Pizza Crusts

We have pizza here at least once a week.  I have several different recipes, but these two are my favorite.  I've experimented with the whole wheat one a lot and have found that a true, through and through whole wheat crust is just too heavy for my liking. 

Another thing to note here is, these recipes do not double well.  So, even though I know its a pain, its best to do these in batches.  As a true Illinois girl, I'm picky about my pies!

I made the whole wheat one the most recently, so that's the picture you get!

Whole Wheat Crust:
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2c-3/4c whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp salt
2 tblsp evoo
1 tsp sugar

Mix water and yeast first.  Let sit for a minute.  Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well.  Dough will be slightly sticky, don't worry.  With floured hands, plop the dough in a bowl and let rise for about an hour.  Roll or stretch by hand (which is preferred, pizza dough is never to be rolled!), transfer to greased pan or pizza stone, add toppings and bake for about 20 minutes at 375. 

 

 

 

Regular pizza crust:

4 cups of flour

1 tsp of dry yeast

1 1/2 cups of warm water

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup of EVOO

 

Follow directions above.

 

Enjoy :)

FOB Frahlich

 

Written to the music:

"Poison and Wine"- The Civil Wars

Apple Bundt Cake

This is a perfect fall dessert, or if you're looking for something to take to a brunch.  Its not overly sweet like your typical desserts.  I sprinkled a little powdered sugar through a sifter just for SnG's.  You can totally use your own applesauce (which is what I did here).  It gave it some texture since I have chunky applesauce.

Here's what you'll need:
3 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp apple pie spice
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups of applesauce
1/2 cup of oil
3/4 tsp of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of water
*you can add in some raisins, dried cranberries, nuts or not!

Preheat oven to 350. Spray grease your pan well!

In large bowl, combine first 7 ingredients and whisk together.  In a medium bowl, mix eggs, applesauce, oil and vanilla.  Then combine the egg mixture with the flour mixture. Add water.  Stir in your *extras* here.  Pour mixture into the bundt pan and bake for approximately 1 hour and cool on wire rack.  Once cooled, dust with powdered sugar if desired.

 

 

Enjoy :)

FOB Frahlich

 

Written while listening to: "Tones of Home"- Blind Melon and "Chain of Fools"- Aretha Franklin

Candy Corn ala Alton Brown

I really wish I could take credit for this....but I must give all the credit to Alton Brown (love that guy!).

Candy corn is terrible for you, but its so good.  So, I was totally thrilled to find Alton's recipe in the Food Network Magazine this month! I gave it a shot, I'm somewhat experience in candy making and figured if it didn't work out, no loss.  But this was a huge win!  The kids love it and were thoroughly impressed with my skills. 

So if you're feeling adventerous or want something to do with the kids, and I love getting the kids in the kitchen learning how to cook, measure and experiment with food.

Here you go!

What you'll need:
Candy themometer
orange and yellow food coloring
parchment paper (or something similar)
food scraper or a sharp non serrated knife
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
6 1/2 tsps nonfat dry milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup of corn syrup
2 1/2 tblsp water
2 tblsp butter at room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (little note here: if your corn syrup already has vanilla in it, you can skip this part, unless you want a strong vanilla flavor)

Stir together powdered sugar, dry milk and salt. 

Combine the sugar, corn syrup and water in a 2 quart pot.  Place over medium heat, cover and cook for 4 minutes.  Add the butter, clip on the candy thermometer and bring the sugar syrup to 230, 1-2min.  Remove from the heat and remove the thermometer.

Add the vanilla (or don't) and the dry mixture and sitr continuously with a silcone spatual until well combined.  Pour onto a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper.  Cool for 10-15 mixture is cool enough to handle (little note here: make sure your thermometer is accurate, otherwise 10-15 minutes will be too long and your "dough" will be too hard to work with, you want just below and soft ball form).

Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces.  Add 2 or 3 drops of yellow coloring and do the same with orange.  Divide these 3 balls into 2's.  Roll into a snake shape, then press, each "snake" into each other.  Take your food scraper or knife and cut horizontally about 1/8 inch pieces.  Form into the shape of the candy corn, or you can do what I did...and I just cut them up. Repeat.

As these set, they'll become more like the actual candy corn you get at the store and the flavor intensifies.  Fantastic!

 

Happy Halloween!!

 

FOB Frahlich

 

Written to "Eyes on Fire"-Blue Foundation and "Sweet Sacrifice"-Evanescense

Whole Wheat Potato Dinner Rolls

These are great to make with a pot roast or a stew for Sunday dinner! Simple and hearty!

1 package of dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
2 cups of warm water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup of canola oil
2 eggs
1/3 cups mashed potato flakes
1 1/2tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour
4-4 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour(you probably won't need it all)
2 Tblsp melted butter

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.  In a large bowl, combine the sugar, oil, eggs, potato flakes, salt, all purpose flour and 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour.  Beat until smooth.  Stir in enough remaining whole wheat flour to for a soft dough.  On a floured surface, knead the rest of the way until smooth and elastic.

In a greased bowl, toss the ball of dough around.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 1 1/2 hours), punch down, roll into equal sized rolls and place on greased baking sheet.  Let rise another half hour.  Brush tops with melted butter, bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes.

 

Enjoy :)

 

FOB Frahlich

 

Written while listening to "Manic Monday"- The Bangles

Way to a Man's Heart Pasta

Red hates Italian food.

Its a wonder he and I are still married.  How many times I've had to drag him to get Italian food and how many times he's dragged me away from restaurants with Italian food.

But then one night, I had a ton of various ingredients and this is what happened.  A magical sauce that went over a bed of fettacini.  Its very similar to a carbonara sauce.  I'm sure I really didn't discover this little wonder, but I was quite proud of myself after I just whipped it up like I owned the rights.

Red ended up getting some bread and soaking up the rest of the sauce.  Something about it being a federal offense to waste the sauce.  I don't really know.  I couldn't make out what he was saying with his mouth full.

Anyway, I can eat and make Italian food anytime now....as long as its this sauce.

So here's what you do:

Get a big skillet.  Really big.  And these ingredients

4 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
1 jar of roasted red bell peppers
2 tblsps of fresh or dried parsley
half of a large white onion, minced
1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
1/8 cup of flour
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup of half and half
4 tblsps of butter
About 8 or 9 baby portabella mushrooms (or about a half cup roughly chopped portabella)
5 strips of thick sliced cooked bacon, chopped or you can use some browed pancetta or proscuitto here

In your really large skillet, over medium heat; saute your garlic and onion for about 3 minutes.  Add in your mushrooms and parsley.  Cook for additional 5 minutes.  Add the peppers.  Let cook another couple of minutes.  Add chicken stock and flour and whisk until the flour is well incorpororated into the stock.  Add bacon/pancetta/proscuitto, whipping cream and half and half.  Cover and let simmer until thickened.

 

Your sauce should just stick to the sides of the skillet.

 

At this point you can pour it over whatever pasta you have laying around.  Recently when I made this, I used Penne pasta.  I also added a couple grilled chicken breasts over the top. 

 

 

Enjoy :)

 

FOB Frahlich