Leopard Bread

And another really interesting recipe, translated from German (with the help of daughter and short and very clear video on how to make).

Ingredients:

• 250 ml milk + 2 tbsp
• 1 vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 25 g corn starch
• 50 g butter
• 375 g flour
• 70 g sugar
• 20 g cacao
• 3.5 g dry yeast

The method of preparation is very different from what I've experienced so far and the resulting dough is very easy to work with. I added about 5 g of cacao to the light brown dough, but my cacao was very strong and there is almost no difference between the lighter and the darker brown dough. Next time I would add cacao only at the tip of the spoon.

Also, this bread is supposed to be sweet, but the quantity of sugar is not enough and it tastes more like neutral rather than sweet. I would at least double the sugar next time and also cover it with granulated sugar before baking.

Because the rolls are arranged irregularly, when cut the bread produces different patterns and each person can be served a different looking leopard slice.

Bread with Emmer Wheat

I baked bread with emmer wheat -wild wheat which was traditional for this region in the past and which is becoming popular today with nowadays hype about everything bio and paleo. I used a mild recipe with only 50% emmer and 50% wheat flour.

Ingredients:

• 250 g emmer flour
• 250 g white wheat  flour
• 250 ml lukewarm water
• 7 g instant dry yeast
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt

I mixed the ingredients, kneaded the dough and left it to rise in the oven at 40C. The dough is brownish and the emmer flour is much coarser and darker than white wheat flour, the dough takes longer to rise.

After the dough had risen enough (for some 80-90 min), I cut it two, kneaded the balls and made two loaves, covered with sesame seeds. This is the second time I'm making this emmer bread and this time I placed the loaves in cake forms. The first time two days ago I baked them as I usually do on a flat baking dish and they spread flat and lost form, so I took precautions this time.

After another hour of rising in the form I turned the oven to 180C and baked the loaves for about 45-50 min.

The taste of the bread is very specific - the other members of the family liked it immediately, but I didn't at first - I've always preferred bread of white wheat flour, enriched with eggs and milk, so liking this more wild taste required for me some adjustment. But on the second day of my first batch of emmer loaves I was surprised to find that I actually liked it better than the industrial wholegrain bread I usually buy.

So I intend to continue my experiments in baking by researching some recipes for cookies with emmer flour and by trying spelt flour too.

Bread with Dried Tomatoes

I've been planning to make this bread for centuries and finally I got to it today. It is a very delicious bread with strong Mediterranean flavour, which we all love. Only a couple of minutes ago my son came to me and told me:
- You have to make two loaves next time. It's very delicious and it's almost gone.
- But I did, I did make two loaves. This is the second loaf. We ate the whole first loaf at lunch.
- Then you have to make three loaves next time. :)))

Ingredients:

• 500 g flour
• 7 g instant dry yeast
• 250 ml warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• a handful of dried tomatoes, soaked in olive oil
• 3 tbsp olive oil (from the tomatoes)
• oregano

Mix the ingredients in a bowl, knead the dough and leave to rise. I use quick rise - about 45 min in an oven at 40C. After the dough has doubled its volume, cut into two balls, knead and make two loaves. Leave them to rise again in the oven at 40C for about 30 min.

Make deep decorative cuts in the loaves, cover with flour and place in the oven to bake at 180C. When the bread is well baked take it out of the oven and place the loaves on a rack to cool. You can also add cut olives to the dough for even stronger Mediterranean taste.

Monkey Bread

Most of the recipes for monkey bread on the web and from what I read in Wikipedia regard this bread as a sweet dish. However the same technology can be used to make regular bread and it is really very delicious.
For the dough I used the recipe for bread I've been baking lately: 500 g flour, 7 g instant dry yeast, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 2 tbsp olive oil, 300 ml warm water and 2 tbsp dry spice - for this monkey bread I added dried basil.

I mixed the ingredients, kneaded the dough and cut it into 32 pieces. I rolled roughly each piece in a ball, dipped the ball in olive oil and mixed seeds and placed it in a greased cake pan.

Then I placed the cake pan in the oven at 40C for the dough to rise. In 40 min it had filled the pan.

Then I turned the heat up at 190C and baked the bread for 45 min. Probably because of the olive oil and the form of the cake pan, but this bread has a very delicious crust and lots of it!

32 delicious bites, eaten in no time :)))

Cheese Pirog

Today's baking was provoked and inspired by this video of pirog making. The talented lady in the video is making a sweet pirog with creamy poppy filling, but I wanted mine to be with cheese. So, this time I decided to improvise the dough and the filling, based on my experience with the last doughs I made.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 550 g flour + 50 g for the kneading
• 200 ml warm milk
• 100 g yogurt
• 1 egg + 1 white
• 4 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 7 g dry yeast

This time I decided not to activate the yeast separately, but instead sifted the flour, made a well in it, added the yeast, a tsp of sugar and the warm milk and left it to activate. In some 20 min added the rest of the ingredients and made the dough. Left it in a warm oven (50C) for an hour to rise, kneaded it and spread it in an ellipse.
For the filling I mixed 250 g white cheese and 150 g sour cream and spiced it with savory, oregano and pepper.
Cut the ellipse, placed the filling and braided it.

I placed the braid again in the warm oven (50C) to rest and rise and in 30 min glazed it with yolk and oil, set the temperature of the oven at 180C and baked the bread until the crust turned golden brown.

It's really very yummy with this creamy filling. Now I'm thinking of other fillings to try with this recipe.

Apple Cobbler

I know I'm just discovering hot water but I had never heard of or tasted a cobbler before and the technique of preparation is something quite different from what I'm used to when making pies. How do people come up with such easy and delicious recipes, it amazes me! I came upon the recipe late last night and immediately pinned it to try first thing in the morning - and due to the light in the kitchen I took plenty of photos while making it - apples are so photogenic :)

This is probably the easiest and quickest to prepare fruit pie, the only time-consuming effort is the peeling of the apples, but I've arranged with hubby about that for the next time :)))

Ingredients for the apple layer:

• 6 average apples
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 120 ml warm water
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• fresh lemon peel
• vanilla and cinnamon

Ingredients for the batter:

• 2 tbsp soft butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Preparation: Peel and cut the apples in pieces. Add the water, lemon juice, lemon peel, vanilla, cinnamon, melted butter, sugar and flour, mix and put in a slightly greased baking tin. Mix the batter: stir the butter and the sugar, add the egg, add the sifted flour, mixed with the baking powder. The resulting batter is soft and creamy. Place the batter here and there on the apples. The amazing part - it will spread itself upon them and form a crust while baking, no need to try and form the layer beforehand.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C until the crust is light brown.

Cover with powdered sugar, if you like.

This was so quick and easy, I'll be baking more soon, probably will try pears too.

I served it with a spoonful of sour cream - m-m-m, D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S !!!

And a quick ring-shaped bread for lunch, served with cheese, butter and mixed spices. Made a bit in a hurry and not very skillfully shaped, but quite tasty nevertheless :)

And my latest project - a not so complicated self-drafted cardigan for my husband. I wanted it to have a small figure on the plain back, reflecting the cables on the front, but unlike the cable on my orange sweater, which is part of the yoke decreases, this figure had to lay flat and not to shrink the back. So I played with it all afternoon and came up with this chart, compensating for the cables with adding and then decreasing additional stitches. I think I'm quite happy with it and now can proceed to knitting it onto the back of the cardigan.