Cook The Book July: The Bread

The July Cook the Book selection, Maricel Presilla's Gran Cocina Latina, doesn't have any recipes in my style of dessert-making. I requested her book The New Taste of Chocolate on July 4, but the library still has not been able to locate one of its four copies. So I made Cuban Coconut Bread (pp. 593-4), which turned out to be rolls. (Angela specially requested them for our cook the book lunch!)

I weighed the flour in my newest gadget–a measuring cup scale. I've been using it as a regular scale, but I could just tell it "flour" and it would tell me how many cups, according to the weight. That would be useful if your recipe doesn't give weights and you don't have enough dry measuring cups. Bread is very forgiving, though, so if you don't have a scale, you'll be fine measuring your flour. If your dough is too wet, add flour. If it's too dry, add water. Just remember, a little goes a long way, so don't add too much at a time.

 It was easy to assemble the rest of the ingredients.

Only 7 Ingredients

Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately, then combine them.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.

Whisk the yeast into the wet ingredients.

When it bubbles (about 10 minutes), it's ready.

The directions told me to mix the dough with my fingertips. That was a huge mistake. It was a sticky mess, and it took me longer to get the dough off my hands than it did to mix it.

So I scraped it into my trusty bread machine, and let it do the kneading.

The bread machine has a warm up period before starting the kneading cycle, so for the second kneading I used my stand mixer.

Both risings were voluminous, and took about half the time suggested by the recipe.

The dough plopped right out of the oiled bowl, onto a piece of silicone paper.

The recipe said to make nine 4-ounce balls of dough. I got eight, and the last one was "only" 3 7/8 ounces.  I think that's because I used the bread machine for the kneading and didn't have to work more flour in to keep the dough from sticking to a board.

A final rise and the rolls are ready to bake.

Top of Rolls After 12 Minutes

Bottom of Rolls After 12 Minutes

Fully Baked Rolls
Brown and Crusty!

I had to make these the night before, so they weren't crusty when we ate them, but they were still delicious. This was a lot of work, and took a lot of time. I'm going to use the rest of my coconut milk in a bread machine recipe. The recipe says that grilling the bread is the ideal way to go when making these rolls, so please try out the recipe and let us know if the coconut flavor shines through when they're cooked that way?

Chocolate for lunch! Cook the Book July

If you know one thing about the Tea Time Adventurers it should be that we Love Chocolate*. So lunch this month shouldn't be a surprise. I will admit that this months tome is the most daunting one we've perused for Cook the Book thus far. First of all,  Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America is big (even the name). Oversized and Thick. This plus the fact that the print is sepia tone (not a sharp contrasting black) and there are few full color photos meant I had to delve deeper to find recipes that spoke to me. But they are there!!

You'll see from our photos below that we ate well and heartily. Our drink from Costa Rica (Costa Rican Hibiscus Wine p339), our meat from Argentina (Short Ribs in Black Sauce with Chocolate and Cacao p713), San Salvador style pupusas (Basic Pupusas p402), Rolls inspired by tropical flavors (Garifuna Coconut Bread p593/4), and a cocktail "dessert" from Mexico (Spicy Prickly Pear Cocktail p376). Stephanie rounded out our meal with a Shrimp Louie salad and Gabi brought some wine. The four of us talked and ate, savoring both the meal and each other's company.

Ribby Ribs Ribs. Chocolate Ribs! Lots of tender meat with rich flavorful sauce perfect for dipping.

HIbiscus wine

Coconut bread rolls baked, not grilled.

Frying up the cheese Pupusas--second batch

I learned several things cooking these recipes. Highlights below:

1. Meat can be expensive! (but there was lots of leftovers for lunches)
2. Pupusas fry better after the batter has set up for a while. (I made the rest of the batch after our meal had ended and the rested batter did not leak the cheese like the first go round.)
2a. Latin America makes some good cheese. (Also, I am glad to have the big bag of Masa, because making pupusas is so simple, just add cheese/veggies, fry, eat!)
3. The Hibiscus wine recipe will go in my recipe file so I can use it to mull my wines and make sangrias! (This recipe is a keeper!!)
4. I have now "mastered" the cactus plant as food. Next challenge vegetable please! (Last month we ate the leaf and this month the fruit as dessert.)
5. I like an unknown cookbook to have photos. (This seems not to apply when I buy them from library book sales or thrift stores though–perhaps it is a time frame connundrum?)

Lunch plated pre salad.

I was particularly excited to try this Prickly Pear "cocktail," but I decided to serve it as dessert instead of an appetizer (Maricel E. Presilla, the cookbook author, suggests serving this with a shot of aged tequila.) I felt like it needed a little jazz added in order to pass the dessert muster, so I garnished the martini glass with fresh ripe blueberries and a dollop of honeyed greek yogurt. The sweetness of the blueberries and the smooth dairy contrasted perfectly with the slightly spicy, slightly crunchy, and very limey cactus fruit. This dessert would be great for a special occasion as it's simple to prepare, but looks beautiful. If you wanted to add a Mexican cookie I think it would be a tasty addition too.

Dessert 2.0

Dessert

We've become the ladies who lunch, thanks to Cook the Book. Are you ready to get together with a group of friends over food? Do you plan potlucks or take turns hosting the meals? You can join us in cooking the book next month if you need some food for thought and inspiration!

Welcome!

Grab some salad and a glass of wine.

*Although considering our recent eating habits, perhaps we should rename our blog "Anything Fried with Cheese is Good" Opinions?