Panna Cotta and Cool Rise Bread recipes

Thanks to Monica A. for a great demonstration of these two tasty techniques!  Life is better with amazing bread and fancy dessert!

Chocolate Hazelnut Panna Cotta
Yield: 8-10 servings

Ingredients
3 tablespoons cold water
1 envelope Knox gelatin
1 quart heavy whipping cream
1 (13-ounce) jar chocolate hazelnut spread (recommend: Nutella)
Chopped, roasted hazelnuts, for garnish
Grated semisweet chocolate, for garnish (recommend: Ghiradelli)

Directions
In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin in 3 tablespoons of cold water. Stir and set aside for 10 minutes to allow the gelatin to dissolve.

Combine the heavy cream and chocolate hazelnut spread in a medium saucepan and put it over medium-high heat. Bring it to a boil and then remove it from the heat. Add the gelatin to the warm cream. Stir well to make sure the gelatin is dissolved. Pour the mixture into small bowls and refrigerate, covering with plastic wrap after just cooled to prevent a skin from forming. Chill for 4 hours or overnight.

When you are ready to serve, garnish with the chopped hazelnuts and grated chocolate. Sweet!

Bread (Rising on Ice)

Let it rise in the refrigerator wile you take the children to school, go to the office, go to a meeting or play with your kids.
Cool rise doughs are mixed, kneaded, and shaped...all in 45 minutes....then rise in the refrigerator.  You can bake anytime you want... from two to 24 hours later.
The fermentation period when the yeast starts to work is just 20 minutes and takes the place of the first rising for other doughs. You just cover the kneaded dough and let it rest on the board... use the time to clean up your utensils and get pans ready.  Keep your refrigerator at 38-41F so the dough will rise just right.

2 recipes, the process is mostly the same with the difference noted in italics.

White Bread

5-6 cups bread flour, whole wheat flour, or use both (half and half)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups milk (whole, 2% or skim)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup margarine, butter or 3 Tbsp olive oil
2 eggs
oil, to brush a little on the top of the bread

In a large bowl thoroughly mix 2 cups flour and yeast (undissolved).

Combine milk, water, margarine, salt, sugar in a pyrex bowl.

Heat in the microwave for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes (120-130F).

Gradually add to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally.  Add eggs and 3/4 cup flour. Beat at high speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.  Stir in enough additional flour to make a stiff dough. Turn out on to lightly floured board; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes.
Cover with plastic wrap, then a towel. Let rest 20 minutes.

Divide dough in half.  Roll each half to a 14x9 inch rectangle. Shape into loaves. Place in 2 greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pans. Brush with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 2 to 12 hours.

When ready to bake, remove from refrigerator. Uncover dough carefully. Let stand at room temperature 10 minutes. Puncture any gas bubbles which may have formed with a greased toothpick or metal skewer.  About 6 times.

Bake at 350F, for 40 minutes. Remove from baking pans and cool on wire racks.

Oatmeal Bread

1/2 cup warm water (105-115F)
 2 packages active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups warm milk (105-115F)
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons margarine, butter or 3 Tbsp olive oil
5-6 cups bread flour, you can mix with whole wheat flour if you want
1 cup quick rolled oats
oil, to brush a little on top of the bread

In a large bowl thoroughly mix 2 cups flour and yeast (undissolved).
Combine milk, water, margarine, salt, sugar in a pyrex bowl.

Heat in the microwave for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes (120-130F).

Gradually add to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally.  Add 3/4 cup flour and oats. Beat at high speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.  Stir in enough additional flour to make a stiff dough. Turn out on to lightly floured board; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes.
Cover with plastic wrap, then a towel. Let rest 20 minutes.

Divide dough in half.  Roll each half to a 14x9 inch rectangle. Shape into loaves. Place in 2 greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pans. Brush with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 2 to 12 hours.

When ready to bake, remove from refrigerator. Uncover dough carefully. Let stand at room temperature 10 minutes. Puncture any gas bubbles which may have formed with a greased toothpick or metal skewer.  About 6 times.

Bake at 350F for 40 minutes. Remove from baking pans and cool on wire racks.

Pots de Crème recipe

Thanks Katie for the wonderful food at our All-Hands meeting.  Many asked for the recipe for the yummy treat - here it is.

Chocolate Pots de Crème

Cook’s Illustrated

This is my favorite chocolate dessert.  You do not have to use ramekins.  You can play with the depth of the chocolate - for our Relief Society gathering I used 6 oz.  60% Ghirardelli chocolate.

SERVES 8

We prefer pots de creme made with 60 percent cocoa bittersweet chocolate (our favorite brands are Ghirardelli, Callebaut, Valrhona, and El Rey), but 70 percent bittersweet chocolate can also be used. If using a 70 percent bittersweet chocolate (we like Lindt, El Rey, and Valrhona), reduce the amount of chocolate to 8 ounces. Covered tightly with plastic wrap, the pots de creme will keep for up to 3 days in the refrigerator, but the whipped cream must be made just before serving.

INGREDIENTS

• Pots de Crème  
• 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate (see note above), chopped fine
• 5 large egg yolks
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• ¼ teaspoon table salt
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• ¾ cup half-and-half
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• Whipped Cream  
• ½ cup heavy cream (cold)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

1. FOR THE POTS DE CRÈME: Place chocolate in medium heatproof bowl; set fine-mesh strainer over bowl and set aside.
2. Whisk yolks, sugar, and salt in medium bowl until combined; whisk in heavy cream and half-and-half. Transfer mixture to medium saucepan. Cook mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly and scraping bottom of pot with wooden spoon, until thickened and silky and custard registers 175 to 180 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 8 to 12 minutes.  Do not let custard overcook or simmer.
3. Immediately pour custard through strainer over chocolate. Let mixture stand to melt chocolate, about 5 minutes. Whisk gently until smooth, then whisk in vanilla. Divide mixture evenly among eight 5-ounce ramekins. Gently tap ramekins against counter to remove air bubbles.
4. Cool pots de crème to room temperature, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, at least 4 hours or up to 72 hours. Before serving, let pots de crème stand at room temperature 20 to 30 minutes.
5. WHIPPED CREAM: Using hand mixer or standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat cream, sugar, and vanilla until soft peaks form.
6. Dollop each pot de crème with about 2 tablespoons whipped cream; garnish with chocolate shavings, if using. Serve.

May Hot Chocolate Morning

A DIY hot chocolate bar with 4 fancy recipes and homemade apple fritters made a great atmosphere for some great visiting this month.

French Toast recipe

Those lucky enough to attend Hot Chocolate Morning this month at Mary Ellen's got to taste Apple Toffee French Toast.  Here's the recipe as published in the Costco Connection magazine November 2010.  It was Tree Top's America's Secret Ingredient recipe contest winner, Sweet catagory by Nadine Mesch of Mount Healthy, Ohio.

Ingredients Servings: 8

French Toast: 8 cups French bread, cut into 1 inch cubes 3 tart apples, peeled, chopped 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened ¾ cup  brown sugar ¼ cup sugar ¼ cup Tree Top Apple Juice ¾ cup milk 2 tsp vanilla, divided ½ cup English toffee bits 5 eggs   Apple Syrup: 1 cup sugar 2 TBSP cornstarch ½ tsp cinnamon ½ tsp nutmeg 2 cups* Tree Top Apple Juice 2 TBSP lemon juice 5 TBSP butter * For thicker syrup, try reducing Apple Juice to 1 cup.

Directions

Place half the bread cubes in a greased 13 x 9 inch baking pan; top with apples. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugars, Tree Top apple juice and 1 tsp vanilla until smooth; stir in toffee bits. Spread over apples. Top with remaining bread cubes. In another large bowl, beat the eggs, milk and vanilla until well blended; pour over bread. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 40 to 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. While baking French toast prepare syrup. Apple Syrup: In a medium size saucepan whisk together sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, Tree Top apple juice and lemon juice; heat to a boil; whisk constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Add butter. Serve over warm Apple Toffee French toast to 8 VERY lucky people.

Serving Suggestions

Spoon warm syrup over French toast. For real decadence, dollop a spoonful of whipped cream on top.

Empowerment and Sisterhood Event

Saturday we met together for 3 great workshops:
Navigating Difficult Conversations with Jeni W.
Sharing Medical Decision Making with Sue A.
Superhero Juice and Packing Healthy Picnics with Cathrine B. and Sheryl D.

Below are some of the supporting documents referenced by each leader.

Navigating Difficult Conversations
Click here for a copy of the presentation Jeni gave and here's a funny video that you can test your skill on.

 

Sharing Medical Decision Making

For the online toolkit from the American Bar Association, either click for the printable (.pdf) or straight to the site (.html).

Also click here for the fill-in family book .doc for storing all your important details in case you are incapacitated so your household can continue to function.

Superhero Juice and Packing Healthy Picnics

Superhero Juice recipe

2 carrots 

equal volume celery and cucumbers

1 green apple [all peeled if you're sensitive to pesticides] 

juice of 1 lime

1 lemon

touch of honey 

1 glass of water 

spinach or kale

First blend all but spinach/kale, then blend and add handfuls of spinach/kale until goo turns dark green. Pour over cloth covered bowls, pick up corners of cloth, twist to strain.  Serve over ice.

19 Perfect Picnic Menus (click here for .doc)

1. The Farmer’s Market
• Assorted cheeses
• Assorted cured meats, smoked salmon or trout
• In season fruit or raw veggies
• Bread or crackers

 

2. The All American
• Fried Chicken
• Potato Salad with Bacon
• Watermelon
• Chocolate Chip Cookies

3. Not Your Potluck Pasta Salad
• pesto pasta salad
• shrimp salad
• tomatoes with olive oil
• lemon bars

4. Far East Noodles
• spicy sesame or peanut noodle salad
• snap peas
• mochi

5. Mezze
• Salads: tabouli, cucumber and tomato salad
• Spreads: hummus, baba ganoush, flatbread
• Dolmas
• baklava

6. Asian Inspired
• Grilled flank steak with dipping sauce
• Sesame slaw
• Apricot bars

7. Latin flair
• Empanadas
• chili roasted cauliflower
• alfajores

8. Wrap It Up
• Chicken and avocado wrap
• nectarines with mint
• oatmeal sandwich cookies

9. Summer Rolls
• summer rolls
• tomato and watermelon salad
• coconut cupcakes

10. Picnic Tart
• roasted veggie and goat cheese tart
• marinated baby kale salad
• chocolate covered strawberries

11. Tuscany
• grilled panzanella
• rosemary grilled lamb loin
• lemon cake

12. Grain Salads
• Bulgur salad
• grilled asparagus or roasted green beans
• cashew caramel bars

13. Southwest
• Black bean salad
• Guacamole with pears and pomegranate/chips
• Chili chocolate brownies

14. Dip it
• Chicken tenders with honey mustard dip
• caprese salad skewers
• mixed melon salad
• s’more bars

15. Stromboli and Friends
• Stromboli and reuben bake
• Crudité
• almond cake

16. Vegan with a Vengeance
• Grilled Veggie Sandwich (minus goat cheese for true vegan)
• root veggie chips
• vegan chocolate truffles

17. Superfood
• quinoa, walnut and beet salad
• kale chips
• blueberry hand pies

18. Brunch
• rhubarb almond tart
• hard boiled eggs
• granola and greek yogurt
• bacon wrapped figs or melon

19. Scandinavian
• Smoked salmon smorrebrod
• pickled beets
• dilled cucumber salad
• berries and skyr

other recipes:

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Kale-and-Chicken-Brown-Rice-Salad-with-Cherries

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/dining/02mini.html?_r=0

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/03/southern-style-slaw-with-pecans-and-maple-dij.html

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/01/asian-slaw-with-ginger-peanut-dressing.html

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/08/quinoa-salad-corn-tomatoes-avocado-lime-recipe.html

http://www.chow.com/recipes/11798-potato-salad-with-peas-and-mint

http://www.chow.com/recipes/29466-wild-rice-and-edamame-salad

http://leitesculinaria.com/76698/recipes-sausage-and-chutney-puffs.html

http://leitesculinaria.com/76442/recipes-zucchini-cake-lemon-poppyseed.html

http://leitesculinaria.com/82122/recipes-tomato-basil-tart.html

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Bean-Thread-Noodles-with-Pickled-Vegetables-51170220

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rosemary-Cookies-with-Tomato-Jam-358790

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/World-Peace-Cookie-360733

Sheryl D.'s Veggie Night, Part 1

Our wonderful evening of cooking with vegetables, with Sheryl at the helm, left us all inspired. Here are some of the recipes from that evening. Other cooking and shopping tips and techniques are coming in Part 2!

Sauteed Broccolinni with Cumin and Mustard Seeds

3/4 lb. broccolini
1-2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds

3 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flake (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Heat oil in large sautee pan over medium-high heat, add mustard seeds, shake and sautee until they begin to pop. Add cumin seeds, after about 30 seconds add in the garlic. Stir, then add the broccolini.

2. Toss until well coated with the flavored oil. Then add scant ¼ cup of water or stock to the pan and cover to steam the broccolini. When it is crisp tender, remove the lid and allow extra liquid to boil off. Stir to incorporate spices and serve. Can be served warm or room temperature.

Braising Greens and Beans

2 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed (just watch pressed closely as it will burn faster)
1 TB olive oil
1 bunch chard, or large bag of young braising greens
Pomegranate molasses or wine or verjus

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add chopped garlic and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until it starts to get fragrant and the slightest hint of brown. Do not overcook garlic or it will turn bitter. Sprinkle in some salt.
2. Add in cooking greens, toss with the oil. Cover with a lid (not necessary with very young or tender greens like spinach). Cook until it is the tenderness you like.
3. Add a scant T of pomengranate molasses or a bit of another acid and drained rinsed beans. Salt and pepper to taste.
4. You can add feta, goat or parmesan cheese if you would like, or toasted nuts, raisins or other dried fruit, or red pepper flakes.
5. The grilled polenta I served was a basic make the recipe on the bag and grill it. Here is a recipe from Bobby Flay.


Caramelized Onions

These are perfect on your burgers, sandwich, thrown in pasta, on top of meat, veggies, anything. They are pretty much the perfect food and dead easy to make. (They are also the base of French Onion Soup). I prefer yellow onions to sweet onions as does Cooks Illustrated, but others like the super sweetness of caramelized onions. Make a huge batch, freeze in ice cube trays (they won’t freeze completely because of the high sugar content), and pop it out for your sandwich or pasta. In fact use that tip for your pesto or complex sauces. Here is a link from Simply Recipes, and one from Epicurious to help.


Sorrel Pesto

Sorrel is a delicate lemony herb/green. It can be added raw to salads, used as an herb, or cooked alone or with other cooking greens. It has a spring to early summer season, but can appear here at other times. You can use this technique with all sorts of herb/nut combinations. Cilantro and pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) make a nice pesto for a Latin American themed dinner.

1 bunch sorrel
1 handful basil
¼ cup toasted hazelnuts
1-2 cloves garlic
Extra virgin olive oil (use something that tastes good to you)
Salt to taste

1. Blanch sorrel and basil and shock in ice bath.
2. Place in food processor or blender with hazelnuts, garlic and about 3 TB of olive oil.
3. Pulse and add in more olive oil as

Can I make it by hand? Sure, just chop everything finely and mix together for a relish type pesto.

Kicking up the flavor. The key to learning to cook veggies is to learn to taste. Recipes will only get you so far. The first key to flavor is when in doubt try a bit of salt or acid. Acids include vinegar (e.g. balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar), citrus juices, wines and verjus. Verjus is a non-alcoholic young grape juice which can be used in lieu of wine. We like Navarro verjus, but Fusion is more locally available. Another way to get flavor is caramelization or browning. This is achieved by cooking veggies in a hot pan, grill, etc. or roasting. Deglazing a pan with liquid (e.g. wine, verjus, orange or apple juice) after cooking means to add a small amount of liquid to the hot pan and scrape up the tasty brown bits on the bottom with a spatula. Then you simmer any excess liquid away. Remember to do this when your veggies are almost, but not quite done so you don’t overcook them.