These are the real Egg McMuffins! They are actual muffins with baked eggs in them. Not only are they tasty, but they are quick and easy to make in the morning. This all made possible thanks to the techniques from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, where you make a big batch of dough and the stick it in the fridge. Since the dough is pre-made, it is quick and easy to pull out a piece of dough and bake something up.
The directions are available on the book’s website. Here is my interpretation; To make baked eggs you simply pull out a piece of dough, roll it flat and then cut it into pieces. You place each piece of dough into the cup of a greased muffin tin. Here is where the fun starts and you can begin to add various ingredients. We were boring and just went for tomatoes and cheddar, but you could could get wild and add in bacon or ham. If you want to get really crazy, go for some spinach and feta. Once you have the oven pre-heated to 375, you bake the muffins for 15 minutes. Drizzle with a little melted butter…delicious!
I didn’t do the best job of rolling the dough thin, so the muffins turned out pretty big. There were no complaints though!
Every time one of our readers clicks on one of the links to Amazon and buys something, they kick me back a couple of cents on the dollar. It is not a lot at all, but after a while it adds up and soon I have enough to buy a book or two. One of the books I got was Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. This pick was mostly based upon the awesome website they setup for the book and the good reviews the book got.
The book is all based around recipes that are very flexible. With almost all of the recipes you make a big batch dough, let it rise for a couple of hours and then stick it in the fridge. During the week you can just pull off a piece of dough, shape it and then bake it. All of the recipes are focused around allowing busy people to make bread. Of course this means that you can’t pull off all types of bread, but there are a lot of varieties in the book. I definitely recommend picking up a copy, they go into a lot more detail on shaping loaves and a wide variety of recipes.
I made 3 loaves and a breakfast treat involving baked eggs. All of the loaves turned out great! It was a little tricky shaping the dough because it is very wet, but as long as you throw a good amount of flour down it is not too tough. I used corn meal to prevent the loaf from sticking to the peel, but apparently I didn’t use enough. It got stuck and my road loaf turned into a rectangular one as I wrestled it into the oven. I am going to stick with parchment paper. I also skipped the part about steaming, I am lazy like that!
6-1/2 cups unbleached flour, plus extra for dusting dough
Cornmeal
Directions:
Dough
In a large plastic resealable container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm (about 100 degrees) water. Using a large spoon, stir in flour, mixing until mixture is uniformly moist with no dry patches. Do not knead. Dough will be wet and loose enough to conform to shape of plastic container. Cover, but not with an airtight lid.
Let dough rise at room temperature, until dough begins to flatten on top or collapse, at least 2 hours and up to 5 hours. (At this point, dough can be refrigerated up to 2 weeks; refrigerated dough is easier to work with than room-temperature dough, so the authors recommend that first-time bakers refrigerate dough overnight or at least 3 hours.)
Loaves
(There are instruction on shaping loaves here. It may be a little tricky since the dough is very wet.)
When ready to bake, sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza peel or use parchment paper. Place a broiler pan on bottom rack of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and preheat oven to 450 degrees, preheating baking stone for at least 20 minutes.
Sprinkle a little flour on dough and on your hands. Pull dough up and, using a serrated knife, cut off a grapefruit-size piece (about 1 pound). Working for 30 to 60 seconds (and adding flour as needed to prevent dough from sticking to hands; most dusting flour will fall off, it’s not intended to be incorporated into dough), turn dough in hands, gently stretching surface of dough, rotating ball a quarter-turn as you go, creating a rounded top and a bunched bottom.
Place shaped dough on prepared pizza peel and let rest, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it in lidded container. (Even one day’s storage improves flavor and texture of bread. Dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in airtight containers and defrosted overnight in refrigerator prior to baking day.) Dust dough with flour.
Using a serrated knife, slash top of dough in three parallel, 1/4-inch deep cuts (or in a tic-tac-toe pattern). Slide dough onto preheated baking stone. Pour 1 cup hot tap water into broiler pan and quickly close oven door to trap steam. Bake until crust is well-browned and firm to the touch, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven to a wire rack and cool completely.
Pickling is a funny pursuit. It starts with simple pickles of just cucumbers, like refrigerator pickles, and then moves on to more complicated techniques, like fermented sour pickles. Eventually you start pickling other vegetables like radishes and zucchini. I am know unable to resist a good pickle or pickling recipe.
When I came across this recipe for pickled peppers on Michael Rhulman’s blog, I had to give it a try. The recipe is from a new book by Michael Symon, Live to Cook, which Rhulman collaborated on. Of course when I say, “Give it a try,” I mean leave out half the ingredients either because I couldn’t find them or I was too cheap. Even after I butchered the recipe, it still came out great.
Instead of using expensive sherry vinegar, I used cider vinegar. I also couldn’t find a wide variety of peppers at Safeway so I ended up just going with Jalapenos and cherry peppers. Oh, and that Marojam? I left that out as well. And guess what…the pickles still came out great. This is a very robust recipe that can stand up to even me hacking at it. As long as you get the vinegar, sugar, salt and water ratios right it pretty much can’t fail.
I liked the cherry peppers the best. The sweetness and fruitiness of the brine works perfectly with the cherry peppers. The first batch I made was perfect. I could eat a couple of peppers without them being too hot. The second batch was a lot hotter though and I had no problem breaking a little sweat. I guess the same variety of pepper can have a range of hotness. Batch three is going to be a plethora of peppers I picked up at the farmers’ market. They weren’t labeled, so I am hoping none of them are extremely hot.
Choose a colorful variety of chillis, fresno, jalapeno, banana, tomato, serrano—the thick fleshed peppers work best. The method is very simple; simply fill a jar with peppers, bring the pickling liquid to a simmer and pour it hot over the peppers. You can use them once they’re cooled but they’re best after they’ve been sitting in the pickle for a few weeks. They’ll keep for a long time–how long, I don’t know because I always use them up for I can find out.
Ingredients:
sherry vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
sugar
salt
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
4 sprigs of marjoram (I skipped it, I bet it would be good)
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
1 to 2 pounds chillis (or enough to fill whatever vessel you’re using)
Directions:
Place chillis in a jar and cover them with water. Pour off the water into a measuring cup. Note the volume, pour off half the water and replace it with vinegar. Add 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons salt for every three cups of liquid.
Combine your liquid and remaining spices in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, then let cool slightly.
Pour the pickling liquid over the peppers, screw the lid on and refrigerate. To use, slice into rings, chop or mince depending how you want to use them.
Lentils are a great bean to work with. They cook up in about 30 minutes, you don’t need to pre-soak them and they are packed with flavor. You have to keep an eye on them while they are cooking though. If you over cook them, they turn into mush. Green French lentils hold up a little better and stay firm. They maybe a little tough to find, I get them in bulk from our local Whole Foods. There are fancy French green lentils, known as lentils du puy, that are supposed to be amazing but I couldn’t find any locally.
The recipe comes from the Jose Andres cookbook that accompanies his TV show on PBS, Made in Spain. It is in one of the second season episodes, otherwise I would link to it on Hulu. Hulu has all of the season one episodes online, check it out if you haven’t already. For all you lazy people, I am going to embed an episode right here so you have no excuse:
One of the secrets of this dish is that you reserve the cooking liquid from the lentils, boil it down and then use it as part of the dressing for the lentils. The lentils are cooked with onions and garlic giving the broth a serious flavor boost! When you cook this down it is absolute goodness. Since the cheese is pretty salty, you can probably dial down the salt a little. It came out a little salty when I used the full amount.
Vadeon cheese maybe a little hard to find. Our Whole Foods had it. It is worth the hunting though, it is a great blue cheese with a lot of character and a respectable amount of funk. If you can’t find it, a Stilton will also work. This dish can be served warm or cold.
Lentil Salad with Vadeon Cheese
Ingredients:
For the salad
1 cup dried French green lentils
1/2 onion
1/2 head of garlic, papery outer skin removed
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup diced, seeded plum tomatoes
1 shallot, diced
For the dressing
3 tablespoons Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 tablespoons chopped chives
2 ounces Valdeon cheese, crumbled (Stilton or other good-quality blue cheese may be substituted)
Directions:
Add the lentils, onion, garlic, bay leaf, olive oil, salt and 4 cups water to a medium-deep pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the lentils until tender, about 20 minutes.
Strain the lentils, reserving the cooking liquid. Pour a little of the liquid over the lentils to prevent them from drying out. Discard the onion, garlic and bay leaf.
Return the remaining cooking liquid to the pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Boil until it has reduced to 1/2 cup, about 20 minutes. Set the reduced liquid aside to cool.
Add the lentils, peppers, tomatoes and shallot to a mixing bowl.
For the dressing: Whisk the olive oil vinegar, salt, and reduced lentil cooking liquid together in a separate mixing bowl.
Pour the dressing over the salad, sprinkle with chives and mix well. Divide the salad among 4 bowls and garnish with the cheese.
One activity we did while on our Summer vacation in Massachusetts was berry picking at Nourse Farm in Deerfield. We just missed strawberry season, but there were plenty of blueberries and raspberries for the picking (and the tasting). We walked away with 2 quarts of blueberries and 2 pints of raspberries…for way less then you’d pay in a supermarket. And, the best part about going berry picking is sampling along the way!
So, what to do with all the berries? One night we made blueberry crumble, and it was really good.We hunted around for a cobbler, crisp or crumble recipe that we liked. Finally, we found this one from the Food Network. What’s the difference between a cobbler, crisp and crumble you ask? Well, this post does a nice job explaining it, and provides links to some other recipes, but the basic difference is in the topping. For a cobbler, the topping is more biscuit-like, while for a crumble (British name) and a crisp (American name), the topping is sweet.
The recipe calls for apple cider or orange juice, but we didn’t have either, so substituted it for lime aid. We had toasted oats on hand, but not toasted almonds, so we just left those out.
Lots of left over berries led to some berry shortcake one night, blueberry pancakes one morning, and lots of berries for cereal. Gotta love Summer!!
Blueberry Crumble
Ingredients:
Filling
1 teaspoon unsalted butter, softened
2 pints blueberries, or any other berry
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup apple cider or orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoon unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1/2 cup toasted oats
1/2 cup chopped, toasted almonds
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly butter an 8-inch square baking dish.
For the filling: In a bowl, add the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, cider, and vanilla. Carefully mix the ingredients together with a spatula, leaving the blueberries whole. Set aside while you assemble the topping.
For the topping: In the bowl of a mixer, add the flour, sugars, and butter. Using the paddle attachment, incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks mealy or crumbly. (This can also be done by hand.) Stir in the oats and nuts.
Pour the filling into an 8-inch square baking dish and evenly distribute the topping over the fruit. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling. Cool slightly and serve warm.
