Cranberry Muffins

This recipe is from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. It includes a base muffin recipe, with instructions for different fillings like berries, bananas, cheese, poppyseed, or oats. I’ve included cranberry, blueberry, and oat because those are the versions I’ve made so far. If you’d like the quantities for the others, leave a comment!

Muffins

• 1 3/4 c flour
• 1/3 c sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 c milk
• 1/4 c vegetable oil
• berries, oats, fruit, herbs, cheese, or other filling/enhancement

1. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make well in center.

2. In another bowl, beat egg and combine with milk and oil.

3. Add liquid mixture to well in flour, stirring until just moistened.

4. For cranberry muffins, chop 1 cup cranberries in half and add additional sugar. As they are so tart, it is best not to add extra berries. For blueberry muffins, add 1 cup whole berries, with however many extra you’d like. For oatmeal, reduce flour to 1 1/3c and add 3/4c oats.

5. Spoon into muffin cups/tray. Cover with Streusel Topping, which is made by cutting butter into dry ingredients:
• 3 T flour
• 3 T brown sugar
• 2 T butter
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

6. Bake at 400 degrees for 18 – 20 minutes or longer, depending on how quickly the Streusel becomes golden.

Vegetable Stock

• roughly 1-2 gallons water
• 5 or 6 carrots
• 3 or 4 sliced onions
• 2c sliced or quartered mushrooms
• 2 leeks
• 1c celery leaves
• 1 tomato
• 1-2t thyme, garlic powder, pepper, salt, coriander, sage, and/or your preferred spices

Add all ingredients to stockpot, heat for an hour or two on low/simmer. Strain and use right away for some soup, refrigerating some for use within a week or two. Freeze the rest as ice cubes.

Optional step to concentrate flavor: roast the hearty (carrot, onion, mushroom) veggies or heat/sweat before adding water.

Minimize waste by using the remaining veggies for a soup/dish that day, or make another round of less potent stock.

Basic Pasta

According to Ruhlman’s awesome book Ratio, which measures by weight, pasta is 3 parts flour, 2 parts egg.

1. Pour 1 1/2c flour (whole wheat is pictured, but white or any other kind works) onto the counter, make a well in the top and crack three eggs into it.
2. Knead with your hands until appropriately doughy (5-10m) and form into disc.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for at least a half hour.
4. Cut into 4 pieces and roll, cut, shape, and either cook or let dry overnight then store.

I’ve also used this recipe for cheese ravioli–it’s totally delicious, but the scraps from cutting the ravioli squares are hard to work with. This is probably why the resting period after kneading is included, but I found that adding a small bit of water (approx 1/2-1tsp, less with less dough) to the remaining pieces made it gel together better. It still didn’t happily reconstitute like cookie dough, and was much more difficult to knead, but it still made yummy ravioli. If you want to make something that will produce scraps like that, I’d suggest doing a maximum of 2 or 3 re-rolls or planning the day’s workout around your pasta making.
(full recipe: bit.ly/jkjXTp )

Bread

Basic Bread
• 4c flour
• 1 1/2c water
• 2tsp salt
• 1tsp instant yeast

1. Sprinkle yeast over surface of warm water. Pour over flour and salt. Mix, then knead until dough is smooth & elastic.
2. Continue kneading until it can be stretched without breaking. If you are making a flavored bread, you would add spices (garlic, rosemary, thyme, etc) or ingredients (olives, walnuts, etc) at this point.
3. Place in bowl covered with plastic wrap until it expands to twice its size (4-8h). It is ready when it won’t immediately spring back if you poke it.
4. Knead dough for a moment, then cover with towel and allow to rest 10-15m.
5. Shape dough and cover again with towel. Allow to rise/proof for an hour (or refrigerate overnight then allow to rise at room temperature for an hour and a half– I had to do this and it’s still delicious)
6. Preheat oven 450 degrees, then bake for 10 minutes before reducing temperature to 375 degrees and bake for 40-50m. If baking on a pan instead of within a Dutch oven, include a ramekin with 1c water in the oven for steaming, which produces a hard crust.

The above recipe is from Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio, which includes a lot of variations for different flavors. The core ratio is 5 parts flour : 3 parts water + yeast & salt. It’s basically the same as the no-knead bread posted below, but the kneading makes you feel like you are a professional Boulanger :)

No-Knead Bread

• 4c flour
• 2c warm water
• 1 1/2t salt
• 1/4t yeast

1. In large bowl, combine flour and salt. Add yeast and warm water. Mix.
2. Cover with foil and let sit for 18 hours
3. Shape dough (it’s quite sticky/difficult to work with so nothing too exciting)
4. Cover with towel and let sit for 2 hours 5. Bake at 425 for 35-45 minutes.

This multigrain boule above was made in an uncovered ceramic dish (w/a small ramekin of water to steam). It was really difficult to remove, so I prefer the ciabatta recipe from Food Wishes (http://bit.ly/YhsYYT) to the messier NYT recipe (http://nyti.ms/SuMYHv).  It is slightly easier to remove if you use a covered dish rather than an open one, but I usually have to cut it out rather than taking out a pretty loaf.  Ciabatta, where you pour dough onto a pan coated with cornmeal, is much easier, pretty, and has a more satisfying rustic feel.