Category Archives: snacks

Sir Lawrence Olive Bread Sticks

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I love olives. I love olives stuffed with pimentos, or not. I love green olives, I love black olives. I am the only one in our house who does love olives, so…. When the spouse is away, the baker can play. Several years ago when Fran was away I would treat myself to a dish of grilled turkey sausage over a bed of black beans and white rice and finished with a monolayer of sliced jalapenos.  Mmmmmm… But I digress, I was talking about olives.

Paul Hollywood made olive bread sticks on a GBBO Masterclass month. You may know, I love olives and you may also have caught the hint with Fran away I can make a variety of foods I prefer not to make. I made olive bread sticks today.

I used Paul’s recipe and technique, and it worked spot on, first time. I cut the recipe in half and ended up with about 18 bread sticks about an olive wide and 12” long. As an experiment, I added and egg wash to 4 and coated the tops of 4 with butter. It was not needed. It didn’t offer much. I wonder how they would be with turkey sausage and jalapenos?

INGREDIENTS

  • 1kg/2lb 2oz strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 20g/¾oz salt
  • 20g/¾oz instant yeast
  • 800ml/1½ pints tepid water
  • 4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for oiling
  • 1 x 1kg/2lb 2oz jar pitted green olives in brine, drained
  • fine semolina, for dusting (optional)

METHODmixing-dough-with-olives

  1. Oil two 2-3 liter/3½-5¼ pints square plastic container. (One for half recipe.)
  2. Put the flour into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add three-quarters of the water and begin mixing on a slow speed. As the dough starts to come together, gradually add the remaining water.dough-with-olives-incorporated
  3. Mix for a further 5-8 minutes on a medium speed. The dough should now be wet and stretch easily when pulled. Add the olive oil and mix for a further two minutes. Add the olives and mix until well-distributed.
  4. Put the dough into the oiled containers and leave until they have at least tripled in size – for approximately an hour.mixed-dough-before-rise
  5. Line four baking trays with baking parchment or silicone paper and preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas
  6. Dust the work surface heavily with flour – add some semolina too, if you have some. Carefully tip the dough onto the surface. It will be very loose and flowing – but don’t worry. Rather than knocking it back, handle it gently so that you keep as much air in the dough as olive-loaf-risen-1possible.
  7. Dust the top of the dough with flour and then stretch it out gently to a rough rectangle. Starting at one long edge, cut the dough into approximately 36 strips. Stretch each piece out until 20-25cm/8-10in long. Place six strips onto each of the prepared baking trays, spacing them apart.dough-cut-straightened-and-baking
  8. Bake the dough sticks for 10-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.olive-loaf-completed-1

Sugar Cookies with Sugar Icing, I can’t stop shaking!!!

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As if plain sugar cookies aren’t enough to start heart palpitations and have you bouncingsugar-cookies-chanukah_0005 off the walls with a sugar high, let’s coat them with sugar icing! There is no thought of balancing flavors or textures here, just sweet and crunch. I saw a hint somewhere of using squeeze bottles with medium fine tips rather than traditional piping bags to decorate cookies. At about $1 each, what go wrong? As it turned out, they worked great and provided squeexe-bottlemore fine motor control than piping.

I “piped” the edges of the cookies with a fairly thick batch of colored, or not, icing to make a damn dam. Be careful not to try to sugar-cookies-christmas_0005pipe thick icing. #1, it plugs the tip and “b” it takes a lot force (read: tired and cramping fingers and hands here). Once the damn dam is dried flood the inside with thinner frosting. Poke any holes with a toothpick. Let dry, probably overnight.

INGREDIENTS

COOKIES

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

ICING

  • 1 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 3-4 tablespoons water
  • 1-2 tsp lemon juice

Method

  1. In large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture; beat until combined. Divide dough in half; flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic; freeze until firm, at least 20 minutes, or place in a resealable plastic bag, and freeze up to 3 months (thaw in refrigerator overnight).
  2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment. Remove one dough disk; let stand 5 to 10 minutes. Roll out 1/8 inch thick between two sheets of floured parchment, dusting dough with flour as needed. Cut shapes with cookie cutters. Using a spatula, transfer to prepared baking sheets. (If dough gets soft, chill 10 minutes.) Reroll scraps; cut shapes. Repeat with remaining dough.
  3. Bake, rotating halfway through, until edges are golden, 10 to 18 minutes (depending on size). Cool completely on wire racks. To ice cookies, spread with the back of a spoon. Let the icing harden, about 20 minutes. Decorate as desired.
  4. For the icing, sift confectioners’ sugar into a small bowl. Mix water and lemon juice. Whisk in water/lemon juice mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, until smooth and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. If too thin, whisk in more sugar; if too thick, add more liquid. Spread over cookies with back of a spoon. Add other decorations, if desired. Let the icing harden, about 20 minutes.

NOTES

Use flour on utensils to keep dough from sticking: Dip the cookie cutters, and dust the spatula before transferring uncooked dough to a sheet. You can store cookies in airtight containers at room temperature, up to 1 week.

Cheddar Cheese Crackers

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I wanted a snack to go with football and a beer or two this past weekend and remembered this recipe in Paul Hollywood’s bread cookbook. I based my recipe on his for poppy or caraway seed or Gruyere cheese crackers but mine just uses cheddar cheese.

A couple of caveats I learned the hard way:img_0009

  • Rolling the dough out thinner makes more, crispier crackers. They will puff up, especially if thick. Next time I will use the spacer rubber bands on my rolling pin to be sure they are thin and uniform.
  • Make sure they are img_0004cooked through. They need to be a good golden brown. Leave them in a few extra minutes and test a thick one when you think they are done. They should be well cooked all the way through or they won’t have a good cracker snap (they will still taste great though.)

 

Ingredients

  • 325 g white bread flour
  • 8 g salt
  • 110 g softened butter
  • 45 g water
  • 2 eggs
  • 120 g sharp cheddar cheese

Method

  1. Put the flour, salt, butter, water and 1 beaten egg into a bowl and mix for 5 min. (Stand mixer level 2)
  2. Add the shredded cheddar cheese and mix until well incorporated.
  3. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 1-2 hrs.
  4. Preheat an oven to 400o fan and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  5. Roll out dough on a lightly floured counter to about 1/8″ (no more) and cut. I used a 2″ round cutter. Place on the lined cookie sheet, brush with the second egg (beaten.) Dust with Kosher or Sea Salt and bake for 15 – 20 min.
  6. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Serve warm or cold.
Makes 30-40 crackers.