I love making bread by hand, but Beth and I go through a couple loaves a week, and these days I simply don’t have the time to do all that kneading and rising.
Fortunately, we have a bread maker, which is what this recipe calls for. If you do NOT have one, I’m afraid I cannot tell you how this recipe finishes by hand, and have no advice. If I’m inspired, that blog will be in my future.
For the last nine or so months I’ve been working (with Beth’s guidance) on making a bread recipe that she and I both love, and that’s good for ANYTHING: dipping in hummus, for covering in mayo tomato and onion, for toast, for PB&J. This is about the 7th version of the recipe, and I am very pleased with it (and have been for the last dozen loaves).
There’s a few add ins: oat bran, poppy seeds, and sunflower seeds. These (especially the seeds) can be altered if you have other seeds on hand or that you prefer. Also, other flours can be used, but I really like this blend.
The base of it is white whole wheat, which is different from organic white. Whole wheat is less processed and is healthier (and I find I don’t crash as hard from it). And “white whole wheat” IS whole wheat, it’s just kinda albino.
Now….. the recipe.
In one container (I use a 2 cup glass measuring cup), mix the wet:
1 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp water
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp molasses
in a separate bowl, mix the dry:
2 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 + 1/3 cups regular whole wheat flour
1/3 cup spelt flour
1/3 cup kamut flour
2 tbsp dry milk powder
3 tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
Mix the liquid well, and pour it into the bread machine.
Mix the dry ingredients well and pour them on top, but don’t mix them into the wet.
On top of the dry put (trying not to get them wet)
4 tbsp gluten
4 tsp yeast
Set the machine to the “basic” setting, with “light” crust.
And with the miracles of science and industry, in 3 hours or so, you have awesome bread. Now you just need a jar of nutella.
As many of you know, as well as contributing to cookrookery, I am also a cartoonist. This recipe I add partially due to the crossover between the two.
The recipe for Russian tea cookies is simple, only 5 ingredients. So simple in fact, it has been “invented” by many, and so common it has many names: butterballs, snowball cookies, snowdrops, pecan puffs, nutballs, cocoons, bullets, kourabiedes, sand tarts, moldy mice, Armenian sugar cookies, Italian butter nuts, and for the marriage inclined: Mexican wedding cookies, Spanish wedding cookies, Viennese wedding cookies, and Greek wedding cookies.
For me, I wanted something simple for my story.
A man, from Russia, finds himself on a foreign planet and wants to share his skill. He chooses the tea cookie, as a very simple thing. It shows his willful ignorance in thinking it special because it was handed down from his grandmother, but is in fact so simple that you can find a dozen recipes online which vary almost none whatsoever.
At the same time, another planet, they would not have butter churned from cow’s milk, sugar cane, vanilla bean, wheat, walnuts. Such simple flavors we take for granted, they must seem so unique and glorious to a intergalactic tongue untouched by Earth’s wares.
And so I made them too. To enjoy the powdery delicious flavor. You can too, it’s this simple…
As many of you know, as well as contributing to cookrookery, I’m also a cartoonist. I choose to blog about Russian tea cookies because of the crossover between the two.
The recipe for Russian tea cookies is simple, only 5 ingredients. So simple and common, in fact, it has many names: butterballs, snowball cookies, snowdrops, pecan puffs, nutballs, cocoons, bullets, kourabiedes, sand tarts, moldy mice, Armenian sugar cookies, Italian butter nuts, and for the marriagely inclined: Mexican wedding cookies, Spanish wedding cookies, Viennese wedding cookies, and Greek wedding cookies.
Which is exactly why I chose them. I wanted something simple for my story.
A Russian character in my comic, Dimitri, finds himself on a foreign planet and wants to share his baking skills. He chooses the tea cookie because it is his secret family recipe, handed down by his grandmother (so secret in fact, ahem, that you can find a dozen recipes online which vary almost none whatsoever).
But I love the idea that on another planet they would not have butter churned from cow’s milk, no sugar cane, no vanilla bean, no wheat, no walnuts (well, assuming you believe in evolution). Such simple flavors we take for granted, to an intergalactic tongue untouched by Earth’s wares these simple ingredients would seem so unique and glorious.
And so, back on earth, I made them too, to enjoy the powdery delicious flavor. You can make them too, it’s really simple. I mean, REALLY simple. You could easily train your pet monkey to make you these all the time, but he’d probably eat them all.
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1- 1/4 cups sifted flour
1/4 cup nuts, finely chopped
DIRECTIONS:
Soften butter, I did it in a bowl in the toaster oven. A warm afternoon on the counter would do it too.
Mix together butter, sugar, and vanilla. Mix in flour and nuts.
Form into small 1″ balls, and place on un-greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 F 12 minutes.
While still warm roll in powdered sugar (this first roll might seem a bit damp and gooey, which helps the second roll to stick on)
After cool, roll again in powdered sugar.
These are 3-4 bite cookies. Makes about 12 cookies. Makes more if you make them smaller or double the recipe.
Last night I had the brilliant idea of making brown rice in a thermos.
I put boiling water from the kettle in the thermos to warm it, and then dumped that out. I then added rice and more boiling water (in a standard 1:2 ratio).
In the morning I found the result was luke-warm water with fairly hard inedible rice in it.
I’m intimidated by the idea of putting up (canning) jam. I’ve done it, mind you, but it is very time consuming, expensive, and I do not own a canning pot, jars, jar tongs, etc. So, I will leave it to you, fair reader, to can the jam, I’m gonna do something easier like scale Everest.
But in the past couple years of cooking, I keep coming back to this idea: modest quantities. Well, what if I made one jar of jam? If I made jam as I needed it, it wouldn’t need to be sterilized. And in the winter… well, I’ll just stick to eating salty things. I like this plan.
First I needed to research and clarify what exactly it is that I put on toast. Ahem:
JAM: fruit and sugar. It has fruit bits. Pectin or gelatin are optional.
JELLY: fruit juice, sugar, and pectin or gelatin
PRESERVES: jams or jellies with large pieces of the fruit.
MARMALADE: jelly. Sometimes with bits of rind.
COMPOTE: fruit cooked in syrup.
That figured out, I got creative(ly foolish), and tried rhubarb, sugar, water, and WAY too much pectin. I cooked it, and then threw it in the blender. It lost much of its tartness and the texture was the consistency of something between jello, rubber, and vaseline. A bit revolting, frankly.
So, I tossed that and tried again. Here’s what i did.
INGREDIENTS:
2 stalks of rhubarb
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
Cut rhubarb into small pieces. Put all ingredients in a pot. Bring it to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Pour it into a jar. Put jar in the fridge.
That’s it. Now you you have a freakin’ awesome jam. Wait, you’re skeptical that it’s that easy? Too bad for you and your skepticism. It is.
I was recovering from the flu. In the midst of moving. While drawing a freelance job about kids getting the flu. It had been a long week in bed.
But Naomi (Mimi) and her son had received the flu shot and had invited us over for Thanksgiving, and I looked forward to see them (AND to getting out of the house).
I was told I need not make anything, and indeed I didn’t make pie or fudge (which I had planned to do). But the main dish for all was to be Salmon, and I wanted something I could eat, and so I made a lasagna. Now, I grew up vegetarian, never ate meat in my life (except for a short period a year ago), and lasagna was always my family’s Thanksgiving main course. Since it is also a bit expensive (lotsa’ cheese and such), my family rarely had it otherwise and so it was a double special treat.
And so I decided on that. I pulled out my mom’s recipe (which I printed years ago in the back of Bruno Book#3/4). It’s a simple recipe, without even any garlic or onion, but it tastes great as-is OR simply as a base to throw in extra spices and vegetables. It goes like this.
INGREDIENTS:
28 oz can of diced tomatoes
15 oz can of tomato sauce
3 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp basil
1 package vegetarian ground burger
24 ounces of cottage cheese
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp oregano
3/4 lb shredded mozzarella
1 box lasagna noodles (about 12 noodles)
PREP:
Mix diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, 2 tbsp parsley, honey, basil, and veggie ground burger in a pot and simmer.
Mix cottage cheese, 1/2 cup parm, 1 tbsp parsley, and oregano in bowl and set aside in fridge.
Put mozzarella in bowl, set aside in fridge.
Keep 1/2 parm cheese ready in fridge.
Once the sauce is thickening a bit, cook the noodles (according to package). Once cooked, I like to keep the noodles in a bowl of cool water so i can handle them.
ASSEMBLY:
in a pan which fits three noodles side-by-side put:
3 noodles
1/4 of the sauce
1/3 of the mozzarella
1/3 of the cottage cheese mix
repeat until the last (4th) layer, just put the last of the sauce on top and then coat it with the parmesan cheese you had set aside.
Cook at 350 for 45 minutes. (You can also make this days before, so, if you refrigerate the lasagna before baking, add 10-15 minutes to bake-time). Let it cool at least 15 minutes after baking to set.
I love making bread by hand, but Beth and I go through a couple loaves a week, and these days I simply don’t have the time to do all that kneading and rising.
As many of you know, as well as contributing to cookrookery, I’m also a cartoonist. I choose to blog about Russian tea cookies because of the crossover between the two.
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