Ciabatta Bread

I've made ciabatta bread twice over the past few weeks. Last night's loaf, pictured above, was out of this world. It was so good warm from the oven, and tasted just like bread you'd get at your favorite Italian restaurant. It had a nice crusty shell, with that chewy, airy inside that you'd never image you could replicate at home.

Last year at this time we were in Italy on vacation, and believe me, I consumed A LOT of bread in those few weeks. Last night's ciabatta rivaled all of the bread I ate while visiting Italy. The real deal has nothing on this bread. I found the recipe here, and just subbed plain soy milk for the milk, otherwise I followed the recipe exactly.

Baking ciabatta takes a little planning, as you have to make the starter, or the sponge, the night before. But as long as you remember to get the sponge started, your fast on your way to delicious home made bread. All in all you'll need about 4 hours of rise time and 20 minutes of bake time. All of the kneading is done in a stand mixer, so there's almost no hands on time.

One caveat.....do not make this bread with All Purpose Flour. For my first attempt I had no bread flour on hand so subbed AP, the result was a deliciously flavored loaf of bread, but as you see below, it did not have that airy or chewy characteristic unique to ciabatta bread. You definitely need the extra gluten and barley flour found in bread flour to create a distinct loaf of ciabatta.

What are you waiting for, go get that sponge started and bake some ciabatta tomorrow!!!

Focaccia

Tonight I made Vegan Dad's Focaccia again. This stuff is seriously good, and it's just so easy to make that there's really no excuse for you not to try it. Instead of the sage and garlic, this time I opted to use basil in the dough (replace the sage with basil on a 1:1 ratio). On the top I baked thinly sliced roma tomatoes and thinly sliced yellow onions then drizzled it with a bit more olive oil and sprinkled on some coarse sea salt. Vegan Dad's version is good (very, very good), but I think I liked this flavor combination better.

I decided to make panini with the focaccia tonight. I spread each side of the bread with some cilantro hummus, then layered the veggies (roma tomatoes, watercress, red onion, and cucumber) in the middle. I pressed it on the panini press until the bread was warm and toasty, then served it with some Salt and Pepper Kettle Chips, and some blanched green beans. These were really great sandwiches, and an ideal summer meal.

I learned two things tonight at dinner as well......Mairin loves watercress. And, Stella has regained her love of green beans. Yay!!

Bean Bolognese

It's been slim pickin's around here lately. I was expecting a basket from my CSA last week, but due to torrential rains and a stretch of very chilly nights early in the season, our CSA shares have been pushed back a week. Expecting to get a big basket of fresh produce last week, I didn't go to the store for my usual shop. When I found out the basket wasn't coming I kind of gave up on getting to the store and decided we'd just stop here and there when we needed to, just to get us through until the next basket was due. So, the meal I am posting is actually from last Friday, and was thrown together with some stuff I had around in the freezer and the pantry.

Traditionally bolognese is a thick, rich, meaty sauce. I found a recipe for this bean version while sitting in the pediatrician's office one day. I have no idea what magazine this recipe came from, so I'm just going to go ahead and post the recipe here for you. This turned out to be a very satisfying meal considering that it was made with all stuff I had on hand. I ate the left-overs for lunch on Sunday, and I have to say, I think it was better after having set for a bit. I think next time I make this I'll try to plan ahead and make it the day before I plan to serve it.

Bean Bolognese

1 14 oz can salad beans (I used Westbrae Naturals brand; a mix of kidney beans, pinto beans, and chickpeas)

2 Tbs olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1/2 cup carrot, chopped

1/4 cup celery, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

1 cup hot water with 1/2 veg bouillon cube dissolved in it

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup chopped parsley

8 oz whole wheat fettuccine

Start water to cook pasta. Mash 1/2 cup beans with a fork, in a small bowl. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, celery, and salt; cover and cook until softened, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and bay leaf and cook a minute or two until fragrant. Add water, turn heat to high and boil until most liquid is evaporated. Add tomatoes with juice, 2 Tbs parsley and the mashed beans. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Add remaining beans and cook until heated through. Drain pasta, remove bay leaf from sauce. Divide pasta among 4 bowls and top with the sauce and remaining 2 Tbs parsley.

To go along with the pasta I made Vegan Dad's focaccia. As far as breads go, this one is very easy to make (especially if you have a stand mixer to do the kneading for you). I can't tell you how good this bread is, my family couldn't get enough of it (it's a good thing it makes 2 loaves!!). I'm planning to make this again this week........it's that good!!

A day of Good Eats

We started our Sunday with the Banana Split Bread that I posted about this morning. Our day of good eating continued at lunch time with these Mushroom-Spinach Phyllo Triangles from Vegan Planet. These were like a mini version of Spanikopita. The filling is made with spinach, silken tofu, sauteed onions and mushrooms, and just a pinch of nutmeg. They are a great lunch, but would be awesome to take along to a pitch in, or as an appetizer for a dinner party. They are just a little time consuming though, working with the delicate phyllo and all.

We spent our afternoon at a birthday party, where there just happened to be vegan cupcakes available!! Upon our return home I started on our dinner, which was the Avocado and Pinto Bean Enchiladas from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. These were so quick to put together, and mighty tasty as well. Mairin claimed she didn't like them, but she did manage to eat half of hers!! We had them with some blue corn chips and home made guacamole.

And to finish off our day of good vegan eating we had this Chocolate Chip Cookie Pudding Cake by Vegan Dad. If you like chocolate you have to make this cake.........it is to.die.for!!! I didn't let mine cool quite long enough, so the "pudding" was a bit runny, but believe me, it doesn't matter, this stuff is seriously good.

I love vegan desserts. I've never been much of a dessert person until I became vegan, now I can't get enough dessert. Vegan desserts are sooo good. And, while this one in particular is a little heavy on the sugar, I like to remember what Rob says about vegan desserts........"they are healthier than most people's dinner!!".

Banana Split Bread

Last night I baked the Banana Split Tea Bread from Vegan Planet, and we ate it for breakfast this morning. This bread is awesome. It smelled just like banana splits in our kitchen as the bread was baking!!

It's basically a banana bread with chocolate chips, dried cherries, crushed pineapple (and nuts) added in. I followed Robin's recipe exactly, only subbing white whole wheat flour, and omitting the nuts. It was a nice Sunday morning breakfast, made even nicer by the fact that it was already waiting for us when we woke up. As you know, we usually have pancakes on Sunday mornings, but Stella requested pancakes yesterday morning instead!.