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

 

Basic Cake Donuts

Red LOVES cake donuts.  I like all the wiz-bang gadgets on mine!  So...doing what any good wife would do....I made cake donuts!

I've made bagels before, they're slightly different and of course the consistency is quite drastic from the other.

These are fantastic, so simple and so good!

2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tblsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tblsps melted butter
1/2 cup of milk
1 beaten egg
1 quart of oil for frying

In a mixing bowl, sift sugar, flour, salt, nutmeg, baking powder together.  Add melted butter and stir until just combined.  Beat egg into the milk and mix.  Dough will be slightly sticky.

Heat oil to 350 degrees.

On a well floured surface, roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut with round biscuit cutter and make small hole in the center of circle.  Drop donuts two at a time into the oil.  Fry for 2 minutes and let dry on paper towel lined plate.


Enjoy! :)
FOB Frahlich

Cinnamon Bread

Bread is so expensive!  I've been slacking a little on the bread making, and every time I make a fresh loaf I find myself asking why I even bother with the store bought stuff?  Cinnamon bread is one of those things that our family loves, but we go through it so quickly that I don't usually buy it!  Otherwise, I would find myself buying out the cinnamon bread every week at the store.  So instead, like a lot of things we keep around the house, I made a mass amount of it and froze it. 


I'm one of those odd ball people who own 5 loaf pans, so making bread is pretty simple for us.  With their being six of us though, its not really a lot. 

Especially when school is in session. 


Now I'm rambling....onto bread making!

1 cup of milk
1 stick of butter
2 1/2 tsps of active dry yeast
2 eggs
1/3 cup of sugar
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt

For the nice cinnamon swirl in the middle you'll need:
1/3 cup of sugar
4 tblsps of cinnamon

Melt butter with milk in a sauce pan over medium heat, make sure you don't boil! Cool milk and butter to where its warm enough to touch but not "I just burnt the Sh*t out of my finger!" hot.  Sprinkle the yeast of the top of the liquid and give it a gentle stir.  Allow it to sit for about 10 minutes.

Combine salt and flour.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix sugar and eggs until combined.  Pour in milk mixture and stir to combine.  Add half the flour and beat on medium speed until combined.  Add the other half and beat until combined. 

Now, depending on atmospheric conditions, yes its true, your dough may be more sticky than needed.  You can mix in 1/4 cup of flour at a time on low.  You never want to over mix dough.  Dough should be sticky, but not to the point of scraping it off your fingers. 

In a buttered bowl, toss the dough ball around to grease all sides and let rise in a warm place for about 2 hours.  Be patient with the dough.

Melt a couple tablespoons of butter.  Turn the risen dough out onto the work surface.  Roll into a rectangle and spread melted butter over the dough and generously coat the dough in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Starting at the end furthest from you, roll the dough toward you, horizontally, tightly. 

Place loaf in a heavily greased loaf pan, cover with a clean dish towel and let rise another two hours.

Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 40 minutes. 

Savor the way your house smells......

And try not to eat the whole thing......