Maybe Braids Are Better Than Pigtails....

It's been a while. Shame on me. The lack of a post last week was partially due to procrastination. Procrastination compounded by an insidious computer virus. So I'm throwing you a quick post from my secret underground lair. Could you all just say a quick prayer that I can bribe my lovely local IT genius into fixing my laptop? I see myself baking him many, many cupcakes.....

Anywho....

For the last five years I've been carrying around a copy of a recipe for braided cardamom bread from Cooking Light. A couple of weeks ago I finally made it and I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I expected it to be more of a tea bread due to the sugared top, but it is not too sweet for sandwiches. I used raw cane sugar for the top and added a bit of orange zest. The cardamom and zests come across more as a scent than a flavor. And what a scent! This is my new favorite loaf bread recipe, even if my braiding skills are a bit lacking.

Braided Cardamom Bread
slightly altered from Cooking Light, December 2004
Print Recipe

1 1/3 C. 2% reduced-fat milk
1/2 C. granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 Tbsp. grated lemon zest
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest
1 tsp. ground cardamom
1/2 tsp. salt
4 to 4 3/4 C. all-purpose flour, divided
1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 large egg
Cooking spray
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. demerara (raw cane) sugar

Combine first 7 ingredients in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Cook 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves and a thermometer registers 115°, stirring frequently. (This is the spot where I got distracted and managed to get the temp up to 150, but I just let it cool down to 115 and all was well.)

Remove saucepan from heat. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine 2 1/2 cups flour and yeast in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add milk mixture and egg. If you have a stand mixer, then by all means, beat with a heavy-duty stand mixer at low speed 30 seconds or just until blended. Increase mixer to medium speed; beat 2 to 3 minutes. If you don't have a stand mixer, then do it by hand like I did and it will be just fine. Gradually add 2 cups flour; beat at low speed until mixture forms a ball. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes); add enough of remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel sticky). Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size. (Press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough.) Punch dough down; cover and let rest 5 minutes.Preheat oven to 375°.Divide dough into 3 equal portions, shaping each into a 20-inch rope. Pinch ends together at one end to seal. Braid ropes on a lightly floured surface; pinch loose ends to seal. Place braid on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. (The braid should be about 15 inches long.) Cover and let rise 30 minutes or until doubled in size.Combine egg white and water; brush over top of loaf. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar over loaf. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until golden and loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from oven; cool on a wire rack.

Relax, eat bread with tea, and bask in the admiration of those who don't know that baking bread is super easy.

--QC

Spicy Little Tart

I guess you're wondering why I started a blog about the food from the Dinner Divas gatherings but haven't posted any recipes from the parties yet. Ok, maybe you're not. Maybe you don't give a tinker's damn. But there is a reason. A good one. It's because I haven't been to one yet since starting the blog. So there. I do have quite a few favorites from last year that I am dying to share, but, since I don't have access to a time machine, I can't go back in time and take pictures. And if you are anything like me, you can read recipes all day long, but if there isn't a photo it just isn't as appealing. So I decided to choose just a few highlights from last year and make them myself in order to have photos to go with the recipe. I plan to post them roughly in meal order (appetizers-dessert), though I reserve the right to post two or four or seven desserts if I want to because we all seem to be quite brilliant when it comes to sugar.

I won't go into too much detail on the parties in order to protect the guilty and the drunk (the guilty usually being me and the drunk usually being Rhonda all of us). In the case of Rhonda's party, I wasn't guilty or drunk, but I was exhausted. I had had 6 hours of sleep in 3 days, but there was no way I was going to miss this one (my hair was perfect, by the way, even if I couldn't see quite straight). Rhonda made all of her favorite things for the meal, starting with French onion soup and an amazing spinach and walnut salad with a tarragon vinaigrette. Her seafood crepes had ridiculous amount of cream in them, which might have accounted for how tight my pants were the next week. The best thing, though, was the rustic pepper jack cheese pie that she served as an appetizer. It has three ingredients. Just three. Add the fact that you can knock it together in mere minutes and I think you'll agree that it deserves to be a regular part of your cocktail party menu. It is definitely going into heavy rotation at this house. I'll just have to buy some bigger pants.

Rhonda's Sweet and Spicy Cheese Tarts
Print Recipe

1 pkg. Pie Crust (at room temperature)

1 jar Apricot Preserves

1 lb. Monterey Jack cheese, cut into 1/2" cubes

flour for dusting

cooking spray

Preheat oven to 450. Dust your work surface with flour and lightly roll out the pie crust a bit. You just want to get it a tad bit thinner, don't go crazy here.

For mini-tarts:

Use a 2 1/2" cookie cutter or a kitchen glass or whatever you have and cut out enough dough circles to fill a mini muffin pan (I found that one store bought pie crust (there are two in a box) was enough for 24 tarts, so one box of pie crust would give you 48. Spray your mini-muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray (yes, even if it IS non-stick) and fit the dough circles into the cups. Put 1 tsp. of apricot preserves in each tart shell. Put one cube of cheese on top of preserves in each tart shell. If any of your cubes are a bit on the skimpy side you can pinch a bit off of another cube and add to it. It's going to melt, so don't worry about what it looks like. You just don't want to overflow the shells. Bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes, depending on your oven and whether or not you used a dark pan. The crust edges will be lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Gently loosen tarts from the pan using a butter knife and remove from the pan. Serve warm.

For large pie:

Spray a 9" pie pan with non-stick cooking spray. After rolling the dough, fit it into the pie pan. Let the edges hang over the side for now. Use approximately 1 cup of apricot preserves for one pie and spread it evenly on top of the crust. You want it to be 1/4-1/2" thick. Sprinkle the top with cheese (you have ingredients enough for 2 full size pies, so if you are only making one then you only need about half of your cheese). Fold the sides of the pie crust down galette style on top of the filling at the edges. Bake at 450 for 20-30 minutes, depending on your oven and whether or not you used a dark pan. To be perfectly honest, I completely lost track of time while making this and I haven't got a clue how long it took. I'm totally guessing. Your crust will tell you when it's done. After it has cooled you can either serve it straight out of the pan, or remove it to a plate for a more attractive presentation by gently loosening the sides first and then the bottom with a thin, flexible metal spatula. Serve warm.

Notes:

You can microwave the preserves for a few seconds to melt them and make it easier to get a small amount into the mini-tarts. This isn't necessary for the larger pie. If the crust on the mini-tarts isn't tall enough (or if you overfill them with preserves), the preserves will bubble up and leak over the edges when baking and it can make it harder to get them out, so go easy on the preserves.

--QC