Baking

Pita Bread

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Servings:
8 pitas

Ingredients:
3 cups flour, plus 1/2-3/4 cup more as needed
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar or honey
1 packet instant yeast
1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tbsp. olive oil, vegetable oil, butter or shortening

Directions:
Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar.  Add the olive oil and 1 ¼ cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon.  All of the ingredients should form a ball.  If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water.

Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes.  As the dough is mixing, continue to add flour, a tablespoon or two at a time, until the dough clears the sides of the bowl and is tacky but not sticky.  (I add a significant amount of flour, so don’t be afraid to keep adding more until you reach the right consistency.)

When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the dough around so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it will be easier to shape.

While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 450°. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while it is preheating. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.

After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between ¼ – 1/8” thick – 6 inches in diameter. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently, you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5-10 minutes before trying again.

Place discs on a lightly greased baking sheet or parchment paper and let rise, uncovered, until barely doubled in thickness, about 30-45 minutes.

Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes. If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, but it isn’t necessary.

Source: http://annies-eats.com/2008/08/10/pita-bread/

Desserts

Key Lime Pie Bites

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Servings

Makes about 24 cake bites
Time: 2 hours

Ingredients
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
Lime Butter Cream frosting (recipe belows)

white chocolate almond bark
green sprinkles

With the back of a spoon, mix together the graham crumbs, sweetened condensed milk and buttercream until a thick “dough” forms, making it easy to shape into a cake ball.
*Quite honestly, I just used my hands to mix. A spoon is a nice idea, but not really easy to adequately stir everything.

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop the ‘dough’ and roll each bite. Placed on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and put in the fridge to chill.
*Using a cookie scoop helps get evenly sized cake bites. You can use tin foil instead of parchment paper too. In fact, you can probably not use either and I bet they wouldn’t stick to the pan. Hmmm, I should try this idea 😉

Chill for 1-2 hours in the refrigerator, or 20 minutes in the freezer.

Dip into white melting chocolate. Top with sprinkles (or graham cracker crumbs).
*I melt my chocolate in a double boiler over the stove. I add about 1/4 cup vegetable oil per 10 ounces of chocolate to help thin it out. This helps the chocolate get smoother looking bites.

 

Lime Butter Cream Frosting

3 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3 limes, zested
3 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

Place the butter in a small mixing bowl. Beat for about 1 minute. Add the sugar and lime zest. Beat until frosting is nice and creamy. Add the sweetened condensed milk to thin out the frosting if it’s too thick (it will be too thick). Set aside until ready to use. If you chill it before use, bring it to room temperature before mixing with the graham cracker crumbs.

Source: http://www.fatgirltrappedinaskinnybody.com/2011/09/key-lime-pie-bites/

Cambodian

Mama King’s Egg Rolls

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Ingredients:

  • 3 ½ pounds of Pork loin or lean pork
  • 3 packages of bean thread noodles individually wrapped
  • 4 medium size carrots
  • 3 4oz or 1lb cans of water chestnuts
  • 2 onions
  • 3 or 4 packages of menlo all purpose egg roll skin wrappers
  • 5 Tablespoons of Chicken Powder
  • 5 Teaspoons of black pepper
  • 3 Tablespoons of sugar
  • 6 Tablespoons of oyster sauce
  • 10-12 dried shitake mushrooms (optional)
  • 2 Egg Whites beaten

Unwrap the 3 packages of bean thread noodles and place them in hot water for a few minutes.  Dont over cook, let them sit until they are al dente.  Once done strain and rinse noodles with cold water.  Let them sit and drain for 30 minutes.    Cut into 1 inch sections using scissors.   Put aside for later.

Optional (if you decided to use shitake mushrooms):  Place dried shitake mushrooms in hot water for one hour.  Strain and squeeze the mushrooms.  Remove the middle of the mushroom and stem.  Grind the remaining mushrooms in a food processor.

Peel and finely chop onions.  In a medium size pan pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Enough oil to cook onions.  Stir fry onions on high until they are clear.  Strain the onions and allow to cool.

Peel and cut carrots into 1 inch sections and course chop them in a food processor.  Put the chopped carrots into a bowl and set aside.

Strain 3 cans of water chestnuts.  Rinse with water to remove the taste of metal.  Place sections of water chestnuts in the food processor.  Pulse the water chestnuts 3-4 times.  Medium course.  Place in a bowl.  Spoon sections of the water chestnuts in a towel and squeeze the remaining water out of them by twisting the towel.

Combine the water chestnuts and carrots (if used shitake mushrooms too).  Then mix in the cut bean thread noodles into the bowl.  Add 2 tablespoons of chicken powder, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of pepper to the vegetables.  Stir the vegetables and seasonings together by hand.  Set aside.

Stir the cooled onions and ground pork together by hand.  Add 2 Teaspoon of pepper, 3 Tablespoons of chicken powder, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 6 tablespoons of oyster sauce.  Mix ingredients by hand.

Combine the vegetables and meat by hand and place in a bowl or zip lock bag.  Allow to sit in the fridge for 1 hour before rolling egg rolls.

Take the egg roll skins and cut off the uneven edges with scissors.  Peel the egg roll skins apart and place in a zip lock bag to keep fresh.

When ready to roll the egg rolls take 2 egg whites and place into a bowl and beat them well with a fork.  Set aside.

To assemble the egg rolls, place a wrapper onto your work surface with one corner pointing towards you.  Place about 3 tablespoons of filling or desired amount onto the bottom third of the wrapper.  Fold the bottom corner over the filling and roll firmly to the half way point.  Fold the left and right sides snugly over the egg roll, then continue rolling until almost closed.  Brush remaining part with egg white and seal the egg roll closed.  Repeat with remaining egg roll wrappers, covering finished egg rolls witha tower or plastic to keep from drying out.

If you want to freeze egg rolls:

Pre Heat deep fryer to 375 degrees.  Blanch egg rolls in fryer.  Place 5-8 egg rolls in deep fryer (depending on size of fryer) cook egg rolls for 1-2 minutes or until edges or light brown.  Place egg rolls on cooking sheet and put them in the freezer.  Once frozen you can place the egg rolls in a zip lock bag or air tight bag to freeze for future use.

If you want to cook egg rolls:

Pre Heat deep fryer to 375 degrees.  Place 5-8 egg rolls in deep fryer (depending on size of fryer) cook egg rolls until golden brown about 5-7 minutes.  Drain on paper towels.

All things food