March Bakers' Challenge - Dutch Crunch Bread

Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!

The hardest part of this challenge was finding the rice flour which is the essential ingredient to the crunchy topping. I finally found rice flour at Family Nutrition in Cleburne. If you don't live around here, then I would try at any health food store or www.amazon.com. Amazon has it if you can't find it locally. Please try to find it locally first, supporting local business should be everyone's priority. (Walmart is not a local business.)

I made soft white sandwich loaves with the Dutch Crunch topping. I didn't really go crazy with the sandwich though. Half the kids just wanted bologna and the other half wanted tuna fish. That's not unusual though, they never all agree. So, trying to be as classy as possible, I went with tuna fish. I mixed up chunk light tuna, light mayo, chopped apples, and chopped hard boiled eggs. That went into the sandwich - sorry but that was as creative as my kids were gonna let me get.

What will you come up with?

This is the recipe I had to work with:

Soft White Roll
Servings: Six sandwich rolls

This recipe approximates the quintessential white sandwich roll found throughout the Bay Area. The recipe is simple, quick, and addictive.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon (1 packet) (15 ml) (7 gm/ ¼ oz) active dry yeast
¼ cup (60 ml) warm water (105-110º F) (41-43°C) (No need to use a thermometer – it should feel between lukewarm and hot to the touch).
1 cup (240 ml) warm milk (105-110º F) (41-43°C) (We’ve tried both nonfat and 2%, with no noticeable difference)
 1½ tablespoons (22½ ml) (20 gm/ ⅔ oz) sugar
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil (plus additional olive or vegetable oil for greasing bowl during rising)
 1½ teaspoons (7½ ml) (9 gm/⅓ oz) salt
 Up to 4 cups (960 ml) (600 gm/21oz) all purpose flour


Directions:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer or large mixing bowl, combine yeast, water, milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve and let sit for about 5 minutes (The mixture should start to bubble or foam a bit and smell yeasty).

2. Add in vegetable oil, salt and 2 cups of flour. Using the dough hook attachment or a wooden spoon, mix at medium speed until the dough comes together.

3. Add remaining flour a quarter cup at time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. (For us, this usually required an additional 1½ to 2 cups of flour).

4. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 4 minutes, until smooth and elastic.

5. Place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled (or more) in size.

6. Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 6 equal portions (if you’d like to make rolls) or 2 equal portions (if you’d like to make a loaf) (using a sharp knife or a dough scraper works well). Shape each into a ball or loaf and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (try not to handle the dough too much at this point).

7. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 15 minutes while you prepare the topping.

8. Coat the top of each roll or loaf with the topping as described below. While the original recipe recommends letting them stand for 20 minutes after applying the topping, I got better results by putting them directly into the oven.

9. Once you’ve applied the topping, bake in a preheated moderately hot 380ºF/190°C/gas mark 5 for 25-30 minutes, until well browned. Let cool completely on a wire rack before eating.



Dutch Crunch ToppingThis recipe should make sufficient topping for two 9 x 5 loaves or 12 rolls. If you only make 6 rolls in the soft white roll recipe, you can cut the topping recipe in half.

Ingredients2 tablespoons (2 packets) (30 ml) (15 gm/½ oz) active dry yeast
1 cup (240 ml) warm water (105-115º F) (41-46°C)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (30 gm/1 oz) sugar
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
½ teaspoon (2½ ml) (3 gm) salt
1½ cups (360 ml) (240 gm/8½ oz) rice flour (white or brown; NOT sweet or glutinous rice flour)

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a whisk; beat hard to combine. The consistency should be like stiff royal icing – spreadable, but not too runny. If you pull some up with your whisk, as shown below, it should drip off slowly. Add more water or rice flour as necessary. Let stand 15 minutes.

2. Coat the top of each loaf or roll with a thick layer of topping. We tried coating it with a brush but it worked better just to use fingers or a spoon and kind of spread it around. You should err on the side of applying too much topping – a thin layer will not crack properly.

3. With the Soft White Roll, you can place the rolls directly into the oven after applying the topping.




This is what I did:

Cinnamon S's

     I love cookies. All cookies, really. But when I have to make all the cookies - no buying anything from Keebler elves- then I really like easy but fun cookies to make. I also like to let the kids help cook, so put on their aprons and let them get dirty. These cookies are close to a butter cookie but rolled in sugar and cinnamon. These cookies make me think of a baked churro. So really, I'm giving ya another healthy cookie option. No really. Go with it. Forget the logic and enjoy.

Cinnamon S's

1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 tbl. sugar

Cream the butter and sugar.

What is it about butter and sugar that looks so yummy?

Anyway, next add the eggs and beat until light and fluffy.

Yes, I know you know what eggs are and don't need a picture. I just love the way our eggs look. They are so pretty and I wanted to give you a pretty picture.

So, stir your flour and baking powder into the butter mixture to make a pliable dough. Cover and put it on the fridge for at least 30 minutes. You want the dough to be more like play dough than a soft dough so that way you can work with it.

To shape the cookies, divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Divide those balls in half. Roll out to make a rope 12 inches long.

Now cut that long rope into 2 inch strips. A ruler or tape measure comes in handy, but you can eye-ball-it in a pinch.

Here's the part the kids are gonna love. Roll each strip in a mixture of the cinnamon and sugar.



The strip gets longer when you roll it. Twist the rope into an "s" shape and place on a cookie sheet. Repeat for all the strands of dough. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies feel firm but are not browned.  Play with shapes or see what the kids come up with.

For Maria - Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

     I have a beautiful cousin named Maria that is really something special. Her and her sister, Lindy, have been like my sisters. We would spend the night with each other often. And we would be tortured at each others' houses. My mom would make us sleep in pink sponge curlers that were so tight our scalp would bulge out and Aunt Alice would make me wake up before 9 am. It was terrible. (Yes, I'm smirking as I write this.)
     Maria and Lindy are both very beautiful, and like me we have struggled to keep our girlish figures more girlish than our grandmother. Both of them are really looking good and I want to encourage them in their efforts. (Seriously Lindy, nobody is supposed to look that good when you're that pregnant!) At Jake's birthday party last weekend, I looked over at Maria talking to my Dad, and for a moment, I saw my mother. It was very precious.
   So I've got a recipe that should make everybody happy. I love chocolate chip cookies. It's the one thing that I can't resist. If there are homemade chocolate chip cookies around, I HAVE to eat them. So I found this recipe that is actually healthy for you. Amazing. Now I'm gonna warn you. It won't look or smell good until you are about to put them on the cookie sheet, but trust me.

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 c. butter or margarine
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 c. wheat germ
1/2 c. chocolate chips (I prefer milk chocolate, but I've used semi sweet, minis, and white chocolate)

First you want to get a big bowl and cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Then add the egg and mix til combined.

In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, and wheat germ.

Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Make sure it is blended well.

Yeah, I know, it still looks healthy, we're working on that. Now add in the chocolate chips and stir them in.

Measure out cookie balls from 2 teaspoons. I have a 2 tsp. measuring spoon, but if you don't, just mash the two balls together. Put them on a greased cookie sheet or a silicone bake mat (so no extra grease is involved). Flatten the balls slightly.

Bake at 375 degrees for 11 minutes.



This is a great dessert or snack that you can feel good about giving your kids. This would also be a great treat for the kids to take to school for a snack. When the teacher tells you she can't serve the cookies to the kids because they have to eat healthy, you can be superior and tell her your cookies have more food value, less empty calories, salt and sugar than most snacks they approve of plus you are providing the kids with more fiber. Then you're the good mom for the week!

Here you are, Maria. This one's for you!

The February 2012 Daring Bakers' Challenge

  
   The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lis stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.
     And this is what happened...

    I love yucky bananas. And the yuckier the better.  I'm a sucker for banana bread. It's moist, melts in your mouth, and has a perfect crunch with pecans. But I wanted to go with something new...
   So out go the pecans and in comes the chocolate - oh yeah! Do I have your attention now? Thought so.
   You'll need three bread pans. If you don't have any, go to the dollar store and grab some disposables. (Line them with foil and you can reuse forever.) You also need to either unbutton your jeans or put on some sweat pants. I'm just saying. Here's the recipe I used for the challenge, I hope you'll try it:

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

6 ripe bananas
4 eggs
4 c. sugar
1 1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 c. sour cream
1 1/2 c. mini chocolate chips
4 c. all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla

To start, heat your oven to 325 degrees and find your oldest 6 bananas.

 Some might think these are too old to use, but they are perfect. The black skin means they are full of extra sugar so don't worry about what they look like. Trust me on this one.
   Mash up your bananas. You can use a potato masher or a fork. Kids love doing this job. Add in the eggs, sugar, oil, and sour cream. Blend it all together until it's smooth. Now it's not gonna look too inviting right now.

  I promise it gets better. See?

 Chocolate makes everything better. (It's kinda like bacon that way.) So mix in your chocolate and smile.
   In a medium bowl, mix together your flour, baking soda, and salt. Take your flour mixture and add it to your banana mixture. Once it's all mixed up, add in the vanilla.

Now we're talking. Doesn't that look pretty? Get your 3 bread pans and grease and flour them. And I mean give them a really good coating. This is very critical or when you try to take your loaves out of the pan, they won't cooperate. At all. Trust me. Lots of grease and flour or you'll be eating your bread with a fork and the pan will be your plate. (It's not as wonderful as it sounds.) Divide the batter evenly into the three pans.

Space your pans in the oven to where there is at least an inch of space between the inside walls and the three pans. There should be an inch of space between all three pans as well. This lets the heat get to your loaves evenly. Cook for an hour and resist the compulsion to open the oven door and peek. Let the pans cool for about 15 minutes and then turn the loaves out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. These taste best warm, so dig in. You can wrap the extra bread up in plastic wrap and freeze for breakfasts or desserts later. Or you can lock the doors, grab a glass of milk, and enjoy.

   I hope you'll give this bread a try.

Blueberry Donuts with Blueberry Glaze

   I'm a sucker for blueberry donuts. My dad is a sucker for donuts. When we lived closer to him, he almost always brought donuts to the kids. I hated it and they loved it.  If he didn't bring donuts over, the kids grilled him about it. Dad was very manipulative. He knew that if he brought me a blueberry donut, I wouldn't complain too much about him bringing them sugar for breakfast. He's a smart man. Now that we live further away, we don't get those visits of, "Hey, I only have 10 minutes, but I wanted to say hi to the kids, give them some donuts, and leave as soon as the sugar kicks in." The kids hate it, and I have to admit, I miss my blueberry donuts. Grandview has a donut shop, but I can't justify driving 10 minutes each way to get donuts when they should be eating better anyway. Donuts have become a special treat.
    For Christmas, I asked for a cookbook. I always put off buying what I want so I can get something for the kids. So when Dad asked what I wanted, I gave him a list of some cookbooks that I had been wanting and told him to get any of them and I'd be happy. He surprised me with all of them!
   My donut cookbook is Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts by Mark and Michael Klebeck. Of course, the first donut I tried was the blueberry. I had trouble with the recipe as it was given. They said I'd have wet dough, and they weren't kidding. It was just too wet, unless you want abstract art donuts. I wanted the cute circles and holes. So I went to tweaking the recipe. For the dough, I changed the flour and spice amounts. I also changed the glaze just a bit. Here's what I came up with. I recommend making the dough the late afternoon or night before and then frying the donuts in the morning. I also make the glaze the night before and then heat it up in the morning.

Blueberry Donuts

3 1/2 c. of cake flour, plus more for rolling it out (Cake flour comes in a cardboard box and is    usually on the very bottom or very top of the cake aisle. You must use this type of flour.)
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
2/3 c. sugar
2 tbl. Crisco
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
2/3 c. whole milk
3/4 c. blueberries (smaller the size of the berry, the better)

You can use frozen blueberries, but if you do, add another 1/4 c. of flour, at least. You'll need a deep fryer or a pan with a lot of canola or vegetable oil in it. You also need either a donut cutter or use what I did, two circle cookie cutters. One being 2 3/4" across and the other 1 1/4" across.

First get a medium bowl and your sifter. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together.

Then get your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, (or a new bowl and your rubber spatula) and mix the sugar and Crisco for 1 minute on low until it looks like white sand.

Then add the eggs and mix for a minute on medium. It should be light and thick. My mix will probably look a little darker because our eggs have more of an orange color to the yolks than those found at the store.

Then add a third of the flour mix, mix on low til just combined. Add half the milk and mix on low til just combined. Add another third of the flour, mix as before. Add the rest of the milk, mix like you know how. Add the rest of the flour and mix it again.

Add the blueberries. Mix on low until just combined so you don't crunch up the berries too much.

Put the dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the dough (like covering guacamole) and cover it again at the top of the bowl. Put it in the fridge for at least an hour, I put it in overnight.  In the morning, this is what you'll see:

Blueberry Glaze

3 1/4 c. powdered sugar, sifted

1 1/2 tsp light corn syrup

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tbs. blueberry jam, jelly, or preserves

1/3 c. hot water

Mix all but the water together to get it started using a whisk. Slowly add the hot water until you get the right consistency - not real runny cause you want it to stick on the donut but not thick like an icing. You probably won't use all the water and whisk it real good or it will taste grainy. Make sure to get all the sugar incorporated into the wet ingredients.. You'll want it to be close to pancake syrup - the good kind that costs money and not the Walmart brand. Cover the bowl until you are ready to use it, if it cools down, warm it in the microwave.

Heat the oil up, either in your pot or in a deep fryer, to 370 degrees. On a clean counter top, heavily flour the surface with cake flour. Dump out the dough on the flour. If it still seems too wet to work with, lightly knead in a little flour. You don't want to work the dough too much or the finished donut will be dense and tough. On the other hand, if there isn't enough flour to hold the dough together, your donuts will not work. Once the dough is on the counter, sprinkle the top with flour so you can roll it out to 1/2" thick. Make sure when it's rolled out that there is plenty of flour on the top and bottom.

Cut out two donuts at a time. Make sure you dip each cutter in flour before each cut so it doesn't stick to the dough.

Pick up the donut shapes with a floured metal spatula. Dust the extra flour off both sides with your fingers. Slide the donuts into the oil carefully. Turn the donuts  over after the bottom turns a light brown. I used a long tea spoon to do this. (The kind to mix your sweet tea, not the kind to measure with.) When both sides are brown, put the donuts on a wire rack that has paper towels underneath it. As soon as you can touch the donuts, dip them one by one in the warm glaze and sit them back on the rack. You want to reroll the dough as little as possible, so make more holes than donuts in order to cut up as much dough at a time as possible. Everytime you reroll the scraps, the donut will be a little bit tougher. This is what it looks like if your dough is too soft because there wasn't enough flour.

See how the donuts have lost their circle and the holes aren't round? Too little dough. This is what you want it to look like.

The Auction at West Auction Inc. in West, Texas

      Getting animals into a trailer is always easier said than done. But eventually we got two in to try our luck at the auction in West, Texas.

   We dropped the steers off at 10:30 a.m., registered just in case I could talk Pa into a bottle baby or two. Yeah, I know they're extra work, but they sure are cute when they're young.  (He didn't give in to their cute faces and wide eyes. He's a man of stone.)
   The 24 hour restaurant was fantastic. Pa and I had bacon cheeseburgers, Jake had a delicious looking grilled ham and cheese sandwich and Kylie splurged on Chicken Fried Steak. Pa is a sucker for Kylie. She gives him the puppy-dog-eyes, talks about all she'll learn and how it will help her be a vet (I still don't know how she correlated vets and watching an auction), and she's at the auction.
   So lunch was great.

   The four of us then went in and had a great time watching the different cows go through. The Longhorns were my favorite. It was funny to see these huge cows with extra long horns tilting their heads sideways so they can go through the gates.  Kylie and Jake had fun trying to figure out what the auctioneer was saying.
   The auction was incredibly long. We left at 5:30 p.m. and they still hadn't gotten to our steers. I really wanted to watch them be sold, but I knew we had to get home to help the other kids with their homework, make dinner, and milk Brindle.
   The auction was last Thursday and this Monday we got our check. The little calf was 455 lbs. and sold for $2.01/lb. and the big calf was 475 lbs. and sold for $1.91/lb. We were very pleased with our check.
   If you ever have a free day and are looking for some cheap entertainment, check out your local livestock auction. West has their auction on Thursdays. Cleburne has their auction on Saturdays. The biggest difference between the two is that West is mostly just for cows and Cleburne does other animals like goats. This Saturday we are taking some goats to the auction in Cleburne. Hope to see you there!

Mexican Rice - Not Soggy, Just Right

     I absolutely love Mexican food. When I was pregnant with Kylie, we ate at Mexican Inn Cafe in Fort Worth at least twice a week. It got so bad that when we walked in, they sat us and just brought us our food and drinks without asking what we wanted. Yeah, we had it bad.      In Grandview, there is a fantastic Mexican Food restaurant called El Campesino. If you are ever in this area, you must try it. With four kids, it's hard to get out to eat as often as we used to, so now I try to recreate our favorite dishes. Plus, it's thrilling when we have leftovers (rare, though it is) because then I get a yummy lunch the next day.
     I've never been able to make the rice like the restaurants. It always came out bland and soggy. Too much like plain white rice at a buffet that had been sitting out all day. Yuck. But my friend and next door neighbor, Ginger, saved me and taught me the secrets to Mexican rice. And now I'll show you. Let the circle of love begin.

      Start with two medium saucepans. In the first pan, lightly cover the bottom with vegetable oil. Turn your burner on medium to warm up the oil.

      In the second pan, throw in three cubes chicken and tomato bouillon cubes and one packet of Sazon Goya's Con Culantro y Achiote seasoning. Then add seven cups of water. If you have chicken broth, you can use chicken broth instead of the water. (Whenever I boil whole chickens, I always save the broth. There are so many great things to do with it.) Bring it slowly to a boil.

      When pan #1's oil is warm (it shimmers), add three cups of plain white rice. With a wooden spoon, mix the rice and the oil. The idea is to coat the rice with the oil and toast the rice. Take a 1/4 onion, sliced, and throw it in with the rice. You won't be sauteing the onion, it will be releasing its flavor on to the rice.

Stir the rice and onion until all of the rice is browned. You don't want it to be a real dark brown, but a nice tan is good.

     Once the rice is browned, pour your boiling liquid into the rice.  If you want the fancy rice, add two small cans of drained mixed peas and carrots.

      Let it boil until the rice is cooked, you'll know because the rice will be plumper and close to the surface of the liquid. You'll still have a lot of liquid, but you'll be seeing the rice.

     Turn the heat down to low and cover. Cook it until all the liquid is absorbed.

Now serve it with some tamales, tacos, enchiladas, nachos, chicken fried steak, roast beef.... yeah, I could do this all day.