Crumpets!

Last week, I made my way over to the shuk for some fruits and vegetables. I haven't been there in ages but somehow, despite all the time that has passed, being there felt like coming home. The sights, sounds and smells, everything I love about Israel captured in once place. Home. While I was there, my eye caught sight of some rhubarb! It turns out to be rhubarb season here. It has a pretty short season here so Im glad I got out of the army just in time for it. Obviously, I picked up a bunch of it. (Luckily, strawberries are in season also so I picked up some of those.. More on what I did with them later..) When I got home, my thoughts immediately went in a million different directions but I knew for sure I wanted to make rhubarb jam. So I did, using a very simple recipe. Once I had the jam, I thought, well what am I going to smear it on?! Having no bread to make toast from I thought of whipping something up from scratch. Crumpets was my first thought (and an appropriate nod to my good friend A who just got engaged to a Brit) so I went about finding a recipe. Crumpets are that classic British tea time staple that are similar to what we know as English muffins. I chose Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe and set to work. Overall, these were simple to make and delicious to eat but my technique with the rings and the measuring was a bit amateurish. Oh well, there's always the next batch of jam.

Monkey Bread

I promised you a Monkey Bread and I'm finally delivering on that promise. The only things I have to say are, this was worth waiting for and MAKE IT NOW! Redolent of cinnamon babka, this cake is made up of balls of sweet yeast dough coated in cinnamon and sugar. Just the smell is enough to drive you mad. Could you resist that? In true monkey fashion, this cake was actually devoured in mere minutes with girls begging me for the recipe at the end. The recipe itself comes from the new book, Baked Explorations but I adapted it slightly. For starters, I just threw in the margarine without melting it and let the dough do it's thing in the fridge overnight. Works like a charm for me every time. For the coating, I also used light brown sugar as that's what I had on hand. Assembling the cake itself is kind of fun. You just pull off pieces of dough, roll them into little ballies, dip and dump into a greased bundt pan. Then you can let it rise and bake or you can stash it in the fridge for next morning's breakfast, if you please. One pan, though, might not be enough, so consider making two. Or maybe that's just what I'll need to do with over seventy eager eaters around. I think I'd like to try a pumpkin variation or even a chocolate variation, so stay tuned for that. This Monkey Bread is being Yeastspotted!

Deep Dark Chocolate Chunk Muffins

With these chocolate muffins, I end my baking drought. It seems it has been a couple of weeks since I've gotten around to baking anything. I've had what I call baker's block- I just couldn't find anything inspiring to make. Rather than not make anything, I decided to just bake something and make a dent in the dairy sitting in my fridge while I was at it. These muffins, from the muffin chapter of A Passion for Baking, fit the bill, making use of some Israeli soft cheese, buttermilk and rice milk. I must say that these chocolate muffins are made in the cake style, so they really are more cupcake than muffin, but no one really needs to know that. These came out of the oven just in time for my weekly Tuesday meeting, where they were happily enjoyed. What remained was summarily devoured by the girls during curfew. These muffins are GIGANTIC, but really chocolately and very moist. The chocolate chips added a nice surprise. For a more visual pop, next time I would place chunks of chopped chocolate on top of the panned batter before baking.

Sunny Orange Buns

I really should call this post round two of operation finish orange juice. That would be an appropriate title but I figure Sunny Orange Buns is a far more fitting title here because that's exactly what these are. Yeast dough bursting with bright, orange flavor baked like a cinnamon bun. I tried in vain to find a recipe for orange buns, leafing through all my books and searching the internet. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and I came up with this recipe. Using my favorite yeast dough recipe as a base, I swapped the milk for orange juice and added the zest of an orange. For the filling, I rubbed together and some more orange zest. I rolled up the dough jelly style, cut into buns and let chill out in the fridge until this morning. They baked up all golden and bubbly and delightful smelling. I mixed up a light glaze of some powdered sugar and fresh squeezed orange juice and drizzled it over. The results? Divine. The buns were not too sweet and suprisingly not too orange-y. These were perfect and a wildly successful experiment. I didnt measure my filling ingredients or glaze ingredients so just wing it. I'm sending these over to Yeastspotting!

Sunny Orange Buns

1 cup orange juice

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

zest of one orange

1/2 cup sugar

4 3/4 cup flour or as needed

3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp instant yeast

Filling:

sugar

orange zest

Glaze:

powdered sugar

freshly squeezed orange juice

To make the dough, place all of the wet ingredients in a bowl,
and whisk until combined.
In a separate bowl, place all of the dry ingredients.
Whisk thoroughly.
Add the flour mixture to the liquid ingredients.
Stir to make a shaggy dough.
Turn out onto a well floured surface,
and knead until a smooth but slightly tacky dough is formed.
Set the dough aside and allow to rise for about an hour to an hour and a half. The dough wont look like it has done much at all.
Meanwhile, rub the sugar and zest together.
Turn the dough out again. It should be smooth and easily handled.
Roll out the dough into a large rectangle. Brush with oil or melted margarine/butter. Sprinkle on the sugar/zest mixture. Press it into the dough.
Roll the dough up jelly roll style.
Cut into buns.
Place in the pan. I put these in the fridge overnight and baked the next morning. If that's not an option, allow to rise until puffy. Preheat the oven to 350.
Bake until golden brown and delicious.
Mix the zest and orange juice.
Drizzle over the buns. Mmmmm. I taste summer....

Sourdough Pancakes

With newly acquired sourdough starter comes the newly acquired dilemma of what to do with all of the discard that results from the culture’s maintenance feedings. I’ve previously tried Sourdough Chocolate Cake, which is due to be taken for another whirl, and Banana Bread with Sourdough but I hadn’t tried pancakes or waffles, quite surprisingly. So after finding this recipe in the Baker’s Companion for Pancake Waffles I decided to make them, making them as pancakes instead, as the recipe allows. The recipe requires you to make a sponge well ahead of time, or if you’re a bit impulsive, at least a couple of hours before, to allow the sourdough to develop. To that batter, eggs and oil and some baking soda are added. They’re pretty much basic pancakes, just with the extra step of preparing the sponge. The result was a nice, sturdy pancake that served as the focal point of a dinner with friends. Truthfully, there was only a slight, barely noticeable tang and that could have very well been attributed to the buttermilk. Nonetheless, these were good pancakes, as pancakes always are and I used up discard! I served and enjoyed these with honey, which is just as good if not better than maple syrup. Sacrilegious, I know. This batter yielded a tremendous amount of pancakes, leaving a nice portion of the next day’s breakfast.

Sourdough Pancakes
from KAF Baker's Companion

Sponge:
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup sourdough starter, not fed

Batter:
Sponge
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Begin making the sponge the night before or at least a few hours before. In a bowl, place the dry sponge ingredients in a bowl,and whisk to combine.Add the buttermilkand blend.Add the sourdough starter,and blend until smooth. Set aside to develop overnight or a few hours, as much as you can afford. When you're ready to assemble the rest of the batter, place all of the liquid batter ingredients into a container,
and whisk to combine.Pour this over the sponge mixture,and stir. Right before you cook add the baking soda. Preheat a pan or a griddle.Cook the cakes until they bubble and then flip them over. Cool until brown.
Pile them on and enjoy any time of day!

Barley Cakes

In the vein of having breakfast for dinner, again, (I'm a struggling university student, what do you want from my life?!) I made these Barley Cakes, a recipe that comes to you from my trust Whole Grain Companion. This recipe is sadly hidden at the back of the book so that if I hadnt just been researching barley, I wouldnt have found them. Lesson learned: research barley in the back of the cookbook and you'll be rewarded with these yummy and addictive pancakes. Seriously, I couldnt stop eating these. They have the delicate flavor of orange and honey. These flavors are really nice together and contribute a lovely sweetness. Like all pancakes, they are simple to put together and cook beautifully. When I say they cook beautifully, I mean to say that they literally get this gorgeous mahogany color on them with a lovely yellow hiding inside. I know I encourage you to make everything I post up here, but these are actually good for you!

Barley Cakes
adapted from KAF Whole Grain Baking

3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp honey
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups barley flour
2 tsp baking powder

In a large bowl, place all of the wet ingredients.

Whisk really well to combine. I tend to get overzealous and create bubbles. I looove bubbles..

Add the barley flour and salt,and blend. Let the batter rest for fifteen minutes. At this point, preheat your griddle or your skillet. When you're ready to cook the pancakes, add the baking powder to the batter, and blend.

Drop the batter by quarter cup-fuls, a muffin scoop works well here, and cook two minutes or until bubbles being to form. The book says you wont get bubbles, but I got bubbles!! Flip them over and cook on the other side. See that gorgeous color! These are so good that no one will be able to tell that what theyre eating is good for them. Serve warm with some honey or syrup.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Whoever said that pancakes had to be for breakfast? I have a healthy amount of admiration for that person who thought to combine breakfast and dinner to come up with... brinner. Why not have a plate of light, fluffly, slightly tangy buttermilk pancakes for dinner? Why not make everyone around you fall in love with you and come knocking at your door? 'Cause that's just what these pancakes do. This recipe for Buttermilk Pancakes is from Alton Brown's trusty tome, I'm Just Here for More Food-- his volume on baking. These are easy to whip together and require barely any effort at all, except for dishwashing, which if you're like me, is no effort at all. Yes, I enjoy washing dishes. Something relaxing about having your hands in warm, sudsy water. Pathetic, I know. Anyway, this recipe tastes equally as good with whole wheat flour, an identical recipe appears on the next page. I substituted oil for margarine because I was too lazy to dirty another bowl melting the margarine.... but no one was the wiser. Enjoy them.. I'm off to make another batch. ;)

Buttermilk Pancakes
adapted from Alton Brown's recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk (at room temperature)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil


Place the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl;
whisk to combine.In a separate bowl, combine all the wet ingredients.Whisk to combine.Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients...and mix just until the batter comes together. Do not overmix or your pancakes will be tough.Heat a pan and cook pancakes until they expand and develop bubbles around the sides. Flip and cook on the other side.

Transfer to a plate.

Lots of yummy pancakes!

Blueberry Pancakes

Oh, how I spoil my little sister, R. Last time it was banana pancakes and this time it's these from the King Arthur Flour site. Maybe I don't mind because it involved baking and testing new recipes or perhaps because I'm leaving her soon and I won't be able to spoil her even if I were inclined to. Or maybe because I offered to make Blueberry. Pancakes. Now, if I'm being honest I'd never had them before but I had nice large berries in the fridge to use up before they'd go bad and R needed brunch so.... These were so good! They baked up nice and light and golden with that yummy, familiar pancake flavor and strong burst of blueberry flavor. That made it a homerun especially since blueberry isn't my favorite berry. They were super easy to whip together. For simple transfer of batter to skillet, I used a muffin scoop, which made nice large cakes. The only thing I'd caution is to make sure that they are thoroughly cooked as I found that it was still slightly undercooked around the blueberry area. Serve with maple syrup, real please, or as I like to enjoy them.. plain!

Blueberry Pancakes

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp sugar

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla

3 tbsp oil

3/4 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Place the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir together with a whisk.

Combine the wet ingredients and pour them over the dry mixture.

Mix together, taking care not to overdo it. Allow the batter to rest while you preheat your pan.

Drop the batter onto the pan in a bit less than quarter cup-fuls and top with a few blueberries. Flip to cook on the other side.

R's brunch!