Apple Cinnamon Bread

I made this for breakfast this morning. Recipe from here. A delicious breakfast and lovely way to use up leftover apples!

A Few Things: Rustic Vegetable Pie, Black Bread & Roasted Pumpkin/Parsnip Puree

I made this pie a few days back, but sadly it ended up getting devoured  before I could finish taking photos (slices). It’s quite a funny sort of ‘pie’ – definitely something in between a rustic pie/tart and a pizza, and incorporates potatoes into it too, surprisingly. That said, I have to say, it didn’t feel overly heavy and was quite a delicious and cheap meal. The recipe came from a NZ Home and Garden Magazine, I think – and was in my old recipe book of clippings. To save myself time, I decided to scan the recipe rather than type it out. A bit sloppy, perhaps but it saves time! I would definitely like to make this again and see if I can my base to explode like theirs does in the picture (I don’t know how they do that, they must have made it in summer).

Another day I made some black bread and served it with a roasted pumpkin and parsnip puree. Originally it was going to be soup, but essentially it was just a slightly thinned out puree of roasted parsnip and pumpkin with sauteed onion and garlic, and a wee bit of stock – so call it what you will! The black bread recipe came from 101 Cookbooks and once again gave me the opportunity to use my rye meal flour and molasses. It was slightly sweeter than I was expecting, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing!

Peanut Butter Cookies

I made these for my brother today as a welcome back to New Zealand present – and also because I am a total sucker for peanut butter cookie dough. This recipe came together effortlessly and deliciously, which was a bit help as today I was rushing around like a flea in a fit, trying to get my errands done before he arrived! I won’t copy the recipe out here because I haven’t changed it all that much, but it came from this site – which has served me well in the past. If you haven’t indulged in peanut butter cookies for a while, I seriously suggest you use this recipe as an excuse to do so! I am currently in the process of making black bread and roasted vegetable soup for tomorrow, so hopefully will be able to take some pics of those as well 🙂

Buttery Brioche!

Would you believe I starting making this at 4 am? Well I was awake because I had been watching the last of the gymnastics at the Olympics (yup, us New Zealanders have to stay awake to 3 am to be able to watch the gymnastics) though nevertheless I was pretty impressed with how this brioche came together. I didn’t have any brioche tins (a minor setback!) and had thought to use texas muffin tins, but I only had one tray of those so in the end opted for a loaf option. Why was I so determined to make brioche at this hour of the morning, you might wonder? Well it was not only my brother’s birthday, but he was returning from overseas after a long time and my parents were coming down to my city especially to pick him up, plus it had been my mother’s birthday recently as well….and she had requested brioche especially. And unfortunately, their eta at my house was 7 am, so….hence why staying awake for the gymnastics was a blessing.

Anyway, I definitely did look around at various brioche recipes, especially because I was looking for an alternative to brioche tins. In the end, I went with my trusted (and tired now, at least on this blog) bread book by Treuille and Ferrigno which OF COURSE had a brioche recipe. Using a loaf pan was one of their variants:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 tsp dried yeast

2 tbsp water

375 g white four

2 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

5 eggs, beaten

15 g butter, melted

175g butter, softened

egg glaze, made with 1 egg yolk and 1 tbsp water

1. Sprinkle the yeast into the water in a bowl. Leave for 5 minutes; stir to dissolve. Mix the flour, sugar and salt together in a large bowl.

2. Make a well in the centre and add the yeasted water and beaten eggs,. Mix in the flour to form a soft, moist but manageable dough.

3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until elastic, about 10 minutes. (I had to add a bit more flour here because the dough was quite wet, and it was ok.)

4. Grease the large bowl, with the melted butter. Place the dough in the bowl; turn to coat it evenly. Cover it evenly. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise until doubled in size, about 1 – 1.5 hours. Knock back and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

5. Use your hand to incorporate the softened butter into the dough.

6. Turn dough onto lightly floured work surface. Knead until the butter is distributed throughout, 5 minutes, then 5 minutes more. Grease a 1 kg loaf tin and then shape dough to suit a loaf tin. Put the dough in the prepared tin, cover the tin with a tea towel and leave to prove until the dough rises until 1 cm below the top of the tin – about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

7. Brush with egg glaze and bake for 35 minutes until golden and hollow sounding when tapped underneath. Turn onto wire rack to cool.

As usual, shitty pictures! What can I say, I am a bit embarassed about photographing my food in front of guests and hungry family members? But I’m pretty sure that anyone that ate this brioche could vouch for its good brioche-like consistency and flavour! I do definitely want to make this again, and I do want to try a more traditional type of brioche with tins, if I ever get my hands on them. I promise I will take better photos, ok?