Dining with the Bloggers - February 9th

When Zarah suggested that we focus on breads this week I knew immediately which recipe I wanted to try. Just before Christmas, Alberto from Il Forno posted about his recipe for flavored dinner rolls. The picture was beautiful, the rolls sounded delicious, and Alberto had what struck me as a really great idea for flavoring them – green pepper! I made them last weekend and I swear – they are the most beautiful rolls I have ever made. If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, this is such an easy recipe – the mixer does all the work. The first rise is done overnight in the refrigerator. I’ve never done this before and had a few moments of doubt when I pulled the dough out of the fridge the next day (it had dried a little on top and was a little soggy on the bottom), but I shaped the rolls, left them to rise again, brushed them with an egg wash and baked them. When I pulled them out of the oven I was completely awed. They were a gorgeous shade of brown, all shiny from the egg wash, and perfectly risen. They were delicious too – poofy, eggy and (since I used green pepper) just slightly peppery. I stuck most of them in the freezer and plan to impress my parents with them when they come for dinner this weekend! Thank you Alberto!

Every so often I wish I had a recipe for a whole grain quick bread. I’ve gone looking for one a few times and come up empty each time. I went through this again last week and luckily thought to include my folder of printouts and magazine clippings in my hunt. There I found a recipe for Toaster Oat Bread that I had printed from Kelli’s blog, Culinary Epiphanies, way back in August. I checked to see what I needed from the store, but didn’t really pay close attention to the recipe until I actually started making the bread, and then I did a double-take. There is no added fat – no butter, no oil, no eggs – nada. This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but I went ahead with it and, guess what… it was good! The bread is surprisingly moist and the texture is much lighter than I expected. The only adjustment I think I would make next time around is to add a little more salt. Out of curiosity, I entered the recipe in my cookbook software to see how this bread weighed in for nutritional value. Figuring 16 slices to the loaf, each slice has 106 calories, less than a gram of fat, almost 2 grams of fiber, and about 4 ½ grams of protein.

If you haven’t already, stop by Zarah’s and see what goodies she’s found this week!