Chocolate Coconut Pie

When I was a child if my mother did not know what to make for dinner, there was one cookbook which always had the answer. More-with-Less complied by Doris Janzen Longacre is a master price of thoughtful Mennonite cooking. The recipes come from Mennonites all over the world but my heart alway jumps when I read towns like Newton, Hesston and Hillsboro Kansas. I only wish the cook at my college opened her copy more offten!

Last year my mother and I had more fram fresh milk and eggs than we knew what to do with so we started to make a Coconut-Custard Pie from More-with-less. We changed the recipe a bit using butter not maragirne and adding chocolate. It has become a new family fav.
Chocolate Coconut Pie
makes one pie
4 eggs
6 Tbs butter(unsalted)
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup coco powder
2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup coconut

Pop everthing but the cocnut into a blender and blend. Then add the coconut and blend a few seconds. Pour everything into a pie pan. It may still look like a mess but pie will settle in the oven and make its own crust.

Bake for 50-60 min at 350f or 175c. The pie will still have some wiggle. Cool and chil in the frig for a few hours. ( You can eat it right away, but I think its better cold.)

Creamy custered with a rich chocolate crust and crispy coconut top. Yummy!

Homemade Bagels

I only make bagels about once a year and I'm not really sure why I don't make them more often. I guess it could be the added step of boiling. It is a shame because making your own bagels is fun and when using my stand-by 'Shawn Dough' recipe easy too.

Homemade Bagels
make 4 large or 6 med sized bagels
3 cups of flour (1 cup can be whole wheat)
1 beaten egg + water to make a cup
1 tsp yeast
1/8 tsp salt

Into to bread machine on the dough setting. When using whole wheat sometime you will need to add a bit more water (1 tsp- 1 Tbs) just take look and add more if its dry.
Or
Make the dough by hand, mix, kneed and rise.
(If you don't know how to than maybe start off with my Step-by-Step Pizza Dough)

4 Steps to Shaping the Bagels
After the dough has doubled in size it is time to shape.
1. Roll the dough into 4 or 6 equal balls. Let rest for 10 min.
2. Using the back of a wooden spoon or your thumb made a whole in the center of each ball.
3. Spin the balls around your fingers to make the whole bigger.
4. Flatten the balls with the back of your hand, so they look like bagels.
*Note you may need to repeat step 3 and 4 a few times to get the right size.

Give the bagels a bath in boiling salted water. I do 1 min on each side.
Some people add baking soda or other crazy things to the water to get "New York Bagels".

Drain the bagels on a cookie sheet and top while still wet.
I made onion, poppyseed and sunflower wasabi.

Once the bagels are dry, bake in a preheated oven (400f) on a cookie sheet for 30 min or until the bagels are brown.

Raspberry Pavlova

The weather has been all blue skys (with no plains) and sun. If this isn't Irish summer than I don't know what is. It may be a bit early for raspberries but I was in to mood, so I made a raspberry pavlova.
Raspberry Pavlova
severs 6
6 eggs whites
6 Tbs sugar
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 cup cream
1 Tbs powered sugar
bit of dark chocolate
Pre-heat oven to 300f or 150c. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Whip the egg whites (can add 1/8 tsp of cream of tarter if you have it). Slowly whip in the sugar one Tbs at a time. The egg whites will be glossy and stiff. Spoon the whites on to the baking paper and make one big circle. Bake for 50 min or until the top starts to brown. Turn the oven off but leave the pavlova in the oven until cooled (an hour).

Whip the cream with the powered sugar. Add a few crushed raspberries to the cream, mix and spread on top the cooled pavlova. Plop the rest of the raspberries on top and finish with shredded dark chocolate.

This recipe is really soft marshmallowy, not hard and crunchie.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

After my Mom read my Peanut Butter and Sesame Seed Cookies post she sent me a bag of Kisses. Thanks Mom!
I used the same recipe as last time but topped each cookie with chocolate.
I had some fair trade dark chocolate and I topped some of the cookies with that, but the Kiss Cookies where the best.

100% Homemade Tiramisu

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Making 100% Homemade Tiramisu was a big challenge and took a few weeks for me to complete. We had to make all of the ingredients from scratch: Mascarpone Cheese, Zabaglione, Pastry Cream and the Savoiardi or Ladyfingers. Did I say WOW!

RECIPE SOURCE:

Mascarpone Cheese – Vera’s Recipe (Baking Obsession) for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese.
Savoiardi/ Ladyfinger Biscuits – Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home
Tiramisu – Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007

The results were very tasty. Saeid couldn't believe that I made this myself. Every bit was an explosion of flavor. But was it worth the work, NO WAY!!!! I would make Tiramisu, but I will be buying the ladyfingers but I will still be making my own zabaglione and pastry cream. Or maybe I'll forget about the tiramisu and just eat the zabaglione right out of the bowl!!!!

Stuffed Pizza

Love pizza toppings? Stuffed pizza is packed with way more toppings than a normal slice could dream of holding. This pizza needs a knife and fork!
Make one batch of my Homemade Pizza Dough and split the dough into one large (about 2/3 of the dough) and one small ball (1/3). The large ball will be the bottom and small the top.
Oil and line a deep dish pizza pan or spring formed pan. Push the large dough ball into the pan and using your fingers press up the sides. No need to roll the dough, just get your fingers dirty. Then roll out the smaller ball the the size of the pan. Fill the pizza. If using cheese lay that down first. Then any cooked toppings finishing out with a tiny bit of crushed tomatoes or sauce. Place the rolled top on the stuffed pizza and pinch the sides to seal. Cut a steam whole in the top if you like and bake at 220c (430f) for 25-30 min or until the crust in brown.

Let the pizza sit for a few min after you take it out, it will be hot inside!

I filled this one with ground beef, onions, red pepper and fennel and used 1/3 whole wheat flour in the dough.

Peanut Butter and Sesame Seed Cookies

The only thing that can improve peanut butter cookies is Hershey Kiss, sadly there are no chocolate kisses in Ireland. I wanted to try something new so I replaced some of the PB with tahini and rolled the cookies in sesame seeds.
I started out with the Betty Crocker's classic Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe but 1/4 cup of trans-fat had to go!!! I replaced shorting with coconut oil, but I think just butter would work as well.

Peanut Butter Sesame Seed Cookies
Makes 24 yummy cookies (plus a few bits of raw dough if you dare)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup - 1 Tbs peanut butter
1 Tbs tahini
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt (leave out if using salted butter)

Cream the sugar with the butter and coconut oil. Mix in the PB and tahini. Add in the egg. Mix. Then add the flour baking soda and powder.

The Betty Crocker recipe calls for the dough to rest for 2 hours, but its really cold here and my dough never got very warm. So really its up to you. (My mom would never ever let cookies dough rest, maybe because we would eat the dough if she did.)

Shape the dough into balls. I split the dough in 1/2 and then 1/2 agian so I only had to 3 cookies at a time that way they were all the same size. Roll the balls in semame seed, place on a cookie sheet and push down with a fork.

Cook for 10 min in a pre-heated oven at 190c or 375f.

Homemade cookies! Yummy!

Step-by-Step Homemade Pizza Dough

Homemade Pizza is not just fun but easy too.

Makes dough for 2 Pizzas
3 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup warm water (- 1 tsp)

Mix 3 cups of flour and 1/2 tsp of salt in a big bowl. Make a well (hole) in the middle of the flour and put the 1/2 tsp of sugar and 1 tsp of yeast in the well. Put 1 tsp of oil in a cup, fill the cup up the rest of the way with warm water. Pour into the water into the well. Leave for 5 min to let the yeast proof (start growing).
How to Knead the Dough
Using a spoon slowly pull the flour into the well. Once all the water is mixed in use your hand to pull the rest of the flour into the dough. Now it is time to knead. Using the heal of hand to push the dough away from you and then pull back while turning the dough. Do this for about 2-3 min until the dough is smooth.

Let the Dough Raise
Cover the dough with a wet towel. Place in a warm place to double in size (about 2 hours). In the winter (or any season in Ireland) you may need to place the bowl in the oven with the light on or will a cup of hot water. The heat will help the yeast grow faster, but if your not pressed for time than don't worry about it.
Once the dough is doubled in size split the dough into two balls. Let rest for 5-10 min.

Roll out the dough on a floured board or counter top.
For a circle turn the dough 1/4 of a turn after each roll.
Make any kind of pizza you like!!!

Pre-heat your oven to its hottest setting. Bake the Pizza on a cookie sheet, pizza stone or tray. Should take about 12-15min to bake.

Christmas Challah

Challah for Christmas breakfast is a bit like having ham for Hanukkah, but I was in the mood for a rich saffrony bread. My mother once spend hours and hours making what I can only guess was Panettone but as I can make Challah without thinking I just add dried fruit and nuts the dough.

Makes 1 large loaf
1 pinch saffron
1 tsp sugar
1 cup dried chopped fruit
1 tsp yeast
1 pinch salt
4 eggs (med)
1 cup chopped nuts and seeds
3-4 cups flour
2 Tbs poppy seeds

Make saffron powered by grinding the saffron in a small pestle and mortar (or small cup and the end of a wooden spoon) with the sugar. In a large bowl add the saffron powder and dried fruit and cover with bowling water. Let stand for 10 min or add the yeast and let prof. Then add 3 eggs to the mix with a pinch of salt. Add the nuts and then slowly start adding the flour. You may need more or lest flour (just ask your dried fruit its up to them). Let raise 4 hours or overnight.
Turn oven to hottest setting. 220c. Divide into 3 parts. Roll into snakes and braid. Make an egg wash with the last egg and paint the dough. Cover the top with poppy seeds. Bake for 30-35 min until nice and brown.
So what did we have with Christmas Challah? What else but smoked mackerel and starfish cookies. It was wried but tasty.

Sugar Cookies

Homemade sugar cookies. They taste the best when made by someone else! I would like to thank the makers of these lovely cookies. (Do I taste lemon?)

Turkey Sandwich on Challah

This is not a left-over turkey sandwich but bite size holiday in your mouth. Any bread would do, but my family loves my sisters Challah rolls. Over the last year my sister and I have been writing our own Challah recipe, but she lost it! I guess I'll have to start all again.
Makes 1 Sandwich
1 Challah Roll
1 slice Roast Turkey
1 tsp Cranberry Chutney
If you want to try your hand at Challah try this Bread Machine Challah Recipe. Its a bit to sweet for me. I'll be sure to post our family recipe (once its found or recreated).

Chicken and Biscuits

Whats better than chicken soup and fresh hot bread on a cold rainy night? Chicken and biscuits! A thick and creamy sauce topped with rich biscuits. Yummy!

Serves 4
1 pound of chicken
1 stock cube or 3 cups of stock
1 onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 large potato chopped
1 tsp oil
1 cup frozen peas
2 tsp butter or oil + 2 tsp more for biscuits
2 tsp flour
1 tsp mustard
1 cup Irish soda bread mix or biscuit mix
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp fresh tarragon (optional)
Salt and Pepper

Chicken and Veg
Bring the chicken to a boil in stock, cover and lower the heat. Cook for an hour. Remove the chicken, de-bone, shred and put in an oven safe pan. Keep the stock for the sauce, but put 1/2 cup of the stock in the frig to cool for the biscuits.

Brown the onion, carrots and potato in the oil. Add to the chicken.

2 tsp of butter or oil in a empty veg pan with 2 tsp of flour stir together and slowly add the hot stock (about 1 1/2 cups) mixing all the time. Add the mustard and herbs. Pour over the chicken and veg add the frozen peas and mix. Check the taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Biscuits
Cut 2 tsp of butter in with Irish soda bread mix, add the cool stock a few drops at a time.
If using biscuit mix use the recipe on the box, but use the cool stock as the liquid. Should be a wet dough.
Spoon on top the the chicken and bake the whole thing at 185c or 365f for 30 min.

Enjoy while its hot!

Very Lazy NYT No-Knead Bread

New York Times No-Knead Bread that tasty craze. I haven't made it in years, but I wanted to see if I could make it in my bread machine. I mixed it up the night before and baked it in the morning. The dough overflowed and the whole house smelled like burning bread for a week. My bread machine has two 1 pound pans which is too small for the original NYT recipe. So I set to work making an smaller one.

I know what you are thinking "Its no-knead you don't need to use your bread machine!" I do, I'm lazy and its cold in Ireland. The bread machine mixes everything and then keeps it warm.
1 cup of water
2 1/2 cups of flour ( I use 1/2 of whole wheat)
pinch of salt
dash of yeast
Turns out the using the bread machine cuts down the raising time by 12 hours. In fact if I left to to rise longer the dough would overflow again. I haven't baked it in the bread machine, but I did find a lazier way of molding the dough. When the dough is ready turn the oven on its hottest heat. Flour some parchment paper(use tons like 1/2 cup or more) and drop the dough on it. The dough will look normal from the top, but inside the pan it will be a wet cobweb mess. Once all the dough is out use the parchment paper to shape the dough. The dough will be covered in flour. The extra flour on the parchment paper will burn, so dump it or get a new paper. Oil the paper and cook the bread for about 30 min.
I like this bread even better than the original. You don't have to wait for it to cool all the way and the crust is hard but not so thick. I like it toasted with Kerry Gold Butter and Marmite!

Chocolate Cake (hold the flour)

There is really only one kind of Birthday cake and that's chocolate, but what kind of chocolate. I felt like making my mom's flour free recipe. After 1/2 pound of butter, 8 eggs and 3 bars of dark chocolate there is no room left for any flour!
So rich! It was like eating a thick chocolate mousse. Thank you for finding the recipe Mom.

Pizza Party

We had a make your own pizza party over the weekend. I made dough and then each person tried to make the best pizza. We voted for who the best pizza.
The winner was this a chicken, green and black olive, pineapple, hot pepper, red bell peppers, cheddar cheese pizza on a tomato herb dough. The sauce was the leftovers from the mussels. This pizza was busy, but the flavors worked. The clear winner.

Monkey Monkey Monkey Bread

This bread has 3x the monkey: banana bread, dried bananas and peanuts (Irish name monkey nuts).

The banana bread had to be thicker than a normal one so it could be rolled. I also wanted a yeast bread.
1 egg
2 mushed bananas
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 3/4 cup white flour
1/2 tsp yeast
Mix and kneed or into the bread machine on the dough setting.

Roll balls of the dough in a mix of 1 cup sugar and 2 Tbs cinnamon. Then roll in 1/2 cup chopped of peanuts and 10 chopped dried bananas (mine where not sweetened).
Put the balls into a bunt or loaf pan. Top a melted mix of 2 Tbs butter and 1/4 brown sugar.

Bake for 30 min at 170c. Could even pop back into the bread maker on bake (don't let it kneed). I liked the bread it was sticky and messy just like it should be. Would go really well with monkey blood (ice coffee).

Bread Machine

The same Lady who made us that nice dinner also game us a bread machine.

It works really well, makes 2 small loafs or 1 big if I send a way for the pan. I made a spicy corn bread and a sweet ginger bread. The corn bread was a dry dough and the ginger was wet, but they both baked up well. Also makes jam. How do you make jam in a bread machine???