a recipe for delicious baked eggs

i mentioned in my last post that i was giving more energy to my photo blog.
however, when i want to post recipes i will post over here.
somehow, someday, i want to combine the 2 blogs in some way - i like the format over there much better, but i still want to write about food, but i don't want to be double posting all the time when i take pretty photos of the food i write about. that sounded complicated. it is. thereby my wanting simplicity in joining the 2 somehow...

but i digress.

i have for you a recipe of sorts for baked eggs.
a delicious way to eat eggs when you have some extra time on the weekend.

what you need:
(1 serving)
- 2 eggs, preferably room temperature (take them out night before)
- 2 tablespoons cream
- handful of fresh herbs - thyme, sage & rosemary (thyme is the most important)
- butter
- salt & pepper
- toast
- prosciutto (optional)
- ramekin
- baking tray deeper than your ramekin

what to do:
- turn kettle on to boil
- turn oven on to 375*
- chop herbs into tiny pieces
- grease ramekin with butter
- place 1 tablespoon cream into ramekin
- sprinkle with a few herbs, salt & pepper
- crack 2 eggs in
- sprinkle with more herbs, salt & pepper
- spoon 1 tablspoon cream on top
- (optional) add more butter to the top
- place ramekin into deeper baking tray, and fill halfway with boiling water
- place tray in oven
- bake for 10-15 minutes (i don't have the timing perfectly. its a bit tricky to keep the yolks runny while not having runny whites so i often overbake it) until cooked to your liking
- enjoy with a slice of toast and coffee


another variant on this dish is to line your ramekin with prosciutto first, and then proceed with the next steps.

other recipes you can look at:
- seasaltwithfood blog
- simple baked eggs recipe

thursday thrift: bread

bread.

i love it. who doesn't? it's so versatile, you can eat it with any meal. i'd venture to guess bread, or some form of it, is one of the top 3 comfort foods for 98% of north america's population.

i am not a fan of all store-bought breads (like wonderbread - bread is not naturally that white - or the kind with 30 ingredients, half of which are chemical preservatives and colors), and the kind of bread i do like to eat (like a bread affair bread for those of you in the vancouver area. i mention them all the time. because they are amazing, that's why.), while amazing, is often expensive too.

i grew up with a mom who made our own bread all the time. when she baked, our kitchen turned into a factory and we had enough bread and rolls and cinnamon buns to last us weeks or months. although she did give a lot of it away. i love my mom. some of my best memories of childhood stem around bread. kneading my little ball of dough, making mini 'barbie-sized' bread loaves and buns, and eating fresh, warm bread, with fresh, homemade peanut butter. my mouth is watering now.


but over the last few years, almost every time i've tried to bake bread, its been a failure in one way or another. or if not a failure, i got a boring, tasteless loaf of bread. wait, yeah, that's a failure. needless to say, i was justifiably afraid to try baking bread for a while. and to bake in large batches like my mom does? i can't even fathom it. i'm a bit of a slow baker. i like to think that i just enjoy it so much that i savor each moment, but really i'm just slow.

my sister and i have recently discovered the wonders of no-knead bread. how is it wonderful? you don't have to knead it, and its not so picky. if you go over the specified amount of waiting/rising time, you won't be left with dense, flat, horrible bread.

i also tried the kneading bread again. three times. and it worked pretty decently!

so i'll give you both recipes below. the photos are from the kneaded bread. the no-knead bread isn't as pretty, cuz we bake it in a casserole dish.

basic white bread (kneaded):
adapted from reader's digest ultimate bread by eric treuille and ursula ferrigno

ingredients

2 teaspoons dry yeast (i've been using active dry yeast)
1 1/3 cups water (325ml)
3 1/2 cups unbleached flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

instructions

1. sprinkle yeast into 1/2 a cup of the water (lukewarm) in a bowl. leave for about 5 minutes, stir to dissolve.
2. mix flour & salt in a larger bowl. make a well in the centre & pour in dissolved yeast.
3. use a wooden spoon (not sure why its specifically wooden...) to bring in just enough of the flour into the dissolved yeast to form a paste. cover bowl with a dish towel, and wait 20 minutes. you want the paste to get spongy, frothy, and expand a bit.
4. pour half of the remaining water into the centre, & mix in flour from the sides. stir in water as needed for a firm, moist dough.
5. turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. knead until smooth & elastic, about 10 minutes. (i usually gave up around 7. oops)
6. put the dough in a clean, lightly oiled, bowl & cover with a dish towel. let it rise until its' doubled in size, around 1 1/2 to 2 hours. punch it down (get the air bubbles out), and then let it rest for 10 minutes.
7. shape the dough into a loaf. i basically took the punched down dough, flattened it a bit into a rectangle shape, and rolled/folded it into itself on a lightly floured surface. pinch the ends together, and that end becomes the bottom of your loaf. make sure the top is smooth. it helps to cup your hands over the loaf, and kind of roll it - the top of the loaf will just barely touch your hands. make sure the ugly side with the pinched ends stay on the bottom.
   
8. place loaf on a floured baking sheet* and cover with a dish towel. let it rise again (proof) until its doubled in size, around 45 minutes.
9. cut slashes in the loaf diagonally, & bake in a preheated oven (425 F) for about 45 minutes. a good test is to pick it up with potholders, and tap it underneath. it should sound hollow.
10. cool on a wire rack.
    
11. slice up a few slices, spread on the butter, and devour.

*you can also use a loaf pan if you prefer.


no-knead bread:

i'm actually not going to type this one out, because the new york times' article its from is pretty in-depth already. here it is. sometimes we mix rye or whole wheat with our organic unbleached, all purpose flour. one cup of rye flour gives it a nice flavor, and gives the bread the appearance of wholesomeness.

no photo for the no-knead bread. as i mentioned before, we bake it in a casserole dish, so it takes on a weird shape. it's ugliness doesn't affect the flavor, but it just doesn't like the camera all that much.

if you have any good bread recipes or bread-making tips, do share, or send me a link if you've blogged about it.

happy bread making!

east village bakery - east vancouver artisan bakery

the bakery from my brioche post a few days ago:
east village bakery.
i'll let the photos do the talking on this one.
enjoy.

















east village bakery.
2166 east hastings street
hours: 9:30am - 7:00pm
closed mondays (but open this coming valentines day monday)

brioche

bri·oche - noun[bree-ohsh, -osh; Fr. bree-awsh]a light, sweet bun or roll made with eggs, yeast and butter.



this particular brioche is a callebaut chocolate brioche, from east village bakery. this artisan bakery opened up last year, on hastings just west of templeton. they bake everything daily. in small batches. from scratch. i went in one day in fall last year, and the very lovely owner allowed to me snap a few photos. more will be coming in another post.

flourless chocolate cake

this loveliness is a flourless chocolate cake. (although i did use flour to dust the pan before i poured the batter in) it gets its texture from the whipped egg whites. subtle and not too sweet, the chocolate in this cake is just right to be a dessert following a rich, heavy meal. which i did last weekend when i took this cake to a thanksgiving dinner. cut up into 16 tiny slices, the serving size was just enough to satisfy but not overload.



i got the recipe from bread & honey. i won't bore you with the recipe, i'll just let you follow it from the link.

for those of you who don't care to follow the recipe, here's some more pretty pictures! (i'm really happy with how these photos turned out)

apple cinnamon muffins

do something for me. take a quick peek at what katie ate and tell me you do not want to devour everything katie makes and photographs. i know i do.

in case you are too lazy to click on links, here are a few of her photos:

gorgeous!

i wanted to bake something with apples today. my sister and i ordered a large box of gala apples from the okanogan valley last week and we've already made 2 batches of apple sauce, one pan of apple crisp. we still have copious apples left. so, i wanted to bake something with apples today. and i did. i looked to katie for inspiration, and was debating between this apple tea cake and these apple cinnamon muffins. the tea cake looks amazing, but my relationship with my springform pan is a bit dubious and i would like to avoid using it until i find a better replacement. so i made the muffins. loved that the recipe didn't call for any butter or oil (don't get me wrong, i love butter. LOVE it. it's just that it costs so much money and i'm trying to be a bit more frugal than normal these days), but called for applesauce. hey, i just made some last week! anyway, they are pretty quick and easy. the result? not bad. a bit chewy, (maybe i over-stirred), but pleasantly moist and good-tasting. you can look at katie's lovely photos here, and compare them with mine. i like hers better, but i'm pretty happy with mine too.


here's the recipe:

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup applesauce
1 cup peeled, cored, chopped apple

topping: sugar & cinnamon (just guess at the amounts, however sweet you want it, baby!)

preheat the oven to 390F

i always like to mix all the dry stuff before i mix in any wet stuff, no matter what the recipe tells me. so i mixed the sugar, cinnamon & ginger together, then sifted in flour, baking powder and salt in a big bowl. add the milk & applesauce and mix with a spoon until it comes together. don't overmix! add the apple pieces. spoon into muffin cups or a greased muffin tin. sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar on top and pop into the oven for 20-25 minutes. makes about 12 smallish muffins.


enjoy!