Honey Oatmeal Roll 蜂蜜とオートミールのロールパン

Once we rediscovered the English muffin bread my wife used to make she remembered there was another favorite recipe in the same Kitchenaid cookbook. So “for old times sake” she decided to make that too. According to the original recipe the bread was made into loaves but instead my wife made it into rolls. It’s a seemingly small variation but we think the rolls were much better than the loaves. Other changes included toasting the oatmeal and walnuts which increased the nutty flavor of the buns. She also substituted buttermilk for the plain water called for in the recipe and used buckwheat honey which has a very strong but pleasant honey flavor which really came through in the final baked rolls. In any case, we are posting this so that we have an easy access to the recipe.

Ingredients:
5-6½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick cooking oats, (toasted)
2 teaspoons salt
2 packages active dry yeast
1½ cups water (or buttermilk) 
½ cup honey (buckwheat)
⅓ cup butter or margarine (cubed)
2 eggs

for the topping (which we didn’t use)
1 tablespoon water
1 egg white
Oatmeal

Directions:
Place 5 cups of the flour, the 1 cup oats, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Attach dough hook and on speed 2  mix for 30 seconds to combine. Continuing on speed 2, slowly add the buttermilk and eggs. Then add the butter cubes. Add remaining flour, ½ cup at a time, until dough clings to hook and cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead on Speed 2 for 7 to 10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.

Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover, let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. To make a loaf divide dough in half. Place each loaf in a greased 8½ × 4½ x 2½-inch bread pan. To make buns weigh the dough and divide into individual pieces based on desired size of the buns. (I usually make them about 85 grams each). Cover; let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

If making the topping, combine water and egg white. Brush tops of loaves or rolls with the mixture. Sprinkle with oatmeal. Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

These are indeed an “all time” favorite. The texture is very soft and it has a distinctive pleasant honey taste. The walnuts add an additional bit of texture. We can see the oatmeal on the cut surface (picture #1) and it adds an additional nutty flavor. Glad we found these old recipes. They deserve to be blogged.

English Muffin Loaves イングリシュマフィンローフパン

Recently my wife mentioned that she was thinking of making homemade English muffins. I remembered that we used to make English muffins which we posted as several versions of English muffin. We initially started making them using muffin rings in a frying pan  (which apparently we did not post). The dough was very sticky and putting it in the English muffin rings was very cumbersome. We also cooked them without the rings in the cast iron skillet.  Looking at these past posts, I remembered how sticky the dough was, and how hard it was to form into the round muffins and how long it took to cook those muffins. I also remembered that my wife used to make something called English muffin bread. It had the flavor and texture of an English muffin but was much easier to make. We really liked it. When I mentioned this to my wife she said, “Great! Let’s look up the recipe in the Blog”. After some searching and although we saw it mentioned in this and other posts several times, (we even posted “Eggs Benedict” using slices of English muffin bread) we never posted how the actual bread was made.  Apparently, my wife baked this bread so many times in the past and it was such a ubiquitous part of our everyday meals we didn’t think it was anything special and it never occurred to us to post it. 

Since the recipe was not posted in the blog, the next question was “Where did it come from?” Then, my wife remembered it was from a spiral bound instruction and recipe book that came with the very first Kitchenaid stand mixer we bought years ago. Bingo! Between the two of us we found the recipe and here is the bread! (Picture #1).

Like the other English muffin recipes we previously mentioned, this dough is also extremely sticky and hard to work with. But the good news is that it goes into only two loaf pans instead of multiple individual rings which is extremely difficult to do. But it is basically impossible to divide the dough even into just two loaf pans by hand. Having made this bread so many times my wife developed a “work-around” method of tipping the dough directly from the mixer bowl into the loaf pans, dividing it up by cutting it into two pieces using scissors as shown in picture #2. (No clumps of sticky dough stuck to hands.)

Ingredients: (yield two loaves) 
5-6 cups all-purpose flour
2 packages active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
¼ (generous) teaspoon baking soda 
2 1/2 cups milk (my wife used buttermilk)
Cornmeal

Directions:
Place 4 cups flour, yeast, sugar, salt and baking soda in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using a dough hook turn the mixer to speed 2 and mix for 1 minute.

On speed 2 gradually add milk/buttermilk to flour mixture. Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, ½ cup at a time. Knead on Speed 2 for 7 to 10 minutes. Dough will be very sticky.

Spread dough into two bread loaf pans that have been greased and sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover; let rise in warm place, free from draft, for 45 minutes. Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes. Remove from pans immediately and cool.

This is definitely THE WAY to make English Muffin-like bread! It toasts up beautifully and is great for breakfast slathered with butter.  

Pan-fried Oyster Mushroom 平茸の洋風ソテー

We like mushrooms. Since we start using Weee, we regularly get several varieties of fresh mushrooms. Shiitake is our favorite followed by “hen of the woods”. Others that we like are oyster, woodear, shimeji, and enoki mushrooms. This time I decided to cook the oyster mushrooms Western style based on a recipe I saw on-line. Spices and flour coating make it crispy with lots of flavor (#1). This is very different from the more traditional Japanese ways of preparation I have been using and we really like it.

Ingredients
10 oz oyster mushrooms, (300 grams whole or torn into pieces).
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon light soy sauce or tamari for gluten-free, (you can also use low-sodium soy sauce if the light kind isn’t available).
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon black pepper
⅔ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour for gluten-free flour
Olive oil for cooking

For Balsamic Parmesan Oyster Mushrooms:1 tablespoon aged balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions
If mushrooms are large, tear them into 2-3 pieces. Toss mushrooms in a bowl with olive oil, soy sauce, spices, and flour until evenly coated. Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms in a single layer, leaving space between them. Cook for 2-3 minutes per side until crispy and golden brown. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Serve with lemon wedges and flaky salt, or drizzle with balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce V2 赤パプリカのソース

Whenever we have red peppers, we roast them in the toaster oven. We do this on broil mode until the skin blackens and blisters about 15 minutes turning occasionally.  Then I place the peppers in a metal bowl and tightly cover it with aluminum foil to let the peppers steam for about 10-15 minutes. After removing the seeds and skin, the red peppers can be used for salad or other dishes but our main way of using them is to make roasted red pepper sauce. This time I made a different version of red pepper sauce. Since I used tomato paste in this recipe my wife was concerned that this version of the sauce would taste like more tomato sauce but the pepper flavor predominated. While the sauce had a distinctive roasted red pepper flavor unlike the previous version it was creamy (#2). We liked the new version better than the old one. One day I used it to make a pasta dish with poached  shrimp for lunch. (I gently poached the shrimp with the shell on for a short time then removed the shell and halved the shrimp length wise. I use this method because it cooks the shrimp but the shrimp comes out very tender with its sweetness preserved.) The pasta was Pennsylvania Dutch egg noodles (my wife’s favorite). I also added steamed green beans (#1). This was a good lunch.

The recipe is based on one I saw on-line. I changed the proportions of the ingredients using my CCK (Common Culinary Knowledge).

Ingredients:
3 roasted red peppers, skin removed and seeded, cut into small squares
1 shallot, finely diced
1 tsp garlic, finely chopped
1 tbs tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 cup cream
3 tbs parmigiano reggiano, grated
2 tbs olive oil
Pepper and salt to taste

Directions:
Sauté the shallots in the olive oil for 1 minute and add the garlic for another minute. Add the tomato paste and keep cooking until the color of the tomato paste slightly darkens. Add the roasted red pepper, basil, and cream. Cook for a few minutes. Transfer to the cylinder container that came with the immersion blender and blend until smooth. If needed add more cream. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add the Parmesan cheese and mix (#2).

This is very versatile sauce. It was very creamy and had the rich savory flavor of the roasted peppers. We can use it for many purposes such as chicken or white fish.

Cream Cheese Biscuits クリームチーズビスケット

This is one of my wife’s baking projects. She saw a recipe for biscuits made with cream cheese and decided to try it. She used to make biscuits quite often but not recently. As usual, I ask my wife to take over.

The original recipe my wife saw on-line.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 1/2” cubes, and placed in a freezer for 30 minutes.
4 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2” cubes, and placed in a freezer for 30 minutes.
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Position oven rack in the middle position. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Combine the cake flour, all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Using a cuisine art with the sharp blade, add some of the flour mixture, the butter and cream cheese. Process until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the rest of the flour and process it again until everything is mixed and resembles coarse crumbs. (This is done in two steps to make sure all the frozen cheese and butter gets broken up by the blade.) Add the buttermilk and mix just until the mixture comes together and transfer to a floured working surface. Mixture will be slightly dry. Knead dough for about one minute until it comes together. Using a rolling pin, roll dough into a 6″ x 8″ rectangle, about 3/4″ in thickness. Use a bench scraper and cut the dough into 12 equal 2″ squares. Place on prepared pan and bake for 12 to 15 minutes until biscuits are light brown.

These turned out to be very good biscuits. I am not sure I could taste the cream cheese, however, but it had a nice crunchy exterior and buttery flaky interior. Perfect for breakfast and dinner.