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Food Recipes



Cinnamon rolls

Ingredients for roll mass:

Ingredients for roll's filling:

Ingredients for Vanilla Frosting:

Protocol:

  1. Add the warm water to the yeast and soak 10 minutes, slowly mixing it with a fork.
  2. In a bowl, mix yeasty water and milk. Then add the sugar and salt, and the beaten egg.
  3. Add 1 cup of flour and mix very well with a fork.
  4. Add the melted butter and mix well.
  5. Add the remaining cups of flour adding one at a time, beating well after each addition. By the third or fourth cup, dough is dry enough and fluffy, to be mixed by hand.
  6. Let dough sit for 1 hour in a warm place.
  7. Work the dough into a ball, removing excess bubbles.
  8. Sprinkle flour on a large wooden surface and flatten the dough as thinly as possible, into roughly a rectangular shape. Use a flour-sprinkled wooden roll (or a wine bottle!) to roll it out thin.
  9. Melt about 12 to 16 tablespoons of butter at the microwave in a cup (slice it small first, and carefully don't let it boil), and mix it well with 500 g of brown sugar.
  10. Spread the sugar and butter mix over the thinly spread layer of dough with the help of a spoon and lots of patience. Sprinkle cinnamon, as much as you want, and add raisins (optional).
  11. Roll the dough from the longer side and seal it with the hands, so it becomes a cylinder.
  12. With a large blade knife, cut small rolls, of about an inch thick, and place them into lightly buttered non-heated oven trays. Make sure the rolls nearly but not quite touch each other, so they have room to grow more.
  13. Let the rolls sit in a warm place 1 h. At the last 15 min, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  14. Bake the rolls for 15 to 20 minutes. DO NOT overcook the rolls a single minute. They are done when they look a bit brown on the surface. If they get brown before 12 to 15 minutes have passed, next time use an aluminum foil on top.
  15. Let the rolls sit for at least 10 minutes (if you can wait!) or you'll burn yourself with the sugar.

For the Frosting (for enhanced decadence):

  1. Place sugar, butter and vanilla in a bowl, and then stir in enough milk or cream to reach a thick, hardly-able to stir consistency.
  2. Spread the frosting over warm rolls as soon as they are placed on a plate to let the frosting melt and run into the rolls.

   

Thanks to Kevin & Claire and Arnim for sharing their wonderful kitchen. It's a pleasure to cook with and for you!

Pancakes for 2 people

Ingredients:

Protocol:

  1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl, using a fork.
  2. Warm up a non-sticky pan or pans to about medium fire.
  3. For each pancake to make, put a tiny (tiny!) bit of butter on the pan, and then a large scoop of mix. Gently move the pan in a circular motion to spread the mass. It should make a flat disc that doesn't reach the walls of the pan. Cook until the mass has bubbled a bit and can be lifted with a spatula or fork (the underneath is solid), then flip and cook the other side -warning: the other side will cook faster. Cooking time is about a minute for each pancake.

The tiny bit of butter will prevent the pancake from sticking to the pan, and also give a nice brownish coloration.

Keep the pancakes under a bowl to preserve temperature until eating.

Serve with butter, marmalade, honey, maple syrup and/or chocolate on the side.

Improvised Chocolate Brioche

Ingredients:

Protocol:

  1. Warm up the milk to about 37 degrees, and dissolve the yeast in it.
  2. Beat the 2 eggs in a bowl.
  3. Pour both the milk and the eggs into a big bowl, mix with a fork, and then add a single cup of flour. Mix well.
  4. Add the three melted tablespoons of butter (melt them by warming them up in the microwave, carefully not letting it boil), and add the 3 tablespoons of sugar. Mix well.
  5. Add one cup of flour at a time, mixing very well before adding the next. Do the mixing with a fork, for the mass is initially very wet.
  6. Let the mass sit in a warm place for 40 to 60 minutes.
  7. Mix the mass again, this time with the hands, removing excess bubbles. Whiten your hands with flour first to prevent the mass from sticking to your fingers and palm.
  8. Take a non-heated oven tray, preferably glass, and paint it all with a chunk of butter.
  9. Spread a bit of flour on a flat surface, such as a wooden table. Take a handful of mass, make a ball with it and flatten it out a bit into an ellipse. Put a small chunk of butter (like half a teaspoon) on it, and some pieces of broken black chocolate. Roll the ellipse to make an elongated shape, which you must seal by pressing the long sides together strongly and smartly, creating a crest, so that it does not have any holes from which butter or chocolate may scape once melted. These are your brioche.
  10. Put the brioche on the buttered tray, careful to leave a bit of space between them. They will grow to touch each other, leaving nice, moistly sides once baked.
  11. Let the unbaked brioche sit in a warm place (a bit over room temperature) for 30 to 60 minutes.
  12. Spread a bit of sugar powder on top. Help yourself with a spoon and the fingers.
  13. Bake for 25 minutes at 380 degrees in a pre-heated oven.

Ciabatta bread

Ingredients:

Protocol:

Pour the first cup of warm water (baby-milk warm) into a large bowl and then two teaspoons of dry yeast. Stir with a fork until the water is mud murky.

Pour one cup of flour and mix well with the fork until the mass is homogeneous.

Mix the salt with the remaining cup of water and pour it into the bowl.

Add the second cup of flour, mix well until homogeneous.

Repeat with the third cup.

(It is important to add the flour one cup at a time: mixing is easier, takes less time, and the result is more homogeneous.)

Let the mass sit in a warm place for one hour or until it doubles in volume. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel, or a plastic film. If you lack a warm place, switch on the oven for two minutes, open the door, make sure it's not too hot--sense the air--and leave the bowl there.

After mass has grown, prepare two oven trays (pyrex glass works great) and smear butter all over it, walls included.

In a clean surface, pour a few handfuls of flour and spread it with both hands. Make your hands white with flour and grab about half of the mass from the bowl, and drop it onto the floured surface. The mass will be very sticky; the flour in your hands will prevent the mass from sticking to your fingers. Sprinkle the mass with flour so that your hands don't stick to it, and stretch it a bit. Then fold the right third onto the center, and the left third on top of it (see pictures). Sprinkle more flour if too sticky. Push down gently to flatten the mass and stretch it again, and fold again. Repeat the folds 3 or 4 times total. Then place the mass on the buttered container, and store in a warm place for one hour or until it doubles in volume.

   

Repeat with the remaining mass. You'll get two bread loafs.

Once the folded mass has risen, dump it onto the floured surface and fold again 3 or 4 times. Then put it back onto the buttered container. Let the folded blobs rise for a third hour.

10 minutes before the end of the third hour, switch on the oven at 450 degrees Farenheit.

When the oven is hot, bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes. Be sure to remove any trays the oven has inside, and to place the grid at about half height. Baking 25 minutes is usually enough; the bread may start smoking, getting a nice dark crust.


Multicereal bread

Ingredients:

Makes two largish loafs:

Protocol:

Put the warm water and salt in a bowl and stir to dissolve the salt.

Add the yeast and stir with a fork until homogeneous.

Then add one cup of white flour and mix well with a fork.

Add the olive oil and stir until homogeneous.

Add the second cup of white flour and stir again until homogeneous.

Add the cup of mixed cereals, mix well, and let it sit in a warm place for at least 1.5 to 2 hours.

Then, mix with a fork and add small increments of white flour (about one or two tablespoons) until the mass stops being wet and detaches itself from the bowl; in the process, when it starts getting dryer, stop mixing with the fork and knead with your hands and fists by folding the mass in two and pushing it flat.

Split the mass in two pieces and make elongated loafs, to be placed on buttered pyrex glass platters. Let it raise for 1 to 2 hours in a warm place.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees farenheit and when ready, cook for 50 minutes. Look at it at the 30 and 40 minute mark--not all ovens are equally strong. The bread is done when it looks golden and crusty, and sounds hollow when banged with your knuckles.



Last updated: 2012-01-21 13:03 Zurich time. Copyright Albert Cardona 2007,2008.