Loaded bread (Mellow Bakers: April)

Who would've thought that our final bread for April, a bread with "things" in it, would end up being my favorite for the month? I do not generally like "things" in my bread...not fruit, nuts, big chunks of spices. And this one has all three!

This is supposed to be Hazelnut and Fig Bread with Fennel Seeds and Rosemary. I couldn't find hazelnuts, and I don't like them anyway, so I decided to sub in walnuts. And then the figs that were in my pantry ended up being really old and hard; I was able to salvage about half as much as I needed. A friend of my mom's recently gave her a giant bag of currants, which she passed on to me, and I've been dying to use them in a bread. So I subbed in currants for the remaining weight of figs.

So here we are with Walnut, Fig, Currant, Fennel, and Rosemary Whole Wheat Bread. This is a one-day bread from the straight dough section. I mixed bread flour, whole wheat flour, instant yeast, salt, fennel seeds, rosemary, and water, for about three minutes. Then I added in the nuts and fruit; I had to incorporate them by hand. After a two hour rise with one fold, I shaped my half-batch into four mini-boules (about 8 ounces each). I baked them for about 28 minutes at 425 F.

These were surprisingly tasty, especially with a little butter. They were a strange but flavorful addition to our dinner (cider-baked ham, chantilly potatoes, cucumber salad, and angel food cake).

Modern Baker Challenge: Roman almond and pine nut tart

As I said yesterday, I baked two mini-tarts last night with my last two chunks of frozen sweet tart dough: we had the banana walnut tart for dessert last night, and it was okay. We saved the Roman almond and pine nut tart for breakfast this morning because NM says it is better served as a tea pastry than for dessert.

I thought this recipe had a weird ingredient list: almond paste, sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, lemon zest, flour, and pine nuts. In fact, I wasn't even going to make it until Kayte (the official blogger for this recipe) said that it was her new favorite recipe from the book.

I've never cooked with almond paste before, and wasn't able to find it the last time I had a recipe that called for it. Luckily, I found it the other day, and picked up a tube. It was odd stuff, more solid than paste-y, but I chopped it up and gave it a whir in my stand mixer with some sugar. Then I added in the egg, butter, and the rest of the ingredients, plopped it in the mini-tart pan, and pressed a thin layer of pine nuts into the top. I baked it for about 24 minutes. (I made 1/4 recipe for my mini-tart pan, filled the pan pretty full, and had just a tiny bit of filling left over.)

I snuck a bite before giving it to hubby for his breakfast this morning...and then another...and then another. This tart was such a pleasant surprise: so incredibly yummy! I think it would be a fun addition to a brunch, and I'm definitely putting it on the make-again list!

Modern Baker Challenge: Banana walnut tart

Hubby says this tart is like being the slowest guy on the US Olympic 4x100 relay team: it's our least favorite of the Modern Baker tarts so far, but that's not saying much given how ultra-amazing the others have been. It's still pretty good.

I had enough sweet tart dough left for two mini tarts; I decided to make one banana walnut tart and one roman almond and pine nut tart.

The filling for the banana walnut tart came together more quickly than any of the others so far: brown sugar, walnuts, softened butter, egg, cinnamon, vanilla, flour, and baking powder are all mixed in the food processor. A banana is sliced and placed on the crust floor; the filling is poured over the bananas; chopped walnuts are placed on top. I made 1/4 of the filling recipe and used it all...this was a little mistake, as the filling overflowed just a bit in the oven (didn't make that big of a mess, though). I baked it for 26 minutes, until the tart was golden and set.

The sweet, jammy bananas were yummy, the walnuts provided a nice crunch. I doubt I'll make it again, but only because there are already so many of the must-redo-and-soon list.

Mellow Bakers: Flaxseed bread (April)

After two (yes, there was another failed attempt) attempts at my first Mellow Bakers April bread, pain au levain, I decided to move along. I've been craving cucumber and cream cheese on rye sandwiches lately, so I made a loaf of flaxseed bread this weekend.

The flaxseeds were an interesting addition to this otherwise normal sourdough rye. They are soaked overnight in cold water, and by the time I was ready to bake, they had the most interesting, almost gel-like consistency.

The bread was made with rye flour, bread flour, water, salt, a tiny bit of yeast, the flaxseed soaker, and a rye sourdough starter. It went pretty quickly; each fermentation period was only about an hour, although after coming out of the oven, the bread stays wrapped overnight before tasting.

The bread made perfect lunchtime sandwiches: cucs and cream cheese for me, meat and cheese and mustard for the hubby.

Bake! Carrot cake

Our next Bake! recipe is the Best and Easiest Carrot Cake, chosen by Phyl.

I was hoping to make this one this weekend, but we really really didn't need any more sweets in the house. And then there was the incident yesterday morning of (briefly, but scarily) losing the little girl at the zoo...by the time I got home, I was not exactly in a baking frame of mind. But peer pressure is a wonderful thing, and my Twitter friends assured me that baking was exactly what I needed to feel better.

So I made a batch of carrot cake mini-cupcakes. This really was a super easy recipe: mix flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; then combine the dry ingredients with melted butter, brown sugar, and safflower oil. Add grated carrots and chopped pecans, fill the muffin cups, and bake!

I made 1/2 batch of the recipe which perfectly filled the 24 cups in my mini muffin tin. I baked them for 26 minutes, which ended up being too long. I think I'll try 22-24 minutes next time. I made 1/3 of the cream cheese frosting recipe; next time, I'll make 1/2. I didn't have quite enough for all of the cupcakes, and the frosting was very yummy.

Even slightly overdone, the cupcakes were not at all dry and were really tasty. Hubby and I both brought plates to work today, and they met with rave reviews. And both of our plates had a few missing cupcakes because the kiddos spotted them this morning; both kids loved them (although they did ask us to take the nuts out).

I have a fancy-schmancy carrot cake that is very rich (and very time-consuming); this one might not replace that one for fancy occasions. But this is definitely the best easiest carrot cake recipe!

(No carrot cake cupcakes survived for a daylight photo op; check out Kayte's blog for pictures of how pretty this cake can be! )

Modern Baker Challenge: Blueberry Crumble Pie

Here is my official recipe for the sweet tarts and pies section of the Modern Baker Challenge, and boy, did I make a good choice. Hubby just declared that blueberry crumble pie is the best so far, even better than the amazing bourban-scented pecan-walnut tart or the to-die-for bittersweet chocolate tart.

I've been enjoying my mini tart pans, so that we can try a lot of recipes without having a lot of extra desserts floating around, but I don't have any small pie plates. I asked my dad, who was able to dig up an 8 1/2" pie plate, just slightly smaller than a regular 9". I used a little under 3/4 of the sweet tart crust recipe (about 270 g) and exactly 3/4 of the topping and filling recipes. It all fit perfectly.

The crumble topping was made by combining melted butter with light brown sugar, and then stirring them into a flour, baking powder, cinnamon mixture.

To start the filling, I put about 1/4 of the blueberries into a saucepan with sugar. These were cooked over low heat until the blueberries gave up their juices and started to boil. Then a corn starch/water mixture was added and the blueberries were stirred until they thickened into a nice syrup. Finally, the blueberry syrup was folded into the rest of the blueberries and some fresh nutmeg.

I scraped it all into the pie plate and then had to take a picture of the empty bowl, which was an incredibly beautiful deep purple color. As I was sprinkling on the chunks of topping, the process began to feel familiar, and I suddenly remembered that the blueberry crumble muffins were my very first official Modern Baker post; I guess I'm pretty predictable! With the muffins, I hadn't used all of the topping. NM himself actually left comments for most of us on the Modern Baker Challenge website, and in my comment, he said that I should've used all of the topping. So even though it seemed like a lot, I used it all this time.

I let my pie bake for the full 40 minutes; the crust was starting to get a little dark, but it needed the full 40 minutes for the topping to cook through all of the way.

We served it with some of the best vanilla ice cream that I'd made last night. I cannot describe how perfect the flavor combinations were: the fantasticness of the ice cream was almost overshadowed by the amazingness of the blueberry pie. Mmmm, I could go for another piece right now........You must try this recipe.

Pumpkin pie tart and the best vanilla ice cream

I was so excited to try the next recipe on my list in the Modern Baker Challenge: pumpkin-pecan buttermilk tart...and I almost did. (Notice anything missing in the picture?)

This was such an easy recipe; I had a cup of pumpkin in the freezer, leftover from some pumpkin muffins this past fall, so I made 2/3 of the recipe. I mixed the defrosted pumpkin with eggs, sugar, salt, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, freshly grated nutmeg, and some buttermilk. I poured half of it into two mini tart pans and half into a mini-casserole dish.

And then I got into a conversation with my husband and distractedly put the three pans into the oven. It wasn't until ten minutes later, when we'd finished our conversation and I sat down to relax in the family room for a minute, that I realized that I completely forgot the pecan topping! Argh!!!

It's not that I'm not happy to make this recipe again...it's a very delicious pumpkin pie...but there are so many good recipes in this section and I already feel like we've been eating way too many desserts lately. So I may just say that this recipe was yummy, and I'm guessing it would have been even better with the pecans, and hopefully I'll get around to trying it the right way some day.

I made a recipe of David Lebovitz's best vanilla ice cream from The Perfect Scoop (similar recipe here), and oh-my-goodness, we've never tasted a better vanilla ice cream. It was truly amazing, and the perfect accompaniment to my almost-pumpkin pecan buttermilk tart.