Recipies

This is where I'll be posting the recipes I've found and use. The challenge out here is that many of the recipes I find or already have require ingredients that I cant get out here or if I can, the cost is outrageous. I also dont have any measuring spoons so I end up using a smaller spoon for a teaspoon and a soup spoon for a tablespoon. Close enough for out here and for the most part things taste good.... well except for that time I accidentally dropped a chunk of cayenne power into a meal. Man was that hot.




Yogurt

This is one pretty simple recipe I found here. It calls for 1/2 gallon of milk. Out here we simply dont have fresh milk and I wasnt about to use the equivalent of powdered milk the first time so I reduced the amount and this is what worked for me.


about 2-3 cups of water
5 heaping tablespoons of powdered milk
1 tablespoon of yogurt with active bacteria (out here we have Fresh Dairy brand).
pot to cook it in
thermometer
large container
hand towel
small container


Start by heating up the water. As the water is heating add the milk powder and stir until the powder has dissolved and then intermittently until the temperature is about 93C (200F). So far when I've made it the will suddenly expand and boil over if you aren't watching it closely. I'm not sure why but it does and if I don't have the thermometer I just wait for this to happen.
Take the milk off the stove and let it cool until its about 46C (115F), which about the point where you can comfortably stick your finger in it. stir in the yogurt and pour it into a small container. Wrap the towel around it and stick it into the bigger container and leave overnight. The milk mixture needs to stay around 40C (110F). Out here thats not an issue as the daily temps is around 30-35C so I just leave it on the counter and pull it out the next morning and enjoy!!

There still is some of the powdered milk flavour but its way cheaper to make the yogurt here than to buy it and its not too much work.   Don't forget to save some of that batch to make the next.
I tried to see how far I can reduce the amount of powdered milk and the 5 heaping spoons is necessary or you will get watery yogurt flavoured milk.





Hamburger buns 

You probably have seen my post about my attempts at bread in the toaster oven. Well I found this hamburger bun recipe that works great. I do find that if you allow the dough to rise twice the bun is much  better. I also dont bother to preheat my oven 1/2 the time and usually can pull them out shortly after they start to smell good. I have never gotten the temp on the toaster oven to 375 and the buns still work out great.




Bagels 

I'm all about making life easier. I wanted to make some snack bread chips which required bagels which I haven't ever seen out here so I did some reading and found a recipe similar to the hamburger bun recipe and figured I'd try the hamburger bun one instead. It worked!!!

To make bagels follow the hamburger bun recipe up to step 3. poke holes in the centres of the buns so they look like a flat donut and let rise for 10 minutes. Bring pot of water to boil then turn down temp. put pieces into boiling water one at a time. They should rise quickly. allow to boil for 1-2 minutes (longer = chewier) then flip over and boil for 1-2 minutes. take out of water and put onto greased baking tray. 
If you want to add stuff on top use egg to cover top and season as desired. bake for 20 minutes at 425F. remove and enjoy.( I don't worry too much about the temp as my oven only ever heats to about 350). 



No comments:

Post a Comment