Yummy (Healthy) Cookies

Ok, so I know what you're thinking—can cookies really be both “yummy” and “healthy”?  Yes!!  I’ve finally found the intersection of yum and health, a veritable venn diagram of baking if you will.

A few weeks ago we had a girls night and I wanted to make something that everyone could eat so I was searching for a gluten free recipe.  Oftentimes gluten free baking requires all sorts of special flours and somewhat hard to find (and typically expensive) ingredients.  Because gluten is a binding agent, when you go gluten free, you have to use all sorts of other things to get the baked good to stay intact. Sometimes homemade cookies and cakes that are gfree can fall apart and don’t have the familiar consistency one thinks of when dreaming about a baked good. 

But I am here to tell you that I’ve found a recipe that bucks this trend!  Of course these tasty treats come from 101cookbooks.com, my go to source for all things healthy and tasty.  I added a few of my own touches to Heidi’s recipe.  If you’d like to spice things up as I did, go ahead and add some mashed up apples (I had some overripe little guys on hand and they were begging to be used).  Also, I added in some nutmeg.  The recipe calls for coconut oil with a possible substitution of olive oil but I used the olive oil and it came out splendidly, so don’t worry about going out to get the coconut if you don’t have that. Also, I made my own almond meal by throwing some almonds in a chopper, it’s super easy.  As Heidi notes, the consistency of the raw cookies will be quite different than you are used to, but no worries, this is to be expected.  Just keep an eye on them and go for the smell test (if they smell done, they probably are!).  Here is Heidi's recipe and my photos follow:

(Heidi's) Nikki's Healthy Cookies
You can use unsweetened carob, or grain sweetened chocolate chips, or do what I did and chop up 2/3 of a bar of Scharffen berger 70%. I sort-of shaved half the bar with a knife and then cut the rest into bigger chip-sized chunks. You can make your own almond meal by pulsing almonds in a food processor until it is the texture of sand - don't go too far or you'll end up with almond butter. And lastly, the coconut oil works beautifully here, just be sure to warm it a bit - enough that it is no longer solid, which makes it easier to incorporate into the bananas. If you have gluten allergies, seek out GF oats.

    3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1/4 cup coconut oil, barely warm - so it isn't solid (or alternately, olive oil)
    2 cups rolled oats
    2/3 cup almond meal
    1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
    1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    6 - 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips.The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough, don't worry about it. Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes. I baked these as long as possible without burning the bottoms and they were perfect - just shy of 15 minutes seems to be about right in my oven.

Makes about 3 dozen bite-sized cookies.

I hope you enjoy these yummy and tasty treats--as the holidays approach it's nice to find sweets that don't pack too much of a fatty punch.  Mmmmm healthy and tasty, who knew?!

 “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.” Dorothy Day

I may have mentioned in past posts that my friend and roommate Heather has been preparing to leave NYC for the Peace Corps in Latin America (with a stop in her hometown of San Francisco).   A week ago, she left the city, a place where she has lived for the last 8 years and the environment in which (in her own words) she has grown from a girl to a woman.  I feel so blessed to have had Heather as a roommate over the past two plus years.  She sure is a whirlwind of energy—a force of nature, as I like to say.  You know those people who are full of big dreams and wishes and idealism but never really seem to know how to set out to accomplish them?  Well my dear friend is definitely not one of them!  I’m excited for her to begin this new chapter and I can’t wait to see the adventures and excitement that await her.

My other roommate Danielle and I threw Heather a going away party for friends, but to say goodbye to our little Bronx community, we did something that felt special but not out of the ordinary.  A few days before she left, we hosted Heather’s last community dinner.  As we try to do almost every week, friends from our building and neighborhood gathered together to eat, drink, and talk.  We shared stories from work, commented on politics and issues in the neighborhood, talked about spouses and children and the babies we are waiting to meet (there is a bit of a baby boom in the building).  In short, we were present to each other for a few blissful hours.  A few things we did were a little bit out of the ordinary for community dinner though—we toasted Heather and she toasted us.  

It was very moving and I can’t think of a better way to formally close out Heather’s time at Rochambeau.

For the farewell dinner, we decided to make pizza.  Heather cannot eat gluten and she had some gluten free pizza mix lying around just begging to be made.  For those who can eat gluten, I made the with-gluten dough.  Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I have to say that this was the best dough recipe I’ve ever made!   I’m not the one who stretched it our baked it—we delegated tasks and I was assigned to putting the dough together.  So I can only take credit for finding the recipe and mixing up the ingredients, but this one is a winner that I will use over and over!

I found this recipe on 101cookbooks.com, my old standby site, but I was pleased to read that this is actually based off a recipe in The Breadbaker’s Apprentice, a book my mom got me almost a year ago!  So it comes from my favorite recipe website and a beloved book, all rolled into one!

The recipe via 101cookbooks (from Peter Reinhart's book):

White Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Recipe

This is a very adapted version of Peter Reinhart's dough using white whole wheat flour. There are a few corners that I'm in the habit of cutting with this dough, all reflected in the following recipe instructions.

4 1/2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cups water, ice cold
a few tablespoons chopped herbs (optional)
Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting

Stir together the flour, salt, and instant yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer. By hand stir in the oil and the cold water until the flour is all absorbed. Add the herbs. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl (to me it looks like a tornado). Add a touch of water or flour to reach the desired effect. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky.

Transfer the dough to a floured countertop. Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces and mold each into a ball. Rub each ball with olive oil and slip into plastic sandwich bags. Refrigerator overnight.

When you are ready to make pizza (anytime in the next few days), remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator at least 1 hour before making the pizza. Keep them covered so they don't dry out.

At the same time place a baking stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees (you can go hotter, but I like the results I get at 450). If you do not have a baking stone, you can use the back of a sheet pan, but do not preheat the pan.

Generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal and get ready to shape your pizza dough. Uncover or unwrap the dough balls and dust them with flour. Working one at a time, gently press a dough round into a disk wide enough that you can bring it up onto your knuckles to thin out - you should be able to pull each round out to 12-inches or so. If the dough is being fussy and keeps springing back, let it rest for another 15-20 minutes. Place the pulled-out dough on the prepared sheet pan, and jerk the pan to make sure the dough will move around on the cornmeal ball-bearings (you don't want it to stick to the pan).

Add your toppings (less is more!) and slide the topped pizza onto the baking stone. Bake until the crust is crisp and nicely colored. Remove from the oven. I always finish with more freshly grate parmesan and a small drizzle of good quality extra-virgin olive oil.

Makes six 6-ounce pizza crusts.

And some pictures!

From Sharon's Kitchen

Hello!!  Summer is in full swing here in the Bronx and boy is it hot hot hot!  I was lucky enough to be traveling for work during the heat wave last week.  I spent some time in Chicago and since I was staying at a hotel, I got to enjoy the luxury of air conditioning!  I'm back in New York and it is slightly cooler than last week, but not by much.  When I was in O'Hare airport catching up with my Mom, she was telling me about some pesto bread she had made that weekend.  We both decided it would be great to have the recipe on the blog, so here she is--my first guest blogger!  Straight from Sharon's kitchen:

A Taste of Summer

 

Nothing speaks "Summer"to me like the scent of basil.  Whether it's pinching a leaf as I weed my herb garden and enjoying its strong scent lingering on my hands, or chopping cups of basil leaves with garlic cloves and olive oil to make homemade pesto, basil "fumes" wafting through my kitchen means summer truly has arrived.

 

Each year  a few basil plants find a home in the garden, but last year I realized you can never have too much basil!  Pesto takes A LOT of basil; and if you want some leaves to dry as well at the end of the growing season, it's a good idea to plant at least a row.   I planted two rows this spring, and voila! I am happily overrun with basil.

 

What to do with all of this abundance?  I made pesto and froze it (after enjoying it on whole-grain crackers with thin slices of sharp cheddar).  Then I happened to rediscover a book on herbs my husband gave me for my 39th birthday (eeek - that was 20 years ago!), and found a recipe for pesto bread.

 

From start to finish, this baking project was a joy.  I love baking bread anyway, and combining the pleasure of kneading the yeasty dough with spreading the heady scented pesto, then shaping the loaves knowing there was a hidden surprise inside and smelling them as they baked was a lot of fun - just what summer is supposed to be!  And of course, slicing that first warm piece fresh from the oven - well, if you're a bread baker you know what I mean... Here's the recipe I followed for both pesto and bread.  Enjoy!  And I wish all of you a wonderful summer!

 

Pesto 

 

2 cups fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup parsley leaves

1/2 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

 

Puree the basil, parsley, oil, garlic and salt in a blender or processor.  Stir in the cheese.

 

Pesto Bread (2 loaves)

 

1 and 1/2 packages active dry yeast

2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees)

1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sugar

6 to 7 cups all-purpose flour

cornmeal for the baking sheet

 

 

 

Dissolve yeast in the warm water in a large bowl and add the salt and sugar.  Stir (I use a whisk).  Set aside for a few minutes until foamy.  Using a wooden spoon, beat in the flour one cup at a time (I found 6 cups to be plenty), until a smooth dough forms.  Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured board or counter and let it rest for a few minutes.  Knead until the dough is elastic.  Place in a lightly oiled bowl (I just scrape out the large bowl I already used and oil it), cover it with a towel and set in a warm place until doubled (about 1 and 1/2 hours).

 

Now turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, punch it down (that's one of the fun parts!), and knead it again.  Divide the dough in half.  Pat out 2 rectangles, each about 10 by 12 inches, and spread a thin layer of PESTO over each, leaving about a 1-inch border all around.  Starting with the long side, slowly, roll each rectangle into a cylinder and shape into a loaf.  Let the loaves sit on the board to rise for another 5 minutes.

 

 

 

Sprinkle a baking sheet (I use a large pizza stone, which yields nice hollow loaves) with cornmeal and place the loaves on it.  Brush each loaf with cold water and place in a COLD oven.  Place a pan of boiling water (a cake pan will do) in the bottom of the oven and turn the oven to 400 degrees.  Bake the bread for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the loaves are browned and sound hollow when rapped on the bottom (my oven runs hot and the loaves were done in under 30 minutes, so be sure to check them before 35 minutes is up).  Place the bread on a rack to cool slightly, serve warm for the most intense flavor.  Try to have just one piece!

 

 

 

 

What do you think of my guest blogger?  I can't wait to try this recipe...I guess I better get to my garden soon and pick some basil!

 

Snow Day Cookies

Technically this recipe is not called Snow Day cookies--but that is how I will always think of them.  I had a snow day Friday.  Yes, that's right, a snow day!  I slept in a little bit, made these cookies, some soup and then watched a great movie, it was lovely.  I'd definitely been itching to make these cookies for a while now and I'm glad I did.  Not only are they very good, but they are also gluten free so my roommate can eat them!  Now of course this recipe has a story, so let me start at the beginning.

About a year and a half ago, I found a recipe in New York Magazine called "Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies".  I cut it out and put it in my recipe binder, the place where recipes I love or recipes I really want to try all live.  Then a few weeks ago, I was perusing 101cookbooks.com and saw Heidi's Chocolate Puddle Cookies which looked very familiar.  Someone in the comments section of the website wrote that they they saw this recipe in NY Magazine a while back.  After I saw that, I went and found the old torn out recipe and lo and behold, they are the same cookie!!  Ok, well the recipes are a tiny bit different--Heidi's calls for 4 cups of sugar while NY Magazine's recipe calls for only 3.

Friday I had the time and energy to tackle this recipe--and tackle is the operative word here!  This is the type of recipe that requires care and attentiveness.  If you click the link above to 101cookbooks, you can read Heidi's recipe and her lengthy explanation about the temperamental nature of this cookie.  Basically, the cookies are finicky because they don't have flour.  You need to pay attention to two things--consistency of the batter and baking time.

Notes about consistency: Depending on the size of the eggs you use, you need to alter the amount of powdered sugar you use.  If you use jumbo size eggs, you will need to add more sugar, if you use smaller eggs, use less.  So I would advise starting with 3 cups of sugar (what the NY Magazine recipe calls for) and then if the batter is super runny, add more sugar about 1/3 a cup at a time.

Notes about baking: I added in a dash of cinnamon which I think gives them a nice flavor.  I also substituted pecans for walnuts since I had a bunch left over from Christmas baking.  I think they turned out really well with the nut substitution.  Spoon the batter out onto the parchment paper about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons per cookie and space them far apart since they spread.  Keep watching them once they go into the oven--although both recipes say to leave them in 12-16 minutes, I ended leaving them in for about 18-20 since they were still raw.  It is tricky to know when the cookies are ready, but here are the basic stages--first they will spread out, then they will get cracks on top but they will still have puddles of batter in the middle.  Once they sort of puff up on the top and middle and almost have the consistency of meringues, they are ready to come out.  Make sure you let them cool for a very long time.  You'll get the hang of it after a while and believe me, it is worth it.  The cookies are crunchy on the outside and soft and sort of gooey on the inside.  My roommate told me they tasted like brownies, which I think is a good description.

They are the perfect treat for a snow day, but would be perfect any day.  Enjoy!!

Cincinnati is more than chili, but the chili is pretty good.

"Life is partly what we make it and partly it is made by the friends we choose."

I had a fabulous time in Cincinnati.  Although the last leg consisted of canceled flights, plane de-icing, and taking a train instead of a plane at one point, I refuse to let the craziness of the journey home color the wonderful extended weekend I had.  What a joy to spend time with Carin, Chris, her parents, and their animals.  It was a nice mix of relaxing and sightseeing and of course, there was plenty of eating!!  Remember when I said I rarely eat meat? That went right out the window, especially since I had to try the famous Skyline chili.  Oh and of course trying it meant eating it on top of a mini-hot dog.  I can't remember the last time I had one of those, but laden with meaty chili and cheese, it tasted pretty good!  Here I am, eating a "Coney" (after coney island I believe).

 

I decided to make chili tonight not only to honor Cincinnati, but because while I was there, Carin gave me her friend Kate's fabulous recipe for vegetarian chili which Kate made while I was visiting St. Louis a few years back.  I've honestly had that chili in the back of my head since then.  There are just countless recipes for chili--I've made oodles of different versions over time but I've never truly loved a recipe.  I think this particular recipe will become my go to chili recipe because it is so unique.  Also, I made some cornbread that I've been wanting to try from 101 cookbooks called "Firecraker Cornbread" which I have eaten before but never made.

Both recipes are fairly straightforward.  Follow the above link to find Heidi Swanson's cornbread.  I followed it as is, except I didn't have buttermilk on hand (who ever does??!!) so I substituted plain yogurt.  You'll just fall in love with it--yes, Jiffy mix is super easy, but this bread isn't all that difficult and the taste is worth it!  

 

 

And here is Kate's recipe.....you need to play around with the spices a lot since it's not exact.  The spice amounts listed here are a starting point--play around with it and add more as you go and according to what your tastes are.  OH! and also there is a secret to the recipe--beer.  Today all I had in the fridge was Sam Adams Cherry Wheat (which actually tastes nice) but you can use whatever you like.

(Yes that is basil from my Mom's garden, bottled with love)

Kate's Great Chili:

  

3 celery stalks

1 green pepper, 1 red pepper   

2 medium onions

a bunch of garlic

First chop up everything and saute them in a little oil in the bottom of a big soup pot.  When they look like they're getting soft, add the following to the pot:

2 16 oz. cans of dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed 

2 16oz. cans of white (great northern) beans, drained and rinsed

2 32 oz. cans of chopped tomatoes

2 tsp cumin

3 tbsp. chili powder

dash cayenne pepper

2 tsp basil

2 tsp oregano

2 bay leaves

1/4 c cider vinegar

 

 Let this mixture simmer with the lid on for about an hour and a half, then add a can or bottle of beer, and simmer for half an hour more.  Throw in some whole cashews just before you serve it, as well as some cheddar cheese.

Enjoy!!

Waving Goodbye to '09

As this year draws to a close, I can't help but pause to reflect on the ups and downs it has contained for me.  Echoing my first post here on this blog, it was the exploration of my hobbies/pastimes/loves that served to sweeten the pleasures of this year and temper the tough times for me.  Everything posted here (and much more!) has kept me sane and joy-filled.  I would never have survived the difficulties of unemployment or the challenges of graduate school that in many ways defined my 2009 if I did not continually take up cooking, baking, reading, crafting, and other things I love.  One of my New Year's resolutions is most certainly to continue this exploration of these things that I am passionate about--in other words, I hope to never forget love.

Go ahead, use real butter!

I've been thinking about butter lately.  Well it IS the holidays after all!  Ok so maybe not everyone immediately thinks holidays=butter.  But then again, not everyone loves to bake.  Oh and some people bake with butter substitutes.  Not me, I absolutely love butter.  And I'm not talking land o' lakes butter--I mean good, yummy butter.  I love to use Kate's Homemade Butter because it's made with fresh organic milk by a small family farm.  At Whole Foods it is one of the cheaper good butters.  I understand why people don't like to use butter in everything or eat it on everything; many of my family members have very high cholesterol and need to use butter substitutes.  That being said, I think maybe Americans have become too scared of butter.  I'm not a nutritionist, but if Julia Child (who loved butter and used it in absolutely everything!) lived up into her 90s, I think it can't be the bad guy many people think it is!

Adventures in Pumpkin Flan

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone!!  I hope yours was as relaxing as mine.  I enjoyed some time in Connecticut.  It was nice to be out of the city.  I never thought the suburbs were quiet until I lived in big cities.  Now every time I am getting ready for bed in the room I grew up in, the quiet is so pervasive it is almost difficult to sleep. 

Over the holiday, I had the pleasure of introducing one of my roommates (who is originally from San Fransisco) to a Connecticut Thanksgiving with my family.  Since she is allergic to gluten, we decided to make a special gluten-free dessert to share.  Lo and behold, the December issue of Martha Stewart Living had a recipe for Pumpkin Flan.  The actual recipe comes from the book Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn. 

 The result was a beautiful, spicy, sweet creation I think you will enjoy. 

 Now, don't let this seemingly fancy dessert fool you!!  Here is the recipe, it is actually quite simple and your guests will be more than impressed. 

1/2 c granulated sugar

3/4 c light-brown sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup cooked pumpkin puree

1 1/2 c half-and-half or cream (I used low fat half-and-half)

5 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

-Preheat oven to 350. 

(Ok now comes the only complicated part, more on this below)

-Put the granulated sugar in a pie plate, set on the center rack in the over, and bake until the sugar is caramelized 8-12 minutes.  Swirl to cover the bottom of the pie plate with the caramel.

-In a large bowl, whisk together the rest of the dry ingredients.  Then stir in the pumpkin.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, and vanilla.  Then blend the egg mixture into the pumpkin mixture.

-Set the pie plate with the caramel bottom in a large roasting pan then pour the custard over the caramel.  With care, pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to reach halfway up the side of the pie plate.

-Bake until custard is set, about 1 hour and 10 minutes then cool and set in the fridge to chill.  Once it has cooled off, run a knife around the outside edge of the flan and invert it onto a plate. Scoop out and serve with whipped cream.

 So, about that complicated part....carmelizing the sugar took much much longer than the 8-12 minutes from the recipe.  I'm not sure if the oven needed to be higher or if the recipe was wrong.  I also have to admit that I wasn't feeling well while we were making the recipe, so a lot of the work fell to my roommate.  She probably knows more about what happened with the sugar.  Anyhow, eventually it worked out but it was tricky so just note that when you try it.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!! 

A Recipe for Challah: Commitment, Patience, and Faith

Monday was Yom Kippur.  I don't know much about Judaism, but from friends who are Jewish I do know that the holiday is the holiest day of the year for Jews.  It means fasting from sundown of the night before to sundown the day of the holiday.  But it is more than just fasting--it is a day of atonement, of prayer and meditation about your sins against God.  I take that to mean you think about those places in your life where you feel far from God.  I like the idea of setting aside a day to be intentional about that.  And while I did not fast, I did help prepare the meal that my roommates and I shared with neighbors in order to break the fast.  My contribution was the challah bread.  I love challah!  It is a relatively easy bread to make and it looks oh so beautiful when it comes out of the oven.  It is slightly sweet and egg-y tasting.  Whenever I make bread, I get a lot of compliments because I think it seems like a very daunting task to create homemade bread.  I think many people would love to make bread from scratch but are a bit intimidated. Or perhaps people do not have quite as much free time as I do! 

If you have never made bread, you should try it.  I love everything about it.  I love getting covered in flour, I love the physicality of the process--all that kneading, and I love way the smell of flour and yeast permeate the entire kitchen and apartment.  Really I think there are just three main requirements to making bread: commitment, patience, and faith.  The rest is just following directions!

Commitment is very important since making bread can require that you allow the dough to rest and rise two or more times.  You see, making bread is really more of an event, or a process, than regular cooking or baking.  And it must be intentional and planned--I don't usually make bread on a whim--because of the time it takes.  All along you must be patient, you simply cannot rush the rising or any other step along the way.  You must follow all the directions and wait (and wait and wait in some cases) for that dough to rise.  Most importantly though, making bread is an act of faith.  No one taught me to make bread.  I just saw lovely recipes and decided to jump head first into those accompanied by beautiful glossy photos of perfect loaves.  I simply had faith that somehow it would all work out.  Lo and behold, it usually does.  Of course there have been failures--of course there were times I killed the yeast and the dough didn't rise.  But more often than not, I have success.  It isn't always a perfect looking or tasting result, but I guess that's life! 

The recipe I used came from the Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen (of the Moosewood Cookbook, I have 3 of her books, I love them!!).  I altered it slightly because I ran out of white flour, but I think I will keep the substitutions in the future because it turned out lovely.  Here are some pictures of the process and product and the recipe is below:

 

 

2 1/2 c warm/room temp water

1 package active dry yeast

1/2 c honey

4 tbsp canola oil

3 eggs (1 of those is for the crust)

1 tbsp salt

6 c unbleached white flour

2-3 c wheat flour

• Place the water in a very large bowl (you want the water to be warm but NOT hot, you want it to feel comfortable on your skin, if it is too hot it will kill the yeast).  Sprinkle in the yeast and then use a whisk to mix in the honey, oil, 2 eggs, and salt.
• Start adding flour one cup at a time.  I started with the white flour.  At first you can just whisk it in and eventually, around the 3rd cup, you need to start using a wooden spoon.  Keep stirring!!  As you start adding in the wheat flour, you will need to start using your hands to stir.  If after adding 2 cups of wheat flour the dough is extremely sticky you should add another cup of wheat flour....but I think it is better to err on the side of less than more flour since you will add in more as you knead the dough later on.
• Cover the dough to let it rest.  I cover it with an oiled piece of plastic wrap and then put a dish towel on top.  Let it rest in a warm area.....since our stove top is somehow always a little warm, I put it in between the burners (make sure the burners are off though if you do that!!).  Come back in about 1 1/2 hours or when the dough is doubled in bulk.  (Hint:  if the dough is not doubled after this time, wait a while longer, remember the patience part!!  But the dough should at least look like it is starting to bulk up after around an hour and a half.  Have patience and come back every half hour until it looks like it is doubled in size.  If you are still having issues, you may have killed the yeast.....it could be time to start over, remember to use just warm not hot water in step one.)
• Punch down the risen dough and take it out onto a well floured surface.  Flour your hands very well and divide the dough into 2 then knead each half for 5 minutes....if the dough gets very sticky add a little to your hands and the dough.  Divide each half into thirds as you see in my picture above and roll out into a long snake-like log.  Aim for about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and then line them up next to each other and begin to braid!  Just keep crossing the outer pieces over the middle--just like braiding hair.
• Oil 2 baking sheets and place a finished braid on each.  Cover with some oiled plastic wrap and/or a dish towl and let it rest and rise for another hour until they bulk up again.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375.
• Beat the remaining egg in a dish and brush it over each braid once they are risen.  Bake for about 40 minutes (enjoy the wonderful smells!!).  You will know the bread is done when it sounds hollow if you tap the sides and bottom.  Take the loaves off the trays right away and put onto a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

Last time I wrote about the cheese straws I was planning on making.  They were so fun to make and people really liked them!  I took some pictures that are below to show the process of that, I highly recommend them.  Next post, I'll share a craft or a book (or at least a recipe that is gluten free)!

101 Cookbooks

 Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all. -Harriet Van Horne

I do not have 101 cookbooks (yet).  But I love cookbooks, for so many reasons.  I love the enormous weight of possibility they carry.  I remember the Christmas my parents bought me Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook very vividly.  I spent the entire car ride to my Grandparent's house thumbing through its glossy pages.  The thing weighs a ton and contains a ridiculous number of recipes--most of which are fairly challenging.  Yet I didn't feel daunted by the large book.  Instead I felt an exciting sense of possibility pulsing through my veins as I imagined myself, dusty from flour and confectioner's sugar, bringing to life Martha's one-bowl chocolate cupcakes, her buttermilk biscuits, zucchini bread, and apple pie.  Cookbooks are not so much about reality as they are the stuff of dreams, of fantasy, of potential. 

Needless to say, I've made only about 20 of the book's hundreds of recipes, but each one I make brings me (and hopefully those who eat it) so much joy.  Someday I will get around to making the more complicated recipes--the danish, the pecan rolls, the croissants.  In the meantime, I continue to buy cookbooks!  As hard as I try to stay away from bookstores (since I love them so much and cannot stop myself from buying books), today I succumbed to the temptation.  Once I entered the Border's at Columbus Circle, my feet brought me right to the food section.  I do not need another cookbook (I have somewhere around 15) but I believe it was fate that brought me there and I had to oblige.  As I was simply browsing the cookbook section, fully intending to exit without a purchase, I came across Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson. 

And here is where 101 Cookbooks comes in.  You see, the above two paragraphs were simply a lead in to my writing about her book and her website.  My friend Sara introduced me to Heidi only about a month ago by way of Heidi's website (which is what the title of this post refers to).  To say that it was love at first sight is no exaggeration!  I fell hard and fast for her collection of recipes, her pictures, her descriptions.  She also blogs a bit about her life in San Francisco and her world travels.  To have come across her book today without buying it would have been plainly ridiculous.  It was not an impulse buy I will regret.  Riding the D train back up to the Bronx, I poured over Super Natural Cooking and found myself even more delighted by this woman.  Her recipes use whole grains and are natural in the true sense of the word (not in the way agribusiness abuses it--as in diet soda is natural!!).

I have yet to make any of Heidi's recipes, I have only lingered over website and book, heady with that sense of possibility.  However, reality will set in as I attempt her Buckwheat Cheese Straws (although they will be whole wheat since Whole Foods did not have Buckwheat!).  Cross your fingers for me and if you are lucky enough to be attending Katie and Tiffany's housewarming party tomorrow, you just might get to sample them.