Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Another night. Another breadless morning tomorrow...unless I bake something to put under their ham and cheese in their lunchboxes. I decided to make a green olive-thyme round with some lemon olive oil. Can you tell that I'm quite smitten with my We Olive lemon olive oil? Maybe I should have gotten all three bottles' worth of that! 3 C all-purpose flour 1 T active dry yeast 1 t freshly ground pink Himalaya salt 1 C warm water ¼ C lemon olive oil 1 C green olives 2 springs of fresh thyme Place the water in a large mixing bowl. Float the yeast on top and allow it to bloom for about 5 minutes. Add the flour, salt, and olive oil and mix until a ball forms. Knead in green olives and leaves from the thyme sprigs. Shape the dough into a flat round, adding only enough flour to allow you to handle the dough. Cover it and let it rise in the warmest place in your kitchen while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Let it rise as long as you can. Brush the loaf with water, sp...

For the dessert portion of the 5th grade summer homework cooking-mission, Riley selected a bread pudding that he saw on the cooking channel. We don't have a television. Well, we have a physical television, but it doesn't receive any stations; we use it to watch DVDs and documentaries on netflix. It never occured to me that my kids watch cooking shows at the Nonni 's house. That is until I received an email from my mom that read: "Good morning - we were watching the cooking channel and Riley said he would like to make this bread pudding.  It's a bread pudding made in a slow cooker by the America's Test Kitchen folks .  If you need the cooker let me know.  It sounds yummy." I didn't have challah, so we used a speedy yeast bread . And I also don't have a slow cooker, so I used a stoneware bowl. 1 loaf bread, cut into 1" cubes 1/2 C chipped dark chocolate 9 egg yolks 1 C Nutella spread 2 C heavy cream 1 C milk 3/4 C + 2 T orga...

When I realized that I forgot to pick up bread for Riley's Nutella Bread Pudding tonight, I decided to whip up a quick Mark Bittman-inspired bread (from his How to Cook Everything ) instead of going back out to the grocery story. I don't know why I don't make this bread more often. His recipe uses a food processor. Even without that, this is easy, mostly hand-off, and done in less than 90 minutes. 3 C all-purpose flour (usually I would use white whole wheat flour, but Riley wanted a light, fluffy bread) 2 t active dry yeast 1 t freshly ground pink Himalaya salt 1 C warm water ¼ C olive oil Place the water in a large mixing bowl. Float the yeast on top and allow it to bloom for about 5 minutes. Add the flour, salt, and olive oil and mix until a ball forms. Shape the dough into a flat round, adding only enough flour to allow you to handle the dough. Cover it and let it rise in the warmest place in your kitchen while you preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Let it ris...

Om Mani Padme Hum click here to read more about this Tibetan mantra I was inspired to make a plum galette this morning with the bounty of plums from the Mobley's tree and the simple yeast dough recipe from the monks at the Tassajara Mountain Zen Center that was published in the Monterey County Weekly this week. Riley wanted to hull some strawberries, with his gadget . So, we ended up with one strawberry galette and one plum galette. Om Mani Padme Hum ... cooking is my happy place. I doubled the recipe and then made some adaptations because the dough seemed far too wet.  Here's my recipe for the dough: 1/2 C warm water 2 t active dry yeast 2 pinches of organic granulated sugar 3-1/2 C white whole wheat flour 1 t pink Himalaya salt 2 large eggs 6 T soft butter Dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water. Let bloom for 10 minutes. Add 3 C flour, 2 room temperature eggs, salt, and buter. Beat with a wooden spoon until you...

I had some leftover brioche dough, after I made a dozen fresh blueberry brioche , so I decided to make two mini loaves of brioche dough swirled with homemade strawberry jam. 1/2 C warm water 1 T active dry yeast 3 T organic granulated sugar 6 extra-large eggs, at room temperature 4-1/2 C all-purpose flour 1 t sea salt 8 T butter, at room temperature splash of olive oil 1 egg mixed with 1 T heavy cream, for egg wash Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Let bloom for 5 minutes. Add the eggs and beat on medium speed until well mixed. With the mixer on low speed, add 2 C of the flour and the salt and mix for 5 minutes. With the mixer still on low, add the remainder of the flour and mix for 5 more minutes. Scrape the dough into a large oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight. The next morning, allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 1 hour. For this batch, I buttered the hollows of a mini loaf bak...

I had originally planned to make blueberry muffins, but decided that I would make some blueberry brioche instead...it's a good thing I decided that early. Brioche is not something you can whip up in an hour. It requires an overnight rise, then about three and a half hours more in the morning. But it is worth every minute! 1/2 C warm water 1 T active dry yeast 3 T organic granulated sugar 6 extra-large eggs, at room temperature 4-1/2 C all-purpose flour 1 t sea salt 8 T butter, at room temperature splash of olive oil 1 egg mixed with 1 T heavy cream, for egg wash Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Let bloom for 5 minutes. Add the eggs and beat on medium speed until well mixed. With the mixer on low speed, add 2 C of the flour and the salt and mix for 5 minutes. With the mixer still on low, add the remainder of the flour and mix for 5 more minutes. Scrape the dough into a large oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate over...

This is typically how I make  Columba di Pasqua for Easter each year. Since I am not using the traditional dove-shaped pans - 'columba' means 'dove' in Italian - I'll just call it 'pane dolce ,' sweet bread. Ingredients Breads 2 T active dry yeast 1/2 C warm water (approx. 110 degrees) 1/2 C butter, room temperature 5.9 oz package almond paste (in the baking aisle of most grocery stores) 1/2 C organic granulated sugar 4 T candied kumquat 1 T pure vanilla extract 1 t pink Himalaya salt 4 large eggs, room temperature 1/2 C warm milk (approx. 110 degrees) 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 C white whole wheat flour 1/2 C raw pecan 1 t bee pollen 1/2 t fennel pollen Glaze 1/2 C organic granulated sugar 1/2 C ground almonds 2 large egg whites 1 C sliced almonds raw turbinado sugar Procedure In a small cup or bowl, stir the yeast into water to soften. In a large bowl, cream the butter, almond paste and sugar until light and flu...

Yesterday, while we were walking along the shore, we played "dream brunch." Okay, that might sound a little strange, but I was feeling creative and asked Jake to give me some ingredients to create some dreamy brunch dishes for today. From that cooperative brainstorm I was inspired to try my baking chops on homemade brioche. Little did I know what a looooong process it would be. But it was worth every second! Homemade Brioche adapted from the Barefoot Contessa 1/2 C warm water 1 T active dry yeast 3 T organic granulated sugar 6 extra-large eggs, at room temperature 4-1/2 C all-purpose flour 1 t sea salt 10 T butter, at room temperature splash of olive oil 1 egg mixed with 1 T heavy cream, for egg wash Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Let bloom for 5 minutes. Add the eggs and beat on medium speed until well mixed. With the mixer on low speed, add 2 C of the flour and the salt and mix for 5 minutes. With the mixer still o...

Very similar to a scone, this bread was surprisingly flavorful albeit on the salty side. And I loved how quickly it came together. For a more traditional take on this bread, sprinkle the bread with caraway seeds before baking; I, unfortunately, didn't have any. Next time... 1 C organic European-style yogurt (thick) 2 Eggs 1/4 C olive oil 6 oz crumbled feta cheese 2 C white whole wheat flour 1 t baking powder 1/2 t Hungarian paprika Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In large mixing bowl, place yogurt, eggs, oil, and feta. Gently stir in flour and baking powder, stirring until just moistened. Pour into a well-greased baking dish. Lightly sprinkle with paprika. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. I served this with bowls full of Vipava Corba (Bulgarian Cabbage Soup). I am sharing this recipe with girlichef's Bake-Your-Own-Bread series . Go check out what others are baking.

Since most of the breads in Barbados are sweet, this one is called 'salt bread' though, admittedly, there is still sugar in it. I'm thinking that sugar cane might be one of their main crops! It was pillowy soft...and we spread it with hearty pats of butter. Dylan did ask, "Do they have butter in Barbados?" Yes. "Mom, are you just saying that?" No. 3 C white flour 2 t organic raw turbinado sugar 1 T sea salt 2 T olive oil 1 packet yeast 1 C warm water Place the salt, flour, and yeast in a large mixing bowl and slowly add warm water, mixing continually until the mixture forms a stiff dough, add more flour until you have a dough stiff enough to knead. Lightly flour the work surface, and knead dough for 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic, then place in a greased bowl. Now place bowl in a warm place for 40 minutes until it has doubled in size. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll dough into fist-sized balls and place in a greased baking dish. Sp...

These small oval breads are traditionally baked in a tandoor, the stove or oven of the region. In India the tandoor is typically buried in the ground while in Afghanistan the oven is above ground. The bricks of the oven are rounded. The Nans are shaped and slapped onto the hot bricks for fast baking. The recipe I found instructed that caraway seeds could be used if black cumin was unavailable. Since I didn't have black cumin seeds, I substituted black caraway for the look and added ground cumin for the flavor. 1 1/2 C warm water 1 packet of active, dry yeast 1 T organic granulated sugar 4 C white whole wheat flour (I have no idea what kind of flour is traditionally used) 1 T pink Himalaya salt 1/4 C olive oil (the original recipe called for corn oil) 1 T ground cumin 2 T black caraway (the original recipe called for black cumin seeds) Place the warm water in a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast and sugar. Let it bloom for 5 minutes. Add the flour, water, cumin,...