Pretzel Buns

I love pretzels. Soft Pretzels anyway... They're one of the things I use the most flour towards on a regular basis. I recently pinned a Pretzel Hamburger Bun recipe and thought that it was time to give it a try. We were just about to take off for the long weekend and do some camping (with our home ground Sirloin burgers), so I needed a bun to complete that. These are the best pretzel buns I've ever had and I honestly don't think I would even give another recipe a chance at this point. I suppose the only thing I would change is that it made a double recipe.

And so I pass it on. This recipe makes about 8 large buns.

Homemade Pretzel Buns
(Adapted from Juanita's Cocina)

Ingredients

For the Pretzel Dough

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Pinch Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups warm water (100ºF)
1 Tbs. sugar (brown or white, I used brown Sugar)
1 3/4 tsp. active dry yeast
4 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

For Boiling the Buns

8 cups water
1/2 cup (ish) baking soda
1 large egg, whisked with a dash of water
Kosher salt for sprinkling

Instructions

Add the water, sugar, and yeast to a measuring cup or bowl and stir slightly. Allow the yeast to bloom, or for bubbles to form in the cup. This should take about 5-10 minutes.

Add the flour, salt, yeast mixture, and melted butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix ingredients together on low speed until a rough ball begins to form. Continue to knead on low speed for another 5 minutes, or until the dough ball turns smooth and pulls away from the walls of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a large lightly oiled bowl. Cover and allow the dough to rest for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. If its a hot summer day, you'll have no problem in your kitchen (unless you have AC, and I'm jealous), otherwise you can quickly preheat an oven to 200º and turn it off right after. Place a damp towel over your bowl and put in the oven to rise. Without a damp towel, it will probably get a crusty skin of sorts.

Preheat the oven to 450º. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Punch down the dough and divide the dough into 8-12 equal portions (8 for large buns, 12 for more dinner roll sized buns). Roll each portion of dough between the palm of your hand and the counter/hard surface to form a ball. Place the rolls on the baking sheet and allow them to rest for approximately 20 minutes, or until they have risen again.

Meanwhile, bring the water and baking soda to a low boil in a large pot, I used a braiser as it gives me a large surface, I can do about 4 buns at a time. Then, turn the heat down so that no bubbles are breaking the surface. (bubbles will cause “divets” in your bun’s surface) Drop 1-4 buns (comfortable fit) at a time into the hot water, leaving them for 30 seconds on one side, before flipping them over and leaving them for another 30 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, remove and drain each bun, returning it to the baking sheet.

Brush the egg wash lightly on all of the pretzel buns. Immediately sprinkle the top of the buns with a bit of Kosher salt. Cut two small, shallow slits in the top of each of the buns. I did an "=" pattern, an "X" is also common.

Once all pretzel buns have been salted, bake them in the oven for approximately 13-15 minutes, or until they turn a deep golden brown colour.

Cool on a rack until they won't steam up a container! Unless you're going to eat them right away, I wouldn't blame you.

I generally notice with pretzels and the buns that if left in a container or plastic bag when too warm or humid that the tops will wrinkle and envelop the salt on them. This isn't pretty looking, but they'll still taste great I promises. Although they also may be a bit sticky.















Here they are in all their glory as Sirloin burger buns on our Glacier Falls Camping Trip

Everything Bagels

Bagels have been something I have wanted to attempt for a really long time. I'm definitely the girl who would give up 3 square meals for a couple of bagels in a day. Call me crazy. So this was my first attempt. I wish I had made them earlier or later as we took them on our camping trip and they sat alone in the cooler. As anyone else with a "baking problem" may know, we were a bit overstocked on delicious food options. I did manage to try a couple before they sadly went mouldy. And I was fairly happy with them. Bagels can for sure be a blank slate for you to put your own touch on and add whatever you enjoy. I started with everything, since they're fairly basic and well enjoyed. Now that I know generally how they go, I'm definitely attempting the Jalapeño Cheddar variety next time. Stay tuned.

Things I would change ... I would bake them a tad longer (unless you have convection bake!) and I will get malt powder to boil them in next time, I used brown sugar instead. I would also keep the boil to a low boil, my bagels were a little bit dimply. Easily hidden with the toppings though!

Everything Bagels
(Adapted slightly from Arctic Garden Studio)

Dough

1 tablespoon instant yeast
4 cups Bread Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 1/2 cups water, lukewarm (100ºF)

Glaze and Everything Bagel Topping

2 tablespoon white sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 tablespoon dried onions
1/2 teaspoon toasted garlic
1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 egg white

Water Bath

8 Cups water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Combine all of the dough ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. Set on medium-low speed for about 5 minutes. The dough will be quite stiff and sticky. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, and set it aside to rise till noticeably puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Mix together all of the everything bagel topping ingredients, except for the egg white and set aside.

Transfer the dough to a work surface, and divide it into eight pieces. I like to half my ball of dough, then half the halves and so on till 8. Makes them much more even than one giant bagel and 7 mini bagels. Working with one piece at a time, roll it into a smooth, round ball. Cover the balls with plastic wrap or a towel, and let them rest for 30-45 minutes.

While the dough is resting, prepare the water bath by heating the water, malt and sugar to a very gentle boil in a large, wide-diameter pan, I used my braiser. Preheat your oven to 425°F.

Use your index finger to poke a hole through the center of each ball, then twirl the dough on your finger to stretch the hole till it's about 2 inches in diameter (the entire bagel will be about 4 inches across). The twirling is fun, but be careful not to launch your bagel across your kitchen! Place each bagel on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

Transfer the bagels, four at a time if possible, to the simmering water. Increase the heat under the pan to bring the water back up to a gently simmering boil. Cook the bagels for 2 minutes, flip them over, and cook 1 minute more. Using a skimmer or strainer, remove the bagels from the water and place them back on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining bagels.

Just before baking, with a glaze made of 1 egg white beaten till frothy with 1 tablespoon of water; glaze each bagel, and sprinkle heavily with everything bagel topping. You can eliminate this step if you prefer plain bagels, or use another topping of your choice if you are not a fan of everything bagels.


Bake the bagels for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they're as deep brown as you like. Remove the bagels from the oven, and cool completely on a wire rack. Makes 8 bagels.

Graham Crackers

I really hate Graham Crackers. Which is really sad because I love the idea of S'mores. So when I started seeing make your own Graham Cracker recipes popping up I figured I would give them a try. And now, I can clarify that I really hate Graham Crackers, from a box. These are still fairly similar but have a lot more flavour and you can definitely manipulate them slightly if you would prefer more of a certain flavour. I would make them a bit thinner next time and the flavour of them still overwhelms the S'more a little bit.

Graham Crackers
(Adapted slightly from Baking and Boys)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon molasses
1/4 cup water (may need a little more)

In bowl of food processor, combine flours, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon.  Pulse a few times. Add the cold butter and pulse until texture is dry and crumbly.

In a separate bowl, mix together the honey, molasses and water.  Add to food processor and blend together until it forms a ball, or close to a ball. I needed to dump it on to my plastic wrap and hand form it.

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll the dough out on a well floured surface.  Roll the dough out as thin as you would like and cut with cookie cutters, I used a glass, for circles  Make fork marks in the dough.  Transfer to baking sheets.  You could sprinkle these with sugar or cinnamon/sugar before baking, I had a Maple Sugar Epicure Grinder that I used.  

Bake for 11-14 minutes until golden and crisp.  This recipe made about 20-26 Circles. I think I rolled some out thinner than others.

I also decided to take this one step further and melt some chocolate chips and butterscotch chips to pipe onto half the crackers. Eliminating the need to remember chocolate for the S'mores! I used about 1/4 cup of each for 24 crackers, as I had made a double recipe.

English Muffins

Yes, this happened. I don't honestly know why I never thought of making these myself before. We now have a ton in our freezer and I'm sooo happy for that. They turned out amazing and they were super easy to make. Sean even helped. He was a little unsure at first, never making bread before but he had fun shaping them and manning the griddle. Yes! You griddle them! I really never pictured that either. Silly now that I think of it.

Anyways, it's bread so we followed the recipe exactly. We will definitely make them again. The recipe says 16, we got 22. It may be because they were smaller or because we REALLY let our dough rise. If you need them to be the exact same size, not judging I do it too, you should probably weigh the balls.

English Muffins
(Adapted from Homemade English Muffins)

1 3/4 cups lukewarm milk (I heated my milk in the microwave, 30 sec on med, stir, repeat till 100º)
2 1/4 tsp (1 pkg) yeast
3 Tbsp butter, softened
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1 large egg
4 1/2 cups flour
Pam for bowl and hands
Cornmeal for griddle

Place milk in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and sprinkle yeast over top.

Let sit for 10 minutes and then add the butter, salt, sugar, egg, and flour.

Mix on low until the flour is incorporated and then switch to medium and beat for 5 minutes - dough will be very soft and sticky.

Scrape dough out into an oiled bowl and cover, letting rise for ~2 hours.

Keeping your hands well oiled to prevent the dough from sticking, pinch golf ball sized pieces of dough off (2 oz, if you have a kitchen scale), form a ball, and place on a griddle pan that is generously dusted with cornmeal.
Lightly press down on the balls once on the pan (I could fit 8 on my large pancake griddle and then I put the remainder on a baking sheet to cook in three batches).

Let rest for 20 minutes to rise again. This is what mine looked like in the cornmeal, risen, before cooking.

Turn burner or grill to medium low and cook until golden brown, about 14 minutes on each side. (If they brown too quickly, reduce the heat.)

Carefully transfer the second batch to the griddle so as not to deflate them and cook until done.

Let cool completely on a rack before splitting open with a fork.
Muffins will keep fresh on the counter a few days and freeze well.

Here's a finished picture!

Caramel Macchiato Ice Cream

I knew I wanted to make some type of ice cream with the hot temperatures over the past few weeks. I really didn't know what type I wanted to make though, so I skimmed Pinterest until one jumped out at me! I did find a few but I knew my boyfriend would love this and I had all of the (modified) ingredients. It might be a bit heavy on the coffee flavour for some people and I used strong coffee. So adjust accordingly!

This is super creamy and doesn't get too hard considering it isn't a cooked ice cream. I know, until I figured out what that meant, it sounded really strange to me. But I won't confuse you with the details. My next one will probably be a cooked one, so you will see then!

Caramel Macchiato Ice Cream
(Adapted Slighty from here)

1 Cup 1% Milk (Any is ok)
2 Tbsp Instant Coffee (2-4 individual packs)
3/4 Cup White Sugar
1 Pinch Salt
2 Cups 18% Cream (You probably could use 10% too)
3/4 Cup Dulche de Leche (I used Eagle Brand in a tin)

Whisk together milk, instant coffee granules, sugar, and salt in a large bowl until sugar is dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream, then cover and refrigerate until chilled. If your ingredients all went in cold, this won't take long. It will help to dissolve the coffee a bit more. 

Pour the chilled mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions until it reaches "soft-serve" consistency. It took me about 35 minutes. The heavier cream you use, the more likely it will be for the ice cream to sort of "over flow" out of the top of the machine. 

Transfer a couple scoops of the ice cream to a one- or two-quart lidded plastic container. Pour some of the caramel sauce over the top, then repeat the layers with the remaining ice cream and caramel. Swirl the caramel into the ice cream using a chopstick or knife if desired but mine sort of absorbed into the ice cream and swirled it self.. Cover surface with plastic wrap and seal. For best results, ice cream should set in the freezer for at least 2 hours. 

Steak & Goat Cheese Salad

Don't let the title fool you, there's a lot more to this salad than Steak and Goat Cheese. We've been on a bit of a salad kick lately and I've found the key is really to add in things you like to make it less boring.

Here's what we add to basic romaine!

Steamed Asparagus - Blanch in cold Water to maintain Crispness
Diced Red Pepper
Cubed Avocado
Cabra al Vino Goat Cheese - Or any goat cheese you like, this one is mild and creamy.
Salt and Pepper
Sunflower Oil
Rice Vinegar

Toss is all together and top with some thin sliced medium rare Steak. By far my favourite salad recipe!

Picture to follow.

Black Forest Graduation Cupcakes

My boyfriend graduated University after 6 long years this past June and his family threw him a party to celebrate. I had seen these on my (new favourite site) Pinterest and was pretty much determined to make them. They went over really well and were by far the coolest cupcakes I have ever made. I of course had to change them a bit, making them black forest for Sean, since its his favourite.

I really tend to keep it simple when I'm making a large amount of cupcakes and stick to a box cake mix. I used a Swiss Chocolate Duncan Hines cake mix for this one. Bake them according to the box, they usually make 24-30. I got 30 out of mine. I let these sit and cool over night, but a few hours will be fine.

You can buy a cupcake corer at Williams Sonoma or just use a paring knife to cut out a cylinder of the middle of the cupcake about half way deep. You can throw out the scraps.

Before moving on, pour a jar of pitted "sour" cherries through a strainer. Pour 1 cup of the juice into a small saucepan and add 1/2 cup of white sugar. Boil until reduced into a slight syrup, not too thick. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops and the hole in the cupcake with the drained juice from the cherries. Let this absorb completely and do it one or two more times depending how cherry flavoured you want them.

Place a cherry into each cupcake center.

I made a double recipe of stabilized Whipped Cream with this recipe. I needed the whipped cream to hold its shape for a little while so I decided to use this.

Put a bit of whipped cream on top of the cherry in the centers, and top with another cherry. Continue to ice the whole cupcake.

Taa-Daa! Black Forest Cupcakes!

Now for the Graduation Part of these Cupcakes, which was actually what I saw on Pinterest. I couldn't actually find much on them, a few people recommended Ghirardelli Chocolates for the tops, but those are fairly expensive for people that probably wouldn't notice either way.

I bought a bag of individually wrapped Reese's Mini Cups for the base. I melted 14 oz of chocolate and butterscotch chips (half and half) separately over a double boiler. I poured down the bittersweet Chocolate and swirled the butterscotch on top in a parchment lined baking sheet. I smoothed this out and put it in the fridge for about an hour. This is basically a chocolate bark. After it has cooled, cut it into about 2" squares. I put it back in the fridge after this.

I made a half recipe of this Icing Glue to attach the bottom of the Reese's Cups to the Bark Squares. You can definitely stop after this, they will look like little Grad Caps. I chose to add a licorice rope tassel with an edible Candy Pearl on the top.

Press the caps onto the Cupcakes and you're ready to go!

Here's A Picture: