ARTISAN BREAD IN FIVE MINUTES A DAY

PANETTONE

I am starting to feel as if I am working through every country in the world, this is another excellent bread from the book and the recipe can be found at Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Its a nice soft sweet bread.

BUCKEYES

I made these especially for my granddaughter who is often due to allergies of others restricted these days from eating peanut butter.  She loves it and its her main source of protein.
She has just started with braces and they were soft and melting and something she could enjoy.
They were a bit rich at the first test but lightened up when they were thoroughly chilled.  I have never made these before but they are a winner if your not on the diet wagon.  I did some conversions but the ingredients wouldnt need to be exact.   

Ingredients

4 cups (900 gram or 2-pound) bag confectioners' sugar
3 cups creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 cups (793 gram or 28 oz) choc chips/semi sweet morsels

1 Tablespoon Copha (optional) 

Directions
Line a large tray or baking sheet with wax paper. 
In an electric mixer, combine the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, and butter,mixing until well blended. 
Using a tablespoon measuring spoon, shape into one-inch balls. 
Melt chocolate and copha in a double boiler over low heat.
With a toothpick/skewer, dip each ball into the dipping chocolate until almost covered, leaving some of the peanut butter mixture exposed on top. 
Place the balls on the tray and refrigerate until firm, about two hours. 

CHRISTMAS STOLLEN ll

I decided to make the Stollen again as it was so popular last time.  This time I added marzipan and folded it the traditional way.  I also kept to the traditional recipe of brushing with butter and sprinkling with icing sugar then popping it back into the oven for 3 minutes to set it. I divided the whole mixture into 2 not the 3 recommended and it need extra cooking.

You can find the recipe here:  http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=2586

CHRISTMAS FRUIT COOKIES

I decided I should make something the MOTH would like and found this Christmas Fruit Cookie recipe and as I had the ingredients on hand I made them up.  I am pleased with them and as most in my family like fruit and nuts in cakes and cookies I am sure they will be popular.  No fat at all -as fate would have it I picked up a bottle of dark Karo syrup when I went to the specialty shop that sold the lumpia wrappers

The recipe is here:  allrecipes.com

SPECULAAS

My freezer is full of my savoury nibbles so I thought I would make these Speculaas, I only had medium brown sugar not the dark brown but I went ahead anyway.  I love citrus so I used that, I wasn't sure what citron was so I used some finely chopped citrus peel.  I dont have many cutters but found an Australia one so I will be interested to see what my grandchildren think of that.  

My house is smelling wonderful of the aromas from cooking these.

The recipe is at Big Black Dogs and there is a great spiked milkshake suggestion to go with them.

CAROLYN'S BAKED PARTY PIROSHKI

This morning while I was making some piroshki the mailman delivered the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a day.  I have done a lot of cooking from the Healthy Book in 5 Minutes a day and enjoyed using it enough to get the origianal Book.

I was told many years ago by a Russian workmate how to make these and she invited all her work mates to call in and sample them.  She also made an excellent cheesecake but I never was given that recipe.  She fried hers but I couldnt seem to get the frying temperatures right.  Years later in the Womens Weekly I saw a recipe which baked them and I have made them that way ever since.  I have never used a recipe but what I do equates to a rich bread dough.  About four cups of flour, l tablespoon yeast, couple of tablespoons of oil, l egg, l cup milk powder, garlic powder, salt. I mix it up with 1 1/2 - 2 cups of warm not hot water and it comes to a soft scone like consistency.  I let it prove over night (usually at room temperature, but this lot rose quickly and I then put it in the refrigerator till the morning).  I make up 500g beef mince, frying an onion, adding a pinch of sugar, some cummin, worchester sauce, soy sauce about half a cup of water or milk and enough gravox powder (you could sprinkle on some flour before adding the water if you dont have gravox) to make a very stiff gravy.  This is then refrigerated also over night.  If you make it too saucy it will split out the dough.

I pluck out about l tablespoon of dough, flatten it in my palm and put l teaspoon of the meat mixture in the centre pinching it up into a ball shape and then putting to rise for about 30 minutes.  I then heat the oven to 180C give the proshki an egg wash and sprinkle on some sesame seeds.  They brown in about 10-15 minutes.  I have baked them successfully in a camp oven while camping.  When at home if frozen once they have cooled off they reconstitute very well in the microwave and my family love them as "after a swim snacks".  They can be made bigger but especially around Christmas time when there is so much to choose from I find this size perfect. Other fillings can be used.

 I ended up with 50.

I though I should add a link to the wholemeal campoven Youtube I made some time ago.

BASIC SOURDOUGH LOAF

I decided to try my wild sourdough starter again using a recipe from SourdoLady which is where the instructions for the wild yeast starter are also.

I didnt exactly follow the instructions and after leaving it in the refrigerator overnight found it hadn't risen much.  I left it at room temperature for another 24 hours and it had risen at least a third.  

Deluxe Sourdough Bread - SourdoLady

1 1/4 cups proofed starter
1 cup water
3 T. dry powdered milk
1 T. lemon juice
1/4 cup instant potato flakes
3 3/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
2 T. sugar
3 T. butter or margarine
2 tsp. salt

Combine the first 5 ingredients. Mix in the flour just until the mixture is a shaggy mass. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Add sugar, butter, and salt and mix until all is incorporated. Knead dough until it is smooth and satiny.

Cover and let dough rest for 45 minutes. Divide dough into 2 equal portions. Pat each dough portion out into a large, flat circle. Gently stretch and fold the left side over the middle, then the right side over the middle (like folding a letter). Pat down with the palms of hands and repeat the folding with the remaining two unfolded ends. Shape loaves, always keeping the folded side as the bottom. I do free-form oval loaves and place them on parchment paper.

Spray the loaves with Pam and cover with plastic. Place in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, take loaves out and let them finish rising at room temperature. They should be very light. Do not rush it or your bread will be dense.

While bread is rising, preheat oven and stone to 400 F. I also place a shallow pan of hot water on the bottom rack for steam.

When bread is fully risen, slash top and slide onto hot stone. If you don't have a stone, just bake on a baking sheet. After 10 minutes, turn the oven heat down to 375 F. When loaves start to show color, water pan can be removed. Bake until loaves are a nice golden brown. Time will vary according to the shape and size of loaf.

Cool on a wire rack. You can brush crust with butter while still hot if you like a soft crust.

Its not an overly light loaf but although a bit dense for some it eats nicely with a good crust.  I cut this too hot as I always get impatient to see how the crumb looks.