Tag Archives: baking

Oh my my

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As much as I try and stay away from it, I love bread. When we lived in the Middle East, finding new and better bread vendors was a family sport.

The other day, I stumbled upon the blog of Nancy Shehata and her recipe for pita bread. It looked easy and delicious. She said she finds that the kind of pita bread you find in the store is too tough. I find that, too. It’s dry and bears no resemblance to the bread you find in the Middle East.

I thought I’d give the bread a try today only I turned it into Zatar as she instructs at the bottom of the blog. Oh my my. It was amazing! Delicious, soft. I could have eaten all of it all by myself.

I’m good at baking bread but this is not a difficult recipe and I believe anyone can make this amazing stuff!

Pita Bread

Ingredients

2+ cups of flour

1 tbs sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tbs yeast

2 tbs olive oil

1 cup very warm water

Add 1 cup of flour, sugar, salt, yeast and olive oil into the bowl of your mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Slowly add 1 cup of very warm water. Mix on medium for three minutes.

Add another cup (and possibly more to make a sticky but not stiff dough) of flour mix using dough hook for 10 minutes.

Take the dough out and knead for another minute or two by hand to make a smooth ball. Cut the ball into 8 pieces and form into balls. Cover with a towel and let rise for 10-20 minutes while the oven is heating to 550 degrees. If your oven doesn’t go up to 550, I’m sure that 500 is fine. Just be sure to check that it doesn’t burn! 🙂

Take each ball and roll into a 6 inch round, place two to three on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 3 minutes.

Make sure they don’t burn! Take them out of the oven and remove from sheet with a spatula. Be careful. If it poofed (to make the pocket) like you want, that steam inside will be HOT!

If you want to make zatar, prick all over with a fork to keep the pocket from forming, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with zatar spice mix before baking for 3 minutes.

Delicious! I’ll bet you’ll want to eat them all too. 🙂

Baked

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So yesterday, it was all chilly and feeling like fall and I thought it would be awesome to bake something. But I can’t bake anything. I have no ingredients, no pans. Everything is packed. All I have is an oven.

So I tweeted.

And promptly, I saw

And my heart stopped as I laughed. Holy cow! That can’t go up on a billboard. What will people think? LOLOL! I was still laughing as I protested to @LavarOKC that I did not say that.

And then it dawned on me. @LavarOKC is not the same as @LamarOKC that has the digital billboards and have posted my tweets before. It’s a spoof.

I’m still laughing and I still want to bake. 🙂

Cake!

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I do love cake. It all started when I was in first grade at Highland Elementary School. There was a cake walk at the school carnival. I had no idea what a cake walk was but I love games so I got into the circle and began to play along.

As I remember, it was actually kind of like musical chairs except there was a chair for everyone. So around we walked. Then the music stopped and I sat in the chair closest to me. Magically (to my seven year old way of thinking) I won a cake! A whole cake. A big cake. A cake of my choosing from a whole table full of big, beautiful cakes.

I remember my utter disbelief at my good fortune. I couldn’t believe my parents were going to let me take a whole cake of my own home with me but they did. I chose a peppermint cake. It was pink and I had never had anything like it. Chocolate ruled in our house. It was in a 9 x 13 pan, too, which I had also never seen before and it seemed HUGE!

I believe that this one exciting moment in time is what caused my love for cake. I’m sure it was also instrumental in sparking my competitive streak. I learned just how sweet it can be to win!

My tombstone will probably read:

Here lies Lauri. She liked cake and she liked to win.

🙂

Greek Easter Bread

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I love to bake bread and I’m pretty good at it. Over the years, I’ve learned how to put it together so that I have a beautiful loaf the first time. For some reason, I looked at this complicated recipe and decided I should follow it to the letter. Mistake. The resulting loaf was like a rock. It didn’t rise, and, when toasted, couldn’t even absorb butter spread on it because it was so dense.

I just tossed it in the garbage. I mean literally tossed it and I thought that I might have broken the floor. LOL! I actually moved the garbage can to see if the floor was cracked. It wasn’t and neither was the garbage can but it sure sounded like it could have been.

While the first loaf was baking, I knew it was going to be a disaster so I started making another one. Doing it my way. The new loaf, is big and beautiful and I’m going to guess that the texture is much less like a rock than the first loaf.

Here’s the recipe, changed to reflect how I put it together.

Greek Easter Bread

This sweet, spiced loaf is not only beautiful and delicious, but it is also large enough to feed your whole holiday crowd. Use leftovers to make French toast.

Yield: 20 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

¼ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups warm water (100° to 110°)
2 tsp dry yeast
5 cups bread flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon water
1 large egg yolk

Combine the flour, allspice, cinnamon, yeast and sugar in the bowl of a mixer. Heat the water and add to flour along with butter and eggs. Mix for 8 minutes – until dough is smooth and elastic.

Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size. (Gently press 2 fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough.)

Divide dough into 3 equal portions, shaping each portion into a 14-inch-long rope. Place ropes lengthwise on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray (do not stretch); pinch ends together at one end to seal. Braid ropes; pinch loose ends to seal. Lightly coat dough with cooking spray. Cover and let rise 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine 1 tablespoon water and egg yolk, stirring with a whisk. Brush half of yolk mixture over loaf. Let stand for 5 minutes. Repeat procedure with the remaining yolk mixture. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.

Gorgeous, impressive and yummy!

Wine Cheese Bread

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How about a little cheese with your wine? Bread that is.  I wanted something special to go with dinner so that’s what I baked today – Wine Cheese Bread and it was FABU!

While it is a yeast bread, the end result is almost closer to a quick bread in texture. I think that’s because of the addition of the eggs. This was an easy bread to make with few ingredients, like most bread.

You’ll want to combine the first four ingredients in a saucepan.  Cook over low heat until very warm. I usually gauge this by when the butter is just about all melted but you can measure that around 120 degrees.  Set this mixture aside.  Stir 2 cups of flour and 2 teaspoons of yeast together in your mixer bowl. Add the wine mixture and eggs. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.  Gradually add the remaining flour and the cheese to make a soft dough.  Mix for 8 minutes. Dough should have formed a ball in the mixer bowl.  Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, around 1 hour.  Punch the dough down and let rest for 10 minutes.  Place the dough in a greased pie plate. Cover and let rise again until double, around 40 minutes.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Cover with foil and bake an additional 20 minutes.

This bread has an amazing texture. Crunchy and cheesy on the outside and cakey with a tang of the wine on the inside. I’m sure you will agree that this bread is FABU!

Wine Cheese Bread

1/2 c. dry white wine
1/2 c. butter
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp dry yeast
3 eggs
1 c. shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

Combine first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat until very warm (120 to 130 degrees). Set aside. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Add wine mixture and eggs, beat at medium speed of an electric mixer 2 minutes. Gradually stir in cheese and enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (8 to 10 minutes). Place dough in a greased bowl turning to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85 degrees) free from drafts, 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in bulk. Punch down dough, let rest 10 minutes. Place dough in greased 1-quart souffle dish or 9 inch pie plate. Cover and let rise in warm place (85 degrees) free from drafts, 40 minutes or until doubled in bulk. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Cover with foil and bake an additional 20 minutes. Yield: 1 loaf.