Soft Rye Pretzels

As my streak of baking experimentation with different types of flours continues, these Soft Rye Pretzels have been my most recent project.  I came across this recipe as I was flipping through Kim Boyce's book Good to the Grain; an excellent source if you too are interested in broadening your horizons from baking with only All-Purpose Flour.  As trusty and useful as our beloved AP flour is, it is amazing to see the transformation of flavor and texture your baked goods can go through once you introduce a variance of flours into their recipes.  Once you start, you'll be hooked, trust me!

There is no need for a stand-up mixer to make and knead this dough - only a wooden spoon and your own two hands.  This is true with any bread really, but this is a great recipe to start with as you practice your hand kneading skills.  A shaggy dough will become soft and elastic as you roll and push it across your kitchen counter - and you will feel the entire transformation under your fingertips.

Then, after it rests and rises, you will start your own mini pretzel making shop as you roll pieces of dough into snakes and twist them into the classic pretzel shape.  A quick boil in a pot of water mixed with baking soda before they hit the oven gives them that classic mahogany pretzel color and flavor.  With a liberal sprinkle of coarse salt on their crust, these pretzels are incredible solo, or dipped in mustard or honey.  Fresh out of the oven, they define the word irresistible.

No matter how you have them, they will be gone quickly, and then all you will want is fresh pretzels at your beckon call for the rest of your life.  Now you can at least know how to make that happen when you find yourself in need.  

Soft Rye Pretzels

These pretzels are best eaten the day they are made, but still delicious resurrected by a toaster oven the day after.  I used kosher salt for the topping since that is all I had - it works perfectly fine, but more traditional and more coarse salt (as suggested below) is worth seeking out as well.  

Ingredients

Dough

1 package (2 1/4t) yeast

1 tablespoon honey

1 cup rye flour

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon kosher salt

Bath

1/2 cup baking soda

To Finish

Maldon, or other coarse salt for sprinkling

Method

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1 1/2 cups of warm water, add honey, then stir in the flours and salt.

2. Dump the dough onto a floured surface and knead.  Add up to a 1/2 cup of all purpose flour, as needed, until the dough is tacky (not sticky), soft, and supple.  About 10-12 minutes.

3. Brush a clean bowl with melted butter, oil, or spray with nonstick cooking spray.  Place the dough in the bowl and cover with a towel or plastic wrap until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

4. While the dough is rising, heat your oven to 450 degrees and oil or butter 2 baking sheets.

5. Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured board and divide it into 12 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a thin snake with tapered edges about 17 inches long. 

6. To shape the pretzels, fold one third of the left side of the snake over the center.  Then fold the one third of the right side over the left, twisting once where they intersect and laying their ends over the bottom of the pretzel forming its classic shape.  

7. Place the shaped pretzels on the oiled baking sheets, cover with a towel or loose plastic wrap, and let  rise for 15-20 min.

8. Meanwhile, fill your biggest, widest pot with water. Once the pretzels are proofed and the water is boiling, add the baking soda. Be careful, the water will bubble rapidly when you add the soda.

9. To poach the pretzels, gently place them in the boiling water and cook for 30 seconds on each side. Pat off any excess water and transfer back to the baking sheets. Sprinkle liberally with coarse salt.

10. Bake for 15-18 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through baking. The pretzels should be very dark in color.

11. Transfer to a rack to cool and eat warm with desired sides/condiments.  

See below for a particularly delicious trifecta:

Oatmeal Molasses Quick Bread

I cant tell you how thrilled I am to post about this recipe.  I came across this type of bread while perusing the World Wide Web of Food-Information Overload, and upon reading this recipe, my skepticism of its simplicity made me get up from my seat and make it in my kitchen right then.  Really, it's true.  I had to see if it would actually work, and taste good.  And oh, did it so.

The result was a bread that took me probably 7 minutes to put together, with all ingredients that I had in my cabinet and fridge, and in measurements that are so easy to remember that I don't have to use a recipe anymore when I make this.  It has whole grain flours - whole wheat and rye - and is speckled with whole rolled oats, which makes it a powerhouse for the heart and soul.  The only sweeteners are honey and molasses, and buttermilk, my favorite, moistens the bread and balances the flavors wonderfully.  Hearty but not dense, sweet but not sugary.  Perfect for toast, heavenly with butter or cream cheese.

I want to be honest with you here... I almost kept this bread a deep dark secret of mine to keep in my culinary back pocket.  But alas, here I am... for you.  Make it, enjoy it, share it.  ...for me.

Oatmeal Molasses Quick Bread

Apparently I really like bread, particularly when it involves oats and molasses.  You can find a similar Quick Bread type of recipe here that uses oats, or a slightly more complex yeasted bread here that also uses oats and molasses (It's one of my all time favorites.  I consider this recipe below it's little brother since they have similar flavors; but I make this quick bread when I'm too impatient to wait for rising dough).  

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (see Tip below)
1/4 cup honey, can substitute sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 tablespoon vegetable oil




Method


Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x5" bread loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray or coat with butter or oil.  

Mix together flours, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In a separate bowl, mix milk, honey, oil and molasses. 


Stir wet and dry ingredients together just enough to moisten dry ingredients. Don't overmix or bread will be tough.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake, about 45-60 minutes, or until no wet crumbs stick to a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf.

Let cool for a few minutes, then remove from pan. Slice when cool.  (I try every time, but I don't know if ill ever make it that long...)



TIP: No buttermilk in the fridge? Add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice for each cup of milk, let sit a few minutes until milk begins to coagulate.  Yes, that's what buttermilk is...soured milk! mmm

Oat Soda Bread

There are some days when I wake up and I think; "today, I want bread".  But this doesn't mean I will walk down the stairs and take a slice of bread out of bag from a store bought loaf...no, no.  These are the days I want bread that I will know from start to finish; that I will make with my own hands.  It's bread that will fill my house with the tantalizing smell of freshly baked goodness, and on which I will promptly smear a slice with butter, only to have the butter melt away from the warm freshness of the dough.  Oh yes, this is the bread I crave when I want bread.  And sometimes, I cant have it fast enough.

This is why I keep recipes like this Oat Soda Bread around.  It is not as time consuming as yeast breads, and the ingredient list is impossibly simple.  It is hearty, nutty and sweet from the oats and seeds, and serves equally well as a breakfast of toast with jam in the morning, or buttered with a bowl of soup later in the day.  But regardless, when you are having those types of Bread Craving days, this can be your quick go-to without any loss of satisfaction.

Oat Soda Bread Recipe

If you don't have oat flour - which I usually don't, but almost always have old-fashioned rolled oats - you can make your own flour by blending oats in a food processor or blender until it forms a fine powder. 

Ingredients

butter, to grease pan
2 cups / 7 oz rolled oats

10 ounces / 285 g / ~2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting and kneading

1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons fine-grain sea salt

1 3/4 cups / 415 ml buttermilk, plus more if needed, and 2T. for brushing

mixed seeds - sesame, caraway, poppy, etc.

Method

Preheat the oven to 400°F / 205°C with a rack in the middle of the oven. Butter and line a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan (or one with ~8 cup capacity) with parchment paper and set aside. Alternately, you can bake this bread without a pan on a lightly floured baking sheet.

To make the oat flour, use a food processor to pulse the rolled oats a few times. Then process into a fine powder - another minute or two. If you are buying oat flour, not making your own, measure out 7 oz / scant 2 cups.

Sift the flours, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the flour and pour in the buttermilk. Stir just until everything comes together into a dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured countertop and knead for 30 seconds or so, just long enough for the dough to come together into a cohesive, slightly flattened ball without many cracks or fissures. If your dough is on the dry side, add more buttermilk a small splash at a time. Now ease the dough evenly into the prepared baking pan - see photo if you need a bit of guidance.

Brush all over the top and sides with buttermilk and sprinkle generously with mixed seeds or flour, 2 tablespoons or so. Slice a few deep slashes across the top of the dough. Bake for about 30 minutes, then quickly (without letting all the hot air out of the oven), move the rack and the bread up a level, so the top of the bread gets nice and toasted. Bake for another 20 minutes, or until a hard crust forms and the bread is baked through. It will feel very solid and sound hollow when you knock on it. Carefully lift it out of the pan, in a timely fashion, and allow to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy with a good slathering of salted butter.

Makes one loaf.

Prep time: 10 min - Cook time: 50 min

adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Apple-Banana Bran Muffins

I wish I could tell you that this recipe came from some free-willed creative vision I had.  That it came to me while standing on top of a snow-capped mountain looking over a breathtaking vista, or while meditating in a peaceful buddhist sanctuary, and suddenly a vision of Apple-Banana Bran Muffins manifested in my third eye and my destiny was found to create them.

No, not so much.  But that sure sounds nice.

In actuality, this recipe came up because of two very common predicaments that home cooks encounter all the time.
The first is this: you bought an ingredient for a certain recipe and have more leftover after you're done that you'll need to use up; What the heck to do with it besides the make the same recipe again?
The second:  There's something in your fridge or on your countertop that has Father Time working against it, and you've gotta use it up.  Or else into the garbage it goes, unused and unloved.  So sad.  Too sad.  So something has to be done.

So this recipe, you could say, came from necessity.  And don't they say that Necessity is the Mother of Invention? (you know, they)  And if I do say, it is very true in this case.  The two culprits in this case were the end of a quart of buttermilk and some very brown bananas.  And we're talking brown bananas, people.  Every day I would come home from work and I would see the bananas hanging sadly from the banana hook in our kitchen.  I would reluctantly glance at them out of the corner of my eye, blocking out their pleas that sounded something like: "Eat me! Use me! Do SOMETHING!  I can barely hold on anymore!"  It got ugly.  So, like I said with what happens in these situations, something had to be done.

And hence the birth of this recipe.  It makes one fantastic batch of muffins, and one of the reasons I enjoy it so much is that is actually makes a hearty, tasty muffin, not a cupcake disguised as a muffin, as so many muffins are these days.  There are not pounds of sugar in it, nor cups of oil - only 3 tablespoons! - so a majority of the sweetness and the moist crumb come from the ripe bananas, with a fun addition of the sweet studs of apples amidst the batter.  The buttermilk adds great flavor and tenderness, and with nutrition-rich additions of whole wheat flour, wheat or oat bran (use either!), and walnuts if you dig 'em, you can eat these muffins and feel super powered.  Breakfast on the go?  No problem.  Do it and rock it.  In fact, make a bunch and throw em in your freezer.  Then they'll be ready for you whenever you need them.

How's that for turning a sour situation into a sweet success?  



Apple-Banana Bran Muffins
Use any level of overripe banana here, from brown speckled to deep, dark doom.  The latter may look ugly, perhaps even dangerous, but these intensely overripe bananas are disguised pieces of gold, with even more flavor from their developed sugars than a just slightly overripe banana.  Waste not want not! 


Also, I found myself without wheat bran in the middle of making this batter - oops - so I improvised and blended some old-fashioned oats into a fine powder and it worked perfectly.  So wheat bran, oat bran, or a Macgyver-ed, on-the-fly oat bran of blended oats will do just fine.  


Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas, (2-3 naners)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup unprocessed wheat bran or oat bran 
• 3 tablespoons canola oil or melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup small diced apple
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts, (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.

Whisk eggs and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in bananas, buttermilk, wheat (or oat) bran, oil and vanilla.

Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Stir in apples. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups (they’ll be quite full). Sprinkle with walnuts, if using.

Bake the muffins until the tops are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly, 15 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen edges and turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

Adapted from EatingWell Magazine

Gimme mah Pancakes!

One day, a few weeks ago, I was blindsided by a craving.  You know, one of those cravings you don't even see coming, and then BAM, suddenly you cannot be satisfied until you find something like bread and butter pickles or honey mustard pretzels.  No, you don't have to be a pregnant woman to want a certain food, and to want it made right...and right now.

For me, it was pancakes.  There was something in me that needed that fluffy texture, a buttery edge, and a healthy dousing of that good 'ol Vermont Maple Syrup in my life.  When the feeling never subsided, I knew nothing else would do.

After much wait and anticipation, last weekend I was finally able to make this Pancake Daydream a reality.  While perusing new recipes for inspiration, I found this recipe on one of my favorite go-to Inspriation Food Blogs; Smitten Kitchen.  Recently, the author had made these pancakes and I knew I had to have them.  Then, the Whole Wheat Raspberry Ricotta Scones recipe caught my eye, and, surprise surprise, I had to have and make those too (and added lemon zest to boot).  The recipe is so simple it's silly, and only requires one bowl, one fork, and one sheet pan.

It was a breakfast of champions, a feast for the eyes, and a craving satisfier like you wouldn't believe.  Go take advantage of Blueberry/berry season and make these for yourself and the people you care about!  And add the freshly whipped cream and breakfast sausage to the spread....you wont regret it.

Blueberry Yogurt Multigrain Pancakes

Makes 12 to 14 4-inch pancakes

2 large eggs
1 cup plain, full-fat yogurt
2 to 4 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons butter, plus extra for buttering skillet
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (62 grams) whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (68 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (32 grams) barley or rye flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup blueberries, rinsed and dried


Melt half of butter. Remove from heat and stir in second tablespoon of butter until melted. This keeps your butter from being too hot when you next want to add it to the wet ingredients.

Whisk egg and yogurt together in the bottom of a medium/large bowl. If you’re using a thin yogurt, no need to add any milk. If you’re using regular yogurt, stir in 2 tablespoons milk. If you’re using a thick/strained or Greek-style yogurt, add 3 to 4 tablespoons milk. Whisk in melted butter, zest and vanilla extract. In a separate, small bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir dry ingredients into wet only until dry ingredients are moistened. A few remaining lumps is fine.

Preheat your oven to 200°F and have a baking sheet ready (to keep pancakes warm). Heat your skillet or saute pan to medium. If you’ve got a cast-iron skillet, this is my favorite for pancakes. Melt a pat of butter in the bottom and ladle a scant 1/4 cup (about 3 tablespoons) batter at a time, leaving at space between each pancake. Press a few berries into the top of each pancake. The batter is on the thick side, so you will want to use your spoon or spatula to gently nudge it flat, or you may find that pressing down on the berries does enough to spread the batter. When the pancakes are dry around the edges and you can see bubbles forming on the top, about 3 to 4 minutes, flip them and cook for another 3 minutes, until golden underneath. (If you listen closely, after a minute you’ll hear you blueberries pop and sizzle deliciously against the pan.) If pancakes begin cooking too quickly, lower the heat. Transfer pancakes to warm oven as they are done cooking, where you can leave them there until you’re ready to serve them.


Serve in a big stack, with fixings of your choice. Do not anticipate leftovers.





Whole Wheat Raspberry Ricotta Scones

The trickiest thing about these is the dampness of the dough. Yet that same trickiness is they bake into something that seems impossibly moist for a scone, and especially a whole wheat one. Keep your counter and your hands well floured and you won’t have any trouble getting them from bowl to counter to oven to belly, which, after all, is the whole point.

1 cup (120 grams) whole wheat flour
1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder, preferably aluminum-free
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
6 tablespoons (85 grams) cold unsalted butter
1 cup (136 grams or 4 3/4 ounces) fresh raspberries
3/4 cup (189 grams) whole milk ricotta
1/3 cup (79 ml) heavy cream

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In the bottom of a large, wide-ish bowl, whisk flours, baking powder, sugar and salt together.

With a pastry blender: Add the butter (no need to chop it first) and use the blender to both cut the butter into the flour mixture until the biggest pieces are the size of small peas. Toss in raspberries and use the blender again to break them into halves and quarter berry sized chunks.

Without a pastry blender: Cut the butter into small pieces with a knife and work the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Roughly chop the raspberries on a cutting board and stir them into the butter-flour mixture.

Both methods: Add the ricotta and heavy cream together and stir them in to form a dough with a flexible spatula.Using your hands, gently knead dough into an even mass, right in the bottom of the bowl. Don’t fret if the raspberries get muddled and smudge up the dough. This is a pretty thing.

With as few movements as possible, transfer the dough to a well-floured counter, flour the top of the dough and pat it into a 7-inch square about 1-inch tall. With a large knife, divide the dough into 9 even squares. Transfer the scones to prepared baking sheet with a spatula. Bake the scones for about 15 minutes, until lightly golden at the edges. Cool in pan for a minute, then transfer to a cooling rack. It’s best to cool them about halfway before eating them, so they can set a bit more. I know, way to be a big meanie, right?

Do ahead: Scones are always best the day they are baked. However, if you wish to get a lead on them, you can make them, arrange them on your parchment-lined sheet and freeze them. If you’re prepping just one day in advance, cover the tray with plastic wrap and bake them the day you need them. If you’re preparing them more than one day in advance, once they are frozen, transfer them to a freezer bag or container. Bring them back to a parchment-lined sheet when you’re ready to bake them. No need to defrost the froze, unbaked scones, just add 2 to 3 minutes to your baking time.

Bread & Cookies

Sometimes I go through food streaks.  They come over me every once in a while, and there's no stopping once they've started.  I zone in on one type of food or dish, and I cant stop making it in every form it comes in.  Recently I've been on a baking streak, and I fear the end is not in sight.

On baking streaks I read every book on baking I have, fascinated by all of the complex processes that occur when heat meets batter.  I think that every recipe I pass over MUST be tried, as if there was no other alternative.  I MUST try it and I MUST bake it.  Or else I will NEVER know what it's like to make it or what it tastes like.  (!!!)  You can imagine the anguish.

My oven gets a workout and my kitchen becomes dominated by smells of browning sugars and butter.  Before I know it the counters are overflowing with full cooling wracks and dirty measuring cups.   I feel kind of like the Cat Lady...  But instead of cats and milk bowls all over my house, they're treats from the oven.  Maybe that just makes me the Crazy Food Lady?  Anyway, all I have to say is God bless the freezer.

My latest fixations have been Bread and Cookies.  I think that the smell of freshly baked bread is next to hallucinogenic, let alone eating a warm slice, and cookies... well, cookies are just delicious.  If you don't like cookies, I don't know if I can trust you.  That's all.

With these food streaks come marathons of photo shoots of the final products.  The other day I baked a loaf of bread and ended up with 75 photos on my once blank memory card.  What?  How did that happen?  I didnt know whether to be embarrassed or impressed.  Not many people could have 75 different visions of a loaf of bread.  We'll call it special.

The following are some of the recent recipes I've made with their respective photo shoots.  Enjoy, and seriously try these recipes out.  Theyre as delicious as they look.

Multigrain Molasses Bread

1 large loaf, 14 slices

Active Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 24 hours

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/multigrain_molasses_bread.html

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, plus more as needed
• 1 1/3 cups unbleached bread flour, (see Note)
• 1 cup bran flakes cereal, crushed into fine bits (see Tip)
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon old-fashioned rolled oats, divided
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon yellow or white cornmeal, divided
• 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant, quick-rising or bread-machine yeast
• 1 1/2 cups ice water, (see Tip), plus more as needed
• 1/3 cup mild molasses, (not blackstrap)
• 3 tablespoons corn oil, canola oil or other flavorless vegetable oil

PREPARATION

1. Mix dough: Thoroughly stir 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, bread flour, bran cereal, 1/3 cup oats, 1/4 cup cornmeal, salt and yeast in a 4-quart (or larger) bowl. Thoroughly whisk ice water, molasses and oil in a medium bowl. Vigorously stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, scraping down the sides and mixing just until the dough is thoroughly blended. The dough should be moist and a bit sticky, but fairly stiff. If the mixture is too dry, stir in just enough additional ice water to facilitate mixing, but don’t overmoisten. If the dough is too wet, stir in just enough whole-wheat flour to stiffen slightly. Lightly coat the top with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
2. First rise: Let the dough rise at room temperature (about 70°F) for 12 to 18 hours; if convenient, stir once partway through the rise. For convenience (and improved flavor), you may refrigerate the dough for 3 to 12 hours before starting the first rise.
3. Second rise: Generously coat a 9-by-5-inch (or similar large) loaf pan with oil. Vigorously stir the dough to deflate it. If it is soft, stir in just enough whole-wheat flour to yield a firm but moist dough (it should be fairly hard to stir). Transfer the dough to the pan. Lightly coat the top with oil. Smooth and press the dough evenly into the pan using a well-oiled rubber spatula or your fingertips. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon each oats and cornmeal and pat down. Using well-oiled kitchen shears or a serrated knife, cut three or four 1/2-inch-deep, evenly spaced slashes diagonally in the top of the loaf. Cover the pan with plastic wrap.
4. Let rise at warm room temperature until the dough nears the plastic, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. (For an accelerated rise, see Tip.)
5. 15 minutes before baking: Position a rack in lower third of oven; preheat to 400°F.
6. Bake, cool, slice: Reduce oven temperature to 375°. Bake the loaf on the lower rack until the top is lightly browned, 60 to 70 minutes. Continue baking, covering with foil if necessary to prevent overbrowning, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs on the tip (or until an instant-read thermometer registers 204-206°), 10 to 15 minutes longer. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes. Turn the loaf out on the rack and let cool to at least warm before serving. The loaf is good warm but slices best when cool.

TIPS & NOTES

• Make Ahead Tip: Wrap airtight and keep at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 2 months.

• Note: Milled from high-protein wheats, bread flour develops strong gluten, resulting in well-risen loaves. It helps give breads with a high percentage of whole grains better structure and a lighter texture. Find it near other flours in most supermarkets.
• Tips: The easiest way to crush bran flakes is to put them in a small sealable plastic bag, close it tightly, then press down with a rolling pin or the palm of your hand.
• To prepare “ice water” for this recipe, add a heaping cup of ice cubes to cold water and stir for about 30 seconds before measuring out the water.
• You can turn your microwave into a warm, moist environment to help accelerate the second rise of the bread dough. Begin by microwaving 1/2 cup water in a 1-cup glass measure just to boiling. Set the water in one corner of the microwave, place the pan of dough on the other side of the turned-off microwave and close the door. The dough will double in size in 45 minutes to 11/2 hours.

NUTRITION

Per serving: 163 calories; 4 g fat (0 g sat, 1 g mono); 0 mg cholesterol; 30 g carbohydrates; 4 g protein; 3 g fiber; 275 mg sodium; 207 mg potassium.

Nutrition Bonus: Iron (15% daily value).

Homemade Oreos

http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/

Adapted from Retro Desserts, Wayne Brachman

Let’s talk about the sugar for a minute, shall we? This is a sweet cookie. A good, sweet cookie. Yet, if you think of an actual Oreos, the wafers are fairly un-sweet and actually on the slightly salty side, which contrasts with the super-sweetness of the filling bringing harmony, happiness, yada yada. If you want your cookie closer to that original, you can take out a full half-cup of the sugar. If you want to make the cookie by itself (as I did a while back for ice cream sandwiches), go ahead and use the full amount.

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.