Secret Recipe Club: Rosemary and Olive Oil Focaccia

Tags

food, baking, bread, comfort food, baking tips, recipe, secret recipe club

It’s that time of month again — Secret Recipe Club time! These posts are always fun for me to write. I love going on other blogs, browsing around, and picking out new and fun recipes that I had never thought of making before.

This month I was assigned to My Judy the Foodie. Shari’s blog is so sweet. It’s devoted to her mother, Judy, who died of cancer. She makes a lot of her mom’s old recipes, and talks about her mom so much in her blog. I was tearing up when I read her “About Judy” page. Wherever Judy is, she’s smiling about her daughter’s blog.

I originally wanted to make one of Judy’s recipes for SRC this month, but then I saw homemade focaccia that Shari made at a cooking class.

Homemade bread and I have an interesting love affair. When I feel the sudden need to indulge in an afternoon or evening of rising bread, kneading bread, rolling out bread, and baking bread, I have no choice but to give in. Baking is a type of therapy to me, especially the slow, gentle task of homemade bread.

So this week I was thankful to find this recipe for focaccia. Thank you, Shari!

Rosemary and Olive Oil Focaccia (From My Judy the Foodie)
Makes 1 pan
>> Click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
•  2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp of chopped, fresh rosemary (or 1 tbsp dried)
• 2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees F)
• 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (1 pkg)
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp coarse sea salt

Directions:

1. Mix together flour, salt, and rosemary in the large bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Measure the water in a separate bowl (I did this directly in the Pyrex cup). Whisk in the yeast and 3 tbsp of the olive oil. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir the yeast mixture into the flour mixture until all of the flour is moist. Then with the dough hook attachment to your mixer, mix the dough for 1 minute on medium-high speed until the dough comes together and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and set aside until it doubles in side, about 1 hour.
3. Spread 1 1/2 tbsp of olive oil onto an 11 x 17 inch jelly roll pan. Drop the dough onto the pan and pat and press the dough to fill the pan. Poke holes in the dough with your fingers about one inch apart. Pour the remaining 1 1/2 tbsp of olive oil onto the bread and sprinkle with salt.
4. Let the dough rise again until it doubles in size, about another hour. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
5. When the dough is done rising, bake for 25 minutes. Cut into squares and serve!

My Two Cents: The smell of rosemary, olive oil, yeast, salt, and flour baking in the oven…oh my. They should prescribe this as medicine. (Keep this in mind future children and grandchildren when I am old and sick in the hospital and all I can eat is Jello. Just have someone come to my room and bake some bread for me. I’ll be all set in the realm of happiness.)

So if you’re not familiar with bread baking, or if you’re scared of it, don’t be. It’s pretty simple. The only thing that can really go wrong is that you either kill your yeast, or your yeast doesn’t activate — leaving you with a ball of dough that didn’t double in size, and therefore bread that doesn’t rise.

So here’s what you need to do for foolproof bread:

• Make sure your yeast isn’t expired. Expired yeast = dead yeast.
• The water temperature has to be just right. It can’t be too cold (yeast won’t activate). It can’t be too hot (yeast will die). You want the water temperature to be 105-110 degrees F. If you have a kitchen thermometer, use that. If you don’t, you can easily judge by the finger test — the water should be very warm to the touch. Not scalding. Not lukewarm. The perfect medium in between.
• If you are worried about your yeast, you can do a yeast test. Pour a little yeast into the water and wait a minute or two. Little bubbles should start to appear (nothing like baking soda and vinegar, but if it sits there and doesn’t create a few bubbles, throw it out and try again).

And then, my dear friends, after a few hours, you will have a pile of beautiful, beautiful bread.

For more recipes from this month’s secret recipe club, click the link below!

No Sugar Added Banana Bread

Tags

baking, banana, banana bread, Breakfast, food, quick bread, recipe, treat

I like having fruit in my apartment, and bananas are the most affordable. But I have a tendency to put a banana in my lunch bag for work, then come home with a sad bruised banana that never got eaten.

So I cut up the rotting and bruised bananas and freeze them.

Usually I turn them into a healthy dessert (chocolate banana ice cream). But the other week I wanted to make it into banana bread for several reasons:

a.) the smell of a quick bread baking is one of the most heavenly smells in this world. Be it banana, pumpkin, apple, zucchini, you name it, it smells damn delicious.

b.) I had some Greek yogurt to use up, and love throwing that in quick breads.

c.) I wanted to eat this in the morning instead of my lame tasteless granola bars.

But I wanted this banana bread to be even more healthy. And that means no sugar. And most certainly none of that stevia/splenda/truvia nonsense. But does such a recipe exist? More importantly, would it taste good?

Thankfully, YES! Sugarless banana bread does exist AND taste good. Why? My theory is that bananas have a big bundle of sugar in them in the first place, so adding sugar to banana bread isn’t necessary. Also, the Greek yogurt gives it that distinctive sweet tang.

And so a healthy, hearty, stick-to-your-ribs banana bread was born from my oven.

No Sugar Added Banana Bread (From Tasty Kitchen)
Makes 1 loaf
>> Click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas, mashed
• ¾ cups plain Greek yogurt
• ⅓ cups vegetable or canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Stir together all of the ingredients in a large bowl with a wooden spoon.
3. Pour into a greased 8.5 inch loaf pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
4. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

My two cents: I ate this for breakfast and a few snacks throughout the week. When the bread is cool, slice into individual portions for an easy grab and go breakfast. You can also freeze the individual slices or the whole loaf.

Enjoy!

Secret Recipe Club: Nutella Thumbprint Cookies

Tags

baking, chocolate, Cookies, food, Nutella, recipes, secret recipe club, src, treats

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club I was assigned to the adorable blog, Fearless Homemaker, by Amy.

Amy always takes gorgeous photos of food that has me wanting to just take a bite out of my computer screen.

But it wasn’t too difficult for me to choose a recipe for the SRC this month. I was in the mood for dessert. Specifically Nutella. And voila! Amy had a beautiful looking Nutella thumbprint cookie recipe on the blog. Bite-sized chocolate cookies with a dollop of Nutella on top?

Who can resist?

That’s right, no one!

Nutella Thumbprint Cookies (From The Fearless Homemaker)
Makes about 30 cookies
>> Click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup Nutella

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine flour, powdered sugar, cocoa, and salt in a bowl and whisk together.
3. Beat the butter in a mixer at medium speed until it’s light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Stir in egg yolks with a whisk, then whisk in the instant coffee and vanilla.
4. Add the yolk mixture to butter; beat well. Then add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat at low speed just until combined.
5. Turn dough out onto a sheet of wax or parchment paper and knead until it is smooth and shiny.
6. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls, place on a pan lined with parchment paper. Press your thumb into the center of each ball of dough, leaving an indentation.
7. Bake for 10 minutes; let cool completely, then spoon a nice dollop of Nutella into each indentation.

My Two Cents: It’s hard to stop at just one of these little cookies. Let that be a warning to you all. I made these for a little dinner get-together with my siblings, and we polished off the plate of cookies very, very quickly.

Amy originally got this recipe from Cooking Light, and the editors of that magazine are severely sneaky. There isn’t anything healthy about these cookies, except for their size, which in the end means they aren’t healthy at all, because you’ll have eaten about 10 by the end of the night.

But I’ll let it slide, this once, Cooking Light, because these were good.

oh. so. good.

Thanks, Amy, for inspiring me to make these little treats!

To see more awesome recipes from the Secret Recipe Club, click the link below!

Chocolate Meringue Cookies

Tags

baking, chocolate, chocolate meringue cookies, Cookies, dairy free, food, gluten free, recipe, recipes

Can you believe I’ve never made such a classic cookie before?

The reason behind that isn’t the difficulty of making meringue cookies (because they’re really quite simple, and fun), but I never ate homemade meringue cookies before. I only ever tasted the ones that came in a big plastic tin from the supermarket.

And to me, those were disgusting. They were too sweet — all I could taste in the store bought cookies was pure sugar, and it always left a bad aftertaste in my mouth.

But as usual, homemade is always better!

One of my good friends (the Veggie Vixen) had a birthday this past weekend, and I volunteered to make a few things to bring for the party. She requested they be gluten and dairy free. Without having any gluten-free substitutes in my apartment, I settled on the naturally gluten and dairy free meringue cookies!

And these were so great — a hit, in fact, among all the guests. They are light and airy on the outside, but just so perfectly slightly chewy. And not overly sweet at all.

Chocolate Meringue Cookies (Adapted from the Gluten-Free Homemaker)
Makes about 45 cookies
>> Click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 4 large egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Place the egg whites, cream of tartar, and vanilla in a mixing bowl fitted with the whisk. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form.
3. Slowly add the sugar to the egg whites and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
4. Gently fold in a heaping 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to the egg white mixture until it’s just blended.
5. Scoop the batter into a plastic bag, snip off one corner, and pipe onto the baking sheets, leaving about an inch between the cookies (they will not expand in the oven). Or scoop by rounded tablespoon onto the baking sheets.
6. If your baking sheets are small enough, place side by side in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. (If they are not small enough to fit side by side, bake one sheet at a time).
7. Let cool on a wire rack, and enjoy!

My Two Cents: Fun, easy, delicious, and gorgeous!

P.S. A very happy marathon Monday! Good luck to my wonderful friend, Amanda, from Tales from a Kitchen Misfit, who’s running today!

P.P.S. Like my new header? Thought I’d spruce things up a bit!

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Tags

baking, cream cheese, cupcakes, dessert, food, lemon, recipes

Cupcakes are little bundles of happiness.

And lemon cream cheese frosting is quite literally the icing on the cake.

My best friends (my bridesmaids) (my old, lovely college roommates) were turning the big 2-5 this past weekend. As is my tradition (and duty) as best friend/food blogger/lover of cake and cupcakes, I volunteered to host the party and provide the treats.

Lemon desserts are a favorite of one of my friends, so I had the idea of pairing lemon with chocolate. After taking a survey of my fridge and cabinets, I found 1 lemon, 1 package of cream cheese, lots of sugar, and 1 package of cake mix.

And, as I often say on this blog, magic happened.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (Adapted from Real Simple)
Frosts 12 cupcakes
>> Click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 a lemon

Directions:

1. Beat the cream cheese in an electric mixer until the cream cheese is soft.
2. Slowly add the sugar, zest, and juice and beat until creamy, about 3 minutes.

My Two Cents: Look at those sparkles of lemon zest in the frosting That’s real lemon flavor right there.

Everyone at the party was raving about these cupcakes. The lemon in the frosting wasn’t overpowering, and wasn’t too subtle. It was pure perfection.

I used a box chocolate cake mix for this recipe, and there’s no shame in that — especially if you have a killer frosting to go on top. This frosting would also be perfect with vanilla cupcakes or lemon cupcakes.

If your cream cheese is not at room temp when you want to make this, you can defrost it in the microwave for 15 second intervals until it is soft enough to beat.

Beware, though. The frosting only makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes. So double it if you have 24 or if you’re planning on frosting a cake.

Might I also suggest investing in silicone cupcake wrappers? They’re cute, reusable, green, and you’ll never have to buy cupcake wrappers ever again.

Enjoy!

Super Fudge Brownies

Tags

baking, Brownies, butter, chocolate, cocoa, food, paula deen, recipe

I should not tell you what’s in these brownies.

My jaw dropped when I saw the ingredients.

But I reversed it into a sinister, giddy little grin when I started melting the butter, stirring in the cocoa powder, beating in the eggs, and measuring out the sugar.

Homemade brownies are so simple to make, yet so rich and decadent.

And these are absolutely Paula Deen approved. (But don’t worry, you won’t get Type 2 diabetes unless you eat 5 of these a day, sandwiched between a bacon and doughnut sandwich.)

Super Fudge Brownies (From Fine Cooking)

Ingredients:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 2/3 cups flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 pan with aluminum foil, leaving 2 inches hanging on each side. Spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Put the butter in a large 4-quart saucepan over medium-low heat and stir until melted. Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Add the sugar and salt and whisk until well blended.
3. Check the temperature of the batter with your finger. It should be warm, not hot when you whisk in the eggs.
4. Whisk in 2 of the eggs, then the other 3 until blended. Then whisk in the vanilla. Sprinkle the flour over the batter and fold gently until just incorporated.
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it.
6. Let cool on a rack for 2-3 hours. (Or. Eat it hot out of the pan — but they’re easier to cut when they’re cool.)
7. Try to forget the ingredients you put in here while you eat these and/or share them with people who compliment you and ask you what’s in these — then say it’s a secret family recipe and you can’t reveal your secret

My Two Cents: I’ve said all I can say about these mischievous little bundles of butter and chocolate.