A question about toffee

The other day I came across a recipe for Chocolate Covered Coffee Toffee. Zoe, who posted the recipe, is the same Zoe Francois who co-wrote Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

With a name like "Chocolate Covered Coffee Toffee," I didn't really have a choice but to bookmark the recipe and try it out, did I?!

So Tuesday I gathered my ingredients and got to work. I'm not normally a candy-maker, but Zoe's recipe, full of detailed instructions and photos, gave me confidence. I was thrilled with the results!



I proudly shared the delicacy with The Engineer that night. As he sat eating it, he said, "I just have one question about this."

Uh oh, I thought. What does he think is wrong with it?

"Why," he continued, "did it take you so many years to make this? It's scary how good it is."

I smiled, and knew all the stirring and dipping had been worth it!

I'm not going to post the recipe here--you're much better off with Zoe's excellent tutorial at her blog. This recipe is very doable. It takes awhile, but it's not technically difficult. Here are a few things I learned:

• At the store you will probably find the molasses with the maple syrup, in the breakfast foods aisle. Don't be like me, looking repeatedly in the honey section and the baking aisle before finally seeing the syrups, checking there, sighing because it's not there, finally seeing it stuck behind the corn syrup on the very top row, and having to ask for help to reach a jar. Sigh. (But even if you do have to go through all those steps, the final product is worth it!)
• I followed the microwave instructions for the chocolate instead of using a double boiler. It worked great. (If you do want to use a double boiler but don't have one, you can set a metal bowl in the opening of a pot. Put water in the pot first.)
• When you're done cooking the toffee and it's spread out and scored, just fill your pot with water, and throw the wisk in there too. Let it soak while you dip the toffee in chocolate. The water will loosen up the leftover toffee, making clean up easy.
  
• Correct temperature is really important in making the toffee. I tried to find a candy thermometer at our Super Wal-Mart and they didn't seem to have one. So I used my meat thermometer. It's the type with a long metal probe that connects to the digital unit. Here's a reenaction of how I got the thermometer probe to stay in the hot toffee without falling in completely or touching the bottom of the pot:
  
  
  
  I'm pretty proud of my thermometer/pasta server setup! But I'm planning on buying a candy thermometer that clips to the side of the pot; it'll be much simpler.
  

If you try this recipe, let me know how it turns out! I'd like to try making half of it with milk chocolate next time.

Bon appetit!

Monday Micro: Krazy Krustless Kids

Last week I made the Vermont Cheddar Cheese bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It's an awesome recipe--both delicious and easy. (It's just the Master Recipe with some shredded cheese thrown in. I like to sprinkle cheese on top before baking too.)



With crusty artisan bread, of course the crust is the best part. Add crispy, baked cheese to that crust, and it's even better. But I have typical children--they just don't like bread crust. (I should be concerned about their senses of taste, but hey...they've eaten boogers. I already knew not to trust their culinary preferences.)

So when Zoodle wanted some of this bread recently, I came up with the perfect solution. My plate is on the left; his is on the right.



I said the solution was perfect...not pretty!

Of baking and running...

I love when we bloggers are good influences on each other!

For at least a couple of years I've known that my wonderful bloggy buddy Sasha is a runner. In fact, I first heard of the Couch-to-5K program from her--for a long time I thought it was her invention! (Nope, she's just a graduate and huge fan of the program--like I am now!)

So, I give Sasha a big chunk of the credit for inspiring me to run. (Thanks, Sasha!!) What a cool bit of positive peer pressure!

If you read this blog, you know I'm not just passionate about running.... I'm passionate about baking. Bread, specifically. The book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day has taught me to bake bread for the first time in my life. (In the last two days, I baked six pieces of flatbread and two loaves of bread. My visiting parents are very happy!)

So I felt like a proud mama bird, watching her babies fly for the first time (I know, ridiculously sappy simile there) when I saw Sasha's blog Tuesday. The post title was "I Am Taken Aback by my Domestic-ness", and...you guessed it...she read my blog posts, got the book, and baked her first awesomely delicious loaf of bread!

So, Sasha's turned me into a runner, and I've turned her into a bread baker. And if we both keep up the bread baking...let's hope we both keep up the calorie-burning running too!

Whole wheat flatbread pizza

Have you entered the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook giveaway yet? I'll be choosing a winner randomly on Friday, so get over there and leave me a comment to enter.

To whet your appetite, I'd like to share a recipe. This is what we had for dinner last night (and a recipe I make frequently!)

Whole Wheat Flatbread Pizza

Personal-sized

Ingredients:

Crust:
Master Recipe dough from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day (Recipe here!)
Extra virgin olive oil

Sauce:
Tomato/pizza sauce, pesto, or alfredo sauce (I used Classico basil pesto, sold with pasta sauces)

Toppings:
Your pizza toppings of choice. (I used sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts--both jarred; fresh spinach; and shredded mozzarella cheese.)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. If using a baking stone (which is preferable), preheat for 20-30 minutes.

2. Make flatbread using the naan recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. (Recipe available here for free!) However, instead of ghee or butter, use 1 Tbsp or less extra virgin olive oil. Watch closely, as it's easy to burn the bread.

3. Spread sauce on flatbread, and cover with toppings.

4. Bake pizzas (on preheated stone, if available) until cheese is melted (browned if you'd like), about 6-8 minutes.

These pizzas are a hit in our house. The flatbread has a wonderful flavor and texture; we prefer it to traditional homemade pizza crust. I like that I can easily make individual pizzas with whatever ingredients each person wants. (Pickier kids can even have plain flatbread, or flatbread with cheese melted on top.) We are reducing cholesterol in our diets, so last night I only used a bit of cheese, and The Engineer still loved the flavor.

Now, get over to yesterday's post and enter the giveaway, and get your friends to enter if you'd like extra entries!

Review and GIVEAWAY! Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Last Christmas I got a book that changed the way I cook: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I think I "might" have mentioned it on this blog a "few" times.

I was not a bread baker until this book came into my life. (I know, "came into my life" sounds like I'm describing a love affair. And...I am.) From pizza to bagels to cinnamon rolls to braided challah to crusty white bread to breadsticks to...well, you get the picture...I've become a baker of really great bread, thanks to the techniques of Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoe Francois.

So of course I was a bit giddy with excitement when book #2 arrived in the mail last week.



Now, I admit I was a little nervous about Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I've had good luck with most of the recipes I've tried from the original book...but really never loved loved the 100% whole wheat recipe; it was just too dense for my taste. I was hoping that the second book would feature healthy recipes that also had a fantastic texture and flavor.

And so far...wow. This book has really come through for me! Jeff and Zoe have come up with recipes that are healthy but also incredibly tasty.

Here's the idea behind both books: You make up a large, wet batch of dough. Stir it up, no kneading required. Let it rise, and then store it in the fridge. The wet dough is designed to be used over the course of up to two weeks (depending on the recipe.) On baking day, preparing a loaf takes less than five minutes (not including resting/rising time and baking time.) Please note many of these loaves are baked with steam, and you should not use an "oven-safe" glass dish for your water/steam. You can read about my explosive experience here.

The first HBin5 recipe I tried was Apples and Honey Whole Grain Challah (p. 262.) I love the challah recipe in the original book, so I thought this would be a good one to try. It's made with 5 cups whole wheat flour and 3 cups unbleached white flour, and has the added goodness of wheat germ and apple chunks. Instead of butter, I used canola oil (one of the options provided in the recipe.)



I made four of these turban-shaped loaves and later used the rest of the dough to make a good-sized loaf in a normal loaf pan. This bread was a hit. I brought it to a church function, and we all loved it. The apple chunks and eggs in the dough gave it a fantastic texture and flavor; it tastes decadent, even though it's healthy.

Next I tried the Master Recipe (p. 54, and also on the Artisan Bread in Five blog.) This is a very simple, very healthy recipe, with almost three times as much whole wheat flour as white flour. I made a seed mixture with poppy, white sesame, black sesame, and sunflower seeds to use as the topping (optional but awesome.)





Once again, it did not disappoint--it was great! The bread was not too dense, and the seed topping really gave it an incredible flavor. This would make a delicious sandwich loaf too. The book gives plenty of other uses for the master recipe dough, and I have a lot of it waiting for me in the fridge, so I'll be doing more experimenting this week.

I highly recommend both of these books. Each stands alone; you don't have to buy the first book to get great use out of the second. I'd suggest you buy both, but I'm, of course, a fanatic! Thanks to the authors' blog, you can try the Master Recipe and the Whole Grain Brioche recipe for free, as well as various recipes from the first book. But really, the blog doesn't replace the books; it supplements them. Nothing beats having over 200 recipes at your fingertips, along with the extra information and instructions in the books.

And now to the really exciting part...

St. Martin's Press has provided one copy of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day for a lucky reader of C. Beth Blog!

Here's how you enter:

Leave a comment here telling why you'd like to have 100 healthy bread recipes. Please only leave ONE comment.

To get extra comments, spread the word about the giveaway (via Twitter, Facebook, your blog, word of mouth, billboards, etc.!) Make sure anyone who hears about it from you gives you credit in your comment! You'll get an extra entry for each person who mentions you in their entry.

I will randomly choose a winner on Friday, November 6. I'll close the comments before choosing a winner.

Open to anyone with a U.S. or Canadian mailing address. If you are from a different country, feel free to enter, and if it costs over US$10 to mail the book, I'll ask you to kindly cover the excess.

And remember, if you are entering because you heard about the contest from someone, be sure to mention them in your comment!

*Disclosure:While the publisher provided me with a free copy of this book for the giveaway, I was not compensated in any other way. I purchased my personal copies of both books.

Hummus recipe

Sunday's baby shower had a fun menu--and one that is very doable, whether you cook a lot or not. I'll share more, and maybe you'll be inspired. (By the way, I'd love to share photos, but I forgot to bring my camera! You'll have to imagine what the food looked like.)

The main dish was pita sandwiches, with homemade pita bread (thanks, once again, to Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.) Pita pockets are somewhat time-consuming when you're making a lot of them. I think the time spent is worth it, but of course you can very easily just purchase them!

Most of the pita sandwich fillers were vegan, since Ann (the mama) is vegan. But there were a few non-vegan options too.

Pita veggie sandwich fillers:
Hummus (See below for recipe)
Mayonnaise (non-vegan)
Lettuce
Alfalfa sprouts
Cucumber (sliced)
Marinated sweet peppers (chopped, from an "olive bar" at local grocery store)
Green olives (sliced)
Kalamata (brown) olives (sliced)
Tomatoes (chopped)
Red onions (chopped)
Feta cheese crumbles (non-vegan)

For those who didn't want a sandwich chock full of veggies, I made chicken salad. This chicken salad recipe is easy and fantastic: Holiday Chicken Salad. I pretty much follow the recipe exactly, so I take zero credit for it and feel comfortable telling you one of the ladies at the shower told me it was the best chicken salad she'd ever had. I will note that I chop the green onions and green peppers small so the flavor isn't overwhelming. (I'm not generally a fan of either of those ingredients, but I love what they add to this recipe.)

To drink, we had Sparkling Punch, a delicious, non-alcoholic, vegan punch. (Lots of punch recipes contain ice cream or sherbet, and aren't vegan.)

Other ladies provided green salad and fruit with fruit dip. Whole Foods Market's bakery made a chocolate cake with raspberry filling--vegan, gorgeous, and delicious.

****

I like making my own hummus. It's delicious, super easy, and inexpensive--makes you wonder why storebought hummus costs so much! Here is the recipe:

Hummus

Based on this recipe from AllRecipes.com

2 cloves minced garlic (or 1 tsp. jarred minced garlic--this is what I use)
1-19 oz. can garbanzo beans--drained, with half the liquid reserved
2 Tbsp lemon juice (bottled is fine)
2 Tbsp tahini*
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper
olive oil

Throw everything except the pepper and olive oil into a blender or food processor and blend well. Blend in as much of the liquid from the beans as it takes to get the consistency you desire. Transfer to a bowl. Sprinkle with pepper, and drizzle with olive oil (both to taste.) Enjoy as a dip, spread, or even by the spoonful! Both of my kids have gone through periods of liking hummus, and neither of them cares for it now--but it's always worth a try; it's a good way to eat healthy protein and healthy fat.

*Tahini is sort of like peanut butter, but it's made with sesame seeds. I found it at a local gourmet supermarket that has lots of natural foods. If you can't find it locally, there's always Amazon.

Blueberry Streusel Bread

Oh.

My.

This bread is fantastic.

You must make it.* If you think you can't bake, trust me, this is very doable. The dough recipe is from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which makes bread-baking genuinely easy. If you still don't think you can do it, pay someone else to. Yes, it's that good.

A note: I used challah dough for this, and it was excellent. The recipe is on page 180 of the book. It would also be fantastic with brioche, which is similar to challah...but with more butter and eggs. Mmm. The brioche recipe is on the Artisan Bread in Five blog.

Ready for the recipe?

Blueberry Streusel Bread

Ingredients:

1 pound challah or brioche dough

Blueberries (to taste, about 1 to 1 1/2 cup)

Streusel topping

Streusel topping ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

Instructions:

1. Make dough in advance--it should be refrigerated for at least a few hours prior to using.

2. Lightly grease full-sized loaf pan.

3. Make the streusel topping. Mix flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Use pastry blender or food processor's "Pulse" mode to cut in butter until crumbly.




4. Stir oats into streusel topping.


3. Sprinkle dough surface with flour. Break off a 1 pound piece of dough (grapefruit-sized.) Cover with flour, then quickly form into a ball. Place on flour-sprinkled surface.

5. Use hands and rolling pin to stretch/roll dough into a rough rectangle. Short side should be about as long as the loaf pan; long side should be about 12-16 inches.

6. Liberally sprinkle dough with blueberries.

7. Liberally sprinkle blueberries with streusel topping.

8. Carefully roll dough, starting with short side. When done, gently pinch edge to the body of the roll to seal it.

9. Place roll in loaf pan, seam side down.

10. Let loaf rest for 1 hour 20 minutes. Near the end of this time, preheat oven to 350 degrees. At end of resting time, use kitchen shears to make several slashes in the top layer of dough.

11. Liberally sprinkle loaf with streusel topping, gently pressing the streusel into the top of the loaf. If some topping falls in between the loaf and the pan, even better!

12. Bake about 40 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool a bit on a rack.

13. Cut...and enjoy!

*If you're dieting, make it anyway. When it's done, cut a thin slice out of the center, take the rest of the loaf to a neighbor, and then come home and eat your slice. It's the only diet-safe way to eat this calorie-full comfort food. The small slice will be worth the time you put into it, and your neighbors will worship the ground you walk on, spontaneously starting to mow your lawn each week in hopes of getting more Blueberry Streusel Bread.

My dough, my dough, it's off to church I go...

Last week I opened an e-mail from a church friend. She usually brings a light breakfast for our congregation each Sunday, but she knew she wouldn't be there on July 5, and needed a couple of people to do the food shopping for her. On a whim, I hit "Respond."

And offered to make enough baked goods for our entire (small) church. Temporary insanity, I guess. (Spare the "Temporary? Chuckle, chuckle" comments.)

Now, I've blogged about the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which I got as a Christmas present. Sure enough, bread baking has become a wee bit of an obsession (a very yummy obsession) for me this year. I figured I could find a few recipes to make for Sunday's service. It would be fun.

Well, it was fun. It was also a lot of work. It's kind of like childbirth. Right afterward I said, "I don't think I'd ever do that again!" But now, a few days later, I'm thinking it wasn't so bad. Which means in another few months I'll find myself repeating this whole process. (The baking. Not the childbirth.)

Friday I made three types of dough from the book...

...bagel dough,...



...brioche dough,...



...and my own version of oatmeal bread dough. (It was "my own version" since I ran out of white flour and had to replace most of it with whole wheat and rye flours. It didn't initially rise well, but I gave the loaves plenty of rising time in the pans, and they did well.)



I rearranged my fridge, stacking things precariously, so that all the dough would fit overnight. (See that little bottle next to the brioche? That's Prince Zoodle's Augmentin, the evil antibiotic that my pediatrician's office assured me yesterday he still needs to take.)



Saturday afternoon I got to work making a mess. Let me tell you, I am not a neat baker. I get flour and sugar and oatmeal all over the place. I was working barefoot, and with all the ingredients my feet picked up, I probably could have scraped my soles afterward and made a streusel topping. (Don't worry, I didn't.)

By the evening, though, the kitchen was (fairly) clean, and my countertops were filled with baked goods.

There were sesame seed bagels, chewy and moist.



For sweets-lovers, I had cinnamon rolls. (For the filling and topping I used this recipe for rolls that are supposed to taste like Cinnabons. I actually used the Artisan Bread in Five brioche dough because I know I can make it correctly and I haven't had the best luck with cinnamon rolls in the past...but the dough in the original recipe sounds delicious.)



And for those who wanted a healthy, whole-grain option without any refined sugar, I made two loaves of oatmeal bread swirled with raisins and walnuts.



So, for those of you who asked in Saturday's comments whether we stayed home or braved the sweltering park for Independence Day...well, after being in a hot kitchen so much of the day, I really didn't have any desire to spend the evening outside. It was still 100 degrees at 6 p.m. Next year, I won't bake all day on July 4th, and maybe our kids will get to see some fireworks. As for this year...well, they enjoyed the bagels and cinnamon rolls. That's almost as exciting as fireworks, right?

Pita pizzas

Thanks to the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (which I blogged about here), I've been making delicious whole wheat pita bread (which of course can also easily be purchased in the deli section of any grocery store.)

Lately we've enjoyed some creative pizzas using the pita bread. Of course you could use traditional pizza toppings, but we've branched out a bit. The other day Chickie had PB & J pizza...

...and I enjoyed Mexican pizza (with refried beans, cheese, olives, & salsa.)

Whether you use pizza sauce and cheese, taco toppings, or peanut butter and jelly, pita pizzas are molto bene, muy bien, and very good!

New book, new hobby

The other day, I mentioned buying a cookbook on the same day I gave away a stack of cookbooks. Here's the story.

In one of Jonah Lisa's recent posts, she linked to a book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Seeing the title, my interest was piqued. My parents had e-mailed me an Amazon gift certificate for Christmas, so I ordered the book, and it arrived on Christmas Eve. On Christmas I cracked it open, and for the last two days we have enjoyed crusty, fresh-baked bread--quite a feat considering I have not been a bread-baker in the past. (I don't even own loaf pans!)

I know some of you would love the recipe, but I'll have to refer you directly to the copyrighted book for that. I will, however, whet your appetite further by telling you about the unique concepts in the book. Two ideas are key--ease of mixing, and storing bulk dough.

These recipes really are easy. It takes about 10 or 15 minutes to mix up one of their bulk bread dough recipes--no proofing of the yeast or kneading required. I reduced the recipe the first time and mixed it in my food processor, but last night I used a wooden spoon, and it was even quicker, since I didn't have to wash the food processor bowl and blade.

The recipes are large, and after letting the dough rise, you store it in the fridge. When you want to bake a loaf, it takes about five minutes of actual work to form the loaf, flour and slash the top, and get it in the oven. The instructions for the basic loaf include using a preheated baking stone and pouring hot water into a preheated broiler pan just before baking. (Steam helps with the crust texture.)

The five minute prep time doesn't include resting/rising time once you've formed the loaf, or baking time. (Resting plus baking time for the basic recipe is 70 minutes.) It also doesn't include the extra time you'll probably spend the first day or two as you figure out the process. For instance, if you use a heat-resistant glass dish instead of a metal pan for the steam, it will take significantly longer than five minutes to clean up the exploded glass from your oven. (Oops--apparently hot tap water is a whole lot cooler than a preheated glass dish.)

The basic recipe (which can be halved or doubled) has four ingredients, makes four one-pound loaves, and can be stored for as long as fourteen days in the fridge. The dough ages as it rests, enhancing the flavor as each day goes by--but our dough didn't last long enough to test that claim!

Over 100 recipes are included in the book. Last night I mixed the 100% whole wheat recipe, which I'm hoping is excellent since it's healthy enough to eat daily! I have a whole wheat loaf rising on the countertop right now. Resting and baking times for whole wheat are significantly longer than for white, so my anxious stomach will have to wait a bit longer. If it turns out well, I'll post a picture.

So, you may be asking, why not just buy a bread machine? Well, when you consider the bulk factor, this is nearly as easy as using a bread machine. If you like the textured crust of artisan bread, this is the way to go--bread machines produce a softer crust. And compared to a bread machine (Amazon's top-selling one is about $115), a book that costs under $20 is a bargain. Add an affordable baking stone, and you can still come in at under $50.

The subtitle of this book is "The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking." My family is already enjoying the fresh-baked bread revolution in our home. Wish you could sit and join us!

Edited at 9:51 a.m....our whole wheat loaf:



Hey--wipe that drool off your keyboard.

One more edit--Thank you, Faith, for the link you gave in your comment! I checked it out and found two links I want to add here:

Blog written by the book's authors, with recipes & tips

Video with the authors showing how to make the master recipe. Watch this and learn to make that delicious, crusty white bread. Then...still buy the book; it's got so much other good stuff in it besides that basic recipe.