Here's to Mixed Up Blondies

Over the years I've tried a number of different combinations when I bake blondies, the brownie like bar cookie that has butterscotch instead of chocolate as the dominate flavor. I've done Big Blondes, Irish Blondes, Dumpy Blondes and California Blondes. This time I decided to go with Mixed-up Blondes. Mixed-up because I combined the basic blondie recipe with some of the aspects of the Dumpy Blondes, particular the sweet-salty combo you get by adding in potato chips and pretzels, with the Irish wholemeal flour that I used for the Irish Blondes, the fruit I added made them almost like California Blondes.  I added a few macadamia nuts, but not very many since I was almost out of them, some pecans, some dried cranberries, toasted coconut, and, of course, chocolate chips. At the end I added about 2 tablespoons golden raisins, to. Truly a mixed-up bowl of add-ins.

The resulting cookie is moist, sweet, and has some salty elements, some fruity elements and some nutty elements. I'll be taking them to a party tomorrow to honor a friend, Jean Anderson, who died last year. We're celebrating her birthday and I know she would have enjoyed these cookies.

Mixed-up Blondes
A variation of a recipe by Jill O’Connor in Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey, Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth.

1 cup (2 sticks) non-dairy margarine
3 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup Irish wholemeal flour (or whole-wheat flour)
¾ teaspoon baking powder

Add-ins: 
1 cup pecan halves
1/4 cup macadamia nuts
1/2 cup sweetened toasted coconut
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1 cup pretzel pieces (I used small ones and broke them up)
1/2 cup sea salt potato chips, lightly crushed
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons golden raisins

Use cooking spray to lightly coat a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Melt the butter and brown sugar together in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the butter and sugar are blended and completely melted and starting to bubble gently. Remove the pan from heat and let the mixture cool slightly. Mixture should be room temperature before you proceed.

Preheat to 350 degrees F. Position oven rack in the middle of the oven.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and salt. Slowly whisk the cooled butter and sugar mixture into the eggs just until combined. Whisk in the flours and baking powder to form a loose batter. (Make sure the batter is cool before stirring in the remaining ingredients, otherwise the chocolate will start to melt before the bars are baked.)

Stir the nuts, coconut, dried cranberries, pretzel pieces, potato chip pieces, chocolate chips and golden raisins into the cooled batter. (I usually mix together all the Add-ins in a bowl before adding to the batter...it prevents a clump of one ingredient here, another ingredient there...you get a better distribution by mixing before adding.) Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.
Bake until the top is shiny and slightly crackled and feels firm to the touch, 30 – 35 minutes. A wooden skewer inserting into the batter should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Let cool on a wire rack to room temperature, then turn out onto a board and cut into bars and serve.
Makes 15 large or 30 small bars.

A Hearty Bread

I'm not baking bread as often as I used to. Lots of things getting in the way of it, but mostly it's because Sweetie asked me to not tempt him with warm bread quite so often...he has no resistance to bread hot from the oven but wants to continue to fit in his clothes.

Still, I have a sourdough starter and it seems a shame to waste the 'toss off' that comes with feeding it. Before I went to LA I used it to make some pizza dough, which I then froze. One day soon I'll make pizza for dinner, but for now the calories are held at bay.

I fed it again a couple of days ago and decided that it had been a long time since I've made a hearty, seedy bread. If I give half of it away then Sweetie and I can still have some and feel virtuous at the same time. After doing a half-feeding of the toss off (1/2 cup each all-purpose flour and water, instead of a full cup of each), I let that sit in the fridge over night. The second day I fed the mixture with a feeding of 1 cup graham flour (Bob's Red Mill brand) and 1 cup water. It made for a soupy mixture since the last time I fed the starter I added extra water knowing that it would be well over a week before I could feed it. The reason I mention this is that I started with more hydration in the dough than usual. If you have 100% hydration starter, you won't need as much flour for the bread.

The graham flour mixture sat on the counter for about 20 hours before I started the dough and it was nice and bubbly, plus there was a great yeast fragrance, but I knew I would be adding a lot of things needing a bit of extra lift, so I whisked in 1 teaspoon active dry yeast.

In a bowl I mixed together dark rye flour, flax seed, all-purpose flour, and salt. These were added to the sourdough mixture using my stand  mixer and the dough hook, letting everything come together and finishing with some all-purpose flour to stiffen the dough a bit. Once the machine kneading finished, I did some more on a floured board. The dough was just a bit tacky, so I used my bench scraper to lift the dough up and over for kneading.

After kneading a few minutes, I flattened the dough out into an oval, then sprinkled on 1/4 cup chopped pecans and 1/4 cup of Salad Toppings, a mixture I found at Costco that contains pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and dried cranberries. Rolled up the dough, folded the ends over, then flattened it again to allow for the remaining 1/4 cup chopped pecans and 1/4 cup Salad Toppings to be worked in. More kneading until all was evenly distributed, then into the rising container for a few hours to rise. I like to spray the bottom and a bit up the sides of the container with spray olive oil, then turn the dough in it to coat surface of the dough with oil. Probably not necessary, but I like the dough to stay soft on the surface and that takes care of that.

After the dough doubled in bulk, I turned it out on a floured board, punched it down, used the bench scraper to cut it into three pieces, then weighed them so that they were each about 14 oz. Rolled each into a snake shape and put them, lined up, on a baking sheet. After braiding them loosely, I covered the braid with a clean tea towel and let it rise. All that was left was preheating the oven, painting the plait with beaten egg, and baking it until golden.

This makes a hearty bread. It has a fairly fine grain and is studded throughout with seeds, nuts, and the occasional cranberry piece. I served it with dinner and one guest described the variety of flavors and 'lots of musical notes', but they all work well together. This is not a sweet bread since the proportion of cranberries in the Salad Topping is small. It has lots of seeds, which is lovely, and makes great toast.

I had a couple slices today for lunch as Avocado Toasts with some smoked salmon on top. Yum!

Hearty Seedy Braid
my own creation

1 cup sourdough starter, plus about 2 tablespoons water if your starter is 100% hydration
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup water
1 cup graham flour
1 cup water
1 cup dark rye flour
1/2 cup flax seeds
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus additional (about another 1/2 cup or so)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup mixed sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries
1 egg, beaten

Take the 1 cup sourdough starter and put into a large bowl. In a smaller bowl whisk together the all purpose flour and the water. Whisk into the sourdough starter until well combined. Leave on counter, uncovered for 2 hours, then lightly cover and refrigerate.

The next day whisk together the graham flour and the water in a small bowl. Add it to the sourdough starter mixture and let sit, uncovered, on the counter until the next day.

The next day, whisk together the rye flour, flax seeds, all-purpose flour and salt in a medium bowl. Put the sourdough mixture into a stand mixer bowl. Attach the dough hook to the mixer. Stir about 1/3 of the flour mixture into the sourdough mixture with a wooden spoon or a spatula. Put the bowl on the mixer base and start up the dough hook on low speed. Slowly add the remainder of the flour mixture. If needed, add additional all-purpose flour as the mixer kneads the dough for at least 8 minutes. When kneaded, dough should clean the sides of the bowl and be tacky but not sticky.

Remove the dough from the dough hook and bowl onto a lightly floured board or clean work surface. Knead the dough a few turns, then flatten into a large oval or circle. Sprinkle half the pecans and half the seed mixture over the dough, roll up jelly-roll fashion and flip end up over the log. Press down to flatten the dough again, sprinkle on the remaining pecans and seed mixture, roll up again, then knead until the pecans and seeds are well distributed in the dough.

Oil lightly a rising container. Place the dough in it, then turn dough over so that all is coated with oil. Flatten the dough in the rising container, cover with a clean shower cap or with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free place to double in bulk.

When dough has doubled, turn out onto a lightly floured board or work surface. Using a bench scraper, cut into three pieces (weigh if necessary to keep about the same weight), then roll each piece into a snake shape. Place the three snakes next to each other in a baking sheet, braid loosely, tuck ends under, cover with a clean tea towel and let rise until about doubled.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. When braid has almost doubled, use a pastry brush to paint the plaits with beaten egg. Bake for about 40 minutes, until golden brown. When you tap the bottom of the loaf, it should sound hollow. Cool for at least 10 minutes on a rack, then slice and serve.

Cranberry Chicken For A Chilly Evening

We finally have gotten a few days of sun, but it's still pretty chilly, so I decided to make a baked chicken dish last night. I found it in a Rachel Ray magazine and it is a keeper! The skinless chicken stays moist under a shingling of bacon, plus the presence of a mixture of chicken broth and red wine. In general I can't drink wine, but I have found that I can eat things where the wine has been cooked. Yay! All the alcohol gets cooked off, but something else must get mellowed, too.

The components, besides the chicken and bacon, are sweet from the dried cranberries, savory from the broth and wine and balsamic vinegar, mellow from the translucent cooked onion wedges, and hearty from the red potato chunks. Add in the flavors of garlic, thyme, pepper and bay leaf and you have a dish that smells wonderful and tastes even better. All you need with it is a small salad or steamed veggies and, perhaps, some bread to sop up the delicious juices.

Because I never make anything quite how it is written up, I did change the chicken to boneless thighs, I added a 1/4 teaspoon fresh orange zest (cranberries  and orange are a match made in heaven), and I reduced the dried cranberries by 1/4 cup...and will reduce them by another 1/4 cup next time. I also didn't have fresh thyme, so I used dried thyme...2 teaspoons in the broth mixture and none for garnish.

There are a number of good reasons to make this dish besides the fact that it is yummy. First of all, it is relatively inexpensive. Then there is the bonus of a short prep time and about 30 minutes cooking time. Add to that the easy clean-up, especially if you line the casserole with heavy duty foil like I did. Last, but not least in my world, there is no dairy in this dish...and you don't miss it either. With no added oil, butter, cheese, or cream, it is fairly healthy, too...well, except for the bacon, but that adds so much flavor and fragrance that it would be a shame to leave it out. Sweetie helped me out by eating half my bacon. Isn't he the best?

Roasted Cranberry Coq au Vin
Serves 4
from Rachael Ray Every Day, March, 2017

1 1/4 cups dried cranberries (I used 1 cup but 3/4 cup would be better)
1 cup red wine, such as Pinot Noir or Beaujolais (I used Zinfandel)
1/2 cup chicken stock
6 large cloves garlic, chopped (don't worry, the garlic gets mellow in the oven)
4 bay leaves
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons onion salt
Optional: 1/4 teaspoon orange zest
3 tablespoons fresh thyme, divided (I used 2 teaspoons dried thyme)
4 bone-in chicken thighs (about 8 oz. each), skin removed (I used boneless skinless chicken thighs)
1 pound red potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 large yellow onion, cut through core into 3/4-inch wedges
4 slices thick-cut hickory-smoked bacon, each cut into 4 pieces
8  1-inch thick slices French bread (didn't have any...didn't miss it)

Position oven rack to upper third of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F.

In a bowl, mix the first 7 ingredients and 2 tablespoons thyme (or all the dry thyme if using). Optional, but good: add 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest to the mixture.

In a large baking dish, arrange the chicken, potatoes and onion in a single layer. Shingle the bacon on the chicken. Add the cranberry mixture, pressing cranberries to submerge. Season with salt and pepper.

Roast in preheated 460 degree oven until an instant-read thermometer inserted into a chicken thigh registers 165 degrees F., about 30 minutes. If using fresh thyme, garnish with remaining 1 tablespoon.

Serve at once. If desired serve with bread to mop up the juices.

Cake Slice Bakers Orange Cake with Cranberries

I love it when we get to the third week of the month and it's time for the Cake Slice Bakers.We usually have four recipes to choose from and it's fun to imagine baking one, then another, and often all four of them. Still, Sweetie continues to drop the pounds from his frame and has asked me to keep the baking down to just a few, so I do have to choose.

This month I chose the Blueberry-Nut Loaf Cake, but the blueberries at the market were going for $5 a basket, so I decided to substitute dried cranberries and to soak them for a while in the fresh orange juice to soften them up. I love the flavor combo of orange and cranberry, so why not?

This is a fairly light cake with a delicate crumb and I enjoyed it a lot. The pecans added both crunch and flavor and the cranberries and assertive orange flavor played well together.

I baked the batter in a combo Bundt pan so I got two smaller Bundt cakes in two different designs. We each had a piece after dinner while the cake was still a little warm. Delicious! There is a lot of orange zest in the batter, so large parts of the finished cake are a pretty orange color, which looks nice with the cranberries.

Because I didn't use fresh blueberries, my directions are different than the original recipe, but this is really an easy cake, so just follow along and you, too, can have a nice little cake to enjoy in the afternoon with tea or coffee or as a dessert later in the day.

Cranberry - Nut Bundt Cake

1 1/4 cup pecans
2 large, deep colored oranges
1 cup dried cranberries (Craisins)
grease and fine dry bread crumbs for pan
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (I used a butter substitute with no dairy)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg at room temperature

Coarsely chop the pecans. Set aside.

Grate the rind, zest only, from the oranges. Reserve the zest and cut the oranges in half, then juice them. Measure 3/4 cup orange juice. Place the dried cranberries in a narrow container ( a Pyrex measuring cup that holds two cups works well) and pour the orange juice over the dried cranberries. Let sit for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 10 1/2 x 4 x 3-inch loaf pan or a Bundt pan that has two smaller cake pans in it, or a small Bundt pan. Dust with fine dry breadcrumbs and knock out excess crumbs. Set pan aside.

Melt the butter and let cool.

Sift together the sugar, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg just to mix. Add the butter and mix. Drain the cranberries and add just the orange juice to the egg mixture and beat to mix. Set the cranberries aside.

On low speed add the sifted dry ingredients to the egg mixture and beat only to mix. Remove from the mixer and stir in the drained cranberries, the grated rinds and the nuts. If you use a spatula, you can make sure that all is well combined with just a few strokes.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan((s), smoothing the top and knocking the pan against the counter a couple of times to dislodge air bubbles. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester gently inserted into the middle comes out clean and dry. If the cake cracks on the top, it's OK.

Cool the cake on a rack for 10 minutes, then cover the cake with a rack and turn out onto the rack. If using a bread pan, turn cake right side up. If using a Bundt pan, keep it upside down. Move to a cake plate and let cool completely.

To serve, if desired, sift some powdered sugar lightly over the cake.

An InLinkz Link-up

Half Way

Two days ago we hit the half way mark - the winter solstice. We have reached the darkest day of the year after that day more light each day returns to the world until around the 21st of June, when days begin to grow shorter again. Since it was a cold, damp, rainy day it wasn't really obvious. It was sort of dim all day.

 One of the fun things to do on a rainy day is bake cookies. Since it's been blessedly rainy (remember, we are in a four year long drought) for days now, I've been baking for a few days, too. One of the things I baked was a gluten-free, dairy-free version of Santa's Whiskers cookies, so that I can have some at Christmas. I also made a dairy-free and gluten-free molasses cookie which is tasty but not as chewy as I had hoped. The last recipe is for a cookie that seems very seasonal to me, but this one has butter and regular flour, so I won't have any. Sweetie, on the other hand, can eat pretty much anything. He enjoyed these white chocolate-dried cranberry cookies and I can recommend them as easy to make, although not particularly photogenic.

 I looked at a number of recipes, so I don't have attribution for these, having borrowed a bit from here and a bit from there. I think you could add in some nuts if you like and they would probably be even better.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white chocolate morsels or chunks
1/2 cup dried soft cranberries

 In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

 Blend in the egg and vanilla
.
On a sheet of waxed paper, or in a bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the butter mixture and beat to combine.

Stir in the white chocolate and dried cranberries.

Drop 2 tablespoonful dollops of the dough about an inch and a half apart on baking sheets that have been lined with silicone mats or with parchment paper
.
Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about nine minutes. The edges of the cookies will be golden brown.

Cool the cookies on a rack, then store in an airtight container.

This recipe makes about 18 cookies, but it can be doubled for about 3 dozen cookies.

Feeling My Oats

Today's bake is for Sweetie. He has been such a staunch supporter as I have worked on the puzzle of what to eat and drink and what to avoid putting in my gut. Things are improving in that area and I'm feeling my oats, walking more, gardening again, and even putting a coat of paint on an outdoor structure. Oats are also the star ingredient in the cookies I made for Sweetie today.

He has always loved oatmeal cookies, especially chewy ones, so that's what I made. I used a recipe from the old standby cookbook Joy of Cooking, with (of course) a few tweaks. I added some chocolate chips and some dried cranberries and some chopped walnuts. Beyond that, it was just the recipe in the book. Classics become classics because they are good enough to stand the test of time.

So for this fairly flat, chewy cookie the dominant flavors are butter, brown sugar, oats, chocolate, vanilla, cranberry and walnuts. The edges are crisp, but otherwise it is a fairly soft cookie. Sweetie really doesn't enjoy crisp, crunchy cookies.

I made the cookies pretty large, so I ended up with 26 of them and he ate five as soon as he got home!They are that good (and almost gluten free, with only 1/2 cup regular all-purpose flour...since I've decided that I can have a little gluten now and then with no harm...and it does help with the cookie structure.)

Quick Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 36 2-inch cookies
A variation of a recipe in Joy of Cooking cookbook

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Measure:
   1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
   1/2 cup granulated sugar
Cream with:
   1/2 cup butter at room temperature
Combine and beat in until smooth:
   1 egg
   1 teaspoon vanilla
   1 tablespoon milk
Sift together and add to the above ingredients:
   1 cup all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup gluten free flour mix and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour)
   1/2 teaspoon baking soda
   1/2 teaspoon baking powder
   1/2 teaspoon salt
When beaten smooth, add:
   1 cup uncooked quick rolled oats
   1/2 cup chocolate chips
   1/2 cup dried cranberries
   1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Beat the mixture well. Drop cookies 2 inches apart on well-greased cookie sheet and bake until light brown. Remove to a cooling rack soon after taking cookies from oven.

Short and Sweet Orange Cranberry Shortbread

There are cookbooks that are on my shelf which go unused for a long time and then I suddenly notice them and decide to make a recipe from them. That happened this week with a great little book Short and Sweet, by Melanie Barnard. I was looking for something else and spotted it, then fell in love with the shortbread cookie recipe.

The recipes are all pretty quick and many also have limited ingredients. The one I chose, Cranberry Orange Shortbread, met both of those criteria. Because you met the butter you can decide to make this at a moments notice...no softened, room temperature butter needed.  I melted the butter in a large microwave safe bowl and finished making the batter in that bowl, but the recipe actually calls for melting the butter in a saucepan and finishing the batter in that. Either way you have quick clean up as well as the quick recipe.

Freshly grated orange zest is aromatic so these cookies smelled nice even before they baked. I was worried that it would be difficult to remove them from the pan because it's un-greased and the cookies are fairly thin, but they came out in one piece and I used a long bread knife to cut them into squares.

These cookies are not too sweet, perfect by themselves, with coffee or tea, or even on the side of a dish of ice cream. The texture is crisp and a bit sandy as a shortbread should be. The total time from start to finish is less than an hour. Hard to do better than that for a nice fruity cookie, right?

Cranberry Orange Shortbread Bars
Makes 16 cookies

8 tablespoons (1 stick, 4 oz.) unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large microwave safe bowl (or in a medium sauce pan over medium heat if you prefer) melt the butter. Remove pan from microwave (or heat) and stir in the orange peel, cranberries, and powdered sugar. Then stir in the flour to make a stiff dough.

Spread and pat the dough into an uncreased 8-inch square baking pan. Bake unti the bars are golden and firm at the edges, about 20 minutes. Cool the pan on a rack for 2 minutes, then use a sharp knife to cut into 16 squares. (After cookie had cooled 10 minutes with pan on a cooling rack, I used a small sharp knife run around the outer edge to loosen the whole mass of cookie, then turned it out, turned it right side up on a cutting board and then cut the bars with a long knife.) Let the bars cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before removing them with a small spatula.

The bars can be stored, tightly covered, for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 1 month.

Slipper Bread for May Bread Baking Babes

As soon as I saw the recipe for the May Bread Baking Babes, brought to us by our Kitchen of the Month, Cathy of Bread Experience blog, I knew that Sweetie would love this bread. Although I usually change lots of things to suit myself when I bake from a recipe, even a new one, for this one I stayed really close to what was given, changing only one of the flours from rye to a 9-grain blend and changing the prunes to dried cranberries because he loves a bread he gets in Berkeley that has dried cranberries in it. I did use parchment as the base for baking them on preheated pizza stones, but otherwise stay close to directions, including a pan of ice cubes for steam on the top rack.

The bread in question is Flaxseed and Cranberry Ciabatti-Style Loaves (I think ciabatta means 'slipper' in Italian) and I had fun with it because baking a ciabatta bread was on my bucket list of breads to bake. Check out Lien's beautiful badge!:

I measured the ingredients on my scale since amounts were given in grams. I let the flax seeds soak (longer than required but that didn't seem to harm anything), had the poolish sit out even longer than required for even more flavor and I chilled the dough while I went to the gym and brought it back to room temperature before doing the next fold because I did have to leave it for a while and didn't want the dough to stay warm too long without the folding. All of this, plus the ice cubes in a pan to give steam during the first part of the baking, worked really well. 

I made three loaves and they looked fine and tasted even better. Would have been even better with the rye flour (which I discovered I was out of) but I really liked the dried cranberries. Sweetie ate half of the first loaf he liked it so much.

Thanks Cathy for an excellent recipe and one I might not have tried on my own. That is one of the joys of belonging to this bread baking group...we get to try new breads and techniques and are encouraged by our fellow Babes to stretch our skills...and to have fun. Cathy has a really wonderful set of photos and tips, along with the original recipe on her blog, to help you make the best ciabatta ever!

Do visit the other Babes and see what they did this month with this bread. Also, if you want to be a Buddy, bake the bread, take a photo and send Cathy and e-mail with the photo, a URL to your blog post and a short description of your experience baking the bread. Her email address is breadexperience (at) gmail (dot) com. You have until the May 29th and she'll post a round up soon after that. Come bake with us!

Flaxseed and Cranberry Ciabatti-Style Loaves 

Flaxseed soaker:
48 grams flax seeds
72 grams water

Mix all ingredients until well incorporated, cover and set aside.
Let it sit for at least one hour. 

Poolish:
125 grams bread flour
125 grams water
pinch of instant yeast

Mix all ingredients until well incorporated with D.D.T. of 70°F.
Allow to ferment 12 – 14 hours at room temperature (65 -70°F)

Final Dough:
300 grams unbleached all-purpose flour
50 grams coarsely milled whole wheat flour
25 grams coarsely milled whole rye flour
278 grams water
10 grams salt
84 grams dried cranberries
2 grams instant yeast

Mixing: Hand Mix 

1. Mix together all the ingredients except the flax seeds, and plums.
2. Once everything is thoroughly incorporated, mix in flax soaker and dried cranberries.
3. Transfer the dough into an oiled container.

Dough Temperature: 76-78°F

First Fermentation: a total of 3 hours with 3 folds
45 minutes at room temperature; fold
45 minutes at room temperature; fold
45 minutes at room temperature; fold

Divide: Dough is not scaled. It is divided by measurement. Place loaves on a floured couche, or do as I did and put the dough from the bucket on a heavily floured board, use a bench scraper to cut into three loaves, then transfer the loaves with a very thin, large spatula to parchment paper. You can use a pizza peel to move the parchment paper with loaves onto the preheated pizza stone. I then used the edges of the parchment to turn the loaves 180 degrees in the oven about half way through baking.

Rest : 20 minutes at room temperature
Bake: Deck oven 
450°F with 2 seconds of steam. Bake for 20 minutes. Vent an additional 10 minutes then remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

The Bread Baking Babes are:

• Bake My Day – Karen
• blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth
• Bread Experience – Cathy
• Feeding my Enthusiasms – Elle
• girlichef – Heather
• Life’s a Feast – Jamie
• Lucullian Delights – Ilva
• My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna
• My Kitchen In Half Cups – Tanna
• Notitie Van Lien – Lien
• Thyme for Cooking – Katie (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire)

Mini Cranberry Walnut Soda Bread Loaf

There they sat on the counter, reminding me that I had left them out of the scones; a half recipe of bourbon soaked cranberries and a similar amount of chopped walnuts. What to do with them? I'm out of pumpkin at the moment, although I do have some sugar pumpkins ready to be cooked with, just no pumpkin puree, so no pumpkin recipe this time.

A check of the fridge showed that I have buttermilk and butter, so an obvious and delicious choice was Irish soda bread enhanced with cranberries and walnuts instead of currants and caraway. The lovely thing about soda bread is how quickly it goes together. I grated a little clementine zest into the sugar and rubbed it in a la Dorie Greenspan, then added that to the mixture of all-purpose and white whole wheat flour, plus baking soda, baking powder and salt. The butter was sliced and worked into the dry mixture, the buttermilk added and mixed in about half way, then I dumped in the cranberries and walnuts and mixed the rest of the way, with just a bit of the dry mixture staying dry...don't want to overwork the gluten on this quick bread. Onto the silpat lined baking sheet with the dough, a quick shape with floured hands, then I cut a cross into the center with a bench scraper. A sprinkle of sanding sugar and into the oven it went.

This is a delightful version of my Aunt May's soda bread. I only made half the recipe because that was the right proportion for the cranberries, but just double it to make a big loaf. The cranberries, walnuts and clementines are all fall flavors and great with the tang the buttermilk gives. This makes a lovely afternoon snack with a cup of tea. Sweetie enjoyed a slice with some fresh persimmons and he said that the bread went perfectly with that autumn fruit. I just love autumn afternoons!

Mini Cranberry Walnut Soda Bread Loaf
Makes on mini loaf

1 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 cup tablespoons sugar
zest from half an orange or a whole clementine or tangerine
4 oz. (½ stick) cold butter, in thin slices
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup dried cranberries, plumped with hot water or bourbon, then drained
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Mix the dry ingredients, except sugar, in a bowl. Put the sugar into a small bowl and rub the citrus zest into it with your clean fingers. Mix sugar into the dry ingredients. Add the butter slices  and cut in well with a fork or pastry blender. Add the buttermilk and mix just until partly moist - don’t over-
handle. Add the cranberries and walnuts; mix well. Some dry stuff is OK but the dough should be sticky. Pat into a round on a parchment-lined or silpat lined cookie sheet. Cut a cross on top. Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degree F. Tap bottom to make sure bread is cooked through. It will sound hollow. Cool a bit before slicing.

California Blondes

I was working at a drugstore in the cosmetics department when a hair coloring company found the model Cheryl Tiegs and had her be the image of the California Blonde for their ad campaign. She was immediately the 'it' girl for young women. The company sold a lot of blonde hair color kits. The song "California Girls" was in that same era, and the Summer of Love wasn't far behind. Everyone wanted that sunny California look, or to live in California. Of course the older generation saw all of the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll as a sign that California was the hotbed of degeneracy and a land of fruits (gays) and nuts. Having lived in California most of my adult life, they may have a point, but there are just as many ordinary folks here as anywhere else...the wild ones and ones that seem different just get more media attention. Being someone who often felt different while I was growing up, I like the feeling of' being accepted for who I am' that is a California hallmark, at least in much of the state.

Today's cookie celebrates the fruits and nuts, as well as the sunny because it's a blondie, the sister of a brownie because it's like a brownie without chocolate. I added fruits and nuts and used plenty of vanilla. It makes a moist, rich, delicious bar cookie, a bit on the sweet side like a young California girl. Hope you enjoy your California Blondes.

California  Blondes

A variation of a recipe by Jill O’Connor in Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey, Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking powder

MIX-IN INGREDIENTS:
2  cups mixed nuts – I used half and half of pecans and walnut pieces

1 cup mixed dried fruits - I used regular and golden raisins and dried cranberries

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Use cooking spray to lightly coat a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Melt the butter and sugars together in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the butter and sugars are blended and completely melted and starting to bubble gently. Remove the pan from heat and let the mixture cool slightly.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and salt. Slowly whisk the cooled butter and sugar mixture into the eggs just until combined. Whisk in the flour and baking powder to form a loose batter. (Make sure the batter is cool before stirring in the remaining ingredients, otherwise the chocolate will start to melt before the bars are baked.)

Stir the chopped  nuts, dried fruits, and white and dark chocolate chips into the cooled batter. (I mixed all of the "mix-in" ingredients together in a very large measuring cup before adding to the batter. That way I knew that there wouldn’t be a clump of nuts here and a clump of white chocolate there, but rather a nice mix of all the goodies.) Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake until the top is shiny and slightly crackled and feels firm to the touch, 30 – 35 minutes. A wooden skewer inserting into the batter should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Let cool on a wire rack to room temperature, then cut into bars and serve.

Makes 16 large or 32 small bars.

Pantry Perfect

This morning I brought a lovely quick bread I'd baked to a meeting, so my worry about not baking during the project wasn't justified. Some baking will continue...it's one of my creative outlets after all.

Because the project does come with time constraints, I headed to my pantry for the ingredients, especially the canned pumpkin. I know that pumpkin seems like a fall and winter flavor, but a good pumpkin bread is delicious any time of the year. This one has vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger for flavor, plus a dollop of Irish whiskey, for fun. I used both white and brown sugar, some eggs, some room temperature butter, and all purpose flour leavened with both baking soda and baking powder. At the end I threw in some dried cranberries, too. The finished bread was a golden brown with a lovely deep gold interior.

The recipe began as a King Arthur Flour recipe without the cinnamon, ginger, Irish whiskey, brown sugar or butter. I also changed the method because I used butter and creamed it with the sugars and vanilla, then added the eggs and water. Once these liquid ingredients were combined, the addition of the mixed dry ingredients went very quickly, yielding a very light and tender bread. It makes two good sized loaves. You could even freeze a loaf for later enjoyment. Since it goes together so quickly, give it a try.

You might wonder why I end up changing so many things. Why not start with a recipe that is closer to what I want to bake? Well, King Arthur Flour's website has so many recipes that I know I'll find one that will work as a starting point. They really seem to test their recipes, so I know the proportions will work. After that it is easy for me to make the substitutions since I have so much experience with baking. For this one, for instance, I wanted something similar to pound cake, so I used the creamed butter and sugar base instead of the melted butter or oil. Those give a slightly heavier texture to the finished bread. I can assure you that you won't want to leave out the Irish Whiskey (unless you replace it with bourbon) because it adds a hint of smokiness that is wonderful with pumpkin.

Spiced Pumpkin Bread with Dried Cranberries
Loosely based on a recipe found at King Arthur Flours

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups (or one 15-ounce can) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup Irish Whiskey
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pans.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, then cream in the sugars.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating each egg into the batter before adding the next egg.

Add the pumpkin, water,  and the Irish Whiskey and mix to combine well.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Add the flour mixture to the batter and beat only until barely combined.

Mix in the dried cranberries, if you're using them.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pans. and smooth tops a bit.

Bake the bread for 60 to 80 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean; and that same tester inserted about 1/2" into the top of the loaf doesn't encounter any totally unbaked batter.

Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a rack. When it's completely cool, wrap it well in plastic wrap, and store it overnight before serving.

Yield: 2 loaves.

One For Sweetie

The tulips are blooming, the apple trees are in bloom, and Sweetie did a lot of grass mowing today. It had gotten remarkably long. He deserved something good to eat! As you may have guessed if you've read this blog for a while, I'm blessed with a wonderful partner, Sweetie, and he enjoys eating what I cook and bake. One of his favorite breads to bring home from Berkeley when he visits Acme Bread there is the Cranberry Walnut loaf.

I decided to try my hand at that kind of bread. My version is not as dense or dark, so I probably should have added more rye flour, but he loves it and I enjoyed making it.

I looked at quite a few recipes before throwing this one together. The cocoa and molasses add color and flavor and go well with the rye and whole wheat flours. I added the cooked mixed grains because I love the texture that they add, as well as nutrition. The walnut oil is a luxury and can be replaced with regular veggie oil or olive oil, but it goes so well with the walnuts.

I made this in a heavy duty stand mixer, using the dough hook, but ended up kneading it for about 5 additional minutes on a board to make sure there was plenty of gluten development. I kneaded in the walnuts and cranberries after the first rise. I shaped the nut and cranberry laden dough into two football shaped loaves, but they would bake up nice in loaf pans, too.

Cranberry Walnut Bread Elle's Way
makes 2 smallish loaves

1 packet (2.xx oz.) dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup mixed whole grains (rye berries, barley, wheat berries, rolled oats, etc.), cooked in 1 cup water, drained and cooled
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 cup rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus another 1/2 cup for kneading
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 cup walnut oil
1/3 - 1/2 cup chopped walnuts per loaf (2/3 - 1 cup total)
1/3 - 1/2 cup dried cranberries per loaf (2/3 - 1 cup total)

In a small bowl re-hydrate the yeast in the 1/4 cup lukewarm water. Let sit at least 5 minutes until yeast is foamy.

After yeast is ready, add to the cooled cooked grains in a stand mixer bowl and stir. Let sit 5 minutes.
While yeast mixture is sitting, in a large bowl whisk together the cocoa powder, rye flour, whole wheat flour, bread flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour and the salt. Set aside.

To the yeast mixture, add the 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, molasses and walnut oil. Stir to combine. Set the stand mixer bowl with the yeast mixture on the stand mixer. Using the dough hook, on low speed, add the flour mixture, one cup at a time, to create a shaggy dough. With the mixer running still, add the remaining 1/2 cup all purpose flour a tablespoon at a time. Continue kneading with the machine about 5 minutes, then transfer to a floured board. Using the final 1/2 cup flour, if needed, knead an additional 5 minutes until dough is relatively smooth and silky.

Turn dough in an oiled bowl to coat with oil, then cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour.

Turn out onto lightly floured board, knock down, and divide in half. Return half the dough to the bowl.

Knead the walnuts and cranberries into the dough and form into a loaf. Repeat with the other half the dough.
Cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

Slash top and bake in preheated 375 degree F oven until loaf is dark golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, about 45 minutes.

Let loaf cool before slicing. Will keep on counter, wrapped in a tea towel, a couple of days.

Breakfast Buns

Bread baking has been on the back burner lately, but I noticed that some mornings I would love to have just a little something to go with the morning cup of coffee and fresh fruit. I decided to put together a breakfast bun that would work, and to put in some healthy ingredients, too. Most of all, it has to be yummy because when you can only have a small amount of bread, it should be delicious bread, right?

For starters I cooked up some oatmeal...1/2 cup rolled oats and twice that amount of water...and set it to cool. I also mixed some yeast, water, a tiny bit of sugar and some flour to make a poolish. It all sat out on the counter while I went to the gym, collecting wild yeast if I was lucky.

Later in the day I mixed the cooked oatmeal, the poolish, some milk, and egg and some more water together. In a bowl I mixed all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, salt, a little more yeast (in case no wild yeast were around that were strong enough), and a touch of cinnamon and added those to the liquid mix to make a nice dough.

After the dough had time to rise, I turned it out onto a flour board and kneaded in dried cranberries, chopped pecans and golden raisins. Those were stretched into a large rectangle, most of the rectangle was given a light coat of butter, a sprinkle with brown sugar, and also with cinnamon. I rolled it up, jelly-roll fashion, and cut it into buns.

The buns went into a 9 x 13 pan and lightly covered. They rose over time and then were baked in a 350 degree F oven until golden brown.

So now I had a dozen breakfast buns. There is about 1/6 of the usual amount of oatmeal one might eat at breakfast, whole grain, cinnamon for antioxidant and flavor value, dried fruits and nuts, milk and egg and only about 1/3 tablespoon of butter per bun, with even less sugar. Fairly healthy as buns go and very tasty. For one of the buns I added a small amount of an icing of confectioners sugar mixed with hot water. That made it a little too sweet, so I think in the future I'll stick with the 'plain' buns. Each bun went into it's own bag, then into the freezer for future enjoyment on those days when they will be the perfect thing to go with coffee and fruit.

You might think that I would want one every day, but today I had coffee, fruit and some plain yogurt and it was just enough breakfast. Normally I'd give you the recipe, but I didn't really measure a lot of the ingredients, so I'll have to see if I can figure it out and post it later.

Zucchini Time Chocolate Bread

If you love zucchini squash this is a great time of year. If not, keep a watch on your porch because sometimes gardeners get overwhelmed with too many and will drop some on your doorstep under cover of darkness.

My squash plants are producing like mad. Fortunately over the years I've found fellow squash lovers who gladly take the extras so no midnight furtiveness is necessary for disposing of them.

One of the ways I love to eat zucchini is in a quickbread with cocoa and chocolate chips added. The first variation I baked had fresh cherries added. Another time I added chopped almonds, almond meal and fresh diced apricots but that version didn't please me, so it never made it onto the blog. This past week, with the help of Cucumber Spraygun who is visiting from the east coast, we made a version with walnuts and dried cranberries (Craisins) that was delicious.

For someone who usually bakes by herself, its sometimes difficult to bake with someone else, even an excellent baker like CS. I kept forgetting things so it was a good thing that we had laid out all of the ingredients. First I forgot that the sugar doesn't go with the dry ingredients...it gets beaten with the eggs. CS caught my mistake and we were able to scoop about 1/2 cup of the sugar out of the dry ingredients and beat it with the eggs. At the end I was so intent on not overmixing the batter that we completely left out the nuts
.

CS sprinkled them heavily on top which was a great save since it meant toasted walnuts...yum...but we think it may also have caused, somehow, for the bread to rise really high in the middle. Last, but not least, I didn't check the bread often enough so the edges ended up slightly burnt which is not good with chocolate.


The good news is that despite all of those errors we ended up with a lovely bread that was moist inside and delicious. It's also easy to make if you pay attention.

Some of the shredded zucchini that we prepared for going in to the bread was excess, so that went into meatloaf and a salad in subsequent days. We also eat zucchini grilled and I put it into my favorite spaghetti sauce, which can be found here. I'm thinking of making some banana bread and adding some shredded zucchini to that. I'll let you know if I do.



There are a few recipes, including the Cake Slice Baker July challenge, which will be posted later. Right now its more fun doing other things with CS and Sweetie...hope you understand. XO Elle

Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Dried Cranberries and Walnuts
based on:

ELIZABETH'S PHENOMENAL CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD
brought to you via Robin Brande & Jama Rattigan & Tanita Davis

3 cups flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 ½ cups sugar
3 eggs or equivalent egg substitute
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2-3 medium zucchini)(measured after being squeezed dry)
½ cup chopped nuts ( we used walnuts)
1 pkg (12-oz) chocolate chips
½ cup died cranberries (Craisins)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two 9x5" loaf pans with canola spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. In a separate bowl, beat eggs (or egg substitute and water) with the sugar until well combined. Add oil, yogurt and vanilla. Beat to combine, then stir in zucchini. Add wet bowl to dry bowl and stir until just moistened. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips and Craisins.

Spoon evenly into pans. Bake 55-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Check before 55 minutes...chocolate can burn easily.. Cool 10 minutes in pans, then turn onto racks. This bread is yummy when eaten still warm...the chips are melty and the fragrance is full chocolate!