Holiday Baking Continued: Goat Cheese-Stuffed Wheat Buns!

Nolan, my sister, her husband, and I are taking a trip to New York tomorrow. It's a bus trip, 10 hours riding on a coach bus for the sake for 8 hours in the city. We're going because we used to do this when we were younger. We're doing this to reignite some old traditions that will, most likely, never fit into the mold of our lives now; but, god damnit if we don't try.

But this week, I've done a lot of baking. A lot of testing. A lot of trying to make the house warm with the oven on. A lot of convincing myself to keep moving forward, a direction I've always considered to be the better of the the two options available. And, to keep this post as short as possible so I can finish packing, here is a recipe I made this week. Goat cheese-stuffed buns, made with wheat and studded with walnuts. A little bit of the warmest flavors I could find in the fridge to stave off the cold from coming too close to our kitchen.

Goat Cheese-Stuffed Wheat Buns

Ingredients:

• ½ cup whole milk
• ½ cup water
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 packet of Red Star platinum yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg + 1 white, both room temperature (use extra yolk for egg wash, see directions below)
• 2 TB honey
• 1 ½ cup whole wheat flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 8 ounces goat cheese (I used Vermont Creamery’s Coupole, but any goat cheese will do)
• Walnuts, if desired

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, heat milk, water, and butter until butter is completely melted. Stir to combine and transfer to your stand mixer’s bowl. Let stand until temperature reaches 110*F
2. Add yeast and salt
3. Let stand for 10 minutes or until yeast is bubbling
4. While mixture is resting, sift together flours
5. Turn on stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, and add your egg and honey
6. With mixer still on, add your flour mixture, about a ½ cup at a time, until a shaggy dough forms (depending on your wheat flour used and altitude, you may require just a little less flour than this recipe calls for)
7. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead for about 6 minutes or until dough is springy to the touch
8. Place in an oiled bowl and let rest for one hour at room temperature
9. After your hour has elapsed, preheat oven to 400*F and grease a 9-inch pan thoroughly. Also, cut your goat cheese into 8 pieces or so
10. Punch dough down and divide into 8 or 9 pieces
11. Pat each piece of dough flat with the palms of your hands and place a piece of goat cheese in the center
12. Form a ball with the dough, leaving the goat cheese in the center
13. Place in your pan
14. Repeat with remaining dough
15. Now, whisk your extra yolk with a teaspoon of water to create your egg wash. Brush a bit on top of each dough ball
16. Press a walnut in the center of each ball, if desired, as well
17. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown
18. Serve immediately for a melt, delicious warm bun. But, these can keep and be reheated for up to two days in an airtight container

Thank you to Red Star Yeast for sponsoring this post. I believe in using quality products when it comes to baking and I am always confident my dough will rise beautifully with Red Star! Check out the active dry yeast I used for this recipe and others on their website, follow them on instagram and like their Facebook!

And while you're at it...like my Facebook and Instagram too!

One Dough, Two Ways: Pizza and Donuts!

After two years here, I do not claim to be a healthy blog. I eat how I grew up - things that are quick, things covered in fat, things in moderation because my parents had to feed five. I eat what I like. I eat what I want Nolan to come home to - things that are warm, fragrant. Things that make it worth coming home for. It's the easiest part of building a home. Thank God it's my favorite, too.

I do not claim to be a good cook. I'm an average baker when I put the energy into it. But I have my favorites down--roast chicken, kale, eggs, and pizza. We rotate. We sometimes just have cereal when neither of us want to cook. We hardly ever eat out anymore. It's so different than California, when our one bedroom was scattered with paper napkins and plastic forks. But, then again, we are different, too. A year can be a lifetime and thank God we've had a few to learn and try to get this thing right.

Our dogs know the routine now for when it's pizza night, they begin following me around the kitchen when the oven is still preheating. When the yeast is blooming. When the dough is punched and my hands are too floured to pet their needy heads. They always get the end pieces, the burnt edges, the marinara off our plates. We don't mind. Thank God for them.

A few weeks ago, I posted on Instagram a photo of some leftover dough turned into a donut. Using my favorite dough recipe and adapting it to a sweetened donut has become a ritual now for us. I make extra, I put it in a cake stand for the morning. I cover them in powdered sugar like I did for my other donut recipe. We wake up to these and a warm cup of coffee. And thank God for that.

One Dough, Two Ways!

Basic Dough Recipe:

• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast (of course, Red Star is my preferred)
• 1 teaspoon white sugar (additional 1/3 cup if making donuts)
• 1 cup water, warmed to 105*F
• 2 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Basic Dough Instructions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together yeast, sugar, and water
2. Allow to sit for 10 minutes or until water is foamy and yeast is activated
3. While yeast is blooming, sift together flour and salt (and sugar if making a sweet dough)
4. With mixer on low and a dough hook attached, begin to slowly add in a bit of flour at a time
5. A dough will begin to form, but it will be dry. Add your butter and oil to wet dough slightly
6. Roll out onto a floured work surface. Refer to the below instructions for further direction on making your pizza or donuts!

For the pizza: Use the above recipe. Preheat oven to 450*F. Using a Silpat or parchment paper, roll your dough out on top of it. Cut out excess dough on the edges to avoid too much crust. Add your desired toppings. Once you have the pizza assembled, bake for 20 minutes and enjoy!

For me, I made a Flammekeuche (tarte flambée), which is a traditional Alsatian dish that is honestly delicious. I used a half cup sour cream, and half a yellow onion (sliced) and 6 slices of bacon (make sure you cook the bacon fully before baking the pizza). 

For the donuts: Roll out dough onto a floured work surface to about 1 inch. Cut out your donuts shapes. Allow to rest for five minutes. While dough is resting briefly, heat 1 inch of vegetable oil to 325*F in a Dutch oven. Prepare a plate with a paper towel. Fry two donuts at a time, turning once and allowing each side to fry for about 15-20 seconds or until browned. Transfer to your prepared plate to drain any excess grease. Repeat with remaining dough (and donut holes!). Shake in confectioner's sugar. They're good for about 2 days!

Thank you to Red Star Yeast for sponsoring this post. I believe in using quality products when it comes to baking and I am always confident my dough will rise beautifully with Red Star! Check out the active dry yeast I used for this recipe and others on their website, follow them on instagram and like their Facebook!

And while you're at it...like my Facebook and Instagram too!

Super Easy Stroopwafel, in Partnership with Red Star Yeast

It's the hardest thing to wake up in the morning when you're surrounded by snoring dogs and a snoring boyfriend. The floors are cold but the coffee is warm. Only Elsa and Milo wake up with me in the morning; Murphy stays in bed until 9 or 10. 

I open the door and they rush to greet the day. Small shadows in the morning light, I sometimes only see the puffs of their barks, shotguns in the pale and deaf morning. They are crepuscular, active when the light stretches the most. Milo and Elsa play with sticks, bite at birds that rest on tree branches just above their heads. I saw a hawk attach a finch the other day through the kitchen window. I just stared until I remembered to call the dogs in.

And there are deer tracks that roam our yard in circles. Whole family come to eat from our yard, as quiet as snow the dogs don't even hear them in the midnight. A mouse has found his way into our garage from the cold and the world seems unfair if you think about it long enough.

I always wake up at six and on the weekends we sometimes pull out the sofa bed and watch I Love Lucy in the mornings, trying to keep warm and keep calm and remind ourselves what a year can do to two people.

Quick and Easy Stroopwafels

This recipe was inspired by Food Network's but I didn't have the waffle cone iron they mandated in their recipes. Instead, I used my basic waffle iron and baked the yeasted dough into a thick round, dipping half in Ghiradelli's dark chocolate and molasses for that signature bite.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup whole milk, warm to the touch
• 1/2 sachet of Red Star Platinum Yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cup AP flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 12 oz dark chocolate
• 2 TB heavy cream
• 1/2 tablespoon dark molasses

Directions:

1. Whisk together milk, yeast, and salt and let sit for five minutes or until yeast begins to bubble
2. In a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar, and cinnamon
3. Add butter and pulse until fat is pea-sized
4. Add egg and vanilla, pulse
5. With motor running, add wet and process for five seconds or until dough forms
6. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead five or six times 
7. Rest for an hour in a greased ball
8. While dough is resting, get your waffle iron ready!
9. Cut into 8 equal pieces, roll each into a ball
10. Use your waffle iron to bake each 
11. Allow to cool while you prepare your chocolate
12. In a double boiler, whisk together chocolate, cream, and molasses until fully melted
13. Dip your stroopwafels into the chocolate mixture and allow to cool on wax paper
14. Eat with your favorite coffee or tea. These can be stored for up to three days in an airtight container

Thank you to Red Star Yeast for sponsoring this post. I believe in using quality products when it comes to baking and I am always confident my dough will rise beautifully with Red Star! Check out the active dry yeast I used for this recipe and others on their website, follow them on instagram and like their Facebook!

And while you're at it...like my Facebook and Instagram too!

It's Finally Fall! Roasted Sweet Potato Monkey Bread

There wasn’t an autumn in California, only an endless summer and a few mornings with frost on the windshield. I wasn’t used to it, I never adapted to it. I hated it, the long drag of the same temperature. I got rid of all my sweaters the first month we moved out there. It never felt like home.

Autumn in Pennsylvania is different. Bright and dark all at once. Desaturated in the morning fog and then it burns up to reveal patches of leaves missing from the oak and apple trees in the backyard. It’s Fall now, with its promise of apple cider and corn mazes. Its promise of coffee to warm your one hand; a boy’s hand to warm your other one. A promise you can’t take for granted, because it’s a type of beauty that is a whisper, a mumble, and gone in an instant.

It’s the beginning of the time when we leave the windows open all day and night. When my mother lights apple-scented candles and the cat in the windowsill lazily watches the leaves fall to the ground. I used to ask for a pumpkin pie on my birthday instead of cake. I used to ask to stay home with her instead of going to school, to go for walks and jump in the leaves. Then come inside to fresh bread or cake or anything to warm us up.

Fall has always been magic. It’s my first time having one in four long years.

Roasted Sweet Potato Monkey Bread

Pillowy, sweet, delicate, yet filling. The very essence of comfort food.

Ingredients for Roasted Sweet Potato Puree:

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 TB olive oil
• 2 TB brown sugar, dark
• Pinch of sal

Directions for Roasted Sweet Potato Puree:

1. Preheat oven to 425*F
2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil
3. Cut your sweet potato in half and cover each side with oil, sugar, and salt
4. Roast for 15 minutes or until tender and caramelized
5. Remove from oven, allow to cool
6. Scoop contents into a food processor and blend until smooth; alternatively, smash with a fork
7. Use for below monkey bread recipe

Ingredients for Roasted Sweet Potato Monkey Bread:

• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 5 teaspoons active dry yeast (my absolute favorite brand to use is Red Star Yeast)
• 1 ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup white sugar
• Roasted sweet potato puree (see above, yields about 1-1 ½ cups)
• 1 egg
• 4 TB melted butter
• 1 TB pure vanilla extract
• 5 – 5 ½ cups AP flour
• ½ cup dark brown sugar
• ¼ cup walnuts or pecans
• 1 cup mini marshmallow

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, pour in your water, yeast, salt, and sugar. Allow to sit for 5 minutes until the top of the water is marked with bubbles
2. Turn mixer on medium-low and add puree, egg, butter, and vanilla. Mix until all is incorporated
3. Turn mixer speed down to low, add flour one cup at a time. You may need a little more or a little less of the flour, depending on altitude. You will know when you have enough when dough is not sticky and pulls slightly away from the sides of the bowl
4. With floured hands, change the paddle attachment for the dough hook and turn on medium speed to knead for 3 minutes
5. When three minutes are done, turn out onto a floured work surface and knead by hand for an additional five minutes until springy and elastic
6. Place in a well-greased bowl to rest for one hour with a tea towel to cover
7. During this time, preheat oven to 350*F and grease a standard bundt pan with a lot of butter and flour. Pour ¼ of your brown sugar and a few marshmallows and nuts into the bottom of your bundt (which, when inverted, will be the top)
8. When hour is done, punch dough down (it will inflate quite a bit) and use a sharp knife or bench knife to cut into small one-inch balls. To do so, cut dough into fourths, then cut each of these fourths into eight equal pieces (for a total of 32 pieces). Roll each one in your hand into a ball and place into bundt
9. Repeat this for the remaining dough, alternating layers of dough with remaining sugar, nuts, and marshmallows
10. Allow to sit for 10 minutes to rest a bit then pop into the oven to bake (here, I suggest placing on a cookie sheet to avoid any messes in your oven—the marshmallow can get sticky!)
11. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown and puffed. Your house will have the aromatic, yeasty smell of fresh bread and a slightly caramelized smell of brown sugar
12. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. With oven mitts, invert bundt onto a plate and gently remove pan, leaving only your doughy hodge podge of marshmallow, sugar, and bread
13. Serve as immediately as possible, but definitely with a day or two 

Thank you to Red Star Yeast for sponsoring this post. I believe in using quality products when it comes to baking and I am always confident my dough will rise beautifully with Red Star! Check out the active dry yeast I used for this recipe and others on their website, follow them on instagram and like their Facebook!

Hot Cross Buns for Easter: In Partnership with Red Star Yeast

So suddenly the winter’s gone and the salt-stained boots lying in the mudroom are the only indication it ever stopped by at all. Without invitation, Spring trespassed on the cold mornings, stretched her arms and I kept my windows open to greet her. A lot has happened in six months and this persephonic heat wave doesn’t remember any of it. And I thank her for that.

I’m drinking my coffee on the porch these days, a blanket and a dog on my lap. I take my time. I don’t wear cologne these days, all my clothes smell like the breeze. A finch sat on the porch swing last night and didn’t seem to notice me. I’m enjoying the times I get to be invisible. A truck broke down a mile from my house; but I just kept driving.

This week is almost Easter and that, too, crept up on me. I haven’t celebrated in a few years—I let life get the best of me and was too busy trying to forget about others. We’re celebrating early, my parents are driving to their house in North Carolina and my sister works the weekend shift now. We’re meeting at a truck stop and eating at a diner. My dad says I can order anything I want on the menu, he’s just happy to have me home now. My mom apologizes for the last-minute choice, but the candy store’s busy and she’s too tired to cook when she gets home. I say it’s all fine because it really is. As long as I’m with them, I’m happy.

But I kept one tradition going this year, to keep the memories of cellophane grass and hollow chocolate bunnies alive. I made hot cross buns for tomorrow, for Good Friday. I made these for every tradition I thought I forgot, for every year I thought I could leave them all behind. I’ll give a few to my sister and her husband and pack the rest in a basket for my mom and dad. It may not be much, but it’s all I can give. It’s been a long six months of winter for me.

Coconut-Roasted Carrot Hot Cross Buns with Pineapple Ginger Icing

Yields 12-18 buns

Ingredients for the Roasted Carrot Puree:

• 5-8 carrots, cleaned
• 3 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions for the Roasted Carrot Puree

1. Preheat oven to 425*F and prepare a pan with aluminum foil
2. Lay carrots on foiled pan, spread out
3. In a small measuring cup, whisk coconut oil, sugar, olive oil, pepper, and salt
4. Pour mixture over carrots and stir with a wooden spoon to coat
5. Roast for 25-35 minutes or until browned, tender, and a little caramelized
6. Let cool and puree in a food processor

Ingredients for Coconut-Roasted Carrot Hot Cross Buns:

• 2 cups water, warm to the touch
• 5 teaspoons Red Star Active Dry Yeast
• 1/2 cup white sugar, packed
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup roasted carrot puree (above)
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• ½ tablespoon of orange zest
• 4 1/2-6 cup AP flour 

Directions for Coconut-Roasted Carrot Hot Cross Buns:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, add water, sugar, salt, and yeast. Let sit for five minutes until foamy
2. Add egg, puree, orange zest, and butter. Turn mixer on low to mix all ingredients together
3. Keeping the mixer on, begin adding flour, one cup at a time. Keep adding flour until dough begins to stick away from sides of bowl (if you add too much flour and dough becomes "sandy", add a small amount of water or milk to reconstitute)
4. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead for 3-5 minutes until springy
5. Place in a well-oiled bowl, turning once. Cover with a towel and let sit for an hour in a warm, dry place until doubled in size. 
6. Turn back out onto floured surface and punch down slightly. Cut into 12 or 18 equal pieces and place well-oiled pan
7. Cover with a towel and allow to rise for 20 minutes
8. While rising, preheat oven to 350*F
9. Bake for 25-32 minutes or until golden brown on top.
10. Allow to cool slightly before icing tops of crosses

Ingredients for Pineapple Ginger Icing:

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 tablespoon pineapple juice
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Directions for Pineapple Ginger Icing:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment, mix cream cheese, ginger, and pineapple juice on medium-high until well incorporated
2. With mixer reduced to a medium-low speed, begin adding confectioner’s sugar, a half-cup at a time until icing is a desired viscosity with no lumps
3. Spoon icing into a piping bag and pipe crosses onto buns
4. Allow to sit for two minutes
5. Enjoy!

Thank you to Red Star Yeast for sponsoring this post. I believe in using quality products when it comes to baking and I am always confident my dough will rise beautifully with Red Star! Check out the active dry yeast I used for this recipe and others on their website, follow them on instagram and like their Facebook!

And while you're at it...like my Facebook and Instagram too!