Rosemary Crackers

For the second week of my Bakeshop Wednesday project I really wanted to make a whole wheat sourdough. However, I forgot to look at the recipe before I went to Whole Foods yesterday. I need to get some rye flour and maybe attempt the bread next week. I looked at recipes all day trying to find one that I had all the ingredients for because I didn't want to go back to the store. While having tea at my friend Betsy's house I was looking though a cook book she had all about pizza and bread. I found a super simple cracker recipe. I kind of scribbled the recipe down and don't remember the name of the cook book, but since I changed a few things anyway I think it's okay.

Delicious Simple Crackers

10.5 ounces of all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons sunflower oil
6 tablespoons olive oil
8 tablespoons luke warm water
rosemary
sea salt
Italian seasoning mix (mine has oregano, red pepper flakes, basil, garlic powder, etc.)

Mix flour, oils, water, and a good pinch of all the seasonings in a large bowl. Mix up with your hands until incorporated. Transfer dough to work surface and knead until smooth. The dough should be oily enough that it doesn't stick, but add flour to your work surface if you need it. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Roll out dough as thin as possible (I probably could have rolled mine even thinner). Sprinkle with more seasonings and cut into "cracker sized" pieces. I lightly sprayed a baking sheet with olive oil spray then laid all the crackers on the sheet. Bake for 5-6 minutes; mine didn't brown very much. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Somehow I had a great deal of self-control and didn't eat all of the crackers (with hummus) before Kyle got home. I could have finished all of them and pretended the whole thing never happened. However, these things are so good I wanted to share them. They are softer than crackers you would buy at the store...I might try using the pizza stone next time and that might make the texture different. Also, I might have to try a mix of whole wheat flour and some sesame seeds. It will be pretty amazing if these crackers make it another 15 minutes in our apartment.

Sourdough: trial one

Every Wednesday I am going to bake something I have never made before. This week I started with a very basic sourdough. I got a sourdough starter from a friend and have been feeding it for several days. Everything seemed to be going well but my loaf turned out really flat. It has a good texture but just didn't hold it's shape very well. Also, I didn't slash the dough deep enough so it cracked, which I think contributed to it's flatness. Anyway, it's my first loaf of sourdough and I am proud of it even if it's kind of ugly.

Next week I might try a seeded whole wheat sourdough. I need to do some research on how the dough will hold it's shape better and I might get better results.

Kyle brought me these flowers this weekend. I think this little shelf was made just for them--the cats can't reach it!

Brenna came over this morning for banana-pecan pancakes; I added flax seed and wheat germ which turned out really well and made me feel a little better about cake for breakfast. I bought this delicious butter pecan syrup it was awesome with the pancakes.

Valentine's Day

I am pretty sure this is our first "family portrait".

Happy Valentine's Day. We celebrated with some beautiful peonies, vegetable tempura, and sweet potato rolls.

Can cupcakes be "good for you"?

Okay, so I am pretty sure these aren't a health food but they are much better for you than the traditional cupcake. I got this recipe for Zucchini Ginger Cupcakes from Epicurious several years ago and it is awesome. It calls for honey instead of sugar and instead of butter or milk you use olive oil--however, I used a mix of olive oil and canola oil because I didn't want the olive oil flavor to take over. The zucchini makes these cupcakes really moist, too. Because I still don't really understand the difference between muffins and cupcakes, I put raw sugar on the tops of half of the batch (aka muffins) and made cream cheese frosting for the other half (aka cupcakes). The cupcake liners I used are almost mini sized, so while the second batch was baking I sat in front of my mixer full of frosting and ate one, or two, too many...while they were still warm!! But, hey, they are full of veggies?! You could probably make these vegan really easily by using agave nectar and a mashed banana instead eggs.

In other news, it has been snowing since 5:30 this morning!