The Substitute Kitchen

No Knead Baguettes with Tomatoes and Olives

I have seen these recipes everywhere and each time think, “Huh?” So I finally decided to try one. In this case, the recipe was from Steamy Kitchen.

Apologies for lack of process photos but my hands were just a leeeeetle bit busy with the flour!

Ingredients

3 cups (400 grams) bread flour

1/2 teaspoon table salt

3/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon instant or other active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups (350 grams) cool 55-65F water

additional flour for dusting

20 pieces of the any combination of following: whole garlic cloves, whole olives, halved cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt

How to

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, table salt, sugar and yeast. Add the water and, using a wooden spoon, mix until you have a wet, sticky dough, about 30 seconds. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature until the surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough is more than doubled in size, 10 to 18 hours. (I left mine in the fridge overnight).

2.  When the first rise is complete, generously dust a work surface with flour. Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. Fold the dough over itself three times and gently shape it into a somewhat flattened ball. Brush the surface of the dough with some of the olive oil and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of the coarse salt (which will gradually dissolve on the surface).

3.  Grab a large bowl (large enough to hold the dough when it doubles in size. you could also use a large pot) and brush the insides of the bowl with olive oil. Gently place the dough, seam side down into the bowl. Cover bowl with a towel. Place in a warm draft free spot to rise for 1 to 2 hours. The dough is ready when it is almost doubled. If you gently poke it with your finger, it should hold the impression. If it springs back, let it rise for another 15 minutes.

4. Half an hour before the end of the second rise, pre-heat the oven to 500F, with a rack in the center. Oil a 13″ x 18″ x 1″ baking sheet.

5.  Cut the dough into quarters (I cut mine into thirds). Gently stretch each piece evenly into a long, thin, baguette shape approximately the length of the pan. Place on the pan, leaving about 1 inch between the loaves. Embed the garlic cloves, olives or cherry tomatoes into the loaves, about five pieces per loaf. Drizzle, tab or brush olive oil on each loaf. Sprinkle sea salt or kosher salt over each loaf, remember to go light on the olive loaf since the olives are salty.

6. Bake For 15 to 25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Cool on a pan for five minutes, then use a spatula to transfer the baguette to a rack to cool thoroughly.

Homemade Dog Biscuits

Ok, we’ve gone from human to canine cooking this time, but when faced with this:

and this:

how could I refuse? Plus dog biscuits are getting expensive!

So I thought I’d try to make some at home. Fingers crossed they’ll eat them!

Recipe was originally from here , but I halved the quantities (and substituted some things) for the first time just in case the dogs refused them.

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup milk powder

1 cup chicken stock (look up directions for preparation on packet)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 teaspoon salt 

Flour for dredging biscuits

Our parsley, or perseley as it is called at the supermarket here

How to

Heat oven to 200 C and oil a large baking sheet. Mix flour together with the oats, milk powder, parsley and salt.

In another small bowl, mix stock and oil. Combine until well mixed one third of flour mix and the same of stock mix in a bowl. Continue adding the flour mix and stock mix to bowl by thirds.

Take heaped table spoon sized portions and roll them in the extra flour, then place them on the oiled baking sheet with a gap of about 3 cm between them.

Flatten each ball into a biscuit shape. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until fully cooked. Turn off oven but leave the biscuits inside until completely hard. 

Coconut and White Toblerone Cookies

I’ve had this recipe for ages and kept meaning to try it but kept coming up against the white chocolate and how it’s hard to get the god stuff here. Today I had a brainwave in the supermarket- just use white Tolberone! They are soooooo goooooood.

Original recipe is here

Ingredients

200g softened butter

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

160g icing sugar, sifted

1 egg

260g plain flour, sifted with ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

100g shredded desiccated coconut

100g white Toblerone (1 bar)

How to

Preheat the oven to 170°C/340°F - if your oven is fan-forced preheat to 150°C/300°F.

Place the butter, vanilla bean paste, egg, and icing sugar in the bowl of your mixer and beat until light and fluffy.

Stir in the flour & bicarb in two batches.

Stir in the coconut and chopped up chocolate, making sure they are evenly distributed through the dough.

Roll a tablespoon of dough into a ball, place it on a baking sheet and press it down lightly. Leave some space around each to allow for spreading.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden with a crisp edge. Cool on tray before lifting onto wire racks.

Store in an airtight containers.This recipe made about 36 biscuits.

Glorious Apple-Pear Muffin Win!

After our disastrous muffin fail (yes, you can screw up a muffin recipe), we bravely took up spoon and bowl for our second attempt. This time it was a gloriously unqualified success! *APPLAUSE* The recipe is based on the Pioneer Woman’s Blueberry Muffins , but as we live in land of no blueberry, we made do with apples and pears.

Ingredients

3 cups minus 2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

Heavy pinch of salt

Dash of Nutmeg

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 generous cup plain, unflavored yogurt (throw in extra if you want)

1 medium apple (we grated te fruit but you could do slices instead)

1 pear

Vanilla bean

Softened Butter, for muffin tins

Sugar and cinnamon mix for tops of muffins

How to

Preheat oven to 385 degrees.

In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl whisk together sugar, oil, vanilla, egg, and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients and stir to a count of 10.

Add fruit to mixture and stir 3 times.

Add mixture to well-buttered muffin pans. Sprinkle sugar mix over top. 

Bake 20 to 25 minutes and allow to cool completely.

Hazelnut Passionfruit Thumbprint Cookies

This was our second recipe of the day after the Great Muffin Failure. Luckily, this one passed with flying colors! We had this for afternoon tea and used them to bribe family members the next day. Original recipe from the divine Smitten Kitchen used chocolate, so experiment with yours!

Ingredients

1 cup hazelnut meal

2/3 cup sugar

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 vanilla pod

Passionfruit jam (ours is from the Ubud Organic Market)

How to

Mix hazelnut meal, sugar, flour, and salt with hand mixer.  

Stir in melted butter, egg, and vanilla until combined well.

Chill dough, covered, until firm, about 30 minutes.

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Drop level tablespoons of dough 1 inch apart onto 2 ungreased baking sheets (or lined  with parchment paper). Roll dough into balls, then chill until slightly firm, about 10 minutes. Press thumb into cookie to make indentation.

Spoon a half teaspoon of jam into each cookie.

Bake until tops are pale golden and undersides are golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Be careful not to overbake. Transfer cookies to a rack and cool completely.

Simple and Rich Chocolate Brownies

Brownies are like chocolate-chip cookies- everyone has a special way of doing them and expectations of how they should taste. These are from my family’s recipe and bring back memories of dozens of birthdays, dinners and picnics. I’m biased, but these brownies rule! We use cashews because it’s the most available nut here. 

Ingredients

125g butter

185g dark cooking chocolate

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup plain flour

1 cup cashew nuts, chopped

How to

Melt chocolate and butter together over low heat or in double boiler (two pans stacked with water in bottom on first pan)

Stir in sugar.

Add eggs one at a time, stirring well and fast each time.

Add cashews.

Pour into greased and paper-lined pan.

Bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes. Cool and eat!

Black Rice Pudding (Bubur Injin)

This is one of my all-time comfort foods (and breakfasts!). The sticky black rice, creamy coconut cream, smoky palm sugar and bananas are perfectly harmonized. The recipe is a little hazy so my apologies in advance.

Ingredients (for two small portions)

1/2 cup black glutinous rice

Few tablespoons of coconut cream (to taste)

1 banana

Palm sugar to taste

This is the palm sugar before it is cooked with water to make it liquid. You can buy palm sugar like this in Asian grocery stores. When you cook it make sure not to overcook- it will harden/thicken once it cools. About an hour of cooking is sufficient on low heat. Once it coats the spoon like this it’s ready

Rinse the rice under running water until water runs clear. Cover the rice with two cups of water and simmer until all water is absorbed. This should take at least 1.5 hours.

When rice is cooked and ‘sticky’, put into bowl and pour coconut cream and palm sugar over to taste (few spoons of each is enough).

Cut up a banana and put on top and you’re done!

For a more exact recipe try this one. 

Cherry Cheesecake Slice

I promised and promised Miss S I would make her something yummy and wheat free. So am proud to present the Cherry Cheesecake Slice with Almond meal Crust!

Original cheesecake recipe is from Taste.com.au

Ingredients 

Crust

250g almond meal

1/3 cup rice flour

100g butter, melted

3 tablespoons sugar

Few drops almond essence

Filling

500g packets cream cheese

2/3 cup caster sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 can of cherries, drained

How to

Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C. Grease a square pan  and line with baking paper. Mix all the crust ingredients by hand with fork until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Press mixture over base and side of prepared pan. Refrigerate.

Meanwhile, make filling Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, vanilla and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until combined.

Pour mixture into prepared pan and press cherries in. 

Bake for 50 minutes or until just set (cheesecake will wobble slightly in centre). Turn off oven. Cool cheesecake in oven for 1 hours with door ajar to prevent cracking if it cools too fast.

Ham and Cheese Bread Pudding

Saw this recipe a few months back so when I had some cheese, ham and bread to use up it seemed a perfect time. And even more perfect, I can have leftovers for breakfast!

I think this would be even better if you played with adding some more intense flavors to it. Let us know if you come up with a good addition.

Ingredients

1 medium onion, sliced in thin rounds

1 Tbsp butter

4 to 6 cups day-old (or stale) rustic bread, cubed

3 large eggs

3 cups milk

1-2 teaspoons Herbs de Provence, or spices of your choice

1 cup diced ham

1 cup cheese, grated

Parmesan for sprinkling on top

How to

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat butterl in a medium saute pan over medium high heat until butter is melted.  Add sliced onions, stir well, and reduce heat to medium low.  Cook onions, stirring often, until completely soft and nicely browned, about 20 minutes.  

Whisk together the eggs, milk, and seasonings.  

Layer about half of the bread in a large baking dish.  Top with half of the ham, half of the cheese, and half of the carmelized onions.  Repeat with remaining bread, ham, cheese and onions.  Pour milk and eggs over the bread mixture, making sure to coat each piece of bread as much as possible. Sprinkle parmesan on top.

Bake for 40 to 60 minutes.  The total time will depend on how deep your dish is (deeper=longer).

note from original recipe: Bread pudding is even better leftover, if you can hang onto it that long–the custard and bread set up together so that you can cut nice pieces that hold their shape, and the flavors come together even better the next day.

Cashew Honey Granola

Fresh mangos and papaya? check. homemade yogurt? check. Granola? empty packet! We can buy it here but it’s expensive because of import tax, so I decided it can’t be that hard to make granola. A quick search of the web and I found this recipe. After a bit of tinkering I had some amazing homemade granola. 

Ingredients

1 cup cashews

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter

1/3 cup honey, at room temperature

1/2 tsp nutmeg 

1 cup raisins

We have this great honey produced in Bali/Indonesia by Big Tree Farm. For any of you living in the US, I think you can buy it at Whole Food or Williams Sonoma. I used the Coffee Blossom honey in this recipe. 

How to

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Line a large shallow baking sheet. Spread the cashews on the sheet and roast for 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly toasted. Transfer the nuts to a board, let cool and chop the nuts. Set aside.

Melt butter on stove and add honey. Mix together thoroughly. Add nutmeg (in this case freshly grated).

Mix oats, nuts, raisins and coconut in a bowl.

Spread oats mix over the baking pan in a medium layer. 

Drizzle butter mixture on top of the oats. 

Bake the oats for 30-40 minutes, stirring every ten minutes, until the oats are lightly colored. Let cool; the mixture will crisp as it cools.