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!