Ciabatta Rolls

Ciabatta Rolls

So, I started this post about eight years ago, and I cannot recall why I didn't finish it then. I didn't completely finish it today either. I just want to get the recipe posted because I think I'll be making it again. Perhaps there are other bread people out there who might be up for it as well. And perhaps I'll even make these again soon so I can take more pics or even make a TikTok about it. We shall see.

For now, this is what I have. 

There are so many things I love about these rolls, I don't know why I forgot about them. They're light, flavorful, versatile, and such a great sensory experience to make. The dough gets super puffy and jiggly (see video clip at the bottom), and they're delicious.

This week I used one of these for a fantastic breakfast sandwich with Black Forest ham, egg, and American cheese. Mmm. Super satisfying. The rest are waiting in the freezer for my nephews who visit next month, but I think I may try to bake some more because I'll want to eat and share these with Ezra AND I want to add more pics here.

Okay, enough rambling. Back to baking.

Ciabatta Rolls
    --adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients:

Biga

• 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 cup water (8 ounces), at room temperature

Dough

• 4 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 3 teaspoons table salt
• 1 1/2 cups water (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup milk (room temperature)

Instructions:

1. FOR THE BIGA: Combine flour, yeast, and water in medium bowl and stir with wooden spoon until uniform mass forms, about 1 minute. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature (about 70 degrees) overnight (at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours).

2. FOR THE DOUGH: Place biga and dough ingredients in bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on lowest speed until roughly combined and shaggy dough forms, about 1 minute; scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Continue mixing on medium-low speed until dough becomes uniform mass that collects on paddle and pulls away from sides of bowl, 4 to 6 minutes. Change to dough hook and knead bread on medium speed until smooth and shiny (dough will be very sticky), about 10 minutes. Transfer dough to large bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let dough rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.*

3. Spray silicone spatula or bowl scraper with nonstick cooking spray; fold partially risen dough over itself by gently lifting and folding edge of dough toward middle. Turn bowl 90 degrees; fold again. Turn bowl and fold dough six more times (total of eight turns). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat folding, replace plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes longer. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, place baking stone on rack, and heat oven to 450 degrees at least 30 minutes before baking.

4. Line two rimless baking sheets (or the underside of a baking sheet)** with parchment paper Transfer dough to liberally floured counter, being careful not to deflate completely. Liberally flour top of dough and divide in half. Adjust each piece of dough so cut side is facing up and dust with flour. Cut each half again in half along the length of the dough. Working with one fourth of the dough at a time, cut each strip into thirds (you will end up with 12 rolls in the end). 

With well-floured hands, take each piece of dough and press with your fingertips to stretch dough to a rough 3x5 inch rectangle. Fold rectangle into thirds and gently press the seam on the long side. Roll in a little bit of flour to prevent sticking. Place on parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough until you have six little loaves on each parchment lined baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let loaves sit at room temperature for 30 minutes (surfaces of loaves will develop small bubbles).

5. After this last rise, place one of the pans in the fridge while you bake the other. Using floured fingertips, evenly poke entire surface of each roll. Spray loaves lightly with water. Carefully slide parchment with loaves onto baking stone using jerking motion. Bake at 450 degrees, spraying loaves with water twice more during first 5 minutes of baking time, until crust is deep golden brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into centers of loaves registers 210 degrees, 14-18 minutes. Transfer to wire rack, discard parchment, and cool loaves to room temperature, about 1 hour, before slicing and serving. Repeat with the other pan that's waiting in the fridge.

Makes 12 large rolls

** I use a baking stone in my oven, and it's always in there. If you do not have a baking stone, just bake the rolls on a parchment lined baking sheet and ignore all of the instructions to slide the rolls onto the bakig stone. Just put the baking sheets in the oven to bake.

*It's kind of tricky to keep track of the steps of dough development, so here's a summary/check list:

• Prepare biga the night/day before.
• Mix dough.
• Let dough rise 60 minutes.
• Fold dough 8 turns with greased spatula. 
• Let dough rise 30 minutes. 
• Fold 8 turns again .
• Let dough rise 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven.
• Form loaves. 
• Loaves rise 30 minutes. 
• Poke loaves with fingertips.
• Spray with water 
• Bake 14-18 minutes.

Mini Yeasted Streusel Coffee Cakes

Mini Yeasted Coffee Cakes

This coffee cake is a family favorite. My grandma would always have at least one in the freezer to feed us when we went to visit her. Today I decided to make a small, muffin sized version just for fun. They are cute and tasty. Not very sweet, but they taste just like I remember: yeasty, a little buttery, with just enough sweet cinnamony crispness on top. 

I plan to freeze most of these and enjoy them gradually over the next few weeks.

Mini Yeasted Streusel Coffee Cakes

Ingredients:

Dough

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup milk 
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant dry yeast (If using regular dry yeast, reduce milk to 3/4 cup and proof yeast in 1/4 cup barely warm water before adding to the cooled milk & butter.)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Streusel Topping

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into slices or chunks

Instructions:

1. Scald the milk in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat (scalding means to bring to a boil), and then remove from heat immediately.  Place 1/4 cup butter in a large heat-proof bowl and pour scalded milk over it.  Stir to melt butter and then let mixture cool to lukewarm or a little cooler. While milk/butter cools, mix the flour and instant yeast in a medium sized bowl.

2.  Once milk/butter has cooled somewhat, add the sugar, salt, eggs, lemon zest, and flour/yeast mixture.  Stir with a sturdy spoon until completely mixed.  Dough will be the consistency of a thick batter, more than a dough.  Transfer dough to a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set in warm place to rise until double in bulk. 

Note: For this batch, I allowed the dough to rise for about 30 minutes, and then I placed it to finish rising over night in the refrigerator. In the morning, I set it on the counter to come to room temperature while I prepared the muffin pans.

3.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Prepare streusel topping by mixing the sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.  Add butter chunks and mix with your fingers until all the butter is incorporated into the dry ingredients.  Squeeze and crumble so you have a nice semi-chunky consistency.

4.  Butter 24 muffin cups (2 12-cup pans). Once dough has risen, punch down and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Flatten the dough into a rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut rectangle into 24 somewhat evenly sized squares. If some are larger and some are smaller, trim off some of the large ones and add it to the smaller ones.

5. Place one dough square in each of the buttered muffin cups. Spoon about 1 1/2 tablespoons of streusel on top of each dough square. Cover with plastic wrap.

6. Bake at 400° for about 15-18 minutes, or until you see some of the dough starting to brown. Set muffin pans on wire racks to cool for at least 5 minutes before removing the mini coffee cakes with an offset spatula or dull knife. Set unpanned mini coffee cakes on a wire rack to cool further. Freeze leftovers by wrapping individual coffee cakes in plastic wrap and then placing in a large zip top freezer bag. Defrost by microwaving at 20 second intervals until desired heat level is reached.

Makes 24 mini coffee cakes

Simple Chicken Nuggets

Chicken Nuggets

This chicken nugget recipe actually started with a recipe for fried pork tenderloin--a super popular dish here in Iowa. It was such a simple and delicious dish, that I decided to try the treatment on chicken. It immediately became my older son's absolute favorite dish. 

The recipe involves pounding the chicken with a meat tenderizer, which really tender chicken doesn't really need, but it does make the nuggets extra delicate and tasty. You may need to just try it and get a feel for what works for you.

This was actually the first time I made nuggets from this recipe. Usually, I fry up the fillets and we eat them on buns. We were having a Hot Ones party with friends (for those unfamiliar, you can click on the link, or just know it's a sort of challenge to eat 10 increasingly hot sauces while answering thoughtful questions), so I needed a lightly breaded chicken in relatively small pieces. These nuggets fit the bill perfectly. They're savory without being overly-seasoned OR overly breaded which is what generally occurs with store-bought nuggets.

At any rate, these are a delicious homemade chicken nugget. Give 'em a go.

Simple Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds chicken breast meat
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 tablespoon chicken base (or chicken bouillon)
• 2 sleeves of saltine crackers
• vegetable or canola oil for frying

Instructions:

• Mix the hot water and the chicken base/bouillon and pour into a large bowl.
• Slice each chicken breast horizontally into two or three pieces/fillets.
• Place slices between two layers of plastic wrap, and then with a meat tenderizer pound the chicken, only hitting each spot once on each. Take care to not tenderize too much. Turn the chicken over and do the same on the other side.
• If a slice of chicken is already pretty thin, skip the pounding step.
• Cut the thin/thinned chicken into 1 1/2 to 2 inch pieces. Place cut pieces into the bouillon liquid.
• Working with about half a sleeve of crackers at a time, put the crackers into a gallon size zip top bag and roll with a rolling pin until the crackers are a relatively fine powder.
• Pour the cracker powder (or some of it) into a bowl or dish where you can coat the chicken.
• Set a wire cooling rack in a rimmed baking sheet or line a baking sheet with paper towels.
• Heat about an inch to inch and half of oil in shallow frying pan or cast iron skillet set over medium high heat. (Alternately, you can use a wok or other deep frying apparatus.)
• While oil heats, start to coat the chicken pieces with the cracker dust. Set coated pieces on a plate until the oil is heated.
• When oil is heated, fry as many pieces of chicken that will fit in the pan, leaving at least a quarter inch between pieces.
• Fry until light golden brown and then using tongs or a fork, turn over to fry another minute or two until browned on the other side.
• Remove cooked chicken pieces to the prepared wire rack or paper towel lined baking sheet.
• Continue frying until all chicken has been fried. When finished, turn off the heat and  set oil aside to cool and then discard.

Makes about 2 dozen chicken nuggets.

This chicken breast is pretty thick, so I filleted it into 3 pieces.

Chicken should be about this thick.

Today I doubled the recipe for a Hot Ones party.

Pound chicken lightly with a meat tenderizer. 
It's easy to shred the chicken, so be cafeful.

Cut each pounded fillet into smaller pieces

Chicken pieces soaking in the chicken broth.

Crackers should be pulverized almost into a powder.

Toss the chicken in a bowl.

Breaded pieces can be set aside until all are breaded before frying.

I liked frying in this wok today.

This is the best way to drain the oil--a wire rack over a pan.

Tender, delicious chicken nuggets.

Individual Cheese and Egg Puffs

I got this recipe ages and ages ago from my friend Kim's mom. I rarely make them because it's one of those brunch items that you take to events, and I guess I don't go to that many brunch events. 
Today, though, I got to make them for the Wilsons, as they were here for their bi-annual drive through Des Moines. Gosh, I love that family. Not only are they fun and awesome, but they love eating just as much as I do. 
The egg-eaters in our two families thoroughly enjoyed these yummy little puffs. They're tender, and somewhat light-tasting, with only a hint of the green chile flavor. They're salty, cheesy, soft, and very satisfying.
I have a few left that I'm going to try freezing, and I'll try to remember to put an update on here of how that goes.

Individual Cheese and Egg Puffs

Ingredients:

• 10 large eggs
• 12 oz. small curd cottage cheese
• 1 pound jack cheese, grated
• 4 to 5 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated
• 1 can diced green chilies 
  
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour (can use gluten free flour, or almond flour to make them Keto)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

Instructions:

• Prepare the day/night before.
• In a large bowl, beat eggs until lemon colored. 
• Blend in cottage cheese, jack cheese, Gruyere cheese, and diced chilies. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
• The next morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients and the melted butter to the egg mixture, and mix well.
• Generously grease 24 medium size (2 to 2 1/2 inch) muffin cups (original recipe says 30, but mine only yielded 24). 
• Divide egg mixture evenly among muffin cups, filling them about 3/4 full. 
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, or until tops are golden and feel firm. 
• Let stand 10 minutes, and then run a knife around each muffin cup to loosen the egg puff.
• Gently lift puffs out. 
• Serve hot or at room temperature.

Makes about 24 puffs

Right after mixing the eggs, cheese, and chilis

After the addition of the dry ingredients the next day

Pan is ready to go into the oven

Hello, delicious cheesy, salty, eggy goodness.

I may have eaten a couple more after these two.

Individual Apple Streusel Galettes

Yummy individual apple streusel galette
with a little heavy cream on the side

Sometimes you just want some apple pie for breakfast. Today is one of those days for me. I've made a full size galette before, but since I know I'm the only one who will want this today for breakfast, I made four individual galettes. I'll enjoy one for breakfast and then I will freeze the others for another time--or maybe I'll be generous and take some to my friends. We'll see. 
The crust of these galettes is what I think makes me love them: flaky, buttery, tender and perfect. The apples are just tender enough, sweet and tart; and the streusel ads another sweet, crisp element--unless of course you pour on some heavy cream, which is what I did. The heavy cream adds the creaminess of ice cream without more sugar, which this galette does not need. The cream cuts the sweetness just a bit and still gives you the creamy side element most of us like with our apple pie.
Ahh. A very satisfying breakfast indeeed.

Individual Apple Streusel Galettes

Streusel Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4 inch slices

Filling Ingredients:

• 3 medium granny smith apples (or other combination of your favorite baking apples)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch kosher salt

Crust Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, plus more for dusting
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoon butter
• 3 tablespoon Crisco (vegetable shortening)
• 3-4 tablespoon ice cold water
• flour for dusting 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

For the streusel... in a medium bowl, mix the white sugar, graham crumbs and flour. Add sliced butter and toss to separate butter slices. With your fingers, gently smoosh the butter into the dry ingredients until butter is entirely incorporated and the mixture looks like wet sand, with some clumps here and there. Set aside in the refrigerator until ready to use.

For the filling... peel, core, and quarter the apples. Slice each quarter into 1/8 to 1/4 inch slices. Place all of the apple slices in a medium bowl, add the lemon juice, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt, and then fold gently to disperse the dry ingredients. Set aside while you prepare the crust.

For the crust... get two square pieces of wax paper. Place one on a flat surface for rolling, and lightly flour the wax paper. Then, in a medium bowl, combine the flour and the salt. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until you have quarter-inch chunks of butter. Add the vegetable shortening and continue cutting until you have some sandy parts and some larger chunks of butter and shortening (a few quarter-inch chunks here and there--see pic below). Drizzle in the ice water and toss with a fork until the dough starts to clump. 

Then use your hands to gently knead the dough into a relatively cohesive mass--be careful not to over work the dough, or your crust will be tough. Turn out onto the lightly floured wax paper and cut into four equal portions. Working with one portion at a time, form the dough into a ball and place on a flour-dusted piece of wax paper. Sprinkle dough with more flour, cover iwht another layer of wax paper, and roll out to about 1/8-inch thickness. Carefully remove top layer of wax paper and transfer sheet of dough to the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining portions of dough. They will likely overlap one another on the baking sheet, but that's okay, because you will fold up the edges of the dough.

Assembling the galette... Pour/scoop a fourth of the apples into the middle of each dough circle, leaving about 2 inches apple-free. Try to make sure the top of the apple mound is slightly flattened so that it can hold more streusel. Carefully scoop some streusel all over the apple mound. Now, fold up the dough edges to form rough pleats around the edge. Press lightly to make sure the pleats hold. Repeat with all galettes and arrange them on the pan so they are rather equidistant from each other.

Bake galettes at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until nicely browned and a knife inserted into the center meets little resistance. Check the galettes about halfway through baking. If the streusel seems to be browning too quickly, place a piece of aluminum foil on top without pressing down--just let it sit there on top.

When done, remove from oven and allow to cool for 20-30 minutes before serving. 

Makes 4-8 servings, depending on who's enjoying them.
Serve with a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream or ice cream, if desired.

Freeze leftovers. To reheat, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place frozen galette on parchment lined baking sheet and reheat for about 20-25 minutes, or until hot and crisp.