Speedy No-Knead Bread (The easiest recipe ever!)

Source: NY Times

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Rise Time: 4:30 (in 2 rises)
Cook Time: 45 min

Ingredients
3 cups flour (white or wheat)
1 packet (1/4 ounce) yeast
1.5 tsp salt
1.5 cups water
oil

Directions

1. Combine flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Lightly oil a work surface and place dough on it; fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes more.

3. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6-to-8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under dough and put it into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.

4. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Comments: This bread is so good, and this is my new favorite recipe because it is SO easy! Sure, you have to plan ahead with the rising time, but no kneading? Love it! You get a really beautiful, olive-oily, cripsy crust too. So good with hummus or chicken borscht, and we're going to try it with bruschetta!

Chicken Borscht

Source: Allrecipes.com

Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 120 minutes

Ingredients

2 lbs skinless chicken thighs
8 cups chicken stock (I dilute mine, and I added an extra 1.5 cups of water)
2 lbs potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes (use good quality, like Yukon Gold for better flavor)
1 16 ounce can of diced tomatoes (not drained) (I skipped this ingredient)
3 large beets peeled and shredded (I diced)
1 large carrot grated (I diced)
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 tbs. red wine vinegar
3 tbs tomato paste
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place chicken thighs in the chicken stock in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, cover, and simmer until the chicken thighs are no longer pink at the bone, about 20 minutes. Remove chicken, and set aside to cool. Stir in the potatoes, tomatoes, beets, carrot, cabbage, onion, garlic, red wine vinegar, tomato paste, and bay leaf. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, chunk the chicken, and discard the bones. Return the chicken thighs to the soup, and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Comments: I've only had borscht once (and loved it!), and it was nothing like this, but this was still really good. I picked this recipe because it called for chicken instead of pork or beef (which we don't eat much of) and because it took 2 hours to make instead of all day like a lot of recipes I found. We loved it, and we even got Katie to eat it, which is saying something! Again, I highly recommend using good potatoes like Yukon Gold---you'll never go back to Russet!

Oatmeal Wheat Bread

Source: Janet Markham

Prep Time: 2:30 hours (includes two rises)
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Servings: Two loaves

Ingredients
2 cups very hot water (near boiling)
1 cup oats (regular is best, quick oats work ok)
1/2 cup warm water
4.5 tsp yeast
1 tsp white sugar
2 tbsp oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup or more whole wheat flour (I usually use about 2.5 cups whole wheat)
1 tbsp salt
4.5 cups white flour (more or less depending on how much whole wheat you use)

1. Put 1 cup oats in large bowl. Pour 2 cups very hot water on top and stir. Let stand for 5 minutes. Meanwhile put 1/2 cup warm water in a smaller bowl and add 4.5 tsp yeast and 1 tsp white sugar. Whisk together with a fork and well stand until frothy.
2. Add 2 tbsp oil, 1/2 cup brown sugar and wheat flour to the large bowl and stir.
3. Add the yeast mixture, stir, and then start adding white flour. (I usually add it about 1/2 to 1 cup at a time). Add 1 tbsp salt and keep stirring. Add more white flour until the dough gets less sticky, starts to form a ball, and is hard to stir in the bowl.
4. Sprinkle a generous amount of white flour on a counter top. Dump the dough out on the flour and start kneading. Sprinkle more white flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and the counter top. Knead for about 5 minutes. (I like to think of kneading as stretching the fibers of the dough in a circular motion- fold the dough in half, push down and backward into the ball with your palm, and let the fibers from the bottom be pushed to the back and around to the top, if that makes any sense.) The dough should be sticky but smooth when fully kneaded. (Adding too much flour will make the bread drier.) When fully kneaded the dough will spring back gently when you push into it with one finger and will be "soft as a baby's bottom" to quote my mom.
5. Sprinkle a little more flour around the inside of the large bowl and place the dough in the bowl to rise for 1 hour.
6. After 1 hour, take the dough out, knead it gently, and cut in half with a knife. (Don't pull the dough apart- that breaks the elastic fibers that you worked so hard to make while kneading.) Shape two loaves by flattening it out into a rectangle on a floured surface and rolling it up.
7. Place in greased bread pans and let rise 35 minutes. Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped on bottom. Let cool before eating- this lets the bread structure "set up" before cutting it.

Comments: I've always loved homemade bread, but I've always been intimidated to make a rising bread. My friend makes this weekly, and Ry and I love it so much I finally was motivated to try it. I still can't make it as good as she does (she uses a different kind of wheat, which is part of the issue), and I don't make it very often, but we still eat the two loaves fast when I do get around to it!