Easy No-Knead Dinner Rolls

I think every home cook out to have at least one seemingly impressive "I made this from scratch!" recipe in hand, especially around the holidays. Too many people just whack some crescent rolls out of a can for Thanksgiving, when its surprisingly easy to make dinner rolls the night, or even several days before. These simple rolls can be whipped up in just a few minutes, require no kneading (meaning no messy, floured counter tops) and can sit in the fridge for up to three days before you need them. In fact, they taste better the longer they sit.

This is an enriched dough, which means butter, eggs, sugar and milk are incorporated into the dough. This gives the yeast extra sugars to feed on, as well as imparting flavor to the dough. The longer the rise, the more time the yeast have to play, which means a slight sourdough note to your rolls. Much better tasting than the fake butter in the canned bread dough you usually buy.

No-Knead Dinner Rolls (Adapted from Joy of Cooking, sixth edition)

3 1/2 cups flour

1 cup milk

6 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup warm water

1 packet active, dry yeast

1 egg 

Slowly heat milk on the stove, being careful to not let it come to a boil or simmer. Dissolve butter, sugar and salt completely in the warm milk. Add warm water and yeast. Let it sit for about five minutes to allow yeast to activate. Add beaten egg. Make a well in your flour and add milk mixture. Mix until flour is thoroughly incorporated. You can get about a dozen rolls out of this, by either shaping them by hand and dropping them into a nine inch round pan, or spooning dough into a lined muffin pan. Cover the pan loosely for at least two hours on the counter, or ideally overnight in the fridge. If you refrigerate overnight, allow them to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. 

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Basic Banana Bread (With Three Easy Variations)

I love banana bread. Not only is it a fun way of using up those black bananas sitting on your counter, but there are endless variations on it. This simple recipe from my vintage Joy of Cooking book is easy to adapt and personalize. Want something more tropical? Add a handful of shredded coconut. Want nuts? Chop up some pecans or walnuts and throw 'em in the batter. Feeling like Elvis today? Stir in some peanut butter and reap the health benefits of those healthy fats. Add chocolate chips to EVERYTHING.  Swap a half cup of whole wheat flour for the white. You take this banana bread recipe and you own it. Make it yours. A nice, simple banana bread recipe is the foundation of so many fancier sounding treats. Be creative and you'll soon have a recipe everyone will be begging for.

I've included my favorite variations here, but feel free to experiment on your own. 

Basic Banana Bread (Adapted from The Joy of Cooking, sixth edition)

1 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3-4 very ripe bananas

Sift together flour, salt and baking soda. Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and banana, then gradually mix in the flour. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for about an hour at 350 degrees or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

As black as a middle school
teacher's heart

For Peanut Butter Banana Bread: Add 1/3 cup peanut butter to butter sugar mix. Continue recipe as directed. 

For Banana Pecan/Walnut Bread: Add 1/2 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts before pouring. Or add both. I won't tell.

For Coconut Banana Bread: Add 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg while sifting dry ingredients. Before pouring, add 1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut flakes and 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips. 

I cannot stress enough how much abuse this recipe can take. I've already changed it from the original by using butter instead of shortening (What was Erma Rombauer's obsession with flavorless transfats anyways? Half her baked goods have it.) and swapping brown sugar in for white. Just keep the proportions of ingredients the same and enjoy eating your glorious missteps. 

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Holiday Baked Brie Appetizer

Like a boss.

It came to my attention recently that I don't have enough Thanksgiving themed recipes on this blog. My excuse is that I don't host this holiday very often, because we usually spend it with my in laws in Texas and they do all the cooking. But last year was a rare year when I got to host in my own home and tried out some new things.

One of them was this super fancy, yet surprisingly easy baked brie appetizer. It's a wheel of brie, a layer of jam, some pastry and crackers or apples for dipping. It looks extremely elegant, but took very little time to assemble. Most of my prep time was spent making my own pastry sheets, but you can skip that by buying frozen puff pastry dough. I've done this both ways and the frozen stuff is pretty darn close to homemade. If you do want to make your own, I used Michael Ruhlman's 3-2-1 Pie Dough recipe, from his Ratios cookbook (One of the best Christmas presents I've ever received. Thanks husband!)

This is the only thing I know how to draw.

For very simple dishes like this, the ingredients you use matter. That's why I made sure to pick out a brie wheel from Roswell Provisions, a really gorgeous wine, cheese and meat shop in Historic Roswell. I'm actually shocked I haven't written about them yet here, considering how often I stop by. Provisions stocks brie from Caly Road Creamy, a local, independent goat and cow's milk dairy. They make all their cheeses in house at the storefront in Sandy Springs. For the jam, I used one of the jars of red pepper jelly I always buy at the farmers market each summer. The combo of sweet red pepper jelly and creamy, melted brie is really just amazing. You need to try this.

Baked Brie 

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed OR pie dough
1 wheel of brie
1 tablespoon jam or jelly of your choice
One egg, beaten and thinned with a tiny bit of water.

Assembly is simple. Roll out your pastry dough. With a very sharp knife, cut out a circle a bit larger than your brie. Reserve the excess. That's for arts and crafts later. Spoon a bit of your jelly or jam onto the cut pastry and place your cheese on top. Fold over the pastry and flip your cheese over onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Use your pastry scraps to decorate the top. I did a very simple flower design, because cutting semi-straight lines is the best I can do. You could use a cookie cutter if you want a more complicated decoration. Use a pastry brush to brush on the egg wash, then pop it in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes, or until pastry is golden brie. Served with sliced fruit and crackers, because you'll want to scoop up every bit of that gooey, melty cheese.

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Best Thanksgiving Recipes

I don't have many Thanksgiving recipes. I usually spend this holiday in east Texas with my in laws and they do all the cooking. That suits me just fine. Thanksgiving cooking is less about meal prep and more performance art, so it's nice to not have the pressure. But here are some recipes you might consider adding to your own table this year.  Several of them were already featured in my Fall Recipe feature last month, so feel free to peruse that for even more seasonal inspiration.

Pie is usually how most of us enjoy our pumpkin during the fall. But for those who can't get enough pumpkin flavored baked goods, here's a recipe for pumpkin muffins featuring rye flour.  Pumpkin Curry Soup would make a delicious, yet slightly untraditional starter course for the big meal.
Sweet potatoes are an important part of Thanksgiving. Here's a casserole combining sweet potatoes and orange juice for a treat that's delicious, but not as a heavy and gooey as the traditional one with the marshmallows.

Apple crisp is an easy, but still seasonal alternative to pumpkin pie for dessert. And it tastes good with ice cream.
That doesn't seem like very many recipes, does it? Looks like I have some work to do this month.

UPDATE: True to my word, I've written up more of my Thanksgiving appropriate recipes for your eating enjoyment.  It's still not a huge amount, but I'm feeling more respectable now.

If you are looking for a non-traditional take on sweet potatoes, try these Chili Lime Roasted Sweet Potatoes. I guarantee you won't miss the butter and marshmallows.  For a bread course, check out these No Knead Dinner rolls. They are so easy, I make them for weeknight dinners. And if you need an easy to prepare, but super fancy looking appetizer, you definitely want to use my Holiday Baked Brie. It uses spicy pepper jelly for a surprising twist on a traditional appetizer.

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Easy Pumpkin Rye Muffins

I made these delicious muffins for the tailgating party I went to on Saturday. There's something about fall that makes us crave pumpkin. It's sweet, but not cloying and tastes wonderful in baked goods. I actually think pie is the least of the possible applications for pumpkin in your kitchen. Muffins, quick breads and soups are far superior to plain old pie as a pumpkin treat. Most recipes add so much sugar that it drowns the natural, nuanced sweetness of the pumpkin. It's unnecessary.

I adapted this recipe from my old reliable baking cookbook: The Joy of Cooking, sixth edition (1975). This cookbook was passed to me from my mother after I was married and I started getting interested in cooking again. She had the newer edition and didn't need this one cluttering up her kitchen anymore. It's a really solid cookbook, the best I've ever owned and I turn to it almost every time I bake.

There's a couple things I find superior about it. First, the recipes have less sugar than modern recipes. Seriously, it's amazing how much our palates have changed. But before you think these are "healthier" recipes, the second big difference is the amount of butter. There's considerably more.

But the final big change is the serving sizes. "Joy's" chocolate chip cookie recipe is supposed to make 2 dozen cookies. I feel lucky if I squeeze more than a dozen out of that bowl. Why? Because my idea of what the proper size for a cookie is is vastly different than Irma Rombauer's. I make them too big.

Anyways, this recipe came from that book, with a couple changes. The first was substituting a portion of the white flour for rye. Since my husband was diagnosed as a Type II diabetic, I've both cut down on the amount of baking I do and started experimenting with lower glycemic flours. I've been having good results with rye slipped into cookies and hearty quick breads recently, so hopefully there will be posts with more rye flour recipes. The rye is unnoticeable, except as an extra layer of heartiness to the muffin. The second big change was that I didn't think there was quite enough pumpkin in the recipe as is. So I simply replaced the liquids in this with more pumpkin, bringing it up to a full 15 ounces, or one can's worth. It makes the recipe really burst with pumpkin flavor and simplifies the directions by giving one less thing to measure. I further tweaked things by cutting the sugar back, because it was just too sweet and swapped half the white sugar for brown. The flavorless shortening is replaced by an equal amount of butter.

The result is a complex, hearty pumpkin muffin for grownups. Not too sweet and lightly spiced, it cries out for a pat of butter when it's warm from then oven, but stands on it's own as a dessert or breakfast treat. It's a pumpkin muffin that actually tastes like pumpkin. Next time I make this, I'll probably add some mix ins like dark chocolate chips or chopped pecans. Someone who is less picky about cooked fruit might like raisins.

Easy Pumpkin Rye Bread

1 1/4 cups white flour
1/2 cup rye flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 brown sugar (I prefer the dark kind, but light brown is okay, I guess)
1/2 (one stick) cup of butter, softened
2 eggs
15 oz. (1 can) of plain pumpkin puree

Sift together flours, spices and reactants. Beat until light and fluffy the butter and sugar (this is when my stand mixer gets a work out).  Add the eggs one at a time, pausing the scrape down and ensure they are mixed in well. Add the can of pumpkin, scrape down and ensure everything is beaten together. Remove bowl from mixer and add 1/3 of flour mixture. Fold in gently, then repeat until flour is just barely mixed in. Over mixing will result in tunneling, which still tastes good, but looks silly. Portion out with an ice cream scoop into lined muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, or about 12-15 minutes. Or, if you want pumpkin bread, pour into greased loaf pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes.

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Fall Recipes Round Up

I noticed my old recipes featuring fall ingredients have been getting lots of hits off Google recently. It's that time of year, I suppose. So to make it easier for you to find my best fall recipes, I've gone ahead and rounded them up into one post for you.

Greens are definitely a fall/winter vegetable in my head. Here's my recipe for easy sautéed turnip greens  with poached eggs. This is a really easy week night dinner. Poached eggs would also go well with this recipe for perfect collard greens.

I haven't made this baked applesauce oatmeal in a long time. I should really dust this one off and make it again soon. But it's a great make ahead breakfast for any day of the week. I used to pack in small glass containers to eat at my desk at work. I've also got a great recipe for gluten free applesauce oatmeal muffins that's worth trying even if you don't an issue with gluten.

If your tomato plants are still producing, you can try your hand at a traditional southern favorite: fried green tomatoes.

We're going apple picking in north Georgia tomorrow, so I'll definitely be using this recipe for apple crisp soon. Fruit crisps are always an easy dessert.

It's pumpkin season! You should totally make this delicious pumpkin curry soup. It also goes well with butternut squash... If you're really adventurous, you can make your own pumpkin puree! Or you can buy a can and just make the pumpkin bread recipe in that link. I won't mind.

I hope these fall recipes inspire you to cook more with fresh, seasonal produce right now. Fall is probably my favorite time of year and the delicious fall treats certainly help with the love. Enjoy!

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Gluten Free Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

For me, "gluten free" always conjures up visions on neurotic suburban housewives knocking cupcakes out their kids' hands in a panic. "Not gluten!" they gasp. Which is unfair of me, because I know that many people have a real sensitivity to gluten. I just think there are many people who don't actually understand food and just hop on the latest nutritional fad.

 The other things I think of when I think of "gluten free" is "taste free" and "weird, complicated ingredients". Fortunately, these muffins feature neither. The weirdest thing is oat flour, which is obtained by simply pulsing a few cups of oatmeal in the food processor until fine. Oatmeal is easy! And the flavor on these is amazing. they have a nutty texture, a rich mouthfeel from the yogurt and big apple flavor. You can substitute a cup of any fruit puree for the applesauce and still have a delicious muffin. The original recipe from Cheap Healthy Good that I've tweaked used mashed bananas and I've done it with pumpkin as well. Just make sure it's a full cup, otherwise your muffin will be bland.

The only downside of these muffins is that they are not very pretty. The lack of gluten means they don't rise very well, so you end up with something about the size and shape of a hockey puck, but made of oats and delicious. Never you mind that! Just enjoy your tasty muffin and share it happily with gluten sensitive friends.

1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups oat flour (This can be made by putting two cups of rolled oats in your food processor and pulsing it until fine)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup applesauce (or other pureed fruit)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grind oats to make flour. Combine with rolled oats, yogurt and milk. Allow to hydrate for a few minutes. (This step is important! If the oats don't hydrate, they won't cook and it'll be gross. This is usually when I find and measure my other ingredients. ) Combine spices, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, oil and applesauce with the oats. Measure into well greased muffin cups. Bake for about twenty minutes or until a knife point inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Serve and enjoy.

Low Fat Vegan Chocolate Beet Cake

I will spare you, dear reader, any of the dozens of beet related puns that spring to mind when I think of this recipe. Forget what you know about beets and chocolate cake. Leave those preconceptions at your oven door. This is an amazing cake that's going straight into my regular circulation.

When I first heard the words "chocolate beet cake", I was intrigued. I like chocolate. I like beets. Who knew they could go together? But they do! The result is a deeply chocolately cake, rich in antioxidants and fiber. Eating vegetables has never been so fun. I adapted this recipe from Fat Free Vegan, just for maximum weirdness.

I made a few changes to the recipe. First, I diced my beets small and roasted them. A boiled vegetable just seems like a wasted opportunity. Roast those beets and give the natural sugars a chance to caramelize. It's worth the extra step. Second, I was short by about a quarter cup of applesauce and I wasn't in the mood to grab another jar from the pantry, so I did end up using an egg. (If you didn't know, pureed fruit will substitute for eggs in most cakes) So this was not an entirely vegan cake. It should work just fine without the egg though. I also used half a cup of brown sugar, where the original calls for only white. I like the flavor of brown sugar.  The cinnamon is a fantastic addition to the cake. I think the next time I make this, I will also add a spoonful of chili powder. That, combined with the dark chocolate cocoa powder I used, makes an almost Mexican hot chocolate tasting cake. (Which makes me wonder how a slice would taste with dulce de leche drizzled over the top. I may have to try this. )

2 large beets (diced and roasted until fork tender and the edges are brown)
unsweetened apple sauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Puree roasted beets in your food processor. Add applesauce to make two cups total puree. Add vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar and sugars. Pulse to combine. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Combine wet and dry together. Pour into greased, parchment lined cake pan. Give it a few good drops on the counter top to knock all the air bubbles out of the batter. Bake on center rack for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.