Derived from this recipe.
1 package tofu
1 3/4 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Press tofu to dry. While it's pressing, preheat the oven to 425. Mix together all the spices in a big mixing bowl. Add oil & mix into a paste. Tear tofu into bite-sized pieces, add to spice paste. Stir until all the tofu has seasoning on it. Spray a baking sheet with oil, dump tofu onto it, bake for 25 minutes or until you like the texture, stirring every 10 minutes or less. Dip in BBQ sauce, or toss with sauce.
The spice paste is really tasty & could probably be used for other stuff too (veggies, etc.).
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Vegetarian Chili
Here's a rough guess at the chili I made today. It turned out delicious & exactly how chili is supposed to taste! Based on some combination of this, this, and whatever I had around the kitchen.
- 1 can diced tomatoes, not drained
- 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can great northerrn beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can Trader Joe's cajun style black beans, drained but not rinsed
- 2 stalks celery, chopped into bean-sized pieces
- 1 bell pepper (I used half an orange bell pepper and half a red bell pepper)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp vegetarian worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1.5 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- a few shakes of onion powder
- a little black pepper
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Milk Bread
I keep making bread, and I keep getting better at it. This one is a little odd, but it's delicious! Not too sweet, but definitely sweeter than your average bread. Not as fluffy as the bread in the asian bakeries, but definitely fluffier than most of my breads.
Based off of this recipe. Note that it tells you to throw away half the starter or double the dough. I'd recommend doubling the dough and using half of it for a bread loaf, the other half for rolls, and freezing whatever you don't want right away.
FOR THE STARTER
1/3 cup bread flour
1/2 cup milk (I actually used dairy milk this time around, but I suspect other milks would be fine)
1/2 cup water
FOR THE DOUGH
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup warm milk, plus extra for brushing
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for buttering bowls and pan
Mix the starter ingredients together in a small pot. Cook over medium-low heat until thickened to be just a little thicker than gravy. Make sure to continuously pull the bottom upwards -- it gets thick at the bottom & leaves the liquid on the top. Put in a bowl, put plastic wrap touching the top, and set aside to cool.
Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add 1/2 cup of the starter, the egg, and the milk. Knead for 5 minutes. Add the butter and knead for 10 more minutes. I did this by spreading it over the top of the dough (with the spatula from mixing the starter), then folding the dough inwards (to store the butter inside), then repeating. Your hands will be super gross; flouring them is helpful for the first round of kneading, but when the butter hits, it'll just grease your hands instead, which works great. The dough will be not-at-all sticky by the time you're done.
Butter a bowl, butter the dough ball, cover with a damp cloth, and let rise until doubled, about an hour. Punch down, reshape into a ball-ish shape, let rise another 15 minutes. Generously butter your loaf pan -- I just buttered it normally, and the loaf stuck a bit & ended up tearing the bottom off.
Roll the dough out somewhat. I did this by flattening it in the bowl it was rising it. If making a single loaf, roll the dough up like you would for cinnamon rolls, fold the spiral ends underneath, and set in the pan seam-side down. If making buns, either put a single ball in each cupcake cup, or make four small balls & set them in the cup together. Cover with the cloth again & let rise until it's peeking over the pan, another 30-40 minutes.
Take all but the bottom-most rack out of your oven & preheat it to 350. Putting it in the middle or bottom is important, or the top will cook too quickly. Brush the top with milk. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until it's slightly more golden brown than you'd expect, and you can knock on the top & hear it be somewhat hollow. Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then let cool on a rack until you're ready to eat it.
Based off of this recipe. Note that it tells you to throw away half the starter or double the dough. I'd recommend doubling the dough and using half of it for a bread loaf, the other half for rolls, and freezing whatever you don't want right away.
FOR THE STARTER
1/3 cup bread flour
1/2 cup milk (I actually used dairy milk this time around, but I suspect other milks would be fine)
1/2 cup water
FOR THE DOUGH
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup warm milk, plus extra for brushing
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for buttering bowls and pan
Mix the starter ingredients together in a small pot. Cook over medium-low heat until thickened to be just a little thicker than gravy. Make sure to continuously pull the bottom upwards -- it gets thick at the bottom & leaves the liquid on the top. Put in a bowl, put plastic wrap touching the top, and set aside to cool.
Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add 1/2 cup of the starter, the egg, and the milk. Knead for 5 minutes. Add the butter and knead for 10 more minutes. I did this by spreading it over the top of the dough (with the spatula from mixing the starter), then folding the dough inwards (to store the butter inside), then repeating. Your hands will be super gross; flouring them is helpful for the first round of kneading, but when the butter hits, it'll just grease your hands instead, which works great. The dough will be not-at-all sticky by the time you're done.
Butter a bowl, butter the dough ball, cover with a damp cloth, and let rise until doubled, about an hour. Punch down, reshape into a ball-ish shape, let rise another 15 minutes. Generously butter your loaf pan -- I just buttered it normally, and the loaf stuck a bit & ended up tearing the bottom off.
Roll the dough out somewhat. I did this by flattening it in the bowl it was rising it. If making a single loaf, roll the dough up like you would for cinnamon rolls, fold the spiral ends underneath, and set in the pan seam-side down. If making buns, either put a single ball in each cupcake cup, or make four small balls & set them in the cup together. Cover with the cloth again & let rise until it's peeking over the pan, another 30-40 minutes.
Take all but the bottom-most rack out of your oven & preheat it to 350. Putting it in the middle or bottom is important, or the top will cook too quickly. Brush the top with milk. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until it's slightly more golden brown than you'd expect, and you can knock on the top & hear it be somewhat hollow. Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then let cool on a rack until you're ready to eat it.
 |
| Too excited to try it to take a picture before cutting it! |
Saturday, January 7, 2017
New Year's Pretzel
Happy new year! We've always had new years pretzels at home, but they don't seem to have spread beyond Germany/Pittsburgh, so I had to make my own this year. I mostly followed this recipe, but have some tweaks I'd make for next year. In particular, this recipe makes two reasonably sized pretzels, or one comedically large one -- if you only want one reasonable pretzel, halve this recipe.
Pretzel:
1 1/2 cups milk (the recipe calls for scalding -- as far as I could tell from online, scalding does nothing to non-dairy milks, so I just microwaved my almond milk until it was pretty hot)
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup warm water (yeast-rising warm -- you should be able to stick your finger in & hold it, but only barely)
1 tablespoon yeast
6 to 7 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 eggs
vegetable oil
3ish tbsp cinnamon sugar
Toppings:
about 3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
water
chopped/ground walnuts
maraschino cherries
Put yeast, warm water, and a dash of sugar into a bowl; set aside for five minutes to get frothy. In a separate bowl, combine milk, sugar, and butter. Once the yeast is frothy, mix the milk mixture, 5 cups flour, and the yeast mixture together. Keep adding flour 1/4-1/2 cup at a time until the dough holds together -- it shouldn't be as thick as bread dough, but it should be close. Knead just a little to make sure it's well combined (1 minute maybe). Put it in an oiled bowl, cover with oil, cover with a damp towel, and let rise until doubled, about an hour.
Punch down dough, then roll out into a long rope. I made one gigantic pretzel this year; it would be able to serve 10-20 people, depending on the people. Alternatively, you could split this into two. Either way, roll it into a long rope, and see if you can make a pretzel shape. There should be large gaps in the pretzel, since the dough is going to double in size again. If you can't make a gappy enough pretzel, roll the rope longer. Once it's the right length, lay it flat (not in pretzel shape yet!) and make a deep ravine (almost all the way through) down the whole length. Fill with cinnamon sugar -- it should be deep enough that some of it is still dry & not touching the dough. Now, roll the rope around the long axis to swirl the cinnamon sugar through & lock most of it in (so it looks like a real rope, with the twisty spiral around it). Take your twisty rope & make a pretzel shape on the silpat-lined tray you're going to bake it on. Cover with the damp cloth & let it double again, another hour or so.
Remove cloth & bake at 375 for about 20 minutes. If you stick your finger into the pretzel, it should still feel moist but not sticky/doughy. Let cool on a wire rack.
Take about a dozen maraschino cherries out of the jar and let them dry off a bit. A paper towel under them for about 5 minutes should do it. I'm not crazy about this glaze -- it tastes too sugary for me -- so consider adding some extra extract or lemon zest or something to make it less like sugar. I also added too much water, so I added ~2 tsp corn starch to try to fix it -- I'm not convinced they did anything, so I've excluded them here. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, extracts, and just enough water to make it into a glaze. It should be thick enough that it holds onto a spoon for a few seconds, but thin enough that it still drips off. Drizzle all over the pretzel. It'll keep flowing a little bit after you finish, so try to keep most of it on the top -- the pretty drip marks will appear on their own. Place the cherries along the top, then sprinkle with walnuts. Let dry a bit, then mostly cover until New Years Day. Don't completely cover, or the glaze will get too moist and flow off; don't leave totally uncovered for more than ~12 hours, or the pretzel will get stale.
Pretzel:
1 1/2 cups milk (the recipe calls for scalding -- as far as I could tell from online, scalding does nothing to non-dairy milks, so I just microwaved my almond milk until it was pretty hot)
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup warm water (yeast-rising warm -- you should be able to stick your finger in & hold it, but only barely)
1 tablespoon yeast
6 to 7 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 eggs
vegetable oil
3ish tbsp cinnamon sugar
Toppings:
about 3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
water
chopped/ground walnuts
maraschino cherries
Put yeast, warm water, and a dash of sugar into a bowl; set aside for five minutes to get frothy. In a separate bowl, combine milk, sugar, and butter. Once the yeast is frothy, mix the milk mixture, 5 cups flour, and the yeast mixture together. Keep adding flour 1/4-1/2 cup at a time until the dough holds together -- it shouldn't be as thick as bread dough, but it should be close. Knead just a little to make sure it's well combined (1 minute maybe). Put it in an oiled bowl, cover with oil, cover with a damp towel, and let rise until doubled, about an hour.
Punch down dough, then roll out into a long rope. I made one gigantic pretzel this year; it would be able to serve 10-20 people, depending on the people. Alternatively, you could split this into two. Either way, roll it into a long rope, and see if you can make a pretzel shape. There should be large gaps in the pretzel, since the dough is going to double in size again. If you can't make a gappy enough pretzel, roll the rope longer. Once it's the right length, lay it flat (not in pretzel shape yet!) and make a deep ravine (almost all the way through) down the whole length. Fill with cinnamon sugar -- it should be deep enough that some of it is still dry & not touching the dough. Now, roll the rope around the long axis to swirl the cinnamon sugar through & lock most of it in (so it looks like a real rope, with the twisty spiral around it). Take your twisty rope & make a pretzel shape on the silpat-lined tray you're going to bake it on. Cover with the damp cloth & let it double again, another hour or so.
Remove cloth & bake at 375 for about 20 minutes. If you stick your finger into the pretzel, it should still feel moist but not sticky/doughy. Let cool on a wire rack.
Take about a dozen maraschino cherries out of the jar and let them dry off a bit. A paper towel under them for about 5 minutes should do it. I'm not crazy about this glaze -- it tastes too sugary for me -- so consider adding some extra extract or lemon zest or something to make it less like sugar. I also added too much water, so I added ~2 tsp corn starch to try to fix it -- I'm not convinced they did anything, so I've excluded them here. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, extracts, and just enough water to make it into a glaze. It should be thick enough that it holds onto a spoon for a few seconds, but thin enough that it still drips off. Drizzle all over the pretzel. It'll keep flowing a little bit after you finish, so try to keep most of it on the top -- the pretty drip marks will appear on their own. Place the cherries along the top, then sprinkle with walnuts. Let dry a bit, then mostly cover until New Years Day. Don't completely cover, or the glaze will get too moist and flow off; don't leave totally uncovered for more than ~12 hours, or the pretzel will get stale.
 |
| This is my comedically large pretzel. It was delicious, though! |
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Banana Cookies
I had some bananas that were getting too ripe. I didn't want banana bread. Behold, cookies! They're the fluffy kind, like pumpkin cookies.
Based on this recipe. Makes about 18 cookies, maybe 20 if you don't eat any dough.
1.5 cups flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
scant 1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened but not melted, and whipped
1.5 eggs (I used 1 egg and a half egg's worth of egg replacer)
2 bananas (mine were small)
3/4 tsp vanilla
Mix together the dry ingredients. Add the butter. Add everything else. Put them on cookie sheets -- they'll roughly double in size. Bake at 400 for 5-8 minutes.
I frosted half of them and left the other half plain. I haven't tried the frosted ones yet because I'm waiting for them to dry. For the frosting, I used 2 tbsp butter, 1/2 tbsp half-and-half, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and powdered sugar until it came together. It covered 8 cookies.
They're very basic when they're plain, but I like them. You could add raisins, pineapple, nuts, cherries, peanut butter frosting...
Based on this recipe. Makes about 18 cookies, maybe 20 if you don't eat any dough.
1.5 cups flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
scant 1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened but not melted, and whipped
1.5 eggs (I used 1 egg and a half egg's worth of egg replacer)
2 bananas (mine were small)
3/4 tsp vanilla
Mix together the dry ingredients. Add the butter. Add everything else. Put them on cookie sheets -- they'll roughly double in size. Bake at 400 for 5-8 minutes.
I frosted half of them and left the other half plain. I haven't tried the frosted ones yet because I'm waiting for them to dry. For the frosting, I used 2 tbsp butter, 1/2 tbsp half-and-half, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and powdered sugar until it came together. It covered 8 cookies.
They're very basic when they're plain, but I like them. You could add raisins, pineapple, nuts, cherries, peanut butter frosting...
 |
| Frosted above, unfrosted below. |
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Monkey Bread
I was looking for a breakfast recipe before, and while I've never had monkey bread it looked delicious, and it turned out better than I expected! The dough was perfect, but the goo between the dough balls needs some work -- I have ideas. I based it on this recipe, but only made 1/4 of the original recipe, which was perfect for two people.
If I were making it again, I would:
- Use butter instead of margarine in the goo
- Add more flavor to the goo -- cinnamon & other spices, or nearly-applesauce apples
- Maybe follow some of the comments on the recipe, particularly rolling the balls in just butter, then brown sugar, so they get more on them
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup water
If I were making it again, I would:
- Use butter instead of margarine in the goo
- Add more flavor to the goo -- cinnamon & other spices, or nearly-applesauce apples
- Maybe follow some of the comments on the recipe, particularly rolling the balls in just butter, then brown sugar, so they get more on them
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon white sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons margarine, softened
3 tbsp margarine
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp raisins
Heat up the water in the microwave -- warm enough to stick a finger in it & feel it's warm, cool enough to keep the finger there. Mix in the sugar in, then the yeast. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes until there's some amount of froth (I didn't get much froth -- I think the water was slightly too cool -- but it worked out anyways).
Mix flour, cinnamon, and salt together. Add liquids and margarine. Knead it just enough to mix everything together. Cover with a damp cloth & let rise until roughly doubled, about 45 minutes.
Melt the remaining margarine in the microwave. Mix in the brown sugar & raisins.
Squish the dough back down. Tear off chunks & roll into 1 inch balls. Roll those balls in the brown sugar goo. Set them into a greased pan on top of each other -- I used pyrex & it turned out well. Let rise for another 15-20 minutes.
Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, or until it's golden brown. Flip pan over onto a plate & eat.
We ate this too fast for me to take pictures of it. It didn't stay together, because it stuck to the pan & didn't have enough goo between the doughy bits, but it was very tasty.
Notes from making it a second time:
- The rise depends a LOT on temperature. I left the dough out on the (cool) counter for 45 minutes, and it didn't rise at all. I then moved it into the oven (slightly warmed then turned off), and it doubled in about 10 minutes.
- This time, I changed the goo. First I peeled, halved, and boiled half of a small apple (the kind you get in the big bags) for 20 minutes until it was very soft. Then I heated the butter, brown sugar, raisins (only 2 tbsp), and mashed up apple in a saucepan until it got slightly caramel-like. This seemed to stay between the dough bits better. I'd also recommend tending towards smaller dough bits -- the bigger ones were multiple bites, which isn't what I was going for.
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons margarine, softened
3 tbsp margarine
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp raisins
Heat up the water in the microwave -- warm enough to stick a finger in it & feel it's warm, cool enough to keep the finger there. Mix in the sugar in, then the yeast. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes until there's some amount of froth (I didn't get much froth -- I think the water was slightly too cool -- but it worked out anyways).
Mix flour, cinnamon, and salt together. Add liquids and margarine. Knead it just enough to mix everything together. Cover with a damp cloth & let rise until roughly doubled, about 45 minutes.
Melt the remaining margarine in the microwave. Mix in the brown sugar & raisins.
Squish the dough back down. Tear off chunks & roll into 1 inch balls. Roll those balls in the brown sugar goo. Set them into a greased pan on top of each other -- I used pyrex & it turned out well. Let rise for another 15-20 minutes.
Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, or until it's golden brown. Flip pan over onto a plate & eat.
We ate this too fast for me to take pictures of it. It didn't stay together, because it stuck to the pan & didn't have enough goo between the doughy bits, but it was very tasty.
Notes from making it a second time:
- The rise depends a LOT on temperature. I left the dough out on the (cool) counter for 45 minutes, and it didn't rise at all. I then moved it into the oven (slightly warmed then turned off), and it doubled in about 10 minutes.
- This time, I changed the goo. First I peeled, halved, and boiled half of a small apple (the kind you get in the big bags) for 20 minutes until it was very soft. Then I heated the butter, brown sugar, raisins (only 2 tbsp), and mashed up apple in a saucepan until it got slightly caramel-like. This seemed to stay between the dough bits better. I'd also recommend tending towards smaller dough bits -- the bigger ones were multiple bites, which isn't what I was going for.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Oatmeal raisin cookies
Everybody makes oatmeal raisin cookies. But I want to make good oatmeal raisin cookies. So here's an attempt at that. Based on this recipe.
1/2 cup (8 tbsp) butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup oats
2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
2/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 cup raisins
1 shot spiced rum
2 shots water
Mix raisins, rum, and water in a pot. Put on medium low heat so it steams & smells delicious. If I were doing this again, I'd only use 1 shot of water so more of the rum goes in the raisins, or I'd plan ahead enough to just soak the raisins in pure rum without heat. Meanwhile, mix together butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla in a small bowl. Mix together flour, salt, soda, and cinnamon in a big bowl. Once the raisins have absorbed most of the liquid, drain them and mix everything together in the big bowl. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes or so, just until the bottoms start to brown a little. Use a silpat so they don't stick and an airbake pan so they don't get crunchy. They don't really change shape in the oven, so squish them into cookie-like shapes before baking.
Edit:
Another attempt, this one turned out great. Based roughly on this and this.
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/8 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
a pinch of ginger
scant 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups oats
2/3 cup raisins, soaked in hot apple juice
Microwave some apple juice in a bowl until it's steaming. Put in all the raisins (they should be covered) and set aside for a while. In a smallish bowl, cream together butter & sugars. Mix in egg & vanilla until well combined. In the big mixing bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients except the oats & raisins. Barely combine the dry ingredients and the butter mixture; add oats, strain raisins (discard liquid) and add raisins. Mix together & stick in the fridge for 15+ minutes. Then form into balls and bake at 350 for about 6 minutes. These ones also don't reshape much in the oven, so shape them accordingly before baking.
1/2 cup (8 tbsp) butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup oats
2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
2/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 cup raisins
1 shot spiced rum
2 shots water
Mix raisins, rum, and water in a pot. Put on medium low heat so it steams & smells delicious. If I were doing this again, I'd only use 1 shot of water so more of the rum goes in the raisins, or I'd plan ahead enough to just soak the raisins in pure rum without heat. Meanwhile, mix together butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla in a small bowl. Mix together flour, salt, soda, and cinnamon in a big bowl. Once the raisins have absorbed most of the liquid, drain them and mix everything together in the big bowl. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes or so, just until the bottoms start to brown a little. Use a silpat so they don't stick and an airbake pan so they don't get crunchy. They don't really change shape in the oven, so squish them into cookie-like shapes before baking.
Edit:
Another attempt, this one turned out great. Based roughly on this and this.
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/8 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
a pinch of ginger
scant 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups oats
2/3 cup raisins, soaked in hot apple juice
Microwave some apple juice in a bowl until it's steaming. Put in all the raisins (they should be covered) and set aside for a while. In a smallish bowl, cream together butter & sugars. Mix in egg & vanilla until well combined. In the big mixing bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients except the oats & raisins. Barely combine the dry ingredients and the butter mixture; add oats, strain raisins (discard liquid) and add raisins. Mix together & stick in the fridge for 15+ minutes. Then form into balls and bake at 350 for about 6 minutes. These ones also don't reshape much in the oven, so shape them accordingly before baking.
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