Bread Pudding with Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

I have been making variations on cinnamon-raisin-bagel bread pudding, which C really likes. I am finally writing down today's version, with a mashed up banana:

Cut up 2 cinnamon raisin bagels into 1/2 inch slices or smaller.

Mix together:
2 eggs
1 overripe banana
1/2 C half & half (or milk)
2-3 TB sugar
1 tea vanilla
pinch (or 1/8 tea) salt
1/4 tea cinnamon
optional: additional raisins

Layer the bagels (or bread) in a baking dish, or individual ramekins. Pour the liquid mixture over the top, and let set a couple minutes to soak into the bread.

Bake in 350F oven for 30 minutes or so, or until the pudding has set. The pieces of bagel that are sticking out of the liquid should be slightly toasty.

Delicious as is, or serve with whipped cream, caramel sauce, or apple slices.

Roasted Elephant Garlic Butter

Elephant garlic is a huge version of the regular store garlic, and has a mellow garlic taste. Each clove is quite big, which makes it nice for roasting or for making garlic chips. This spread is delicious on crusty bread.

1. Remove papery skin from outside of elephant garlic to expose the cloves. Leave the individual cloves still wrapped.
2. Cut the elephant garlic in half horizontally
3. Place garlic in foil, drizzle 1-2 TB olive oil. Wrap the foil around the garlic, then poke a couple holes with a fork for steam.
4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for at least 40 minutes. Check for doneness- the garlic should be very soft.
5. Remove from the oven. Let cool slightly for saftey. Unwrap foil and slip garlic from the paper skins.
6. Mash roasted garlic with a fork.
7. Add 1-2 TB butter and 1/4 tea salt and mix until combined.
8. Serve on bread or with pasta

Berry Crisp

Pies take a lot of work, and cobblers have too much of that floury dumpling topping for me, so I turn to crisps! It's pretty simple, macerate some berries, mix up some oat/cinnamon crumble, assemble and bake! It is so simple, you can assemble it and freeze until you need it, and then thaw and cook in the oven. Perfect for a potluck!

1. Macerate 4 or so cups of berries with about 2 TB sugar for raspberries, the amount of sugar depends on how sour your berries are. I like my crisp to have a little tartness, so I often add a teaspoon of lemon juice as well. Also add a tad bit of vanilla extract. If you have very runny berries/fruit, you can add a teaspoon or so of thickener like small tapioca pearls or all purpose flour.

2. Soften 1/4 C butter in a medium size bowl the microwave

3. Add to the softened butter and mix with a fork until combined and crumbly:
1/2 C rolled/quick cooking oats
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C whole wheat pastry flour (or use all-purpose if that's all you have)
heaping 1/2 tea cinnamon (Costco sells deliciously fresh Saigon cinnamon for a good price)

4. Assemble the crisp: layer the macerated berries in the bottom of a suitably sized pyrex oven safe pan. Then layer the crumble topping.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-45 minutes (depends on how soft your fruit was, for example if you substituted apples you would want to cook longer, i.e. 45 minutes).

Red Currant Syrup

Red currants are very pretty, and have a great flavor, but don't harken the u-picker to eat off the bush because they are too sour. A syrup is a great way to enjoy red currants, especially over waffles/pancakes or ice cream.

Clean 1.5 -2 C red currants

Add currants to small saucepan over medium heat with 1/4 C water and 1/4 C sugar (or use less depending on your taste)

Simmer for 15 minutes or so until berries are plump

Strain through fine mesh strainer and enjoy!

Nuvrei-Bakery Inspired Flourless Chocolate Cookies

Nuvrei Bakery makes these amazing chewy-chocolately cookies, which apparently do not have flour in them. When I first heard this I thought they must have some kind of flour, even if it were almond flour.

I scoured the net, and found some success with this posting. My coworker really liked them, I'm not a fan of this particular recipe yet- still too sugary. The texture is really difficult with this kind of cookie because the batter is just eggs and powdered sugar (therin lies the "sugary" problem).

Nuvrei makes these with nuts and without. I haven't yet figured out how to stabilize the cookie without nuts....

Combine in mixer:
3 cups powdered sugar (yikes a lot of sugar!)
½ C + 3 TB dutch cocoa powder
½ tea salt

Then add while mixer if running:
4 egg whites
1 TB vanilla

Mix on medium speed for 4 minutes. It will look like brown glue, which is not cookie-dough-ish at all, but do it anyway.

Fold in 2 C chopped nuts, pecans and walnuts are good

Cool the dough in the fridge or freezer. Don't skip this step, as with most cookies, it stabilizes the dough, and the cookies keep a better shape when baking.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Scoop chilled dough onto cookie sheet. Lower oven temp to 320 F, bake for 18 minutes, or until the middle is set (it will be hard to tell if they are cooked enough since the dough is dark).

Cool cookies on the pan for a couple minutes, then remove to foil or wire rack.

Pancakes

Not a very unique kind of recipe, but after downing a couple days of pancakes from Fullers restaurant in the Pearl district, I had to make some at home!

As always the Cooks Illustrated people have it all figured out, except for the "healthy" part, so I subbed in some whole wheat pastry flour. This is a great recipe, turned out much better than pancake mixes that I previously relied upon.

Melt 3 TB butter in a small ramekin in the microwave. Let sit to cool.

Mix together and let sit:
2 C milk (or combination of cream & rice milk works too)
1 TB lemon juice

Meanwhile, whisk together:
1 C whole wheat pastry flour
1 C unbleached all-purpose flour
2 TB sugar
2 tea baking powder
1/2 tea baking soda
1/2 tea salt

Add melted butter and 1 egg to the milk mixture. Whisk until egg is separated. It is okay if the butter clumps up when it cools in the milk.

Now add the milk/egg liquid to the flour mixture. Whisk gently just until incorporated-- it will be lumpy. Don't over mix.

Cook in medium hot skillet, with a tad bit of oil. Pour 1/4- 1/2 C batter per pancake and cook on each side until golden brown.

Optional: you can add frozen blueberries when you pour the batter into the skillet.

Strawberry Tart

This is a nice light dessert, fancy way to show off strawberries! Oregon's Hood Strawberries are in season (not for long though!) and they are soooo delicious! The pastry cream is quite good, you could even use it for a raspberry fool or pudding. I took base recipe from Cooks Illustrated, which has always had good dessert recipes.

This recipe uses a lot of egg yolks, so perfect to do when you want to make meringue, angel's food cake or flourless chocolate cookies which require the whites.

Make the pastry cream first, as it will take time to cool. Then you can make the tart dough, chill it, press into pans, chill again, and then blind bake. After all this, you combine with the fruit/strawberries-- the recipe takes a whole afternoon!

Pastry Cream
This goes fast, so be prepared to watch and stir this from start to end, no checking email while this is on the stove!

Warm over medium heat until simmering, stirring occasionally:
2 C half & half
6 TB sugar
pinch of salt

While that is warming, whisk 5 egg yolks in medium bowl until combined. Add 2TB sugar and whisk until sugar is dissolving, mixture will be creamy. Now whisk in 3 TB cornstarch, whisk until combined and thick.

When half and half is simmering, gradually whisk some half and half into the egg bowl and stir to temper the eggs (brings the temp of eggs up slowly, instead of cooking the eggs). Then pour from the egg bowl back into the cream pan on the stove. Return to a simmer over medium heat, whisk constantly for about 30 seconds. When the cream is glossy and thickened, remove from heat.

Whisk in:
4 TB cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1.5 tea vanilla

Strain the pastry cream. Cover with plastic wrap and either refrigerate until cold or stick in the freezer to speed up the process- just don't let it freeze.

Tart Dough
Whisk together in small bowl:
1 egg yolk
1 TB cream or rice milk
1/2 tea vanilla

In food processor, combine:
1.25 C all purpose flour
2/3 C powdered sugar
1/4 tea salt

Add to food processor, and process until the butter is disseminated throughout, looks like "coarse meal":
8 TB cold unsalted butter cut into cubes

Now pour in the egg mixture while food processor is running, just to combine.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap, put in fridge for 1 hour, or freeze for 30 minutes.

Either roll out dough or press into tart pan. Then freeze for 30 minutes. Don't skip this step- there is so much butter in the dough that it will slide down the edges of the pan if it is room temp when it goes in the oven.

Fill the tart pan with aluminum foil and beans or pie weights, and bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Check during the baking to make sure the crust isn't getting too brown.

Once finished baking, remove foil and weights, if you used beans, save them for the next pie/tart (you can't eat them now after being in the oven). Let tart shell cool.

Assembly
Spoon pastry cream into baked tart shell.
Hull and slice strawberries, arrange on pastry cream.
Serve!

Goat Cheese Spread with Herb Oil

Adapted from Giada's book. This makes a killer dip for parties or potlucks, and it is amazingly easy!

Chop herbs in a food processor:
1/4 C parsley
1/4 C mint
1/4 C basil
1/4 tea salt
pepper
(I didn't have any basil but it still was great)

Turn on food processor and add 1/4 C olive oil in a stream to emulsify. Then pour out herb oil into a container.

Stick in food processor and whir until creamy:
8 0z goat cheese (Trader Joe's has some good prices)
1/4 C cream or half and half

Spread the goat cheese on a serving plate, then drizzle herb oil over the top. You can add sliced tomatoes or toasted walnut pieces for garnish.

Chocolate Brioche

This was killer bread. I like it even better than cinnamon rolls! It makes a great gift or for a potluck/party. The dough mixes up really fast, most of the time comes from shaping, rising and baking the loaves. Adapted from this book on Artisan Breads.

Brioche Dough

Mix in a large bowl:
3/4 C (1.5 sticks) butter, melted
3/4 C warm water
1/4 C honey
3/4 tea yeast
3/4 tea salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten

Mix in without kneading until combined:
3.75 C unbleached all purpose flour (or combine regular flour with 1 C whole wheat bread flour. Whatever you do, don't use "pastry" flour, it doesn't have enough gluten for breadmaking)

Don't add additional flour, the dough will be "wet" compared to traditional bread dough. This is ok.

Cover and let rise for 2 hours at room temp. Chill in refrigerator.

Chocolate filling
Melt in pyrex cup in the microwave, about 60 seconds:
1 C chocolate chips or diced bittersweet chocolate
2 TB butter

Add and mix until spreadable:
2 TB honey or corn syrup
1/3 C cocoa powder
1 tea vanilla extract

Cut prepared, chilled dough (above) in half into two balls. Roll out each on floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate mixture in a uniformly thin layer. Roll up dough into a loaf shape.

Grease a loaf pan or other pan and drop the dough into the pan.

Cover and let bread rest 1 hour 40 minutes.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Wait until bread is cooled to slice, otherwise the chocolate oozes out all over the knife.

Gramma's Grainola

This is the grainola my gramma always makes for us. Gramma always calls it "grainola" but you could say "granola". Each batch is slightly different from the next but always delicious and better than any store bought cereal.

If you buy the ingredients in bulk at Winco it is pretty cheap compared to the packaged breakfast cereals. This is a "clean out the pantry" recipe because you can use up any grains and nuts you have around (just make sure they're not rancid!)

This recipe makes quite a bit of grainola, you can double-- you'll just need a huge mixing bowl and multiple rimmed cookie sheets.

Delicious with rice/almond milk by itself, or with banana slices and blueberries. Or sprinkle over greek yogurt as a parfait.

Grainola Recipe:
Mix in large bowl the dry ingredients:
5 C old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 C flax meal or wheat germ or oat bran
1/4 C millet (optional) 
2 C unsweetened coconut (I like mixing shredded coconut and flake coconut)
1 C raw sunflower seeds
1/2 - 1 C sesame seeds
1 C pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
2 C chopped nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashew etc.)


Stir over low heat until dissolved, but not boiling:
3/4 C water
3/4 C brown sugar or approx 9 medjool dates (approx 3/4 C), pitted and blended with the water
3/4 C vegetable oil (avocado works great, olive oil also ok)  
1/2 C honey or maple syrup
1 TB molasses

1/2 - 3/4 tea salt
1.5 tea cinnamon

Pull off heat and stir in 2 tea vanilla extract (or grind up whole vanilla beans). Optional add a few drops of almond extract. Stir.

Pour over dry mixture in batches, stirring in between. Spread into rimmed baking sheets and bake at 275 degrees F, checking and stirring every 20 minutes until the grainola reaches the desired crunchiness. We typically do this 2 times, then turn the oven off and let the grainola cool in the turned off oven. 

Make sure it is totally dry before storing (or you could develop mold!!). 

Makes great travel food and gifts.