Tag Archives: baking

Cooking, Product Reviews

The Best Bread Cook Book Review and Meal Planning

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breadreview disclosureI love fresh bread,  but who doesn’t.  Even Gluten free people are on the constant search for bread options.  In past blog post I have talked about how much I love the The Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Hetzberg, MD and Zoe Francois.  Guess what!  They have a new book out  The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  This is my go to bread making book and in my opinion  the only bread making book you should own.

Hetzberg and Francois  teach you easy basics to make your bread successful.  Also it is so simple even a 4 year old could make it.. check You Tube there is 4 years making their recipes.   In the book the authors break artisan down, teaching you the simple mix it and forget it that makes some of the beast bread you will ever make.  The book starts with a basic yeast dough,  that is the “Master Dough” which is the basis for many of the breads.  Then later you learn about other doughs like:

  • ·Gluten-free Cheesy Breadsticks, Pizza, Baguette and Sweet Brioche
  •  Beer-Cheese and Crock-Pot Bread
  • Pretzel Buns
  •  Apple-Stuffed French Toast
  • Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread

I started making bread from the 1st book over the last year for my family and they now expects to have homemade bread with soups and stews.

I know sounds labor intense.. it is no not like the title says – 5 minutes.  I will set the dough up as I am running out the door in the morning and leave it.  Then upon returning after several hours shape(no kneading), give it a little more time and bake.    Also when you make the Master dough it is enough to make 3 loves.  The authors explain freezing the dough and how to make great use of the dough with a different varieties.   In this new book I learned how to make a Couronne Loaf-  Shown above for a different shape.   Later this week I will take the remaining dough making cheese loaf and pizza.

The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day  also contains gluten free recipes.   I am not gluten free but if the authors took the same care with the gluten free as they did with the gluten breads.  They are a must try.

The Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day  book is 379 pages of bread , complete with color page inserts of what the bread should look like.  Als0 Hetzberg and Francois  teach you how to know your idea oven temp and what to do with the wedding gift pizza stone, you have in you closet collecting dust. They explain types salt,  flour and the differences.. which I am always at a loss on what to use.

I have not used my bread machine since I discovered the  The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day,  it is meal changing experience.

For more info, please visit: www.artisanbreadinfive.com.

This book is a must have reference recipe book for any cook.  I know a few people who will be receiving it this holiday season. bread

Meal Planning Week Nov 4th:

Monday: Chicken and Rice Soup  with Fresh Bread  from The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Tuesday: Pierogi with kielbasa

Wednesday; Chicken Marsala over egg noodles

Thursday: Flat Bread Pizza  with pancetta (Italian bacon) and smoked Gouda

Friday: Taco Friday with rice and re-fried beans

This week as always I am linking up with Organizing Junkies Menu Planning Monday:

MPM-Fall

Cooking

Easy Cookie Recipes: Lemon Lavender Cookies

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Easy Cookie Recipes: Lemon Lavender Cookies :  these are  yummy lemon cookies are summer in a cookie.  The lemon flavor with a subtle lavender aroma.  You will find these cookies are a great addition to any summer cook out.  My Recipe for Lemon Lavender cookies are made as icebox cookies so you can make a head and freeze  then slice off as needed. The Lavender and lemon are natural repellants for flies and mosquitoes,  so tasty and a pest deterrent.  lemon lavender cookie

Lemon Lavender Cookies

  • 2 1/2cups  Flour  sifted
  • 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 2 sticks of unsalted butter
  • 2 eggs yokes
  • 2 teaspoon of vanilla
  •  1 cup Sugar
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 Teaspoon of lemon extract
  • 1 Tablespoon of lavender (for cooking)
  1. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients flour, baking powder salt
  2. In another bowl cream butter with sugar  till light and fluffy
  3. Add eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon extract
  4. Mix slowly the flour in with the wet ingredients till completely incoprated
  5. Then mix in the lavender into the dough.
  6. Roll the dough in a tube, and roll in wax paper and place in the fridge  to chill for 2-3 hours or overnight. (you can also freeze the dough)
  7. Make 4-5 tubes of cookies.
  8. Slice the cookies off into 1/4″ slices,  I used the back of a spoon to make the crescent shape, place on a cookie sheet.
  9. Bake at 425 for 12 minutes or golden brown.

These Lemon Lavender cookies are unique and different.  You will surprise  your friends and family with a cookies that is special.  I brought them to a family picnic,  and they were a hit among the crowd.    The cookies are sophisticated and buttery the light delicate flavor of lavender and lemon.

These are great to freeze and take them out and slice a few off.   They also make a yummy after school treat.

What are some of your favorite cookies?

Be sure to check out My Pinterest Board for other Easy Cookies Recipes

Cooking, Product Reviews

Sinners Chipotle Chocolate Chips Cookie

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chipotle chocolate cookies

Lehigh Valley Dairy asked me to review their milk and create a Most Dunkable cookie recipe.  Sinners Chipotle Chocolate Chips Cookie  are my take on a adult taste cookie that goes great with a glass of Lehigh Valley Milk.  I call then sinner cookies because  of the 3 types of chocolate , rich powered chocolate , chips and milk chocolate chunks.  The  bourbon smoked salt add a savory  as you enjoy the flavor then slowly the burn,  the fire from the chipotle  get you around the 3rd bite.  This is the prefect gift for fan of spicy flavor. This is cookie that can only be enjoyed with a Lehigh Valley glass of milk,  with it clean fresh flavor I love their milk.

Lehigh Valley Dairy Farms prides itself on purity, which has led them to develop not only their 5-Point Purity Checklist, but also their new Pure Protect bottle. The new bottle helps protect that delicious, creamy, farm-fresh taste and essential nutrients from the harmful effects of light.  They are perfect pair together.

Sinners Chipotle Chocolate Chips Cookie

yields 36 cookies

  • 1 stick of unsalted butter
  • 8 tablespoons of refined coconut oil
  • ¾ white sugar
  • ¾ brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tablespoon of corn syrup
  • 2 teaspoons  Mexican vanilla extract
  • 2 ¾ cup flour
  • 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons of powered chocolate
  • 3-4 teaspoons of chipotle (dried)
  • 1 16 oz package of semisweet chips
  • 8 oz milk chocolate bar chopped up
  • Smoked bourbon sea salt

chili and chocolate

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Beat butter, coconut oil, and sugars until well blended and smooth
  3. Add eggs, corn syrup and vanilla to  sugar blend until light and fluffy
  4. In separate bowl mix all dry ingredients  flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, powder chocolate, chipotle an blend well with a fork.
  5. Slow add the dry ingredients in to the wet a little bit at a time till all ingredients are well blended
  6. Then add the chocolate chunks and chips in the dough
  7. Scoop out using cookie scoop place 2” apart on a parchment lined  cookie sheet and sprinkle each cookie with sea saltchili cookie dough
  8. Bake for 9 minutes
  9. Allow to cool and enjoy with milk

Here is the easy printable Sinners Chocolate Chips Cookie

chipotle chocolate chip

These  cookies will  be a great additional to your holiday cookie tray.  Enjoy and surprise people with a little something special this year.

Note these cookies placed in the top 10 best cookies for the Lehigh Valleys most Dunkable cookie contest.

Want to see some other great cookie recipes check out and follow  my Pintrest Cookie Board.

Disclosure this recipe is is a sponsored post to be review Lehigh Valley Dairy Farms milk,  they provided me with cookie cutters, a stipend to purchase the ingredients and share your Most Dunkable Cookie Recipe.

cookie contest

Cooking, Product Reviews

Turkey Chicken Pasty

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chicken pasty

When I was a little girl my mom used to bring home pasty which are meat pockets from the church.  She would work all day with the ladies at the church, peeling potato and making dough for these meat pockets, then the church would sell them to raise money around the Thanksgiving.  Traditionally made with beef or veal, the meat pasty were made by coal miners wives for them to take into the mines for lunch.

So started making variation of the pasty, like using turkey/chicken, and my family loves them.  Smothered them in gravy and they are a filling meal.  So when asked to take one of my recipes and use “I can’t believe it is not Butter” instead of my usually butter I was excited. I purchased the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter“ sticks.

The result My husband said the best crust I ever made.

His comment “I love this crust and I normally don’t like crust, it is very flaky ”

My son asked for 2nds.

Chicken Pasty Homemade meat pockets

  • 2 ½ cups for flour
  • 2 ½ sticks of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter
  • ¼ teaspoon thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon of salt
  • ¼ ice cold water
  • 1-2 potato
  • 1 turnip
  • Leftover turkey of chicken cooked
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 small onion
  • Hot sauce (optional)
  • 1 egg (for egg wash)

 

  1. In a mixer with pastry hook or with knives cut 2 sticks of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” into 2 cups of flour, thyme, salt,  scraping sidesmaking dough
  2. Add ice cold water till well mixed and dough starts to form
  3. Add remaining ½ cup of flour so the dough is not too stickydough
  4. Cut dough into 6 equal parts chill in fridge while prepping filling
  5. Cut all veggies
  6. In a pot sauté onion with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter till onions become caramelized, remove from pot.
  7. Fill pot (you just used for onions- leaving the bits) with water and par boil carrots, potatoes, and turnips –  once semi soft drain,
  8. Chop poultry to smaller bites size pieces and mix chicken and peas with other veggiesfilling for chicken pasty
  9. On a floured surface roll out the dough using a dish 6” to create a circles
  10. Transfer dough circles to parchment paper on baking sheets
  11. Fill dough with filling,  add a pat of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”, and few drops of hot sauce.pasty filling
  12. Wet edge, (with finger dipped in water) and fold dough over filling to make the pasty, using a fork push down edges to secure, slice vent hole
  13. Optional use mini cook cutters for decorative dough attach with water
  14. Mix egg with some water and brush outside of pastychicken pasty
  15. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes (you can also freeze prior to baking for a dinner later)

While baking make gravy

Amazing Chicken  gravy

  • 4 tablespoons of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”
  • ¼ all purpose flour
  • 16 oz of chicken broth
  • 1 carrot diced
  • 1 onion diced
  • ¼ of chicken diced
  1. In a pot sauté onions, carrots, and chicken
  2. When onion combo is  soft , transfer to (mini chopper or blender)
  3. Pour in some chicken broth and blend till smooth
  4. In same pot make a roué using “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!” and  flour  Add remaining chicken broth and onion blend back to pot stir till gravy thickenschicken pasty

Disclosure:  This post is a sponsored post for Unilever spreads