Minimalist Bread with a Crispy Crust

 This week, I made bread. I made no-knead bread, and it was great. It wasn’t just great “for no-knead bread,” or great “for homemade bread.” It was just great.

My mom makes delicious bread from the La Brea Bakery cookbook (our favorite is rosemary olive oil), so I am a bit of a bread snob. I refuse to eat pre-sliced bread of any kind. However, despite my high bread standards, I had never made bread before. But when I found this recipe, which is originally from Mark Bittman’s column The Minimalist for the New York Times, I just had to try it.

I frickin' love bread

If you aren’t familiar with Mark Bittman, familiarize yourself.  We have two of his books at our house: How To Cook Everything (which I recently recommended to a friend who, in the fall, is going to be cooking her own meals for the first time in her life) and The Best Recipes in the World.  If I need a good, simple recipe on the fly, Mark is always the guy I turn to.  As much as I love avant-garde chefs, I always trust Mark Bittman to give me straightforward, delicious recipes.

So when he says that this bread “is incredible, a fine-bakery quality, European-style boule that is produced more easily than by any other technique I’ve used, and will blow your mind,” I pretty much have to trust him.

I really recommend reading the original New York Times article, because it explains very articulately why the bread is so special. I will simply tell you that the dough is so wet that it would be impossible to knead, so you have to have patience and let time do all the work for you. It takes some planning, but trust me: it's worth the wait.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran (optional)
 
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

And, 24 hours later, there you have it!  I was very pleased with the results, and best of all, it goes with everything: butter, olive oil, jam, honey, or meatballs and marinara sauce.

I also love meatballs.  Anyhow, enjoy the bread!

Guacamummus (Hummus + Avocado)

Before we get to today's killer recipe, let me tell you something.

I grew up in Los Angeles, but now spend most of my time at school in Portland.  I prefer Portland to Los Angeles in every way.  Every way, that is, except one.

You can't get good avocados in Portland.

You can get avocados, sometimes, but they are neither as delicious nor as abundant as they are in Los Angeles.  So when I get back home in the summers, I practically gorge myself on avocados non-stop.

Yesterday I decided I would finally make this recipe from Gimme Some Oven, which I discovered months ago but haven't had the means for until now.  It's simple, delicious, and requires only a food processor to make it!  So here goes, with my personal tweaks added:

1 avocado, peeled and pitted
1 (15 oz.) can of chickpeas, drained
1/2 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 c. chopped red onion (n.b.: you may need more or less depending on the strength of the onion)
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 tbsp. tahini (optional)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
Salt, to taste

Thoroughly combine ingredients in a food processor.

Easy-peasy!  And it really does taste like guacamole, with the texture (and protein) of hummus!  I wish I could tell you how long the guacamummus keeps in the fridge, but we ate this batch in the first day.  I guess someone will have to report back.

Happy hummus!

Dangerously Delicious Garlic Knots

Holy crap, y'all, I do love garlic.

I love garlic so much it is almost unbelievable that I have any friends at all.  I guess it's because I feed them things like this.

These garlic knots are pretty easy to make, and VERY tasty.  I recommend doubling the recipe, because the knots are tiny and you will not be able to stop yourself from eating them.

See?  Real little.

The recipe comes from Food Mayhem.
3/4 c. +1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. instant yeast
1/2 tsp. table salt
1/3 c. water at room temperature (70 to 90 degrees)
5 1/2 tsp. olive oil, divided
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 packed tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Whisk together flour, sugar, and yeast in a small bowl. Whisk in salt last (preventing direct contact with yeast). Make a well in the center and pour in water. Stir together to moisten the flour, just until dough begins to form, about 20 seconds. The dough will look shaggy and bumpy, not smooth.

Pour 4 teaspoons oil in a 2-cup sized bowl or cup (bigger if you are increasing recipe size). Place dough in and turn to coat. Cover tightly and rest on the counter until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Place a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F at least 30 minutes before baking. Meanwhile, stir together 1/2 teaspoon olive oil, garlic, and kosher salt in a large bowl (you’ll see why later). Set aside.

When the dough is ready, place it on a board and gently press into a 10″ x 6″ rectangle. There will be left-over oil in the cup/bowl that the dough was rising in. Spread that oil over a baking sheet.

Spread half of the garlic mixture across the rectangle dough. Cut into 3/4″ strips (6″ long).

Tie any type of knot and lay on baking sheet with about 2″ space in between. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden. Meanwhile, add the remaining teaspoon of olive oil and parsley to the garlic mixture. Stir.

When garlic knots are done baking, toss in the garlic and parsley mixture and serve immediately.

This recipe makes 12 little garlic knots.  That's two for my mom, two for my dad, and eight for me!

And all too soon, they were gone :(

Enjoy!

Cheddar-Bacon-Garlic-Chive Muffins

Although this is a cooking blog, I would like to give an anecdote from my weekend.  I was flying home from Rochester, and my flight was delayed by two hours.  The ever-helpful (not) Delta employees assured me that, if everything went smoothly (which it clearly had been so far) I would have 20 minutes in Detroit to catch my flight to LA.

Try four minutes.  Try running through the Detroit airport, across 12 moving walkways and up and down 6 escalators.  While I have a terrible cold.  While keeping an eye on a small asthmatic girl that I have decided to take care of because her mom (in heels) can't keep up.  And then I slip in a puddle of soapy water that no one bothered to put signs around.  Gaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

Anyhow, I fortunately made my flight, but have spent the day getting over my illness and butt-bruises from the fall.  And, as always when I am sick, I decided I wanted to cook something.  So I decided to try and make some cheesy muffins.

I had tried a recipe from The Pioneer Woman, and I thought it was just O.K.  I didn't like the addition of sugar.  So I made some modifications, and I am extremely happy with the outcome.

I do still have a problem with this recipe.  The problem is that it makes twelve muffins.  Twelve is not enough!!  But nevertheless, here you are.

Ingredients:
1/2 stick butter
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt (and pepper, to taste)
3 c. shredded cheese (cheddar or jack works well, but feel free to get creative!)
1 c. milk
1 egg
4 slices bacon, crumbled
2 tsp. chives

In a small pan, melt the butter and stir in the garlic.  Fry your bacon and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and pepper.  Stir in cheese.

In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, egg and butter mixture.  Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir with a wooden spoon.  Stir in chives and crumbled bacon.

Butter or grease a muffin tin and divide the batter among cups.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.