Sruli's blog

WHOLE WHEAT PANCAKES 2 cups whole wheat flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoons salt 2 eggs (3 if they're small), beaten well 2 cups milk 2 tablespoons vegetable oil Stir together dry ingredients first, because once you add the wet stuff you don't want to see lumps of baking powder. Then add the eggs, milk, and oil. Stir until large lumps are gone. Small lumps are fine (and desirable). Spray a griddle with non-stick oil and pre-heat the griddle. Spoon pancake sized glops of the batter on to the griddle. I usually use a large soup spoon. Flip when bubbles form and edges start to dry. Cook until lightly browned. I tried this recipe this morning and it came out great. People who like sugar and syrup and stuff will want to use some maple syrup, but my wife and I had them plain while still warm, and they were yummy.

This is the Consumer Reports recipe I liked, as copied from the cyber-kitchen.com web site. I think I still have that issue of Consumer Reports around somewhere, but it was easier to cut-and-paste. In our house it's called the "warm cookie" recipie because we almost never let the cookies cool off. The Practically Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie We wanted a cookie with a chewy interior, crunchy edges, and well-blended flavor. Above all, we wanted a cookie with a high overall chocolate impact to give a sensuous rush to the chocoholic. After much experimentation and perhaps a few cumulative inches to staffers' waistlines, we created a cookie with all those assets. Our recipe makes 40 medium-sized cookies. * 2-1/4 cups flour * 1 level teaspoon baking soda * 1 level teaspoon salt * 3/4 cup each white and packed dark brown sugar * 2 sticks (1/2 pound) sweet butter, room temperature * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract * 2 large eggs * 12-ounce package...

More stuff to try one of these days. Water Bagels 3 ¼ tsp. yeast 1 Tbsp. sugar 2 2/3 Tbsp. malt powder (optional) 1 Tbsp. oil 4-5 cups bread flour 1 Tbsp.+ 1 tsp. kosher salt 2 Tbsp. cornmeal 2 Tbsp. sesame or poppy seeds In large bowl, whisk 1 ½ cups lukewarm water, yeast, sugar, 2/3 tablespoon malt powder and oil until yeast dissolves. Stir in 1 cup of flour. Then stir in 1 tablespoon salt and enough additional flour to make a soft dough, about 2 ½ cups. Knead dough on a floured surface, gradually incorporating more flour until the dough is smooth and quite firm, 10 to 12 minutes. Cover with a towel and let rest 10 minutes. Divide dough into 12 pioeces. Roll and form bagels. Let rise about 20 minutes. Don’t let rise too long! Preheat oven to 450. Line 1 or 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper, sprinkle with cornmeal and set aside. In a large pot, bring 6 quarts water, and additional 2 tablespoons malt and 1 tsp. salt to a boil. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Slip se...

Recipes provided by a friend. I tried the regular pretzel recipe on the bottom, and while the kids liked the dough I apparently got too enthusiastic with the kosher salt, so they scraped it off. It wasn't hard to make but it wasn't trivial, so I'm not going to make it too often. I still haven't tried the Honey Wheat but I plan to do so; I have to wonder if brown sugar might be an acceptable substitute. Honey Wheat Pretzels ¾ cup warm water 1 egg ¼ tsp. salt 3 cups whole wheat flour 2 tsp. honey kosher salt or sesame seeds Combine all ingredients (except kosher salt/sesame seeds) in breadmaker and run through dough cycle. Roll into a 14 x 16 inch rectangle. Cut into 12 14 x ½ inch strips. Gentle pull each strip to make a rope 16 inches long. Twist into pretzel shapes. Place on greased cookie sheet. Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with kosher salt or sesame seeds. Bake 18-20 minutes. Soft Pretzels ½ cup + 2 Tbsp. water ¾ tsp. salt 2 tsp. yeast ¼ cup sugar 2 ½ cups flour 1...

I decided that this blog should hold stuff I'd like to record before the lore gets lost. I may change my mind, but here's the story of Leah and the cow, which happened almost 20 years ago: Leah and the cow: Like most kids, Leah learned "what does a (animal) say?" from picture books. So conversations would happen like this one: Parent: "What does a cat say?" Leah: "meow" Parent: "What does a duck say?" Leah: "quack, quack" Parent: "What does a cow say?" Leah: "moo" One day we took Leah to a farm that was open to the public. This was partly for us and partly for her; we were interested in seeing the stuff they do on "real" farms, and there was a little petting zoo for Leah, who was in a stroller. There were cows in the pasture on the other side of the fence. Cows aren't petting zoo animals and Leah wanted to see them, so we took her over to the fence to see the cows. One obligingly ambled over....

I should probably record this somewhere in a convenient place: Start with somone else's whole wheat challah recipe to see if there's anything you want to steal. There are plenty of good ones on the Internet. That's how I got mine; this is just one that I liked, with a bit stolen from here and there and massaged a bit. It works for me. 1.5 + 2 Tbs water 3 Tbs vegetable oil 1.5 tsp salt 3 Tbs non-dairy creamer (yes, evil but necessary) 1/3rd cup brown sugar (use a generous amount) 4.25 cups pre-sifted (I use frozen) whole wheat flour (unless you want to sift), don't overdo this; when in doubt use less, not more flour 1 packet of yeast, or 2.5 tsp if you don't have packets - you'll have to experiment OPTIONAL: 4 tsp gluten powder with Vitamin C 2 tsp lecithin granules * put in bread maker. I use whole wheat setting but I shut off the machine before it hits the bake cycle. The dough setting will probably work too. OR * knead, let rise, punch down, let rise, etc...