No-Knead Bread

I knew that if I was going to have a food blog, this no-knead bread would show up soon.  Have you heard of it?  After the recipe appeared in Mark Bittman’s New York Times column in 2006, it quickly became a phenomenon with bakers and bloggers everywhere.

I didn’t pay much attention to the craze at the time, because I wasn’t too confident with baking bread, and I didn’t think I had anything to bake it in.  When I got myself a pot and gave it a try in 2010, I wondered what had taken me so long.  It turns out that you don’t have to be an experienced bread baker to make this recipe work.  Not only will it work, it will bake into possibly the best bread you’ve ever had.  It has a golden, crackly crust with a soft and slightly chewy interior.  The inside is full of holes that are perfect for dipping in vinegar or sopping up pasta sauce.  And it makes a fantastic grilled cheese sandwich.

The best thing I’ve learned about this bread is that it really can’t be messed up.  Want bread for dinner but don’t have twelve hours to let it sit?  Start it in the morning and let it sit eight hours.  Don’t have bread flour?  Use all-purpose flour.  Want to add whole-grain goodness?  Mix in some whole wheat pastry flour.  The pretty ball of dough turned into a weird glob when it was moved into the pot?  It will turn into a beautifully rustic loaf of bread.

Friday Faves

Happy Friday!

When we discover new things in my family, we don’t keep the information all to ourselves.  We love to share.  Our current favorite things might fall under any category from new beauty products to books to new varieties of apples.  We know that if it brings a smile to our face, it might to someone else, too.  We may or may not have borrowed the concept from a certain queen of all media.  Anyway, I do have a few favorites to share.

1.  My favorite foundation ever.  I ordered one bottle of this over the summer for $5 and I should have bought more.  I can’t believe how smooth this stuff goes on.  (photo from Stila cosmetics)

2.  This is my favorite Keurig flavor, Cafe Escapes Chai Latte.  Perhaps it would go well with a slice of chai spice cake.  (photo from Amazon.com)

3.  I love this shiny lip gloss from Philosophy that I got from my mom.  It is fabulous to apply over any shade of lipstick.  (photo from sephora.com)

What’s your fave right now?

Chai Spice Tea Cake

Get it?  I think that tea cakes are usually sweet cakes baked as a loaf and meant to be served with tea, but this cake actually has tea in it.

So many times I’ve wanted to like drinking tea, especially after being lured in by the sweet and spicy aromas.  But then I take a sip, and nope, still don’t like it.  I do really like chai teas and lattes, black tea beverages made with milk and lots of warm, soothing spices like cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger.

Nacho Time

My baking assistant makes some mighty fine nachos.

Crunchy chips topped with cheese, salsa, green chiles,
scallions, sour cream, and lots of red pepper.  So good.

Red Velvet Cake Roll, second try

As I flipped through a recent issue of Food Network Magazine, I spotted a photo of a red velvet cake roll that looked delicious.  I’d made one similar to it before, but this was a little different.  It involved boiling down cherry-cola to a syrup and adding it to the batter.  And so the story goes, I was in.  It all started out well. I opened the one bottle of soda I bought when I went grocery shopping, poured it into a saucepan, and boiled it down to a super sweet concoction.  I mixed up the batter, put it in the oven, and it baked up beautifully.  From there, it was a kitchen failure.

As I started to roll the cake, it fell apart before I could even complete one roll.  I make pumpkin rolls, and they tend to crack a little just to keep me from getting too confident.  But these were not cracks.  I’m talking tearing completely apart from one side to the other with each roll.  This was not a cake roll, but several long strips of red velvet cake.  Hmph.  I started to dump the entire thing in the trash (as I’ve done with more baking projects than I care to think about), but I tasted it first.  It tasted fine, but I certainly couldn’t taste any of the cherry-cola flavor.  I decided to freeze the failed cake.  Who knows, maybe I’ll try making red velvet cake balls.

But I wasn’t ready to give up.  The day was still young, and I wanted to make a cake roll.  I took a deep breath, grabbed a diet Dr. Pepper from the fridge, and started over.  Since the flavor didn’t even come through, I didn’t waste another trip to the store for cherry cola.  I went to the recipe from Baking for All Occasions that I made a few years back for Christmas.

Focaccia Bread

I am far from being an expert bread baker, but I do love getting my hands a bit messy and working with yeast dough.  I like watching the bubbles form after combining yeast with warm water and a little sugar.  I like dumping the gooey ball of dough in a bowl and watching it transform into a soft pillow after rising.  Focaccia is a great starting place for working with bread dough.  You get the rewards of fresh-baked bread while skipping a lot of the intimidation factors that sometimes come with it.

One batch of this flat bread can be enjoyed several different ways.  You can tear off pieces for dipping in oil and vinegar.  As bread stick-sized slices, it’s perfect alongside a bowl of soup.  Sliced through the middle, it makes a great sandwich.

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

That’s right.  One bowl is all that is needed to mix up these chocolatey treats.If you’re looking for a dessert that you can mix up quickly without washing every dish in your kitchen afterwards, this is it.

I topped them with tangy cream cheese frosting, but it’s difficult to imagine a frosting that wouldn’t pair well with these.