Pizza Dough Pretzels or Bavarian Bagels?

Pizza Dough Pretzels or Bavarian Bagels?

Breads

When you’re shopping, and get a sudden craving for homemade soft pretzels, there’s not a lot you can do to satisfy that yearning immediately. Sure, you can set some dough when you get home, and wait for it to rise, but by the time that’s done, how do you even know your still going to want pretzels?

Well, the solution to this probably not very common problem is store-bought pizza dough. While I don’t necessarily recommend it for making world-class pizza, if you’re willing to eat something that looks like a bagel, it works very well for making pretzels.

By the way, if you’re wondering exactly, specifically, and precisely what the difference is between bagels and pretzels, I’m not sure I’m the one to ask. I believe the doughs are slightly different, as well as the solution they’re boiled in, but above and beyond that, you should hit the search engines up for more details.

Normally, I would’ve done that before writing the post, but did I mention the pretzels and beer? Like I said in the video, if you do want to make your own pretzel dough, go for it, since the technique will work the same no matter where you’re dough comes from. Regardless of what you use, I really hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 6 homemade soft pretzels:

1 pound prepared pizza dough, plus all-purpose flour as needed, divided into six balls

6 cups water

1/3 cup baking soda

coarse salt

- Bake at 400 F. for about 20 minutes, or until beautifully browned, and stretch marks have formed. Exact times will depend the specific size and shape of your pretzel.

- Tip:  if you’re making rings, be sure to stretch them out, so your pretzels are not too thick. You don’t want them any fatter than I made, otherwise they become too bready. Larger, thinner dough rings we’ll give you a chewier pretzel, closer to the ones you get at the mall.

Ditulis soni agus Pada 16.34 Komentar

Salami Bread – Fourteen Inches of Delicious Pizza-Related Serendipity

Salami Bread – Fourteen Inches of Delicious Pizza-Related Serendipity

Breads Italian Cuisine Pizza

What started out as a frustrating attempt to test some pizza dough, turned into what we’re calling salami bread. This 14-inch long loaf of delicious serendipity was a revelation, and I didn’t even get to use it for it’s most obvious purpose…to make the world’s greatest Italian submarine sandwich.

As I mention in the video, I’m not even sure I’d do a meat sub with this, but instead may just load it up with lots of Italian cheeses, as well as fresh and pickled vegetables. Then I’d find a picnic, where I could sit back to soak in the sun, and the compliments.

There are hundreds of possible variations, so that’s going to be your homework. Why wait until the unlikely scenario of having pizza dough, but no toppings? Let’s be proactive. But no matter how you roll, and I really do hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for one salami bread:

12 to 16 ounce ball of pre-made pizza dough

8-10 slices salami or other similar meat

1/4 cup tomato sauce, or other crushed tomato product

freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to cover

scattering of freshly chopped herbs, to taste

olive oil, as needed

- Bake at 400 F. for 25 to 30 minutes until browned and cooked through.

Ditulis soni agus Pada 13.09 Komentar

Sandwich Rolls – Because Size and Shape Matter

Sandwich Rolls – Because Size and Shape Matter

Breads Sandwiches

As promised, here is our method for making your own sandwich rolls at home, and while “shocked” may be a bit strong, I think many people will be surprised at just how simple these are. Like, four ingredient simple. Sure you have to wait a few hours while it rises, but that gives you time to decide what sandwich to make.

Besides the super obvious reasons why these are better than the ones from the supermarket, you can make them the exact size and shape you want. We’ve all been there…you find the perfect sausage at the store, but the rolls in the bakery dept. are either too short, or too long, leaving you angry and disillusioned. 

Like I said in the video, you can pretty much use this technique with any yeast dough, and it just depends on what you’re going for. Speaking of which, a viewer who couldn’t wait for this recipe to make banh mi, used our no-knead beer bread dough, and reported they had great success.

This recipe is based on our French baguette, but if you happen to have luck using another one of our recipes, please let us know! I hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Makes 6 Sandwich Rolls:

1 package dry active yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

1 1/2 cups warm water (100 F.)

1 1/2 tsp fine salt

19 ounces (by weight) bread flour (about 4 1/4 cups)

Ditulis soni agus Pada 20.30 Komentar

Sweet Potato Muffins – The Sweet Potato Pie of Muffins

Sweet Potato Muffins – The Sweet Potato Pie of Muffins

Breads Breakfast Dessert

Sometimes you don’t have a good reason for not loving a certain recipe, and that’s how it is for me with sweet potato pie. It just does not do it for me, and I don’t even know what “it” is. However, I thought the same flavors could work for a holiday-inspired sweet potato muffin, and I was thrilled with the results.

These are perfect if you have leftover sweet potatoes during the holidays, but if not, totally worth cooking a few just for this easy recipe. I microwaved mine for about 6 or 7 minutes, until they were very soft, but roasting, or boiling will also work.

By the way, we’re not using sweet potatoes for our sweet potato muffin; we’re using yams, which are actually just incorrectly named orange-fleshed sweet potatoes.  So, I guess never mind.

As I mention in the video, these muffins are just a little bit of frosting away from being cupcakes. I’ve never understood the allure of mini marshmallows on a sweet potato casserole, but something tells me some “fluff” would work well on these, as well. I really hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 24 Sweet Potato Muffins:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup melted butter
2 cups mashed sweet potato or “yams”
1 cup chopped pecans, plus more for the top
demerara sugar for the tops

- Bake for 25 minutes at 350 F. or until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Ditulis soni agus Pada 23.19 Komentar

Easy English Muffins – A Model of Buttery Deliciousness

Easy English Muffins – A Model of Buttery Deliciousness

Breads

I don’t watch a lot of food television, but every once and a while I’ll catch a show where celebrity chefs sit around describing the best things they ever ate, and this English muffin was inspired by one served at the Model Bakery, in Napa, CA.

These muffins were fried in clarified butter, and looked (and sounded) absolutely amazing. I didn’t actually use their recipe, since I wanted to experiment with a simpler, faster method; but if it makes you feel any better, I did cook them in clarified butter.

Speaking of which, I’ve never done a video for clarified butter, but you don’t need one, since all we do is melt some unsalted butter (the only kind I ever use), and once it’s melted, take a spoon and skim off the white, foamy milk solids from the top. That’s it. Once clarified, you can use it without fear of the butter burning from high temps, or long cooking times.

If you want, you could just briefly brown each side and finish these in an oven until cooked through, but I did mine all the way in the pan, a la Model Bakery, and it worked out fine. They took about 7 to 8 minutes per side, and really took on a great buttery flavor.

Over the years, I’ve tried several different methods, including the traditional batter cooked in ring molds system, but I think this technique is much easier, and produces something very close to a classic English muffin. I hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Makes 6 English Muffins (recipe can easily be doubled):

- First mix:

1 1/2 tsp dry active yeast

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup warm water

- Wait 15 minutes to see if yeast is alive, then add:

2 tsp vegetable oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 egg white

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup warm water

- Mix dough and let double

- Form 6 seamless balls of dough, press on to a lined baking pan, coating both sides  with non-hipster corn meal.

- Allow to double in size and fry in clarified butter for about 7-8 minutes per side, or until cooked through. Let cool before splitting!

Ditulis soni agus Pada 21.30 Komentar