Brioche Doughnuts

Ever since making the best bread ever, my brioche dough, I have been hankering to try doughnuts.  Boy, I am glad I did!  They are everything I imagined they'd be.  Rich, yet decadent with a slight crisp giving way to a rich buttery interior of yummy goodness.  The powdered sugar on top gives it a delicate sweetness without being overpowering.  Although, I'm sure the next time I make these, I will use a caramel or glazed drizzle.  mmmm...

Again, this recipe is super easy - especially is you already have your dough made.  

How It's Done

Take a 1 lb. portion from your dough and roll on a floured surface.

Get your trusty biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter (or, in my case, grab whatever you can that will make round holes) and cut out your pieces.  Don't forget the holes - they're great rolled in powdered sugar.  Delightful.  

Pretty self explanatory.  Fry 'em up!

Sprinkle with powdered sugar...

Brioche - The Best Bread Ever!

Ohhh, brioche!  How I love you so...

Brioche is very egg'y and very buttery (yummy!) and lends itself to a variety of dishes.   This is a really good thing because I am making all sorts of things this week.  

The recipe I used is below.  Keep in mind that this makes a lot of dough - enough for 4 loaves, so plan accordingly.   The best thing is that this dough keeps fresh in the fridge for about a week so you have some time to play with it.  

This is especially great for those who don't have a stand mixer at their disposal.  I used a wooden spoon.  It can't get simpler!

Basic Brioche Recipe 

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 tablespoon granulated yeast (1 packet)
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
8 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
7 1/2 cups unbleached, organic all-purpose flour

Pour water into a 5 quart bowl and add yeast.  

Lightly beat the eggs in another bowl and add salt, honey and melted butter and stir until combined.  
Add egg mixture to water/yeast mixture.
Mix in the flour (a cup or so at a time) and using a spoon, stir until all of the flour is incorporated.  Dough will be sticky!

Cover with a dish towel and allow to sit at room temperature for about two hours until the dough doubles in size.  After rising on the counter top, transfer to refrigerator until ready to use.  This dough handles much better if it's cold.

The possibilities are endless with this dough.  When you're ready to bake, grab a handful of dough (approx. 1 lb) and get to baking.  For loaves, flour and bake in loaf pan.  Brioche loaves can be used for the most delicious french toast you've ever tasted!  For cinnamon rolls, take your 1 lb handful and roll into a rectangle on a heavily floured surface - then top, roll and cut.  :)  Braided breads, muffins, doughnuts, fried filled tarts - everything is possible with a little brioche dough...

What will you make today?

  

All About Arugula - Growing & Eating

Ahh, Arugula.  I love it.  The dark green leaves are deliciously peppery and can be enjoyed raw for salads (my fave) or cooked.  If cooked, they are similar to collards (which I'm not very fond of).  

This year, I decided to start my garden with seeds, however I chose the 'easy way out' for my arugula - I purchased plants.  I know, I should be ashamed of myself but what can ya do?

Arugula is so easy to grow.  Once the leaves get long enough, you can just hack them off and enjoy on pizzas, sandwiches, or salads.  Within a week, you'll have a brand new bushy plant to enjoy!

A Few Things To Remember:

• All you need to do is get a small arugula plant (or start it from seed) and plunk it into a container of good organic potting soil. Keep it moist but not wet, and cut the leaves off as they start to mature.
• As the plant grows it may sprout a few flowers; let these grow and die - they will continually reseed the arugula. The leaves do turn much more bitter as the flowers come out, though, so if you don't like that just keep picking the leaves young.
• If you don't want to wait for the plant to bolt and go to seed, buy a packet of seeds and continually reseed. This is a fast crop - it grows from seed in under 45 days. So if you keep a couple pots going and reseed every couple weeks you'll have arugula continually.

Seriously, if you grow one thing this year, it should be arugula.  Right now I have several growing in pots, and I'm looking forward to trying my hand at germinating seeds.  

Make At Home - Healthy Doggie Treats

I don't know if you know this about me but my family raises and breeds shih-tzu's.  Currently, we have 6 and keeping them happy and content with treats and goodies can be quite expensive.  

Since we are changing our eating habits, going more au-natural and choosing a more plant based diet, I wondered if I could whip up something that my fur-babies would love that would be more beneficial to them.  

I wondered around pinterest and searched on google and found some really great dog snacks but nothing I thought my babies would enjoy.  They really love cold stuff and sharing a bowl of ice cream with Mr. Wonderful in the evenings is kinda their thing.  Because we've been raising dogs for years, I know that they can tolerate honey, peanut butter and yogurt and a quick call to Dr. Doug (our most wonderful Vet) gave me the idea of bananas.

After that, it was simple enough.  

You want to use bananas that are very ripe and somewhat mushy. 

2 Mashed bananas

2 Tbsp. honey

2 Tbsp. peanut butter 

Big container of plain yogurt.

You can use just about anything to freeze your portions.  These portions are big enough for me to split each container into 2 servings (my babies have little mouths.)  :)  I think next time I may use the small paper cups and put Popsicle sticks in them - you know, like mini-furbaby Popsicles! 

Surely I don't have to remind anyone using the paper cup idea that they to remove the paper before giving to Fido.

As you've probably noticed, these are completely edible so if you think you would enjoy a frozen yogurt snack, you can change up the recipe.  I haven't tasted these yet - my aversion to bananas is winning out and I just can't bring myself to trying it.  But, Mr. Wonderful has agreed to eat one later this evening so I'll report back and let you know what he thinks!  

If you try this or have a similar recipe, please comment!  I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas!  

Happy Whisking!

Banana Bread

Today's Great Thing was not about me, considering I hate (yes, I used the 'H' word) banana bread.  I guess it stems from the fact that from the ages of 4 to 9 all I ate was bananas.  Seriously.  

At any rate, my husband loves banana bread.  He and the kids are off to the hunting cabin this weekend - it's youth hunt weekend in Alabama, and their special prize was a warm loaf of Banana Bread.  They even paid me with a happy dance!

Of course they think I slaved all day preparing this but I didn't.  It was a mix!  You know, one of these mixes...

And the best part:  It was only $1.96 at my local Walmart.  Using my trusty $1 off coupons, I was able to score these mixes for only $0.96 each.  Not too shabby, eh?

Moral of the story:  It doesn't have to cost much OR be homemade to be a really Great thing!

If you need coupons, Leonard at American Consumer Services offers the most helpful and affordable options.  Just contact him here and do me a favor - tell him Heather sent you!  

Iced Latte's, a really GREAT thing.

There's coffee and then there's iced latte's.  For me, having a tall iced latte in the morning is much better than the hot stuff.  Of course if I were to buy an iced latte every day, I'd be spending a fortune.  I can think of much better things to spend my money on - like this awesome twinkie pan I've had my eye on for a few days.

Iced latte's are made with espresso, or a concentrated brew of coffee.  Because it's basically 1/2 milk and 1/2 coffee, the coffee needs to very strong.  Through a lot of trial and error, I finally came up with a great recipe that resembles the lattes from Starbucks.  It starts with cold brewing your coffee.

What's Needed

Large bowl with lid or Ziplock Bag, gallon size

1/2 lb. coffee, ground

5 cups water

Start by placing 1/2 pound of coffee in bowl and mixing in 5 cups of water.  You can also use a ziplock bag.

Keep in fridge for 12-24 hours.  Afterwards, you can strain the muddy mixture in cheesecloth or in a traditional coffee pot.  Set a filter in the basket of your coffee pot, place the carafe under and pour the mixture directly into the filter.

If you don't have a traditional coffee pot, you can strain your coffee in cheesecloth over a sieve.  Cheesecloth can be found in your local Supermart or from here.

You'll be left with a coffee concentrate.  Use a 1:1 ratio adding milk for latte's and hot water for a traditional cup of coffee. 

Effortless Peach Cobbler

Today's great thing was actually a request from the hubs.  He loves peach cobbler and it's just not something I make regularly.  So, why not today?  

I used one of my Grandmothers recipes and frankly, it was easier than mine.  And just as good - if not better just because of its ease.

What I used

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, softened

Peaches, or any fruit (pie filling is also an option)

Combine the flour, milk, sugar and butter in a bowl and add fruit or pie filling.  Transfer to pan and bake in 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes or until done.

That's it!  :)

Easy, Peasy Jello Snacks

I saw this a few days ago on another blog and in my zeal to make these for the family I neglected to take my own pictures.  What are you gonna do?  It happens.  

It's completely simple to make.  In fact, it's so easy that the praises I received from my family almost made me feel guilty.  Almost.  

How's It's Done

Hollow out some oranges.  (I cut mine in half first.)

Fill with whatever Jello you prefer.

Let set, cut and enjoy.

Easy, peasy.

Homemade Salsa

So today was one of those 'I don't feel very well' days and the plans I had to finish one of the million projects I have going on got squashed.  Looking for something relatively easy to do, I remembered that my husband had mentioned a while back he wanted some fresh salsa.

Fresh salsa is quite easy to make, and frankly tastes much better that the jars in the grocery store.  It only takes a few ingredients.

What I used

1 big can of whole tomatoes

2 cans Rotel diced tomatoes with chiles

1 onion, chopped

1 jalapeno, chopped

garlic, minced

couple pinches of ground cumin

cilantro, chopped

Just chop everything and combine together in a large bowl.  Store it in jars in the refrigerator for about a week.  Of course mine never lasted that long...

You can use whatever you like, I used what I had on hand.  Next time, I may use one more jalapeno and some mango or peaches.  Salsa is pretty forgiving so get creative!