It's Grilling Season! Homemade Sesame Seed Buns

In Boston, we were a part of something I dearly loved and miss every day - a meat share program through Chestnut Farms.  Each month we picked up a cooler full of delicious, farm-raised meat.  Opening the cooler was like opening a box from under the Christmas tree - half the fun of the meat share cooler was the surprise of what you received.  In addition to the usual cuts of chicken, beef, and pork, sometimes you'd open the cooler to find get a package of breakfast sausages or maple-glazed bacon... and the next month you might get goat.  

There certainly are meat shares that I could join in Colorado, but instead we started a new tradition.  My parent's have friends who own and run a ranch and we purchase a steer each year that we share with a few other friends.  As of last week, my freezer is overloaded with 70 pounds of various cuts of beef.  Each is nicely labeled with the cut of meat and we are particularly flush with ground beef which is great as we head into grilling season.   

We hosted friends for dinner on Saturday night and I wrote to say that we "have a freezer full of beef" and that we'd grill hamburgers for dinner.  I didn't provide any context, which was clearly a mistake... I left our friend M wondering if we were just weird meat hoarders or just addicted to red meat.  As I was prepping food for dinner, I realized we didn't have any hamburger buns.  It was raining and grey and I just couldn't motivate to go to the store... so I made them instead!

There is something so satisfying about baking bread.  These simple ingredients come together to form something magnificent!  I suspect you have everything you need to whip up these buns in your pantry and refrigerator (and if you don't have sesame seeds, just omit them - most fell off the buns anyway).  Even better, I love making things at home that you normally buy at the store (e.g., mascarpone cheese, ricotta, graham crackers).  That reminds me that I read about a cookbook entitled The Homemade Pantry: 101 Food You can Stop Buying and Start Making.  Does anyone have this cookbook?  It has been added to my wish list...

Note that when you make these, you need to allow five hours from when you start the buns to when you want to eat them.  There is very little active time, but they need to rise twice.

Homemade Sesame Seed Buns
Yield = 12 buns
Recipe from Issue #122 of Saveur 

Ingredients
1  1⁄4-oz. package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 1⁄3 cups milk, heated to 115°
1 1⁄2 tsp. plus 2 tbsp. sugar
4 cups flour
1 1⁄4 tsp. kosher salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1⁄2" cubes, softened
Canola oil, for greasing
3 tsp. sesame seeds

Preparation
In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle, stir together yeast, milk, and 1 1⁄2 tsp. sugar; let foam.  Stir in remaining sugar, flour, salt, and egg.  Mix on low speed until dough forms. Replace paddle with dough hook; add butter; knead on medium-high speed until dough pulls away from sides of bowl, about 8 minutes.  Transfer dough to an oiled bowl; cover with plastic wrap.  Let rest in a warm place until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Heat oven to 400°.  Divide dough into 12 portions; shape each into a tight ball.  Place balls on a parchment paper–lined baking sheet.  Lightly brush balls with oil; cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 1⁄2 hours. 

Uncover dough and, using a spray bottle filled with water, moisten dough; sprinkle each ball with 1⁄4 tsp. sesame seeds, being careful not to deflate the buns.  Bake, rotating once, until golden brown, 18–20 minutes.  Let cool.

"Happy Bread"

Pinterest is one of those websites in which you can get lost.  I'll sometimes go on with the intention of locating a certain recipe or piece of clothing only to find that 45 minutes have passed and I can't really say what I've been looking at.  Sometimes this aimless viewing of "pins" leads to great things, including this "Happy Bread".  I was drawn in initially by just the look of this bread -- it reminds me of a giant flower.  One of my photos of the bread below shows the flower shape... the rest look like a flower sans a few petals because we couldn't resist eating this immediatley!

I've been in a bit of a cooking slump lately.  It is a combination of being away on the weekends, not grocery shopping, training hard for the Boston Marathon, and the general malaise that inevitably sets in during the month of February.  To me, it feels like it is always dark and that winter will never end.  Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to inspire me to do much of anything other than wish I were on the beach of a tropical island somewhere.  Rob - Hawaii in February 2013?  

So, I came home last night determined to make something and given the utter lack of ingredients on hand, I went for this simple bread.  The dough comes together in 10 minutes, rises for an hour, is shaped into the beautiful flower in about 10 minutes, rises for another 30-40 minutes, and then bakes for about 20 minutes.  I guess what I am (not so eloquently) saying is that the active time in this is limited and the end result is dynamite.

I chose to sprinkle my bread with cinnamon and sugar because I was craving something sweet, but if you are looking for savory, I'd sprinkle some cheese and red pepper flakes on top... or stick to simple and just brush it with butter for delicious, basic rolls.

Happy Bread
Adapted from Food Diva's Kitchen via Eva Toneva

Ingredients

2 teaspoons dry instant yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup warm milk (110° - 115° - be sure the milk isn't too hot or the yeast won't rise correctly) (also, as I mentioned above, we were lacking in groceries, so I used a mixture of skim milk and soy milk -- use whatever you have availble)

3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading and flouring

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

5/8 cup warm milk (extra)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice

4 tbsps butter, melted and cooled

Glaze

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons milk

Preparation

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup warm milk, cover and leave in a warm place to rise 10 minutes.  If the mixture doesn't get bubbly, don't use it - your bread won't rise.

2. In another bowl, sift the flour and salt together.  Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and add beaten eggs, the remaining warm milk, olive oil, vinegar, and yeast mixture.  Knead the dough with your hands or in your stand mixer (using the dough hook) until it separates from the sides of the bowl.  Remove dough, place on lightly floured surface and knead it for about 10 minutes until it becomes a soft, pliable dough.  Alternatively, knead the bread in your stand mixer on high for 5-8 minutes until the dough is soft and pliable.  Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with a towel, and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, approximately one hour.

3. Punch risen dough and transfer on a floured surface.  Divide the dough into 2 equal parts.  Divide each of these again into 4, so you have 8 pieces of dough in total.

4. Roll each piece of dough out into a roughly rectangular shape with a thickness of 1/4 inch.  Brush cooled, melted butter over each piece.  Set aside remaining butter for later.  I'd advise watching this helpful video to see how the next few steps are done.

5. Place one piece of rectangular dough over another one and start to roll into a cylinder.  Do the same with the rest of the dough.  You will end up with 4 cylindrical rolls.

6. Cut each roll into three pieces by doing the following:  first, slice about 1 1/2 inches off at both ends of each roll and set these pieces aside; second, cut the middle part of the roll into 4 triangles (seriously, it will make so much more sense if you watch the video). 

7.  Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease or line a large baking tray with parchment.  In the middle of the tray, arrange the cut ends of the rolls around each other to form a circle, placing the cut sides down.  Arrange the cut triangles to completely surround the middle circle.  Cover with a towel and leave the dough to rise in a warm place for about 30-40 minutes.

8.  Using a fork, beat the yolk with the milk to form a glaze and brush top of the bread with the glaze.  At this point, I sprinkled the bread with 1 tbsp of cinnamon and 1 tbsp of sugar.  You could also use sesame seeds or poppy seeds or allow the bread to bake for 15 minutes and then sprinkle it with cheese and red pepper flakes.  Be creative!  Bake the bread for 10 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 325°, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.

9.  Brush bread with melted butter as soon as it comes out of the oven, cover with a towel, and leave to cool for 5 minutes before eating (if you can wait).  

Note that this bread is definitely best eaten immediately.  It'd be perfect for a dinner party because everyone could break off their own piece - each section is like a small roll. 

Scones & Snow

Last Friday, I had a snow day.  I assumed my chances of having a snow day as an adult were non-existent given that I am not a teacher (and I can walk to work), but I was proved wrong.    

My office was closed because we had a 24-hour blizzard in Denver on Friday.  It was so lovely to work at our dining room table while the snow fell outside, to enjoy multiple cups of my new favorite tea (thanks, M), to watch our new family member, Forest, staring out the window, mesmerized by the fluttering flakes, and to run at dusk with Rob through freshly fallen, untouched snow drifts.  I find snow so peaceful.

With the office closed and the morning stretching ahead of me, I did the obvious - make scones!  I'd pinned a simple scone recipe from Saveur a few weeks ago and wanted to make a batch to serve with the countless jars of jam I have stored away.  My mom is a master jam maker but I find that it is impossible to consume at the rate at which she creates.  Because these scones have no added flavor (e.g., berries, nuts, extracts), they are the perfect vehicle for jams and jellies or to be made into a tasty breakfast sandwich.  I enjoyed mine with homemade elderberry jam.  The best thing about these scones (other than that they are delicious)?  They come together in one bowl in a matter of minutes.  Quick and limited dishes? Yes, please.

Scones
Yield = 16 scones
Recipe from Saveur  

Ingredients
5 cups flour
½ cup sugar
5 tsp. baking powder
2½ tsp. kosher salt
14 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
2 cups whole milk* 

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 450°.  Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.  Add butter and rub into dry ingredients with your fingers until pea-size crumbles form or combine on low speed in a stand mixer.  Stir in milk until dough forms or use stand mixer to mix milk in only until dough forms.  

Transfer dough to a heavily floured work surface and pat into a 12″ × 12″, l″-thick square (in an ideal world, you'd make a square; however, I made more of a 9" x 11" rectangle-ish shape... close enough).  Cut the dough into 16 smaller squares.  Using a floured metal spatula, transfer squares to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  Bake scones until golden brown, about 25 minutes.  Serve warm with butter, jam, and clotted cream. 

Remember that you can always freeze the cut scones prior to baking and bake them off as needed (I did this with half the recipe).  Just separate the scones with a square of parchment paper and freeze in a Ziploc bag.

* I used whole milk because I had some available.  I have yet to try this recipe with skim milk or 2% milk, but when I do, I'll update this post as to how the scones turn out.  If anyone tries this with other milk, please let me know.

Fa la la! & Jammers

Another wonderful Christmas has come and gone.  The holidays are undoubtedly my favorite time of year and Christmas has always been a magical holiday in my family and this year was no exception.  Beginning with our tree-cutting expedition a few weeks ago and ending with a fabulous day yesterday, it was a December for the ages.

We spent a few relaxing days in the mountains last week, enjoyed our first day o the slopes for the season and returned home on Christmas Eve for a frantic baking and wrapping binge, a Christmas Eve gathering at a dear friend's home, and a trek to Palmer Lake where we spent Christmas.  Rob agreed to stay up late to help me roll out and form the cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning and we marveled at my mom's decorations (truly unparalleled) and the uncanny way in which my parent's home seems as though it was made for Christmas.

The ground at my parent's house was covered by a blanket of snow thanks to the snow storm we had earlier this week, and even though Christmas Day was sunny, it still looked like a  winter wonderland.  We devoured "jammers" and cinnamon rolls, enjoyed coffee with warm, frothy milk (note to self - add this to next year's wish list), tore into our stockings, slowly unwrapped presents (we are notorious for being the slowest family... there were Christmases when it took us a few days to open presents and I am an only child), took a mid-day hike with friends, and joined old friends for a (surprisingly competitive) game night.  What a day!

As I was preparing baked goods for Christmas, I knew I'd make cinnamon rolls, one of my Dad's favorite treats.  My dear friend M visited two weeks ago and brought me a fantastic cookbook - The Grand Central Baking Book. I was flipping through it to find a recipe for cinnamon rolls but instead couldn't resist one for "Jammers" - biscuits with a jam-filled center.  So, even though there were only 4 people at Christmas, we had both cinnamon rolls and Jammers.

The Jammers were a HUGE hit.  Please make them!  They come together in a matter of minutes and I suspect you have everything you need to make them in your house already (I keep buttermilk around at all times -- if you don't, this will be the only ingredient you'll need to purchase).  These biscuits are melt-in-your-mouth delicious (particularly served straight from the oven) and the added touch of a bit of jam in each bite is divine.  

A few thoughts about the Jammers... first, I made the batter through step 3 below on Christmas Eve and mixed in the buttermilk and formed the Jammers on Christmas morning.  The first step doesn't take long, but if you want these to be at their best, you should serve them fresh from the oven so remember that you can prep part of the recipe ahead of time.  Second, the Jammers grow quite a bit in the oven -- I'd say they almost double in size.  I used a 2" in diameter biscuit cutter and thought the jammers were the perfect size but feel free to use a larger cutter if you want bigger jammers.  Third, you can make the jammers up until the baking step, freeze them on a baking sheet and store them in a Ziploc or tupperware in the freezer until you want to actually eat them!  I found that the baking instructions were actually the same for fresh vs. frozen and I baked them straight from the oven without any defrosting.  

Grand Central Bakery Jammers
From The Grand Central Baking Book 

Ingredients
4 cups (1 pound, 4 ounces) all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups (10 to 12 fluid ounces) buttermilk
About 3/4 cup good quality preserves or jam

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).  Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.

2. Measure the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a bowl with high sides or the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to combine.

3. Dice the butter into 1/2-inch cubes.  Use your hands or the paddle attachment of the stand mixer on low speed to blend the butter into the dry ingredients until the texture of the flour changes from silky to mealy.  There should still be dime- to quarter-size pieces of butter remaining.  If you’re preparing the dough the night before, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill overnight; otherwise proceed with the recipe.

4. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in 1 cup of the buttermilk in one addition.  Gently mix the dough just until it comes together; it will look rough.  Scrape the dough from the sides and bottom of the bowl, then add another 1/4 cup buttermilk and mix again to incorporate any floury scraps.  The majority of the dough will come together, on the paddle if you are using a stand mixer.  Stop mixing while there are still visible chunks of butter and floury patches.  The dough should come out of the bowl in 2 to 3 large, messy clumps, leaving only some small scraps and flour around the sides of the bowl.  If the dough is visibly dry and crumbly, add up to 1/4 cup more buttermilk, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing no more than one rotation after each addition.

5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Use the heels and sides of your palms to gather the dough and gently pat it into an oblong shape 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick.  It won’t look smooth or particularly cohesive; that’s okay.  Use a biscuit cutter to cut the jammers into circles at least 2 inches in diameter.  Layer the leftover scraps on top of one another and gently pat them out to a thickness of 1 1/2 to 2 inches and again cut into circles.

6. Use your thumb to make an indentation the size of a fifty-cent piece in the middle of each biscuit.  While gently supporting the outside edge of the biscuit with your fingers, use your thumb to create a bulb-shaped hole that’s a bit wider at the bottom and that goes almost to the bottom of the biscuit.  Try to apply as little pressure as possible to the outside of the biscuit, to avoid smashing the layers, which are the key to flaky jammers.  Fill each indentation with 1 tablespoon of jam and put the jammers on the prepared baking sheet with 1 1/2 inches between them.  At this stage, you can freeze the jammers for future baking.  Place them in the freezer until frozen and then transfer them to an airtight container or Ziploc.

7. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time.  The jammers should be golden brown.

Bubble-Top Brioche

As the snow falls outside and our Christmas tree is proudly (half) decorated, it finally feels as though winter has arrived in Denver.  The 65-degrees temperatures over Thanksgiving weekend gave the holiday a decidedly summer-like quality that just felt wrong.  I am thrilled that it has snowed twice in the past week.  It is about time.

Snow makes me crave a warm bowl of soup and a hot-from-the oven roll or slice of bread.  I made my favorite Easy Split Pea Soup this weekend and I look forward to eating it for lunch all week.  The split soup could not be easier to make and this recipe is hearty and flavorful and so simple.  A great accompaniment would be these fresh Bubble-Top Brioche rolls.  I made these for the first time for Thanksgiving dinner.  They are flaky and buttery and perfect fresh out of the oven.  They taste fine for the following two days but really shine if served immediately. 

A few notes about the recipe.  First, I've found that you have to be precise when making bread and that starts from the simplest step - getting the yeast to activate by combining it with the hot water and milk.  If your yeast doesn't bubble or froth, start this step again or your bread won't rise properly.  Second, I didn't time my "rises" for this bread properly and could only deflate the bread once before I needed to refrigerate it as described below and the bread was fine.  Finally, some of my rolls doubled in size during the final rise whereas others rose just a bit.  Once baked, they all had the desired "bubble-top", so don't fret if the rolls seems to rise to different heights (you can see from the photo above with the wax paper that some of my rolls were real giants).

Bubble-Top Brioches
Recipe by Dorie Greenspan from the October 2009 Bon Appétit

Ingredients
1/4 cup warm water (110°F to 115°F)
1/4 cup warm whole milk (110°F to 115°F)
3 teaspoons active dry yeast (measured from two 1/4-ounce envelopes)
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs, room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)

Preparation

Combine 1/4 cup warm water and warm milk in bowl of heavy-duty mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Sprinkle yeast over and stir to moisten evenly. Let stand until yeast dissolves, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.

Add flour and salt to yeast mixture. Blend at medium-low speed until shaggy lumps form, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally, 1 to 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Beat in sugar. Increase mixer speed to medium; beat until dough is smooth, about 3 minutes.

Reduce speed to low. Add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until blended after each addition, about 4 minutes (dough will be soft and silky). Increase speed to medium-high and beat until dough pulls away from sides of bowl and climbs paddle, 8 to 9 minutes.

Lightly butter large bowl. Scrape dough into bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Gently deflate dough by lifting around edges, then letting dough fall back into bowl, turning bowl and repeating as needed. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and chill, deflating dough in same way every 30 minutes until dough stops rising, about 2 hours. Chill overnight. (At this point, use the dough to make 12 brioches, or 6 brioches and 1 tart, or 2 tarts.)

Butter 12 standard (1/3-cup) muffin cups. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces; cut each piece into thirds. Roll each small piece between palms into ball. Place 3 balls in each prepared cup (dough will fill cup).  Place muffin pan in warm draft-free area; lay sheet of waxed paper over. Let dough rise until light and almost doubled (dough will rise 1/2 inch to 1 inch above top rim of muffin cups), 50 to 60 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Place muffin pan on rimmed baking sheet. Gently brush egg glaze over risen dough, being careful that glaze does not drip between dough and pan (which can prevent full expansion in oven).

Bake brioches until golden brown, covering with foil if browning too quickly, about 20 minutes. Transfer pan to rack. Cool 10 minutes. Remove brioches from pan. Serve warm.  IF you happen to have any rolls leftover, these would be amazing in a bread pudding the following day...