Homemade Hamburger Rolls? You're Welcome!

It took me long enough. But I finally baked hamburger rolls.

Summer cookouts, I'm ready for you.

It turned out to be surprisingly easy. I used my Dinner Roll recipe, which you can find here. But I'm going to rewrite it here, because my process has evolved a little over time.

Dinner Rolls

Based on Aunt Betty's Sweet Roll Dough

1½ C lukewarm water

1 T yeast

¼ C sugar

¼ C canola oil

¼ C instant potato flakes

½ C instant nonfat dry milk (9 T non-instant)

¾ tsp. salt

2 eggs

1½ C (6.4 oz.) soft white whole wheat flour + 3 C (12.8 oz.) hard white whole wheat flour

Note: This is my preferred flour combination. Other alternatives:

1½ C (6.4 oz.) soft white whole wheat flour + 3 C (12.8 oz.) hard red whole wheat flour

1½ C (6.4 oz.) soft white whole wheat flour + 3 C (12.8 oz.) all-purpose flour

4½ C (19.2 oz.) hard white whole wheat, hard red whole wheat, or all-purpose flour

Pour warm water in stand mixer (KitchenAid) bowl. Add sugar, yeast, and the soft white whole wheat flour. Using the paddle (not the dough hook), mix on lowest setting while adding the canola oil, potato flakes, dry milk, and salt. Stop the mixer and add a few spoonfuls of the hard white whole wheat flour, and then the eggs. Resume mixing on lowest setting; add the rest of the flour, and continue mixing for 5 minutes. Turn off mixer and cover the bowl with damp kitchen towel. Let dough sit for 30 minutes.

On a clean, dry counter, sprinkle about ½ C hard white whole wheat flour. Have some more on hand, just in case. Lower the mixing bowl and detach the paddle, disturbing the dough as little as possible. Use a wet spoon to scrape dough from the paddle into the bowl. Use the wet spoon to scrape the dough from the bowl onto the floured counter. It will come out fairly easily because of the rising.

Knead the dough 40-50 times, until it is smooth and elastic, but not dry.

Place the dough in a large bowl with a small amount of canola oil to coat the surface. Cover with wax paper or plastic wrap. Set in a cold place—probably the refrigerator—for 1½ hours.

Punch down the dough and fold it a few times. Divide it into 24 pieces. A dough scraper is great for cutting the dough. Form each piece into a ball by stretching the top and pinching the ends together at the bottom. Place the rolls about ½-1 inch apart on buttered (or parchment papered) baking sheets. 24 fit nicely on a baker's half sheet. Cover the rolls; let rise at warm room temperature for 45 minutes. If your baking sheet situation is such that you won't be able to fit all of the rolls in the oven at the same time, set the ones that will have to wait in the refrigerator, setting them out again when you put the first ones in the oven.

For Hamburger Rolls: After making the balls, flatten each ball into a 3-inch round. Place the rounds about ½ inch apart on buttered (or parchment papered) baking sheets. 12 fit nicely on a baker's half sheet.

A few minutes before the rolls are finished rising, preheat the oven to 400°F. Bake the rolls at 400°F for 5 minutes; reduce temperature to 350°F and continue baking another 10-12 minutes, or until the rolls are browned on top. Remove the pan from the oven and set to cool on a rack.

After the rolls are completely cool, put them in clean plastic bags. Freeze any that you will not use within a couple of days.

"I Want Just White Cookies."

Libby and I were making dinner, including, of course, dessert. I asked her what kind of cookies or brownies we should bake. She said, "I want just white cookies, with nothing in them." This was surprising! After all, she is her mother's daughter and my granddaughter. I was really expecting something to do with chocolate.

She said she ate cookies like this when she was with her mom at her mom's friend's house. Okay! So I googled "cookies" and we looked at cookie images ... until we came to this. She said that's what the cookies looked like. So we went to the site and found a recipe for Sugar Cookies that looked very promising.

I wish I had pictures of Libby and the cookies. That 6-year-old girl did a great job measuring, mixing, (I did the scooping) gently pressing the scoops of dough, and sprinkling sugar on them. I had a different focus while we were baking the cookies, so I failed to take pictures.

Libby declared the cookies good. Whew! They were what she had in mind. Hooray!

I loved the cookies, too. But I wondered if I could use white whole wheat flour rather than all-purpose flour. That gave me just the excuse I wanted to bake (and eat) Sugar Cookies--by using white whole wheat flour!

The answer is yes.

They have all of the buttery, vanilla-y, sugary goodness of the all-purpose flour version. Except for the bit of texture the bran gives--which I really like--I bet no one would guess these are made with white whole wheat flour. They're just delicious.

When you go to Blissfully Delicious you  will find the recipe. You will see that it was slightly adapted from Martha Stewart Cookies. My recipe is slightly adapted from Blissfully Delicious, and I call them

Libby's Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

3 C (12.8 oz.) all-purpose flour or white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 C granulated sugar
1/4 C packed light-brown sugar
1 C unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl; set aside.

Mix butter and sugar until pale and fluffy in a mixer with paddle attachment, about 2-3 minute. Mix in eggs, 1 at a time, and then vanilla extract. Reduce speed; gradually add flour mixture, and mix until just combined.

Scoop dough, rounding slightly; space cookies 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Flatten cookies slightly with the bottom of a cup swished in sugar. Sprinkle tops with sugar.

Bake cookies until golden, about 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks; let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days. (This sounds like it could be true, but I'll never know. Cookies never last that long in my house.)
Yield: About 3 dozen cookies

I don't have an ice cream scoop, so I just gently rounded the spoonfuls of dough.

I used the bottom of a cup swished in sugar to gently flatten the tops of the cookies. Then I sprinkled regular white sugar on top, using my fingers.

Cookies cooling on the rack. I left them in the pan (sitting on a cooling rack) for 5 minutes. Then I took them out of the pan and removed them from the parchment paper.

Pies!

For our family Thanksgiving feast yesterday I baked two apple pies, one pumpkin pie, one mincemeat pie, and three and a half dozen butter tarts. I also made a creme de menthe pie. Including the pumpkin cheesecake my son-in-law Dane baked, we had plenty of desserts!

So why, then, would I need to bake this apple pie today?

My daughter Karlyn and her husband Ti were taking the leftover apple pie home last night. Set on top of the car while putting other things inside, it slid off and landed top-first on the snow!

So today's pie takes its place.

Lard is Not a Bad Word

Until last year, I always made pie crust using shortening. My mom, an excellent pie baker, always used Crisco, so that's what I used.

I don't really know where my negative associations with lard came from, but I always associated lard with disgusting fat--literally and figuratively.

A few years ago, health concerns became linked with trans-fats, which are present in any hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat. The amount present in vegetable shortenings has been reduced to the point that they can legally say 0 grams per serving, but there is a trace of it in any hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat.

I looked into alternatives for shortening in pie crust. I ruled out oils and butter. I knew that lard was used traditionally before shortening. My mother-in-law always made her pie crusts using lard. They were flaky and tender, but my general negative perception of lard persisted, and it took me a long time to try it. This article helped me shift my perception.

About a year ago, I finally tried it. I liked it! My pie crusts were still flaky and tender. They tasted better. And the dough was easier to handle.

The lard that's typically available in the grocery store is hydrogenated. But, according to Wikipedia, it contains half the amount of trans-fat as does shortening. So, my next step is to find lard that is not hydrogenated. A year ago, someone suggested that I go to a butcher shop (there are a few left) to buy the lard they trim from the pork. I put it off, so I have continued to use the hydrogenated lard. Just now, a quick Google search led me to the grocery store Save-a-Lot. That store is not very far from me. But, if it is available there, it might also be available at Price Rite, which is very near me.

Pie Crust Recipe

2 C (8.5 oz.) all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2/3 C + 2 Tbsp. (6.25 oz.) lard
4+ Tbsp. cold water

Stir together flour and salt; cut in the lard. Add enough water to be able to squish together the dough. Cut the dough in half; roll out each half.

Makes one 2-crust pie or  two 1-crust pies.

Note: This dough cutter/scraper is one of my best baking buddies. Use it to cut up the lard as you add it to the flour. After you have squished the dough together, use it to cut the dough in half. When you are lifting the dough to place it in the pie pan, if it is sticking, gently use this tool to pry it up.

Leftover Pie Crust Dough

Squish together all of the dough scraps from the first rolling out, adding a little--less than a teaspoon--of lard to make up for the extra flour that has been rolled in.

Today I got a dozen tart shells out of the second and third dough rollings. I have a doughnut cutter that is missing the middle part, so it cuts a 3 1/2-inch circle. I set the circles of dough in muffin tins. You may prick the dough with a fork if you like, but I don't bother. Bake at 450 degrees for about 8 minutes. Let set for a few minutes before removing them from the pans.

In Canada, tarts are very common, so they have real tart pans, which are like shallow muffin tins.

You can fill these with just about anything you want, from jam or pudding to lemon cream or chocolate mousse.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Oil, Updated 7/7/13

I have used my mother's recipe for baking chocolate chip cookies my whole life. They were always famous among family, friends, and acquaintances. I don't know where she got the recipe from, but I do know that many of her children and grandchildren have continued to bake these cookies.

Here is her recipe:

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1½ C white sugar

1½ C brown sugar

1½ C shortening

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

4½ C all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together sugar, brown sugar, shortening, eggs, and vanilla. Sift (or just stir) together flour, salt, and baking soda; and then add to creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake.

In recent years, shortening has come under fire because of its trans-fats. While shortening manufacturers have modified it so it contains less trans-fat, it's hydrogenated, so it will always have some trans-fat. Also, it doesn't add anything to the flavor.

Lots of people bake their chocolate chip cookies with butter, so I tried that. Many times. It makes good-tasting cookie dough! But the cookies themselves are quite altered: flat, more chewy or even crispy, and a markedly stronger flavor. These weren't necessarily bad characteristics. In fact, some people prefer them. They just aren't my mom's cookies.

Today I decided to try using coconut oil. The ambient temperature has to be quite warm before it changes from solid to liquid. We were just verging on that today in my house, so it was still solid but not hard. I just substituted (still solid) coconut oil for the shortening in Mom's recipe.

Like butter, coconut oil is high in saturated fat. In fact, it's even higher than butter. Unlike shortening, however, it does not contain any trans-fats.

My (admittedly small but very experienced) taste-testing crew agreed that this was the best-tasting cookie dough. (Note: Members of my family have been known to make chocolate chip cookie dough and not turn on the oven, so this is an important factor.)

Although the cookies spread out flat like the ones baked with butter, they remained soft like the ones made with shortening. Flavor? Better than the butter ones; at least as good as the shortening ones.

Next time I will add a bit more flour to see if that will prevent the cookies from flattening out.

Regardless, these are keepers!

Update 7/7/13: When I made these cookies today, I used 1/2 C more flour. I also chilled the dough for an hour before baking. In fact, it's such a warm day today that I chilled the coconut oil before I mixed the dough. The cookies turned out a little plumper. With these changes, I think coconut oil substitutes well for shortening, and tastes better. Here's the adapted recipe:

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies (with coconut oil)

1½ C white sugar

1½ C brown sugar

1½ C coconut oil (refrigerate before using if it is not solid)

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

5 C all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together sugar, brown sugar, and coconut oil. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Sift (or just stir) together flour, salt, and baking soda; and then add to creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips. Chill for an hour or more. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake.

Welsh Cakes

Listening to Earth Eats awhile back, Chef Daniel Orr gave a recipe for Welsh Cakes. I had never heard of them before, but they sounded good. So I tried them! Here's the recipe. (Note: The second item should be 3 ounces granulated sugar, not flour. I listened to the podcast again just to make sure!)

These sounded so good, I dove right in trying three versions: all-purpose flour, hard white whole-wheat flour, and hard red whole-wheat flour.

Other than the three different flour types and using raisins and cinnamon, I followed the recipe as given.

Frying them up!

Outwardly, all three versions look the same:

Welsh Cake versions, clockwise from the left: White Whole-Wheat, All-Purpose, and Red Whole-Wheat

From this very limited experience, I found the Welsh Cakes to be like a combination of pancakes and biscuits or scones. All three versions tasted good, but I preferred the more-flavorful whole-wheat versions.

The dough is quite delicate, so you need to be careful while frying them. I used my doughnut cutter, minus the center circle. That was too big. Next time I will use something that is about 2 inches in diameter. Upon further reading, that seems to be a more typical size. I think they will be easier to handle.

I put too much sugar on them. Next time I will just sprinkle a little on top, more for looks. They are already pretty sweet.

Like pancakes, biscuits, and scones, these taste fantastic fresh, but not as good later. So make them! Use whole-wheat flour! They are really good! And really easy! But just make what you will eat right away.

Chocolate Bread--Beta Testing

I decided to bake chocolate bread for Valentine's Day. I had never eaten chocolate bread, but I had eaten chocolate croissants, which are heavenly. Maybe next year I'll be ready to make chocolate croissants.

I envisioned chocolate bread as similar to cinnamon bread. Except chocolate, not cinnamon. I read many recipes and came up with this:

I used my roll dough and Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate chips. I made two half-batches. One was 1/4 soft white whole-wheat flour and 3/4 all-purpose flour. The other was 1/4 soft white whole-wheat flour and 3/4 hard white whole-wheat flour. With each, I made three little loaves of chocolate bread and one large loaf of cinnamon bread.

Pictured above: on the left is the 100% whole-wheat bread; on the right is the mostly-white bread.

All testers, ages 17 months to adult, loved both kinds. The adults agreed that there was (gasp!) too much chocolate. In my next attempt, I plan to melt the chocolate and spread it on the dough before rolling it up.

One of the beta testers took the whole-wheat cinnamon bread home.

Further testing of this batch will occur after dinner tonight!

Maple Oatmeal Bread--Updated

Update 1/12/ 2013: While this bread was delicious, I didn't find it amazing. But after getting some requests for me to bake it, I baked and tasted it again--after it was completely cooled. Then I could really taste the sweetness and the flavor of the maple syrup--and it was amazing!

I was attracted to this oatmeal bread recipe because of the maple syrup in it. Besides it being delicious, I live in maple syrup country. So it's always nice to be able to use it in my baking, as well as on my pancakes and waffles.

Maple Oatmeal Bread

2 1/2 cups boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
1 package (2¼ tsp.) dry yeast
3/4 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon oil
5 cups flour

Put the oats into a bowl. Pour the boiling water over the oats and set aside for an hour.
Mix the yeast, syrup, salt, and oil into the oats. Mix in 3 cups of the flour. Cover the bowl and let rise for an hour.
Add more flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough is the correct consistency. Knead for 10 minutes. Cut the dough into two pieces, then shape it into loaves and place in greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise another 45 minutes.
Bake at 350 for 40 - 50 minutes.

I changed the recipe a little. Since it didn't specify the type of flour, I presumed all-purpose flour. After kneading the dough, I put it in an oiled bowl, covered it, and let it raise until almost double. Then I formed the loaves. It just didn't "feel" right to not let it raise after kneading and before forming the loaves. Sometime I'll try it that way and see what the difference is.

I didn't have time to make a whole wheat version of this today, so I want to try that really soon.

Right now it is baking. I can smell the maple syrup!

And here is the baked bread! Now I have to wait for it to cool enough that I can slice it and taste it.

The crust is surprisingly, well, crusty. Like this might work well baked on a baking sheet and steaming it for the first few minutes in the oven to create an even crunchier crust. The bread is moist, dense, and coarse. You can really taste the sweetness of the maple syrup. All in all, it's delicious!

January is National Oatmeal Month!

I have no idea how or when this came about, but, if you're going to have National Oatmeal Month, I think January is a good time for it. Oatmeal is hearty and healthy--good qualities for winter and January resolutions.

I've never baked oatmeal bread before, so I think this is a good way to observe NOM.

Right now I can smell the fruits of my first effort. The bread in the oven smells like oatmeal cookie goodness.

Now out of the oven, here's what the bread looks like:

I am trying to wait for it to cool a bit before tasting it.

This recipe is from a bread book that my friends Velma and Len Dippold gave me. The recipes in Uncle John's Original Bread Book were collected by John Braue's family for generations. His father was a master bread baker in Hamburg before coming to this country in the late nineteenth century. It's been a long time since I've had a recipe book this fun to read!

The recipe is called Grossmutter's Golden-Sunrise Wheat or Oatmeal Brot. Obviously, I'm going with the oatmeal option.

I love my new book holder!

I sliced the bread:

It's slightly coarse, chewy, and, with just a hint of oatmeal, more flavorful than white bread. Delicious!

I also baked a whole wheat version. It smelled just as oatmeal-heavenly while baking.

I sliced it:

It's also slightly coarse, chewy, and, with just a hint of oatmeal, has a more complex flavor than regular whole wheat bread. Delicious!

Here's the recipe with my tweaks, because I don't use shortening in bread, I use instant dry yeast, I have dry milk (and water!) but not fresh milk, I'm using loaf pans instead of making round loaves, I know my oven, and I'm just interested in the oatmeal option:

Grossmutter's Golden-Sunrise Oatmeal Brot

Mix together:
2 1/4 C warm water
1/4 C honey
2 T canola oil

Mix together and beat into above mixture until smooth:
2 C (8.5 oz.) all-purpose flour*
1 1/2 T instant dry yeast
1 T salt
2/3 C instant nonfat dry milk

Add:
2 C (6.25 oz.) quick-cooking rolled oats

Add and stir well:
2 C (8.5) C all-purpose flour* [According to the recipe, you shouldn't need the full amount, but that was not my experience.]

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead, adding flour as needed, until elastically smooth. Then return to oiled bowl, turning the dough to oil all surfaces; cover.

Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Punch down and form into loaves. Let rise about 45 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for about 35-40 minutes.

*Or use whole wheat flour (from hard red wheat)

Ginger Snaps

After making gingerbread houses and then gingerbread cake, it seemed only right to bake one of my favorite cookies: Ginger Snaps.

I found this recipe many years ago in my Joy of Cooking. My college roommate and friend, Lani King, gave that cookbook to me for my birthday in 1974. That cookbook has been one of a handful that I have kept at hand through the years. 15 years ago my family gave me the updated edition of Joy of Cooking. But I just never felt comfortable with it. For interest's sake, I pulled it out to see if it had my beloved ginger snap recipe in it. It was definitely based on the recipe from the earlier edition, but the differences were significant: the addition of baking powder, less baking soda, more ginger, more cinnamon, the addition of salt, double the amount of butter, less sugar, lemon juice in place of vinegar, and the addition of lemon or orange zest. What remained the same: flour, cloves, eggs, and molasses. I'll give it a try sometime, but for the moment, I'm going with my tried and true recipe.

I made the dough three days ago and baked some of the cookies then. So today I pulled the rest of the dough out of the refrigerator.

I used a spoon to dig out chunks of dough, which I rolled into balls. I set the balls onto a baking sheet. I used parchment paper to prevent sticking.

I baked them at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.

Fresh out of the oven, they are a little puffy and very soft. You will see signs of the characteristic crinkling. Wait a couple of minutes for them to firm up before transferring them to cooling racks.

When they are cool, they are crinkly, and firm but chewy.

Several years ago, before I discovered white wheat, I tried making these using red whole wheat flour. I didn't like the flavor the flour added, so I continued to make them using all-purpose flour. Having recently used flour milled from soft white wheat successfully in other cookie, brownie, and cake recipes, I used some in making these cookies this time. Because I was giving away most of the cookies, I conservatively only replaced 1/4th of the all-purpose flour with the whole wheat flour. They are delicious, and, if anything, I think the texture is improved.

By the way, I don't pretend to think that a little whole wheat flour suddenly makes cookies nutritious. Cookies, by their nature, should always be eaten sparingly. However, any time I can replace refined grains with whole grains, I consider it a benefit.

Ginger Snaps

Cream together:

¾ C butter

2 C sugar

Stir in:

2 eggs

½ C molasses

2 tsp. vinegar

Stir together and add:

3¾ C all-purpose flour (or replace at least 1 C with soft white whole-wheat flour)

1½ tsp. baking soda

3 tsp. ginger

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. cloves

Mix ingredients until well-blended. Form dough into small balls. Bake at 350°F on baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or greased), for about 10-15 minutes. Let cookies set for a couple of minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Yields about 7 dozen cookies.

Gingerbread (Updated)

Update at the end of post!

It's gingerbread time! I don't know how gingerbread, gingerbread men, and gingerbread houses got tied with Christmas, but they are a Christmas tradition in our family.

Part 1: The Dough

Gingerbread

Blend together:

½ C butter, softened

½ C sugar

¼ C molasses

¼ C corn syrup

Add and beat well:

1 egg

Stir together and add:

2½ C all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cloves

You mix the dough and then refrigerate it at least 2 hours. I tripled the recipe because we're going to make 3 gingerbread houses.

You may have noticed that there isn't a trace of whole-grain flour in this recipe. Since this dough is going to be used to make gingerbread houses, I am opting for the strength of the starch in the white all-purpose flour rather than trying to work in any nutrients with whole-grain flour.

Part 2: Rolling Out the Dough

After refrigerating, I divided the dough into 3 parts for easier handling, wrapping each part with plastic wrap. I took each part of the dough out of the refrigerator for about 10 minutes before rolling it out.

First I pushed the dough together to make a ball; then flattened it out somewhat. I floured both sides and then rolled it out on floured wax paper and covered with plastic wrap. I rolled it out to about 1/8th of an inch thickness.

I made a template years ago that I keep in an envelope. There are many online. Here are the dimensions that I used for the gingerbread houses:

2 sides: 4" X 6" rectangles
2 ends: 4" squares, each topped by a triangle that peaks 2" above the center
2 roof pieces: 3-1/2" X 7"  rectangles
chimney:
2 rectangles 3/4" X 1-3/4"
2 rectangles 1-1/2" X 1-3/4", with a triangle cut out of each that peaks in the center 3/4" above the bottoms

Hooray for geometry!

I use my pizza cutter to cut out the pieces. An exacto knife would be helpful, but you can use what you have.

For spaces between the house pieces, and for re-rolled dough, use cookie cutters to cut out little men (and women if you have them), snowmen, angels, Christmas trees, etc., etc. I squish together and re-roll the dough a few times, until I can't stand it any more!

Part 3: Baking the Pieces

Parchment paper is your friend here. So are baking pans that don't warp in the oven. I don't normally use cooking spray for baking, but here I do. I lightly spray the pans so the parchment paper lays flat, and I lightly spray the parchment paper because I don't want the gingerbread to stick.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Let the pieces cool in the pan for at least a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. First, this helps the pieces to be crisp. Second, if they don't feel crisp enough, you can put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes (since they are cool, they have to heat up again before baking more). This will work. Remember--for gingerbread houses, sturdiness trumps taste. But don't worry, this gingerbread is very tasty, regardless!

Fresh out of the oven.

Lots of gingerbread baked; more to come!

Part 4: Building and Decorating Gingerbread Houses

Baking the gingerbread is my main contribution to the project. At this point, others take over. But first, the Decorator Icing, a.k.a. Royal Icing. This is the glue--quite literally--that holds the house together and sticks the decorations on.

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Decorator Icing

Beat together:

2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

2½ C powdered sugar

½ tsp. cream of tartar

⅛ tsp. salt

How much you need depends on a number of factors, such as how skilled you are at piping the icing and how much decorating you are doing. By the way, you can use a knife to spread the icing on the pieces to glue them together--that's how we started--but it is much easier to use cake decorating equipment. Even if this is your first time, you can learn on a gingerbread house. It's okay if it isn't perfect. It will still look good. For our three gingerbread houses I quadrupled the recipe.
Tip: It's best to use fresh AA eggs for meringue-type stuff like this.
As I turned to baking pizzas for the hungry masses, Karlyn and Will glued together the houses:

Here's Will. Between my baking pizzas and Karlyn also taking care of her 15 month old, I didn't get a picture of her here. But Karlyn and Will are the experts for this step. They are happy to have others join in, but most of us are happy to let them do this part!

The houses will be ready for decorating after the icing hardens up.

While waiting, children and adults decorated--and ate--gingerbread cookies.

Here are the completed houses!
While it will be fun for the (Joe M.) Downings, the Flansburghs, and the Nguyens to have these gingerbread houses decorate their homes this Christmas season, and it will be fun to eat them (they even taste good stale!), all 21 of us gathered here tonight had a great time! It was worth making gingerbread houses just for that.

Update 1/7/2013: Go here for more photos.

Rant Alert!

I love SparkPeople.com. It's a great website for healthy living. I subscribe to their SparkPeople Recipe of the Day, and I've found many great recipes this way. Today's recipe was billed as whole-grain maple cookies. I was interested! Part of the description said " ... it's a great way to incorporate whole grains." It sounded promising! So I clicked on the link to get the full recipe. Now, it is a cookie recipe, so I wasn't surprised to see brown sugar. In fact, I was glad to see maple syrup and honey, too. An egg and some vanilla--good. Then it called for shortening. I wasn't happy about that, because I'm trying to get away from shortening as much as possible, but that's a discussion for another day. Perhaps a pie baking day.

Next came rolled oats or seven grain cereal mix, Bob's Red Mill's mix recommended. Great choices! The next ingredient was all-purpose flour. Why?! This recipe was looking so good! If hard red whole-wheat flour's taste is too strong, why not hard white or soft white whole-wheat flour? Or this recipe looks like oat flour might work.

Of course, I advocate using freshly-ground flour, but those whole-grain wheat flours are readily available in most grocery stores. Locally, Wegmans even sells them under their brand name. You can easily make oat flour from rolled oats in your blender.

So my first complaint is that they could have easily made this recipe really whole-grain. My second--and bigger--complaint is that the recipe is labeled whole-grain and it is not! It contains whole-grains. I see this a lot, where a recipe is labeled as whole-grain and it is only partly whole-grain. I'm not mad at anyone for not using whole-grains or only using them for part of the grain or flour in a recipe. I have plenty of recipes like that. I just ask that they not label them whole-grain if they are not.

Okay. I feel better now.

P.S.--I will save this recipe and try it with different whole-grain flours. I think it will be really good. I'm not sure what to do about the shortening, but I'll investigate the possibilities. If you know of anything, let me know, please!

What If There Are No More Twinkies?!

When Hostess Brands announced on Friday that it was going to liquidate, many people apparently became very concerned about their snack foods and emptied store shelves.

Today, at the behest of the judge, Hostess and the bakery union agreed to meet for mediation. I hope they will be able to resolve their differences so more than 18,000 people do not lose their jobs.

If mediation doesn't work out and you are concerned about the fate of Twinkies or another Hostess product, chances are it will live on under another company's care.

Personally, I don't care one way or the other. I've never been a big consumer of Hostess products--not even Twinkies! I've eaten plenty commercially produced snack foods. Oreos come to mind. One Oreo incident occurred when I was a college student. My friend and roommate Nancy D. and I once (or more) shared a package of double-stuffed Oreos while writing our papers: she ate the stuffing and I ate the cookie parts.

But more often I've made my own snack foods. There are advantages to this: they usually taste better; you know what is in them; they are less expensive; and (theoretically at least) you are more mindful of them. What I mean by that is, if you have to make it instead of just buy it and have it on hand, you are more likely to think about it before going to the bother of making it.

Over time I have developed better snack-eating habits. I have modified many recipes to be less unhealthy. I also try to make things in more appropriate amounts.

Here's an example. I love chocolate, so brownies are one of my favorite snack foods. Instead of baking a whole pan of brownies, if I am baking them for a snack, I quarter the recipe and bake it in four ramekins. When you figure that I cut my original recipe into 24 squares, each ramekin holds the equivalent of a brownie and a half. I share the three other servings or put them out of sight and out of mind.

This recipe is really easy and fast. It's based on my cocoa brownie recipe, because cocoa is less expensive than chocolate and has less fat and fewer calories. It still tastes very good. Too good.

Start by melting 1/4 C butter in a bowl that holds at least 2 cups. I melt it in the microwave.

In some recipes I substitute applesauce for half of the fat, but not in brownies.

Next, stir in 1/2 C brown sugar--1/4 C two times-- and 1/2 tsp. vanilla.

Beat in an egg. If you want, you can use 2 egg whites instead of one egg, for less fat.

By the way, I just use a table fork for stirring and beating in this recipe. It works just fine.

Now add 3/8 C flour--that's 1/4 C plus half of a 1/4 C. You can use white all-purpose flour, but my favorite is flour milled from soft white wheat. That adds nutrients, making this less unhealthy, and I prefer the flavor. Hard whole wheat flour works well, too, but the soft flour has a milder taste and softer texture. (Very soon I will write some posts about different flours and their availability.)

Also add 3 T unsweetened cocoa--that's three-quarters of a 1/4 C. I use Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa. I've spoiled myself. I can't go back to Hershey's. I don't dare try Scharffen Berger.

Stir in a pinch of salt.

Now divide the batter among 4 greased ramekins. Cooking spray works fine, but I prefer butter. If the butter is soft, it takes less than 1/2 tsp. to grease all 4 ramekins.

"Bake" them in the microwave. I like mine dense, so I only cook them until they bubble and start to set, about 70 seconds in my microwave oven. If you like them cakey, add 1/4 tsp. baking powder with the other dry ingredients, and cook a little longer--but not too long or they will burn.

I always prefer brownies to be completely cooled before eating.

I'm sure you can think of lots of variations, such as adding chopped nuts, topping with sprinkles (my grandkids' favorite), and, after they're baked, topping with ice cream.

Here is the original recipe:

Cocoa Brownies

1 C butter

2 C brown sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1½ C flour (all-purpose originally; whole wheat works well; soft white whole wheat preferred)

¾-⅞ C unsweetened cocoa (Ghirardelli)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 C chopped nuts (optional)

Beat together softened butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt, and then add them to the first mixture. Add nuts, if desired. Bake in a greased and floured 13”x9” pan at 350°F for 25-30 minutes.

After cooled, cut into 24 squares.

As Easy as (Pizza) Pie!

My daughter Kirsten and her family are here from California for a few weeks. So the extended-family get-togethers have begun!

Tonight we made pizza for the masses. Everybody contributed various food items. I made the pizza dough.

For anyone who bakes pizza at home, I recommend making your own dough for the crust. It's easy to make and it tastes good.

For anyone who wants to learn how to bake yeast breads, I recommend starting with pizza dough. It's easy to make and not at all fussy.
 

Pizza Dough

Pour 1½ C warm water into large bowl.

Add:

1 T yeast

Add and mix:

2 C flour*

2 tsp. olive oil

1 tsp. salt

Continue to add flour—about 2 C more in all—until dough can be kneaded; then knead for 10 minutes.

Put 1 tsp. olive oil in the bowl. Turn the ball of dough in it until it is covered with oil. Cover the dough and let rise in a warm place for at least 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

After the dough has risen, punch it down, but do not knead it. For thicker crust, divide the dough into 2 parts. For thinner crust, divide the dough into 4 parts.

*You can use all-purpose flour, bread flour, or whole-wheat flour. My current favorite is white whole-wheat flour. If you are using white flour, I recommend using bread flour if you can.

NOTE: This dough is not fussy. You could make it and put it in the refrigerator to take longer to rise (up to several hours). Or, if it rises and you aren't ready for it, punch it down and let it rise some more. As long as you don't knead it any more, it will be ready when you are. If you knead it some more, just let it rest 15 minutes before rolling it out.

The fanciest pizza we had tonight was topped with fresh garlic, tomatoes, spinach leaves, feta cheese, and mozzarella cheese.

The others--eight in all--were delicious, too. Here are pictures of some of them.

I'm good--not great--at making pizza. But, for a better crust, I do recommend baking it on a pizza stone or ceramic tiles in your oven at a very high temperature, 450-475 degrees.

Here is what my well-used pizza stone looked like:

I use the past tense because this is what happened one day not too long ago:

They don't last forever. I'm going to try tiles next.

If you have any leftover pizza--we had two leftover slices tonight--eat it for lunch the next day! (Or breakfast ... )

Cinnamon Rolls (Updated 8/18/13)

I can't think of anything that tastes better than freshly-baked cinnamon rolls, still slightly warm from the oven.

My recipe is from my Aunt Betty. It starts with her basic roll recipe. So I'll share that with you and add what you need to know and do to make cinnamon rolls.

But first, a few words about flour. Cinnamon rolls should be light and tender. I grew up using white all-purpose flour, described by King Arthur Flour as "the perfect go-to flour for all your baking needs." It works great! The only problem is, it doesn't have much nutritional value. (Here's a chart comparing nutrients in whole-wheat flour and white flour. Scroll down to see a chart that shows nutrients lost in the refinement process.) I used to just consider cinnamon rolls a lost cause nutritionally--they have a lot of sugar and a fair amount of fat, though not as much as you might think. But, with soft white wheat available now, we can replace at least part of the white all-purpose flour with whole-grain flour, still maintain the light color, mild flavor, and tenderness we desire, but boost the nutritional value.

And now, the recipes:

Dinner Rolls

3 C lukewarm water

2 T yeast

1 C sugar

½ C canola oil

½ C instant potato flakes

1 C instant nonfat dry milk

1 ½ tsp. salt

3 eggs

8-9 C unbleached all-purpose flour, or use soft white whole-wheat flour for 1/3-1/2 of the total flour amount

Dissolve yeast in water in large bowl. Let sit for a few minutes. Add sugar, oil, potato flakes, dry milk, salt, and eggs. Add 3 C of the flour. Beat with mixer until smooth. Kneading by hand or with dough hook, add enough flour to make soft dough (5-6 C). In oiled bowl, let rise once or twice. Shape into rolls and place in greased pans; let rise. Bake at 350°F until brown, about 20 minutes.

Cinnamon Rolls

After rising in the bowl, punch down dough. On a floured surface, use your hands to pat the dough (half of it at a time) into a rectangle, and brush with melted butter (about 6 T in all). Top with a mixture of ¾ C sugar and 6 tsp. cinnamon. Roll up the dough; cut into ¾-1 inch widths; place onto greased pans leaving space to rise; let rise. Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes. While hot, top with glaze.

Glaze: Combine 1 lb. (3¾ C) powdered sugar, ⅜-½ C hot water, and 2¼ tsp. vanilla.

Update, 8/18/13: This makes a lot of rolls. You can easily halve the recipe. When you do, I suggest using 2 eggs, but it's fine to just use 1.