Home made buiscits

Once you try this recipe you wont go back to the prepacked biscuits any more! It takes minutes to make this ones and they are so soft and yummy out of the oven....
Made a dozen last night at 6PM, my little princes just had to have them, and ate 3 of them after diner ;). think about tummy capacity of a 4 year old...
They can be topped with garlic, cheese, herbs - use your imagination here!
I love them with sesame seeds or garlic and mozzarella cheese ;), Kids like them plain. How about you?

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
7 Tablespoons butter
3/4 cup buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 435F.
Grease baking pan.
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the cold and sliced butter to the flour mix and place them in a food processor for 3-4  mins, In case you don't have food processor get a fork and start pressing the butter and mixing it with the flour and the same time. It will take some time to combine them both, but you will get there, You can also use the spiral whiskers from your mixer, just be careful the flour will be spread all over your kitchen.

Once this is done add the buttermilk and make a soft dough.  Knit it for about 5 mins.

form a roll around 3 '' thick that you will cut into 12 pieces.

Place each piece in the baking pan and brush with some oil. Here you can top the biscuits with cheese, seeds, garlic if you want.
Bake in a preheated oven for 15 min or until golden on top.
TIPS:
If you prefer you can mix in some cheese or herbs in the dough right before forming a roll and cutting it.

Enjoy!

Dinner rolls

This is a no fail recipe!!!! Very soft and delicious rolls.
Can be made bigger for sandwich  buns
They hold well for 2-3 days, if they stay for so long ;),  and can be taken on a road trip, picnic, or any other place ;)
Kids can eat them for breakfast, with little butter and jam, lunch or dinner.

Ingredients:
1 pkg yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1/4 cup butter
2 table spoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon cornmeal
1 table spoon oil or butter to brush the rolls before baking

Method:

Devolve the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water with 1 teaspoon flour, sugar and little salt. Keep aside for 5 mins.
Mix room temperature buttermilk, butter, remaining sugar, salt, baking coda, egg and yeast. Beat well until well blended. Add flour to form soft dough. Knead for 10 minutes and place in a greased bowl in a dark warm place to rise for about 1 hour.
Punch down the dough and knead for about 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface.
divide into 24 small or 12 big pieces. Shape each one as a ball. Grease a skillet or a baking dish and place the rolls in it. Cover with cloth and let rise until doubled. Brush the top with oil or warm butter and bake for  18-20 mins or until golden brown in a preheated oven at 375F.
Let the rolls cool down and remove them from the skillet or the pan.

Enjoy!!!

Focaccia

Who doesn't like this flat Italian bread? Coated with sea salt and herbs....yum yum yum...You can dip it in seasoned olive oil, eat it with herbal butter or any spread you like! You just cant get enough of it! Am I not right?

It's so simple to make and the aroma coming out while baking it will make you want to eat it right out of the oven still warm and burning your tongue. Its wort trying it again and again topped with your own herbal combination, caramelized onions, olive olives or just pesto :).

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1pkg yeast (7g)
5 table spoons olive oil
1 table spoon salt
water to make the dough , I think it comes to 1 1/2 cup, still start with 1 and go on as much as needed.

Seasoning
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt

Optional:
oregano, basil, or any other herb you like to add here.
caramelized red onions, olives or cherry tomatoes...

Method:

Preheat the oven to 400F.
Dissolve yeast in a half cup warm water. Keep it in a warm and dark place for 10 mins for the yeast to ferment well.
Meanwhile mix flour and salt. Add 2 table spoon olive oil, yeast, and water to make a dough. Start kneading for about 10 min until dough is smooth and elastic. Leave the dough to rest in a warm, dark place until doubles its size. Make sure to oil the bowl in which you will keep the dough and cover it with dump cloth while resting. To speed up the process, you can preheat the oven little bit and leave the dough in it to
rest.
Grease 9 or 10 '' round baking pan.
Next, take the dough out and knead for a few minutes. Press it down to form a circle to fit in your baking pan.
Leave it to rise for 30 mins. 

Right before baking make wells all over the focaccia while poking the dough with a finger.
Coat the bread with the remaining olive oil using pastry brush. Sprinkle sea salt and any herbs you are using.
Bake for 20-25 mins until the bread is pale gold.
Let the focaccia cool down little bit and its ready to eat!!!



Enjoy!!!!

Flower Bread

Here is one more recipe of a home made round bread:

Flower Bread

Ingredients:

3 eggs

4 cups flour ( I used 2 all purpose, 2 whole wheat)

1 and 1/2 cup yogurt

1/2 cup oil

1 tablespoon yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons warm water

Method:

Mix 2 tablespoons warm water with sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, yeast and a teaspoon flour. Let it rest for 10-15 mins in a warm dark place.

Grease and 9 inch round baking pan.

In a bowl mix the flour and rest of the salt. 

Pull the flour to the ends of the bowl and pour in the center the yeast, oil and yogurt.

Start mixing until it forms a dough. Transfer to a floured flat surface and start to knit until the dough is smooth, 10-15 mins. The more you knit the dough, the better and not only for this bread, for most of them unless is stated otherwise!!! 

If you need add more flour to the working area, make sure the dough doesn't stick to the flat surface you are using to knit it! 

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and cover with a towel. Keep in a warm and dark place until it doubles it size, around 1 or 1:30 hour. I usually preheat the oven little bit  and let the dough rest there. It works great for me :). Do not open the oven until you are ready to use it again. Start the light to check how it is doing if you need to.

Next, you will take the dough and separate one big piece for the center, 8 small for the flower petal, and 6 smaller for the rest of the flower pieces.

Form a round ball  and place it in the middle of the baking dish. Take each of the bigger 8 pieces and roll them out to a rectangle shape, then just roll them and place around the big circle. Do same with the smaller pieces and place them in between the big 8 petals.

Cover with towel and let it rest for 30 min in a warm dark place again. The dough will rise. Brush oil or egg yoke on top if you wish, you can also spread some sesame seeds, or sea salt. IN case you are brushing the top with an egg, do not use cold egg straight from the fridge. It needs to be room temperature. If the egg is cold it will make the risen bread flatten immediately and the bread wont bake well.

Bake in preheated to 350 oven for about 30-35 mins

Before taking it out check with tooth peek if its ready. Insert the tooth peek in the middle of the bred, if it comes out clean the bread is ready, if it's sticky you need to bake it for some more time. Keep checking every 5 mins.

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TIPS:

Make sure you always have extra flour handy in case you need more to form a soft, non sticky dough.

If the dough seems too dry, oil your hands and knit it until it feels smooth. You may need to add some more oil to it, that is fine, just work with very small amount at a time. Enjoy!

Leftovers

So many times we have leftovers we wonder what to do with..
Here, I will post ideas what we can do with some of them:

Plain Rice
Rice can be frozen in small portions and added to soups, sauces, or cooked with other ingredients to a delicious meal.

If you are making a puree soup, or you want to thicken the consistency of the soup just add the defrosted rice to the blender and here it is!
You can also add the defrosted rice to chicken, meatball, or potato soup at the end.

Bread

Air dry the bread, cut into pieces and blend it to a fine bread crumbs.
Here you can make Italian bread crumbs, by adding Parmesan cheese, dry basil, thyme or oregano.
Another type bread crumbs: mix in dry garlic powder and black paper;
or cumin, coriander, chili powders;
or paprika, dry parsley and black paper;

The bread can be cut into cubes. Mix oil and any of the above mention combination. Mix both and bake to dry on med temperature for 1 or 1.30. Cool down and use in salads and soups.

Sweet bread "Sun"

This is a sweet version of the previous bread I posted.
Its worth trying both of them!!

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup and 1 table spoon sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 table spoon lemon juice
1 tea spoons salt
1 table spoon yeast ( 2 pk)
1 table spoon melted butter


Method:

All ingredients should be at room temperature.
Mix a table spoon of each-salt, sugar, flour. Add the yeast and 2 table spoons of the milk.
Milk can be warm for faster raising of the yeast, but not hot! Keep in a warm and dark place, I use the microwave or oven, for 5-10 mins until you see the mixture forming bubbles on top and its raising.
Beat the eggs, sugar and the milk in separate bowl. Add vanilla and lemon juice.
Combine the eggs, yeast and 2 and 1/2 cup flour and knit until all comes together in a ball.
Transfer the dough to a floured surface and start knitting for 10 mins while using the rest of the flour as needed.
Divide the dough to 3 pieces.
Roll each piece into a circle  and brush 2 of them with butter.
Place each layer on top of the other, the last layer is the one without the butter.
Place a cup in the middle of the top circle and press down. With a knife start making cuts from the cup to the end of the layers. Continue until all of the bred is cut. I made 9 pieces. You can make from 6 big to 12 small. Depends how many you need.

You can also cut 4 pieces,  each one of them to 3 smaller.
Lift each piece with a knife and and twist 1 or 2 times. Press the ends down to the baking dish.


Cover with cloth and let stay in warm and dark place for 1 -2 h. The bread will raise faster if you preheat the oven little bit, for 2 mins on 350. We are not baking the bread at this stage. Just letting it rest and raise.

Next, brush some butter or oil on top of the bread and sugar.
Bake in preheated oven to 350F for 30mins.

Bread ''Sun"

Filled with feta cheese and cut like a sun this bread can be part of any meal for guests and family.

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 table spoon sugar
2 table spoons salt
1 table spoon yeast ( 2 pk)
1 table spoon melted butter
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Method:

All ingredients should be at room temperature.
Mix a table spoon of each-salt, sugar, flour. Add the yeast and 2 table spoons of the milk.
Milk can be warm for faster raising of the yeast, but not hot! Keep in a warm and dark place, I use the microwave or oven, for 5-10 mins until you see the mixture forming bubbles on top and its raising.
Combine the salt and 2 and 2/1 cup  flour.
Beat the eggs and the milk in separate bowl.

Add the eggs and yeast to the flour and knit until all comes together in a ball.
Transfer the dough to a floured surface and start knitting for 10 mins while using rest of the flour as needed..
Divide the dough to 3 pieces.
Roll each piece into a circle  and brush 2 of them with butter.

Here, have the first layer placed in the baking pan and spread half of the cheese on it.
Place the second layer brushed with butter and cover with rest of the cheese. Cover with the third layer.
Place a cup in the middle of the top circle and press down. With a knife start making cuts from the cup to the end of the layers. Continue until all of the bred is cut. I made 9 pieces. You can make from 6 big to 12 small. Depends how many you need.

You can also cut 4 pieces, each one of them to 3 smaller.
Lift each piece with a knife and and twist 1 or 2 times. Press the ends down to the baking dish.

Cover with cloth and let stay in warm and dark place for 1 -2 h. The bread will raise faster if you preheat the oven little bit, for 2 mins on 350. We are not baking the bread at this stage. Just letting it rest and raise.

Next, brush some butter or oil on top of the bread and if you like use sesame seeds and , or sea salt to cover it before baking.  I use both sesame seeds and sea salt .

Bake in preheated oven to 350F for 30mins.









I think I forgot the cheese here:( !!!! 

Irish Soda bread

This is recipe was given to me long time back and it's very easy to make and everybody loves it!!




Irish Soda bread


Ingredients:
4 Cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 tablespoon salt
• 6 tablespoons cold butter
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, sugar , caraway seeds, raisins and keep aside.

In a separate bowl beat the eggs and keep around table spoon aside.

Add the buttermilk to the eggs and mix. Cut the butter to a small pieces and add to the flour mix. with hand mix well until it forms coarse crumbs. At this point fold in the eggs  mix and start making the dough. At first it will be sticky, but as you need on a floored surface it will come together. 

Grease a 9'' pan. Shape bread into a ball  and cut  an 'X' on top of it. Brush the top with the eggs and bake for around 1h and 15 mins or until ready. Cool the bread before removing from pan.

Enjoy!