Breads, Biscuits, Scones Archives - Page 3 of 6

Corn-ered in the House, Chili-n, Bakin’ Muffins (Corn Muffins)

By threejamigos | April 8, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

Shhhh…please don’t tell Chef H I messed up his cornbread recipe. I’m not sure what I did wrong but I’m way too embarrassed to ask him so I went hunting for another cornbread recipe. I’m a Californian, I’m pretty wimpy when it comes to cornbread. True cornbread is NOT cake-y and sweet, too bad that’s the way I like it. Another reason I couldn’t call him. What if he said, “that’s the way southern cornbread is, silly”. So I tapped my delete key, d-a-e-r-b and pecked m-u-f-f-i-n in on my keyboard hoping to land on a sweet, cakey, cornbread recipe. I hit return and…

…landed on an old friend, Smitten Kitchen. Her post for Perfect Corn Muffins popped up on my screen. Her post adapts the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. Uh-oh. I love CI but it probably means a couple of extra steps.

Yes, it did.

A lot of the recipes I looked at for corn muffins called for proportionally more regular flour than cornmeal, yep-cakey. Not this one. The cornmeal is divided and much of it is combined with milk to make something akin to cornmeal mush. This keeps the corn muffins moist. Okay, I went with it. I used the microwave method included in the recipe to make it, worked like a charm.

Y’all know what goes into cornbread, flour, butter, flour, baking soda, powder, eggs, sour cream or buttermilk. So what do I want to talk about?

CORNMEAL

There are a plethora of cornmeal products out there. Stone-ground, Machine grind, Which are then furthered divided by grade- coarse, medium, and fine. If you get any product that says stone-ground, you’re going to get a bit of grit as it contains both the bran and germ of the kernel. This recipe calls for medium grind cornmeal, preferably stone-ground. I used Bob’s Red Mill fine stone-ground cornmeal and there was still some bite to the muffins. Why? I am not a big fan of grittiness in my cornbread or muffins. If you like that coarse “toothy” texture, use the medium grind. If you hate that grittiness, don’t use stone-ground. Use the stuff you get at the supermarket, either Quaker Oats or Argo cornmeal-no germ, no bran, no grit. If you want a light and airy cake-like muffin or cornbread (should we call it cornbread?) use cornflour (superfine grind).

You can find corn flour at Whole Foods (probably Bob’s Red Mill) along with the gamut of cornmeal. A couple of recipes that use cornflour include Blueberry Cobbler with a Cornmeal-Sugar Cookie Crust from Vivian Howard and Momofuku’s Christina Tosi recipe for KILLER Corn Cookies. Both amazing.

Then there’s Polenta, Grits, Masa Harina. Polenta or Grits is essentially cornmeal mush. You can use coarse or medium grind cornmeal. Bob’s Red Mill makes a Grits or Polenta Cornmeal (yes I fell for it) which makes it easy, it’s just coarse grind. Masa Harina is corn treated with ash or lime solution (called nixtamalized, now you can file that word away) dried, and ground into masa. Think delicious tamales and tortillas NOT cornbread, polenta or grits.

I use stone-ground, even though I don’t like grittiness, it’s a compromise. I love the flavor and the “it’s healthier for you” aspect.

N.B. Cornstarch is not cornflour, cornmeal, polenta, grits, masa, popcorn. Don’t even go there. It’s just a thickener made from corn endosperm-see, that doesn’t even sound good. I use it all the time in Chinese cooking as a thickener, that’s it.

Back to the Corn Muffins

Yes, this is the cornmeal mush that goes into the batter along with dry cornmeal. Cook until it thickens and you can draw a spatula through it. Add wet ingredients to the cornmeal mush and then add the dry ingredients. Your batter will be pretty thick. Use an ice cream scoop to fill your muffin tin. Easy peasy.

Finally, what to serve with your corn muffins…CHILI of course! Lucky you, I have two chili recipes, Firemen’s Chili from Friends (yes the TV show) and a super-duper easy Chicken Chili Both would go perfectly with these corn muffins.

Ok, we have come to the end of this post and I have a confession to make. These muffins are delicious and I would make them all the time if it weren’t for one thing.

TRADER JOE’S CORNBREAD MIX

It’s that’s good. Throw away the box and tell your friends and family you made them from scratch. Yep, that good.

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Perfect Corn Muffins

Cook's Illustrated Corn Muffins the perfect cross of a cake-like sweet corn muffin and down home cornbread.

Course Muffins

Cuisine American

Keyword Cook's Illustrated, Corn Muffin

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 20

Equipment

12-cup standard muffin tin

Ingredients

2 cups (280 grams) yellow cornmeal, to be divided Use stone ground for that characteristic grittiness that cornbread can have.
1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea or table salt
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk, whole is best here
1 cup (240 grams) sour cream (full-fat plain yogurt should work here too)
8 tablespoons (115 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/3 cup granulated sugar.
2 large eggs

Instructions

Heat oven to 425°F (220°C). Either grease or line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with liners.
Whisk 1 1/2 cups cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl.

Cornmeal Mush

In a large bowl (if you have a microwave) or a medium saucepan (if you do not), combine milk and remaining 1/2 cup cornmeal. In a microwave, cook cornmeal–milk mixture for 1 1/2 minutes, then whisk thoroughly, and continue to microwave in 30-second increments, mixing between them, until it’s thickened to a batter-like consistency, i.e. the whisk will leave a clear line across the bottom of the bowl that slowly fills in. This will take 1 to 3 minutes longer.
On the stove, cook cornmeal mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens as described above, then transfer to a large bowl.

Put the batter together

Whisk butter, then sugar, then sour cream into cooked cornmeal until combined. At this point, the wet mixture should be cool enough that adding the eggs will not scramble them, but if it still seems too hot, let it cool for 5 minutes longer. Whisk in eggs until combined.
Fold in flour mixture until thoroughly combined and the batter is very thick. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups; it will mound slightly above the rim.
Bake until tops are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 13 to 17 minutes, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking to ensure even cooking. Let muffins cool in muffin tin on wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove muffins from tin and let cool 5 minutes longer. Serve warm with honey butter or just honey if you feel guilty.
Eat by themselves, with Chili, with just about anything.

Knot Your Average Bunz (Sweet Chocolate and Cinnamon Knots)

By threejamigos | March 30, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

Hello my fellow social distancers

It is I again, your resident baking aficionado (J A M I E). I hope you all are staying away from other humans. Queue the joke about how that’s how I normally live my life!!!! The other day (or whenever my mother decides to post the recipe) I wrote a post about no-knead bread that is AMAZING (if you have tried it please post a pic on IG-you might win a prize!)

Today, I am here to write a piece about kneaded bread.

In times of great stress, I turn to TV and baking. I had a particularly tough week at work a few months back, and I showed up on Friday with two pies in hand. One of the most calming shows I watch is Great British Bake Off. Honestly, if you are reading this blog, you don’t need an introduction. Anyways, after a l o n g week of WFH and meetings, I decided to combine my two stress relievers and try a recipe from one of the GBB contestants. I chose Steven’s sweet chocolate and cinnamon knots because

1) Steven is great

2) They looked amazing

3) Who doesn’t like cinnamon and chocolate?

4) Here is the link to Steven’s post, he is British. Lucky for you I’ve watched a lot of GBB so I can help with the Queen’s English, lol. Steven’s Sweet Chocolate and Cinnamon Knots

Here are some of my thoughts below:

W O W. This bread is beautiful. I think it might be the prettiest thing I’ve baked. AND the best part—it also tastes DELICIOUS. Definitely worth the trip or TWO (thnx Whole Foods for turning me away) grocery stores at 7 am this morning. Side note: Whole Foods is actually doing this cool thing where they only let 60 year-olds and up (where is my mom when I need her, lol) shop from 7 am – 8 am. I think it’s really great, except for the fact that the Whole Foods employee told un-caffeinated, at 7 am me that I looked like I was 16. Rude.

The dough is light and sweet, with just enough texture to it that I don’t feel like I’m eating air. On its own, it’s great. The perfect bread to drizzle with honey. But even better yet, the recipe calls for stuffing chocolate and cinnamon sugar into the center of the dough before you bake it off. After proofing and baking, the chocolate melts into spirals throughout the bread, permeating every bite with a rich flavor. I know, not a great job of describing this—hey, it’s been a long week of WFH—so just trust me on this one.

One thing that was a bit hard for me was getting the proofing time correct. The recipe calls for dividing the dough into 4 equal pieces; each piece is woven separately into its own knot. As you can guess, it takes a bit of time to finagle the dough into place, so the amount of time the first knot was proofed was about 15-20 min longer than the last. If you are going to try these, I might suggest baking the knots in 2 batches, so you can optimize the proof for each bun. (Lol, can you tell that I’ve been writing too many work emails? “I might suggest…” Just do it, people.

Another difficult thing about these bunz was—you guessed it—the weave pattern. When I first looked at this recipe, I was a bit intimidated by the intricate pattern of the dough.

Don’t be discouraged, trust me.

While the recipe’s instructions are clear as mud, there are a lot of resources online that are helpful. Just google Winston knots, and you will find a lot of sites that show you a step by step process for braiding dough. The difficult thing about this was getting enough chocolate and cinnamon sugar in the buns. After weaving the dough together, you flip over the bun and place your filling in the center. Then use the ends of the strands to seal the filling into the bun, making sure to pinch any holes in the dough that might allow the filling to leak out during the bake. When I was stuffing my dough, I was worried about disrupting/flattening the pattern on the top, so I went pretty conservative with the chocolate. WRONG.

Stuff that bad boi UP.

Proofing the dough the second time will unflatten the buns.
Ok, this post is now way too long. Make this bread, you’ve got the time.

For your viewing pleasure and to help with the process, PICS and a video I found on YouTube that is PRICELESS

The Jamie Way of tying Knots Bunz

Knead dough for 7-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place it in a bowl and cover it with saran. Set for 1 hour (double in size) then punch it down and turn it out onto a floured board.

Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Cover three pieces, take the remaining piece and divide it into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into strands approximately 12.5 inches long. They should be equal in size. To shape the knots: Place 3 strands of dough in a line on the worktop in front of you, at a minus 45-degree angle and fairly close together. Gently pinch the 3 together in the middle. Now place the other 3 strands on top at a 45-degree angle – to form an ‘X’ shape – and pinch together in the middle as before.

Fold the 3 strands at the top left down over the center point and onto the counter to the far right of the strands already there. Lightly shift the 3 strands at the top right downwards so they sit alongside the other strands.

Fold the 3 strands at the top left down over the center point and onto the counter, to the far right of the strands already there. Gently shift the 3 strands at the top right downwards so they sit alongside the other strands.

Pass the set on the far left under the 2 middle ones then back over the last one it went under and into line again. Then take the far-right set and put it under the twisted 2 in the middle then back over the last one it went under and into line.

The last photo, flip knot over and place on the counter. Scatter a quarter of the chocolate chunks down the center of the knot. Mix the sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle a quarter on top of the chocolate. Bring the long ends of the strands up and over the filling and pinch them together, then gently fold in the sides (try to keep the knot as neat as possible) and pinch the dough together to seal in the filling. Turn it over again, right side up, and gently shape into a neat ball with your hands. Transfer to the lined baking sheet. OMG, okay its super yummy. WORTH trying. REPEAT with the rest of dough.

FINALLY, HERE IS THE RECIPE., You’re welcome

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STEVEN’S SWEET CHOCOLATE & CINNAMON KNOTS

These Winston-knot bread rolls are made by braiding together three strands of a soft, sweet enriched dough – filled with dark chocolate and cinnamon sugar.

Course Breads

Cuisine British

Keyword Sweet Chocolate and Cinnamon Knots

Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

For the dough:

500 g strong white bread flour plus extra for dusting (Bread Flour)
5 g fast-action dried yeast from a 7g sachet (Instant)
60 g unsalted butter softened, diced
40 g caster sugar granulated sugar
7 g salt
2 medium eggs at room temperature, beaten
About 225ml full-fat milk lukewarm (whole milk)

For the filling:

50 g dark chocolate broken into chunks
4 tsp light muscovado sugar sub light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 medium egg beaten, for glazing, use any size egg

Instructions

Step 1 To make the dough: weigh the flour into a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, and mix in the yeast with your hand. When thoroughly combined, add the butter and rub into the flour with the tips of your fingers until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Mix in the sugar and salt then make a well in the centre of the mixture.
Step 2 Pour the beaten eggs and 3⁄4 of the lukewarm milk into the well. Using your hands or the dough hook attachment of the mixer on its slowest speed, gradually work the flour into the liquids to make a soft but not sticky dough – slowly adding as much of the remaining milk as needed.
Step 3 Knead the dough thoroughly – for 10 minutes by hand on a lightly floured worktop, or for 7 minutes if using the dough hook (on its slowest speed) – until very smooth and elastic. Return the dough to the bowl (if you kneaded by hand) then cover with cling film or a snap-on lid and leave on the worktop to prove for about an hour or until doubled in size.
Step 4 Uncover then punch down the risen dough with your knuckles to deflate it. Turn out onto the worktop, very lightly dusted with flour, and knead into a ball. Then weigh the dough and divide into 4 equal portions. Cover 3 portions loosely with cling film and divide the other portion into 6 equal pieces. Using your hands, roll each piece on the worktop into a neat, even sausage 12.5 inches long. Try to use as little extra flour as possible for dusting your hands and the worktop – adding too much extra flour will make the dough tough and dry.
Step 5 To shape the Winston knots: arrange 3 sausages of dough in a line on the worktop in front of you – at a minus 45-degree angle and fairly close together. Gently pinch the 3 together in the middle. Now place the other 3 strands on top at a 45-degree angle – to form an ‘X’ shape – and pinch together in the middle as before. Fold the 3 strands at the top left down over the centre point and onto the worktop – to the far right of the strands already there. Gently shuffle the 3 strands at the top right downwards so they sit alongside the other strands.
Step 6 Arrange the 4 sets of strands closer together so they are lying side by side and slightly apart, so you can plait them. Pass the set on the far left under the 2 middle ones then back over the last one it went under and into line again. Then take the far-right set and put it under the twisted 2 in the middle then back over the last one it went under and into line.
Step 7 Flip the knot over on the worktop. Scatter a quarter of the chocolate chunks down the centre of the knot. Mix the sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle a quarter on top of the chocolate. Bring the long ends of the plait up and over the filling and pinch them together, then gently fold in the sides (try to keep the plait as neat as possible) and pinch the dough together to seal in the filling. Turn the plait over again, right side up, and gently shape into a neat ball with your hands. Transfer to the lined baking sheet.
Step 8 Repeat with the other 3 portions of dough to make 4 neatly plaited round loaves – these knots take a lot of practise and patience to get right! Set them well apart on the baking sheet, slip the sheet inside a large plastic bag and slightly inflate the bag so the plastic doesn’t stick to the dough. Leave on the worktop to prove for about 1 hour, until doubled in size – take care not to over-prove the dough, or let the temperature become too hot, as the breads will lose their shape. Towards the end of the rising time, heat the oven to 425°F
Step 9 Uncover the loaves and carefully brush with beaten egg to glaze. Bake in the heated oven for about 20–23 minutes until a good golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

No-Knead Bread, Bread in the Time of Corona

By threejamigos | March 24, 2020 | Comments 4 comments

The Hubs, Jorge, Sammy, and I are home while Jeffrey is in The City, and Mui is in Houston. Like most folks, we are finding ways to occupy our time during the quarantine. Yoga on YouTube, Wes still woodworking in the garage, and the boys playing Fortnite. Me? Let’s see what have I been doing?

Baking, Cooking, Blogging, Eating

Unfortunately, too much of the last. Baking has become a respite from the outside world. Judging by Instagram posts and Facebook posts, not to mention the empty flour shelves at the grocers, a ton of people are feeling the same way.

On our daily family Face-time, Mui raved about the No-Knead Bread she had made (her post here!) It was so easy and so delicious, she convinced me to give it a go. Although she used the recipe from King Arthur Flour, I perused the internet and found what might be Ground Zero for No-Knead Bread. Way back in the day, Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey of Sullivan St. Bakery introduced No-Knead Bread via the New York Times. It has become a classic and convinced non-bread bakers, like me, to give it a go.

If you are hankering for a classic Wonder Bread loaf try this Maple Buttermilk Bread made easy with a bread machine. But, if you are looking for a loaf of bread that reminds you of that little European bakery you visited or your own favorite neighborhood artisanal bakery, this is it.

Best of all, it is stupid easy and amazingly tasty. Impress your friends and family, don’t tell them how crazy easy it was to make. No kneading required. Really, the major investment is time. Five minutes to combine the three ingredients, flour, salt and yeast, to which you add water, but then twelve to eighteen hours of waiting before the next step.

Toss the ingredients into a bowl, stir it together-done

Plan on when you want fresh bread…a day in advance. I throw my batter together around four o’clock in the afternoon, get a good night’s sleep, have my morning coffee, putter around and about ten in the morning I pour the wet dough out on a floured board, shape it, and let it sit another hour. The original recipe calls for placing the dough on a tea towel after proofing, but I use parchment paper that I can then grab to transfer the dough into the heated dutch oven. Paper and dough gets plopped in the pot in one fell swoop. Easy peasy.

Notice the elasticity of the dough as I put it on to the floured surface

Thirty minutes before baking, turn on the oven and place your dutch oven in it.

Danger, BAKER ROBINSON, Danger! PLEASE USE POTHOLDERS FOR THE NEXT STEPS!!!!

Pull the pot out of the oven, PLOP that baby into that SUPERHOT dutch oven and bake it covered for 30 minutes. Uncover the pot (GLOVES PLEASE) and bake for additional 10-15 minutes to crisp and brown the crust. Remove the loaf and let it cool. It will be a little tough to cut the loaf when it is warm, so try to resist if you can before cutting.

Loaf #1 seen above, I didn’t score. Loaf #2 I used a serrated knife and lightly slashed the top of the loaf. (Banner pic)

Don’t loaf around, make this bread!

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No-Knead Bread

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword Mark Bittman, No-knead Bread, NYT Cooking

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 30

Resting time 18

Total Time 18 35

Equipment

Dutch Oven or oven proof pot

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or flour as needed
1-5/8 cup water approximately 70 degrees
cornmeal for dusting

Instructions

In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1-5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel* and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
* I place the dough on floured parchment paper and used the paper to rransfer the dough into the pot. So easy. Score the top of dough lightly if desired for that cool fissure on top.

Notes

Mr. Bittman came up with a Speedy Version of No-Knead Bread, here is the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LaODcYSRXU

Recipe

3 cups of flour

1/4 tsp yeast

1.5 t salt

1/4 tsp red wine vinegar

1 cup hot water approximately 130 degrees, not boiling, that would kill the yeast

Rise time 3-4 hours. Follow original recipe as directed.

I’m Just a Bread Machine and I Won’t Knead for Nobody But You (Maple Buttermilk Bread)

By threejamigos | March 24, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

The COVID-19 stay at home policy has me pulling out my mixing bowls, pots, and pans. Cooking and especially baking keeps me busy and helps calm the COVID-19 jitters. I find myself gravitating towards comfort foods and foods from my childhood. The first thing that came to mind was bread. Who doesn’t like the aroma of baking bread? Is there a more perfect food than fresh warm bread, slathered with butter and a dollop of jam? Apparently I am not alone. Who knew that all those pictures of empty shelves at the supermarkets were of the flour aisles.

After scavenging a couple of stores, I found the last two bags of King Arthur Flour on the shelf at Whole Foods (sorry, I was THAT person) and packets of yeast at Raley’s. I settled in under the #stayhome mandate (totally cool with it) and started my carb bender, I mean bread baking.

I made two loaves of bread, best described as polar opposites. Both are incredibly easy but for really different reasons.

The first loaf a Buttermilk Maple Loaf comes from Lora Brody’s Bread Machine Cookbook, a book I picked up waaaay back in the day when I bought a bread machine. The Maple Buttermilk Loaf was my go-to recipe in the book. Great for toast, sammies, crumbs or croutons. It has a nice flavor and the texture of classic sandwich bread. Pretty much the bread you grew up with soft, tender, slightly sweet-yummy. Perfect for Peanut Butter and Jelly, Fried Baloney Sammies and Tuna Fish with Chips Sandwich, the stuff of childhood. Perfect for these times.

And it couldn’t be easier, that is, as long as you still have that bread machine hiding in a closet or corner of your pantry, or call your mom, she probably has one packed away, probably in your old bedroom.

So drag that puppy out and make yourself some bread. Literally, dump, push the button, comeback in a few hours, bam, a loaf of freshly baked bread. Like magic. The kneading, the proofing, the resting, all take place in your bread machine. All the rage, back in the day. Did you buy too many berries in your moment of frenzied grocery shopping? Make this super easy and delicious berry jam to go along with your freshly baked bread!

The second loaf is a No-Knead Bread, more like an artisan bread, almost as easy to make, and totally swoon worthy. Find the post here.

My machine is an old Panasonic that makes 1.5 pound loaves. Which means really TALL bread, lol. I may be crusty, but I don’t like the crust from machine made loaves. I cut my slices into squares and keep the scraps for bread crumbs, croutons and for Sammy, he adores bread.

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Maple Buttermilk Bread

Easy, delicious homemade Maple Buttermilk Bread made in your bread machine! Pefect for sammies!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword Maple Buttermilk Bread

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 3 30

Equipment

Bread machine, lol

Ingredients

3 Cups unbleached white flour
4 tablespoons powdered buttermilk
1 teasoon salt
1 Tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon pure Maple Syrup*
1 Cup water
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Instructions

Dump* all the ingredients in the machine except the yeast**, program for Basic Bread. Push the button. Comeback in 3.5 hours. Let bread cool so it is easier to cut.
*Refer to your machine directions for order of ingredients.
**If your machine has a separate yeast reservoir, place yeast in that.

Stay home, stay well.

Knead A Little Comfort in These Trying Times? (King Arthur Flour No-Knead Bread)

By threejamigos | March 21, 2020 | Comments 2 comments

Hi everyone! Hope you are all staying sane out there sheltering in place! It is me, Jamie, your favorite blogger. As I am clearly the superior baker in our family, I have decided to grace your feeds with a quick lil’ post about my latest baking passion:

BREAD

Now, I know what you are thinking: “bread is the last thing I should bake if I am stuck at home all day with nothing to do except move my mouse around my work computer every five minutes” WRONG. Sorry, I should not invalidate your feelings, but let me tell you why your feelings are misguided and sad.

The smell of baking bread will 100% make your home much homier.

Picture this: You are in hour 2 of a 3 hour pointless meeting, and Karen is going on and on about whether or not you are considered “business critical” (newsflash, you probably aren’t if Karen can take up 3 hours of your time to talk about nothing). You are sitting at your uncomfortable kitchen table, hunched over because it is NOT ergonomically sound, with the smell of Clorox and lemon encroaching into your six feet of space. Not fun, right? Actually, the exact opposite of fun.

Now, picture this: you just popped a loaf into the oven, and the smell of baking bread is slowly permeating through the house. You hang up on Karen because life is too short to listen to people droning on and on (sry Karen). You improvise by using a couple of boxes to set up your very own standing desk on your kitchen table (hey, I am an engineer). While standing there, admiring your ergonomic handiwork…

What’s that? Beep, beep, beep. Aha, your timer is going off—your bread is READY. You pull it out, mouth-watering from the delicious, tantalizing smell. After a few minutes, you cut into that steaming loaf, trying not to burn your fingers (Auugh, I couldn’t wait!). Smear on a slab of butter, plop a dollop of jam on it and you are in heaven. Nothing can stop you now. You are invincible, winning WFH. All your sad coworkers are at their desks having a miserable time, and here you are, a queen, eating literal carbo gold.

In all seriousness, baking bread is definitely a vibe right now, especially with the Coronavirus pandemic. Ask my Mom, she’s still scavenging for flour. While I was intimidated to try my hand at baking bread, it is actually pretty simple and very relaxing. Stressed about taking too much time away from work? Bread has an average of about 4 ingredients in it, and 99% of the time to make bread is for proofing and baking it. Stressed in general? Some breads can require 10-15 minutes of kneading time, which really just entails you pounding the shit out of it on a counter. Get your angst OUT.

Concerned about being buried in bread? One of the best parts about bread is that it is freezer friendly. If you can’t eat an entire loaf in two days like me, you can slice that bad boy up and freeze it in a Ziploc bag (or a reusable environmentally friendly product that I can’t get right now because I’m sheltering in place) and eat it anytime you want.

I threw together one of my favorite recipes, No-knead Crusty White Bread, from King Arthur Flour. The recipe calls for 7 ½ cups of flour, but I halved it to make just one loaf. The recipe also calls for regular flour, but I used bread flour (higher protein content). Whole foods and HEB were out of flour, so I improvised. My mom is probably cringing while reading this (she hates when I substitute. I normally would not do this, but you gotta do what you gotta do). I extended the proofing time a bit longer to compensate.

This bread is SO easy. It took me 10 minutes to put it together initially, and I proofed it for 3 hours at room temp, then 3 hours in the refrigerator. I used a dutch oven to bake it, and I baked it for the full amount of time. I removed the lid for the last 5 minutes just to give the top a bit more color. The CRUNCH that you get from baking it in a dutch oven kicks this bread into the top 10% of breads to bake. I made a pot of Senate Bean Soup to go along, but this bread was the star of the meal.

Easy, versatile, delicious—the perfect recipe to make in times like these.

Hope everyone is staying safe—and sane! Happy baking 😊

Here is the link to the recipe I used, so so tasty..not the recipe, the bread, lol.

No-Knead Bread from King Arthur Flour

Consolation Biscuits (Crazy Easy Buttermilk Biscuits)

By threejamigos | February 3, 2020 | Comments 4 comments

.For those of you that could use a big helping of comfort right now (Talking to you Niner Faithful). Here is my newest biscuit recipe find.

It’s hard to cook when your crying. Luckily this recipe is extremely easy and doable, even through tears. You are minutes away from consoling your sports-fan soul with a batch of warm biscuits, slathered with butter and your favorite jam.

What makes these so simple? A nifty trick that comes from Cook’s Illustrated by way of Serious Eats and the blog, The Cafe Sucre Farine’.

Melted butter. Yep, biscuits made with melted butter.

The trick is to melt the butter and then pour it into ice-cold buttermilk. The butter solidifies into little globules mimicking the pieces of butter you get when you cut butter into the flour as in the traditional way of making biscuits. How easy is that?

Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour, stir together, voila’ ready to make biscuits!

Gather dough and pat into a square. It will not be a wet sticky dough. If it seems wet, add flour, a tablespoon at a time. Knead the dough a couple of times, roll or pat the dough into a square.

Cut the biscuit dough into squares. This avoids the scraps and rerolling the remaining dough for round cutouts. If you REALLY like round biscuits, just re-roll the scraps and cut again.

Bake these bad boys and brush with melted butter when they come out of the oven. You will be rewarded with buttery, flaky, tender, biscuits. Everything you want in a biscuit that will help mend your broken NINER heart.

So, make these biscuits, tonight, tomorrow morning, or the day of the Chief’s victory parade. That’s what comfort food is for.

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Crazy Easy Biscuits

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword buttermilk biscuits

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 18

Ingredients

2 cups 10 ounces unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar you can reduce the amount of sugar to 1 teaspoon
3/4 teaspoon sea salt or table salt
1 cup cold buttermilk chill in freezer for 10 minutes
8 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly (about 5 minutes), plus 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing biscuits

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450°F.
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in large bowl.
Combine cold buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in a medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps.
Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of the bowl. The dough will be stiff, not wet. If it is wet, add flour, 1 tablespoon at a time.
At this point, you can make drop biscuits or you can roll the dough and make cut out biscuits.
I like cut-out biscuits. Gather dough and place on a floured surface. Knead the dough a couple of times and roll or pat dough into a square approximately 1 inch thick. Cut into squares, you should have about 8 biscuits. For a flakier biscuit. Gather dough and roll dough into a square and then fold the dough over in thirds, you will have a rectangle now then roll dough into a 1-inch thick square.
Bake 10-18 minutes until tops are a nice golden brown. Start checking at 10 minutes.
Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.
Get out your favorite jam and EAT as MANY biscuits as you want. I know I will.

Not a Cinco Minute Too Soon! Tres Leches Bread Pudding

By threejamigos | May 3, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

Invariably when faced with several choices for dessert I gravitate towards buttery, bready, moist, saucey (new word alert). Everyone generally clamors for the chocolate-centric desserts. I am a sucker for a warm, gushy on the inside, crisp on the outside bread pudding. I love a fruit cobbler or Sticky Toffee Pudding? Oh yeah, right up my dessert alley.

Two of my favorite desserts can be found in Houston. At Kileen’s BBQ, where brisket is the bomb, their dessert, a bread pudding made with croissants, literally melts in your mouth. A warm custard surrounds buttery, moist shards of croissants. YUM.

My other favorite, The Tres Leches Cake at Chuy’s, a Tex-Mex institution found everywhere in Texas and beyond. Yellow cake drenched with 3 kinds of milk, whole,evaporated, and sweetened condensed milk then topped with whipped cream and garnished with fresh berries.

Wouldn’t you know it, some ingenious person decided to combine my two favorite desserts for a delightful Tres Leches Bread Pudding. I came across the recipe in the NYT, JUST in TIME for Cinco de Mayo. Perfect!

So let someone else mix the Margaritas or tend the taco bar. You make the dessert.

The recipe calls for whole milk, evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. The sweetened condensed milk provides the sugar so don’t substitute for it. I used TJ’s Brioche Loaf to make the bread pudding. For a softer, more custard like pudding, use croissants instead. Both are delicious. Festive twist? Before sliding that puppy into the oven, sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar along with the condensed milk. Serve with a big drizzle of sweetened condensed milk and a dollop of whipped cream.

You’ll thank me…

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Tres Leches Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Butter, for greasing the baking dish

3 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
2 Cups heavy cream
1 Cup Sweetened condensed milk
1 Cup whole milk
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon kosher salt
12 Ounces brioche or challah or croissants cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes (about 8 cups)

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking dish.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and egg yolks until completely combined. Whisk in 1 cup/240 milliliters heavy cream, 3/4 cup/180 milliliters condensed milk, (reserve remainder of heavy cream and condensed milk ) 1 cup whole milk, 1 cup evaporated milk, vanilla and salt.
Set the bread in the prepared dish and pour the egg mixture on top. Press the bread down gently with a spatula to make sure all the pieces are immersed and soak up the liquid. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a kettle of water to a boil. Drizzle 2 tablespoons condensed milk over the pudding. Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil then set it inside a large roasting pan. Pour the boiling water into the roasting pan until it reaches about halfway up the sides of the baking dish.
Bake until the center of the custard is almost set but still slightly wet, about 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and continue to bake until the custard is set in the center and the top is golden, about 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove the roasting pan from the oven and let the pudding cool in the water for about 20 minutes.
Whip the remaining 1 cup/240 milliliters heavy cream to soft peaks. Serve the pudding warm, room temperature or cold with a dollop of whipped cream. Drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons condensed milk.

Yeh! A Delicious Chocolate Marzipan Scone Loaf

By threejamigos | April 24, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

I recently added the cookbook Molly on the Range to the 3Jamigos shop. I couldn’t resist, the Kindle edition is going for a buck ninety-nine. That’s just ridiculous, you can’t even get a cup of joe for that. Molly on the Range has been out a couple of years and every now and then it would dance across my feed. I’d think, cute book from that blogger, My Name is Yeh, and keep going. Fast forward a couple of years, and well whaddya know, her book took off and she has a television show, Girl Meets Farm. Overachiever, just kidding…but it piqued my interest so I got a copy. I started reading… Julliard trained percussionist, city girl who moved from Chicago to the Big Apple to a farm in North Dakota. Huh?

Well, the book is delightful. Her writing is warm, friendly, and spunky. Her photos make me hungry and the drawn illustrations are a really nice touch. I love cookbooks that tell a story. Just like A Common Table, the recipes are the icing on the cake and the cake is the delicious stories of family, friends, and discovery.

Her riff on a Midwest tradition the “hot dish”, a casserole with wild rice or some sort of starch, canned cream soup, and frozen veggies Come on now, who didn’t grow up with a casserole that started with Cream of Mushroom or Chicken Soup, hmm, hmm, good. Her version is a made from scratch, a chicken pot pie filling topped with loads of tater tots. SOUNDS GOOD TO ME. As much as I love pie crust, I do have a soft spot for tots.

Plus, she had me laughing with “You cover the bitch with Tater Tots”. Cute with attitude, I like that.

But before trying the classic hot dish, another one of her recipes beckoned my baker side, Dark Chocolate Marzipan Scone Loaf. Whaat? Scone loaf? Yep, scone dough baked in a loaf pan. The texture is much like a scone, buttery, crumbly, not too sweet, PERFECT with coffee or tea. The kicker? Little chunks of marzipan provide a burst of sweet almond flavor in each bite tempered by the bitterness of dark chocolate. Like a rumble in your mouth. Soooo good.

The dough is a snap to put together. Dry ingredients go into your food processor, pulse cold chunks of butter into the flour mixture. Pour butter-flour mixture into a bowl with marzipan and chocolate chunks. Stir in eggs, cream, and extracts just until combined. Don’t overmix and keep ingredients cold (just like biscuits and scones). Scoop the dough into a loaf pan, gently shaping it so the dough is even. Sprinkle the top with sugar and bake. Before you know it you’ll be sitting down enjoying a delicious slice of chocolatey-almondy scone bread. Yum!

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Dark chocolate Marzipan Scone Loaf

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Dark chocolate, marzipan, quick bread, scone loaf

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1 5

Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

7 or 8 ounces marzipan chopped into ½-inch pieces
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
½ cup dark chocolate chips
2 cups flour plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons sugar plus 1 teaspoon
¾ cup cold unsalted butter cut into ½-inch cubes
2 large eggs
½ cup buttermilk or heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
Jam for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line an 8 x 4-inch loaf pan with parchment paper, allowing 1-inch wings to hang over the edges on the long sides.
In a large bowl, toss together the marzipan and powdered sugar to coat. Add the chocolate and set aside.
In a food processor, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and 2 tablespoons of the sugar and pulse to combine.
Add the butter cubes and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. Add this to the bowl with the marzipan.
In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk or cream, and extracts and add to the dry ingredients. Use a spatula to stir just until combined.
Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and spread it out evenly.
Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1 teaspoon sugar and bake until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Begin checking for doneness at 40 minutes.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove to the rack to cool completely.
Slice with a serrated knife and serve with jam.

Muffin been the Mochi that Caught My Eye (Butter Mochi Muffins)

By threejamigos | February 21, 2019 | Comments 64 comments

Always searching for new and different treats, I came across an article that spotlighted Third Culture Bakery in Berkeley. The baker is an alum of Cal (Go Bears) who chose food over toxicology (good choice) and thus Mochi Muffins made with sweet rice flour were put on the map. Though I haven’t made it to Berkeley to try one, I found a couple of recipes online that sounded scrumptious, so it was off to the rices! Update: I just posted a new mochi muffin recipe, Mango Mochi Muffins made with mango tea and freeze-dried mangos! It’s small-batch baking, only 8 regular size delicious muffins.

My Sweet Rice, Oh My Rice

For the uninitiated, mochi (sweet rice flour) is a cornerstone of Asian treats. Sweet rice is PULVERIZED into flour to which water and flavorings are added. It ends up looking like the BLOB, really. It can be flavored, baked, steamed, fried and made into countless delicious treats both sweet and savory. During New Year’s, Japanese families gather to pound mochi in a tradition called Mochitsuki. Just for your viewing pleasure here is Mitsuo Nakatani, Japanese Mochi Master. Enjoy.

Traditional mochi starts with steamed rice and is pounded and shaped into sweet or savory rice cakes. Mochi muffins and Hawaiian Butter Mochi start with sweet rice flour, mixed with liquids, and baked. Since I don’t foresee any of us pounding mochi, let’s make muffins and Hawaiian Mochi. Infinitely easier and pretty darn tasty.

Back on the Muffin Trail

If you have ever had Manju from Shuei-Do Sweet Shop in Japantown in San Jose, or Butter Mochi from Hawaii and liked it…you’re going to love these. If you haven’t had mochi, this is a good introduction. Not quite as gooey as Manju and definitely not cakey like a muffin, it’s a delicious hybrid of the two. A touch of sweetness, crispy on the outside, dense and chewy on the inside, and crunchy from the generous sprinkle of sesame seeds on top. It’s different but delicious. If that wasn’t enough, they are GLUTEN-FREE. You’re welcome.

Rice, Rice, Baby

The most important item in the pic is the Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour by Koda Farms. This is the go-to brand. You can definitely find it in any Asian store (along with the sesame seeds), and if you’re lucky, at some of your larger local markets. Take a walk down the international/ethnic food aisle.

I found quite a few recipes for Mochi Muffins online and finally settled on one from a beautiful blog called Snixy Kitchen. Her batch made 12 muffins, which made her recipe the frontrunner as most made 24. As yummy as they are, what am I going to do with 24 muffins?!

The batter comes together in a snap: melted butter, coconut milk, egg, brown sugar, and rice flour. Stir together and pour into a muffin tin. Boom, done. My batter was thicker than some of the posts I’ve seen. This may account for the slight dome mine had. I also found a recipe from Saimin Noshrat in the NYT. I think I may try a couple of her tweaks the next time I make these. Trust me, there will be a next time. I will use light brown sugar, substitute evaporated milk for some of the coconut milk, and brown my butter. Not to worry, a full report will follow. Hmmm, can’t wait to make another batch.

The longer you leave these in the oven, the less gooey and more cake-like they will be. The first batch was baked for 60 minutes. I think I should have pulled them out sooner, I like gooey. Now I check at 40 minutes and pull them out around 45 minutes. To test them, use a knife to poke the center of a muffin. It should come out fairly clean with a bit of crumb.

More Mochi Madness

After making these muffins if you like the chewiness, definitely try the Hawaiian Butter Mochi Muffins, inspired by Aloha Kitchen by Alana Kysar. A little less flour and a bit more liquid kick up the gooey, buttery, lusciousness of these bites. Bake them in a muffin tin for crispy edges. I ADORE both of these muffins.

These are soooo good, a little more squishy, very buttery, topped with shredded coconut.

Also check out Peanut Butter Mochi from A Common Table by Cynthia Chen McTernan. Delish! LOVE, love, LOVE

If you would like to try traditional Japanese Mochi, here are my recommendations: Fugetsu-Do in Little Tokyo in LA, the oldest family-owned Japanese Shop in the US, Shuei Do Manju Shop in San Jose, and in my hometown of SF, Benkyodo Company in Japantown (now closed😢😢😢 ). All family-owned artisan shops.

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4.53 from 19 votes

Butter Mochi Muffins

Course Dessert

Cuisine Asian-American

Keyword coconut milk, Gluten free, mochi muffin

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 45

Ingredients

1/4 cup (2 ounces )unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for greasing pans sub brown-butter
2 cups (320 grams) mochiko sweet rice flour Koda Farms
1 cup (200 grams) organic dark brown sugar* light or dark brown sugar will work
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 tsp sea salt
1 13 ounce can full-fat coconut milk Sub evaporated milk, half to all
2 large eggs room temperature
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon molasses optional, added for flavor or use Golden Syrup or honey
1½ tablespoons each black and toasted sesame seeds, for garnish

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F and place the oven rack in the middle of the oven.
Grease the sides and top of a 12-cup muffin tin well with soft butter.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sweet rice flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, coconut milk, eggs, vanilla, and molasses.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until completely combined.
Divide the batter among the prepared muffin tin, filling each cup all the way to the top.
Sprinkle the tops with black and white sesame seeds.
Bake 45-50 minutes until the top is brown and crispy and the muffin springs back when poked with a finger. Bake for less time. for muffins that are chewier and less cakey. Muffins are done when a skewer comes out relatively clean and the tops are brown.
Let cool 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Can be frozen and thawed at room temp.

Notes

Organic dark brown sugar is richer and more caramel-y than conventional, but you can use regular brown sugar.

Any muffin tin will do, but for ultimate crispy exterior, use a dark non-stick muffin tin.

If using a light muffin tin, you may have to bake the muffins a little bit longer.

If keeping them for longer, they'll lose their crispiness after a day or two in storage, put them in the oven for a few minutes to crisp again before eating.