than this)
3 1/2 cups bread flour, plus extra for kneading
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
In 1/2 cup of warm water, pour in the yeast and the sugar. Do not stir. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes, and then stir the yeast and sugar mixture until it all dissolves in the water.
Mix the flour and the salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast and sugar mixture.
Pour half of the remaining warm water into the well. Mix and stir in the rest of the warm water as needed. Depending on where you live, you may need to add anywhere from a couple of tablespoons to 1/4 cup of water. You want your final results to be a moist and firm dough after you have mixed it.
On a floured countertop, knead the dough for 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Try working in as much flour as possible to form a firm and stiff dough. Lightly brush a large bowl with oil and turn the dough to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp dish towel. Allow the dough to rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough down and let it rest for another 10 minutes.
Carefully divide the dough into 8 pieces (you can use a scale for this if you have one and want to be exact; I just eyeballed it to try to get equal portions). Shape each piece into a round. Take a dough ball and press it gently against the countertop or other flat surface you are working on, moving your hand and the ball of dough in a circular motion, pulling the dough into itself while reducing the pressure on top of the dough slightly until you form a perfect dough ball. Repeat the process with the other 7 dough rounds.
Coat a finger in flour, and gently press your finger into the center of each dough ball to form a ring. Stretch the ring to about 1/3 the diameter of the bagel and place the bagel on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.
After shaping the dough rounds and placing them on the cookie sheet, cover them with a damp kitchen towel and allow them to rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Reduce the heat. Use a slotted spoon or spider skimmer to lower the bagels into the water. Boil as many as you are comfortable with at first without overcrowding. Once the bagels are in, they will begin to float to the top within seconds. Let the bagels sit in the water undisturbed for 1 minute, then flip them over to boil for another minute. Extend the boiling time to 2 minutes per side if you would prefer a chewier, more New York-style bagel.
Once all the bagels have boiled, transfer them to a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
I only made plain bagels this time out since it was the first time I was trying them, but you could certainly add a wide variety of toppings to the bagels. Things like sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway seeds, minced onion, minced garlic or anything else can be used. You want to add your toppings after you remove the bagels from the boiling water and apply an egg wash to the bagels before you put the toppings on and then put them in the oven. The work time wasn’t bad even though it involved kneading dough in the summer heat for me, which wasn’t a lot of fun, but it was certainly worth it. I was very happy with the final results and the bagels tasted delicious. All said, I think it was pretty easy to do for a great result and a lot cheaper than buying a bagel from the bagel store or deli.
We used the bagels with dinner last night to make chicken salad sandwiches and they were delicious. I also tried Alton Brown’s coleslaw recipe to go along with dinner last night. There are a few nice ingredients in this one that give some great extra flavor.
Alton Brown’s Coleslaw
1/2 head green cabbage, thinly sliced
1/2 head red cabbage, thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 ounces plain yogurt
2 ounces mayonnaise
1 tablespoon pickle juice
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon chives, chopped
Kosher salt, as needed
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Generously salt the cabbage and drain in a colander for 3 hours. Rinse thoroughly and dry. In a separate bowl, combine all of the ingredients except the cabbage and carrot. Whisk to combine evenly. Toss the cabbage and carrot with the dressing.
Salting the cabbage first helps to pull out a lot of the moisture from the cabbage. You could just as easily use a bag of coleslaw mix if you have one hand and get the same results. I love the added flavor that the yogurt, buttermilk, pickle juice and mustard give to the slaw. It has a nice, tangy flavor and a little bite to it that is very enjoyable.
That’s all there is for today. Check back next time to see some other new recipes I will be trying in the next few days. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Everyone loves to have a hamburger of some sort. There are thousands of different recipes all over the place using all kinds of different meats, cheeses, sauces, condiments and rolls. I have posted links just within the last week of many different burger recipes you can use for this summer on your grill. One in particular that struck me and made me want to give it a try was one that was posted by the Food Network. The recipe specifically is from Marc Murphy, a well-known chef and restaurant owner many may be familiar with the as one of the judges on the show “Chopped.” He offered up a recipe for what he calls “The Big Marc.”
The Big Marc Burger
Homemade Cheddar and Black Pepper Buns
1 cup warm water
1 1/2 ounces fresh yeast
1/2 cup sugar
4 ounces butter, melted, plus more for greasing
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
1 and freshly cracked black pepper
Spiked Ketchup
1 head garlic
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 cups ketchup
5 ounces vodka (about 2/3 cup)
Burgers
2 1/2 pounds 80/20 ground beef, formed into six 6-ounce patties
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 ounces melted butter
Bread and butter pickles
For the buns, stir the water, yeast and sugar together to activate the yeast. You can tell when the yeast is activated-little bubbles will have formed, which will take several minutes. Add the melted butter and 3 of the eggs and mix until incorporated.
Add 4 cups of flour and the salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Mix together on low speed, then stop and add the wet ingredients. Continue to mix until the dough is very smooth, about 5 minutes. You may want to add a little bit more flour as you mix; the dough should be sticky but workable. Transfer the dough to a bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel, place in a warm area and let rise until the dough has doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
After the dough has proofed (risen), turn it out onto a lightly-floured countertop and knead in the cheddar and black pepper. Try not to overwork the dough; once the cheese is mixed in you can stop. Cut the dough into 6 equal portions and shape them into round balls. Place on a buttered baking sheet and flatten them with your hand. Cover and let rise again in a warm area until they have doubled in size, about 30 minutes more. When they are almost doubled in size, preheat the oven to 350°. Beat the remaining egg in a small bowl and brush the tops of the rolls with the egg. Bake until golden brown, rotating halfway through, about 10 to 15 minutes.Cool the rolls on a wire rack.
For the ketchup, turn the oven down to 250°. Cut the garlic in half crosswise and sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap the garlic in aluminum foil and roast until soft, about 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the garlic from the skins and mix into a paste. Reserve 1 tablespoon for the ketchup, and keep the remaining garlic for another use. Whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard and roasted garlic in a bowl. Add the ketchup and vodka and mix until incorporated. This will keep for up to 6 days in the refrigerator.
For cooking the burgers, heat a skillet over high heat or heat an outdoor grill to high. Sprinkle the patties with salt and pepper. Coat with oil and sear or grill until medium rare, about 3 to 5 minutes per side.
Slice the buns in half horizontally and brush with the melted butter. Toast in the skillet or on the grill. Arrange pickles slices on each bottom bun and place a hamburger on top. Slather 1 to 2 tablespoons of spiked ketchup over the burger and set the top bun in place. Serve with the remaining ketchup on the side.
Just a few things about this recipe. Number one, I’ve never made any type of buns like this before so it was a new experiment for me. I have to say it was pretty easily done and they came out quite nice. I did eliminate putting the cheddarr and black pepper into the rolls because I wasn’t sure how they would come out and wanted to try them just plain the first time around. We all liked the hamburger buns better than anything you would buy at the supermarket. As is noted in the recipe, however, the recipes for the buns and the ketchup are quite large. The buns themselves come out big when they are finished and are probably more than what you need for a hamburger unless you really like a large roll. I actually ended up cutting the recipes for the buns and the ketchup in half of what is shown here and still ended up with a lot of ketchup and big buns. Next time, I think I will portion the buns out to make them even smaller and see how they come out and maybe even just do 1/3 of the ketchup recipe. You could go for completely homemade in this recipe and grind your own beef with a mixture of chuck and sirloin and form your own patties that way. Of course, you can serve any condiments or sauces that you like on the side. We actually made ours with some crispy bacon and some onion rings.
That’s the recipe for today. Check back next time and you can see the meatloaf recipe I tried out recently that comes from Tyler Florence. I also have a few other recipes for the coming days and weeks so you want to keep checking back and see what comes up. Until then, try to stay: this heat wave were experiencing in New York and enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
As soon as I saw this recipe in a recent version of the Dining section of The New York Times a few weeks ago I knew I was going to have to give it a try. It’s a very basic recipe for fried chicken without all the bells and whistles of breadcrumbs, crushed cereal, saltine crackers, and various spices. This is just good, simple ingredients that you don’t need much to do. All you need is a good cast-iron skillet, a cut-up chicken, some flour and some oil and you are good to go. The recipe almost sounded too easy and I wondered how good it was actually going to come out. I was not disappointed in the results. While the recipe was posted in the newspaper a few weeks ago, it actually comes from Southern Living.
Southern Living’s Best Fried Chicken
1 tablespoon +1 teaspoon salt
1 chicken with skin, about 2 1/2 pounds, cut up into 8 pieces
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups vegetable oil
1/4 cup bacon drippings (or use more oil)
Combined 1 tablespoon of the salt with 3 quarts of water in a large bowl or container. Add the chicken, cover, and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight. Drain, rinse with cold water, and pat dry.
Stir together the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt and the black pepper. Sprinkle half the mixture evenly over the chicken. In a large sealable plastic bag, combine the remaining pepper mixture and the flour. Add two pieces of chicken to the bag and shake well to coat. Remove the chicken pieces, shaking off any extra flour, and set them aside. Repeat the process with the remaining chicken.
Take a large cast-iron skillet or chicken fryer, for which you have a lid, and fit with a candy or deep-frying thermometer. Add the oil and bacon drippings and heat to 360° over medium heat; the oil will ripple and possibly give off a few wisps of smoke.
Using a pair of tongs, immediately add chicken pieces, skin side down (work in batches if necessary to avoid crowding the pan). The oil temperature will drop to about 325°, where it should stay; adjust the heat so that the oil is bubbling gently around the chicken pieces. Cover the pan and cook for 6 minutes; uncover the pan and cook for 9 minutes. Turn the chicken pieces; re-cover the pan and cook for another 6 minutes. Uncover the pan and cook for another 5 to 9 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces. If necessary for even browning, turn the pieces over a few times towards the end. Remove the pieces and drain on paper towels or in a paper bag. Repeat the process with any remaining chicken pieces. Allow the chicken to cool at least 20 minutes before serving.
There are a couple of notes that go along with this recipe that they pointed out in the article that I think to make a difference to the way the chicken comes out. First, if the chicken is larger than 2 1/2 pounds, you should cut each breast in half so that you have a total of 10 pieces. This will help for more even cooking and keep the pieces to a smaller portion size. Also, I would not use olive oil for this recipe as a substitute for vegetable oil. Olive oil tends to leave a particular taste on the food that you are cooking in it, and this is not the type of meal where you want that to happen. The article itself actually recommends using grapeseed oil, but I do not have any grapeseed oil and I find it to be very expensive to purchase. I simply used the vegetable oil, but you could also use peanut oil or canola oil instead. I did not add the bacon drippings and used more oil instead since we don’t make bacon very often around the house anymore and I didn’t see the need.
Brining the chicken for this recipe does seem to make a good difference in the flavor and the moistness of chicken after it is fried. Not everyone always has the time to do it, but if you are planning ahead and you know you’ll have the time and the space in your refrigerator, I would recommend doing it. Finally, the article highly recommends using a cast-iron skillet for this recipe. I keep mine on the stove pretty much all the time to use for a wide variety of recipes and it was perfect for the chicken. It is plenty deep enough for the amount of oil that you use (and I actually use less oil than the recipe called for and I think it turned out fine), but you do want to make sure that you have some type of cover to put over the chicken.Overall, I loved the crunch of the chicken and there was not too much crust as often happens with fried chicken that has a thick batter. The chicken itself was very moist and cooked perfectly.
To go along with the recipe, I did make some mashed potatoes and coleslaw. I also had some extra cornmeal laying around so I decided that it would be a good opportunity to try and make some cornbread. I’ve made cornbread before and posted the recipe on this blog, but in the past I have made Southern-style cornbread that is made right in the cast-iron skillet. Since I was already using my cast-iron skillet for the chicken, I needed to find a little bit of a different recipe to use. The Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook has a good, general all-purpose cornbread recipe that you could easily use for this or use as part of a stuffing if you are going to want leftovers for that purpose.
All-Purpose Cornbread
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
8 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400°. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with the vegetable oil spray. Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until well combined; set aside.
In a food processor or blender, process the brown sugar, corn kernels, and buttermilk until combined, about 5 seconds. Add the eggs and process until well combined (some corn lumps will remain), about 5 seconds longer.
Using a rubber spatula, make a well in the center of the dry ingredients; pour the wet ingredients into the well. Begin folding the dry ingredients into the wet, giving the mixture only a few turns to barely combine. Add the melted butter and continue folding until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth the surface with the rubber spatula.
Bake until the cornbread is a deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes. Allow the cornbread to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert the pan onto the wire rack, and turn right side up and allow the cornbread to cool until just warm, about 10 minutes longer, and serve. Leftover cornbread can be wrapped in aluminum foil and re-heated in a 350° oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
Adding the extra corn in with the cornmeal gave it up pretty nice flavor, and the combination with the light brown sugar really did give some extra sweetness to the bread. I also like the golden crust that came out on this bread. The recipe recommends using Quaker yellow cornmeal and I guess that is what the recipe was designed for. I only had a stone-ground cornmeal on hand, and the bread did come out a little bit drier, just as the recipe had indicated it might.
Those of the recipes for today. Next time out, I’ll be posting the recipe that I used just last night for some scallops with a carrot cream. Check back for that one and see if you like it. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
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