This summer I have gotten like 5 lbs of blackberries, a humongo bowl of raspberries, so so so many pears, and lots of random veggies, all from my neighbors and their gardens We live in a very giving and generous neighborhood. And it helps that they can’t possible eat all that they grow and that I am always willing to take it off their hands (and put it into my mouth) In return we have given out rhubarb and jars of honey and overall charm and smiles. (the charm and smiles are on the mr to give out)
The other day on a walk, the mr and I saw this sign outside of a neighbors house. Plums, please take some! Well pull my arm, I guess I will have too, because the sign said please right? Anyway, these little plums, not sure what kind they are, but they are so good. Sweet and bite sized and pretty. I ate a few then decided that I needed to share my shared plums and went about making a cake to stick those said share plums into.
I made the cake, invited my mom and a couple of sibs over. Mom didn’t come but Barb and Paul did so they got the cake, Well they got half the cake, the mr ate the rest. I was told that this cake is one of the best. I bet it is when you used share plums because sharing is caring and sharing cake is all that good stuff.
The stuff. A bowl with flour, baking soda baking powder, and slat. Then you have brown sugar, coconut oil. vanilla extract, soy milk, and a little apple cider vinegar. And plums of course.
Once you have started preheating the oven, cut your plums in half and remove the pit.The best way to do this is to run the knife along the pit all the way around the plum and then twist to break in half. Pop the pit out with you finger.
Set plums aside while mixing cake
Warmed coconut oil, brown sugar, and vanilla all get mixed together into a smooth consistency then dumped into the bowl of dry stuff.
Soy milk and vinegar get added and mixed in.
Batter gets poured into a very well greased cake pan and the plums get placed, cut side down,right on top. A sprinkle of sugar to top it off is not a bad idea.
Into the oven it goes to turn to cake!
Pulled from the oven looking so nice. Let the cake cool completely in the pan before taking it out. Hot cake is hard to handle!
And as soon as you get it out of the pan you can start eating.
Enjoy the last bits of summer. Share if you can!
-C
Makes a 12 inch cake
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking sods
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup coconut oil (warmed so it’s liquid)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
12-14 small plums (the plums I used where golf ball sized so you might need less for larger plums)
1 tablespoon white sugar
Preheat oven to 350
Start by slicing the plums in half and removing the pits. Set them aside. Hint. for slicing, the best way to do this is to run the knife along the pit all the way around the plum and then twist the plum in half. Pop the pit out with you finger or spoon.
In a large bowl, whisk together the salt baking soda and powder, and salt . In a smaller bowl mix together the coconut oil, brown sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Pour the wet into the dry and add in half the milk, mix together, then the rest of the milk and apple cider vinegar. Mix until all incorporated and smooth.
Pour batter into a well greased 12 inch round cake pan.%u00a0 (If you don’t have that a 9×9 square pan will work) Smooth out the top then grab your sliced plums and stick them, cut side down, on top. Give each plum a little push into the batter so it half submerged. Sprinkle the top with white sugar and pop into the oven
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a fork or toothpick stuck int he middle comes out clean.
Remove and let cool completely in cake pan, it’s easier to remove the cake when it is not hot.
And once it’s cool, remove cake gently and ta-da. Cake time
The house next door to us is for sale and in the backyard of the house is a whole lot of blackberry bushes. The mr and I have been hopping the fence over there like ninjas and filling large bowls of berries and sneaking back home to eat our weight in those blackberries. (Ok, not entirely true. We are not good enough ninjas to jump the fence so we have been walking through the fence gate. Plus we checked with the current owner, she told us to pick all we wanted to. We are not asshole ninjas stealing fruit)
So many berries. I check every few days and they just keep on coming and I am not one to let perfectly good berries (or any food) go to waste, so I just keep picking. I froze some , ate so so many, and then I was going to make a straight up pie but decided to do pie bars instead because one, I couldn’t find my pie plate (I think Shannon has it) and two, these are just a bit less formal, like pie can sometime be. Plus easier to share because they are cut into little squares and hold there shape really well. And lets be honest, I didn’t want to have to roll out pie dough if I didn’t have to.
Such a good way to use up and share an excess of berries. Now off you go to make some pie crumble bars while I go play with the kittens (I’ll tell you all about the kittens tomorrow….)
The stuff. Flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. A little soy milk and coconut oil, a lemon, and arrowroot powder. And of course lots of blackberries.
The flour, salt, baking soda, and sugar get mixed in a big bowl then the coconut oil get mixed in into a crumble.%u00a0 Now in goes the soy milk to get it all a little wet.
A little more then half the mixture gets patted down into a greases and lined pan
Berries, sugar, arrowroot powder, lemon juice and lemon zest go into a bowl. Give it a mix.
Dump and distribute all over recently patted down dough..
And crumble the rest of the crumble all over the top.
Now into the oven it go.
All cooked and cooling while you put away the clean dishes (or anything that will distract you for at least a half hour while they cool.)
And when they have cooled enough to cut, it’s time for you to eat.
And yes, these are totally perfect for dessert and breakfast.
-C
makes 16 squares
For the crust
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup coconut oil melted then cooled to soft
2/3 cup cane sugar
4 tablespoons soy milk
For the berry filling
3 cups fresh blackberries
3 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1/3 cup cane sugar
zest and juice of a lemon
Preheat oven to 375
Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl. Add in coconut oil and incorporate with a fork or pastry cutter until the dough looks crumbly, add in soy milk and mix in with for again just til until incorporated. (think pie dough-like)%u00a0 Don’t worry if some of the dough seems dry, it’s fine.
Grease and line a 9×9 pan. Dump a little more then half of the dough mixture in and pat down to cover bottom of pan. Try to make sure it’s all an even thickness.
In a separate bowl, toss together the berries, sugar, arrowroot powder, lemon zest and juice of that lemon. Dump the mixture into pan and evenly distribute over dough. Take the remaining dough and crumble all over the top then just stick it into the hot oven.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until the crumble on top is a nice golden brown.
Remove and let cool completely before cutting.
Cut then eat.
Store squares in fridge, some even say they taste better cold.
I am running extremely low on food in my house, like there isn’t a can of beans or a box of pasta left. Yeah, I have a few zucchini left, but I think that mr might be getting a bit sick of it. (He has had zucchini noodles for lunch and dinner for the past few day). And I was going to go to the grocery store before dinner, but then I didn’t. Why? well because I didn’t really feel like it.
Turns out that I didn’t need to go to the store for dinner.I had a few mushrooms, an onion, and a few stalks of chard left in the fridge. (but pretty much nothing else) I just bought a 25 lb bag of flour so I am all stocked up on that and last minute I found a avocado that I thought was a beet in the fridge. All I needed to make a dinner, and a quick and easy, and really tasty one to boot. Plus being so mother F*ing hot, it was perfect because there was no need to turn on the oven.
Now the question is,now that dinner was made and being that the fridge is so empty, should I clean and defrost it? Answer is yes, yes I should, but am I going to? Probably not. I just don’t have it in me to stand in font of the fridge, hacking ice away with a large spoon and boiling water for an hour. It’s to hot. I’ll do it later.
The stuff. Flour, baking powder, olive oil, salt ans water for the skillet bread. A few humngo stalks of red chard, a couple mushrooms (I would have used a few more if I had them). an onion, and a few cloves of garlic.%u00a0 Missing is the pepper and the avocado and lemon that I found while rummaging the fridge.
The bread is super easy. Just whisk together the flour salt, and baking soda then add in the oil. Mix until it’s crumbly then mix in the water until it turns into a soft dough. Gather into a ball and stick in bowl then into fridge for a few minutes to let the dough rest.
After the dough has rested, take it and cut into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece into ball and then roll out as flat as you can. Heat up a skillet to high heat and once hot, place rolled out flat onto (dry) skillet. Cook first side for about 3-4 minutes or until browned and cook, then turn heat down a bit, flip and cook other side until browned. Remove bread, turn heat back up, and repeat with remaining flats.
For the rest. Remove the leafy part of the chard and set aside .Thinly hop up the mushrooms, onion, and the chard stalk. Mince up the garlic. Toss it all (not the garlic yet)into a lightly oiled skillet , season with salt and pepper, and cook on medium heat until starting to brown. Now toss in a few splashes of water and the minced garlic, mix around, and cover wit a lid. Cook for another 8-10 minutes until the veggies are nice and soft.
Cooked and ready, but wait, chop up the chard leaves and toss them into skillet. Another splash of water and a few more minutes under a lid will wilt them up real quick.
Skillet beads are made, veggies are all nice and cooked up. The avocado and lemon where found, sliced.
Not bad for a last minute-lean out the fridge of all food-dinner. Not bad at all.
Don’t melt
-C
Make 4 flatbread
For the skillet bread
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 tablespoons cold water
For the rest
2-4 white mushrooms
2-3 large stalks of chard (any color)
1 sweet onion
2-3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
olive oil
water
An avocado and a lemon (optional)
To make the skillet bread. Mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. Pour in olive oil and mix until crumbly then add in 4 tablespoons of water (5 if it seems to dry) until a dough forms. Gather dough into a ball, stick in bowl and cover, and place in the fridge to rest for about 10 minutes. Once dough has chilled, remove and cut into 4 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball then, on a clean surface, roll out as flat as you can. Grab a skillet and place on high heat. Once skillet has heated up, place a rolled out dough on hot, un-oiled surface and let cook for about 3-4 minutes or until the bottom cooked with golden brown spots. Turn heat to medium and flip bread. Cook the other side for another 4-5 minutes or until browned. Remove flat and turn heat back up. Cook the rest of the bread like the first one.
For the rest. Remove leafy parts of the chard from the stalk and set aside. Take stalk and chop into pieces about 1/ 2 inch think. Slice onion and mushrooms up as thinly as you can. Mince garlic. Garb a skillet, stick on medium heat and drizzle with a little olive oil. Toss in chard stalk, onions, and mushrooms, sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix around until the stuff starts to brown a bit. Add in a few good splashed of water and the garlic and then place a lid on the skillet. Cook for about 10 minutes, giving the mixture a good stir every few minutes. Once the veggies are all soft and yummy, chop up the remaining chard leafs and place them into the skillet. Add another splash of water and place the lid back on. Cook until the leaves have wilted.
To assemble. Flat bread on plate. Scoop some of the sauteed veggie mixture on top. A few slices of avocado on top with a squeeze of lemon juice and a bit of cracked pepper…You are good to go.
The mr is a saltines fanatic. I personally don’t get it, but he really, truly loves a good fresh package of those salty crispy crackers, and loves to make a little cracker crumb mess. (I think it does it to drive me crazy)
%u00a0The other night during a particularly crumby saltine cracker snack, he declared that the saltine people (who are these people?) must come out with flavored saltines. I then continued to burst his bubble and told him I am pretty sure the saltine people have, in fact, come out with flavors, but he was skeptical and did not believe my words. Whatever dude.
But then I got to thinking, “why the hell haven’t I made flavored saltine crackers yet?” So make flavored crackers I did. I know that the mr is really into dill pickled chips (beause I can smell the when he eats them) and I have been buying these mammoth jars of pickles from the Costco superstore (I love pickles but more then that I need the gigantic jars). so I had me a shit ton of pickle juice. It was meant to be.
The first time I made the crackers, I did a really small batch and wasn’t expecting anything amazing, just going for a decent whatever cracker. But no, the few that I managed to make, the mr went nuts for. He told me they were the best fucking cracker that he has ever had and I now have to make them for him all the time, and that it is now a birthday tradition (it was his birthday). He said they were the prefect dilly-ness, the pefrect texture and just the right amount of salt. Perfection.
Well that made me happy so instead of waiting for his next birthday, I just made a big batch. Again, more proof that I am the best girlfriend ever!
The stuff. Flour, dill pickle juice, olive oil and some dried dill and salt.
Flour into a bowl gets drizzled with olive oil and mix around with a fork.
%u00a0Then in goes the pickles juice , same deal, mix together with a fork until the mixture forms a dough. (almost resembling a pie dough)
Place dough down on counter. Let it sit there for a few minutes to give it time to rest.
After the rest, roll the dough out as thinly as you can (try for about an 1/8 inch).
I found that when I slightly damped the counter that the dough was easier to roll. It might be because I have wood counter top so this may or may not work for you, but is worth a try.
And with a knife or dough cutter (or fancy cracker cutting tool), trim off sides (if you want) and cut into 2 inch squares.
Note. IF you want to, poke a couple little wholes into the tops of the crackers. Doing so will prevent the crackers from poofing up (I was told the poof is good)
And place the crackers on a baking sheet, brush tops with the pickle juice, then sprinkle with chopped dill and a tiny bit of salt.
Stick into the preheated oven.
Bakeuntil they start to turn a light golden brown and arepoofing up a little (go ahead and grab one now for quality control)
These crackers be cracking. And wouldn’t you know it, they are already all gone. Next time I make them I am going to have to hide them.
Have a great weekend!
-C
Makes about fifty 2×2 crackers
1 cup all purpose flour
6-8 tablespoons pickle juice
3 tablespoon olive oil
finishing salt to taste
tablespoon chopped dried dill
Preheat oven to 350
Place flour into a shallow bowl and drizzle the olive oil in. Mix around with a fork. Grab pickle juice and drizzle in 6 tablespoons of the juice and mix with the fork until a dough forms. Add in another tablespoon or two if the dough needs more moisture to come together.
Form dough into a ball and let rest on the counter for a few minutes (good time to wash the dirty dishes)
After the rest, take the dough and roll it out to about 1/8 inch or as thinly as you can. Weirdly enough, I found that I was able to roll my dough out better when I damped my counter. The dough didn’t slide around and it still lifted up easily with a spatula.. but do what works for you.
Once you have rolled the dough, trim sides to clean lines and cut into 2×2 inch squares (you can cut into any shape and or size you like) Any trimming reform into a ball, roll out, and make a few more. (If you want a more authentic looking cracker, you can poke little whole into them. Doing this also make the crackers not poof up when bakes)
Place crackers on a lightly colored (or parchment lined) baking sheet. Brush each cracker top with a little pickle juice and sprinkle the tops with salt and dill. Place in the oven to bake for about 12 minutes or until the crackers have poofed up and are turning slightly brown.
Remove from oven, let cool completely and either eat right away or place in a air tight container for later.
These crackers had no later.
This cake was born from my anxiety. Whenever I am feeling crazy,%u00a0anxious, kinda sick, or even just really happy, I want to be in the kitchen making something. It’s probably some deep seeded control issue that I have (I can’t control my brain, but I can control bread dough), but whatever.%u00a0Being in the kitchen takes my head out of life , even just for a little while, and let’s me concentrate on something else that really has nothing to do with whatever I am thinking about (unless I am thinking about food, in which I bake whatever food I am thinking about) Does this all make sense or am I just nuts?
So yeah, the other day I was having one of those days. I was extra crazy (for so many reasons) and really needed to just step away from my thoughts. I rushed home and just started grabbing stuff.. cake stuff.%u00a0%u00a0I figured that If I was going to bake something that I might as well bake a little snack cake for the mr, especially sense he has to deal with this crazy. I had a large quantity of pears that were all ripening %u00a0at once sitting in the fruit basket, so I grabbed some of those. And I grabbed the ginger%u2026 well because why not.
And I made this cake.. and I felt better. And the mr got cake (also brought some to my sisters.. her and the kids ate it all within minutes). It was a win win situation.%u00a0
So now you know. If you are my friend and I am feeling some feelings, at some point,%u00a0you will proably get a cake.
The stuff. A few pears,some fresh ginger, brown sugar and cinnamon. %u00a0Also have some white whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. And some oil, apple cider vinegar and a little bit of water.
Start with the pears. Cut in half, remove seed and stems, then chop/mince the crap out of them. It’s cool to have a few big chunks., it adds some good texture. Take the pears and as much as the juice you can scrap from the counter and stick into a bowl.
Grate up a few good tablespoons of fresh ginger..
Tip.%u00a0I keep my ginger in the freezer. its easier to grate and it doesn’t go bad!
The ginger goes into the bowl with the pears, along with the oil, cinnamon,%u00a0sugar, water and vinegar. Mix it all up . Then all that wet mixture goes into the bowl with the flour, baking soda and powder and the salt.
And that get’s all mixed.. and now you have cake batter!%u00a0
Depending on you pears and how juicy they are,%u00a0you might find that your batter seems to dry, just add in another 1/4 %u00a0cup of water. The batter should be the consistency of like greek yogurt, not ruing, but not stiff either.
Preheat you cook box (oven)
Dump the batter into a well greased 9×9 inch pan. Slice up another pear into thin strips (I only used half, then ate the other half)
Lay the slices on top to make it look all pretty. Do what I did, or some other design (it’s your cake to make pretty any way you want). Once you do that, stick the cake into the oven.
When the cake is a nice deep golden brown, take it out of the oven.
Maybe let it cool for a few minutes, letting the smell wrap around your head so that you smell like baking all day. No cut yourself a slab, grab some coffee, and go for it.%u00a0
Enjoy
-C
Makes a 9×9 inch single layer cake
2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups minced , super ripe and jucey pears (about 2 whole pears)
2 tablespoon freshly frated ginger
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4- 1/2 cup water
2/3 %u00a0cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Preheat oven to 350
Take pears, remove seeds and stem, and chop the crap out of them until they are tiny little pieces. Scoop pears, and any juice they leave behind into a bowl. Add in the sugar, oil, cinnamon, %u00a0ginger, vinegar,%u00a0%u00a0and %u00a01/4 %u00a0cup of water and mix until incorporated.%u00a0In a seprertare big bowl, mix together the salt, baking soda and powder with the flour. Add in the wet mixture and mix until fully incorporated.%u00a0%u00a0If the batter seems to dry (should be the constancy of whipped potatoes or greek yogurt), add in another 1/4 cup of water.%u00a0
Scoop batter into a greased 9×9 inch baking pan.%u00a0If you want to make it pretty, grab another pear and cut into thin slices and place right on top of the batter in any fashion you like.%u00a0
Place cake into oven and bake until a nice dark golden brown,about 40-45 minutes ,or until a tester stuck in the middle comes out clean.%u00a0
Remove, let cool in pan, and cut yourself a big slab, grab some coffee e to tea, grab a book, and eat it.%u00a0.
This weekend was pretty fantastic. I got a lot of little things done around the house that needed to be done and spent half of that time hanging out in my pjs. (Pjs can be working loathes too) And all the while I was doing stuff, I was making these rolls. (I am nothing if not a great multi-tasker) That’s my favorite kind of weekend.. Baking, while doing house chores. and maybe watching tv or listening to music. (or NPR.. but saying that makes me sound so old).%u00a0I am like a little old house wife (I am close) and it makes me feel like I have achieved greatness!
And baking bread is the best. I love making bread. I %u00a0love the act of mixing and kneading the dough. The waiting and anticipation of the dough rising.The smells of good bread baking. It’s a very cathartic experience, and it also results in some very tasty bread that,%u00a0in my house, get’s eaten at an alarming speed (fresh bread doesn’t last long with the mr) But don’t let all that time waiting around scare you away from making bread, cause when you take out the time spent letting dough rise, bread really takes about 8 minutes to make. And people who make fresh bread are always the coolest people.%u00a0
So these rolls. These rolls are soft and fluffy and tender,, slight sweet, slightly spicy, and all over freaking fantastic.%u00a0I mean, it’s parsnip and pepper so what can go wrong with that?. The mr ate a good few pretty much as soon as I pulled them out of the oven(again..fresh bread doesn’t last long)%u00a0and when I brought the rest over to my sisters house, those were devoured as well. Even the littles were super into them. %u00a0And I now that it’s a few weeks away but%u2026. Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away!!! It’s creepy up oh so fast (as usual) and I am not going to let it get the best of me this year. And now that I got my roll game down for the big day (or 3.. there are 3 Thanksgivings that we are attending), I can move onto more pressing things.. like al the pies.(I’ll be sharing some pies with you soon)
The stuff. %u00a0We gots some flour, salt, cracked pepper and a really big parsnip. Also have water, yeast, sugar and some melting earth balance .%u00a0
To start, chop up the parsnip into small chunks and stick them into a pot with enough water to fully semerge the chunks. Place on stove and bring to a boil then turn heat to medium high and let the parsnips cook.
Once the parsnip are fork tender, strain the water (reserving 3/4 cup of that water)%u00a0and puree the parsnip until smooth.
Take %u00a0that parsnip water and (once cooled a bit) place in bowl with the sugar and the yeast and mix it all around. Let sit for a few minutes until the yeast is visibly active.
Now dump the parsnip puree and melted butter into with the yeast and mix it all up
Salt, pepper, and flour mixed into a bowl
The yeast and parsnip mixture goes into the flour.%u00a0
And mix until it looks kind like this. When it’s no longer mixable with the spoon, dump dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead, adding a little bit of flout to the work surface when needed to prevent it from sticking..
And keep kneading unitl dough is all nice and smooth and pretty.
Dough then goes into a lightly oiled bowl %u00a0and is covered with a towl and let to sit for about an hour until the dough doubles in size.%u00a0
When the dough has doubled, dump onto the counter and cut into 12 equalish sized balls. (my balls were not equal)
The balls then go into a %u00a0large, lightly oiled pan. Let those sit for some more time,covered with a towel,%u00a0unit the dough %u00a0doubles again and the balls are all touching each other. They are ready to bake.. but right before you place them in the oven, brush the tops with a little melted earth balance.
And into the oven they go!!!
And when the rolls are all golden brown and smelling so nice,%u00a0remove from oven. Brush tops with some more melted earth balance and sprinkle with salt and more pepper.
Serve up to people you like
Have a n awesome day!
-C
Makes 12-16 rolls (depending on the size you make them)
3 3-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 big parsnips (need 3/4 cups mashed parsnip)
3/4 cups parsnip water (the water you boil the parsnips in)
2 teaspoons yeast
2 teaspoons cane sugar
2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cracked pepper (more if you like pepper)
4 tablespoons melted earth balance or butter (2 for the dough- 2 to melt on top)
To start, chop parnsips into chunks and place into a pot full of water. Bring to boil and cook until the parsnips are fork tender. Remove parsnips from water and measure out 3/4 cups of the water and set aside Take cooked parnsips and stick in a blender and puree until smooth. Measure out 3/4 cups of the puree.(any left eat as a snack)
Let both the puree and water cool enough that %u00a0you can stick a finger in it and its not to hot (or a thermometer that says its below 110.. your call).
Once cooled, stick the water, sugar, and yeast into a bowl, mix around, and let yeast activate. When yeast is foamy and clearly noted that it is not dead, dump in the parsnip mash, 2 tablespoons melted earth balance,and mix together. And then for the flour. Mix in the salt and pepper to the flour mix in the parsnip yeast mixture until a dough forms. The dough should be a little sticky, but still workable. If the dough seems to wet, add in another 1/4 cup flour at a time, just till it is bot overly sticky.%u00a0
Dump dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, or until the dough starts to look glossy and ihas an elastic quality to it.%u00a0
Stick dough into a greased bowl, over with a towel, and place in a warm place for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. Once doubles, dump dough out onto counter and using a dough cutter or serrated knife, cut the dough into 12 -16 equal pieces Take each piece and roll into a ball and place into a greased 9×12 baking pan. Once all balls are in, cover with towel and let the dough rise %u00a0until the balls are doubled in size and are toughing each other,for another 30 minutes or so. Preheat the oven to 350. Once the rolls are double again, right before you stick them into the oven, brush tops with melted earth balance
Place rolls into preheated oven and baked for about 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.%u00a0
Remove and right away, brush on any remaining earth balance to the tops and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Serve right away!%u00a0
Best eaten the day the are made.. but will last a few days in an air tight container.%u00a0
%u00a0%u00a0There is irish soda bread in your future. I can see it. A nice hardy hunk slathered in butter and honey, crumbs all over the place.%u00a0 So all you have to do know is make it.%u00a0
I remember reading somewhere (I wish I could remember where) that irish soda bread is just four ingredients, flour, sea salt, baking soda and buttermilk and adding %u00a0anything else would make %u00a0it a cake. So when I decided to make irish soda bread, thats all I used. ( I made it with some wheat flour) What you end up with is a highly dense, super fragrant, soft, chewy bread with a crunchy crust. Definitely not a cake.
Note%u2026.You can for sure add in a bit of sweetener or even little fat to make it richer and softer, but then it wouldn’t be bread (or so that’s what I read) There are tons of other recipes out there that have other stuff in them. This is just a really simple basic recipe.%u00a0
White whole wheat flour and all purpose flour mixed together. Salt baking soda and buttermilk. That’s it.All the dry whisked together and in goes the buttermilk. Mix together until dough starts to form then dump onto a floured surface. %u00a0Handling dough as little as possible, knead into ball.
Place on a baking sheet and dust with flour. Take a sharp knife and cut %u00a0an X through the top about 1/2 inch deep.
Stick in into the oven for 50 ish minutes, or unit la tester stuck into the middle comes out clean and there is kind of a hollow thunk when tapped on.%u00a0
And now you have a very pretty, dense hunk of irish soda bread.%u00a0
Cut and serve with butter and honey (thats how the mister likes it) or whatever you want to eat it with.
-C
Irish Soda Bread
1 cup all purpose flour%u00a0
1 cup white whole wheat flour (or you can use all purpose)%u00a0
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (or your choice if milk plus a tablespoon lemon juice)%u00a0
Preheat oven to 375
In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt. Mix in buttermilk until the dough starts to come together. If the dough seems to dry, add another splash or two of milk. Dump out dough onto a floured surface and shape into a ball. transfer onto a baking sheet, dust with flour and cut a x about 1/2 inch into the top. Stick into oven for 50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the bread makes a hollow sound when tapped.
Let cool enough to handle.
Cut into and serve with a smear of whatever you want
THE LOVELY CRAZY
September 19, 2019 by maximios • Blog
This summer I have gotten like 5 lbs of blackberries, a humongo bowl of raspberries, so so so many pears, and lots of random veggies, all from my neighbors and their gardens We live in a very giving and generous neighborhood. And it helps that they can’t possible eat all that they grow and that I am always willing to take it off their hands (and put it into my mouth) In return we have given out rhubarb and jars of honey and overall charm and smiles. (the charm and smiles are on the mr to give out)
The other day on a walk, the mr and I saw this sign outside of a neighbors house. Plums, please take some! Well pull my arm, I guess I will have too, because the sign said please right? Anyway, these little plums, not sure what kind they are, but they are so good. Sweet and bite sized and pretty. I ate a few then decided that I needed to share my shared plums and went about making a cake to stick those said share plums into.
I made the cake, invited my mom and a couple of sibs over. Mom didn’t come but Barb and Paul did so they got the cake, Well they got half the cake, the mr ate the rest. I was told that this cake is one of the best. I bet it is when you used share plums because sharing is caring and sharing cake is all that good stuff.
The stuff. A bowl with flour, baking soda baking powder, and slat. Then you have brown sugar, coconut oil. vanilla extract, soy milk, and a little apple cider vinegar. And plums of course.
Once you have started preheating the oven, cut your plums in half and remove the pit.The best way to do this is to run the knife along the pit all the way around the plum and then twist to break in half. Pop the pit out with you finger.
Set plums aside while mixing cake
Warmed coconut oil, brown sugar, and vanilla all get mixed together into a smooth consistency then dumped into the bowl of dry stuff.
Soy milk and vinegar get added and mixed in.
Batter gets poured into a very well greased cake pan and the plums get placed, cut side down,right on top. A sprinkle of sugar to top it off is not a bad idea.
Into the oven it goes to turn to cake!
Pulled from the oven looking so nice. Let the cake cool completely in the pan before taking it out. Hot cake is hard to handle!
And as soon as you get it out of the pan you can start eating.
Enjoy the last bits of summer. Share if you can!
-C
Makes a 12 inch cake
Ingredients
Preheat oven to 350
Start by slicing the plums in half and removing the pits. Set them aside. Hint. for slicing, the best way to do this is to run the knife along the pit all the way around the plum and then twist the plum in half. Pop the pit out with you finger or spoon.
In a large bowl, whisk together the salt baking soda and powder, and salt . In a smaller bowl mix together the coconut oil, brown sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Pour the wet into the dry and add in half the milk, mix together, then the rest of the milk and apple cider vinegar. Mix until all incorporated and smooth.
Pour batter into a well greased 12 inch round cake pan.%u00a0 (If you don’t have that a 9×9 square pan will work) Smooth out the top then grab your sliced plums and stick them, cut side down, on top. Give each plum a little push into the batter so it half submerged. Sprinkle the top with white sugar and pop into the oven
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a fork or toothpick stuck int he middle comes out clean.
Remove and let cool completely in cake pan, it’s easier to remove the cake when it is not hot.
And once it’s cool, remove cake gently and ta-da. Cake time
The house next door to us is for sale and in the backyard of the house is a whole lot of blackberry bushes. The mr and I have been hopping the fence over there like ninjas and filling large bowls of berries and sneaking back home to eat our weight in those blackberries. (Ok, not entirely true. We are not good enough ninjas to jump the fence so we have been walking through the fence gate. Plus we checked with the current owner, she told us to pick all we wanted to. We are not asshole ninjas stealing fruit)
So many berries. I check every few days and they just keep on coming and I am not one to let perfectly good berries (or any food) go to waste, so I just keep picking. I froze some , ate so so many, and then I was going to make a straight up pie but decided to do pie bars instead because one, I couldn’t find my pie plate (I think Shannon has it) and two, these are just a bit less formal, like pie can sometime be. Plus easier to share because they are cut into little squares and hold there shape really well. And lets be honest, I didn’t want to have to roll out pie dough if I didn’t have to.
Such a good way to use up and share an excess of berries. Now off you go to make some pie crumble bars while I go play with the kittens (I’ll tell you all about the kittens tomorrow….)
The stuff. Flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. A little soy milk and coconut oil, a lemon, and arrowroot powder. And of course lots of blackberries.
The flour, salt, baking soda, and sugar get mixed in a big bowl then the coconut oil get mixed in into a crumble.%u00a0 Now in goes the soy milk to get it all a little wet.
A little more then half the mixture gets patted down into a greases and lined pan
Berries, sugar, arrowroot powder, lemon juice and lemon zest go into a bowl. Give it a mix.
Dump and distribute all over recently patted down dough..
And crumble the rest of the crumble all over the top.
Now into the oven it go.
All cooked and cooling while you put away the clean dishes (or anything that will distract you for at least a half hour while they cool.)
And when they have cooled enough to cut, it’s time for you to eat.
And yes, these are totally perfect for dessert and breakfast.
-C
makes 16 squares
For the crust
For the berry filling
Preheat oven to 375
Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl. Add in coconut oil and incorporate with a fork or pastry cutter until the dough looks crumbly, add in soy milk and mix in with for again just til until incorporated. (think pie dough-like)%u00a0 Don’t worry if some of the dough seems dry, it’s fine.
Grease and line a 9×9 pan. Dump a little more then half of the dough mixture in and pat down to cover bottom of pan. Try to make sure it’s all an even thickness.
In a separate bowl, toss together the berries, sugar, arrowroot powder, lemon zest and juice of that lemon. Dump the mixture into pan and evenly distribute over dough. Take the remaining dough and crumble all over the top then just stick it into the hot oven.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until the crumble on top is a nice golden brown.
Remove and let cool completely before cutting.
Cut then eat.
Store squares in fridge, some even say they taste better cold.
I am running extremely low on food in my house, like there isn’t a can of beans or a box of pasta left. Yeah, I have a few zucchini left, but I think that mr might be getting a bit sick of it. (He has had zucchini noodles for lunch and dinner for the past few day). And I was going to go to the grocery store before dinner, but then I didn’t. Why? well because I didn’t really feel like it.
Turns out that I didn’t need to go to the store for dinner.I had a few mushrooms, an onion, and a few stalks of chard left in the fridge. (but pretty much nothing else) I just bought a 25 lb bag of flour so I am all stocked up on that and last minute I found a avocado that I thought was a beet in the fridge. All I needed to make a dinner, and a quick and easy, and really tasty one to boot. Plus being so mother F*ing hot, it was perfect because there was no need to turn on the oven.
Now the question is,now that dinner was made and being that the fridge is so empty, should I clean and defrost it? Answer is yes, yes I should, but am I going to? Probably not. I just don’t have it in me to stand in font of the fridge, hacking ice away with a large spoon and boiling water for an hour. It’s to hot. I’ll do it later.
The stuff. Flour, baking powder, olive oil, salt ans water for the skillet bread. A few humngo stalks of red chard, a couple mushrooms (I would have used a few more if I had them). an onion, and a few cloves of garlic.%u00a0 Missing is the pepper and the avocado and lemon that I found while rummaging the fridge.
The bread is super easy. Just whisk together the flour salt, and baking soda then add in the oil. Mix until it’s crumbly then mix in the water until it turns into a soft dough. Gather into a ball and stick in bowl then into fridge for a few minutes to let the dough rest.
After the dough has rested, take it and cut into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece into ball and then roll out as flat as you can. Heat up a skillet to high heat and once hot, place rolled out flat onto (dry) skillet. Cook first side for about 3-4 minutes or until browned and cook, then turn heat down a bit, flip and cook other side until browned. Remove bread, turn heat back up, and repeat with remaining flats.
For the rest. Remove the leafy part of the chard and set aside .Thinly hop up the mushrooms, onion, and the chard stalk. Mince up the garlic. Toss it all (not the garlic yet)into a lightly oiled skillet , season with salt and pepper, and cook on medium heat until starting to brown. Now toss in a few splashes of water and the minced garlic, mix around, and cover wit a lid. Cook for another 8-10 minutes until the veggies are nice and soft.
Cooked and ready, but wait, chop up the chard leaves and toss them into skillet. Another splash of water and a few more minutes under a lid will wilt them up real quick.
Skillet beads are made, veggies are all nice and cooked up. The avocado and lemon where found, sliced.
Not bad for a last minute-lean out the fridge of all food-dinner. Not bad at all.
Don’t melt
-C
Make 4 flatbread
For the skillet bread
For the rest
To make the skillet bread. Mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. Pour in olive oil and mix until crumbly then add in 4 tablespoons of water (5 if it seems to dry) until a dough forms. Gather dough into a ball, stick in bowl and cover, and place in the fridge to rest for about 10 minutes. Once dough has chilled, remove and cut into 4 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball then, on a clean surface, roll out as flat as you can. Grab a skillet and place on high heat. Once skillet has heated up, place a rolled out dough on hot, un-oiled surface and let cook for about 3-4 minutes or until the bottom cooked with golden brown spots. Turn heat to medium and flip bread. Cook the other side for another 4-5 minutes or until browned. Remove flat and turn heat back up. Cook the rest of the bread like the first one.
For the rest. Remove leafy parts of the chard from the stalk and set aside. Take stalk and chop into pieces about 1/ 2 inch think. Slice onion and mushrooms up as thinly as you can. Mince garlic. Garb a skillet, stick on medium heat and drizzle with a little olive oil. Toss in chard stalk, onions, and mushrooms, sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix around until the stuff starts to brown a bit. Add in a few good splashed of water and the garlic and then place a lid on the skillet. Cook for about 10 minutes, giving the mixture a good stir every few minutes. Once the veggies are all soft and yummy, chop up the remaining chard leafs and place them into the skillet. Add another splash of water and place the lid back on. Cook until the leaves have wilted.
To assemble. Flat bread on plate. Scoop some of the sauteed veggie mixture on top. A few slices of avocado on top with a squeeze of lemon juice and a bit of cracked pepper…You are good to go.
The mr is a saltines fanatic. I personally don’t get it, but he really, truly loves a good fresh package of those salty crispy crackers, and loves to make a little cracker crumb mess. (I think it does it to drive me crazy)
%u00a0The other night during a particularly crumby saltine cracker snack, he declared that the saltine people (who are these people?) must come out with flavored saltines. I then continued to burst his bubble and told him I am pretty sure the saltine people have, in fact, come out with flavors, but he was skeptical and did not believe my words. Whatever dude.
But then I got to thinking, “why the hell haven’t I made flavored saltine crackers yet?” So make flavored crackers I did. I know that the mr is really into dill pickled chips (beause I can smell the when he eats them) and I have been buying these mammoth jars of pickles from the Costco superstore (I love pickles but more then that I need the gigantic jars). so I had me a shit ton of pickle juice. It was meant to be.
The first time I made the crackers, I did a really small batch and wasn’t expecting anything amazing, just going for a decent whatever cracker. But no, the few that I managed to make, the mr went nuts for. He told me they were the best fucking cracker that he has ever had and I now have to make them for him all the time, and that it is now a birthday tradition (it was his birthday). He said they were the prefect dilly-ness, the pefrect texture and just the right amount of salt. Perfection.
Well that made me happy so instead of waiting for his next birthday, I just made a big batch. Again, more proof that I am the best girlfriend ever!
The stuff. Flour, dill pickle juice, olive oil and some dried dill and salt.
Flour into a bowl gets drizzled with olive oil and mix around with a fork.
%u00a0Then in goes the pickles juice , same deal, mix together with a fork until the mixture forms a dough. (almost resembling a pie dough)
Place dough down on counter. Let it sit there for a few minutes to give it time to rest.
After the rest, roll the dough out as thinly as you can (try for about an 1/8 inch).
I found that when I slightly damped the counter that the dough was easier to roll. It might be because I have wood counter top so this may or may not work for you, but is worth a try.
And with a knife or dough cutter (or fancy cracker cutting tool), trim off sides (if you want) and cut into 2 inch squares.
Note. IF you want to, poke a couple little wholes into the tops of the crackers. Doing so will prevent the crackers from poofing up (I was told the poof is good)
And place the crackers on a baking sheet, brush tops with the pickle juice, then sprinkle with chopped dill and a tiny bit of salt.
Stick into the preheated oven.
Bakeuntil they start to turn a light golden brown and arepoofing up a little (go ahead and grab one now for quality control)
These crackers be cracking. And wouldn’t you know it, they are already all gone. Next time I make them I am going to have to hide them.
Have a great weekend!
-C
Makes about fifty 2×2 crackers
Preheat oven to 350
Place flour into a shallow bowl and drizzle the olive oil in. Mix around with a fork. Grab pickle juice and drizzle in 6 tablespoons of the juice and mix with the fork until a dough forms. Add in another tablespoon or two if the dough needs more moisture to come together.
Form dough into a ball and let rest on the counter for a few minutes (good time to wash the dirty dishes)
After the rest, take the dough and roll it out to about 1/8 inch or as thinly as you can. Weirdly enough, I found that I was able to roll my dough out better when I damped my counter. The dough didn’t slide around and it still lifted up easily with a spatula.. but do what works for you.
Once you have rolled the dough, trim sides to clean lines and cut into 2×2 inch squares (you can cut into any shape and or size you like) Any trimming reform into a ball, roll out, and make a few more. (If you want a more authentic looking cracker, you can poke little whole into them. Doing this also make the crackers not poof up when bakes)
Place crackers on a lightly colored (or parchment lined) baking sheet. Brush each cracker top with a little pickle juice and sprinkle the tops with salt and dill. Place in the oven to bake for about 12 minutes or until the crackers have poofed up and are turning slightly brown.
Remove from oven, let cool completely and either eat right away or place in a air tight container for later.
These crackers had no later.
This cake was born from my anxiety. Whenever I am feeling crazy,%u00a0anxious, kinda sick, or even just really happy, I want to be in the kitchen making something. It’s probably some deep seeded control issue that I have (I can’t control my brain, but I can control bread dough), but whatever.%u00a0Being in the kitchen takes my head out of life , even just for a little while, and let’s me concentrate on something else that really has nothing to do with whatever I am thinking about (unless I am thinking about food, in which I bake whatever food I am thinking about) Does this all make sense or am I just nuts?
So yeah, the other day I was having one of those days. I was extra crazy (for so many reasons) and really needed to just step away from my thoughts. I rushed home and just started grabbing stuff.. cake stuff.%u00a0%u00a0I figured that If I was going to bake something that I might as well bake a little snack cake for the mr, especially sense he has to deal with this crazy. I had a large quantity of pears that were all ripening %u00a0at once sitting in the fruit basket, so I grabbed some of those. And I grabbed the ginger%u2026 well because why not.
And I made this cake.. and I felt better. And the mr got cake (also brought some to my sisters.. her and the kids ate it all within minutes). It was a win win situation.%u00a0
So now you know. If you are my friend and I am feeling some feelings, at some point,%u00a0you will proably get a cake.
The stuff. A few pears,some fresh ginger, brown sugar and cinnamon. %u00a0Also have some white whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. And some oil, apple cider vinegar and a little bit of water.
Start with the pears. Cut in half, remove seed and stems, then chop/mince the crap out of them. It’s cool to have a few big chunks., it adds some good texture. Take the pears and as much as the juice you can scrap from the counter and stick into a bowl.
Grate up a few good tablespoons of fresh ginger..
Tip.%u00a0I keep my ginger in the freezer. its easier to grate and it doesn’t go bad!
The ginger goes into the bowl with the pears, along with the oil, cinnamon,%u00a0sugar, water and vinegar. Mix it all up . Then all that wet mixture goes into the bowl with the flour, baking soda and powder and the salt.
And that get’s all mixed.. and now you have cake batter!%u00a0
Depending on you pears and how juicy they are,%u00a0you might find that your batter seems to dry, just add in another 1/4 %u00a0cup of water. The batter should be the consistency of like greek yogurt, not ruing, but not stiff either.
Preheat you cook box (oven)
Dump the batter into a well greased 9×9 inch pan. Slice up another pear into thin strips (I only used half, then ate the other half)
Lay the slices on top to make it look all pretty. Do what I did, or some other design (it’s your cake to make pretty any way you want). Once you do that, stick the cake into the oven.
When the cake is a nice deep golden brown, take it out of the oven.
Maybe let it cool for a few minutes, letting the smell wrap around your head so that you smell like baking all day. No cut yourself a slab, grab some coffee, and go for it.%u00a0
Enjoy
-C
Makes a 9×9 inch single layer cake
Preheat oven to 350
Take pears, remove seeds and stem, and chop the crap out of them until they are tiny little pieces. Scoop pears, and any juice they leave behind into a bowl. Add in the sugar, oil, cinnamon, %u00a0ginger, vinegar,%u00a0%u00a0and %u00a01/4 %u00a0cup of water and mix until incorporated.%u00a0In a seprertare big bowl, mix together the salt, baking soda and powder with the flour. Add in the wet mixture and mix until fully incorporated.%u00a0%u00a0If the batter seems to dry (should be the constancy of whipped potatoes or greek yogurt), add in another 1/4 cup of water.%u00a0
Scoop batter into a greased 9×9 inch baking pan.%u00a0If you want to make it pretty, grab another pear and cut into thin slices and place right on top of the batter in any fashion you like.%u00a0
Place cake into oven and bake until a nice dark golden brown,about 40-45 minutes ,or until a tester stuck in the middle comes out clean.%u00a0
Remove, let cool in pan, and cut yourself a big slab, grab some coffee e to tea, grab a book, and eat it.%u00a0.
This weekend was pretty fantastic. I got a lot of little things done around the house that needed to be done and spent half of that time hanging out in my pjs. (Pjs can be working loathes too) And all the while I was doing stuff, I was making these rolls. (I am nothing if not a great multi-tasker) That’s my favorite kind of weekend.. Baking, while doing house chores. and maybe watching tv or listening to music. (or NPR.. but saying that makes me sound so old).%u00a0I am like a little old house wife (I am close) and it makes me feel like I have achieved greatness!
And baking bread is the best. I love making bread. I %u00a0love the act of mixing and kneading the dough. The waiting and anticipation of the dough rising.The smells of good bread baking. It’s a very cathartic experience, and it also results in some very tasty bread that,%u00a0in my house, get’s eaten at an alarming speed (fresh bread doesn’t last long with the mr) But don’t let all that time waiting around scare you away from making bread, cause when you take out the time spent letting dough rise, bread really takes about 8 minutes to make. And people who make fresh bread are always the coolest people.%u00a0
So these rolls. These rolls are soft and fluffy and tender,, slight sweet, slightly spicy, and all over freaking fantastic.%u00a0I mean, it’s parsnip and pepper so what can go wrong with that?. The mr ate a good few pretty much as soon as I pulled them out of the oven(again..fresh bread doesn’t last long)%u00a0and when I brought the rest over to my sisters house, those were devoured as well. Even the littles were super into them. %u00a0And I now that it’s a few weeks away but%u2026. Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away!!! It’s creepy up oh so fast (as usual) and I am not going to let it get the best of me this year. And now that I got my roll game down for the big day (or 3.. there are 3 Thanksgivings that we are attending), I can move onto more pressing things.. like al the pies.(I’ll be sharing some pies with you soon)
The stuff. %u00a0We gots some flour, salt, cracked pepper and a really big parsnip. Also have water, yeast, sugar and some melting earth balance .%u00a0
To start, chop up the parsnip into small chunks and stick them into a pot with enough water to fully semerge the chunks. Place on stove and bring to a boil then turn heat to medium high and let the parsnips cook.
Once the parsnip are fork tender, strain the water (reserving 3/4 cup of that water)%u00a0and puree the parsnip until smooth.
Take %u00a0that parsnip water and (once cooled a bit) place in bowl with the sugar and the yeast and mix it all around. Let sit for a few minutes until the yeast is visibly active.
Now dump the parsnip puree and melted butter into with the yeast and mix it all up
Salt, pepper, and flour mixed into a bowl
The yeast and parsnip mixture goes into the flour.%u00a0
And mix until it looks kind like this. When it’s no longer mixable with the spoon, dump dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead, adding a little bit of flout to the work surface when needed to prevent it from sticking..
And keep kneading unitl dough is all nice and smooth and pretty.
Dough then goes into a lightly oiled bowl %u00a0and is covered with a towl and let to sit for about an hour until the dough doubles in size.%u00a0
When the dough has doubled, dump onto the counter and cut into 12 equalish sized balls. (my balls were not equal)
The balls then go into a %u00a0large, lightly oiled pan. Let those sit for some more time,covered with a towel,%u00a0unit the dough %u00a0doubles again and the balls are all touching each other. They are ready to bake.. but right before you place them in the oven, brush the tops with a little melted earth balance.
And into the oven they go!!!
And when the rolls are all golden brown and smelling so nice,%u00a0remove from oven. Brush tops with some more melted earth balance and sprinkle with salt and more pepper.
Serve up to people you like
Have a n awesome day!
-C
Makes 12-16 rolls (depending on the size you make them)
To start, chop parnsips into chunks and place into a pot full of water. Bring to boil and cook until the parsnips are fork tender. Remove parsnips from water and measure out 3/4 cups of the water and set aside Take cooked parnsips and stick in a blender and puree until smooth. Measure out 3/4 cups of the puree.(any left eat as a snack)
Let both the puree and water cool enough that %u00a0you can stick a finger in it and its not to hot (or a thermometer that says its below 110.. your call).
Once cooled, stick the water, sugar, and yeast into a bowl, mix around, and let yeast activate. When yeast is foamy and clearly noted that it is not dead, dump in the parsnip mash, 2 tablespoons melted earth balance,and mix together. And then for the flour. Mix in the salt and pepper to the flour mix in the parsnip yeast mixture until a dough forms. The dough should be a little sticky, but still workable. If the dough seems to wet, add in another 1/4 cup flour at a time, just till it is bot overly sticky.%u00a0
Dump dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, or until the dough starts to look glossy and ihas an elastic quality to it.%u00a0
Stick dough into a greased bowl, over with a towel, and place in a warm place for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. Once doubles, dump dough out onto counter and using a dough cutter or serrated knife, cut the dough into 12 -16 equal pieces Take each piece and roll into a ball and place into a greased 9×12 baking pan. Once all balls are in, cover with towel and let the dough rise %u00a0until the balls are doubled in size and are toughing each other,for another 30 minutes or so. Preheat the oven to 350. Once the rolls are double again, right before you stick them into the oven, brush tops with melted earth balance
Place rolls into preheated oven and baked for about 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.%u00a0
Remove and right away, brush on any remaining earth balance to the tops and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Serve right away!%u00a0
Best eaten the day the are made.. but will last a few days in an air tight container.%u00a0
I remember reading somewhere (I wish I could remember where) that irish soda bread is just four ingredients, flour, sea salt, baking soda and buttermilk and adding %u00a0anything else would make %u00a0it a cake. So when I decided to make irish soda bread, thats all I used. ( I made it with some wheat flour) What you end up with is a highly dense, super fragrant, soft, chewy bread with a crunchy crust. Definitely not a cake.
Note%u2026.You can for sure add in a bit of sweetener or even little fat to make it richer and softer, but then it wouldn’t be bread (or so that’s what I read) There are tons of other recipes out there that have other stuff in them. This is just a really simple basic recipe.%u00a0
Stick in into the oven for 50 ish minutes, or unit la tester stuck into the middle comes out clean and there is kind of a hollow thunk when tapped on.%u00a0
And now you have a very pretty, dense hunk of irish soda bread.%u00a0
Cut and serve with butter and honey (thats how the mister likes it) or whatever you want to eat it with.
-C
Irish Soda Bread
Preheat oven to 375
In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt. Mix in buttermilk until the dough starts to come together. If the dough seems to dry, add another splash or two of milk. Dump out dough onto a floured surface and shape into a ball. transfer onto a baking sheet, dust with flour and cut a x about 1/2 inch into the top. Stick into oven for 50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the bread makes a hollow sound when tapped.
Let cool enough to handle.
Cut into and serve with a smear of whatever you want
Best eaten within a day or two