Homemade Baguettes

Yup, Pinterest did it again. The food section was flooded with photos of two baked baguettes.  After a closer look, I discovered the photo belonged to a recipe from The Sisters Cafe blog.  By the way, if you're a Pinterest user, have you noticed recently that some photos lead you to an advertisement or a dead end instead of the recipe or information related to the photo?  Annoying.  Anyways, back to the carbs... I read the recipe and it didn't seem right.  How could a standard baguette have so few ingredients with a fairly basic recipe?  I buy small baguettes every week or two to accompany a pasta or salad, and knowing I could make them myself for a fraction of the cost was to tempting to ignore.

Blake helped me make these.  Yes, they are that easy.

Mix 1 1/2 Tbsp yeast with 1 1/2 cups warm water and 2 tsp sugar.  Meanwhile, gather the remaining dry ingredients (3 1/4c flour and 2 tsp salt),  in the bowl of your stand mixer.  A dough  hook is a must with this recipe.  Add the yeast mixture after about five minutes and let mix until dough appears slightly smooth. 

Take dough out of bowl and divide dough in half.  Shape in to baguettes and set in a warm corner somewhere for about 30 minutes to rise.  Now you're basically done.  No, really.  Just turn on the oven to 450 degrees about half way through the 30 minutes and sit down and relax for a bit.

After 30 minutes the two baguettes are nice and plump.

With a sharp knife, cut a shallow line down the center of each baguette to give it the traditional look, spread with a little melted butter and place in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Presto!  Fresh, homemade baguettes! 

Yum is all I have to say.  You gotta try this recipe.  The bread was great alongside our dinner and made a great sandwich the next day.  I'm thinking a bahn mi style sandwich on this bread would be phenomenal!

Click here to view The Sisters Cafe baguette recipe.

Baking Powder Biscuits - on the grill!

I was flipping through our Traeger (smoker/bbq) cookbook and saw some tasty looking baking powder biscuits.  I had all the ingredients so gave them a shot.  Someone clearly didn't proof the recipe, because I think there was at least one cup of flour missing.  The dough was like soup, and there was NO way anyone could knead it, let alone stop it from running all over the counter on to the floor.  I added just over a cup of flour to get a better consistancy, and we were back on track.

I couldn't find my round cookie cutter, so instead I just shaped the finished dough in to a rectangle and cut in to eight squares. 

If you have similar issues with the dough being too runny, just gradually add more flour to the dough until it holds together.

Better Buttermilk Biscuits, Traeger Grill Recipes

1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp lard
2 Tbsp baking powder
2 Tbsp shortening
½ tsp baking soda
1 c. chilled buttermilk

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda into mixing bowl. Sift mixture 3 times. Add lard and shortening to flour mixture; blend in with pastry blender or large fork until mixture has texture of corn meal. Add buttermilk and stir until a sticky dough forms. Pour dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead 6 to 7 times.

Roll dough out to ½-inch thickness; cut into 3-inch biscuits with cookie cutter. Place biscuits on cookie sheet. Start Traeger grill on Smoke with lid open until fire is established (about 5 minutes) allow grill to pre-heat for 10 minutes; switch to High (450ºF on thermostat). Place cookie sheet on grill’ close lid and cook 10 to 12 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown in color. Serve hot.

Makes: 8 (3-inch) biscuits.

Pizza on the BBQ

While scouring the Sunday newspaper for my usual coupons I came across a recipe for pizza dough and how to cook the pizza on the BBQ.  I have always wanted to try pizza on the grill, but never went to the effort to find a recipe.  I'm glad the recipe found me! 

I know I say 'easy' a lot, but this was truely an easy recipe and the best part is that you can freeze any extra dough for future use.  The only un-easy part is having to let the dough rise, but you could do this the day before or in the afternoon if you're around the house.

My dough, tripled in size after almost four hours of resting/rising.

Some of the toppings... leftover BBQ'd chicken, sauteed red onions, green bell peppers.  I also had some pineapple chunks for my Hawaiian pizza lover and Isernio ground sausage.  Other topping ideas: roasted potato slices, green apple slices, crumbled goat cheese, cooked bacon chunks...

The first step of the baking process, cooking one side of the dough for 3-5 minutes. Our grill is indirect heat, so it took a bit longer.  And if any huge bubbles start to grow in the dough during cooking, just poke with a knife to pop.

Remove the one-side-cooked pizza dough from grill and put toppings on the cooked side.  Now return pizza to grill and cook other side as well as heat up toppings.  Ours took about 5-7 minutes with indirect heat at a temp of 450 degrees.

This pizza dough was a HUGE hit.  I talk'n repeated comments on how good it tasted and how it wasn't soggy.  We already have plans to make this again for my step-brother and family next week.  That good!  And the kids thought it was a blast getting to stretch out their own dough.  Win, Win!

Pizza Dough for the BBQ

1/2c warm water and 1 1/4c room temp water.

1 envelope active dry yeast

2 Tbsp olive oil

4c bread flour

2 tsp table salt

Mix 1/2c warm water and yeast in bowl. Whisk together and let sit until yeast dissolves and expands, about 5 min. Measure in remaining water and oil to yeast mixture.

Meanwhile, pulse flour/salt in food processor with steel blade. Pour liquid mix over flour; mix till dough forms rough soft ball. Continue to process till dough is smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds.

Put dough on floured surface and knead for few seconds to form smooth ball. Place in large bowl spritzed with vegetable cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise to double in size, approximately 3 hours.  I suggest placing bowl in a warm area of kitchen or in an oven or microwave (just don't turn either of these on with dough inside!).

Without punching down, dump dough on floured surface and use chef knife or metal dough scraper to halve dough. Punch down remaining half and wrap and refrigerate or freeze. (Total dough Makes enough for 8 mini pizzas.)

Cut the half of dough in to 4 pieces and then stretch to rectangle shape (about 12x4ish) on cornmeal lined baking sheet. I found that ours needed to be a little smaller as to avoid ripping holes in the dough.

Put on grill for a few minutes to brown then remove and place grilled side up on cornmeal lined baking sheet. Put toppings on grilled side of dough and return to grill to cook other side and to heat up toppings, cheese. Anywhere from 3-8minutes.

Homemade Pizza Dinner

We've been craving homemade pizza for dinner.  The problem?  I haven't had time to go to Trader Joe's and I'm not a huge fan of Pillsbury pizza crust in a can.  But when I was at the grocery store on Sunday I walked past this pizza dough in the freezer aisle.  I love The Essential Baking Company, so had to give it a shot!

Only downside to the product?  Aside from thawing instructions, there are no baking directions, and I found no suggestions on their website - even though the label says to check the site out.  So I opted for a 400 degree oven and checked on the pizza after 10 minutes, then every few minutes after that.

To make the sausage topping, I removed the casings from some Isernio's sausages I'd previously thawed and then browned the meat.  (To remove casings you can either slice off the end of the sausage and squeeze out, or slice down the length of the sausage. Super easy.) 

I then sauteed and carmelized sliced red onions in a little olive oil and butter.

Rolled out the dough on a floured surface and then placed on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. 

The finished product!

I give two thumbs up to Essential Baking's pizza dough, but the lack of directions was annoying.  If you can't get to Trader Joe's for their dough, give this brand a shot next time you're at the grocery. YUM!