Cardamom Hot Cross Buns

Easter always reminds me of Hot Cross Buns because my Mom always made them at that time. We usually were required to give up sweets for lent, so we got to have hot, fresh Hot Cross Buns for Easter morning, followed by church, and then followed by an Imperial Banana Split at Friendly's Ice Cream (NE US) as rewards.

 I've tried some store-bought buns every once in a while since but they were horrible. I mean close to inedible in my opinion. So I was thinking about making some but I wanted to make sure they were close to what I enjoyed so much as a child. And all of a sudden, it hit me, the ones I had as a kid had Cardamom in them.

Cardamom is one of the world's most ancient spices and grows wild in India. It is expensive, second only to Saffron. Therefore when I went to look for Cardamom, I found a small bottle of it was $17.00!!! Nope, I'm not paying that much for a spice. (I read where Cardamom also helps cure flatulence, so if that's an issue for you, there ya go, lol)

So I went to another market that sells spices in bulk, and sure enough, they had ground Cardamom at bargain basement prices. It wasn't the elite black Cardamom, but neither was the bottle at the first store. Now having made and tasted it, it was excellent. So I suggest you go that route. (Cost me like $1.69 for about an ounce of spice, and you only use one teaspoon in this recipe, a little Cardamom goes a long way)

Now, you can make this recipe without Cardamom, just substitute cinnamon, but I think once you try Cardamom, you'll be hooked. It's a unique taste, smell, and is very pungent. And obviously, memorable, since I haven't had it in umm, ^* years and remember it still.

I went to my reliable standby for recipes, King Arthur Flour, and adapted one to yield the recipe below.

Also, if you don't have Lyle's syrup, either omit it, or use corn syrup.

Ingredients and Method:

1/4 cup water or apple juice
1 cup raisins or dried currants (I prefer currants)
1 1/4 cups milk, heated in microwave slightly
3 large eggs, 1 separated
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 packages quick rising yeast
1/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
4 1/2 cups King Arthur Flour

Brush mixture prior to baking:

1 large egg white, reserved from above
1 tablespoon milk

1/3 cup Lyle's Golden Syrup (for brushing after baking)

Icing

1 cup or so confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
4 teaspoons milk, or enough to make a thick icing (add a bit more sugar if it's not thick enough)

Mix the water or apple juice with the currants or raisins and microwave on high about 30 seconds. Let steep for 10 minutes.

Add eggs to mixing bowl, add sugar and mix well. Melt butter in milk by microwaving in 30 second intervals. Don't overheat. If milk is too hot to the touch, let it cool slightly before adding to bowl. Add yeast. (Excess heat will kill the yeast) Add milk butter mixture to eggs and sugar and mix.

Add spices and baking powder and mix well. Add fruit and water/juice.

Add 4 cups flour and salt and beat with dough hook until ball forms away from the sides of the pan. Add flour in additional 1/2 cup increments as necessary.

Scrape dough out onto floured board, sprinkle with flour and knead for 3 minutes.

Grease a bowl, add dough, turn dough over cover and let rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until doubled.
Remove from bowl to floured board and punch down. Knead just once or twice and shape into circle or rectangle about 2 inches thick. Cut into squares about 2 x 2 inches (3 ounces) and with floured hands tuck corners under and shape into a ball.

Add rounded buns to 9 x 13 greased pan. Place close to each other but not touching. Cover and let rise in a warm place for another hour.
Beat water and egg white together and brush tops of buns. Bake at 350 for 20 -25 minutes until browned. Microwave golden syrup (20 seconds) and brush onto top of buns and let cool completely.

Make thick frosting and pipe onto buns marking a cross across the top of each one. (baggies make a great piping tool. Just snip off on bottom corner)

Enjoy!

Christmas Cream Cheese Bread

This is a Cream Cheese Homemade bread I make every year for Christmas which always disappears rapidly. This year I just sprinkled it with decorative sugar but you can glaze it or decorate it in any number of ways.


I find it almost impossible to keep the braid 100% intact during rising and baking so I use toothpicks to at least keep it as "together" as possible. I once made one where I painstakingly made the overlapping slices long enough that I could bind them with warm water and it held together. But I found to do that, you use much less filling and I like a lot of filling in my bread.

I say, "Let the filling be free!"


I recently moved and couldn't locate the recipe, and although I'm sure I could have made it from memory, I found a similar one at King Arthur flour, just to be certain of measurements. It worked like a charm.



Ingredients:

2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Filling:

8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla

Dough: Combine sugar, milk water and yeast and let rest until it becomes bubbly. (Proofed) add the balance of the ingredients and mix and knead them together until you've made a soft, smooth dough. Place dough in a greased bowl, turn over, and cover with a moist towel. Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until it's puffy (though not necessarily doubled in bulk).

Filling: While the dough is rising, prepare the filling by mixing all of the ingredients together until smooth. Chill untill ready to use.

Assembly: Transfer the dough to a lightly floured board, punch down and let it rest for 5 minutes. Divide it in half. Roll each half into a 12 x 8-inch rectangle. Transfer rolled dough to baking pan spread with parchment paper. Spread half of the filling lengthwise down the center third of each rectangle. Cut 1-inch-wide strips from each side of the filling out to the edges of the dough. Fold about an inch of dough at each end over the filling to contain it, then fold the strips, at an angle, across the filling, alternating from side to side. Secure with toothpicks.

Baking: Allow the braids to rise, covered, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, till almost doubled in size. Brush with a glaze made from 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water, and sprinkle with sparkling white sugar, if desired; then bake the braids in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven, and cool on a wire rack. Yield: 2 braids.

Enjoy!

New Orleans Beignets

This is a re-post of mine, but it's because I made these this morning, and ate them, hot from the oil, with a cup of coffee and a cold glass of milk, and I'm tellin' ya.   No better start to the day than these....

In my travels I have been to New Orleans about 8 times. And a mandatory stop when I'm there was always Cafe du Monde famous for it's chicory coffee and beignets, a square french raised donut. They are served warm and piled high with powdered sugar.

The Original Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on Christmas Day and on the day an occasional Hurricane passes too close to New Orleans.

As I raised children, I would often make us beignets for breakfast, and sure enough as they grew up, and traveled to New Orleans themselves, they too always stop at Cafe du Monde. Do give these a try. They are easy to make, and really wonderful with a steaming hot cup of coffee au lait. This recipe was derived (and adapted slightly) from a box of Beignet Mix I bought while there.

Ingredients and Method:

3/4 cup water, very warm, not hot
1/4 cup sugar
1 envelope dry yeast
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons shortening or butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup evaporated milk
oil for frying (vegetable or peanut oil, preferably)
powdered sugar (about 1 cup)

In a bowl or mixer with dough hook, add sugar, yeast and warm water. Stir briefly to mix, and let sit while it proofs and becomes foamy. (this means the yeast is good)

Add two cups of flour, salt, evaporated milk, salt, and beaten egg and mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl to incorporate all the flour.

Mix in shortening or butter.

Add balance of flour and mix until sticky dough forms into a ball. Add additional flour, if needed, in 1/4 cups increments.

Transfer dough to floured board and knead briefly and form into ball. (I usually let the dough hook knead the dough for about 5 minutes which greatly decreases the time hand-kneading is required)

Transfer to greased bowl, and turn over. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for an hour. (Or overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning let dough come to room temperature)

Roll out dough to about 1 inch thickness, and slice dough into two inch squares, or triangular shapes. Cover with plastic wrap in place and let rise again for one hour.

Heat oil in a skillet to 375 degrees. Fry a few beignets at a time in the oil, turning once when browned on one side. It should take approximately 4 minutes per side. You should tend to the frying closely as they will cook really quickly. Move to paper towels and drain well.

Place on plate and sprinkle LIBERALLY with powdered sugar.

Enjoy.

Irish Soda Bread

This is an easy delicious rustic bread that doesn't need rising or double kneading. Hot fresh bread in a jiffy.

Here's a bit of history on Irish Soda Bread:

In the early and mid 1800’s, rural Ireland did not have a strong tradition of yeast bread making. Baking was done in the home and, in addition to having limited supplies, time was often at a premium. The use of baking soda as a leavening agent was quick, effective and it produced a much more consistent result than yeast did. It caught on quickly and made a staple of the Irish diet until commercial bread production began in earnest, though it is still popular in Ireland and many other parts of the world.
The original soda breads contained nothing more than flour, buttermilk, baking soda and salt. The buttermilk was leftover from the butter making process and the bread was almost always served with freshly churned butter. Today, the breads often contain additional ingredients, like sugar, butter, currants or caraway seeds to enhance the flavor of the bread. Soda bread is heartier than most yeast breads and pairs very well with soups, stews and meat dishes. It also makes outstanding toast.


Ingredients

4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
5 tablespoons of butter
1 egg
2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cup currants


In a bowl blend together the flour, salt, sugar and baking soda.

Using a pastry cutter cut in the butter until it is incorporated into the dry mixture.

Add the egg (slightly beaten) and buttermilk and mix well until a sticky dough forms. Fold in currants.

Spoon out onto a lightly floured board, sprinkle a little flour over the top of it and knead it twice. Yes, I said ONLY twice.



Than, shape into a ball, cut an X across the top of the loaf and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. This bread will LOOK done way before it is. Bake even longer if necessary
if when tapping on the loaf it doesn't sound completely hollow.




Enjoy!

Baked Yeast Donuts

So I bought this doughnut baking pan as I previously posted. I made cake doughnuts and I thought they were surprisingly good. See here.

But, as we all know, yeast doughnuts are killer also. So I thought I'd use the pan with yeast dough.

I must give huge credit to 101 Recipes for this. This was the recipe I modified a bit, but for the most part
it was perfect.  

Wow, they were good.  Extremely good. I mean "melt in your mouth good"  Light and airy, and no grease.    And easy. And I must admit, it's nice not to mess with hot oil, and thermometers and all the mess cooking that way entails.

So give these a try. Actually I don't believe you need a donut pan to make them. Give it a shot, just use normal baking pans.

Ingredients and Method:

1 1/3 cups milk, warmed, not hot

2/3 cup sugar

1 packet dry yeast

2 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

5 cups flour (more or less)

1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg


In a mixer, combine the warmed milk, sugar and yeast. Let sit for 15 minutes to let it proof. It should
get foamy which means the yeast is good and ready to go. (I know, I know, yeasts today don't need to be proofed, but I'm old school, I like seeing that stuff get all bubbly)  Melt the butter, and when cool a bit,  two eggs and mix briskly. Add to milk and yeast mixture. Add salt and nutmeg and mix thoroughly.

Add four cups of flour and mix. Continue mixing and adding balance of flour in 1/4 cup increments until the dough adheres to the mixer in a ball and is not sticking to the bowl.

Drop dough onto a lightly floured board, knead just a few times, and shape into a ball. Place in oiled bowl, cover with a towel, and add to oven you heated briefly at 200 degrees (and then turned off, of course) and let rise until doubled in bulk.

Remove from oven and scrape dough out onto floured board. (Lightly floured)  Punch down and let rest
for 5 minutes.  Knead two or three times just to bring it together and roll out into a rectangle about 1 inch in thickness.

Use a doughnut cutter and cut them out. Arrange the doughnut shapes around a lightly greased doughnut pan. ( Or, just onto parchment covered baking sheet)

Continue cutting, save doughnut holes onto another baking sheet. Cover with towel (either method) and let
rise at room temperature for 45 minutes.

(When I cut mine out, I got lazy and cut out some squares of the dough and baked those too. And actually, they were delicious. I didn't coat them, just ate slightly heated with some jam, kind of like a jelly donut)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 8 - to minutes until golden brown. Watch them carefully, they can get overdone quickly. Golden Brown is perfect!

Remove, let cool slightly, and then shake in a plastic bag with sugar, or sugar and cinnamon. You can dip them in melted butter first, if you would like. (My preference)

And don't forget the donut "squares" I made. Those were delicious also, as well as the holes.


Enjoy!

Dutch Oven Bread by Izzy.... (w/my help)

I was contacted via email by someone named Izzy Woods. She offered to write a post on my behalf, regarding my cooking/baking favorites, and I welcomed her to do so.

If you'd like to talk to her about a "guest post" on your blog, let me know, and I'll put you in touch with her.

I suggested Dutch Oven Bread, because of it's unique effect on baked breads, and she did a wonderful job.

She obviously studied it, and enhanced my post on the same subject: Merlin Menu Dutch Oven Bread

By the way, she did this for free, she only asked she get to display a furniture link, so if you're looking for some furniture, give it a click.

Enjoy.....

Bread with a Difference

Home-made bread: there really is nothing quite like it. The smell of it wafting out the kitchen can make even the dullest rented flat feel like home. There is something earthy about baking bread, something that appeals to the simplest of instincts: those of home, family and food. Many home bakers constantly experiment in search of the perfect bread recipe, experimenting with different grains, seeds and flours, often with impressive results. Unfortunately, the cooking stage can sometimes let down the perfect bread recipe. Modern domestic ovens just aren’t made for bread-baking, as moisture is vented out of them, producing a dry heat which tends to lead to dry bread. A wetter, steamier oven will produce moist, soft loaves with deliciously crusty outsides: the holy grail of bread-making.

Traditionally, bread was baked in wood-fired ovens very similar to the pizza ovens seen in most modern Italian restaurants. However, it’s not easy to build this kind of oven in the average domestic kitchen! The solution is to use a Dutch oven: a large cast iron cooking pot. Dutch ovens retain moisture, so the steam stays in the pot while the bread is cooking. A Dutch oven is a cheap, easy way to transform your bread baking.

Dutch ovens cook bread in a very similar way to professional baking ovens used by commercial bakers. Those ovens use steam injection to keep the bread moist as it cooks. A Dutch oven does the same thing, without the need for expensive equipment. It gets and stays very hot: cast iron is a great heat absorber. The tight-fitting lid keeps steam in the pot, preventing drying, with fantastic results.

Making bread in a Dutch oven is very easy, not just because of the cooking method, but the recipe needed. Dough for bread that is to be cooked in a Dutch oven doesn’t need to be kneaded. It can simply be left to rise, shaped, and cooked. This makes Dutch oven baking perfect for beginner bakers: if you’ve been scared off in the past by the seemingly complicated bread-making process, use a Dutch oven.

Cooking bread in a Dutch oven seems to bring bread-making back to its origins. Many of us are reluctant to try making bread, believing it to be a complicated process, almost akin to alchemy. It really isn’t, but it’s not hard to see why so many have that view. Look at a bread recipe, and it will often appear long and difficult. However, people have been baking bread all over the world for thousands of years. It is a fundamental part of our culture, referenced in religion and common phraseology. The concept of ‘breaking bread’ is a highly powerful one. The breaking of the loaf and sharing of it at the table is a representation of community and family. ‘Bread’ in slang can mean, simply, ‘food’. The loaf of bread in the kitchen is almost part of the furniture, central to how and what we eat.

When you think of bread in these kinds of terms, what do you think of? It’s probably not a sliced supermarket loaf. It’s more likely to be exactly the kind of bread you can make in a Dutch oven, with very little effort. Dutch oven loaves both look and taste wonderful. The inside (or ‘crumb’) is soft, melting in the mouth. The crust is thick, crispy and full of flavour. Think about that dipped in some warming soup, matched with tangy cheese, or simply slathered in creamy butter. These are simple pleasures indeed; but very tasty ones. This is the kind of food that we dream of when we dream of home.

Perhaps you’ve struggled for months trying to make the perfect loaf, or perhaps you’ve thought it wasn’t worth trying. Dutch oven baking is the answer. It does not have to stop at basic bread either. You could try flavouring with herbs and seeds, for example, or making rolls rather than loaves. You can also try other kinds of baking in a Dutch oven, including biscuits and pastries. The Dutch oven is one of those most rare and useful kitchen utensils: something that is both highly versatile and very  easy to use. So what are you waiting for? Get baking!

Parker House Rolls

• 
  
• Parker House rolls were invented in the 19th century at a famous Boston hotel called the Parker House. This
• is the same hotel that created Boston Cream Pie in 1855.

These rolls are light, buttery, and delicious. I made some at home the other day and I just can't stop heating

one slightly, dabbing a bit of butter on it, and wolfing it down. They are so good.

This is an easy recipe, do give it a try.  Many thanks to King Arthur Flour for the source.

• Recipe and Method:
• 
  
• 3 cups flour (I use King Arthur Bread Flour)
• 2 packages Active Dry Yeast
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 cup instant mashed potato flakes
• 1 cup milk (warmed)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 tablespoons melted butter, for  brushing rolls when baked

• 
  
• In a large bowl, add warmed milk, yeast and sugar. Let sit for 10 minutes until it's foamy. Add the balance of the ingredients (except for the 3 tbl melted butter shown at the end of the recipe) Mix thoroughly by hand or with a mixer until dough ball is formed.
• Drop onto floured board and knead for a few minutes. Place in greased bowl covered with a towel and place in a warm area and let rise for an hour and a half.
• Remove from bowl to the floured surface. Punch down, divide in half. Roll each half into an 8 x 12 rectangle.
• Brush melted butter on it and fold the dough lengthwise almost in half. It doesn't have to be exactly in half.

• Cut each rectangle into 4 pieces and place into greased 9 x 13 baking pan. Repeat with second half of dough.
• Cover the pan and let rise for another 45 minutes.
• 
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Remove and immediately baste tops with remaining melted butter.

Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day Roundup

Now that my blog has been established for a couple of years, I find that I have enough recipes posted that
I can perhaps provide a quick reference to the Irish inspired things I like to make. So here it is:

Ha ha, admittedly only five recipes, but I do what I can.  If you try nothing else, do the cake or the soda bread. Both are wonderful. And enjoy a pint or two.

Guinness Stout Ginger Cake 

Guinness Beef Stew

Irish Soda Bread

Irish Brown Bread

Corned Beef and Cabbage        

The Merlin Menu Top 10 Recipes for Year 2010

I know, it's February, not January. This is the kind of post that, were I up on things, would have been posted right around the New Year. But, I've been a bit distracted trying to find a new position at my company. That's my excuse, anyway.

But here's the deal. As I looked through my newsreader in 2011, I noticed a number of blogs posted their top recipes from the previous year. And I found, that I liked being able to just click on whatever recipe I wanted to without having to scroll through page after page of blog. I figured therefore, that other people probably like this convenience also, so I decided to do one for my blog. And here it is. Hope you find at least one or two things you'd like to try, and maybe catch up on a recipe or two you might have missed over the last year.

Salted Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars Decadent and delicious.

Dutch Oven Bread A little baking magic from a Dutch Oven

Cinnamon Currant Bread Another Dutch Oven Bread

Eggs Benedict Who doesn't love Eggs Benedict. Make them at home for 1/10th the price.

Homemade Potato Chips Delicious and easy and fun to make.

Irish Brown Bread Authentic and delicious.

 Lime Cake with Strawberry Compote Light, refreshing, and a great flavor combination.

Salted Caramel Butter Bars Decadent and delicious.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies Just the title says it all.

Three Ingredient Tomato Sauce 3 Ingredients and knock your socks off good.

My personal Top Ten from my Blog for 2010.

Cinnamon Currant Bread - Dutch Oven Style

I recently posted some no-knead bread I baked in a Dutch Oven and it came out so well I couldn't wait to try it with a different dough. This time I didn't preheat the dutch oven, and made a dough that I kneaded as normal. I let it rise the second time on parchment paper in the pot, and preheated the oven, baked it covered in the dutch oven for a while and finished uncovered so the crust browns and it came out in fantastic shape.

This is the recipe I use for my cinnamon rolls usually, but this time, just wanted some bread with a touch of cinnamon and currants. I'll be toasting this at work this week, with some butter. Man, ya gotta love bread.

It's my new cooking toy, my Dutch Oven. I'm Lovin' the Oven.

Ingredients and Method:
2 packages yeast
1 cup milk, heated to about 110 degrees
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg beaten
4 tablespoons butter, melted, but not too hot
Approx. 3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup currants

Add yeast to mixing bowl along with brown sugar. Add beaten egg and butter to milk, mix and melt until warm, not more than 110 degrees. (If it's too hot to the touch, it's too hot to add to the yeast)

Mix egg, butter and milk with yeast and sugar mixture and let sit for 15 minutes until it foams (proofs).

Add 3 cups flour, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg and mix well.  Add currants and continue to mix until well incorporated. Add flour in 1/4 cup increments, mixing after each addition until dough forms a shaggy ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Remove the dough hook from the mixer, scrap dough into mixing bowl, cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise, at room temperature  for at least six hours, and preferably overnight. Some may be concerned with leaving dough at room temperature with an egg as one of the ingredients. Although I've never had a problem , alternatively, you may refrigerate the dough instead. Remove dough and let come to room temperature.

Liberally sprinkle some flour on a cutting board. Scrape the dough onto the floured board and sprinkle flour over the top of the dough also. Fold dough onto itself a couple of times, and then knead 10 or 12 times to smooth it out. Place on a sheet of parchment paper and lift by paper and place in dutch oven. Cover and place in a warm place to rise for an hour to an hour and a half. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Cut 3 diagonal slashes in the dough and place covered dutch oven into oven and bake for 25 minutes. Remove lid from dutch oven and continue baking for 15 minutes more. Check at 10 minutes because it'll brown very quickly.

Remove and let cool completely before cutting.

Enjoy!  And remember, lovin' the oven!

Dutch Oven Bread

I have for years  made homemade bread. It's one of the most satisfying things to bake I think. And yet I have tried and tried to make bread that will have a nice crust and soft and moist inside. But that crispy outside crust is very difficult to achieve because of todays ovens. I've tried pans of steaming water, spray bottles of water while baking and various other methods but they just don't work that well. One reason is, that no matter how much steam you might be able to produce, today's ovens vent it, so it just kinda waves at your bread as it exits the oven. The fact of the matter is, that professional baking ovens, I understand, have steam injection systems into a closed oven, with allows the crust to be moistened by steam while beginning to bake, which is what creates the crust I'm talking about. (The moistness of the steam keeps the outside of the loaf from setting immediately as it does in a hot dry oven, which also helps with it's rising during baking, who knew?)

10 days ago I bought a Dutch Oven, plain cast iron, because I've always wanted to Braise meat in a long cooking process in the oven. Yes, I have a slow cooker, yes I have a pressure cooker, but I'm a foodie. We simply HAVE to try all kinds of cooking methods, don't we?

Anyway, apparently when you bake bread in a covered dutch oven, it "steams" inside the pot and therefore yields the kind of crust and texture we are all looking for. I tell ya, I opened up the lid halfway through, and was stunned at how it had risen and how delicious it looked and smelled.

Well, there is a reason you have not yet seen me post something I've made in a Dutch Oven. Because I've made two things already and they both BOMBED!  Miserably BOMBED!

I first tried to make Beef Bourguignon and the recipe I was following I think was defective because it was overcooked, and although the meat was tender and delicious, the gravy was the ugliest gray color I've ever seen. Cooked out all the color and the essence.

So, not to be deterred, I decided to make my own baked beans from scratch. It smelled delicious in here for like five hours as I slow-cooked them, and slow-cooked them, and slow-cooked them, and they STILL were hard. (Yes,  I soaked the beans overnight)

So I threw out the beans because I got tired of messing with them.

So it's Dutch Oven 2, Merlin ZERO.

Then I remembered about baking bread in a Dutch Oven. All I can say is, you gotta try this, you just gotta.

This is a no-knead bread recipe and is intended to be a kind of loose, easy dough, with a lot of bubbles.

Ingredients and Method:

1 package active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour and a bit more for dusting the bread after rising.


Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in a bowl or mixer. Add the flour and salt (in that order) and mix thoroughly. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest on a counter at room temperature at least six hours
and preferably, overnight. (This allows the enzymes to continue to work to develop a nice flavor to
the dough)  It'll be loose and bubble up, that's ok.

Dust a cutting board with some flour and scrape the dough onto it. Sprinkle a bit of flour over the top
as it will be very sticky. Don't knead, just fold the dough over onto itself a couple of times, and shape
into a ball. If the dough is too loose, just knead in 1/4 cup of flour. Repeat as necessary until the dough is the
consistency you would like. Shape into a ball by pulling around the dough edges and folding underneath. Place on the counter on a piece of parchment paper and cover with a towel and let rise for another 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

When you are ready to bake the bread, preheat the dutch oven in the oven at 450 degrees. Carefully remove the dutch oven, take off the top, and using the parchment paper, lift up the dough ball (towel removed, of course, heh heh)  and gently drop it into the dutch oven. Use a knife to slash 3 slits in the dough, diagonally.Cover and place back in oven. 

Bake covered for 20 minutes, then remove the lid and continue baking for 15 minutes until dough is browned. Remove from oven and cool for one hour before cutting.

All I can say is....   Dutch Oven 2, Merlin ONE!