Italian bread

This week the weather was beautiful!  In fact it was completely out of the ordinary beautiful, topping 75 degrees during the height of the afternoon yesterday.  It being March I was surprised and baffled to experience this amazing weather, even my little pot of mint outside on the patio has begun to sprout!  I suppose spring has truly come!  In an effort to enjoy this gorgeous weather I took a long walk by the ocean and then came home and promptly opened windows and doors to clear the stuffy winter air from the house.  Nothing feels better than sitting and reading a book while feeling a gentle spring breeze flowing across your face...

After my relaxing afternoon yesterday I decided to make some bread! It was so sunny and warm outside that I even let my bread rise by using the heat of the sun.. I tend to use fast-rising yeast in my bread products because I don't always have time to proof my dough for hours. This recipe is simple, easy and fast! Taking only about 2-hours to complete. The end product of this delicious recipe is soft, dense and delightful bread delicious with almost anything!  I ate this with a lentil loaf and salad, today I even sliced a piece and spread hummus on it. Yum!

Italian loaf bread

1 packet fast-rising yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 tsp. sugar

1 cup warm water

1 1/2 tbsp. sugar

1/4 cup oil

1 tsp salt

3 cups flour

Mix together the yeast, 1/4 cup water and 1/4 tsp. sugar and allow to rest in a warm spot for 10 minutes.  Combine the rest of the ingredients with the yeast mixture and mix together well with a spatula, until the dough is able to be handled by hand.  Knead the dough for several minutes, add flour as needed, the dough needs to be soft and not sticky.  Roll the dough into a ball, flour the bowl and place the dough back into it.

 

Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise for 1-hour.  I placed my bowl outside on the back patio where the hot sun acted as a great method for dough rising. 

When the dough is done it should be nearly doubled in size.

Dump the dough onto a clean and floured counter top and roll it out into a rectangle.

Roll up the dough so that it looks like a loaf.  I shaped mine like a lucky horseshoe, however it will bake fine if you leave it straight!  

Allow the dough to rise for 20-minutes.  During this time preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.  

As you can see in the pictures above the dough will rise quite a bit during the second proofing.  At this point put the dough in the oven and bake for 20-minutes.

- Night Owl Gal

Broccoli stuffed stromboli

This week I made a delicious,vegetarian meal of broccoli, onions and cheese wrapped up in a hearty pizza crust: a.k.a. a Stromboli.  According to my research a stromboli is Italian bread dough rolled into a square, stuffed with vegetables, meats and cheeses and rolled up into a sort of turnover. A stromboli looks like a calzone, only it is much larger and longer.  Apparently this creation only really came about as a culinary delight a short while ago, as there are disputing theories as to when the stromboli came into actual existence, it is thought that it originated on the east coast of America during the 1950's. 

My first interaction with a stromboli was at my father's house when I was about sixteen-years old.  He made one stuffed with all sorts of yummy cheeses and vegetables.  He served it with red sauce on the side.  In the years since I first had that yummy stromboli at my father's house, I have created my own versions.  This is such a versatile recipe, one could really stuff anything into the pizza dough and have it come out simply delicious!  In any case this is my version, a much quicker one than is traditional because I used my quick pizza dough recipe, which requires no rising time.  The entire meal can be completed in under 45 minutes.

Broccoli stuffed Stromboli

(Serves 4-6)

Quick Pizza Dough

1 package instant or fast rising yeast

1 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 cup very warm water

1 tsp. salt

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Stuffing

3-4 crowns of broccoli, chopped

1 large vidalia onion

1-2 cups of shredded jack cheese

Begin by preheating your oven to 425 degrees F.  Next clean your broccoli, chop it into bite sized pieces and steam until tender.  During this time you also want to be sauteing the onions, which should be chopped up, until tender and slightly translucent.  

While the vegetables are going, begin to make your dough.  In a large bowl combine the fast-acting yeast, sugar, and water.  Let the mixture sit for about 2 minutes. Add the oil, salt, and flour. Mix the dough until it is manageable by hand, then continue by kneading the dough for another couple of minutes.  When the dough feels well kneaded and firm sprinkle some flour on a clean counter top, take a rolling pin and begin to roll out the dough into a rectangular shape:

When the dough is ready move it onto a large pizza pan:

At this time the broccoli and onions should be finished.  Combine the vegetables and mix them well with some salt to taste.  Grate your cheese now as well.  Then sprinkle about half of the cheese on the bottom of the dough before pouring the entire broccoli and onion mixture onto it.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the vegetable mixture.  Now it is time to fold!  Take the left side of excess dough and pull it over and on top of the fillings:

Now take the right side:

The top half:

 

Bottom half:

Take a sharp knife and slice a few slits into the top of the stromboli:

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the crust is a beautiful golden brown and when the dough is pierced it is evident that it is cooked through.

Serve it up with a side of red sauce for dipping and enjoy!

- Night Owl Gal

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

This week I have been making a lot of pancakes.  My husband loves pancakes as much as I do, so when he requests them as a breakfast treat I am more than happy to oblige.  I love to experiment with different kinds of pancakes as well and this week I have really hit the mother load for tasty new pancake concoctions!  This experimenting with pancakes has resulted in us eating pancakes for breakfast four times this week!  But oh it was worth it! 

I try to make my pancakes a bit healthier by substituting some ingredients out for others, such as replacing butter with olive oil. I try to see pancakes as a treat, but I also like them to be somewhat good for me all the same.  Since we don't often eat pancakes, this week was really a rarity, we always buy 100% pure maple syrup to top them with.  There really is no comparison for high fructose corn syrup and real, pure maple syrup.  Maple syrup, of course, is the superior taste and once you have eaten truly delicious home made pancakes topped with real maple syrup, well I promise you won't want to go back to boxed, just add water pancakes topped with high fructose corn syrup.

The secret to my most recent recipe this week?  A fresh apple and cinnamon!

The fresh apple gives a gentle apple flavor, not overpowering in the slightest, which compliments the sweetness of the syrup. These pancakes were fluffy, nearly melt in your mouth good.  

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

(makes approx. 5-4" pancakes)

1 egg

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 cup vanilla almond milk

2 tbsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 apple

dash of cinnamon

Preheat a cast iron pan for the pancakes on medium-low heat.  Beat an egg into a large mixing bowl, with a whisk mix the olive oil, sugar, milk, baking powder and flour into the egg. Take the apple and grate it (skin and all) with a cheese grater. Be careful of the pit of the apple, you don't want to get the seeds in there!

Next toss the grated apple and some cinnamon into the pancake mixture:

Mix the mixture well with a spatula:

Now butter your heated pan and scoop the pancake mixture onto the griddle.  Cook until the edges begin to turn solid and small air bubbles start to pop up on the pancake.  Flip the pancakes and cook another minute, check if it is done by poking the bottom of the pancake with the spatula. 

Keep the pancakes warm in the oven until the rest of the batter is used up.  When they are all cooked, plate up, top them with butter and 100% real maple syrup and enjoy!

- Night Owl Gal

Hot Fudge Sundae Cake

This past week was my was my husband's last week of vacation.  As a goodbye to vacation and a little reminder of how much I love him, I decided to make something delicious and comfort-foodie for my husband. I love to bake special treats for my husband, he is truly amazing and so supportive of me and he absolutely deserves to be spoiled with delicious foods! So I decided to make something chocolatey, gooey, scrumptious and soul-warming! What could be better than a veganized version of Betty Crocker's hot fudge sundae cake?     

This cake is one I can recall my mother making for us when I was little, from a Betty Crocker recipe.  I can still remember that old Betty Crocker cookbook; a thick, ring-bound book with food and age stained pages. Some of the pages were stuck together from old batter. So many people had perused through that old cook book the pages were breaking from their metal rings and falling out. I remember one day that old cook book fell on the floor and all of those hundreds of recipes came spilling out everywhere!  It took us days to get them all back in order.

In any case, this is a delicious recipe for a cake that is reminiscent of bread pudding and chocolate cake. This recipe is super easy due to the fact that there are no mixing bowls or spatulas required! Everything is combined into the pan it will be baked in and mixed with a fork.  A no fuss, no mess easy-peesy recipe!

  Vegan Hot Fudge Sundae Cake

1 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp. cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup almond milk

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup brown sugar

1.4 cup cocoa powder

1 3/4 cups hot water

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Pull out an 8 x 8 x 2 baking dish.

2. Mix in the flour, sugar, 2 tbsp. cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

 

3. Mix the dry ingredients together until well blended.

4. Next add your almond milk, olive oil, and vanilla extract.

5. Mix in the wet ingredients with a fork.  Try to level out the dough as much as possible when done mixing together the ingredients. The mixture will be lumpy, as seen below:

6. Now sprinkle the wet mixture with the remaining 1/4 cup of cocoa and 1 cup of brown sugar.

7. Pour the hot water directly on top of the mixture, don't mix it together!

8. You want the mixture to look like this before going into the oven: You can poke the fork into big pockets of dried cocoa if there are any, but be careful to not mix the mixture all together.  The liquid part will become the gooey chocolate sauce. 

9. Bake the mixture for 40 minutes.  You want the cake to be cooked and fluffy and there to be a substantial amount of chocolate goo around the cake.  Yummy!

When my mother used to make this cake we would eat it with milk on top, that is how I still prefer to eat it today.  I drizzle a bit of soy or vanilla almond milk on mine, which creates a chocolatey milk around the cake.  Mmmm.  Sometimes I even get really sweet and go for coconut milk ice cream on top.  What ever sweet delite you decide to top yours with I promise it will be delicious!

- Night Owl Gal