Sun-dried Tomato & Olive Tapenade| Reflecting Back

Every New Year, rather than making resolutions, I take a moment to reflect on what I’ve done in the past year, and I was flipping through my agenda. In the summer before freshman year, I bought this agenda that I’d intended to use for the school year. It was a fairly plain one, about the size of a novel and covered in camel colored canvas with a little pocket on the front. Little did I know that I would end up using this agenda for the next three years, and how attached to it I would become.Three years later, the pages are covered in my hand writing and random little scribbles, the spine is no longer a spine but rather a mass of tape, and I had doodled on the cover so much that it looked like I had attempted to color the entire thing with my pen. Looking at the ratty old thing I still managed to call an agenda, it amazed me how far I had come in the past three years and how fast that time had passed. I remember as freshman I thought I wouldn’t make the next four years. I’m now a junior in high school, taking my SATs and ACTs and getting ready for college.

Moving along to the food portion of this post, these are sun-dried tomato and Kalamata olive tapenade crostinis. Sun-dried tomatoes are one of my favorite things, and they play a huge part in this tapenade. They’re slightly salty and mostly sour accented with a tinge of sweetness, the olives add a deeper flavor to the mix, and the brie complements it all by adding an earthy but creamy undertone. I really love the complex mix of flavors in this, and this has definitely become one of my favorite snacks to come home to after school. Plus, it’s really quite a simple recipe, and great for parties (you can definitely make this ahead of time, and just make sure you have a loaf of bread nearby!).

Sun-dried Tomato & Kalamata Olive Tapenade

adapted from this blog

NOTE: I actually feel like this tastes the best a day after it’s made, because the garlic’s flavor is absorbed much more into the tapenade.

Ingredients

• 1 loaf bread (I used ciabatta, french bread is great too!)
• Brie Cheese (typically comes in whole wheels, I reccommend one 5 inches or more in diameter)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 oz. Kalamata Olives coarsely chopped
• 7 oz jar of sundried tomatos (note: if you have tomato halves it will be approximately 21 tomato halves, and  be sure to julienne them!)  (Note: if your tomatos are preserved with oil, drain the oil out of them as best you can, and don’t worry about the tapenade being greasy, it will be fine!)

Instructions

1. Slice your bread into 1.5 cm slices.
2. Toasting the bread: preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and toast the bread until the edges start becoming golden, approx. 5-8 minutes.
3. Put the sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and garlic cloves into the food processor. Pulse until coarsely chopped. Be careful not to over pulse the mixture or you might end up with a sort of a paste.
4. To serve place a slice of brie on the bread( the slices of brie should be able to cover the entire piece of bread), add 1/2 tablespoon of tapenade on top, and serve :)

Enjoy!
~Deepshikha

Spelling | Banana Bread

I’ve always had issues spelling banana.

It’s just the fact that I never quite remember when I need  to stop with the na’s.

It’s also the reason I lost my second grade spelling bee, which was really quite embarrassing .

But the good thing was, that my embarrassment eventually made me want learn from my mistake, and I finally taught myself how to spell bananas through a song, which I still sing to this day whenever I need to spell bananas.

Heck, I still sing it when I even hear the word bananas, and it was what I stood around singing while mixing the batter for this banana bread.

In my family banana bread is something that everyone loves.

However it’s very rare that you will ever find a piece in my house, because its consumed

within two days of baking it, and we just love it.

My only qualm with it: its very dense and heavy, which i hated for a while. Until I found this recipe.

This particular recipe is lighter than most banana breads which I absolutely love. It still has a good amount of density in it, so its not very fluffy and cake like, essentially hitting an equilibrium in terms of bread density.

The recipe:

Banana Bread:

adapted from food network

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 overripe bananas
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup walnuts broken into small pieces ( not too small or you won’t be able to taste it, but if you make the chunks too big, you will have trouble cutting the bread into proper pieces later) can also be substituted with other nuts i.e. pecans, or if you don’t want nuts they can be removed or replaced with chocolate or butterscotch chips.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a medium size bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl, and leave them off to the side.
4.  With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together for three minutes to make a fluffy/light mixture (in a medium sized bowl)
5.  Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla; beat well and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
6. Mix in the dry ingredients.(don’t over blend!)
7. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas that were set off to the side before with a rubber spatula.
8. Pour into a greased and lined baking pan, and bake for approx. an hour, make sure to check with a tooth pick(insert a tooth pick into the center and see if it comes out clean).

Note: the bread will develop a crack down the middle, which supposed to happen :)

Cool the bread completely before slicing

~Dee

Meringue Coffee Cake | Japan

From my childhood, I remember that every few years or so there would be some sort of catastrophe. There was Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, the huge tsunami and Haiti. Now, there’s Japan, and I personally think, that this recent disaster has been one worst ones of them all. It was a huge triple blow to Japan. First the earthquake and its aftershock, then the tsunami, and now the impending disaster of  a possible nuclear explosion.

When I saw the before and after shots, I was astonished by how much Japan had been affected by all of this. It’s absolutely devastating, especially for the people there.  It’s truly heartbreaking. I feel the need to do something, and I’m thinking about doing maybe, a bake sale for Japan? I’m not sure how that will work out, but I’ll try to do the best I can.

On a happier note: I made the daring  bakers challenge, and I loved it!

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

This coffee cake is so delicious soft and most definitely not the way I expected it to be. When I saw the addition of the meringue in this, I was surprised. Usually when baked, meringue turns hard, however when I took it out of the oven and cut myself a piece, I saw that instead of a hard sugary layer inside which I’d expected, there was a warm,  and utterly soft inside with a layer of almond chunks, chocolate and white chocolate.

The texture of the cake was amazing, and it was very similar to the texture of brioche, a cross between a cake, and bread. The chocolate inside added wonderful taste to it and the almonds gave a subtle nutty crunch. This is absolutely amazing, when it was straight out of the oven, and just as good when toasted a little afterwards.

Bon appétit!

Filled Meringue Coffee Cake
Makes 2 round coffee cakes, each approximately 10 inches in diameter
The recipe can easily be halved to make one round coffee cake

Ingredients
For the yeast coffee cake dough:

• 4 cups (600 g / 1.5 lbs.) flour
• ¼ cup (55 g / 2 oz.) sugar
• ¾ teaspoon (5 g / ¼ oz.) salt
• 1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons / 7 g / less than an ounce) active dried yeast
• ¾ cup (180 ml / 6 fl. oz.) whole milk
• ¼ cup (60 ml / 2 fl. oz. water (doesn’t matter what temperature)
• ½ cup (135 g / 4.75 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 large eggs at room temperature

For the meringue:

• 3 large egg whites at room temperature
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup (110 g / 4 oz.) sugar

For the filling:

• 1 cup (110 g / 4 oz.) coarsely chopped roasted almonds
• 2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar
• ½ c. white chocolate
• ½ c. semisweet chocolate

Egg wash:

• 1 beaten egg (or if you simply happen to have egg yolks lying about, those work too!)
• Cocoa powder (optional) and confectioner’s sugar (powdered/icing sugar) for dusting cakes

Directions:

To Prepare the dough:

1.       In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ½ cups (230 g) of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

2.       In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted.

3.       With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended.

4.       Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

5.       Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together.

6.       Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 ½ cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.

7.       Place the dough in a lightly greased (I use vegetable oil) bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes. The rising time will depend on the type of yeast you use.

8.      Prepare your filling:In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar for the filling if using. You can add the chopped nuts to this if you like, but I find it easier to sprinkle on both the nuts and the chocolate separately.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:

1.       In a clean mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds.

2.       Then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque.

3.       Then add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the Coffee Cakes:

Note: I made little individual pockets, but it was hard to fill these and in the end they didn’t have enough filling. So I recommend taking a look at the other shapes the other bakers made here(just click on any link you want and check it out :)). Below I’ve included the instructions for a wreath like shape, which most bakers did.

1.       Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2.       Punch down the dough and divide in half.

3.       On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle.

4.       Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges.

5.       Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the cinnamon-sugar followed by half the chopped nuts and half of the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate).

6.       Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

7.       Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 ½ cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

8.      Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

9.       Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.

10.   Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

11.    Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

12.    Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks.

13.    Allow to cool.