The next recipe I tried was the Basic Pizza Dough from Everyday Food. This one was a total disaster and I didn’t bother to blog about it. I wish I could articulate what was wrong, but all I know is that it tasted awful. We made one pizza with it and threw out the rest of the batch. And we barely managed to make ourselves eat even that one pizza.

In response to my original pizza post, Rebekah mentioned that she used to use the basic recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I had completely forgotten that I purchased that book a couple of years ago. I dusted it off, read through the “master recipe” and decided to give it a shot. And it was a total, total winner! I love it because there is no kneading, it is really really easy, and it tastes great!!! We have made it twice already and declared this dough the keeper! You can find the recipe (with photos and links to videos) on the Artisan Bread in Five website.

Details about what I did (which will probably make more sense if you’ve read the recipe):
:: I only made a half batch each time because I didn’t have a sufficiently large lidded container to allow for rising of a whole batch. My 14-cup Rubbermaid worked fine.
:: I mixed all of the ingredients with my stand mixer and dough hook.
:: I added 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme and 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary to my half batch. This is the variation to make herbed bread that is noted a couple of pages after the master recipe in the book. Love this as I always have dried thyme and rosemary in my cupboard and no chopping is necessary!
:: When I was ready to use the dough, I used a serrated knife to hack off the amount I needed from the container. Note that the dough is very sticky, so I sprinkled flour on the dough and my hands.
:: I plopped the dough directly onto my baking sheet (that had been sprayed with PAM). Using a roller dusted with flour, I rolled out the dough directly on the sheet. Yes, I’m aware that this isn’t the “right” way to roll dough but it works for me because I prefer mini-pizzas (in the 5″ - 6″ diameter range).
:: I pre-baked the crust alone on a regular baking sheet (with no sauce or toppings) at 450 degrees Farenheit for 3 minutes. The dough rose a little. Then I added the toppings and baked for another 12-15 minutes. Voila! Dinner was done!

To be honest, I was kind of “meh” about the roast chicken. The recipe called for four shallots. Well, I had never used shallots in such a large quantity before, and guess what I discovered? Hubby and I don’t like shallots at all! So there definitely isn’t anything wrong with the recipe itself — you just have to like shallots! The mac & cheese was absolutely delicious, but it is best consumed on the same day. The leftovers were extremely greasy after reheating, so I recommend either making a half batch or making sure you have a lot of mouths to feed!

Last month I discovered foodgawker. Have you heard of it? It’s a website for foodies to submit photos of their culinary creations. Each photo links to the corresponding blog post that has information about the recipe. I was immediately hooked and spent quite a bit of time browsing around. I discovered lots of new-to-me food blogs, and that’s how I found this recipe for Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies by Two Peas and Their Pod. These cookies are different from any other oatmeal cookie I have ever tasted. They are very soft, moist, and almost fragile. Both the Hubby and I loved them — I even made them twice over the Memorial Day weekend!

My main issue with chicken is that I dislike the flavor of leftover chicken. There is a Chinese word that describes my interpretation of that taste, but I can’t think of an English word that fits it perfectly. “Stale” is probably the closest description, but it is not completely accurate. Hubby and I always cook in batches to last several meals, so whenever we make chicken there will be leftovers.

This Cashew Chicken dish is a winner because it is relatively quick and the leftovers still taste great to me. Instead of 1.5 pounds of chicken, we used closer to 2.6 or 2.7 pounds and doubled all of the sauce ingredients. I threw in four stalks of diced celery to add more color. The only drawback? The cashews were soggy after the first day because they had been sitting in the sauce, so we remedied that by tossing in a bit of fresh cashews after reheating our individual servings. But even the soggy cashews didn’t deter us from loving this dish!

Oiyi sent me the link to the recipe awhile back, and it’s been in my queue ever since. I was actually planning to bake brownies one night until I realized that I didn’t have enough sugar, but I had just enough on hand for these cookies. They use one bowl with no mixer required and are super easy and delicious. I omitted the salted peanuts because I didn’t have any. I did notice that the chocolate chips tasted just a little “off”, but I couldn’t put a finger on what was wrong. Coincidentally, a few days later I read the peanut butter cookie recipe in Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, which uses milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet. The recipe note indicated that semi-sweet chips can taste bitter with peanut butter. So maybe that accounts for what I tasted? Next time, I will try milk chocolate chips instead but I don’t think it mattered too much — the cookies were still a total hit with my colleagues!

A couple of weeks ago I made Szechuan-Style Tofu from the March 2010 issue of Cooking Light. This one is totally a winner — it is very easy, has great flavor, and goes perfectly with rice.

Mods
:: I could not find matchstick-cut carrots, so I used 3/4 cup shredded carrots.
:: I also could not find bottled ground fresh ginger, so I went for jarred chopped ginger (found in the spice aisle). Seemed to work fine.
:: Omitted the peanuts

This dish is definitely going to be a regular on the meal rotation!

I was wandering around Crate and Barrel the other day with a gift card burning a hole in my pocket when Baked: New Frontiers in Baking caught my attention. I will admit that the brown and orange book jacket drew me in because I love those colors together. But I also remembered seeing this book mentioned on a baking blog months ago and thinking that it sounded interesting. Written by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, it contains the most popular recipes from their bakery Baked, which they opened in Brooklyn in 2005.

The first recipe I flipped to was for banana espresso chocolate chip muffins. Oooh. The second recipe I landed on? Chipotle Cheddar Scones. Oooh again! And the book was on sale! So of course, I forked over my gift card and the book came home with me. I spent quite some time pouring over it before baking anything — it’s a great read.

The banana espresso chocolate chip muffins are super moist, light, and fluffy. The banana and chocolate flavors are strong. I would say these muffins are probably the best I have ever made. The one thing I would change for next time is to increase the amount of instant espresso and dissolve it in a bit of water first to see if that yields a stronger flavor. But overall, the muffins were absolutely delicious!

Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins
From Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito
Recipe posted with permission

1 1/2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas (about 4 medium bananas)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together the bananas, sugars, butter, milk, and egg.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, instant espresso powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the well and stir just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Fill each cup about three-quarters full. Bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Move the muffin pan to a cooling rack, and let cool for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the muffins from the pan and allow them to finish cooling on the cooling rack.

Muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

They look very similar to the ones made from The Pioneer Woman recipe I used previously, and to be honest I can’t tell the difference taste-wise either. Since the Everyday Food recipe takes less time, it will probably be my go-to recipe from now on.

Notes:
:: I don’t measure 1/4 cup of ground beef per enchilada. I just eyeball it, but my guess is that 1/4 cup is too much. I don’t want my enchiladas to burst.
:: One pound of ground beef (increased from 3/4 lb) yielded 16 enchiladas for me, so you definitely need more than 8 tortillas.

A couple of weeks ago I sewed up a matching tissue holder, zippered pouch, and drawstring pouch for a birthday gift. I paired linen fabric with a bright Robert Kaufman print, both from my stash. I tweaked the measurements from this great drawstring bag tutorial to create a bag in the desired size. I discovered that I really like making drawstring bags! The most time-consuming part for me? Sewing the drawstrings! I thought about buying them, but I really liked the idea of matching them with the fabric.

All packed up and ready to go!

I used Giada’s Pizza Dough recipe and followed Brooke’s example of throwing in some chopped fresh rosemary and cheese into the dough while mixing. I had some problems with the dough — it was much too wet, and in hindsight I should have added more flour before attempting to take it out of the food processor. Me struggling with removing the overly sticky dough was not a pretty sight. The recipe didn’t indicate how long or at what temperature the dough should be baked, so I experimented. I decided on 400 degrees for 4 minutes without toppings, and then an additional 15-20 minutes with toppings added (depends on whether you are making a wee 6-inch personal size pizza like the one shown above or a 12-inch). The dough tasted pretty good — the fresh rosemary in it certainly made a difference. A single batch yielded enough for one 6-inch and one 12-inch pizza.

For the sauce, I adapted the Exquisite Pizza Sauce from allrecipes.com based on user reviews. I omitted the honey, anchovy paste, and dried marjorom, and let the sauce sit overnight in the fridge instead of just thirty minutes. It was yummy! This recipe is a definitely keeper.

I kept the toppings simple. I think the key to avoiding soggy pizza is to go light on the toppings. I used a grated three-cheese blend (Romano, Parmesan, and Asiago), mushrooms, bell peppers, olives, and basil.

I had fun making the pizza and it was tasty, so I plan to do it again! Next time, I want to try Smitten Kitchen’s really simple pizza dough. Do you have a favorite pizza dough recipe to share?