Cider-Pumpkin Bagels

Cider-Pumpkin Bagels

1 1/2 tsp yeast

1 1/4 c apple cider

1/4 c butter (melted)

1/4 c pumpkin (canned)

2 tbsp white sugar

1 tsp salt

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

2+ c white flour

oven 400

Heat apple cider in the microwave.  Use a thermometer to make sure temperature is between 100 and 110 degrees before adding yeast.  Combine cider, yeast, and sugar in a stand mixer.  Melt the butter and add it to the mixer along with the egg yolk, pumpkin, and salt.  Combine, then add whole wheat flour.  Mix well, add white flour until dough is no longer sticky.  

(I think I initially used about 2 1/2 c white flour, but after rising the dough was still extremely sticky, and I ended up adding another 1/2 - 1 c.  

Let dough rise for 1 hr, then divide into 8 pieces and shape into bagels.  Drop each bagel into boiling water until it floats, then bake for 20-25 minutes.  I checked these ones after 12, un-stuck them from the pan, then baked them for 8 more minutes. 

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not sure I can identify the taste of either pumpkin or cider in these bagels...but I don't actually have the best sense of taste, so I'll have to wait for Coby to come home and taste them to find out exactly how flavor-full they are.  They do taste good though!  Breakfast this week is going to be great!

Apple Cider Pitas

They go well with my pumpkin soup.

Cider-Pumpkin Truffles

for the filling:

1/2 c apple cider

4-5 tbsp pumpkin

3.5 oz chocolate (60%)

for the shell:

7 oz chocolate (60%)

DIRECTIONS

Combine the cider and pumpkin in a small saucepan over medium heat, stir constantly.  Occasionally stop stirring for 10 sec and see if the mixture starts to bubble.  When it does, turn off the heat and add the 3.5 oz of chocolate.  Stir til smooth.  Refrigerate until cool.  

The ganache will be very soft.  Scoop out truffles (I got 35) onto a baking sheet lined with tin foil, and then freeze them until they are hard.  Once they are hard, melt the 7 oz of chocolate, and use a fork to dunk each truffle and coat it completely, then return it to the foil-lined tray.  You want to coat the truffles as fast as possible, or take them out of the freezer in batches.  Once they get soft, they are very hard to work with. 

Put the finished truffles in the freezer or the fridge to set. 

Cider-Whiskey Pot Roast

2 large gold potatoes, chopped

3 medium carrots, chopped

1/2 c chopped cabbage

1/2 c mushrooms

2.5 lb pot roast

1/2 c Jameson Irish Whiskey

1 c apple cider

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger

flour

cinnamon

Spread the potatoes on the bottom of a crock pot.  Layer the carrots on top, then the cabbage, then the ginger.  Coat the roast with flour and cinnamon, then place it on top of the vegetables.  Scatter the mushrooms around the roast.  Mix the cider and whiskey and pour it over the roast.  

Cook on high for 7 hours.

When done, shred the roast to be used in various dishes throughout the week. 

I think it will make a nice pulled-beef sandwich.  

I think I will also use some of it for home-made lo mein later this week.

Here's tomorrow's lunch.

Cider Slider Buns

I've been thinking a lot about the menu for my annual New Year's Eve party.  Every year the food gets a little fancier and requires a little more work.  This year, I think one of the things I'm going to do is pulled-pork sliders.  And I'm going to make all of the slider buns myself.  Since I've never made sandwich buns before, I figured I better experiment beforehand...

I have made bread many times, but always with water for the liquid, and it always comes out denser than I like for sandwiches. 

Yesterday, I tried out this recipe for homemade hamburger buns from Williams-Sonoma.  They came out pretty tasty.  I cut the recipe in half, and ended up with 8 buns that were somewhere between slider size and hamburger size.  

They tasted good with the sloppy joe's I made for supper last night, 

and with the tuna salad I made for lunch today.

So that is definitely a recipe I can use for my New Year's Eve menu.  However, it is not my recipe.  It belongs to Williams-Sonoma.  So of course, I had to do something to make it mine.  

Today, I substituted apple cider for the milk, and bacon grease for the butter.  Now, it's my recipe. 

Since I had absolutely no idea how this would turn out, I cut yesterday's recipe in half, and made 4 buns. 

So, if you want more than four small buns...double or triple this recipe.

Cider Slider Buns

3/8 c apple cider

2 tbs  bacon grease

1 1/8 tsp yeast

1 1/4 tbs sugar

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 c wheat flour

3/4 c flour

Put the cider and grease in a small saucepan and stir on medium heat just until the grease has melted.  Remove from heat, add yeast and sugar, stir.  I'm too lazy to wait for the yeast to proof...but you can if you want.  Add the salt and flour, stir to combine, knead til smooth.  Cover and let rise for an hour or two.  Divide into buns, put them on a baking tray, and let them rise again.  (Mine didn't really rise the second time...but they came out fine in the end so I don't think it matters.)

Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes.

They are tasty.  They definitely won't go with everything...but I think they will go well with my cider pulled-pork.  I'll make some regular buns as well though, in case some people are scared of cider-bacon buns.  

In other news...I just realized this is my 200th post!  I've had this blog for 20 months, and posted 200 times. I feel like I should have done something extra-super-special.

Whiskey & Cider Chicken

The Marinade

1 shot Jack Daniels Whiskey

1 squirt of Jack Daniels Mustard

apple cider

olive oil

1 tsp rice vinegar

garlic powder

Add enough olive oil and apple cider to cover the chicken.  

Marinate for an hour or more.

Then, lay the chicken in a baking dish and pour some of the marinade on top. 

Bake at 425 for 50 minutes.

The Gravy

Use the rest of the marinade to make apple-cider gravy. 

(Bring to a boil on the stove.  Mix 2 tbsp corn starch with 1/2 cup cold water.  Slowly pour the corn starch/water into the boiling marinade.  Stir until desired thickness is reached.

The Mashed Potatoes

Peel and chop 4-5 large yukon gold potatoes.

Mash with 1/2 stick butter, garlic powder, salt, oregano, milk, and shredded colby/monterey cheese.

The Kale

Saute/Steam in a skillet with bacon grease.

Don't forget the beer!  This one went quite nicely with the meal.

Apple Cider and Pumpkin Beer...must be fall!

Cinnamon Cake

Must be something about fall weather that puts me into a baking mood.  Seems like most of my playtime in the kitchen lately has been more related to baking than cooking.  Today's fabulous creation is  Cinnamon Cake with a Cider-Cinnamon glaze.

The cake recipe can be found here.  The only difference this time is that instead of a tbsp of cinnamon, I used a very generously heaping tbsp.  I baked it in a 9x9 pan for 40-50 minutes.

For the glaze, I used:
1/2 stick of butter
1/4 c of apple cider
a scant tbsp of cinnamon
1 c confectioners sugar

The cake was much too delicate to get out of the pan in one piece, so I cut it into quarters, carefully lifted each quarter out of the pan, and put them on a cookie sheet.  Then, I carefully sliced the top off of each quarter.  I spread a thin layer of glaze in the middle, sprinkled on some chocolate chips, then put the top back on.  I covered the tops with more glaze.

Pictures of Playtime

Cran-Apple Chicken

Behold: the Deliciousness

Mash 2 tbsp butter with garlic powder, sage, thyme, and cinnamon.  Rub the flavored butter all over some chicken legs, then place them in a baking dish.

Peel & chop a Fuji Apple.  Rinse 1 c of frozen cranberries.  Scatter the apple pieces and cranberries over the chicken.  Pour some apple cider over the chicken until the dish is about half-way full of cider. 

Bake at 425 for 50 minutes.  Cover with foil for the last 20 min or so, when the apples start to dry out.  

Eat the deliciousness.

yum!

 leftovers for the weekend