The Bread Monk
  • Home
  • My Bread Blog
  • Breadhead Videos
  • Recipes
  • Fr. Dom's Books
  • Events/Programs
  • Shortcut Stollen
  • New Page

Tomato Puree and Homemade Donuts

8/17/2012

1 Comment

 
Br. Luke is bringing in about 20 pounds of tomatoes every day, so it's the time of year I start thinking about storing the harvest from my herb garden, which I generally do by canning them in the form of pizza sauce.  (The only other herbs I store are fennel seed and hot peppers, which I dry and grind up for hot Italian sausage, but that's for another post). 
Picture
So I took about 50 pounds of tomatoes, washed and cored them, cut them into quarters and ran them through the food processor for a rough chop.  Then, as I often do for larger culinary endeavors, I enlisted the help of my Stage Rats, who ran the tomatoes through a Foley food mill, which yielded a pulpy, fragrant tomato puree.

Picture
        Every kitchen ought to have a food mill, which can rice, grate, mash and puree foods while removing skins, peels and seeds.  Mothers use them to make homemade baby food, canners use them to process fruit for jams and jellies, and they're handy for applesauce and even cracker crumbs.  They can be a bit fussy to clean and a food processor might be more efficient for some jobs, but its ability to screen out skins and seeds makes them a valuable tool.
        Unfortunately, a food mill will set you back anywhere from $35 to $80 when you buy them new, so I recommend you keep an eye out at garage sales, flea markets and the Goodwill store.  I've gotten all of mine (I own four of different sizes) for less than $10 each.  Look for a mill that isn't too rusty or dented.  The center shaft should turn smoothly without being wobbly, and the interior blade should press firmly against the screen.   Get the largest you can find and afford, and pretty soon you'll be making homemade applesauce without having to peel all those apples!
    

Picture
We finished processing the tomato puree about 9 p.m., so after some discussion the Rats and I determined that we ought to make homemade donuts, featuring some real vanilla that one of them brought back from Mexico for me.  Naturally I had an old-fashioned donut batter press (made by the Popeil Bros., the predecessor of Ronco) obtained at a flea market for 75 cents, so we fired up the Fry Daddy and had a grand time.  Notice the modest size of old-fashioned donuts---much more reasonable than the tractor tire-sized treats in many bakeries.  Next experiement: red velvet donuts with cream cheese frosting---I promise I'll share the recipe!
            This afternoon I'll add some wine and garlic to the tomato puree, reduce it to the correct thickiness and add fresh minced basil, oregano and rosemary, salt and pepper.  Then we'll crank up the biggest steam kettle to can about 20 quarts of pizza sauce tonight.  Is my life great or what?

UPDATE AT 10:30 p.m.
            The pizza sauce turned out to  be very flavorful indeed (plenty of herbs, practicially a whole bulb of garlic in 16 quarts) but far sweeter than usual, although I didn't add any sugar.  So I suspect that's due to the type of tomatoes Br. Luke grew this year, which I have found to be deliciously sweet in a salad or on a smoked turkey sandwich, but I'm not sure how it will play out on a pizza.
            Secondly, I tried a recipe off the Internet for red velvet cake donuts, and it did not turn out at all.  I won't reveal what company website I found it on, but let me say that Queen Guenivere should be looking for a new baker.  The cream cheese frosting rocked, so if we can find a red velvet recipe to match, we'll be in business.  I may try baking the donuts instead of frying, since I have the special pans needed for that.  Somewhere . . .

1 Comment

Sweet Potato Bread

8/8/2012

0 Comments

 
We had mashed sweet potatoes for supper tonight, and although I don't much care for them, the leftovers can be used to make a delicious quick bread, which is what I did after night prayer.  You can also use self-rising flour, but omit the salt and baking powder as they are included in the flour mix.
Southern Sweet Potato Bread
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1¼ tsp. salt
2 ¼ tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup mashed cooked sweet potato
1 cup chopped pecans

Sift flour, sugar, spice, and salt into a medium size mixing bowl.  In another bowl, beat eggs, then add oil, sour cream, vanilla and sweet potato and beat well.  Pour liquid mixture onto dry ingredients and stir until just blended—do not overmix.  Fold in nuts.  Pour batter into a well-greased loaf pan (9 x 5 x 3) and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 60 or until top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.  Cool on racks for at least an hour before slicing; best if sliced the next day.
0 Comments

Self correcting cinnamon rolls

7/28/2012

0 Comments

 
I was in a hurry tonight to get some cinnamon rolls made, but I took pictures in case we need them for the new book.  I just want you to notice that the rolls went into the pan less than perfectly arranged, but a well-greased pan and 30 minutes of rising fixed everything.  No need to get all Martha Stewart in the kitchen---bread is very forgiving! 
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Substitutions

3/28/2012

0 Comments

 
    Finally back to the kitchen after two weeks backstage for the Spring Musical at the Academy.  The Music Man went just fine once we got into performance, but production week was pretty scary!
            Often when I get back to the kitchen after a long hiatus (and two weeks without baking is a looong time in my experience!) I either want to make an old-time favorite or try something new.  Tonight I did both: I experimented with adapting some recipes I've made many times before, but switched up the ingredients a bit.  
            The first was a recipe from my first season of Breaking Bread, a fan favorite called Butter Pecan Breakfast Bread.  It uses butterscotch pudding mix and buttermilk to mimic the flavors of Amish Friendship bread.  If you have any baking friends, you've probably been afflicted with a batch of the batter in a ziplock bag that requires care and feeding for ten days before you can use it, and then you've got enough to share with other friends who don't want to mess with it either.  My version is a lot easier, but I wondered if it could be used to make banana nut bread without having to wait for bananas to go bad.
Picture
As you can see, the results were less than spectacular.  I used Jello banana cream instant pudding, because I couldn't find just plain banana pudding mix, and the banana flavor was rather weak---flat out disappointing, in fact.  I had no buttermilk so I used 2% milk, and omitted the baking soda in the recipe that would react with the acid of the buttermilk.  I think I should have left it in, or increased the baking powder accordingly, as you can see that the loaves are a bit flat.  It looks like it rose and collapsed, too, so it might be underbaked.  On the whole, the substitutions seemed not to have worked very well.  More experimentation will be needed, and for all the know the whole idea of banana pudding bread may need to be scrapped. 

Picture
        I was somewhat more successful with adapting the recipe for Apricot Skillet Bread, a flatbread that I developed one evening about 12 years ago with one of my former students who was into health food.  The original used plain yogurt, spelt flour and chopped apricots (ridiculously wholesome ingredients, I know!) flavored with coriander and ginger.  This time around I had pineapple Greek yogurt which needed to be thinned with a little milk, and freshly ground whole wheat flour.  The results were considerably more successful than the banana bread, although it appears our oven has developed a hot spot.  The flavor is quite subtle, so a light hand with the butter knife and a delicate drizzle of honey are about all the additions you'd need, if any.  Cornmeal and wheat germ give it some lovely texture as well.  We'll see what reaction it gets from the brethren at breakfast.

            I'm not the least bit discouraged by tonight's failure---happens all the time when I'm developing new recipes.  I've made breads that were poorly shaped and utterly bland, used too much salt or combined the wrong flavors, overbaked, underbaked and flat out burned loaves that looked pretty good on paper.  But I've also gotten new recipes right on the first try, turned out triumphant loaves without measuring a thing, and created monastery favorites simply by using something that we had too much of.  Spinach Pesto Pizza came about when we had an abundance of fresh greens from Br. Luke's garden.  My tomato basil focaccia started out as juice drained off of chopped tomatoes being used for another recipe altogether.  When I demonstrated this last recipe at a baking class and told the story of its origins, one woman asked, "But how did you know that it would work?"  The answer, of course, is that I didn't know.  But I've never let my own ignorance get in the way of culinary adventure, and neither should you.  After all, there's always croutons, or in extremis, the bird feeder!
0 Comments

Mother McAuley and Ice Cream Muffins

3/2/2012

3 Comments

 
        Thursday I traveled to Oak Lawn IL to Mother McAuley High School with Chef Jim Behrens of Food Service Professionals.  In January, a group of 16 students, began meeting on Thursday afternoons for a culinary class.  They studied basic culinary skills such as knife skills and basic sanitation, plus making soups, appetizers and dinner entrees.  Chef Jim invited me to be a guest lecturer.   They meet for only 90 minutes, so I couldn't really do a yeasted bread, so we decided to make ice cream muffins.
        Ice cream muffins have only two ingredients: self-rising flour and melted ice cream.  You mix the two together and you've got muffin batter.  If you were to look up the recipes for ice cream and self-rising flour, and place them next to a recipe for plain muffins, you'd find that the ingredients pretty much line up one-to-one.  It's a recipe I got from my mom, of course, which I originally published in Bake and Be Blessed.
           
We had both chocolate and vanilla melted ice cream, and lots of goodies to mix in: mini chocolate chips, crushed Butterfingers, chopped pecans, mini M & M's, raisins, dried cranberries, and dried mango.  The girls worked in pairs, and we had enough time to make two batches, which is good because the first batch was pretty much devoured by the student chefs and the parade of teachers who just happened to pass through the kitchen as we were sampling.
        I'm sure Breadheads everywhere are going to want to try this, so here's the recipe: 
Ice Cream Muffins
Yield: 6 muffins
1 cup self-rising flour (see note)
1 to 1 ½ cups melted ice cream, any flavor
     Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place flour into a medium bowl.  Stir in enough of the melted ice cream to make a thick batter.  If the ice cream has chocolate chips or nuts, make sure they get mixed in, too.  You can also add additional nuts, candy, or fruit to the mix, which I recommend---about a third of a cup is perfect.  DO NOT OVERMIX.  The batter will be lumpy, and you may see small pockets of dry flour. That's OK! If you overmix the batter, the muffins will be a little too chewy and oddly-shaped.
     Lightly grease a six cup muffin tin.  Divide batter among muffin cups.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.  The tops of the muffins may not brown very much, but the tops should spring back when lightly pressed.   Let muffins cool to lukewarm, then eat immediately.  Feel free to dunk pieces of the muffin in the remaining melted ice cream.
     Note: if you don’t have self-rising flour in hand, you can substitute 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1½ teaspoons of baking powder, and ½ teaspoon of salt.

3 Comments

Stage Crew treat

12/7/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
Nothing much to write about.  Just thought I'd show what happens when the stage crew gets all their work done early and I don't feel like starting a new project on stage.  Click here to try this at home, and thumb your nose the next time you drive by IHOP. 

0 Comments

Honey Oatmeal

11/11/2011

3 Comments

 
Picture
Twenty-four loaves of honey oatmeal ready to go out the door for the Vendors' Fair, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Spring Valley IL.  It's being held in the Community Center, and the proceeds from the vendors' fees are going to the local Food Pantry.  I only have about forty loaves of bread total, so come early!    I'm willing to take a few orders for the week of Thanksgiving, too, since I'll be baking anyway and it's just as easy to make twelve loaves as two, when you've got a big enough mixer!  I've been experimenting with using the convection blower on our ovens.  I usually don't, but with large batches that fill the oven, the outermost loaves get slightly overdone on the sides.  With the blower on, the air circulates more evenly, but you have to adjust the temperature and baking times.  Did pretty well on this batch, since all of the loaves are uniformly browned.   This is my #1 requested recipe, so you can find it here.

Picture
This would make a great photo greeting card, but I'm afraid it would make the recipient really hungry! 

3 Comments

Halloween in the kitchen

10/30/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
Craig and Marty Luetkemyer came to visit and we did a little Halloween baking.  Since Halloween means chocolate, we made chocolate chunk bread from More Breaking Bread with Father Dominic, the cookbook from season three.  I didn't have any block chocolate, but I'm trying to use up a FIFTY pound bag of semi-sweet mini-chips someone gave me, so we used those.  I'm guessing that the change won't matter to the monks at breakfast!  Want to try it yourself?  Click here for the link to the recipe.

0 Comments

Finally back to the kitchen!

10/24/2011

1 Comment

 
Picture
Finally got back to baking after a couple of weeks of work on the Homecoming Variety Show.  I decided to renew my sourdough starters and then make some multigrain waffles to put into the freezer for those mornings when the selection on the breakfast cart looks a little thin.  I generally warm these in halves using the wide- slot toaster rather than the microwave, because I like a little crunch on the edges.  There was some Cream of Wheat leftover from breakfast a few days ago, so I whisked it into the batter along with wheat germ, wheat bran, cornmeal and quick cooking oatmeal.  If you want to know more about care and feeding of sourdough starters and how to use them on waffles, pancakes and biscuits, you can get my sourdough workshop notes and recipes by clicking here.

Picture
I also made some honey oatmeal bread this afternoon, for no other reason than because it's a monastery favorite.  In fact, it's the recipe that people most often tell me is their family's favorite as well.  Try it for yourself by downloading the recipe here, and let me know what your family thinks.  Remember that fully cooked bread is usually 190 to 195 degrees F., but a multigrain bread--especially this one--needs to be baked to 200 to 205 degrees  F. or you'll find it a bit doughy and/or yeasty in the middle.

1 Comment

My best bread picture. Ever.

9/30/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is a picture of the Nutty Wholegrain Shortcake with Tart Apple Topping (recipe in an earlier post 9-19-11).  The apples were leftover from student lunch and were a bit lackluster, so I stirred in a bit more brown sugar and cinnamon, and added a generous dash of apple cider vinegar to give them a little more tartness.  It must have worked, because I took it over to the concession stand workers at that night's volleyball game, and they brought back a clean plate!  Try this one at home and it will become a fall favorite. 

0 Comments
Forward>>

    Author

    Fr. Dominic Garramone AKA 
    the Bread Monk

    Categories

    All
    Breadhead Bookshelf
    Breakfast Breads
    Buns Rolls And Biscuits
    Craftsy
    Donuts
    Equipment
    Ethnic Breads
    Events
    Gluten Free
    Herbal Breads
    Holidays
    Lake Thunderbird
    Memories Of Mama
    Multigrain Breads
    Pastries
    Pizza
    Places To Visit
    Quick Breads
    Reflections While The Bread Is Rising
    Savory Breads
    Sourdough
    Spirituality
    Stuff Besides Bread
    Sweet Breads
    The Classics
    Tools Of The Trade

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    June 2024
    December 2023
    September 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    February 2020
    October 2019
    June 2019
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011

Web Hosting by FatCow