Bagels

Our Tuesdays with Dorie pick this week is...BAGELS!  What a fun baking project. I love bagels and have made them a few times but not in the past couple of years so this was the perfect recipe to get back in the swing of bagel making.

I split the dough in half and made five cinnamon raisin bagels, by just kneading in some raisins and a cinnamon sugar swirl before shaping.  I cut the second half of the dough into eight smaller pieces and those bagels ended up being just the right size for homemade pizza Bagel Bites.

The cinnamon raisin were a special request by picky husband...

They turned out absolutely delicious!  Picky husband and kids all loved these. The kids even helped shape a few of the plain batch and had a ton of fun making bagels with mommy.  I would use this recipe again for sure. I did boil a little less than directed, just kind of watched them until they began to float and then flipped then, I also subbed out the shortening and used butter in the dough. Lastly I lowered the baking time and temperature, they were perfectly chewy/crunchy/soft inside after about 17-20 minutes at 375.  Yum, yum! Perfect bagels, if you ask me :)

Spaetzle Soup with Mini Soft Pretzels

This is a dish is a family pleaser, something that I can make that everyone including picky husband and my three little ones enjoy. The soup is pretty much chicken noodle soup without the chicken and with homemade spaetzle in place of the noodles, who wouldn't love that? And serving it with mini soft pretzels just ups the enjoyment factor. Being a first generation American, I like that this gives a nod to the German food I grew up loving, and being able to share that with my kids is special to me.

For the soup I like to use this Seitenbacher broth base (it is a powder, I buy it on amazon) if I don't have any homemade vegetable stock on hand. It's imported from Germany and tastes great, on top of the convenience factor. It makes a quick meal, especially if you have some leftover spaetzle from last night's dinner, although sometimes I make spaetzle specifically for this soup. Pretty much just chop up a few carrots and stalks of celery, about 5 each -- more or less of one if you have a favorite of the two -- and cook them in the stock. Ladle your broth and veggies over a bowl of cooked spaetzle. You do not want to add the spaetzle directly to the broth pot or it will get too mushy.

My Favorite Spaetzle

recipe came with my spaetzle press, I've tried lots of spaetzle recipes and keep coming back to this one

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Whisk together eggs and milk, add flour, salt, and nutmeg, stir together until you have a very thick wet dough.

Use with your spaetzle press, drop into boiling water in batches, remove from water when they float, let drain in colander, then add to frying pan with a little bit of butter, keep on warm on low heat while you cook the rest of the spaetzle, adding the remaining batches after draining to the pan and stirring every few minutes. This makes a big batch of spaetzle -- 6 to 8 servings.

Next up is a recipe for Pretzel Rolls that can be shaped into traditional pretzels, mini pretzels, or rolls.

Mini Soft Pretzels

recipe from Chow.com

1 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1 (1/4-ounce) envelope active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
Vegetable oil
6 cups water
1/4 cup baking soda

**The below directions are from Chow.com for a stand mixer -- I've done the dough for this recipe in my bread machine and it works perfectly!**

Place warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Set aside to rest until mixture bubbles, about 5 minutes. (If the mixture does not bubble, either the liquid was not at the correct temperature or the yeast is old.)

Place flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and whisk briefly to break up any lumps and combine. Once yeast is ready, fit the bowl on the mixer, attach a dough hook, and dump in flour mixture.

Mix on the lowest setting until dough comes together, then increase to medium speed and mix until dough is elastic and smooth, about 8 minutes.

Form dough into a ball, place in a large oiled mixing bowl, and turn dough to coat in oil. Cover with a clean, damp dishtowel, and let rest in a warm place until dough doubles in size, about 30 to 35 minutes. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, coat paper with vegetable oil, and set aside.

Once dough has risen, punch it down and knead it on a floured, dry surface just until it becomes smooth and springs back when poked, about 1 minute. Divide dough into 8 pieces and form into oblong rolls. Place rolls on the baking sheet and cut 4 (2-inch) diagonal slashes across the top of each. Cover with a damp towel and let dough rise in a warm place until almost doubled in volume, about 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 425°F and bring water to a boil in a large saucepan over high heat.

Once rolls have risen, stir baking soda into boiling water (water will foam up slightly). Boil two or three rolls for 2 minutes per side. Using a slotted spoon, remove rolls, drain, and place on the baking sheet, cut side up. Sprinkle well with salt, and repeat with remaining rolls.


Once all rolls are ready, place in the oven and bake until golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Serve hot.

If you give these recipes a try I hope they become favorites for you and your loved ones too! I'm sending this on over to Heather at girlichef who is hosting Presto Pasta Nights #197. Spaetzle Soup is heading to my blogging friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sundays event. And last but not least, this post is also going to Susan at Wild Yeast for YeastSpotting! Thank you to everyone for hosting :)

Beer Pizza Dough

This is one of my favorite pizza dough / crust recipes. It is from allrecipes. It makes a soft dough that is a little tricky to handle, but is absolutely worth the trouble once it is done baking. I've made this dough at least a dozen times with different beers and it always turns out perfectly.

Beer Pizza Dough

from allrecipes

1 cup warm beer -- I have just warmed it up in the microwave, original recipes uses flat beer
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Put beer, butter, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast in a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting, and press Start. I've always used my bread machine for this one but I bet it would also work well in a KA mixer or by hand.

Remove dough from bread machine when cycle is complete. Roll or press dough to cover a prepared pizza pan. I like to use a pizza screen and bake on a preheated pizza stone but I've also used this recipe with a regular pizza pan or cookie sheet without the stone.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F -- If you are using a pizza stone you could up this to 500 or your highest oven temperature, it bakes faster, but also gives a great crispy outside chewy inside crust.

Spread sauce and toppings on top of dough. Bake until crust is lightly brown and crispy on the outside, about 17-24 minutes. -- If you are using the higher oven temperature with pizza stone your pizza will be done in under 10 minutes, I'd start checking it after baking for 5 minutes, it gets done very quickly.

Here is a photo of the nice crispy bottom thanks to a pizza screen and pizza stone. This crust always gives nice "pizza bubbles" too!

I topped this pizza with freshly shredded mozzarella and sliced mushrooms and homemade pizza sauce. I always sprinkle the tops of my pizzas with a touch of Italian seasoning and grated Parmesan before baking them. It really gives them that pizza parlour flavor.

This recipes doubles well, I almost always make a double recipe so we can have one veggie pizza and one with pepperoni for picky husband. The kids usually have a little of both pizzas and really look forward to homemade pizza night :)

Deep Dish Mushroom Pizza

The other night my husband was working late and it was just me and the kiddos for dinner. Pizza is a favorite around here and we had some mushrooms in the fridge so mushroom pizza was our dinner of choice. Although I have an absolutely delicious, number one, all time favorite pizza crust recipe, it is for a thinner more traditional crust. I was in the mood for some deep dish, and do not have a favorite deep dish pizza crust recipe (if you have a favorite deep dish crust recipe, please let me know), off to google.

I searched for 'deep dish pizza crust recipe' and found this recipe -- adapted from the book The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American by Jeff Smith, who says he ran this recipe by a pizza chef who has worked at Pizzeria Uno in Chicago for 30 years, and got a smile and nod from the pizza chef after she overlooked his recipe. That sounds like pretty high praise to me, so I was excited to give this one a try.


We are about a half a day drive from Chicago and I went there often as a child for shopping and museum trips, so I know my Chicago style deep dish and love it. Pizzeria Uno is an okay choice, but my hands down favorite for the best Chicago deep dish is Giordano's... yummmmm. I wasn't going for the whole sauce on top stuffed with goodies Chicago deep dish, I just wanted that delicious crust this time around...

It sounded good to me, I did do my own adapting a little bit, adding some salt (one teaspoon kosher) and a little sugar (one tablespoon white) just to have something for the yeast. The recipe gives filling suggestions for a 9 or 10 inch deep dish, so I figured the dough would work for my 12 inch deep dish pan (coincidentally Pizzeria Uno brand) even though the dough ingredients seemed like they would yield much more. Long story short, I think the recipe is best suited for two 12 inch pans, so my one 12 inch was overfilled and the end result crust a little too thick, even after I set some dough aside to make a smaller deep dish in a glass pie plate. Oh-well. Now I know for next time.

For the sauce I made another misjudgement -- I made a quick san marzano sauce, just put a can of san marzano tomatoes in the food processor, add a touch of salt and some basil, and you are good to go -- usually. That sauce works best with thinner crust pizzas, I found that this deep dish needed a more marinara style sauce, thick and well seasoned, and simmered all day.


These were delicious for dinner, all of the gooey cheese and yummy mushrooms, everyone had second slices. Next time we have deep dish night, if I use this recipe again, I will plan on two 12 inch pizzas and have my tried and true marinara style pizza sauce simmering all day :)

Raisin Swirl Bread -- Tuesdays with Dorie

Time for Tuesdays with Dorie! I can't believe it's almost been a month since I posted, I've been baking along, but had some family medical issues to deal with. I'm exicted to get back into the swing of things and missed participating.

Thank you to Susan of Food.Baby, who picked Dorie's delicious Raisin Swirl Bread for us to bake this week. I love making yeasted breads, especially those with a little sweet mixed in. This bread had a secret ingredient that I've never used in a swirl bread, cocoa powder -- mixed right in with the cinnamon and sugar swirl! I loved it and now it has me thinking of other 'secret ingredients' to use in a swirl bread, like espresso powder, mmm!

Here is the bread ready for the oven!

Unfortunately I jumped the gun and cut this beautiful bread way too early so the slices weren't as pretty as they could have been. Still every bit as delicious thought, and since this was just for a family breakfast it really didn't matter. If I were to have this at a brunch I would definitely give it a few hours to cool so the slices were prettier.


Now how did this happen? Over eager children trying to find all the raisins -- which they love and wanted to eat seperately -- before finishing the bread, ha! Don't worry, none of it went to waste. This was a huge hit with the kids and the husband liked it as well. Will be making it again for sure :)

Cinnamon Bursts -- Cinnamon Roll / Monkey Bread Hybrids

Don't these look delicious? They really are! Soft and gooey, with a little crunch from the cinnamon sugar, the portability of cinnamon rolls and pull-apart fun of monkey bread. This recipe for Bakery Style Cinnamon Bursts comes from one of those little grocery store check-out lane cookbooks, I have a ton of them and love finding little recipe treasures hidden inside. Sometimes you have to tweak the recipes a little, but if nothing else you get a nice picture and an idea of a recipe as a jumping off point.


These were featured in a Betty Crocker / Gold Medal Flour special edition mini book called Soups & Breads from 2005. It's the same book I recently made this Chipotle Cheddar Bread from. I think I made a few things from in when I got it in 2005, but it had been sitting on a bookshelf since then -- until last month when I randomly pulled it out and found some fun recipes to try. My husband actually picked these to try, and I am sure glad he did! Not only were these treats delicious, it's always fun for me to make a recipe he picked, maybe that sounds a little corny but it's true, something about being in the kitchen, making a recipe for and picked by someone you love.


I adapted this recipe to make the dough in the bread machine on the dough cycle, I've also included the by hand directions. This would be a great recipe to do with little helpers in the kitchen who can roll the dough balls with you!


Cinnamon Bursts
adapted from Betty Crocker / Gold Medal Flour

Dough:
2 1/2 to 3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package regular or fast-acting dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast)
3/4 cup very warm water (120°F to 130°F)
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 egg

Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
1 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 2 teaspoons milk

Put the dough ingredients into your bread machine pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer (my Oster calls for the liquids first, then the flour, then other ingredients and yeast) and set it for the dough cycle.

Or by hand -- in medium bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups of the flour, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, the salt and yeast. Add warm water, 3 tablespoons butter and the egg. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.

On lightly floured surface, knead dough about 5 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy. Grease medium bowl with shortening or cooking spray. Place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap; let rise in warm place about 1 hour or until double in size. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.

Grease 12 regular-size muffin cups, 2 3/4x1 1/4 inches, with shortening or cooking spray -- I used Baker's Joy Spray. In small bowl, mix 1 cup granulated sugar and the cinnamon. Gently push fist into dough to deflate. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Pinch each piece into 6 small balls.

Roll balls in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon-sugar. Place 5 balls in each muffin cup; top with 1 ball in center. Cover loosely with plastic wrap; let rise in warm place 30 to 45 minutes or until double in size.

Heat oven to 350°F. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. The pan will look kind of difficult to clean but it wasn't a problem thanks to the Baker's Joy Spray, and I had no sticking issues.

Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack (place rack on waxed paper to catch glaze drips). In small bowl, stir glaze ingredients until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle glaze over rolls. Sprinkles optional. Serve warm.

We all loved these as a special breakfast treat. I hope you love them as much as we did if you give them a try. Now at our house monkey bread and cinnamon buns have a brunch rival :)

Sticky Buns -- Sweet Melissa Sundays

These are, hands down, the best sticky buns I've ever made, probably the best I've ever tasted! They were picked for us to try with Sweet Melissa Sundays by Jen of Not Microwave Safe a few Sundays ago, and while I did bake along with the group I just didn't get around to posting until now.


You can find the recipe for Melissa Murphy's amazing sticky buns here at Jen's site. The original recipe was for Sticky Buns with Toasted Almonds, and the toasted almonds are just sprinkled on top, so if you are not an almond fan you are safe to make these. I happen to love almonds, so made an almond bun for myself...


and left the rest plain for picky husband -- I figured I could sprinkle the toasted almonds on as desired. These didn't really need almonds, as they are amazing all by themselves with the pillowy soft dough and best sticky sauce ever, but I liked the little extra crunch the almonds added. Everyone in my family loved these, even picky husband! I think the sticky sauce is the key to these amazing buns, it is made with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and maple syrup, absolutely delicoius.

Here are some process photos...

Check out this page for the recipe if you don't have the Sweet Melissa Baking Book. I've made quite a few recipes from this book while baking along with Sweet Melissa Sundays and while most of them turned out perfectly, I think this is my favorite, so delicious, and a recipe that will be made again and again for sure :)

My Kitchen My World -- Cinnamon Sugar Bubble Bread

I'm posting Cinnamon Sugar Bubble Bread (what my kids call it) which is also known as Monkey Bread (what my husband calls it) for My Kitchen My World, this week our assignment was to make something that reminded us of our family, heritage, country, etc. -- there were lots of recipes that I thought of, but this one is special for our little 'nuclear' family :)

I make this ooey gooey sticky caramel bread treat a few times a year, it is a real favorite around here for holiday breakfasts. I had never heard of monkey bread until I married my husband, but as soon as I did I knew I would love it. I've tried lots of different recipes but this one is my favorite -- so far -- I'm not opposed to trying more :) There are tons of variations, some have nuts, raisins, even blueberries, and there is even a savory version I've tried with Italian seasonings and parmesan cheese, which is just perfect with a spaghetti dinner. I think this cinnamon sugar one is the more classic version, pretty much small pieces of dough are rolled in cinnamon sugar, positioned into a bundt or tube pan, layered with some caramel syrup, then baked. When finished in the oven you invert it onto a serving plate and watch the caramel drip down the sides, yeah, this is a messy little number. Let it cool for just a bit, you don't want to burn yourself, but this is best served warm.

Here is my current favorite recipe, Monkey Bread I've been making this one for the past few years, the only change I make is rolling the dough chunks in cinnamon sugar before putting them in the pan, then pouring a little of the caramel sauce over them dough chunks in the pan when the pan is halfway full, and then some more with the pan is completely full before the last rise. I hope that makes sense! I've made it exactly as written as well but this way tastes better to my husband, the local "monkey bread" expert :)

An easy way to get little dough chunks it to lightly flatted out your dough, like for a focaccia, then cut into strips, then cubes, with a pizza cutter, after that the kids can help by rolling the dough into little balls and dropping them into the cinnamon sugar.

You might want to have a lined pan underneath to watch out for drips that could possibly burn in your oven and make a smokey mess (yes, I've had that happen.)


I can't wait to see what family favorite recipes everyone else has to share for My Kitchen My World Be Thankful Week.