~ Grissini (Breadsticks)

Adapted from:
LA times

Description:
Crispy dried breadsticks~

Ingredients:
3/4 C warm water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1) In a large bowl, combine the water with the yeast, sugar and all-purpose flour. Set aside for 20 min, until bubbly.
2) Stir in the wheat flour, olive oil and salt and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 min. Add more flour where necessary. Coat the dough with olive oil and place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
3) Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into four pieces on a floured surface. Work on one dough while leaving the rest in the bowl with a damp cloth over it. For crispy sticks, roll them really thin and allow to cool down in the oven after baking. For crispy exterior and chewy interior, roll them to thickness of your finger.
4) Place the strips about 1/2" apart on an aluminium tray. Repeat with the remaining dough. Allow the grissini to rise until puffed, about 30 min.
5) Bake the grissini, in batches, on the top shelf of the oven preheated to 200 deg until lightly browned, about 10 min, rotating halfway through. Cool on a rack and continue until all the grissini are baked. Cool, then store in a sealed bag.

Remarks:

I must be dreaming when I was reading through the recipe! Interpreting "one-half cup" as 1 1 1/2 C, I wondered why Step 1 yielded a dough that's too dry. How can a dry dough become "bubbly"? In a bid to make up for my mistake, I increased the water to 1 C, activation time to 20 min, sugar to 1 1/2 tsp (how can one feed the yeast while depriving oneself of the sugar rush?) and whole wheat flour to 1 C. Fortunately, the dough turned out easy to mould!

I had rolled divided my dough into two - one rolled in powdered sugar with sesame seeds (top), the other incorporated with mixed herbs and sprinkled with salt (bottom), so as to create two varying flavours to this versatile recipe.

Mum commented that the bread was bland, and I agreed too. Perhaps I shouldn't have skimped on the salt and sugar! Also, the bread sticks lost their crispiness fairly quickly, within a few hours. Blame it on the bad humid weather we have here! Some fixes which I would propose, would be to bake the bread sticks at a lower temperature for a longer period, coat with caster sugar not icing sugar, as well as make those crispy thin types instead of the fatter versions. Toast lightly before consumption if possible!

More creative variations on grissini: squid ink, nori.

XO,

Tiffany

~ Wholewheat Focaccia Bread

Adapted from:
Mediterrasian

Description:
Italian yeasted flatbread ideal for dipping in vinaigrette~

Ingredients:
1 tbsp instant dried yeast

1 tsp brown sugar

1/2 C warm water (~ 40 deg)

1/2 C wholewheat flour

1/2 C plain flour

Pinch of salt

1/4 tsp dried mixed spices

3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1) Dissolve yeast, sugar and warm water in a bowl. Leave in a warm place for 10 min till frothy.
2) Combine flour, wholewheat flour, salt and mixed herbs together in a large bowl.
3) Make a well in the dough, and pour in yeast mixture and oil. Mix well with a fork.
4) On a lightly-floured surface, knead dough till it doesn't stick to your hands. Add more flour where necessary.
5) Form a ball, grease it with oil and place into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to proof for 1 hour.
6) Punch down, and knead into a rectangular cuboid shape. Dimple the surface with your finger, and brush oil over the dough generously.
7) Cover and proof in a warm place for another 30 min.
8) Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg for 30-35 min till top has browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Remarks:

Recently, I'd tried some complementary focaccia bread with vinaigrette at Modestos, and my was I impressed with it. The bread was crusty on the outside and so soft on the outside. So I've decided to attempt a recipe on it!

It turned out that the bread which looked awfully distorted was indeed crusty, but kind of too crusty as I've left it in the oven for longer than the stated time. The interior was considered soft enough for a wholewheat variety so it's not bad. However taste-wise, it was bland (couldn't even taste the EVOO or herbs inside). Maybe it was due to me using expired dried mixed herbs, adding too little of the herbs and omiting the topping. Nevertheless, still a good start in my opinion! Maybe I'll try Easy Focaccia from Allrecipes the next time around.

The bread was chewy and quite stiff the next day, so it's best eaten fresh on the day it was made. Pop it into the oven for a short while, then it'll be restored to at least 75% of its original splendor.

In an attempt to re-create the dining experience, I'd mixed equal parts of vinegar and EVOO together, along with a small garlic clove as a dressing for my bread:

Anyway, can you imagine it when someone takes a bite of what you baked, comments that it tastes horrible and dump it into the dustbin right in front of you while you are washing the dishes? I've experienced this countless of times. At first I was so hurt, now.. I'm pretty much immune to it already. So if anyone does that to you, don't take it to heart. And don't do that to others... ever. Unless you are an insensitive mother to your own daughter.

~ Mexican Whole Wheat Flour Tortilla

Adapted from:
Allrecipes

Description:
Thin, unleavened flatbread~

Ingredients (makes 6 8" tortillas):
40 g plain flour

160 g wholewheat flour

Pinch of salt

15 g extra virgin olive oil

20 g sunflower or any vegetable oil

120 ml boiling water

Directions:

1) Combine flour, wholewheat flour and salt together in a large bowl.
2) Rub in oil, till the texture of oatmeal is achieved.
3) Make a well in the dough, and pour in water. Mix well with a fork.
4) On a lightly-floured surface, knead dough till it doesn't stick to your hands.
5) Roll into 6 golf-ball-sized balls, place on a tray and cover with a warm damp cloth. Let it rest for 1 hour.
6) Roll a tortilla to preferred thickness on a well-floured surface.
7) Heat griddle or frying pain over high heat, and dry-fry each tortilla on one side. Once the first bubble is seen (around 1 min), flip over the tortilla and fry for another 30 min. Carry out step 6 while waiting for the tortilla to cook.
8) Serve, refrigerate or freeze tortillas.

Remarks:

A tour in the bread section of any supermarket would leave someone agape with horror - purchasing 8 wholewheat tortillas is tantamount to buying 4 - 5 loafs of enriched wholewheat bread! Now, what would justify this? Since I felt like having a tortilla wrap and have been wanting to make my own tortillas, I thought to myself: why not make it on a fine cooling day like today?

A quick search on my favourite portal landed me on this recipe. I tweaked it slightly by using EVOO and sunflower oil in place of the shortening. This made the tortillas a little dry and I couldn't roll them up without cracks, so perhaps next time around more oil can be used. The dough was easy to work with, and rolled out extremely well - I've made them to a thickness of ~ 1 mm! Taste-wise, one can't expect much, these are flour tortillas mind you!

I'd wrapped a tortilla around a sausage...

... and another for my salmon patty, and boy they were delish! On a side note, I'm so glad that I didn't get diarrhoea from eating food that was frozen so long ago!

The following following day, I rolled a tortilla with scrambled egg and bean sprouts:

~ Craisin Nut Bread

Taken from:
Allrecipes

Description:
Sweet festive bread infused with orange flavour and studded with craisins~

Ingredients:
2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C white sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 C chopped craisins, soaked in boiling water or OJ for 5 min and drained

1/2 C chopped almonds

1 egg

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3/4 cup orange juice

1 tbsp orange zest

1/2 tsp orange extract (optional)

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 X 12" loaf pan.
2) Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the cranberries and walnuts, and stir to coat with flour.

3) Mix together the egg, oil, orange juice, orange zest and extract. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture, and stir until just blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

4) Bake for 90 min in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 min, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
5) Cover bread with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 24 hours before serving for best results.

Remarks:
For the first time, I've followed a recipe almost exactly - didn't change anything except to cut the sugar by 1/4 C and baked the bread for another 40 min as it seemed very moist on the surface. It turned out that the exterior was rubbery and the interior was crumbly. I found the bread too sweet too (I realised that this IS a sweet bread after all), and I couldn't find my orange zest, almonds and cranberries! =(

After it was wrapped up and stored overnight, the bread was more fragrant and had the texture of a fruit cake. Next time, I'll stick to the 50 min mark for baking time, reduce the sugar again, coursely chop the almonds, add in more craisins and orange zest. Those should do the trick!

All in all, this recipe seems okay if the ingredients are accessible.

~ Persimmon Bread

Modified from:
Allrecipes

Description:
Moist spice bread made with ripe persimmons.

Ingredients:
5/6 C persimmon pulp

1 tsp baking soda
1 C brown sugar
1/4 C vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 tsp cinnmon
3/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 C flour
Chopped almonds

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 175 deg. Grease and flour 9X12" baking pan.
2. Stir pulp and baking soda together and let it stand for 5 min to thicken it.
3. Cream eggs with sugar and oil. Add in spices and salt. Mix in pulp and flour alternately till well blended. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle generously with chopped almonds over the batter.
4. Bake for 1 hour in oven, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 min before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Remarks
Soft on the exterior while moist in the center, should reduce temperature and bake for longer time. Sugar can be reduced to 3/4C as persimmons are sweet already. Can't really taste the persimmons though.