Better May than Never: Hot Crossed Buns

I made these for Easter, there are some in the freezer that I will one day turn into a bread and butter pudding-- but between everyday healthy cooking, Daring Baking, a social life, and my dissertation, I doubt that will be anytime soon (if ever)!



I adapted the recipe, like many recipes I do, from Rachel Allen's cookbook, Bake!, which I highly recommend as a general cookbook for all things baking-related. Hers calls for a variety of dried fruits, but I used raisins, a different combination of spices, and of course, whole wheat flour.



The recipe will go up later, as I doubt anyone is aching to try this Easter treat over a month late!

March Madness- Whole Wheat Lasagne with the DB'ers!

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.



My favorite challenge to date has arrived! How fun. I mean, I cut myself on the pasta machine and still had a smile on my face by the end of it! Don't worry-- I didn't bleed on anything in the kitchen. Promise.

Awkward intro aside, let's get to the good stuff-- as you might be able to tell from my other posts, I am a whole wheat fiend. If something can be made with whole wheat instead of white, I am there. On a previous challenge (the tuiles) I didn't know if it could be done, and was a little hesitant to mess with white-flour recipes when they were going to be a challenge to begin with, until I read this blog. She made her tuiles with whole wheat, and I said that from now on, I'd be going for it.

Now for the bragging bit: Not to toot my own horn, except I am, but this was the best pasta I've ever had. I even said the words "I am good!" aloud after I boiled the first batch and tried a taste of them. I never knew what a difference homemade made for pasta until now. I am a changed woman.

So, as some DB'ers know, I don't have many conveniences of a regular baker's kitchen-- no springform pans, no juicer, no rolling pin. Fortunately, my future mother in law, who lives in town, has them all-- including a pasta machine. Once I got the hang of using it, I had an hypnotic blast turning out the pasta, thinner and thinner with each roll through.

Well enough chat-- onto the recipes, as I made them (some parts are different from those provided to us DBers). This included making our own pasta, bechemel, and ragu from scratch.





Whole Wheat Spinach Pasta:

Preparation: 45 minutes

Makes enough for 6 to 8 first course servings or 4 to 6 main course servings, equivalent to 1 pound (450g) dried boxed pasta.

3 medium organic eggs
6 ounces (170g) frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry and chopped super fine.
400g whole-wheat flour

Mixing the dough (same process as original recipe):
Mound the flour in the center of your work surface and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs and spinach. Use a wooden spoon to beat together the eggs and spinach. Then gradually start incorporating shallow scrapings of flour from the sides of the well into the liquid. As you work more and more flour into the liquid, the well’s sides may collapse. Use a pastry scraper to keep the liquids from running off and to incorporate the last bits of flour into the dough. Don’t worry if it looks like a hopelessly rough and messy lump.

Kneading:
With the aid of the scraper to scoop up unruly pieces, start kneading the dough. Once it becomes a cohesive mass, use the scraper to remove any bits of hard flour on the work surface – these will make the dough lumpy. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes. Its consistency should be elastic and a little sticky. If it is too sticky to move easily, knead in a few more tablespoons of flour. Continue kneading about 10 minutes, or until the dough has become satiny, smooth, and very elastic. It will feel alive under your hands. Do not shortcut this step. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let it relax at room temperature 30 minutes to 3 hours.



Rolling it:

Put 1/5 of the pasta through the machine at the widest setting, passing it through again at 1-setting smaller increments (I did mine in 9 increments) until you can almost see through it. If you put your hand behind it, you should be able to see its outline/shadow clearly. Cut them into shorter lengths and hang to dry.



Dry the pasta at room temperature and store in a sealed container or bag.

Bechamel

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60g) unsalted butter
4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60g) all purpose unbleached (plain) flour, organic stone ground preferred
2&2/3 cups (approx 570ml) milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper, and a hint of nutmeg.


Vegetarian Ragu:

1 400 g cans diced tomatoes
1 box tomato passata
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 medium onion, minced
1 tsp. olive oil
salt
6 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 cup vegetable broth
½ C. minced fresh basil leaves (or 2 Tbsp. dried)
ground black pepper

Combine the onion, olive oil, and ½ tsp. salt in a large saucepan. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until softened, 8-10 min. Stir in the tomato paste, garlic, and red pepper, and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Stir in the broth and various forms of tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the flavors are blended and sauce is thickened. Stir in the basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Note: I layered my lasagne with a layer of steamed, chopped broccoli (about 4 cups) and layer of sliced pan-cooked mushrooms (about 3 cups) for a little more veggie goodness. I also used a regular-sized bag of mozzarrella instead of parmesan.


Now, once all the ingredients are prepared (I made the ragu the day before, and the rest on the day of baking), you can cook the pasta. I assembled mine a little differently from the directions I was given, and it worked well for me, so I will post them

Assembling the Ingredients:
Have the sauces and veggies ready to go. Spread a double thickness of paper towels over a large counter space. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).

Cooking the Pasta:
Bring a pot of salted (or not salted) water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time. Cook about 2 minutes. If you are using dried pasta, cook about 4 minutes, taste, and cook longer if necessary. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on the paper towels. If you don't have much room, go head and hold off on boiling more noodles until these are in the dish.



Assembling the Lasagne:
Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of about four overlapping sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the ragu. Sprinkle the mushrooms on, followed by cheese. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used.

Mine was like this, with the bottom ingredients listed first:

Bechemel
Noodles
Sauce
Mushrooms
Bechemel
Noodles
Sauce
Bechemel
Cheese
Noodles
Sauce
Broccoli
Bechemel
Noodles
Sauce
Cheese




Baking and Serving the Lasagne:
Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the center (test by inserting a knife – if it comes out very warm, the dish is ready). Take care not to brown the cheese topping. It should be melted, creamy looking and barely tinged with a little gold. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served.

Wholy Pretzels!

At Edinburgh's annual German market, I was a big fan of the big, soft pretzels. Inexcusably full of white carbs, I restrained myself... but with the German market over and done with, I miss those lil guys, even if my thighs don't. WINK.

I found a recipe in my new Rachel Allen cookbook, a Christmas present, which is a great resource for hunger-inducing ideas. Here I have adopted her recipe for soft pretzels into a more healthful 100% whole wheat version, and in part, a glazed raisin variety.

These are especially worth making because you can use them as a replacement for the usual sandwich bread or toast. I like to have one paired with soup for lunch, or half of one with an apple and cheese for a pre-workout snack.

Try it. You'll be saying "mmm, schmcekt gut!" in no time.

Wholy Pretzels (makes about 12, depending on how big you like them)

• 500g strong whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp fast-acting yeast
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 375 ml warm water
• rock salt

For the baking soda boil:

• 75g baking soda
• 1 liter water

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, and make a well in the center.
2. Mix the wet ingredients and add them slowly, mixing in between additions. You can mix this with your hands, which is fun.
3. Knead the mixture for 10 minutes, until the dough bounces back to shape when poked with your finger. It should be quite firm, but not flaky and dry, nor sticky.
4. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place in a warm place until doubled in size (1-3 hours, mine took only 1).
5. Preheat the oven to 230 degrees C (450 F) and line baking trays with parchment.
6. Punch the dough down and divide into 12 (or less or more) semi-even-sized pieces.
7. For each pretzel, roll the dough into a long snake, about as thick as a Sharpie. Twist the ends together and fold the ends over the middle of the pretzel and press down to seal the shape.
8. After shaping all the pretzels, cover them up with plastic wrap and let them rise again for 15 minutes.
9. During the end of the second rising, bring the water to a boil, and add the baking soda. Reduce the heat to a simmer.
10. Place the pretzels, 2 at a time, in the water. Simmer for 30 seconds, then flip to simmer 30 more seconds on the other side. Remove and place back on the lined tray. Sprinkle a pinch of salt on top.
11. Bake in the oven for 8-12 minutes, turning them over half way through if needed.

Notes:
*Instead of salt, you can use poppy seeds, dried onion, nuts or other seeds.
*There's a reason for raisins: They're delicious. Work some raisins into the dough before shaping them into the pretzel shape. Try making 1 or 2 raisin pretzels in the batch if you don't want a whole batch of raisin pretzels.

Glaze:

• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 30g icing sugar (more or less to get the right consistency)

Mix together and spread over the pretzels, or use as a pretzel dip.

Ginger Bite Scones

I made these scones using Ginger Nibbles, which I bought to prevent carsickness but found them way too sweet to do any good in that department. You could also chop up regular crystallized ginger and use that, since I don't know where to buy Ginger Nibbles other than Lakeland stores.


Ginger Bite Scones
(makes 12 small scones, or 8 bigger ones)

225 g whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons white sugar
pinch or two of salt
50 g butter or Flora (Smart Balance, etc)
75 g crystallized ginger, chopped up (or Ginger Nibbles)
125 g plain non-fat yogurt (I used FAGE Greek Style 0%)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F/220 C/gas 7/fan 200
   
2. Mix the first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl
3. Cut up the butter and smoosh it with *clean* hands into the dry ingredients until it looks crumbly
4. Add the ginger, then make a little hole in the middle of the mixture
5. Put the yogurt in the hole and cut it through the rest of the dough with a butter knife until it gets too heavy to work that way
   
6. Use your (clean) hands to smoosh it together into a ball, and knead it a few times. The mixture should not be sticky like a cookie dough-- if it is, then add more flour.
   
7. Pat the mixture into a flat rectangle about one inch thick, then cut into 12 equal pieces.
8. Flatten each piece by half (to 1/2 inch thick) and place on a cookie sheet. Since my sheet was small, I baked the dough in two batches. Brush with milk for some shine, if desired.
   
9. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until they are the browner side of golden.
   

These can be frozen, but they're better eaten.