French Bread

I have been wanting to make Julia Child's Soupe A L'oignon, or french onion soup, for some time now, but really wanted to try my hand at making french bread loaves when making it. I bought this magazine, Taste of the South, over the weekend and found a recipe for the french loaves. This was my first time buying this magazine, and I am glad that I did. I may have to subscribe, just to help feed my addiction!

The bread was not that hard to make. I did learn that I need to split my dough more evenly..I ended up with a small loaf and a larger loaf,and not to use so much flour when forming into the loaf. But, other than that...it was a cinch to put together and was delicious! I ate 3 warm slices with a little butter before I even got to the soup. This was also a great time to teach Abby how to knead. I think she enjoyed it as much as I do.

Oh, and about the soup? Fantastic! Jamey gave me Mastering the Art of French Cooking as a Christmas gift. This is the first and only thing so far that I have made from it. It really made me want to dive into the book and make almost all of it. I have to say though, I draw the line at brains...yes, it tells you how to cook and clean them. Oh, and don't get me started on the aspic either..just can't bring myself to it. But, for the most part, it is stuff that I would make.

French Bread

From: Taste of the South

2 cups warm water

1 Tbsp sugar

1 (.25 oz) package active-rise yeast

3 Tbsp vegetable oil, divided

1 Tbsp salt

5 1/2-6 cups bread flour, divided

1/4 cup cornmeal

In a medium bowl, combine warm water, sugar and yeast. Let stand until foamy, approximately 10 minutes.

In the bowl of a large stand mixer, combine yeast mixture, 1 Tbsp oil, salt and 3 cups flour. Using the dough hook attachment, beat for 2-3 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Stir in enough of remaining flour to make s stiff dough. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth, approximately 1o minutes.

Grease a large bowl with remaining 2 Tbsp oil. Place dough in bowl, turning dough to coat all sides. Cover, and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, until doubled in size. About 1 1/2 hours.

Punch dough down, and divide in half. Shape dough into 2 (17x3 inch) loaves.

Spray 2 baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with cornmeal. Place each loaf on a prepared baking sheet. Make 4 cuts diagonally across the top of each loaf. Cover, and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Bake until crispy and golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Still here and Chocolate Milk

I am still here, just haven't been in the kitchen here lately. I have been cooking dinners for my family, but honestly, they have not been the healthiest and mostly frozen foods!! Yes, I said that out loud. I will be back in a couple of days with Hot Chocolate Souffles!

This is Abby over the summer, we visited the Sweetwater Cheese Farm and got to tour the farm with all the cows. The babies were so cute. Anyways, back to the chocolate milk..I have pondered this for a while now and Abby has started a blog. Chocolate Milk. If you want to read the ramblings of and excited 9 year old little girl, go and check it out. She is going to start a program at school called Cardiac Kids and I am encouraging her to post about her nutrition lessons. She will be posting recipes as well. I am excited for her and love that she is excited about it as well.

This weekend, we had our first snow storm. I say storm, because we normally do not get any snow. We got about 4 inches of snow and then it starting with the freezing rain. Luckily, today is going to get to almost 40 degrees and sunny and should start melting this stuff off. I will leave you with a picture of what I saw this morning when the sun decided to show its face.

Yogurt

I am trying to be more frugal in my household. While blog surfing frugal blogs for tips, ideas, recipes..I came across The Frugal Girl and found this recipe for homemade yogurt. She used a gallon of whole milk and a cup of plain yogurt and that ends up making a gallon of yogurt. The verdict? It is good and cheaper than if I was to buy a gallon of yogurt. This yogurt is not as thick as what you would buy, and I am guessing that is because it doesn't have all the preservatives and whatever else is added to it. But, it is thick enough that you can eat it with a spoon with no problem. You do need to know that it does take a little while to make it, once it is in the jars, it has to sit for 3 hours before being put into the refrigerator. Will I make it again. Yes!

Homemade Yogurt (makes 4 quarts, which will keep for at least a month in the fridge)

For vanilla yogurt directions, see the bottom of the recipe.

Ingredients
1 gallon of milk

1 cup yogurt starter(you can use a small cup of plain Dannon or Yoplait yogurt, or you can use a cup from your previous batch.)

1. Place four quart glass canning jars, four lids, and four screw-tops in a large pot. Fill with an inch of water; cover with lid and heat to boiling. Boil for ten minutes. Leave the lid on the pot and move it off the heat until you are ready to use the jars.

2. Pour one gallon of milk into a large, heavy bottomed stockpot or Dutch oven. Heat the milk to 185-195 degrees Farenheit(90-90 Celcius).

3. Place the pot in a sink filled with cold water and let the milk cool to 120-130 degrees farenheit(50-55 degrees celsius)

4. Stir one cup of yogurt starter into the cooled milk, using a whisk. Stir well to ensure that the starter is thoroughly incorporated into the milk.

5. Pour the milk into jars, and put the lids and bands on. Place them into a cooler.

6. Heat one gallon of water to 120-130 degrees F(50-55 degrees C) and pour into cooler.

7. Shut cooler lid and leave in a warm place for three hours. When the three hours are up, place the yogurt in the refrigerator.

To make a delicious vanilla version of this yogurt, add 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar to the four quarts of milk when it’s cooling in the sink. Then stir in 1-2 tablespoons of vanilla, depending on your preference, and proceed as usual with the recipe.

Trail Mix

This stuff is truly addicting! I made this last week and it only lasted 3 days! My kids loved it, the hubby liked it, and I loved it. I saw this chic on Foodtv make it, on the show that only uses 5 ingredients. I checked out the recipe online and read the reviews, they were all good reviews, went out to buy the stuff and made it. It was simple and didn't take alot of time at all. And, hey, it's healthy for you!

My husband is leaving for Haiti sometime this weekend. He is the 3rd group that will be rotating to go from our church. The first group leaves tomorrow. I am not sure what the plan is, they probably don't know until they get there, but I do know that they will be up in the mountains, not in PAP. Our church "adopted" and orphanage in Coq Chante, that housed 18 girls. The youngest, Atanie, didn't make it out. She was 4. The orphanage is destroyed. Here are a couple of pics.

Before the quake:

And after..

Even when these girls have lost everything, they are still joyful. They are scared, but it amazes me how they just continue to go. I am asking that you pray for safety for these guys that are going to help,and also all the relief workers that are there and will be going.

Ok, so back to this trail mix..it is super yummy, healthy, filling and addicting. I am making more this week! I think that you could probably use any type of dried fruit that you want, but I liked the tartness of the cranberries.

Cranberry Trail Mix
2 cups baby pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
6 tablespoons pure Grade B maple syrup
Coarse salt
1 cup dried cherries or cranberries

Directions
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
In a large bowl, toss the pumpkin seeds, almonds, and sunflower seeds and the syrup until evenly coated. Spread the nuts and seeds out, in an even single layer, on the lined baking sheets and season with salt to taste. Bake the nuts, stirring several times with spatula or wooden spoon, until just golden, about 20 minutes.
Cool the nuts completely on the pan, then add the cherries and toss to combine. Store cooled trail mix in an airtight container at room temperature.

Croissants

One day last week, while on Facebook, Laurie mentioned that she might be making croissants this past weekend and wondered if anyone would join her. Now, I have always wanted to make them, but had only heard how hard they were to make. So, I said that I would join her. We decided on the recipe from Michel Roux and I am glad that I finally made them. Other than the time constraint to make them, they were fairly easy. I did stuff a few of them with chocolate chips and those were yummy, but I also liked the plain ones with a drizzle of honey! I will make these again and probably fill with some different things..like strawberry jam and cream cheese! Yum!

Croissant Dough
From: Michel Roux

2tsp of active yeast, I used 1 packet of yeast
350 ml milk,or 1 1/2 cups--next time I will warm just a little
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, divided
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 sticks butter, cold but not too hard

Egg wash, 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 Tbsp milk

Dissolve the yeast in the milk. Combine 2 1/2 cups of flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl; then pour in the milk mixture, allow the mixture to rest for 30 minutes. Add the remaining flour and stir until it begins to pull away from the sides. Cover the bowl and leave it to rise in a warm place for an hour or until doubled in size. **If you have a stand mixer, you can mix it with the dough hook*
Punch down dough by flipping it over with your hand, but do not overwork it. (It is really wet and sticky) Cover the bowl again and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. (I left mine overnight and it wasn't sticky at all the next morning)
Shape the butter into a flat 5x7 rectangle. **I put the butter in between to pieces of cling wrap and beat it and rolled it with my rolling pin! ha!**Punch down dough by flipping again and place on a lightly floured surface. Pat the dough into a rectangle and roll it out into a larger rectangle. Place the butter in the center of the dough and fold the corner flaps over to completely enclose the butter.Lightly flour the work surface, roll the dough out to a 24x12 inch rectangle. Fold in thirds, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
Give the chilled dough a quarter turn, roll out the rectangle, fold into thirds again, wrap and refrigerate again for 30 minutes.Roll the dough in the opposite direction as before, fold into thirds again, wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes but no more than 60.**This keeps the butter cold and gives croissant the flaky layers**
Lightly flour your work surface and roll the dough out to your rectangle, I rolled mine until it was about 1/4 inch thick. Cut this rectangle into thirds, long ways, so that you have 3 long strips. Cut the strips into squares, then the squares in half diagonally, this gives you the triangles. Make sure your surface is floured, or they will stick. :) Make a 1 cm cut in the middle of the bottom of the triangle. Pull the 2 base points to lightly separate and roll to form the crescent. I found that this did help it shape better, but you don't have to do this part. If you are going to fill them with anything, do it before you roll it.Put the croissants on a baking tray and lightly brush with the egg wash. Put the croissants in a warm place to rise for 2 hours, or until almost doubled.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, brush croissants with egg wash again, and bake for 15-20 minutes. Mine baked in about 13 minutes because I didn't want them to get too brown.

Snow Day!

Chocolate Cream Pie

I love in the movie Julie and Julia where Julie says.."when you are having the worse day in the world and you can come home and know that if you mix chocolate with egg yolks and sugar that it will make chocolate cream pie and all is better" I know that is not word for word, but you get the picture. Saturday was just one of those days. It was cold, I didn't feel the best, needed to get laundry done...had to go try on bridesmaid dresses..yada, yada.... But, I remembered this and as you know being in the kitchen is my stress reliever. So, I came home, melted some chocolate, mixed with some egg yolks and sugar, heavy cream....and viola! Chocolate cream pie and it did make me feel a little better. It didn't get my laundry done though.

I used Dorie's recipe for Chocolate Cream Tart, I knew it would be a no fail recipe. And, well...I cheated a little, I used a frozen Pillsbury pie crust. Sometimes you just have to, ya know?

Over the holidays I did some thinking about the blog. I want to make a few changes. When I first started this blog, and really, up until now, it has been a baking blog. Who says that it has to stay that way, I mean, this is my little blog..so maybe I will start putting in some meal planning? I don't know. My daughter, Abby, wants a blog. She is 9. I'm thinking that she will be my guest blogger, every now and then. So, there are a few of my ideas.

Happy New Year! I hope it has started off with a great start!