1 for 1000

Part of the reason I’ve been terrible at updating is that I’ve been expanding my culinary horizons and trying new things in the kitchen. One of my new favourite things in the world is YEAST! I’ve been baking a lot of bread and it’s SO easy! 

I used to be terrified of yeast and fermentation but I read one of my hundreds of cook books recently about making artisan bread in 5 minutes a day and I am a new woman!

To make easy 5 minute bread all  you need is:

3.25 cups flour
1.5 cup lukewarm water
0.75 tsbp active yeast
0.75 tbsp salt

Dissolve the yeast in warm water and add to the other ingredients until uniform. 
Proof for 2 hours, covered, in a warm place (your kitchen will do)and refrigerate in an airtight container. If you forget about it, you can proof it for up to 5 hours.

When you are ready to bake it, take it out of the fridge, cut with a serrated knife, make a ball and let it rest for 20 minutes while you preheat your oven to 450F. 

Bake for 30 minutes and have your mind BLOWN by how delicious and easy this was.

That’s really it! You don’t even need to knead it. You may want to score the dough before baking but you really don’t have to. 

You can keep the dough in the fridge for weeks at a time and it will still come out delicious. This recipe makes two 1lb breads but if you have a large enough container, I recommend doubling it. Sadly, I don’t have the room in the fridge!

You can try and make different versions of it by changing the flour type and water content. The wetter the dough the airier it will be. This particular bread is a whole grain bread with fresh rosemary and thyme. It was delicious and lasted about 5 minutes.

Aren’t these liners adorable? They are the kind you can bake on their own so you don’t even need to use a cupcake tray! I love them!!

So to make these apple and ginger cupcakes start as usual but substitute half the butter for a grated apple. You can use applesauce if you are feeling particularly lazy. Add 2 tsp of ground ginger to the batter and bake as always.

For the frosting, use your regular buttercream but add ground ginger until it’s as intense as you like. With a delicate cupcake, I prefer a light frosting; but you can do the opposite and have a very assertive frosting since the cupcake flavour is so forgiving. 

To decorate, finely dice crystallized ginger and roll in granulated sugar so it won’t stick to itself. 

Enjoy!

I know I keep having to apologize for my absence but I just can’t bake as often anymore :( Sorry, lovies. 
I hope these cupcakes were worth the wait! They are a little healthier than the usual but all it takes is a couple of tweaks to the usual.

To make them, start with the original recipe but use whole wheat flour instead of AP and granulated Splenda instead of sugar. (If you want to go the extra mile, you can substitute 1/3 c of egg whites for each egg in the recipe and grated banana or apple for the butter. ) I also substituted red orange juice for the usual milk and added 1/4 tsp of pure orange extract to the batter.

When baking, use a cookie scoop instead of a larger one and do one scoop per liner, add a teaspoon of peach preserves and top up with another cookie-scoop-ful of batter. Bake as usual.

I frosted them with an orange and lemon buttercream. You can use your regular buttercream recipe but instead of milk, add lemon juice and orange extract instead. For a little extra pop, you can also incorporate the zest of one lemon.

They are really bright and delicious, but the difference in gluten you get by using whole wheat flour will make them a little denser than normal; I like the change, though. I hope you will too!