After my last food post, my friend A sent me a link to Food Renegade, a blog about real food. Although informative, the absence of references bothers me to no end. I believe the author since I've read a lot on food myself lately, but as my friend put it, the over zealousness gets in the way of the seriousness. I also don't like that she doesn't tell me where to get this real food. Regardless, it's worth taking a look, so I'll put the link in the resources section on the right column.
As I mentioned in my last post, I've been busy baking, even bread. If you're interested in making bread, don't buy a bread maker. It'll be more hassle to take it out and put it away than it is to make bread from scratch. Don't be scared off by the time it takes --that's just time the dough rises, while you live. Don't think you'll have to knead for hours either; who has time to knead? I found two no knead recipes. The only thing you have to remember is that it takes practice to get it right.
The first recipe is a no knead bread from Chuck Hugues, a Montreal chef on Food TV. It's easy and it doesn't hurt that Chuck is very nice to watch. I saw him make this bread on tv and you don't have to be careful about the details. I do let it rise for an hour or more though. It makes two loafs like this one.
The second is a recipe for a French boule. It only has 4 ingredients and is much easier to put together. The inconvenience is you have to let the dough rise for 12 to 24 hours, then another 2 hours after folding it a bit. I usually make the dough at the same time I'll want to bake it the next day and I don't wait the full two hours afterwards. I changed the shape of the last one:
I've also been baking all of C. de Lune's snacks. I use seasonal produce or what I've frozen this summer. I'm not very original in the kitchen and although I'm starting to bake well and make substitutions, I need recipes. Most of the time, I substitute half the flour with whole wheat flour, I add only half the sugar called for and I always use butter.
Blueberry muffins
I made these muffins in August, in the middle of blueberries season. They're quite healthy and the only thing I changed in the recipe was the amount of honey -- blueberries are so sweet and honey is expensive, so I used 1/4 cup. The yogurt makes them moist. C. de Lune didn't like the first batch because she doesn't like big chucks of cooked fruit, so I mushed the blueberries with the mortar and pestle until they looked like jam.
Peach muffins
I found this recipe on a blog when I was looking to make something with my fresh Ontario peaches. It's for a peach loaf, but muffins cook so much faster and C. de Lune prefers them. I made a few changes to this recipe since I felt I could make it healthier and still have popular muffins --which they were. I didn't add flaxseed meal, but I would next time.
Banana chocolate chip muffins and banana bread
This is a basic and simple banana bread recipe but I add lots of chocolate chips. I've made both a loaf and muffins with it and C. de Lune requested a make more last night.
Applesauce muffins
This recipe is pretty much the same as the banana one. I used applesauce I made from scratch because it's apple season, but that's not necessary.
Apple bread
Scroll down the page to find the recipe. The only change I made in this one is I reduced the sugar quantity.
Pear white chocolate cookies
In this case, used more butter instead of shortening and oats instead of granola. As usual I reduced the sugar quantity and substituted some flour. Next time though, I'll cook the oats a bit first since I think what I have is not quick rolled oats.
I'm very busy this week planning for C. de Lune's birthday and the holiday--that's my fault for giving birth on Thanksgiving day. Therefore, I'll stop there for now. More recipes soon.
References
Food Network Website
"Chucks Day Off No Knead Bread"
"French Food at Home Miracle Boule"
"Fresh with Anna Olsen, Anna's Blueberry Muffins"
A Life Less Sweet blog
Cat Can Cook blog
Salt and Chocolate blog
About.com
"White Chocolate Pear Cookies"
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