Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Chocolate Filled Bundt Bread #BreadBakers


This lovely Bundt loaf boasts loads of dark chocolate in a slightly sweet yeast bread, with a thick chocolate glaze. Perfect for a decadent breakfast or even dessert.

This month my Bread Bakers are pushing out the cacao boat, using cocoa, chocolate or carob in a variety of breads. Many thanks to my fellow Dubai blogger, Shireen from Ruchik Randhap, who is hosting this great event.

I bookmarked this recipe from Just a Pinch more than a year ago, renaming it Chocolate Filled Yeast Bundt Cake so maybe Bread. From a quick read through, it sure sounded more like bread than cake. I ended up adjusting a few ingredients so it's even more bread-like than the original but whatever you call it, it's good and chocolatey.

Ingredients
For the dough:
4 cups or 500g all purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
1/4 cup or 50g sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/3 cup or 315ml warm milk (110°F or 43°C)

Note: If you are using organic or unpasteurized milk, heat it to 180°F or 82°C and then cool down to the right temperature. Read more about how, why and when to scald milk here at Pastry Chef Online.

For the filling:
12 oz or 340g dark chocolate

For the glaze:
6 oz or 170g dark chocolate,
2 tablespoons butter, plus extra for greasing Bundt pan
1 tablespoon golden syrup

Optional: Sprinkles for decorating

Method
Grease a 10-inch  or 25cm Bundt cake pan with butter and sprinkle with flour.

Sift the flour into the bowl of your stand mixer and add salt, yeast, sugar, eggs and warm milk.



Mix with the bread hook until all of the flour has been incorporated into the wet ingredients and you have a sticky dough.



Cover the dough bowl with a kitchen towel and leave it in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough doubles in size.



When the hour is almost up, melt the 12 oz of dark chocolate either in a double boiler or in the microwave with a few short zaps. Set it aside to cool a bit.



Sprinkle your clean work surface with flour and knead the dough for a few minutes.

Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape that is 12 x 16 in or 31x41cm. Spread the cooled chocolate on it.


Roll the up the dough, jelly roll style, starting from the longer side. Pinch the ends together.



Quickly move the roll to your greased Bundt cake pan, trying to make sure the seam side is down. Sprinkle with flour and then cover with a towel for 30 minutes.



Start preheating your oven so it will be at 350°F or 180°C when the 30 minutes are up.

After half an hour


Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Leave plenty of headroom for the bread to rise. Because rise it certainly will!


Leave to cool for about 15-20 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack. I had to trim some off of one side of my bottom to get it to stand up straight.


For the glaze, warm up all ingredients in a double boiler or with a few good zaps in a microwaveable bowl until chocolate is melted. Let it cool a little and pour over the bread.

Decorate with sprinkles, if desired.



Enjoy!




Breads with Cocoa, Cacao or Carob in any form
Posted by at 4:48:00 AM 1 comments
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Sunday, March 6, 2016

Browned Butter Braised Baby Turnips

Sweet baby turnips, cooked till tender then pan-roasted in browned butter are seasoned with garlic and thyme for a special side dish where this much maligned root vegetable shines.
 


When I say much maligned, I am talking about by me personally. When I was young, my mom made a delicious vegetable soup with beef that was the perfect meal for a chilly day, except that in addition to chunks of potato, she also added similarly cut turnips. Try as I might when serving my bowl, I invariably ended up with a turnip or two. I did not like turnips, not one bit. The potential of the unexpected bitter bite made eating that otherwise tasty soup like spooning my way through a minefield of bitter turnips that might be masquerading as innocent potatoes.

I am more fifty years old now and I decided at the end of last year that I should give turnips another try. After all, some say that our tastes change every seven years and it has probably been a good 35 or 40 since I last accidently ate a turnip. (I certainly never ate one intentionally.) My mom says that since turnips are a winter crop, that is when they are they are tender and most flavorful.  

Before Christmas I bought a few and started searching “turnip recipes for haters”  and “turnip recipes for turnip haters.” A surprising number show up! Time for a true confession: Despite the research and initial enthusiasm my motivation was low and I ended up conveniently forgetting the turnips in the vegetable drawer. I found them there, wizened, in the new year and threw them away with just the slightest twinge of regret and guilt for wasting food.

When the root vegetable event was announced for Sunday Supper, I knew what I had to do: Pull up my big girl panties, buy some more turnips and get serious about creating a recipe that I might eat. I found some baby turnips that said, “Naturally sweet and tender” which seemed like a promising place to start. The baby turnips brought to mind a recipe I had tested for America's Test Kitchen for brown butter braised new potatoes so the recipe part was settled quickly, even as I put the babies in my shopping basket.

I am pleased to tell you that I am now a turnip eater. At least of baby ones cooked with browned butter, garlic and thyme. Sure, some of them were still a little bitter but not any more than Brussels sprouts, which I adore.

Small turnips work best with this recipe, but you could also use larger turnips and quarter them.

Ingredients
1 lb or 450g baby turnips
1 cup or 240ml water
3 tablespoons or 43g unsalted butter
3 garlic cloves, peeled
3 sprigs fresh thyme, plus extra to garnish, if desired
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper

Method
Top and tail the turnips. That is, trim both the root and the stem ends down to the white part. Cut the baby turnips in half.


Arrange turnips in single layer, cut side down, in a large non-stick skillet.

Add water, butter, garlic, thyme, and salt and bring to simmer over medium-high heat.



Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer until turnips are just tender, about 10 minutes.



Use a slotted spoon to transfer garlic to small bowl with the lemon juice. Use the tip of a sharp knife to cut the garlic into small bits. Add in a few generous grinds of fresh black pepper.


Increase the heat under the uncovered turnip pan to medium-high and vigorously simmer, swirling the pan occasionally, until the water completely evaporates and the butter starts to sizzle, 7 to 10 minutes.



Continue to cook turnips, swirling pan frequently, until butter browns and turnips are golden and roasty looking, 6-7 minutes longer.

Just at the end, add the garlic/lemon juice mixture and toss to thoroughly coat.

If you are transferring the baby turnips to a serving bowl, make sure to scrape the pan with a silicone spatula and drizzle all the lovely browned butter over them.



Garnish with additional thyme, if desired.



Enjoy!

Are you a fan of root vegetables? If your answer is yes, you are in for a treat this week with such a great line up of recipes from our Sunday Supper tastemakers. If not, perhaps we’ll win you over! Many thanks to Cindy from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings who is hosting this week.

Appetizers
Breakfast
Main
Sides
Desserts
Posted by at 4:06:00 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Sopa Seca de Fideo - Spicy Mexican Noodles #FoodieExtravaganza

A deliciously spicy noodle dish with roots in Mexico, this sopa seca de fideo or dry noodle soup is made with fine vermicelli, Mexican chorizo, chipotle peppers and tomato sauce.

Once upon a time in the plazas around San Antonio, Texas there were street vendors who sold deliciousness called the chili queens. They specialized in down home Mexican cooking, just like Mama used to make. Despite living for many of my formative years just three hours’ drive away in Houston, I first learned about the chili queens from an article in the Houston Chronicle in 2006, almost 20 years after I had moved away. The recipe was shared as Fideos Mexicanos and looked simple and tasty so I found it online then copied and pasted it into a Word doc, determined some day to try it. Ten long years later, that day has come!

Before I started cooking, I did a little more research about the chili queens of San Antonio and discovered that the beginning of their reign dates back almost 150 years and their pots of chili, tamales, beans and other wholesome cooking were the draw that made plazas of San Antonio come alive at night. They were accompanied by wandering troubadours and the wide mix of customers were there as much for the spectacle and community as the food. If you’d like to learn more about the tradition and history of the chili queens, I recommend this link from University of the Incarnate Word – San Antonio and this story on NPR.

Further research also revealed that there are many recipes for Mexican fideos, also known as sopa seca (dry soup) de fideos (of noodles). Since I had some homemade Mexican chorizo leftover from this enchilada callejera recipe (which, coincidentally, is also street food from a cookbook by San Antonio residents) and some chipotle peppers in the freezer, I mixed and matched a few to come up with this dish. It’s not only tasty but it’s perfect for this month’s Foodie Extravaganza party where we are celebrating noodles. Make sure to scroll down to see all the noodles dishes my fellow members are sharing.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
About 10 1/2 oz or 300g Mexican chorizo
8 oz or 227g vermicelli (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 small onion
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 garlic clove
1 can (8 oz or 227g) tomato sauce (not paste)
2 teaspoons chipotle in adobo
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Optional to garnish: sprig cilantro

Method
Chop your onion, garlic and chipotle peppers and set them aside.



Pan-fry your chorizo in one tablespoon of the oil, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks, until it is crispy and brown. Remove the chorizo with a slotted spoon and set aside.



Add the other tablespoon of the oil to the same frying pan and heat over medium-high heat. Add the noodles to the pan, stirring constantly to prevent them from burning. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until brown. I did that flipping thing with the noodles, like you see chefs do on television. If you can do that without losing all the noodles, it really keeps them moving and browning evenly.



Add the onions, cumin seeds and garlic to the browned noodles and cook for a few more minutes, stirring or tossing regularly to soften the onions.



Add in the tomato sauce, chipotle peppers and 2 cups or 275ml water. Stir well.



Cover and simmer for five minutes. Add the crispy chorizo back into the pot.

Stir well and cook, covered, for another few minutes or until the noodles are soft. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!



Do you have favorite noodle dish or are you looking for new inspiration? I've got some for you!



Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out here.



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Posted by at 4:42:00 AM 2 comments
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