Daring Bakers: Dutch Crunch Bread

 Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!

I had never heard of Dutch Crunch Bread before.  Apparently it is very popular as a sandwich roll in the San Francisco Bay area - I have been there are few times but have not run across this before.  As you can probably guess from the name, this bread originated in the Netherlands where it is known as tijgerbrood or tijgerbol (Tiger Bread) because of its strange appearance.  Well I love good bread and I love a good sandwich so I was all over this challenge.

The bread recipe was mostly a typical bread recipe until it came to the end.  Before you stick it in the oven you mix up a rice batter - like a bread dough recipe but very thin - and spread it on the rolls.  It is one of those recipes where you just have to wonder how someone ever came up with it.  In the oven the rice batter cracks as it dries and gives the bread a very distinct look.

I can't say my bread looked as nice as some of the others doing the challenge but it still looked cool.  Not sure if I would really call it a crunch but the topping does add a different texture and it also adds quite a bit of flavor to the bread as well.  It is also kind of a messy bread to eat as the topping kind of crumbles as you eat it.  I did enjoy it and will make sure to try to find some next time I am in San Francisco to see if what I made is anywhere close to the real thing.

The challenge was to make a unique sandwich with our bread.  Not sure I really made anything unique.  We are having such a beautiful early spring here in Minnesota so I just decided to grill up some chicken breast with Cajun spices and topped it with some avocado, tomato, and lettuce - not anything very original but it was delicious!

If you would like to try making Dutch Crunch Bread yourself check out the recipe titled "Lions, Tigers, and Bears, oh my" in the Daring Bakers Recipe Archive.

Daring Kitchen: Red Wine Braised Chuck Roast

The March, 2012 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Carol, a/k/a Poisonive – and she challenged us all to learn the art of Braising! Carol focused on Michael Ruhlman’s technique and shared with us some of his expertise from his book “Ruhlman’s Twenty”.

I am currently in FL on vacation and trying to type this on my iPad so I will probably be keeping this a little short. I would as thinking I would skip this one since I didn't have much time but when I saw that it was braising I had to do it - everything is good braised. My wife is a big fan of braised short ribs so I was thinking I would do the Michael Ruhlman Red Wine braised short ribs. Well I did a stop at the local supermarket and learned that they didn't carry short ribs. I had a sick kid at home and trying to get ready for vacation so I didn't really want to deal with getting to a meat market for ribs so I decided to fake it. I had a chuck roast in the freezer so I cut the pieces into sort of rib shape pieces ( McRib anyone? ) and just followed the recipe after that.

The recipe was easy to follow. I made the braised meat a day ahead - it is a lot easier to time that way. The only problem with that plan is that you get to smell it cooking all day and then you don't get to eat it right away. The unique thing about the recipe is that you braise it with vegetables to make a nice flavorful sauce but then you throw the veggies away and cook some new vegetables so they are complete mush. I served mine over polenta that I cooked using Alton Brown's Savory Polenta recipe. The polenta was great and it was a very easy recipe since it cooks in the oven. The faux ribs were also a big hit with my wife and myself. Great tasting fall apart meat with a fantastic flavorful sauce and nice tender but not mushy vegetables. I also loved all the mushrooms - it was a lot of mushrooms but I never complain about too many mushrooms.

Daring Bakers: Pineapple Upside-down Quick Bread

This month on the Daring Bakers our host was our wonderful leader - Lis.  Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

So it turns out this is going to be another fairly simple challenge like the last few challenges.  I do like these - seeing all the creativity from the other Daring Bakers and Cooks but I have not really been very daring myself - I have just cooked one of the recipes given in the challenge.  It was hard not to do the same this month since Lis gave us some wonderful recipes to try - Pumpkin Bread with Maple Cream Cheese filling sounds especially good to me.  Well - not this time - I decided I was actually going to try to be at least a little daring myself.

I had a few thoughts but finally decided to turn one (or two ) of my favorite cakes into a quickbread.  I have always loved Pineapple upside-down cake and it seemed like a natural.  For a little twist I also added a bunch of toasted coconut to a fairly standard Pineapple upside-down base (or top).  I then used the basic quick bread recipe that Lis gave us - only I added a bunch of chopped pineapple to it.

I have to say I loved it - the cake was nice and soft and moist.  The topping worked great - just like a pineapple upside-down cake - but the addition of the coconut was very good - I love the texture and flavor it added.

Pineapple Upside-Down Quick Bread
Makes one 9" x 5" loaf
Recipe from A Cooking Dad

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup coconut, toasted*
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 slices canned pineapple
• 3 maraschino cherries
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar,
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk or soured milk*
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pineapple (approx 3 slices)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Pour melted butter into non-stick 9"x5" loaf pan.  Brush onto sides of pan and allow extra to coat the bottom of the pan.
3. Sprinkle toasted coconut evenly across the bottom of the loaf pan.  Next sprinkle the brown sugar evenly across the bottom of the pan.  On top of this arrange 3 pineapple slices and place 3 maraschino cherries in the center of the slices. Set pan aside.
4. Sift flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda into a large bowl.  Make a well in the center and set aside.
5. Lightly whisk buttermilk or soured milk, egg, oil, and vanilla to combine.  Pour into well and mix into a batter.  Before totally combined add chopped pineapple and mix until just combined.  Batter will still be lumpy and may show a few streaks of flour.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn onto plate and remove pan.

Note: To toast coconut - place raw coconut into skillet over medium heat.  Stir frequently until browned (about 3-5 minutes).
Note: To make soured milk, combine 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice and let sit for 10 minutes.

Recipe adapted from Sara Schewe - Basic Quick Bread

Daring Bakers - Flipping Fried Patties - Potato Rösti

February 14th - hopefully I will have come up with an elegant meal plan for my lovely wife (and son) by the time this blog post goes live.  Now on to something a little less elegant though - patties!

The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

I love these open challenges - it inspires so much creativity and also allows people to show off regional foods from around the world.  Of course I only like the creativity in other people - I have not been feeling very creative myself.  Especially when Audax posts so many good recipes that I would like to try.  I decided to try his recipe for Potato Rösti

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If you don't know Potato Rösti is a dish from Switzerland and is similar to hash browns.  It was typically a breakfast food but is also served at other meals.  Part of the reason I decided to make the rösti is because my wife and I traveled to Switzerland several years ago so I thought it might be a nice memory of that.  I have not had a lot of rösti (and I understand there is a lot of variation) but if I had to say what the difference between them and hash browns is I would say the rösti is typically more of a patty - and the rösti is probably made a little thicker.

I looked at several rösti recipes and Audax's recipe was a little different.  None of the recipes I found had egg or flour in them.  I decided to go with Audax's recipe since he has not steered me wrong yet.  I did make one change to the recipe - I added a diced onion to the potatoes for a little more flavor.

The rösti came out just like I remembered them.  They were wonderful.  I think the secret to good rösti  is to cook it low and slow.  That way they turn out nice and crispy on the outside but nice and creamy on the inside.  

Thanks to Audax and Lis for this months challenge and all the patty recipes - there are definitely some interesting looking recipes I would like to try in the future.  If you would like to try out the rösti or any of the other patty recipes from this month check out the Daring Cooks recipe archive.