Bready or Not Original: Small Batch Crusty Bread
Some bread recipes make a lot of bread. While bread freezes well, not everyone has the space or wants the bread for later. If you just want a small, special round of bread to be shared by 2 or 3 people, this is the bread for you.
This round is rustic, simple, and delicious. It doesn’t require kneading, and therefore doesn’t even ask for a electronic mixer for ease. You don’t even need bread flour. All-purpose does the job just fine.
I first tried this recipe when most of my kitchen was packed up for the move. I didn’t have all of my usual implements or ingredients, but I could make this, and wow, was it good.
I’ve tried this in my small cast iron skillet and in a Pampered Chef covered stoneware dish. Both worked well, but I actually preferred the rise and extra crustiness that came with using the cast iron. These pictures actually depict the stoneware-baked bread, and I daresay, they still don’t look too bad.
Bready or Not Original: Small Batch Crusty Bread
Equipment
- digital thermometer
- cotton towel or napkin
- small cast iron skillet or small stoneware dish
- parchment paper
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2/3 cups warm water 100-110 degrees
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 to 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together the yeast, honey, and warm water. Let it sit about 5 to 10 minutes. The yeast should activate and begin to bloom near the top of the water.
- Add flour. Using a sturdy spoon, stir until everything starts to come together, then add the kosher salt. Continue mixing until no dry flour remains in the bowl. The dough should be shaggy and somewhat sticky. Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and stash it in a warm spot in the kitchen to rise for an hour. It should double in size.
- Set out a small bowl and layer a cotton towel inside. Generously flour the towel. Lightly flour a work surface. Tip the dough onto the work surface. Be gentle as to not lose the bubbles. Shape the dough with cupping and tucking motions, drawing the round to be tighter by tucking the rough bits underneath. Place the formed round in the floured-towel bowl with the seam underneath. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap to rise for 30 minutes.
- Begin preheating the oven at 450-degrees. Place the small cast iron or stoneware inside the oven to heat up as well–and please remember to use potholders when handling it throughout the baking process!
- Pull out a piece of parchment paper. Tip the risen bread onto the parchment, gently tugging it free with the towel if it sticks in spots. Pull the hot pan from the oven. Use the parchment as a sling to set the parchment and bread inside the pan as levelly as possible.
- Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. The bread should be browned and sound hollow if tapped on the bottom. Let cool about 10 to 15 minutes so that it can be handled to be sliced and enjoyed. If there are any leftovers, store them in a sealed bag at room temperature or to freeze for later. Freshly-made bread is best eaten within a day.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Chewy Biscoff Chocolate Chip Cookies Redux
These Chewy Biscoff Chocolate Chip Cookies taste even more inherently cookie dough-like thanks to cookie butter mixed into the dough. They are chewy, sweet, and oh-so-good.
Because someone always asks, “What’s cookie butter?” The answer is: an addictive substance found near the peanut butter in most every grocery store in America; even my local Walmart has it in the main Biscoff brand or as a Walmart generic, and Trader Joe’s calls it Speculoos. It’s essentially pulverized cookies and oil. It has the exact same texture as peanut butter and can substitute for it in most any recipe. There is nothing healthy about it and it is incredibly delicious.
If you search for Biscoff/cookie butter recipes on Bready or Not, you’ll find a ton of recipes. It’s been one of my favorite ingredients for over ten years.
That’s how old this recipe is, too–so old that I originally posed it on the LiveJournal version of Bready or Not! It was high time it had a remake (or rebake).
Bready or Not: Chewy Biscoff Chocolate Chip Cookies Redux
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/4 cup Creamy Biscoff spread or other cookie butter
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- flaked sea salt optional, for top
Instructions
- Cream butter with both sugars until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and cookie butter.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Wrap up dough and chill it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
- Drop the dough by large tablespoons onto baking sheet. If desired, press a pinch of flaked sea salt onto each round. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let set on pan briefly and then transfer to a cooling rack. Store cookies in a sealed container at room temperature.
OM NOM NOM!
TOMORROW: Cozy Up & Read at the Red Wing Library
Tomorrow will be my first book event in my new home of Minnesota, and, uh, the temperature is supposed to dip subzero for the first time this season. Brave the cold, and I’ll try to make it worth your while with lots of free, delicious cookies and excerpts from my works. I’ll have some of my new releases for sale, too.
WHERE: Red Wing Public Library in Red Wing, MN, right on the Wisconsin border
WHEN: January 13th at 10am
BE MORE PRECISE, PLEASE: the Foot Room, down in the basement, where there probably aren’t any ghosts
#SFWAPro
Read MoreBready or Not: Brownie Cookies
If ever you are experiencing a chocolate emergency (need chocolate NOW, don’t want to leave the house, don’t want to spend a long time making something), these Brownie Cookies will satisfy nicely.
These cookies mix up fast. They bake fast. They cool fast. They enter your stomach fast.
Plus, they are imbued with brownie goodness. The dough includes melted chocolate and chopped walnuts. Yes, you can replace the walnuts with a different nut–or leave out the nuts entirely, if you so choose. I really love the texture of a chewy cookie with a crunchy nut, though.
Actually, you could even replace the nuts with something like M&Ms. That’d make these easy to modify for holidays, too–green and red candies in December, the Valentine’s mix in February. Have fun with this recipe!
Bready or Not: Brownie Cookies
Equipment
- baking sheet
- parchment paper
- tablespoon scoop or spoon
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter softened
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1/3 cup light corn syrup
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 3 ounces semisweet chocolate melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup walnuts chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy. Add the corn syrup and egg. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla.
- In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually mix this into the wet ingredients, scraping the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is combined. Fold in the walnuts.
- Use a tablespoon scoop or spoon to dollop rounds of dough, spaced out, on baking sheet. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, then let rest on sheet a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Store in a sealed container at room temperature.
OM NOM NOM!
Publication Day: A FEAST FOR STARVING STONE
Today’s the day! The second and final book of my Chefs of the Five Gods series is out now in trade paperback, ebook, and audiobook. A Feast for Starving Stone continues the adventures of Ada and Solenn as they strive to bring peace to the continent, and most importantly, to their own broken family. Princess Solenn plays an even bigger role this time around. In many ways, it’s a coming of age tale against a background of war and exceptionally good food.
Buy it everywhere online where books are sold, and request it in your local brick and mortar store (especially those indie stores that always need extra love). Also, please request that your local library buy the series!
- Amazon: paperback | kindle | audio CD | Audible
- Barnes & Noble: paperback | audio mP3 on CD | audio CD
- Bookshop: paperback | compact disc | MP3 CD
- Books-a-million: paperback | audio mP3 on CD | audio CD
Also: this coming Saturday, January 13th, I’ll be talking books, stories, and probably cheese at the Red Wing Public Library here in Minnesota. The event starts at 10am and will be downstairs in the Foot Room. I’ll have my signature cookies, and you can buy copies of my new series and my collection.
