I bought a package of fresh rosemary to add to the recipe I wanted to try from Bittman this week (crackers!). I only needed one stalk, though, so I've been putting the rest of it to work in other ways, which I'll share as well!
First, the inspiration: Bittman's basic recipe for crackers, a little jazzed up.
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| Olive oil, sea salt, AP flour, WW pastry flour, fresh rosemary |
To make the dough, I combined everything in a bowl and added enough water to bring it together. Stir!
Once it's a homogenous ball you turn it onto a floured surface and roll it out as thin as you want.
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| Before |
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| After! |
Then you take a knife or pizza wheel or cookie cutters to it, cut whatever shapes you want, and pop your crackers in the oven. I also ground sea salt on top of them before baking. 10 minutes later you have homemade, crunchy vessels for cheese, dips, and other delicious toppings!
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| Roasted red pepper and parmesan! |
I was pretty happy with the flavor of these, but I was hoping for something thinner and crispier. It might be a matter of how thin you roll out the dough before baking, so I may experiment with that some time.
On to the rest. The next two recipes are from a cookbook I recently bought and have somewhat of a love affair with right now. It's called Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson--she will probably make appearances throughout the semester.
First recipe: White bean dip. I've been making my own hummus (using Bittman's recipe, it so happens) for a while but I wanted to try something new because I'm getting a little hummused out. I'm going to tell you up front that this was a very, very good idea.
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| Navy beans, almonds, rosemary, lemon, garlic, olive oil, salt |
I used canned beans because it was faster--I'm now prepared with a bag of dry navy beans which I plan to use next time. I drained and rinsed the canned ones in a colander first.
The beans, almonds, zest from the lemon, and salt went into my food processor (second favorite kitchen appliance! Beat only by the coffee machine). I didn't get a shot of that for some reason, but I guess I decided to take a picture of the lemon zest.
The rosemary and garlic were minced and put on low heat with the olive oil for a few minutes, to infuse it with flavor. You don't need to cook the garlic, just get the oil heated.
After it cooled a little I strained out the rosemary and garlic (per the directions), added the flavored oil to the rest of the ingredients, and let the food processor do its thing.
The result was pretty heavenly. I will definitely be abandoning my chickpeas for a while and making this instead.
That container may or may not be close to empty by now...
All right. Lastly--yogurt biscuits! Which also include a goodly amount of butter, as you can see below. I've made this recipe a few times before and they are always good.
I forgot to take a picture of the ingredient lineup for these but they contain all-purpose and whole wheat pastry flour, yogurt, butter, baking powder, salt, and (again!) rosemary and lemon zest.
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| Yum. |
Into the food processor once again! First I combined the flours, baking powder, lemon zest and rosemary, then added the cold butter bit by bit until it was sandy-textured. Last I put in the yogurt and processed it until it just came together.
Once it was looking dough-like, I packed it up in a plastic bag and brought it to my friends' house to bake! People love it when you make their houses smell like baked goods.
To get flaky biscuit layers, I patted the dough out on a floured counter, cut it in half, stacked the halves on top of each other and repeated that about ten times before cutting them and putting them in the oven. I used a round cutter to make circles, but you could also just cut the dough into squares with a knife.
Crackers (Bittman pg 239, softcover)
Time: 15 minutes
Makes about 4 servings
1 cup (4.5 oz) all-purpose flour (I used half AP and half whole wheat)
1/2 t salt
2 T olive oil (instead of butter)
1/4 cup of water, more as needed
1 t chopped fresh rosemary (my addition)
Sea salt (my addition)
Preheat the oven to 400.
Place flour, salt, and oil in a bowl or food processor. Blend or stir until combined. Add about 1/4 cup of water and combine. Continue adding water until the mixture holds together but isn't sticky.
Roll out on a lightly floured surface until 1/4 inch thick or less (I rolled it out much thinner). Score or cut into desired shapes. Bake on a lightly floured baking sheet for about 10 minutes or until slightly browned.
White Bean Spread (Swanson pg 110)
Makes about 2 cups
Scant 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 t chopped fresh rosemary
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups cooked white beans or a 15oz can, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup roasted almonds (sliced probably works better but I used whole)
Salt
1 T lemon juice
1/4-3/4 cup water
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
In a saucepan, combine the olive oil, rosemary and garlic. Warm the mixture over medium-low heat for 1-2 minutes. Remove and let cool, then pour through a strainer and discard the rosemary and garlic bits.
Combine the beans, almonds, a pinch of salt, lemon juice, and oil. Pulse to bring the ingredients together. Add the water 1/4 cup at a time, pulsing, until it reaches a consistency you like.
Yogurt Biscuits (Swanson pg 42)
Makes 10-12
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 t salt
1 T baking powder
1/2 cup butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1 1/3 cups (11oz) yogurt (Greek or regular)
1 t chopped fresh rosemary (my addition)
Zest of 1/2 a lemon (my addition)
Preheat the oven to 450.
Combine the flours, salt, baking powder, rosemary and lemon zest in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is a sandy consistency. Add the yogurt and pulse just to incorporate--don't over-mix.
Gather the dough into a ball and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead a few times and press out into an inch-thick square. Cut in half and stack one on the other. Repeat two (or ten...) more times, adding flour to prevent sticking if needed.
Roll or press out into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle and cut into biscuits. Bake 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown.
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