Corn Rolls

A new level of classiness: smooshing four pictures together...INTO ONE PICTURE!!

Another slam-dunk from King Arthur. Goddamn, I love stomping around with my filthy, filthy feet on the shoulders of giants!

Corn Rolls
From King Arthur's Whole Grain Baking.

Ingredients:
½ cup lukewarm water
½ tsp white sugar
2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast

1 cup frozen corn kernels

½ cup whole yellow cornmeal
¼ cup wheat bran or germ
½ cup whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour
1 ¼ tsp salt
3 Tbs potato starch flour OR potato flour OR ½ cup potato flakes

¼ cup nonfat dry milk
¼ cup orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbs light corn syrup
3 Tbs honey
6 Tbs unsalted butter

Vegetable shortening

Directions:
1. To proof the yeast: dissolve the sugar in the lukewarm water, and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let it rest for 10 minutes.

2. Thaw the corn kernels in the microwave, and then puree in a blender. Let cool while the yeast is proofing.

3. Combine the dry ingredients in a deep bowl, and once the yeast is done proofing, combine all of the wet ingredients (except for the shortening), pureed corn, and yeast. Knead for 3-4 minutes or until a slack, medium-soft dough is formed.

4. Cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 1 ½ hours at ~70°F.

5. Lightly grease a 9x13” pan, your hands, and a sharp knife with the shortening.

6. Gently deflate the dough and cut it with the greased knife into 16 equal pieces. Carefully shape them into rolls by pulling the dough smoothly into a small knot on the bottom of the roll. Place in the greased pan, evenly spaced and not touching.

7. Cover the rolls and pan with the plastic wrap and let them rise at 70°F for another hour.

8. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

9. Bake the rolls for 25-27 minutes, or until golden-brown on the top.

10. Remove the rolls and let them cool for 5 minutes before trying to cut into them.

Wheat Rolls

Mmm, insect producty...

These rolls have it all. Flavor. Fiber. Insect product. Guaranteed to please anyone who possesses a keen intellect, discriminating palate, and – need I even say it? – superlative personal odor. Plus they’re darn easy.

Wheat Rolls
From King Arthur’s Whole Grain Baking.

Ingredients:
1 cup (8 oz) lukewarm water
2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
½ tsp white sugar
¼ cup (2 oz) orange juice
4 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and left at room temperature to soften for an hour, preferably
3 Tbs honey
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp salt
3 Tbs potato starch flour OR potato flour OR ½ cup dried potato flakes
¼ cup nonfat dry milk*
Vegetable shortening

Butter.  Did I mention butter?

Directions:
1. Proof the yeast by dissolving the sugar in the lukewarm water and then sprinkling the active dry yeast on top. Let sit for 10 min. until foamy. If you have instant yeast, do not despair! For you can skip this step.

2. Combine all of the dry ingredients while waiting on the yeast, then add the yeast and other wet ingredients. Stir together and then knead by hand for approximately 4 minutes, or until you have a smooth, medium-soft dough. Cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a warm (~70°F**) place for approximately 1 ½ - 2 hours. It’ll be puffy but it probably won’t have doubled in bulk.

3. Using the shortening, lightly grease a 9x13” pan.

4. Squeeze the dough carefully with your hands to deflate it, and transfer it out onto a lightly greased work surface. Keep the shortening on hand as you work – you’ll need to re-grease the work surface, and your hands, in the next step.

5. Grease your hands and a knife blade, then cut the dough into approximately 16 even small pieces.

6. To make traditional roll shapes, pull the dough into a small knot on the bottom of the roll. Place each roll knot-side down in the greased pan, spaced so that they are not touching.

7. Cover the pan with the plastic wrap again and return them to whatever warm, private place you have selected for them to reflect on their impending doom. Let them rise again for another 1 – 1 ½ hours, or until they are puffy and starting to touch each other.

8. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

9. Remove the plastic wrap and bake the rolls for 25 minutes, or until they are pleasingly brown on the top. Remove and let them cool for 5 minutes before you try to cut into them, or else they’ll tear in a most obnoxious way.

* Why nonfat dry milk, and not just a cup of milk? I’d be worried about leaving out regular liquid milk at 70°F for over 3 hours, unless you’re really into the whole bacteria culture thing.
** I like using the light in the microwave, myself, by setting the bowl in the microwave and then leaving the door just slightly ajar so that the light is on and it warms up the interior.

Whole Wheat Foccacia and Pesto Sandwiches

Or, two wrongs make a helluva right.

Truly, a sandwich of the gods.

Things I discovered with this foccacia recipe:
* No, that second set of slightly-less-whisky whisks that came with my mixer are not, in fact, a dough hook despite all fantasies to the contrary
* 1 cup is not ½ cup water, except in the non-Euclidean Lovecraftian geometry sense
* Sometimes yeast breads can still work out even when you’re totally making shit up

WARNING: Travel back in time and prepare the pre-ferment. Seriously. Otherwise, check out these sites for same-day foccacia recipes:
Eating Club Vancouver’s Foccacia
A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen’s Cornmeal Foccacia


Whole Wheat Foccacia
Adapted hastily and with moderate swearing from King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking.

Ingredients:
Pre-ferment:
1 cup (4 oz) whole wheat flour
1 cup (8 oz) water from the tap, heated for 20 seconds in the microwave to barely lukewarm
½ tsp white sugar
¼ tsp active dry yeast

Dough:
All of the pre-ferment
1 ¼ cups (10 oz) water, heated for 30 seconds in the microwave
1 ¼ cups (5 z) whole wheat flour
1 7/8 cups (8 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
¾ tsp active dry yeast
½ tsp white sugar
Additional flour for dusting
Extra-virgin olive oil

Topping:
1 onion, thinly sliced into rings
1 Tbs chopped fresh or dry rosemary
2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:
1. To prepare the pre-ferment: The night before, proof the yeast by dissolving the sugar in the barely warm water, and sprinkling the yeast on top. Let sit for 10 minutes at room temperature until slightly foamy, then mix well with the cup of flour in a deep bowl. Cover the top of the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature for 16 – 18 hours.

2. The next day, proof the additional yeast by dissolving the sugar in the water, then sprinkle the yeast on top. Let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes until slightly foamy.

3. Add the fresh yeast mixture to the pre-ferment, then add the whole wheat and all-purpose flours and salt. Mix vigorously by hand or with an electric mixer for 3 minutes to form a wet, slack, stretchy dough.

4. Cover tightly with the plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes at room temperature.

5. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Flour your hands, and fold it gently into thirds in on itself, like a business letter. Fold it again into thirds perpendicular to the original folding direction. Return to the bowl, fold side down, and cover again for 30 minutes.

6. Repeat the folding and let rise for 15 minutes.

7. Repeat the folding and press the dough into a lightly oiled 10x12” pan. Cover loosely and let it rise for 45 minutes at room temperature.

8. Slice the onion, and if making the foccacia sandwiches (recipe below), slice a large bell pepper into long thing strips. Toss the onion and bell pepper slices with just enough olive oil and spread out without touching on a baking pan. Pre-heat the oven to 425°F, and put the onion and bell peppers into the oven to roast for 15 minutes until it’s up to heat.

9. When the foccacia has finished rising, lightly flour your finger tips and gently dimple the surface of the foccacia. Lay the onion slices on top and sprinkle the rosemary across them. Drizzle the olive oil on top, letting some of it pool in the dimples.

10. Bake until it is a lovely gold color, approximately 18 minutes.

11. Remove and let cool for 15 minutes before cutting.

Pesto
Pesto adapted from Jack Bishop’s The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook.
Ingredients:
2 cups basil leaves, roughly torn
1 cup grated parmesan
3 Tbs pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, roasted lightly in their skins and minced
½ tsp kosher salt
4 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
Directions:
1. In a food processor (I recommend the Magic Bullet, for maximum processor-that’s-named-like-a-sex-toy value), give the garlic and salt a whirl until well minced and mixed. Add the pine nuts and process until roughly chopped.

2. Add the basil leaves a quarter cup at a time until processed into a fine, wet paste.

3. Scrape the leaves out into a bowl and mix with the grated parmesan and olive oil. Taste and adjust the level of salt and oil as needed. To store the extra pesto, keep it in a closed Tupperware container in the fridge and pour a light layer of oil on the top of it.

Foccacia Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 foccacia recipe, cut into sandwich-sized sections
Roasted bell peppers
1 medium tomato, sliced
4 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced
1 pesto recipe
Directions:

1. Slice a sandwich-sized rectangle of the foccacia into half. Layer the mozzarella slices on one of the open faces and toast briefly in a toaster oven or regular oven until the cheese has softened.

2. Spread the pesto evenly on the other half.

3. Press the tomato slices into the pesto and layer the roasted bell pepper slices on top. Add the other piece with the melted mozzarella. Ta-da! A 24-hour SANDWICH.

White Whole Wheat Naan

Why bake your bread when you can fry it in butter?

I can’t get over this semi-obscure King Arthur flour: white whole wheat flour! I’ve been subbing it in for all sorts of things: all-purpose flour, more all-purpose flour…and I think my dried-out whole wheat flour, once, because I leave my whole wheat flour out in a canister on the counter* as a warning to all other products that I can and will neglect them with wild abandon.

Anyway, what is this marvel of technology, this wonder of human ingenuity, this tidily-packaged bit of proto-dough delivered to your grocery by the Magical Flour Fairies? It’s hard wheat and thus high in protein, but unlike hardcore whole wheat (HWW) the bran doesn’t have the red pigments that give HWW its stronger flavor. However, it’s still a whole-grain and so it drives that source of daily happiness, personal contentment, and well-being: regularity.

White Whole Wheat Naan
Adapted from Julie's recipe derived from Simply Indian.

Ingredients:
½ cup warm water
2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1 large egg
¼ cup vegetable oil, plus extra for cooking
1 ½ tsp salt, divided
½ tsp wheat gluten (optional)
2 ½ cups white whole wheat flour, plus extra for dusting

6 Tbs plain whole yogurt

4 Tbs unsalted butter

In my house, you do as I say.  Butter that naan, boy!

Directions:
1. Dissolve the white sugar in the warm water, and then stir in the yeast. Let it sit for 5 minutes. It should start to foam; if it doesn’t, the yeast is dead. Toss it out with great solemnity, and try a non-yeast flatbread recipe instead**.
2. In a large bowl, stir the wheat gluten and ½ tsp salt into the flour, then stir in the egg and vegetable oil until dough starts to come together. Stir in the yogurt. Knead the dough in the bowl for 2 minutes.
3. Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and place in a warm (~70 °F), still environment. I use the microwave with the door slightly ajar, so that the light is on but the door still holds in its warmth. Let the dough rise for approximately an hour.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a thick cylinder approximately 8-10” long. Slice it into 6 same-sized cylinders. Roll the cylinders into spheres with your hands, sprinkle a pinch of salt evenly over ech, and then gently press them unto a flat circle with your palm, and roll them flatter with a rolling pin.
5. Melt the butter in a plate with a shallow rim.
6. Heat a skillet over medium heat. When hot, add in just enough vegetable oil to thinly coat the whole skillet.
7. To cook the naan, dunk each piece in the melted butter and let the extra drip off for a moment, then place flat in the hot skillet. After 45 – 60 seconds, flip the naan and let it cook an additional 30 – 45 seconds.
8. Pile the naan together on a plate with a (non-damp!) kitchen towel draped over them, to keep them warm.

These guys keep for a week and a half if you store them in a sealed container in the fridge. They’ll keep okay in a sealed container at room temperature for about two days, but beyond that you’ll start to see some mold.


References:
King Arthur White Whole Wheat


* Wheat flour should be stored in the freezer, taken out for periodic exercise, and never looked full in the face.
** Coming soon: white whole wheat pita!