Asiago Cheese Bread

It probably comes as no surprise that I like cheese bread.  I've already made a Cheddar Cheese Bread back in January.  Lately, I've been craving Asiago - so I found a recipe at Seasons and Suppers and (of course) adjusted it.

Asiago Cheese Bread

Ingredients:

• Dough
• 14 oz bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2.5 Tbsp sugar (white or brown) or 1.75 Tbsp honey or agave
• 1/2 C lukewarm water
• 1/2 C (plus 1 Tbsp) milk or buttermilk
• 1 pkg (7 g/.25 oz/2.25 tsp) Active Dry yeast
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted
• Filling
• 1.5 C Asiago Cheese
• 1/4 C butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder (or about 2 tsp. minced fresh) - Optional
• 1/4 cup minced herbs (parsley works well) - Optional

Instructions:

1. Mise en place!
   
2. Melt the 2 Tbsp of butter and set aside to cool.
   
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the flour, salt, and sugar.
   
• Note: If you're using honey or agave, add them to the liquid ingredients instead of the dry.
4. Warm the water and milk to ~105°-110°F.  Add the yeast and let it bloom for 5-10 minutes, until it is bubbly on top.
   
5. Add the yeast mixture and cooled melted butter to the flour mixture.  Using the dough hook, mix the dough for 2 minutes.
   
6. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
7. Continue kneading the dough until it is smooth, soft, and tacky.
8. Turn the dough into a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel.  Let rise somewhere warm until doubled (about 90 minutes).
   
• For me, somewhere warm is my oven.  I turn it on to the lowest temperature for a few minutes and then turn it off.  You can also just turn the light on, if you have one.  It will be enough warmth to encourage your wee yeasties to rise!
• Alternate: If you want, you can cover the dough and put it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days (according to the original recipe).  I haven't tried this yet, but I'm sure I will.  A long, cold proof is supposed to be amazing for the flavor of the bread.  If you opt for the refrigerator proof, bring it out about 2 hours before you'd like to work with it, allowing it to come to room temperature before the next step.
9. Lightly flour your work surface and turn the dough out.  Roll it into a rectangle about 10" by 16".
10. Spread the softened butter across the whole rectangle and cover with cheese, garlic, and herbs.
• I opted to just do cheese and lots of it!
• Note: I did too much cheese and too much butter!  Stick to the recipe...
11. Starting on the shorter side, roll the dough into a tight roll and pinch the final edge closed tightly.
12. Grease or line a 9x4" loaf pan and place the bread in, seam side down.
    
13. Cover and let rise somewhere warm until over the rim of the pan.
• Again, I used my oven as a proof-box.
14. Remove the pan from the oven!
15. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
16. Bake for 45-50 minutes.  Cover with foil if the bread is browning too quickly.
17. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan before trying to remove.
18. Remove bread and let cool at least an hour on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!!

You'll notice the cheese seemed to sink to the bottom... and I think I used too much butter.

Homemade Creamy Roasted Peanut Butter

I'm a total addict.  I LOVE peanut butter.  In anything.  On anything.  By itself (on a spoon..mmmmmm)!

So I tend to buy a lot of peanut butter and lately I've been thinking that it's silly to buy it when I could make it (now that I have a really good food processor).  So I researched - because that's what I do - and came up with this!

Creamy Roasted Peanut Butter

Ingredients:
2 cups peanuts
sweetener (honey, agave, molasses, maple syrup, sugar)
fine sea salt
oil (optional) - peanut would be best, I'm using EVOO because it's what I have on hand and I like it

Instructions:

1. Mise en place - this one is simple!
   
2. Put the peanuts on a sheet pan and toast in a 350° F oven for 5-10 minutes.
• Mine were already roasted, so I only needed a few quick minutes to warm the oils; the peanut butter is supposed to be smoother that way.
  
• The nuts are ready when you can begin to smell them and they are glistening a bit.  Don't let them go too far - burnt isn't the flavor we're going for today!
  
  
3. Put the nuts into a strong food processor and go for it.  It's really this easy!
• There are a few stages that you'll see:
• Chopped nuts
  
• Graham cracker crumb-like
  
• Rough nut butter
  
• Peanut butter!
  
4. At this point, add in the sweetener, oil, and salt.  These are all completely optional!
• I prefer mine sweet, so I used honey.  I'll probably try agave another time.
• Mine was a bit thick, so I did add some oil.  I need to pick up some peanut oil at some point, so I'm not changing the flavor too much.  I used a small amount of olive oil this time and it still tastes great.
• I had a can of peanuts handy, so they were already salted.  I tasted and only added enough to make my taste buds happy (and I do tend to like salty items).
5. Find an airtight container and you're all done!
   
6. Store this in the refrigerator for up to 2 months!  (HAHA - that's really funny!  Like it'll last that long!)

I love this because it's so easy and I have control over the texture and taste.  This picky eater is always happier when she is in control over her food!  That's what got me into practicing in my kitchen in the first place!!

Arizona Spring

Golden sunrise hidden behind a soft grey blanket of clouds
Gentle velvet brush of the air on my face
Liquid promises in the scent of impending rain
A rare and beautiful spring morning




**Not sure what prompted me to write this morning, but I found words for how I felt and I loved them.  So I'm sharing.  No, it's not about food...or my puppy.  But it's from me. :)

I'm back... with my super-easy Chipotle Pasta Sauce!

It's been over a month since I cooked or posted anything.  Several things have happened:

1. I discovered that I'm allergic to my sourdough starter, or something in it.  The cooked products are fine, but when I have it out to "wake up" and start to use it, my eyes get red, itchy, swollen, watery, etc.  I look (and feel) a mess.  So for now, the sourdough experiment is done.
2. We got a PUPPY!  We got a pug and named him Hercules Mulligan (Hercules Mulligan, I need no introduction. When you knock me down I get the f*ck back up again!*)  We're calling him Mulligan.

* This is a line from Lin-Manuel Miranda's hit Broadway show Hamilton.  My husband and I are a bit obsessed with it and knew that we wanted to name the pup after one of the characters.  Hercules Mulligan (played incredibly by Oak Onaodowan) was a patriot spy during the American Revolution, and a great friend of Hamilton.

Now on to my recipe for the evening.  This is something I've made up after having a nice spicy pasta one night and knowing I could do something better (and cheaper) at home!

This is more like a set of instructions, since this is a total cheat recipe.  I don't MAKE anything.  I dump things into pots and serve it up as something magical.  It's amazing and there is no shame.  We're all busy and need a quick go-to recipe once in awhile.  The beauty of recipes like this is that you can adjust it to your own tastes.

Jenn's Guidelines for Chipotle Pasta Sauce

 Ingredients

• 2 24oz jars of marinara sauce
• Cheat #1: I use store-bought.  You can make your own, if you want.  I don't.  I get 2 different jars to vary the flavors a bit.
• Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• I buy a can of them and buzz them up in my food processor.  Then I freeze the paste in snack-size zip-top bags.  This way I have what I need.
• I use a good amount (you can see in the picture below).  Probably 2 Tbsp?  My husband and I like things spicy, so this is...
• 8 oz of cream cheese
• Cheat #2: I use the jalepeño, to add to the overall flavor and creaminess with one ingredient.
• Cream/milk products help diffuse the heat, so if heat is a problem, don't leave this out!
• 1 lb dry pasta
• Cheat #3: Yes, I use boxed pasta.  Let's be real: this is meant to be a quick meal.  If I had time to make my own pasta, I'd probably have time to make my own sauce from scratch.
• I used mini penne because it's what we had and it's handy.  Use what you like, but I recommend penne or rigatoni, etc.
• Extra-virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
• Splash of milk or cream, optional
• Grated parmesan to top

Instructions

1. Mise en Place (of course!)
   
2. Follow the directions on the pasta package to prepare.  Don't forget to salt your water!
3. While the pasta is boiling, dump the rest of the ingredients into another pot and stir until heated through and the cream cheese is melted.
• Yes, really.  That's the whole thing. :)
  
4. Add a splash of milk or cream toward the end if you'd like to have a more pink sauce.
   
5. Add herbs or spices or meats to your taste.  I don't.  I choose jarred sauces that are different but complementary and don't stress about the rest.
6. Plate up some pasta and top with sauce and grated parmesan.
7. Enjoy!

It really is that easy.  We have more than enough for dinner tomorrow and a few lunches for me.  It's quick but different enough to not feel like jarred sauce.

It's good to be back, practicing in my kitchen!  Let me know if you try this and what changes you try!  I'd love to be inspired by you!!

The Clever Carrot's Sourdough Noir

I skipped posting last weekend, so this will be a mid-week catch-up post.  I turned 43 on Monday, so decided to take a break from cooking and posting.  I love celebrating birthdays - I think it's important to celebrate life and not worry about the numbers.

Maybe because it's my birthday week... or because I'm a girl... or because I have a love-love relationship with it... whatever the reason, I have been craving chocolate.  I am swimming in sourdough starter (haven't figured out how to tame it yet) so I went looking for something chocolate-y.  I decided to try the Sourdough Noir from The Clever Carrot.

I didn't take a lot of pictures this time - call it part of my lazy birthday week attitude. ;)

The Clever Carrot's Sourdough Noir

Ingredients:

• 150g active fed starter
• 350g water, preferably filtered
• 50g sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
• 500g bread flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 8g fine sea salt
• 150g semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Mise en place
• Get your stuff together.  You'll use almost all the ingredients in the first 10 minutes.
2. Autolyse
• Combine the starter, water, sugar, and vanilla extract until well combined.
• It will be wet.
• I used strong coffee in place of most of the water.  Coffee tends to enhance the chocolate flavor and I'm wanting a chocolatel-y bread here.
• Sift in the bread flour and cocoa powder.
• Mix to combine.
• I used my stand mixer with the dough hook.  Don't knead it to death, just get it to combine into a slightly sticky dough.
• Cover and let rest (autolyse) for 2 hours.
  
  ***Note: This time I decided to use my mixer to help with the dough.  My last few I've been trying to be a "purist" and hand mix only.  The mixer worked out much much better for me.  I'm giving up the "purist ideal" and going with what actually works for me.  No one is going to come into my kitchen and tell me I'm doing it wrong; if it tastes good and Scott and I like it.... it's good.  Done.  No stressing about what I'm supposed to do or what it's supposed to be.  If it's edible and I'm happy with it.... then it's perfect... for us.
  
3. Dough
• After the autolyse, add the salt and any other add-ins you would like.
• Knead gently until combined.
• The original calls for walnuts and raisins (65g each) along with the chocolate chips, but if you know me you know I don't like nuts or raisins in anything.  It's a texture thing.
• I realized partway in that I didn't have any chocolate chips.  Ooops.  I do have a chocolate bar.  It's not quite enough, but it's better than nothing.
4. Bulk Proof
• Once the salt and add-ins are mixed in, cover and let rise.
• The original calls for 4-12 hours at room temperature, depending on the temperature of your home.
• I'm choosing to do a refrigerated retard for this bulk proof.  This will buy me some time, since I don't want to bake for 24 hours and should intensify the flavors as well.
5. Divide, form, and second rise
• Remove the dough from the refrigerator.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal parts.  This recipe will make 2 smaller loaves than the recipes I've been doing previously.
• Gently form into 2 rounds.
• Line 2 bowls or bannetons with clean towels and dust generously with rice flour.
• Rice flour doesn't mix with the moisture from the dough and make a paste.  It stays dry and becomes like ball-bearings to keep the dough from sticking.  It's a HUGE difference and really worth having on hand.
• Invert the dough into the bowls so the bottom is now the top.
• Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel.
• Let rise for another hour.
6. Prepare
• While the dough is resting and rising the last time, place your pans in the oven and preheat to 400°F.
• When the dough finishes rising, invert it out of the bowls onto parchment.
• PARCHMENT!!  Do not forget this step like I did once before...
• Slash the top of the loaves with a sharp knife or bread lame.
• Using the parchment, lift and lower the dough into a pan and cover.
7. Bake
• Place the covered pans into the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
• Remove the lid and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
8. Cool
• Using the parchment, carefully lift the breads out of the pans and put on a rack to cool.
• Let it cool completely before cutting into it!!
• Yeah.... good luck with that... it smells SO chocolate-y!!

The bread is chewy and the crust is crisp but not super-crunchy (so I'm a happy girl).  It tastes like chocolate, but isn't overly sweet either.  I would definitely make this again... and I'm sending one of the loaves to Scott's daughters so they can enjoy this treat!