Moomie’s Buns

What is it about being stuck inside on cold, snowy days that makes you want to bake, and knead, and hibernate, and FEED people? The harder the snow comes down, the more you want to be in the kitchen creating delicious smelling things to fill the home. And nothing fills a home with comforting aromas more than bread.

These are super easy. Next snow storm heads your way, try these!

• 1 C water
• 2 T butter or margarine
• 1 egg
• 3 1/4 C all-purpose, unbleached flour
• 1/4 C sugar
• 1 t salt
• 1 T instant yeast

Preheat oven to 375

Add the yeast and a pinch of sugar to 1/4 cup lukewarm water (100-105 degrees). Let this sit for about 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved and bubbling.

While you are waiting, melt the butter.

In separate bowl, whisk egg lightly, add remaining 3/4 cup water and the melted butter. When yeast mixture has bloomed add to water mixture and stir. Pour mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a dough hook.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and sugar. With the stand mixer on the lowest setting, start adding flour/sugar mix slowly until it is all  incorporated. Turn mixer up to setting 2 and let it knead for 4-5 minutes. Do this long enough so the dough looks smooth and is clinging to the dough hook. Add 1 tsp of salt during the last minute of kneading.

Lightly flour a flat surface, remove dough from mixer and lightly knead by hand for a minute of two.

Shape dough into a ball and place in greased bowl in a warm spot, covered for 1 hour.

Shape into 8 buns and place on cookie sheets, cover and let rise again for 30-40 minutes.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden. Cool on wire racks.

NOTE: Letting them cool is SERIOUSLY the hardest part!

Bagels

 

Some of you may remember that last summer my friend Lizzy from that Skinny Chick Can Bake and I did a joint baked beans cook along – different recipes, same dish. We had so much fun doing this together we decided to try it again. The baked beans were my idea, so it was Lizzy’s turn to pick. Much to my chagrin, she chose bagels!

I have been dying to try my hand at bagels. Long story – when I was a kid (not just a kid at heart), and we had our house in Westport, the one annoying thing about the town was that every single solitary store (except perhaps Mr. Grubb’s – another story) closed at 6:00. One night my mom had a yen for bagels and none to be found. She pulled out her Joy of Coooking and got going. She didn’t finish until late, children falling asleep with tongues hanging out waiting for bagels, but they were great! Needless to say, gone in minutes!

When Lizzy said bagels, I figured I would follow in Mom’s footsteps – whoa, tooooo many steps! Off I went in search of a simple bagel recipe! As I stood gaping at my ever growing collection of cookbooks, I saw The Brooklyn Cookbook. What could be more Brooklyn than bagels? There must be a recipe for bagels there!

Gloomy, miserable rainy. Can’t go out. After the car fiasco on the Verrazano Bridge, I wasn’t driving ANYWHERE in the rain! (yet another story!) May as well make bagels. I can already hear Ernie sighing and saying “Walk to the corner. Buy them!”

 This bagel recipe was simple and fool (ME being the fool!) proof.

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1/3 C warm water
• 1 t salt
• 4 C all purpose flour
• 2 T sugar
• 1 C milk
• 1 egg, beaten with a little water, for glaze
• coarse salt, or poppy seeds, or sesame seeds

Sprinkle yeast over the warm water, stir, and let dissolve.

Put the salt, flour, and 4 teaspoons of the sugar into the bowl of a food processor equipped with the dough blade. Pulse the mixture several times to mix it well. This aerates the ingredients.

Combine the yeast mixture and milk in a measuring cup. WIth the motor running, pour the mixture through the feed tube. Knead until the mixture balls together and is no longer sticky, about 60 seconds.

Lightly flour a large plastic bag, place the dough inside, squeeze out the air, and close the end of the bag. Let the dough rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Punch it down.

NOTE: At this point the dough can be refrigerated for up to 4 days. Bring it to room temperature before proceeding.

Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Pull off pieces of dough to form 12 2 inch balls. Poke a finger through the ball, making a hole the size of a golf ball. With your fingers, shape the bagel evenly.

Put the bagels on a cookie sheet, cover with oiled plastic wrap, and let them rise until puffy, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring 4 quarts of water to the boil in a wide pot. Ad the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar. Poach the bagels, 3 or 4 at a time, for 30 seconds. Turn them over and poach for 30 seconds more.

Remove with a slotted spoon, let them drip briefly on a towel held under the spoon and place them 1 inch apart on a baking sheet.

Brush each with a little of the egg glaze.

Leave them plain or sprinkle with coarse salt, poppy seeds or sesame seeds, or a combo of all three.

Bake until golden, about 15 minutes.

Let cool on racks – if you can bear to wait!

THINGS TO REMEMBER FOR NEXT TIME!:

1. Use whole milk. I only had skim and the dough didn’t come together well. I added a bit more, but from the processor running for far more than 60 seconds, the dough was a little tough.
2. Bake on parchment paper. When you egg wash them, if the egg wash trickles down onto the baking sheet, the bagels stick and that’s no bueno.

This was simple to pull together and the end result was fabulous, even given the over worked dough. This method is not an overly long process. These are not really big bagels, but not as small as mini-bagels.

And my favorite breakfast on a delicious bagel I MADE MYSELF!

Italian Bread

 

For as long as I can remember, my mother made this bread. She used it for long loaves, foccacia and pizza. I remember coming home from school on Fridays and there was a bowl on the counter with the squishy dough – pizza for dinner!

During the summer, when we were in Westport, there would be a line of kids outside our back door on Saturday morning, waiting for a piece of my mom’s wonderful bread and butter. My mother made foccacia way before foccacia became fashionable.

This is a very versatile dough. As a bread it has a crisp crust and a tender interior, not too airy, sturdy enough to toast or for bruschetta or garlic bread. For pizza, it makes a great thick-ish crust pizza, bold enough in flavor to still be present under sauce and cheese. And for foccacia, it’s an absolute dream, holds the dents, olive oil floats in them, salt and rosemary a perfect addition. Foccacia is supposed to be a very simple thing, olive oil, salt, perhaps rosemary, everything else is just tooooooo much.

This is a really simple recipe. No fuss, no muss. Bloom, soak, add flour, rise, rise, bake! It will make more sense as we go along.

• 1 package yeast
• 1/4 C warm water
• 3/4 C flour
• 2 C warm water
• 3 heaping t salt
• 5 C flour

Preheat oven to 425.

Dissolve one package of yeast to 1/4 C of warm water. Add 3/4 C of flour and knead to form a ball.

Cut a cross in the ball (not too deep or it will fall apart). Pour 2 C of warm water in a deep narrow bowl, add the ball of dough. Once the ball of dough rises to the top , transfer it to a large bowl. Add 3 heaping teaspoons and 5 cups of flour, one at a time, kneading after each addition. You can use a wooden spoon for the first 3, perhaps 4, the fifth you will need to knead by hand.

Once all the flour is added, knead the dough for a couple of minutes.

Butter a bowl, add the dough, cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm spot to rise.

You want it to double in size.

Once it has doubled, shape into 2 loaves, place on baking sheet, cover and let rise again. Place baking sheet in oven and bake for 30 minutes. I lightly spray the baking sheet first, just in case.

Remove loaves from oven and  let cool completely before you cut into it. I know, not easy! I NEVER make it to completely, usually to warm.

 

Once cooled, slice and enjoy!

Even better with the butter I made!

For foccacia, after the dough has doubled in the bowl, oil a baking sheet, spread the dough out in the baking sheet. Cover and let rise again. After it has risen, press your fingers into the dough to make divots. Sprinkle the top with olive oil and salt. I like to add rosemary, perhaps a little garlic. Bake until golden brown.

For pizza, after the dough has doubled in the bowl, lightly oil a baking sheet, spread the dough out on the baking sheet. Cover and let rise again. After it has risen, add sauce and cheese, and whatever toppings you want. Bake until bottom is browned and cheese has melted.