Greek Celebration Bread : Christopsomos

Week two of the Bread Bakers Challenge came and went without a hitch. After checking out the ingredient list I was prepared for a super sweet bread, but the finished product was mild and slightly cakey. What is wonderful about this bread is its versatility. You can switch out any of the dried fruits, or try another citrus base. I would love to try this again with dried cherries and pecans!

Although this one was not my favorite Sugar ate almost the entire loaf, literally! All that remained after two days were tiny slivers of the ends.

If you want to try this recipe as is, I would recommend adding orange extract rather than juice, to increase the sweetness a little.

Christopomos

7 ounces of poolish (receipe follows)

16 ounces unbleached bread flour

1 tsp salt

1 and 1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 tsp minced orange zest

1 tsp almond extract

2 eggs slightly beaten

1/4 cup of honey

1/4 cup of olive oil

3/4 cup of milk

1/2 cup golden raisens

1/2 cup crasins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Glaze:

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp honey

1 tsp orange juice

Poolish: (makes 11.5 ounces)

1.25 cups unbleach bread flour

3/4 cups of water, room temp

1/8 tsp instant yeast

Day 1, make the poolish:

Stir together ingredients in the bowl of your mixer until flour is hydrated (it should look like a really thinck pancake batter). Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temp for ¾ hours. Put in the fridge overnight.

Day 2, make the dough:

Remove poolish from fridge and let come to room temperature

Mix together poolish, flour, salt, yeast, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Mix on low until dough forms a ball then increase speed to medium and kneed for 5 minutes, add in the raisns, crasins, and walnuts, kneed for 5 more minutes on medium speed. The dough should be tacky and supple.

Transfer dough to a slightly oiled bowl, roll to cover in oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment for 90 minutes, dough should double in size.

Divide dough into two pieces, one should be double the size of the other. Shape the larger piece into a ball and transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchement, mist the top of the dough with cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap. Let proof for 90 minutes, dough ball should double in size again. Place the smaller piece of dough in a plastic bag and let chill in the fridge.

Preheat overn to 350 degrees with the oven rack on the middle shelf.

After the 90 minute proof time, take the small piece out of the fridge, divide in two, and roll each into a 10 inch strand. Drape each piece over the ball creating an X. You can get fancy here and create a little design with the ends. I split each end with a pastry scraper and coiled them around the base of the bread.

Bake for 20 minutes then rotate back 180 degrees and continue baking for another 20 minutes. It should be golden brown and register about 190 internal temp. Glaze the bread as soon as it comes out of the oven.

To make the glaze:

Combine the water and sugar in a sauce pan and bring to boil. Add honey and juice, and cook lightly.

Cool bread 1 hour before slicing

5-Minute Chocolate Cake

So you get home, you've had a long day, not even your favorite tv show is keeping the pms at bay and you want some cake. Now. Chocolate cake to be exact and you will not rest until you have it.

Solution: 5 minute chocolate cake.

This little dude is made in the microwave. Did I just blow your mind? Because it did for me the first time I heard about it.

Between one of my roommates getting mad at me everytime I bake cookies because she swears I'm making her fat (I can't really blame her, now, can I?) and my co-workers saying the same thing, I decided a little single portion post would keep the yelling at bay (of course they always eat it, oh and ah at me, and then yell at me 5 minutes later).

Now, this is not the best chocolate cake in the world. It's a little spongy and a bit on the dry side. It is cake, however. Chocolate cake. And made in about 5 minutes.

Emphasis here is speedy and chocolatey. This will cure that chocolate cake craving that just wont go away. Go forth and be pms-ey (is that weird to say? whatever).

5-Minute Chocolate Cake

Recipe-Czar

4 tablespoons cake flour

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons chocolate chips

Dash of vanilla

Add the dry ingredients to a coffee mug and mix well.

Add the egg and mix again.

Pour in the milk and oil and mix yet again.

Add the chocolate chips and vanilla and, would't you know it, you mix again!

Microwave mug for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.

Allow the cake to cool a little before overturning on a plate.

Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti

Things I found amazing about this biscotti:

1. It wasn't too crunchy like some biscotti is.

2. It has a great, deep chocolate flavor.

3. The salty pistachios perfectly compliment the sweet chocolate.

Things I found disappointing about this biscotti:

1. I ate 4 in one night, immediately following nacho night.

2. I wanted to eat at least 4 more.

To sum up, probably the best bisoctti I've ever had. Nuff said. =)

On a side note: I am sitting here singing Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" (which you should listen to if you haven't heard it), so if there are random song snippets in this post, I beg forgiveness.


Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti
Martha Stewart's Cookie Book

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar

"Gaga Oo-La-la-a"

2 large eggs
1 cup shelled pistachio nuts
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until well-combined. Add flour mixture and stir to form a stiff dough. Stir in pistachios and chocolate chips.

"caught in a bad romance....ah-la-la-la"

Transfer dough to prepared baking sheet; form into a slightly flattened log, about 12 by 4 inches. Bake until slightly firm, about 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

On a cutting board, using a serated knife, cut biscotti diagonally into 1-inch thick slices. Arrange biscotti, side down, on baking sheet and bake about 8 minutes.

"Roma-roma-ma. Gaga ooh la-la"

Stromboli

Have you ever eaten stromboli? Oh goodness, if you haven't, get thee to a strombol-ery (I just made that up, they probably don't exist)!

Bananie's mom (whom we lovingly refer to as Mama Stromboli) has been making this miracle of nature for us since before Bananie even moved in! We put in a special order with her for every party we throw and let me tell you, our parties are the best simply BECAUSE of this stromboli!

Unfortunately, we decided to try to make our own the other night and realized how insanely easy it is to make. Bummer (for my hips, not my tastebuds). I don't have a recipe, but I'll take you through it!

First get some pizza dough. We used some from a bakery near us. Roll it out and top it with an assortment of goodies. We made three stromboli:
1. Cheese (any assortment will suffice)
2. Mozzerella and Spinach
3. Salami, pepperoni and cheese


Roll the stromboli up and tuck in the ends. Place them on a baking sheet and brush with an egg wash.

Place in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Salivate at the glistening, seeping, melty cheesy goodness...

Slice and dip into marinara sauce. This is the spinach dude.

I told you it was easy, didn't I?! And I would NEVER lie to you ;)

Skiing 101

Bananie took me skiing this past weekend. I used to ski when I was little, but as I got older, flying down a mountain strapped to two sticks of wood just didn't peak my excitement. Nonetheless, Bananie wont stop talking about this "fun" activity and I just had to see for myself. She made me get up at the buttcrack of dawn. Thankfully she brought me a bagel and I got to watch the sunrise as we drove up to the mountain.

"AHHHH! Annie! The sky's on fire!!!!! We'd better go back to bed!

Promptly upon attaching the skiis to my boots (which had my feet in a grizzly death grip), I managed to slide backwards and fall in a tangled heap; skiis, hair, legs and arms on completely different planets. I dissolved into a full-on heave laugh while 5 year olds whizzed past me (and the little punks didn't even have poles! Showoffs....)

Luckily once I took a run down the baby-hill, muscle memory kicked in a teensy weensy bit and I advanced to the beginner slopes! Whew! Chair lift here I come!

The views were gorgeous and we lucked out on a superbly beautiful day!

(aka I couldn't stop snapping pictures)

Unfortunately, oil from the chair lift managed to drip itself (jerk) onto both Bananie and my's jackets. Poor Bananie's white jacket looked like a bird had taken a liking to her. She ended up with an "ski ambassador's jacket".

Whatever that means.

Bananie had to alert the media about what happened to her jacket while were take a jolly ride (oil-free, I might add) on the chair lift.

The easiest way I found to ski was to play "follow the leader" down the hill, playing a 4-year old to Bananie the "ski ambassador".

Every once in awhile I would release my ambassador and let her loose down the mountain.

Woah! Bananie, please don't die. I'll make you something sweet when we get home.

By the end of the day, with my feet perfectly numb both from the darn vice-like boots and the cold, I was skiing like a pro.

And by "pro" I mean I took up what we called the "granny stance": butt way back and hunched over my knees. What a sight!

Good thing we didn't get a picture of that! ;)