Homeade "Hot Pockets"

This is a new favorite!!!!
Kids LOVED it!!! Hubbie loved it!!!

You can use this base recipe to make Focaccia bread.
You can make one large Calzone.
You can make mini calzones, or "Hot Pockets" as I am calling them.
---I ended up loving this last option!!! Great to freeze and pull out and put in kids lunch boxes the next morning for a wonderful easy lunch that they will LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!!

So here is the base recipe:
( I will list all the adaptions below)

 BASE RECIPE FOR:
Garlic Focaccia Bread

• 1 1/4 cup lukewarm water
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 2 1/2 tsp yeast
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 3 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

• (extra olive oil for drizzling over top before placing in oven)

Assemble ingredients through oregano in bowl, mix until mostly blended.
Next add flour, 3 cups and stir with wooden spoon till all incorporated. (you may have to switch to clean hands towards end)
Flour work surface lightly with some of remaining flour and turn out dough onto surface.
Begin to kneed dough till smooth and silky to touch, may be up to 10 min of kneeding. Incorporate remaining flour as needed in this process. ( you may or may not need to use the flour, depends on the day-humidity,etc...) 
Shape into a nice round shape by holding the dough in two hands and turning it a quarter turn in your hands and pulling the dough down and under at the same time. Continue this process till dough is a nice round shape for you. 
Apply liberal amount of Olive oil to dough on all sides and then
Let sit to rest on parchment paper lined baking sheet for 5-10 minutes.
Now roll out the dough out into rectangular shape (on parchment) and let sit again for atleast 30 min, more if possible (45min). Cover with plastic wrap during this process.
About 30 min before baking preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Remove plastic wrap and drizzle more olive oil over top. Sprinkle with coarse salt and bake for 15min, or until golden brown. ( you may also sprinkle with some chopped fresh rosmary that you gently press into dough before baking, this is very aroumatic and lovely)

ADAPTIONS: 

1. Calzones:

(new directions enter in after you roll the dough out on the parchment paper ) 
Rest it aprrox 15-20 min.

Now is where you add your fillings. You put some pizza sauce on one half (if you want sauce-sometime I reserve sauce just for dipping when I serve them) and then add your fillings, leaving a good 1 1/2 inch border,
anything you could want,

ricotta cheese,

any shredded cheeses,

sausage
pepperoni
any veggies
etc...etc...etc...
Next. you brush some water along the border that you left, then  fold over the calzone side that you left empty onto the filled side.Seal the Calzone with your fingers and then fold then edges underneath and seal again with your fingers. 
Now you rest it again for 30-45 min.
Drizzle the top with olive oil.
Next you want to slide this parchment paper onto your preheated pizza stone in your oven at 450 degrees for 15-20 min, watch for it to brown well. ( of course you can do this on a cookie sheet as well, it just won't crisp as much on the bottom)

  
2.The Mini, or Homeade HOT POCKET RECIPE
(again enter in after you roll out the dough onto parchment paper, and with these I often have doubled the recipe-very easily doubles and then you can make some for dinner, and then some to freeze for lunches!!!!!)
--if you have doubled, before  you rest the dough cut it in half with some thing sharp and rest it in two, then roll out two rectangles
At this point let the dough rest approx 15-20 min.

Now out of each rectangle you should be able to cut it ( with a pizza cutter, or sharp knife) longwise into 3 long strips. Now cut it width wise three across, and you will have 9 "pockets" ready to create.

Now we are ready to create a Pocket. The dough is now very pliable. So take a section and stretch it gently to make a nice size rectangle that will fold over nicely into your pocket,( you shouldn't have to manipulate it too much.)
-- place whatever you wish you fill your pocket with on one side of the rectagle, leaving a small border(1/2 inch, or even a little less. Now bring over top of rectangle and using a fork press down along all 3 sides of the pocket sealing it. This seals everything in and makes for a really nice look to your finished product!!
Now let each Pocket sit on the parchment and rise for 30-45 min.
Preheat over to 450 with baking stone in place.
Drizzle each with olive oil before placing on stone.
Place all Pockets on baking stone to bake for approx 15 min, or till brown. 
(if you bake on a greased baking sheet for 15 min, when done you make want to turn them over and place back in the oven for 3 more min to crisp bottoms of calzones.)
--filling ideas= ham and 1/2 cheese stick, turkey and cheese, pepperoni and cheese, brie and ham, shredded chicken and cheese, etc.... or any pizza type ing to make mini calzones

The BESTEST Sugar Cookies EVER!!!

I promise these are the BEST Sugar Cookies, and the EASIEST that I have ever, ever ,ever made!!!!!

courtesy of Southern Living (with my slight tweak)

(sorry no plain cookie pics, forgot)

1 Cup butter, softened

1/2 tbsp vanilla bean paste

( use good vanilla extract if you don't have the paste, but I PROMISE its worth searching for-- You can order it at specialty grocery stores)

1 cup powdered sugar

2 cups, unbleached all purpose flour

(again unbleached my prefrence, you can used regular flour)

1/4 tsp. salt

--you will also need parchment paper and rolling pin--

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Beat butter and vanilla ( at this point you can use whatever flavoring you like to substitute for the vanilla, for example in the SouthernLiving recipe they used Lemon Zest) with a heavy duty mixer until creamy.
3. Combine flour and salt,mix well.
4. Gradually add flour to butter mixture, beating until just blended. Shape dough into a disc.
5. Gradually add in sugar, beating well. 
6. Roll dough into 1/8 thickness on a lightly "floured" surface. ( in the case of sugar cookies, use the powdered sugar as if it is flour for the purpose of keeping dough from sticking. ie-use it to dust your dough, your rolling pin, your surface,etc...)
7.  Cut out whatever shapes with your cookie cutters and place on parchment lined baking sheets approx 1/2inch apart.
8. Bake for 12-14 min. or until edges are slightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 5 min. then transfer to wire racks to cool completely( about 20 min.)
9. Decorate as desired!!!! Go crazy- decorate however you wish!!!!

Pizza Roll

 (DOUGH MADE USING: Master Recipe from Aritsan Bread in 5 min a day)

Ok, I have to admit this one came out of a total disaster. So I am pretty excited to post it!

So last night was pizza night at our house.  I was pretty sick with a cold, and of course I forgot to buy cornmeal to make my dough not stick. So when I went to put the pizza from board to oven.....NO GO. TOTALLY STUCK!!

OMG!

DISASTER. It was awful...

SO I just started rolling.....

And this is what we came up with:

PIZZA ROLLS- my kids new fav meal ever!

If you have made the dough ahead this recipe come together SO FAST

and SO EASILY,

and is SO SCRUMPTIOUS!!!

and there are SO MANY POSSIBILITIES and VARIATIONS!!!!!

1. Make the dough according to Artisan Bread in 5 min a Day Master Recipe

(just click on link to find recipe for dough)

for basic pizza roll you will need:

1. 
   
   1 can pizza sauce,
2. 
   
    1 cup mozzerella,
3. 
   
   1/2 cup asiago,
4. 
   
    1 cup parmesan,
5. 
   
   1/2 cup romano,
6. 
   
   shredded basil ( 1/4C)
7. 
   
   4 cloves garlic, micro diced and sauted.
8. 
   
    cantelope sized portion of the dough.

(this will make 2 pizzas)Let the Dough REST for 40 MIN. -when you pull the dough out of the fridge, have the bowl you are going to let the dough rest pre-oiled with some olive oil. You will also want to have your hands coated with EVOO because the Dough is VERY STICKY! Make the dough into a nice ball by pulling it under and turning a 1/4 turn each time until you have a nice ball. Now you let it rest for the 40 min.

• 
  
• 
  
  Preheat oven, with baking stone to 550 degrees.                                                                  
• 
  
  Place the dough on a well oiled surface to roll it out. Roll it into a rectangle.   Try to keep it even, not too thin, not too thick either.
• 
  
  Place thin layer of tomatoe sauce (one you made or store bought) on pizza dough,             leaving the end you will be rolling towards and about 2 inches on each side bare.
• 
  
  Add ingredients (be rather sparce here, don't want to overstuff) Add cheeses. I really think fresh grated romano, asiago, parmesans all blended together are the best combo here. (this is where your imagination is the limit, with ingredients to stuff and cheeses)
•  Last step, roll up dough longest side that is full of sauce, toppings towards side that has the 2in border. Roll it as tight as you can. When you get to the end, tuck each end under. 
• Now transfer this roll to the steaming hot baking stone in your oven. ( I always roll mine out on a board, (or  you could use a flat cookie sheet)  so that it will slide off easily into the oven).

Bake for 5 min.
Reset temp in oven to 450 and continue to bake for 25min.
Let sit for atleast 15 min, longer if you can stand it, before you cut into this. 


My KIDDO LOVED LOVED LOVED THIS ONE!!!!!   WOW!
They say they never want me to make regular pizza again, just pizza rolls from now on mommy!

Carottes Rapees AU MEIL ( Grated Carrots with Honey)

 

 

In the quest to find new ways to introduce vegetables to my kids, I found this intriguing, delightful,

French Carrot Salad ( Carottes Rapees AU MEIL )...

Isn't it beautiful????

So, the big question is...

DID THEY EAT IT?

 DID THEY LIKE IT?

Well, to be truthfull....it was a thumbs sideways review from my kiddos..

I guess I should explain. You see my kids have review foods with a thumbs up ( I love it), a thumbs sideways( its ok), or a thumbs down ( I don't like it at all).

I think it was the smoked paprika...a little strong on the flavoring for kiddos??? Maybe next time I will substitute that for something else?

The adults, well we could not get enough!

IT WAS FABULOUS!

It made a lot and we ate it all! No leftovers at all!

I found this recipe in The French Market, More Recipes from a French Kitchen

here it is:

1 1/2 pds carrots

3tbsp clover honey ( i used wildflower honey)

1 tbsp white wine vingar ( i used apple cidar vinegar)

1 tbsp Dark Sesame Oil

2 tsp smoked paprika

sea salt to taste

freshly grated pepper to taste

2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, a mix of black and white if you can find them

1. Peel the carrots and grate them into a bowl.
2. Mix together the honey, vinegar, sesame oil, paprika, salt and pepper.
3. Add to the carrots and mix well.
4. Let stand at room temp for and hour to infuse the flavors (i put in the fridg for a few hours)
5. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and Serve.

CRUSTY French Style BREAD

This is about the easiest loaf of bread one could make. Boy does it smell like heaven in my house when I am baking this bread. Yeast breads just make your whole house so aromatically wonderful while they are baking.This bread is similar to a french bread actually, but when I make a french I add some olive oil in the beginning with the warm water. The picture at the top of my site is the bread straight out of the oven! There are lots of variations you can do with this bread, I will list them at the bottom of the recipe.

French-Style Bread

1 1/2 packages active dry yeast
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 cups warm water (100 to 115 degrees approx)
1 tbsp of salt
5-6 cups bread flour (or all purpose will work)
1 tbsp egg white, mixed with 1 tbsp cold water

Combine the yeast with the sugar and warm water in a medium bowl and allow to proof (abt. 5 min).
Mix the Salt with the Flour and add to the yeast mixture, a cup at a time, until you have a stiff dough.
Remove to a lightly floured board and knead till no longer stick, about 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary.
( generally I need abt 5 cups of the flour, and then add in a tad more as I knead)
Butter a LARGE bowl with approx 1 1/2 tbsp butter.
Then place your dough in the bowl and roll it around till dough is coated with butter.
Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk.
(in these cold winter months I use the oven with the light on- and it usually takes 1 1/2 hours, but may take up to 2 hours)
Punch down the dough and turn out onto floured board. Cut in half. Then shape into two long, "french style" loaves.
Place on a baking sheet covered lightly with cornmeal (or flour) . Then cut 3 slits in the top of each loaf with a sharp knife.
Brush with egg wash.
Place in a COLD oven. Turn temp to 400degrees and bake for 35 minutes or until well browned and hollow sounding when tops are rapped.

Variations:

• you can substitute half whole wheat and half white flour.
• you can add 4 or 5 tbsp of olive oil to the liquid in the first step of the recipe
• use 1/3 white flour, 1/3 whole wheat, 1/3 cracked-wheat
• you can even let this have second rising: first punch down, then knead for approx 5 min, let rise again, punch down again, then when you form the loaves let it rise for like 30 min- then bake as recommended--gives a more tightly textured loaf.