We're back!!!!

Hello people, welcome back to the Father Daughter Bakery! Sorry for the lack of posts recently, the FDB has been busy working off those pounds we gained after our last baking sessions (as well as being off in assorted far flung locations).

Anyway, today we have started back to our baking routine with some AMAZINGLY AWESOME buttery biscuits from the request of someone in our household- you know who you are ;). This recipe is from our favorite baking book, Crust and Crumb. This book has never failed us! Our result after hours in the kitchen?

Voila!

Golden, flakey deliciousness...

They're kind of like making croissants- you need to roll the dough and fold it to make layers. Doing this, the biscuits will become flaky and yummy.

We also made apple pies and other pastries with the same dough as the biscuits. This is the filling we put in it.

Everyone in the family thought they were great... even August!

Sometimes you drip, and have to eat off the baby...

Here is our recipe:

Buttery Biscuits and Awesome Pie Crust

1. 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2. 1 teaspoon salt
3. 2 teaspoons baking powder
4. 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
5. 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (cold)
6. 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (cold)

1. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a mixing bowl.
2. Chop the butter into pieces about the size of a quarter. Toss them into the flour and mix with your hands. Don't squish them, but rub the butter in between the flour and your fingers. Do this until the butter pieces are about the size of dimes, and are completely coated in flour.
3. Stir the buttermilk into the flour mixture until all ingredients are gathered into a dough ball.
4. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Lightly dust work surface with flour and roll dough in the flour. Dust counter again and roll out dough with pin into a rectangle 3/4" thick. Fold the dough into thirds give it a quarter turn and roll out to 3/4" again. Fold up the dough into thirds again.
5. Transfer dough to prepared pan and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 20 min.
6. Remove the dough and roll it out again to 3/4" thick. Fold into thirds and roll out one final time.
7. Use a knife to cut the dough into 2" triangles or use cookie or biscuit cutter.
8. Place the cut biscuits about 1" apart on parchment lined sheet pan. Cover them and refrigerate again for 20 min.
9. Preheat oven to 500°F. Brush with butter or buttermilk, place in oven and reduce heat to 375°F.
10. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned on top and golden all over. Allow to cool for 5 min and enjoy!!!

PS. We just improvised the filling for our pie crusts... apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract and a squeeze of lemon. YUM :)

XO,

the FDB

some more baking projects...

~challah, dill rye, and pizza~

"YUM-YUM-BAGELS"

A few days ago, we made bagels for the second time! The first time we made sourdough, this time they were yeasted bagels. They were a thousand times better this time maybe because we baked them for a longer period of time and we made the dough much better! Last time we also had trouble getting our proofed bagels from the trays to the boiling water because we did not grease the tray enough. The trick to perfect bagels is probably the quick poaching in boiling water.

Before we baked them, we put seeds on some of them. We made poppy seed, sesame seed, and plain bagels. I think that making bagels is one of our favorite projects to do, as it is very fun! The coolest part is boiling them because they poof up and get very fat. We got this recipe from Crust And Crumb baking book. If you want to try out these delicious bagels you will need to first make a poolish style sponge...here are the recipes for both the starter and the bagel dough.

Poolish Sponge

-this gooey sponge is an excellent starter for rustic breads, focaccia and pizza.

• 4 cups unbleached bread flour.
• 4 cups cool water
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast

1. combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl large enough to hold a dough after it doubles in size
2. beat or whisk for about 1 minute until well mixed
3. cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature for 3-5 hours
4. refrigerate the poolish, well covered, over night

Bagel Dough

• 1 cup poolish-style sponge
• 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 3 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
• 1 1/2 Tbs honey or 1 Tbs malt powder

1. measure out the sponge and let it sit for an hour before using to take the chill off
2. stir the yeast into the water and let it sit for 3 min
3. combine the sponge, flour, salt and honey in a bowl of an electric mixer with a dough hook. add the water-yeast mixture
4. if mixing by machine, mix for 1 minute on slow speed and 10-12 min on medium. if your mixer can't handle it then finish mixing by hand. the dough should be dense and fairly dry to the touch, smooth and stretchable
5. immediately cut the dough into 6-14 equal pieces depending on size of bagel you want. roll the pieces into balls, as if making dinner rolls. cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel and let them rest for 5 minutes
6. line a sheet pan with parchment paper and dust lightly with cornmeal or semolina
7. to form the bagels, poke a hole in the center of one piece of dough with your thumb. keep your thumb in the center, work the dough around expanding the hole until it's about 1 inch across. if it resists then let the dough rest for a few minutes.
8. place the shaped pieces about 2 inches apart on the prepared pan, enclose the pan in a plastic bag and let it rise for about 1 1/12 hours.
9. make sure the bag is closed and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.
10. preheat oven to 475. lightly grease a sheet pan or line it with parchment. sprinkle with semolina or cornmeal and mist with cooking spray. remove the pan of dough at least a half hour before you plan to bake. fill a large pot with at least 4 inches of water and bring it to boil.
11. working in batches, gently drop the pieces of dough into the water. try not to crowd the pan. the pieces should have enough room to float face up without touching.
12. after a minute flip the bagels over with a slotted spoon and poach them on the other side for another minute.
13. remove the bagels with a slotted spoon allowing all the water to drip back into the pot. place them 2 inches apart on the prepared pan and sprinkle with seeds or whatever you'd like.
14. bake the bagels for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. check them halfway through and rotate them front to back.
15. transfer the bagels to a rack or table top and let them cool for at least 30 minutes.

good luck and enjoy!!

the FDB

YUM!!!

Homemade Croissants et Pain au Chocolat

The FDB has started

to branch out into

breakfast pastries! We love croissants,

but have not found perfect ones in the area yet. So, we decided to try and make

our own. We found a recipe online (our favorite bread books do not have pastries in them), and then got to

work. The croissants are in the oven and it took about four hours of prep last night. I woke up at seven o'clock, so the whole process has taken six hours... We

hope it is worth it.After looking through many recipes, we found one and decided to start

with that. Then improvised. We changed it a bit by putting in way more layers of folding and

buttering than the recipe called for. We also found that we had to bake them twice as long as the recipe suggested. Maybe that is because our oven is not as hot as others.

Soooo tasty! We also decided to try brushing a little honey glaze on some of the croissants which just made them even tastier!!! We se

rved them with some of auntie Rara's homemade strawberry jam. Yum.

Next time we'll use even more butter to make them even flakier...

If you want to try out the recipe, here it is:

For the Dough

• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 
  
• 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 3 1/3 cups bread flour (more if needed)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• about a stick of unsalted butter

For pain au chocolat

• 9 oz bittersweet chocolate chips

For the egg wash

• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup whole milk

1. To prep the dough melt the 3 tbs butter in a small sauce pan then allow it to cool to room temp.
2. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water.
3. Place the flour, salt, sugar, milk and melted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix for about 5 seconds then add the dissolved yeast and mix for about a minute.
4. Knead by hand for about 30 sec, until dough is nice and smooth. Pat into a ball.
5. Place dough on lightly floured baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and let proof at room temp for 30 min.
6. Place dough on lightly floured work surface and roll it out to an 8 x 15 inch rectangle 1/4 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours allowing retardation and more flavor.
7. Remove the dough and place on floured work surface long side facing you. Apply softened butter to one third of the dough then fold that third over onto the second third. Cover this surface with butter and then fold the remaining third over the freshly coated area.
8. Roll this new smaller rectangle out again to about 8 x 15 and repeat this process. Remember, the more butter and the more folds the flakier the final product will be. We repeated this process three times, but some recipes only have one fold. It's really up to you! If the dough springs back too much then rest it in the fridge for 30 min and try again.
9. Wrap your buttery goodness in plastic again and rest in the refrigerator for a minimum of two hours.
10. Remove from fridge and place on floured work surface. Roll out to about a 10 x 30 inch rectangle long side facing you. Now we add more layers. Again fold in thirds and roll out. You can choose to butter these layers or not, repeating 3 times again. >butter=>yummy.
11. Wrap and let rest in fridge for 30 minutes again.
12. Finally roll this dough out to a 10 x 36 inch rectangle about 1/4 in thick.

For croissants

• Use a sharp knife to cut triangles at least 2 1/2 inches at the base with 10 inch sides. Lay each triangle with tip towards you and stretch slightly by pulling the to you. Roll gently from the base to the tip.
• Place rolled croissants on parchment paper covered baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
• Cover with plastic and allow to proof for about 1-3 hours until they have about doubled in size. You can then refrigerate them if you want to bake them the next morning.

For pain au chocolat

• Cut the dough into 3 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch rectangles. Lay each out in front of you and place about 1/2 tbsp chocolate in one third of the rectangle. Fold and apply chocolate to the next third. Make sure the final products are seam down so they don't open up to much when you bake them.

Baking!

• Gently brush egg wash onto your pastries, completely coating them.
• If you wish you can also add a honey glaze for added yummy goodness.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake for 10-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Good luck! And we hope you enjoy them as much as we did!!!

xo

the FDB

Hippie Bread!!!

This week, we worked on the basic Tassajara yeasted whole wheat bread. In the end, this
bread was very moist and delicious maybe from the olive oil and the honey.

The dough was not even a dough at first. It was more like a batter. We had to knead the "batter" for 15 minutes, which was extremely messy!!! As we kneaded it, we had to add more and more flour. Finally, it was a dough and not a pile of goop. Our hands

were covered in dough, and it looked like a creepy bread monster hand. Everyone who tried it loved it. Yum!

This dough is the starting point for all sorts of variations and additions. Try adding seeds, oats, nuts, dried fruit...

Here's the Tassajara wheat bread recipe- makes 4 loaves

I.

6 cups warm water

2 tablespoons yeast (which is a lot!)

1/2 cup of honey or molasses

2 c dry milk (optional)

7-9 cups whole wheat flour (substitute 2 or more cups unbleached white flour if desired)

II.

2 1/2 T salt

1/2-1 c oil

6-8 c additional whole wheat flour (for kneading)

Dissolve yeast in water.

Stir in sweetening and dry milk.

Stir in whole wheat flour until thick batter is formed.

Beat well with a s

poon (100 strokes).

Let rise 60 min.

Fold in salt and oil.

Fold in additional flour until dough comes away from sides of bowl.

Knead on floured surface for 10-15 minutes until smooth.

Let rise 50 min.

Punch down.

Let rise 40 min.

Shape into loaves.

Let rise 20 min..

Bake at 350 deg for one hour.

enjoy!!

The Father Daughter Bakery hopes that you enjoy this recipe!!! Have fun-

The F.D.B (Father Daughter Bakery)

..."we love bread"...

Homemade Pasta!!!

• Last night, we made fresh ravioli. We used all purpose flour and 6 eggs. At the end (and even before I ate it) I threw myself onto the bed and became as stiff as a log. That's how tiring it is. The ingredients are extremely simple so, if you want to follow, you probably won't have to do that much shopping. The only things that you need are as follows:

• 3-6 eggs (depending on how much pasta you want also you can double the amount you have to get more if you are serving a lot of people)
• 2 1/2 -5 cups of all purpose flour (also depending on if you use 3 or 6 eggs)
• some filling for the ravioli (we used a ricotta/parmesan/pesto mix that we made but you can use whatever you want)
• spinach (this is not necessary but you can use it if you want green ravioli)
• water for boiling
• a smooth large counter (we used our island table that has a wooden surface)

Now, I hope if you are following on, you have the ingredients! Then, we poured out the flour onto the table. We scooped a hole into the flour and made the hole into a "well" or a "volcano" opening. Once we had our well large enough, we cracked the eggs. We stirred the eggs in so that the whites and yolks were mixed together. After that, we mixed the flour in with the eggs slowly in the well so that everything catches onto the eggs. Then we kneaded! This is extremely tiring and probably one of the reasons that I am sore today!!! I kneaded for about 10 minutes and then my dad kneaded for about 2 minutes. Nope, he didn't need to go any longer than that because if he did there wouldn't be anything left of the dough... that's how strong he is!!! Now here's the super-triple-ultra-mega tiring part: rolling the dough out so that it is paper thin... and believe me, I fell asleep in 2 seconds after doing that! Okay once you have rolled it out, you need to start making the dough into shapes. To make ravioli, you need to cut a long strip and cut it into pieces so that you have a rectangle. You should get out a fork, your filing, and a small dish of water (the dish of water is to dip your fingers in when you are closing the ravioli). Put the filling in and close the dough. And, for extra secureness and look, use the fork to make little dents in the edges of it. Make as many as you want. Well, there you go and trust me, I made it sound easy!!!

The Father Daughter Bakery

P.S) IF YOU ARE HUNGRY DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!! We learned our lesson!!!!!!!!!!!

MRS. O'CALLAGHAN'S SODA BREAD

Tonight, we made an Irish soda bread. This bread is simple but dense. It definitely requires some strength. It is one of the faster breads to make because of the simple ingredients and the amount of time to bake it. When we baked this, we had to knead the dough for 10 turns or so to mix the ingredients. If you want to follow along with us, here's the recipe:

• A baking pan
• non stick spray
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup chilled margarine or butter
• and 2 cups of buttermilk

Stir until the dough has come together then knead for about 10 turns or so. Do not forget to preheat oven oven to 425 degrees F. Then lay out the dough into the baking pan with the nonstick spray. Put the dough into the oven for about 40 to 50 minutes.

xoxoxo,
The Father Daughter Bakery