Frozen yogurt

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"Crunchie" Chocolate Cakes

Pretzel Rolls

I love baking fresh rolls...but I don't always have the time. This recipe however, is a small gift to the world of breadmaking. No waiting for the dough to rise...

These rolls, twisted into a pretzel shape, are delicious eaten warm from the oven with a thin layer of butter.



Pretzel Rolls

1 package rapid-rise yeast
1 and 3/4 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
4 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt (plus extra to sprinkle on top)
1 egg yolk

*Dissolve sugar in the warm water. Add yeast and let sit for 5 minutes. In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt together. Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture and mix together (you will have to use your hands). When the flour has absorbed the liquid, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces. Shape each piece into an 8 inch (20 cm) long thin roll and twist into a pretzel shape. Place 8 rolls on each of two lined cookie sheets. In a small bowl, mix together the egg yolk and 1 teaspoon of water. Brush the egg mixture over the top of each of the rolls. Bake at 425F for about 15 minutes. Makes 16 pretzel rolls.

Fresh Pesto

Fresh pesto is a beautiful thing.

Pizza!

I have been looking for a good pizza dough recipe for years. I've tried various permutations and combinations of yeast, flour and water. All were edible, but never baked up to the crispy crust that I wanted. I seemed to always get dough that was too "stretchy". That is, when I tried to roll it out or press it into shape by hand, there was always a bounce-back factor that was, to be honest, very irritating!

This frustration goes back to my earliest attempts at homemade pizza. My mom would buy a Kraft pizza kit in a box, that included a dough mix, tomato sauce and cheese. When my parents went out and my brother would babysit me, one of the things he would do would make this pizza for us as a Saturday night treat. When I got older, it was my job to make the pizza. As it was baking, it smelled so delicious! (Remember, in the early seventies, in a non-Italian household, homemade pizza was a bit exotic.) I would line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and grease it with vegetable oil (at that time we didn't have olive oil...). Then you mixed up the dough and tried valiantly to spread it on the pan. The dough would ,to your hands, spring back at the edges and rip holes and be very uncooperative. Finally, the dough was spread with the plain, canned tomato sauce and sprinkled with the cheese (which I think was supposed to be parmesean, but was more like cardboard dust). But we loved it. I would eat a "square" and my brother would eat the rest. There were never leftovers.

So, along comes the summer holidays and I have time to go back over magazines from the past year. One of my favourite food magazines is Donna Hay Magazine from Australia. Aside from the beautiful photography, the recipes are original, easy to make and very reliable. I can't think of a Donna Hay recipe that I have tried that didn't work. I had previously flagged this pizza dough recipe to try and that was probably 6 months ago...

This dough comes together in about 10 minutes and in 30 minutes it's finished rising, and is ready to be rolled out and topped with your favourite pizza toppings.

Basic Pizza Dough (adapted from Donna Hay Magazine - issue 47)

2 packages of quick-rise yeast (original recipe uses 1 tablespoon "dry yeast")
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup lukewarm water
2 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour (original recipe uses finely ground OO flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

* In a glass one cup measure, add the water, sugar and yeast and stir to dissolve. Let proof for 5 minutes until bubbly. In a medium bowl, add the flour and salt and stir together. Make a well in the centre and add the oil. Next add in the yeast mixture and stir until the dough comes together. Knead for 3-4 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Roll into a ball and slightly flatten. Cut into 6 equal pieces and shape into small balls (but of course, you could also make 2 pizzas or one big pizza). Lay a clean tea towel on top and leave it to rise for 30 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, take one piece of dough and roll it out to about 6" by 12". Top with your favourite toppings. I used garlic oil, mozzarella and parmesean on some (for the kids) and added chopped tomatoes and artichokes to the others (I didn't like tomatoes and artichokes at their ages either). Bake at 425F for about 10 minutes.

Asparagus Pasta with Mint Pesto

This is a very quick, fresh-tasting pasta dish...perfect for summer dining. While the pasta is cooking, you blend together the ingredients for the sauce. So in the time it takes to cook the pasta, it will be ready.

Asparagus Pasta with Mint Pesto (based on a recipe from BBC Good Food Vegetarian Magazine - Summer 2010)

400 g farfalle (bowtie pasta)
85 g fresh mint leaves (I used a 30 g package)
250 g ricotta
25 g parmesan cheese (plus extra, to serve)
200g asparagus, woody ends removed and cut into 3-4 cm pieces

* Boil the pasta in salted water, dropping in the asparagus pieces 3 minutes before the cooking time is up. While the pasta is cooking, blend together the ricotta, parmesan, mint leaves and 2 tablespoons of pasta cooking water until smooth. Season the pesto with salt and pepper. When the pasta and asparagus are cooked, drain, and return to the cooking pot. Pour sauce over the pasta,mix thoroughly and serve.

Pound Cake (with a secret ingredient)