MONTHLY ROUND-UP JANUARY. CAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW.

Well, it might have been that, of those only three posts that were published this month, you missed one.
And that would be a real tragedy.
Because it's when things gets rare that you realize how amazing and essential they are.

Ok, truth is that I got I new job and, together with it, a new life.
This new life implies abandoning my old one in favour of my office. In other words, abandoning my life. Period.
Then I don't have much time anymore, which is a shame, cause Baby is growing and she is really healthy, if you were wondering.
Nevertheless, even if I don't have any time to write about it, I still have time to eat -most of the times- which is reasonably good.

So, in case you missed it:

 we started with a kicking breakfast, on the  day in which you need it the most.
The basic recipe for pancakes, that I keep on forgetting, so I thought you might as well. I know you do.

And them some burnt home-made granola. Yummy!

And some do-I-need-to-describe-it home-made bread.
Wait for the Baby version!







Happy february and happy eating.

HERE IT COMES

Here it comes!
And here I come, after a week of eating and... well, not much more actually - back in Italy.
Besides from the emotional breakdowns you have to go through from time to time, not to be home very often has also some positive side: your grandmas, for example, gathering to write down a cooking agenda - which is to say a plan structured in order to make sure they will cook everything I want without the risk of overlappings.
That's kinda good.
That makes it even more heart-breaking when I go. - Not because of the food, but becouse of how lovely they are, I meant.-

In any case, when I said IT comes, I meant this:

Do you see where all my emotion about bread came from?


INGREDIENTS (make one nice loaf):

• 500 gr/4 cups flour  
• 15gr yeast
• 2 half-glasses lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 ts salt
• pinch of sugar
• 3 TBS seeds oil (peanuts, sunflower, or also olive oil, actually. Of course each one will give a slightly different flavour. You just try and see which one you like the most.)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Put the flour in a bowl and make a hole at the center.
2. Melt the yeast in one of the two half-glasses of water, add the pinch of sugar, and mix everything with the flour.
3. Start kneading and do it for a few minutes, than melt the salt in the second glass and add it as well to the dough. Now add 3 TBS of the oil of your choice to the dough and keep on kneading for about 10 minutes.
4. Now, if you see your dough is kinda sticky, add some more flour. In case it seems too hard, add a tiny bit of water. If you think it has a nice consistency, but could be a bit more elastic, you might add a spoon of oil.
5. keep on kneading until you obtain a smooth, soft and elastic dough.
6. put it in a pot, cover it with a canvas and leave it rest in a place protected from drafts for 3 hours (or until when it doubles in volume.)
7. this time passed, take it off the pot, knead for a couple of minutes and give it the shape you like: you can divide it into smaller rolls, or leave it as it is.
8. Cover your oven plate with baking sheet while pre-heating the oven to 250°C/482°F a bake it for about 20/25 minutes. 

Or until when it looks like this.

BAGELS

Modern life, frenetic paces and everything that comes along. I’m ok with running 700 meters because I'm super late and I really can’t miss the metro –I missed it, by the way-; in always having, as a consequence, two pairs of shoes in my bag: one for the daily marathon and the other one for when I’m pretending to be cool and relaxed, or not at all cool and relaxed, but still having a job interview –well, that’s when I actually remember, to take them. For the just mentioned job interview, before wearing the I’m-cool-and-relaxed shoes I had just walked across half of the city barefoot-.

Anyway, as I was saying, I’m fine with all of that, but not with sad, monotonous lunches.

Here come the bagels.

BAGELS

Makes about 12 bagels

INGREDIENTS:

-          450 grams flour

-          25 grams butter

-          225 ml milk (at room temperature or lukewarm)

-          1 egg

-          Water (just enough, say a glass)

-          15 grams yeast

-          1 ts honey

-          1ts salt

-          1ts sugar

-          To guarnish:

-          poppy seeds

-          sesam seeds

DIRECTIONS:

1-      put the flour in a large bowl and make a hole at the center .

2-      pour the milk in a second bowl, then melt yeast, sugar and honey in it.

3-      Pour the milk into the flour and strat kneading. Add the egg and keep on kneading.

4-      Melt salt in a glass of lukewarm water and add it to the dough. Start by adding just a bit of water, adding it until when the dough will have the perfect consistency  -see elastic and not sticky-.

5-      Now dice the softened butter and add it to the dough. Then knead. Knead, knead, knead.(Hold on and think about the crazy muscles you’ll have after just a few batches). I was almost forgetting: at least 10 minutes, that’s for how long you have to knead. If you read it doesn’t seem like being a very long time so, don’t trust yourself and get a watch.

6-      Brush a bowl with a bit of olive oil, lay the dough down into it and brush it as well,  then wrap the bowl with some plastic film and let it rise for a couple of hours.

 7-      After congratulating your dough for how good it has done, it’s time for some… kneading! No worries, this time it has to be just for a few seconds.

8-      Now divide the dough in 12 little balls, then make a hole at the center of each one forming donuts. Make the hole pretty large and let your almost-bagels rest for more or less an other hour.

9-      Boil some water and put a teaspoon of honey it.

10-   Now, dip the bagels gently into the water and leave them there for some 10 seconds, 5 seconds on one side, 5 seconds on the other (and this is the secret to… ooohhooh… sticking the seeds! Treasure it and brag with your friends). Pull them out of the pot and drain carefully, then lay them down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkle with seeds as if rained. à pay attention at not letting them dry for more than 5 minutes before baking.

11-   Bake for more or less 20 minutes (which is to say “until ready”) at 430° (430F° = 220C°). if you want them to remain soft and not particularly crunchy, put a bowl of water inside the oven all along the baking time.

Dosi per circa 12 bagels

INGREDIENTI:

      -          450 gr farina

-          25 gr burro

-          225 ml latte (a temperatura ambiente o tiepido)

-          1 uovo

-          Acqua (qb, diciamo un bicchiere)

-          15 gr lievito birra

-          1 cucchiaino miele

-          1 cucchiaino sale

-          1 cucchiaino zucchero

-          Per guarnire

-          semi di papavero

-          semi di sesamo

PREPARAZIONE:

1.       Versate la farina in una ciotola capiente e create un buco al centro.

2.       In una seconda ciotola, versate il latte e scioglietevi il lievito, lo zucchero e il miele.

3.       Versate la parte liquida nella ciotola della farina e cominciate ad impastare. Aggiungete anche l’uovo.

4.       In un bicchiere di acqua tiepida sciogliete il sale ed aggiungetelo all’impasto. Cominciate con poca acqua ed aggiungetene fino a che la pasta non avrà una bella consistenza –vedi elastica e non appiccicaticcia-.

5.       Ora tagliate il burro ammorbidito a cubetti e aggiugetelo all’impasto. Quindi, impastare, impastare, impastare. (Forza e coraggio. E pensate ai bicipiti incredibili che avrete dopo solo poche infornate di bagels). Dimenticavo: almeno per 10 minuti, dovete impastare. Non fidatevi di voi stessi, guardate un orologio.

6.       Spennellate una ciotola con un po’d’olio, adagiatevi la pasta  espennellate anche lei, avvolgete la ciotola con della pellicola trasparente e lasciate lievitare per un paio d’ore.

7.       Dopo esservi complimentati con la vostra pasta per quanto è crescuita, è il momento di... impastare!  Tranquilli, questa volta sono pochi secondi.

8.       Ora dividete l’impasto in 12 palline, fate un buco al centro di ognuna di esse e create delle ciambelle, facendo in modo che il buco al centro sia piuttosto largo.

9.       Lasciate riposare i vostri quasi-bagels per un’altra oretta.

10.   Mettete dell’acqua a bollire in una pentola ed aggiungeteci un cucchiaino di miele.

11.   A questo punto, tuffate delicatamente i bagels nella pentola e lasciateli sbollentare per circa 10 secondi, 5 da un lato e 5 dall’altro (e questo è il segreto per.. ooohhooh.. attaccare i semini! Fatene conto e stupite i vostri amici). Tirateli fuori dalla pentola scolandoli per bene ed appoggiateli sulla vostra piastra foderata di carta da forno, quindi cospargeteli di semini come se piovessero.  à attenzione a non lasciarli ad asciugare per più di 5 minuti prima di infornare!

12.   Infornate per circa 20 minuti (che vuol poi sempre dire: fino a che non sono pronti) a 220°. Se volete che rimangano paricolarmente morbidi, mettete una ciotola d’acqua in forno e lasciatela durante tutta la cottura.