Irish Potato Farl

Oh. my. gosh.First of all, Happy St. Patricks day! I wanted to try a traditional Irish Recipe for my St. Pattys day breakfast this year, little did I know it would be the easiest recipe I have ever attempted, .and seriously one of the best things I have ever tried. Behold, Irish Potato Bread Farl. Apparently it's a breakfast staple in Northern Ireland a part of something called an Ulster Fry. An Ulster Fry, according to Wikipedia, is a full Irish breakfast, usually fried (go figure), consisting of bacon, eggs, sausage, soda bread, and potato farl. Now, I have never been to Ireland, but apparently they eat quite well! The Potato Farl is delightfully crisp on the outside and smooth and creamy on the inside. It reminded me a bit of a less oily hashbrown, but a million times better. I messed with the recipe proportions because I only had three little potatoes left over, which yielded 1 1/3 cups mashed potatoes. The recipe source I used said that the amount of flour can vary, just add bit by bit until a soft dough forms. A good rule of thumb is use half as much flour as potato. So, for example, I had 1 1/3 cups mashed potatoes, so I used a scant 2/3 cup flour. The finished product is supposed to be savory and is often served with onions and mushrooms. But I like my breakfast on the sweet side so I topped it with butter and syrup.

It was delightful, and, dare I say it, I liked it better than pancakes! And that is something because I LOVE pancakes! Next time you have mashed potatoes, definitely set a few aside for a hearty potato farl, and Happy St. Patricks day!

Irish Potato Farl

from foodista.com

Ingredients

2 cups hot boiled potatoes

Scant 1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter + more for griddle

While hot, mash potatoes well with salt and butter. Gradually work in flour in smaller increments until a soft dough forms. Dough should be a little tacky but workable.

Divide and roll/press into a circular shape about 9″ and 1/4″ thick.

Cut into 6 or 8 ‘farls’ (wedges). Grill in a hot, greased griddle or pan until well browned on both sides.

So. So. Good.

Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Linking up at Prairie Story Recipe Swap, Full Plate Thursday with Ms. Helen, Designs By Gollum, Family Friendly Friday's, I'm Lovin It, Everything But the Kichen Sink, and It's A Keeper Thursdays.

Whole Wheat Apple Scones

First of all, thank you for all your votes in my poll! I love getting your opinions and it was great to see that you guys are so interested in healthy stuff! This makes me happy for many reasons, one of which being I work at a Head Start as a Family and Health Supervisor, this means that I give many trainings throughout the year on nutrition and healthy eating to staff and parents in our program. So, in spite of the many not so healthy treats on my blog, I actually eat pretty healthy, which is why I love this scone recipe! The scones are low cholesterol and only 170 calories. I got the recipe from the archives of good old Cooking Light (aka Myrecipes.com). They cook up super moist and I used almond milk which gave them a distinctive nutty flavor that perfectly accented the cinnamon, apple, and vanilla. They are not very sweet, if you prefer something sweeter, go ahead and add some extra sugar or serve with a dollop of honey. Making them using part whole wheat flour ensures that they are hearty and filling but not too dense. I had one for breakfast and stayed full till lunch!

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Scones

Adapted from Cooking Light via Myrecipes.com

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (about 5 ounces)

1 cup whole wheat flour (about 4 3/4 ounces)

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 cup chilled butter

1 1/2 cup shredded peeled apple (about 2 medium apples)

1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk (I used unsweetened Almond Milk which has even less calories!)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons low-fat milk

2 teaspoons sugar

Preheat oven to 425°. Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups and tablespoons; level with a knife. Or use a kitchen scale and weigh it out.

Combine flours, 1/4 cup sugar, and next 5 ingredients (through nutmeg) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Grate in butter (chill your butter well and use your cheese grater, so much easier than cutting into small pieces then cutting into flour).

Mix in a bit with a fork or pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add apple, 1/2 cup milk, and vanilla extract, stirring just until moist (dough will be sticky).

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead lightly 4 times with floured hands.

Divide dough in half; pat each portion into a 6-inch circle on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Cut each circle into 5 wedges, cutting into but not through, dough. Brush tops of wedges with 2 tablespoons milk, and sprinkle evenly with 2 teaspoons sugar (I added some cinnamon too).

Bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until golden.

Serve warm.

They are good next day too, just warm them in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.

Calories: 170, Fat: 5.1g (sat 3g,mono 1.3g,poly 0.3g), Protein: 3.7g, Carbohydrate: 28.1g, Fiber: 2.1g, Cholesterol: 13mg, Iron: 1.3mg, Sodium: 319mg, Calcium: 84mg

Linking to Tater Tots and Jello, Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors, and SUnday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming.

Feta Rosemary Beer Bread

I baked up a loaf of this beer bread to go with a dinner of tomato basil bisque the oth

er night. It actually stole the show! I borrowed the recipe the wonderful Farmgirl Fare blog, a blog full of beautiful farm pictures and hearty recipes. Susan, the author, describes herself as

"a 42-year-old former cultured California chick happily turned manure mucking Missouri farm girl."

You should definitely check her blog out, you can find more of her beer bread ideas here. The bread I made is "Beyond Easy Beer Bread." And it really is ridiculously easy, not only that, but it baked up crusty and flavorful with a moist crumb studded with melty chunks of feta and flavorful bursts of rosemary. Oh, and the hearty beer flavor, fantastic! Perfect for dipping in a bowl of your favorite soup. Enjoy!

Easy Beer Bread

from Farmgirl Flare

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking powder (make sure it's fresh!)

12 ounces beer

1 tablespoon dried rosemary or 2 tablespoons fresh (chopped)

3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Heat oven to 375°.

Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, rosemary, and feta in a large mixing bowl.

Slowly stir in beer and mix just until combined.

Batter will be thick. Spread in a greased 8 inch loaf pan, and bake until golden brown and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool 10 more minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature. With beer ☺

Linking up at tatertots and jello!

Pie Crust Cinnamon Roll

I love pie crust as evidenced here and here. I also love cinnamon rolls. So, naturally, I wanted to try and combine the two into a giant pie crust cinnamon roll. Flaky, buttery, cinnamon, brown sugar, raisins, no kneading, easy peasy. I love when experiments work out so well! You could cut this up and split it with a few lucky friends, or you could do what I did and tear off a piece, slowly unrolling it over a period of a few days and enjoy all that cinnamony buttery goodness yourself! I guess when it comes to pie crust cinnamon rolls I'm a bit stingy... sorry friends!

Pie Crust Cinnamon Roll

Inspired by this recipe

Ingredients

1 recipe your favorite pie crust (enough for a single crust, nine-inch pie)

Filling:

1/2 cup raisins

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

Topping

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

More brown sugar for sprinkling (if desired)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a pie pan, mix three tablespoons melted butter and four tablespoons brown sugar. Set aside.

Roll out pie crust. Spread with 3/4 cup butter, sprinkle on sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. Cut into even strips.

Now, take one strip and start rolling it up, set roll on the next strip, pinch dough together at seam, and keep rolling, continue with the other strips of dough until the roll gets too big to roll.

Transfer roll to pie pan, continue adding on strips of dough by rolling them around the already formed roll. Finally, you will have one big cinnamon roll.

Sprinkle with more brown sugar (optional, depends how sugary you want it!) Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until light brown (very light brown).

Remove from oven, let sit for about five minutes.

Flip over onto a plate or serving tray. Yum.

Afreakingmazing

I will be linking up at these parties.. Tasty Tuesdays, Rook #17, Trendy Treehouse and Sugar and Dots, this week, check them out!

Easy No Bake Oatmeal Cookies

Update for you all... I have started crafting.... again. When I first moved into my apartment I would craft ALL the time, I love taking something that starts out plain and ordinary and making it into something extraordinary. The only problem is, I started to run out of room for all my projects. I mean how many hurricane vases can fit in a one bedroom? (I have five) However, I really miss it. I miss the feeling of accomplishment you get after finishing a particularly tricky project, I miss the satisfaction that comes from knowing how much money you saved by making over a thrift store find instead of buying something at pottery barn (or Anthropologie, I LOVE Anthropologie!) So, the other day I had an epiphany.. why not craft stuff that I can either give as gifts or rotate in and out of my apartment decor with the different seasons?! All that being said, I may share some of my crafts on here. Don't get me wrong cooking and baking will definitely still be my main focus (nothing can take their place), I just might add a few crafty projects every once in a while.

And speaking of cooking and baking, I have a NO BAKE recipe to share with you all today. It's different from the usual no-bake cookie recipe in that it does not use chocolate OR peanut butter. I know, crazy, right?! I had some dried blueberries that my lovely mother had picked up for me on a recent grocery trip, so I decided to try and make a cookie using these. I found a basic recipe on Cooks.com and changed it up to make it healthier and use the ingredients I had on hand. They turned out pretty well. Really tasty, but if you don't chill them long enough they will fall apart. Make them the night before, chill them over night and you should be good to go. The oats add texture and are the basis for the cookie. I added in oat bran to up the fiber content and stirred in extra coconut in place of nuts. While you could use raisins in these cookies, I highly recommend trying them with blueberries, they give a great fruity flavor that adds to the whole cookie experience :)

No Bake Oatmeal Blueberry Cookies

Adapted from cooks.com

3 cups quick cooking oats

1 1/3 cup flaked coconut

3/4 cup oat bran

3/4 cup dried blueberries (or raisins)

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk (I used rice milk, if you haven't tried it, you should, it's AMAZING)

1 stick butter, cut into pieces

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together first five ingredients.

Cook sugar, milk and butter over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Add the vanilla.

Pour over all other ingredients and stir until well mixed. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper to cool.

Happy Monday!

Linking up to Tasty Tuesdays!

Artisan Bread in FIVE minutes!

\Something about this cold weather makes me crave warm home baked bread. The only problem with this is that bread making scares me. It seems so complex and time consuming, and time is something I have not had much of lately. So with all the hype surrounding this bread making in 5 minutes a day, I decided it was high time to try it. The worst that can happen is I lose five minutes of my day, right? Well, I am pleased to tell you that this trend lives up to the hype! I successfully made yeast bread in FIVE MINUTES (well hands on, I did have to let it rise in the fridge, but good things do come to those who wait!) When looking for the recipe I ended up on the King Arthur Flour recipe website... if you haven't checked it out, it is a goldmine of delicious recipes! All you have to do for this bread is throw some ingredients in a bowl, cover it up, put it in the fridge and let it work. I did this before I went to work, and when I came home, I took the dough out, set it on the counter for an hour, baked it, and VOILA amazing, warm, home baked bread! I LOVE this! The best part is, once you have the dough made, you can store it in the fridge and whenever you have a hankering for some bread, cut off a hunk and you're on your way! I made two variations, one with cornmeal, one without.

While both were good, I liked the cornmeal loaf best as it was a bit more substantial and the cornmeal gave it a crunchy texture that I found divine. So what are you waiting for? You are just five minutes away from fresh baked bread every day!

Original KAF Variation Ingredients

3 cups lukewarm water

6 1/2 to 7 1/2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour*

1 tablespoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast

Broa (Portuguese Corn Bread) Variation from here

Ingredients

The recipe is easily doubled or halved.

3 cups lukewarm water

1-1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (1-1/2 packets)

1-1/2 tablespoons salt

1-1/2 cups stone-ground or standard cornmeal

5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Cornmeal for dusting the top

Directions (same for both types)

*The flour/liquid ratio is important in this recipe. If you measure flour by sprinkling it into your measuring cup, then gently sweeping off the excess, use 7 1/2 cups. If you measure flour by dipping your cup into the canister, then sweeping off the excess, use 6 1/2 cups. Most accurate of all, and guaranteed to give you the best results, if you measure flour by weight, use 32 ounces.

Combine all of the ingredients (either original or cornmeal variety) in a large mixing bowl, or a large (6-quart), food-safe plastic bucket. For first-timers, "lukewarm" means about 105°F, but don't stress over getting the temperatures exact here.

Mix and stir everything together to make a very sticky, rough dough. If you have a stand mixer, beat at medium speed with the beater blade for 30 to 60 seconds. If you don't have a mixer, just stir-stir-stir with a big spoon till everything is combined.

Next, you're going to let the dough rise. If you've made the dough in a plastic bucket, you're all set — just let it stay there, covering the bucket with a lid or plastic wrap; a shower cap actually works well here. If you've made the dough in a bowl that's not at least 6-quart capacity, transfer it to a large bowl; it's going to rise a lot. There's no need to grease the bowl, though you can if you like; it makes it a bit easier to get the dough out when it's time to bake bread.

Cover the bowl or bucket, and let the dough rise at room temperature for 2 hours. Then refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, or for up to about 7 days. (If you're pressed for time, skip the room-temperature rise, and stick it right into the fridge). The longer you keep it in the fridge, the tangier it'll get; if you chill it for 7 days, it will taste like sourdough. Over the course of the first day or so, it'll rise, then fall. That's OK; that's what it's supposed to do.

When you're ready to make bread, sprinkle the top of the dough with flour; this will make it easier to grab a hunk. Grease your hands, and pull off about 1/4 to 1/3 of the dough — a 14-ounce to 19-ounce piece, if you have a scale. It'll be about the size of a softball, or a large grapefruit.

Plop the sticky dough onto a floured or cornmeal covered work surface, and round it into a ball, or a longer log. Don't fuss around trying to make it perfect; just do the best you can.

Place the dough on a piece of parchment (if you're going to use a baking stone); or onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Sift a light coating of flour or cornmeal over the top; this will help keep the dough moist as it rests before baking.

Let the dough rise for about 45 to 60 minutes. It won't appear to rise upwards that much; rather, it'll seem to settle and expand. Preheat your oven (and baking stone, if you're using one) to 450°F while the dough rests. Place a shallow pan on the lowest oven rack, and have 1 cup of hot water ready to go.

When you're ready to bake, take a sharp knife and slash the bread 2 or 3 times, making a cut about 1/2" deep. The bread may deflate a bit; that's OK, it'll pick right up in the hot oven.

Place the bread in the oven, and carefully pour the 1 cup hot water into the shallow pan on the rack beneath. It'll bubble and steam; close the oven door quickly.

Bake the bread for 25 to 35 minutes, until it's a deep, golden brown.

Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a rack. Store leftover bread in a plastic bag at room temperature.

Yield: 3 or 4 loaves, depending on size.

Crunch crunch!

Heavenly.