Nov
16

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Homemade Whole Wheat Pasta

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Home Pasta Machine

Home Pasta Machine

Fresh pasta is a feature of high end Italian restaurants – and with good reason its flavour and texture blows away the dried competition.  Underlying that foundation to a great meal though is the reality that making pasta at home is easy, quick and fun.

You’ll need a pasta machine – here we’re making rolled pasta not the extruded sort (that’s for another day).  These are low cost, I picked up one recently for the cottage on special for $20 and generally come with the main rolls whose gap can be adjusted as well as spaghetti and linguine making rolls.

To use whole wheat flour – I grind mine in the homestead mill for the freshest flavour – you’ll need to increase the hydration compared to using most commercial flours – so this recipe adds an additional egg to the dough.  While you can do the kneeing by hand a stand mixer makes life very easy and I would find it hard to go back to living without one in my kitchen.

Homemade whole wheat pasta with garden fresh sauce

Homemade whole wheat pasta with garden fresh sauce

The other thing to bear in mind is that while the overall process doesn’t take much time from you (particularly if you have a stand mixer) it can’t be rushed.  For the dough to be rolled out easily it needs to be left for a couple of hours in the fridge.  So make the dough in advance and toss it in a ziplock in the fridge – for a few hours or a couple of days.

When you are ready for your fresh spagetti or linguini put your salted water on the stove to boil and generally I find that by the time the pot is boiling – under ten minutes for me – the pasta is ready to be dropped in.

Cooking time for fresh pasta is significantly less than for the dry version so keep that in mind when timing the other components of your meal.


Aug
18

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Whole Wheat Wonton Wrappers – simpler than you think

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Stack of homemade whole wheat wonton wrappers

Stack of homemade whole wheat wonton wrappers

Often things that appear intimidating the the uninitiated are a breeze to pull off for those that know a few tricks.  It’s that way with  so many things including many in the kitchen.  Wonton wrappers are one of these.

I think most folks who’ve eaten spring rolls, pot stickers, egg rolls or wonton soup would dismiss the idea that they could produce so thin a dough at home.

Yet, it actually extremely easy to get great results – and do so quickly – using whole wheat flour to boot!

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Rolling out wonton wrappers – it’s easy to get them thin if you are patient.

There are a couple of tricks to making the process easy.  The first, as is the case with our whole wheat bread we want to add a bit of acid – in this case white vinegar – to make the gluten stretchier.  Whole extraction flours have a lower ratio of gluten to the rest of the flour since we’ve got all of the germ and bran mixed in.

Now like the song lyrics you “can’t rush love” or was that “can’t buy love” you actually might be able to do both but you can’t rush making wonton wrappers.  A good rest is required after the first kneed to allow the gluten to strengthen – I generally prefer to make the dough, bag it in a ziplock, place it in the fridge and come back to roll it out the next day.

Now you can do all the rolling out with only a stout rolling pin, but if you have a pasta machine – and you should – this will really speed up the process.

The final secret is corn starch and the liberal application of it when rolling out the dough.  Forget flour, corn starch is it.

Now this recipe forms quite a few wrappers;about three dozen give or take,  but the great news is that the wrappers refrigerate and freeze well, so you can make a big batch and freeze what you don’t need right away for another meal – and there will be many more meals featuring these as soon as folks try them.   If you want to keep folks thinking you’re some kind of genius for mastering these I promise I won’t whisper to them how easy it really was,  then again, maybe just being willing to try something new and seemingly daugnting qualifies you as a minor genius….

Click on the post title for the full recipe.


Aug
16

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Whole Wheat Potato Bread

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I enjoy making this bread whenever I have leftover mashed potatoes that need to be used up.  BUT, I will make mashed potatoes specifically to be used in this bread when I’m going to be making toasted bacon and tomato sandwiches.

Toasted Bacon and Tomato Sandwich on Whole Wheat Potato Bread

Toasted Bacon and Tomato Sandwich on Whole Wheat Potato Bread

Fundamentally all we are doing is swapping a cup of whole wheat flour for a cup of mashed potatoes from our standard whole wheat bread recipe.

The mashed potatoes do a couple of things.  First off since they don’t contain gluten we get a somewhat denser bread.  I say somewhat because it is nowhere as dense as a rye, triticale, spelt or barley loaf.  The reduction in gluten is to some extent mitigated by the easily converted starches that give the yeast an extra boost.  At the same time we get a moister loaf.  The combination makes for a great toasting bread – and great toast is the foundation of a great bacon and tomato sandwich!

Originally potato bread was used to stretch more expensive wheat flour but today the bread merits being included in your baking rotation on its own merits alone.  That said,  it remains a great way to put that little bit of mashed potatoes remaining after some meals to good use in your daily bread!

Click on the post title for the full recipe.


Jul
17

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Baked Maple Custard – Cottage Recipes

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Preparing the baked maple custard

Preparing the baked maple custard

Ah summer… it’s the time that you least want to congregate in the kitchen – and that’s saying something considering I really like cooking.  But come on, sun, sand, deck, bbq.. let’s try to save wear and tear on our kitchens and instead work on quick and easy recipes.

So my summer cooking and baking rules – especially for the cottage – Super Quick, Super Good and Super Simple.

This baked maple custard fits the bill in spades – and since it uses ingredients you should always have around it’s a great last minute desert option.