For grilled pizza you’ll need to make a special kind of dough that can stand up to the high heat and also not fall through the grill grates.  The version below is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated – it’s tender and chewy and contains a hearty amount of olive oil to keep it from sticking to the grill.

Top the pizza with just about anything you want – except a traditional tomato sauce.  I don’t recommend a wet sauce as it will make the crust soggy.  Instead try some chopped tomatoes, pesto or roasted pepper puree.

Grilled Pizza Dough

2 ½ c bread flour
2 t sugar
1 t salt
1 t instant yeast
1 c water, room temp
3-4 T extra virgin olive oil

Combine first four ingredients in food processor or bowl of standing mixer.  With machine running slowly pour in water, then olive oil.  Process or mix until dough forms into a ball.

Grease a large mixing bowl with additional olive oil and add dough to bowl, tossing to coat with oil.  Allow dough to rise until doubled in size, approximately 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Gently press dough to deflate, then divide into 4 equal balls of dough.  Press each dough ball into a disk.  Spray 4 pieces of plastic wrap with nonstick spray and then loosely wrap each dough disk in wrap.  Allow dough disks to rise for an additional 20-30 minutes or until small bubbles form.

Preheat grill to 350-400 degrees.  Stretch dough disks into 9-12 inch pizzas rounds.  Don’t worry if the pizzas don’t come out perfectly round – they will taste great no matter what they look like.  Place two pizzas on the grill and at a time and cook until top is bubbly and bottom has dark grill marks, approximately 3-5 minutes.   Remove from grill and place on a platter grilled side up.

Brush grilled side of pizzas with olive oil and then top with cheese, meat and veggies of your choice.  Return pizzas to grill (uncooked side down) and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes until bottom is well browned and cheese on top is bubbling.

Remove from grill and sprinkle with fresh herbs (basil or oregano or parsley.)  Cook remaining 2 pizzas by following instructions above.

Let pizzas rest for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Related Posts

1. Homemade Pizza
2. Cedar Plank Salmon

Why not start your day with a true dietary powerhouse like flax? It’s packed with heart healthy omega-3 oils, powerful antioxidants called lignans, and fiber. Even the folks at WebMD think flax is a super food and you should trust them, they’re doctors. And the best part about flax is that when ground into meal it practically disappears into batter. Alright, I admit that you have to sift it to ensure no big pointy seeds remain, but that’s really all it takes to add a lot of nutrition to a baked good.

Try these muffins made with flax, fruit and nuts for a heart healthy start to your day. The dieticians out there might complain that muffins contain sugar and white flour, but hey, it has to be something you actually want to eat to get the benefits of the flax!

Cranberry Walnut Muffins with Flax

1 c raw walnuts
¾ c sugar
1 c whole wheat flour
1 ½ c all purpose flour
½ c flax meal
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
2 t cinnamon
2 eggs
1 ½ c milk
½ c oil
1 t vanilla
1 ½ c cranberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Generously spray muffin tin with nonstick spray.

Roughly chop walnuts and divide in half.

Place sifter or fine mesh strainer over large bowl. (Yes, sifting is important for this recipe to ensure that no sharp bits of unprocessed flax end up in the muffins!) Measure the dry ingredients into sifter: sugar, flours, flax meal, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Sift dry ingredients together and discard any large bits of flax that remain.

In a separate bowl beat eggs until homogeneous. Add milk, oil and vanilla and beat until combined.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir gently just until combined – pockets of flour are not a problem. Add cranberries and half the walnuts to the batter, stirring gently to incorporate. Be careful not to over mix or muffins will become tough.

Scoop batter into muffin tin and top batter with remaining nuts. Recommend using a large spring loaded ice cream scoop to evenly portion the batter. Bake muffins at 400 for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly before eating.

This recipe can be easily adapted to use blueberries, cherries or chopped apples instead of cranberries. You can also replace the walnuts with almonds, hazelnuts or pecans.

Related Posts

1. Great Granola From Your Pantry
2. Retro Cooking: Cranberry Jell-O Mold
3. Chocolate Cherry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies

You have to have a ton of patience to make bread and preserve jam. It’s very time consuming but worth the investment (and the clean up!).

I’ve been making the same walnut bread for the last few months as I got frustrated making challah, a traditional braided egg bread served on the sabbath. There is an art and science to making challah and quite honestly it never tastes as good as my sister-in-law’s. At one point I asked her what she does to make her challah so yummy. She said to use King Arthur’s flour and Land O’Lakes unsalted sweet butter, and that I should check the temperature of my oven with a thermometer to make sure it was accurate. I did all this but it still wasn’t as moist, sweet, or delicious.

As I was flipping through my Cooking Light I noticed a recipe for sweet challah but also a walnut bread which is braided (similar to challah). As a plus, walnut bread is healthier!

The first time I made the walnut bread it was gobbled up within 24 hours. It’s delicious toasted or immediately after slicing. In my first bite I realized this is how I’d like my challah to look and taste — moist and delicious with a golden brown crust that’s hard to stop eating. Even the end pieces are hard to resist.

As I was making my second batch, I started researching how to make jam. During the berry season I stocked up on fruit from the farmer’s market and froze it. I thought strawberry mint jam would be a great, refreshing combination so I combined several different recipes to come up with a jam that is both sweet and tart. I noticed that all the recipes required 1 to 3 cups of sugar. I couldn’t imagine using that much so I reduced it to 6 tbsps and added honey. To balance the sweetness, I added in the zest of a lemon and it’s juice for tartness. It was the perfect combination.

While making jam is pretty easy, preserving it is precise and time consuming. This is how I did it:

1. Prior to starting the jam, I washed the preserving jars in hot, soapy water. Once they were dry I put the jars and lids in boiling water for 20-25 minutes to sterilize them (an easier alternative is to put the jars and lids face up on a baking sheet — not touching — and put them in a 175 degree F oven for 20-25 minutes). If you are using the boiling method for sanitizing the jars, you need to use a sterile set of tongs (place the tongs in boiling water for a few minutes) to grab the jars and lids out of the water. Allow the jars and lids to dry and cool completely before using.
2. Once the jam came to room temperature, I filled each glass jar to the top, leaving about 1/4 inch or less (you may want to consider using a funnel). I wiped the edges to make sure there wasn’t any jam outside or on the rim. I affixed the lid and screwed on the top.
3. I then placed each glass container in a pot with water to cover about 2 inches above the tops. I brought the water to a boil and let it boil for 10-12 minutes. I used sterile tongs to lift the jars out and place them on a rack to dry and cool.
4. Within 12-24 hours the tops of the lids should make a popping sound and become concave which will signal the jars are sealed. To test this you can unscrew the top and try to pull off the lid. If the lid doesn’t lift off then you did it right! My husband and I were on the couch when we heard the first pop from the kitchen and immediately high-fived each other. It’s amazing how the little things make us happy!

Next time around, cinnamon sugar apple walnut bread and strawberry mint & basil jam…stay tuned!

Walnut Bread
Adapted from Cooking Light
- makes two loaves -

1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup boiling water
1 pkg dry yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp)
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
6 tbsps honey
3 tbsps canola oil
20.25 ounces AP flour (about 4 1/2 cups), divide
9 ounces whole-wheat pastry flour (about 2 cups)
2 1/2 tsps salt
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
Cooking spray

1. Toast walnuts. Chop or wait until after pulsing oats in next step and use same food processor. (Cooking Light doesn’t say to toast the walnuts but I think it intensifies the flavors).
2. Place oats in food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Combine oats and 1 cup boiling water in medium bowl and let stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3.  Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water in the bowl of stand mixer and let stand for 5 minutes.
4.  Add buttermilk to oat mixture, stirring to combine. Stir in honey and oil. Add the oat mixture to the yeast mixture and mix with dough hook until combined.
5.  Weigh 13.5 ounces of AP flour (about 3 cups) and 9 ounces of whole-wheat pastry flour. Combine flours with salt.
6. Add flour mixture to buttermilk mixture. Mix dough on medium speed for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Add remaining 6.75 ounces AP flour 1/4 cup at a time to prevent dough from sticking. Add walnuts and mix at medium speed until just combined.
7.  Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise in a warm place free from drafts for about an hour or until it’s doubled in size. You can test it by gently pressing two fingers into the dough and if the indentation remains the dough has risen enough.
8. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
9. Punch dough down and divide in half. Divide each half into 3 equal portions.  Working with 1 portion at a time (cover remaining dough to keep from drying), shape each portion into 14-inch ropes. Place ropes lengthwise on baking sheet (with silicone pad or coated with cooking spray). Pinch ends together on one end and braid ropes, pinching the loose ends together to seal. Repeat with the remaining dough. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.
10. Spritz top and sides of loaves lightly with water from spray bottle. Bake on center rack of oven for 24-28 minutes until golden brown (I shortened the cooking time from the original recipe as I like the inside to be soft). Remove and cool on wire rack.

Strawberry Mint Jam

2-3 pints of strawberries
6 tbsps sugar
6-8 tbsps honey
Zest from 1 lemon and it’s juice
1/2 – 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint, to taste

1. Sterilize glass preserving jars as detailed above. Please review important USDA preserving guidelines by visiting the National Center of Home Food Preservation website.
2. Place strawberries in a heavy pot and turn burner onto medium heat until fruit starts to produce liquid. Mash in pot. Add in sugar, honey, lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix, turn down heat to low and add mint.
3. Stir occasionally and watch fruit as it becomes thicker. I left it at a simmer for about 1 1/2 hours. Turn off burner once consistency you like is achieved. Cool and place in sterilized mason jars. Place domed lids and tops on jars and sterilize as detailed above and the preserving website. Once domed lids become concave, store and enjoy for up to a year.

Related Posts

1. Banana Bread, redux
2. Au Currant: Irish Soda Bread
3. Last of the Bunch

Except, it turns out, the currants I have in my pantry aren’t really currants at all, though they have been called that in the U.S. for the past hundred years or so.

“Zante currants,” as the bag reads, are really small, black grapes grown in Greece and then dried. In other words, they are raisins. “Real” currants are berries that grow on bushes, primarily in the UK and now more recently, in New England and upstate New York.

Currants have been outlaws in our country since the early 1900s! Tree killers. Fortunately, it seems that problem has been resolved and the currant is making a comeback stateside.

Actual currants are tart and treated like berries and so wouldn’t be used in a recipe like Irish soda bread. They are used fresh or frozen to make jams, tarts and cordials (and crème de cassis). Reading about this made me think of that crazy Anne on P.E. Island … and a bunch of wasted British kids tottering about the island during WWII. Then I realized that “cordial” originally meant a non-alcoholic fruit syrup. Today we seem to like our “cordial” with a little vodka.

The following recipe uses Zante currants or raisins to make a delicious breakfast or tea-time quick bread (think: scones).

Irish Soda Bread
- 2 small loaves -

4 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 ½ t baking soda
1 t salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/3 c. buttermilk*
¼ c. butter, melted**
1 c. Zante currants or raisins***

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix together dry ingredients. Mix together wet ingredients. Stir wet ingredients and Zante currants/raisins into the dry ingredients until it’s moist and sticky. Turn out onto a well-floured counter top and knead until smooth, adding flour as needed so that it doesn’t stick to your hands or the counter.

Divide dough in half and form each half into a ball. Put on a greased cookie sheet. Mark an “X” with a knife across the top of each loaf. Bake for 40 minutes until golden and the loaf makes a hollow sound when you tap on it.  Serve warm with butter and jam.

* If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, make some by adding about 1T lemon juice to each cup of milk. Let it sit about 10-15 minutes to curdle.

** I was out of butter, due to holiday baking, so I used canola oil, which worked perfectly fine and actually is healthier for you.

*** If your raisins are hard/too dried out, put them in a bowl and just cover with boiling water — let them soak a few minutes and drain.

Related Posts

1. Banana Bread, redux
2. Walnut Bread with Strawberry Mint Jam
3. Last of the Bunch

Fresh from the oven

The other day, when I was making the maple cream pie, I saw them. Three forgotten bananas sitting in the fruit basket threatening to go rogue on me. It was just a matter of time. The oven was already on and I had already managed to make a mess of the kitchen counter, so there was really no reason not to make banana bread. The bananas weren’t going to get less brown if I waited.

But then comes the question: What kind of banana bread to make? There are millions of recipes. Really. I’ll wait right here while you go search Google for “banana bread recipe” and find that there are “about 11,000,000 results.” Give or take.

What sets a good cookbook or website apart from the internet hordes is the credibility of the recipes. The author’s credentials, a prior experience, or a recommendation from a knowledgeable friend may offer a reason to trust the source. In this site, I’ve already got all of those combined, so I figured I’d try the banana bread recipe Jenn posted here.

Anyone can use Google. I’ve found some great recipes that way. I’ve also found some not-so-great recipes that way. In fact, I have an entire file of banana recipes on my computer that I put together, years ago, when a similar batch of near-gone bananas sent me in search of a recipe. I’ve made a couple decent banana breads from those recipes, but nothing compelling. I don’t know or have any reason to trust the random web sites I stumbled across.

Jenn’s recipe came out perfectly. No surprise there. The only thing I changed was that I topped it with pecans instead of walnuts. In my world, the best a walnut can ever hope to be is a bad pecan.

Tip: As you can see in the pictures, I lined the pan with a parchment paper sling. Even if you butter the pan or coat it with non-stick spray, it can still be difficult to get the bread out sometimes. Run a sheet of parchment along the bottom of the pan and up two sides, and you’ll have an easy way to pop your bread out of the pan. Works great on any kind of bread, cake, brownies, etc.

Came right out of the pan

Related Posts

1. Last of the Bunch
2. Walnut Bread with Strawberry Mint Jam
3. Au Currant: Irish Soda Bread

I soon learned that my friend, who doesn’t cook, felt overwhelming guilt when he let the bananas go past their prime – and so instead of throwing them away, stashed them in the freezer where he could rationalize at least they had the potential to be used for something.

I sent him a bunch of banana recipes. Which I doubt he even looked at. I wonder, when he moved,  if he left a banana-rific surprise for the landlord.

Anyhow, since then, I’ve revised my pan de platanos recipe to be a little healthier, a little more stick-to-the-ribs by substituting yogurt for sour cream, olive oil for butter, adding oatmeal, and just using a handful of walnuts on top. I usually freeze the last, overripe banana from the bunch, and when I have four to five of them, zap them in the microwave and bake up a couple loaves.

Banana Oatmeal Walnut Bread
- makes 1 loaf -

2 eggs, beaten
¾ cup sugar
4 T plain, non-fat yogurt
1 T olive oil (use a mild flavored one)
3-4 small, ripe bananas, mashed
1 ¾ cups flour
½ cup oatmeal
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
Walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Using a whisk, beat the sugar into the eggs until frothy. Add yogurt, olive oil, vanilla, mashed bananas and mix together. Mix dry ingredients in another bowl and then add to wet. Mix well.

Grease and flour a loaf pan. Pour in batter. Dot the top of the loaf with walnut pieces. Bake about an hour until golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean. After cooling 10 minutes or so, run a knife along the edges to loosen the bread from the pan, tip out, and cool on a cooling rack.

Related Posts

1. Banana Bread, redux
2. Au Currant: Irish Soda Bread
3. Walnut Bread with Strawberry Mint Jam