Sage-Roasted Crab Apple and Cioppini Antipasto

This post has been moved to tiramipursuit's new website. Find it here.
Thank-you!

Rustic Rosemary Twist

Last night was our last baking club meeting for the semester. We had a lot of fun, I will miss baking with everybody this summer. I arrived early to prepare several batches of cornmeal pizza dough, which everyone then decorated and baked. Our pizzas turned out really delicious and I also ended up with extra dough!
Building off the dough recipe from Martha Stewart, I decided to make a cheesy, rosemary braid as an afternoon snack to share with my hall. The dough is rolled out into ropes which are in turn stuffed with cheese. The rolls are then braided together and sprinkled with crunchy salt. Although the dough recipe is not my own, I have provided it here for your convenience in making the rosemary twist.

Rustic Rosemary Twist

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Pinch of sugar

2/3 cups warm water

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/4 cup cornmeal, plus more for pizza peel or baking sheet

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl

1 cup shredded cheese of your choice

2 tbs dried rosemary

1 tsp coarse salt

Oil for the pan

In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the warm water. Let stand until yeast is dissolved and mixture is foamy, about 10 minutes.Combine flour, cornmeal, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center, and add the yeast mixture and oil. Mix the ingredients just until the dough starts to come together. Turn out the dough on a lightly floured work surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, 7 to 10 minutes. Place the dough in a shallow oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hour at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Knead the rosemary into your dough until incorporated. Cut the dough into three balls and roll each into a rope. Spread each rope flat onto the work surface and make a line of cheese down the center. Carefully pinch the sides up around the cheese filling and roll the rope out a little longer. 

Once all three ropes are prepared, braid them on your prepared pan, pinching the ends together. Sprinkle your twist with coarse salt and bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden.

The twist turned out amazingly soft, with a crunchy exterior and cheesy center; I'm so glad I decided to try experimenting with it. Enjoy!

Quinoa Patties

I had a pot of quinoa on the stove when I decided to look in Heidi Swanson's "super natural every day" for a quinoa recipe. It included a recipe for quinoa patties. I didn't feel in the mood for them until I saw that she recommended drizzling them with hot sauce. I caught the bottle of Tapatio out of the corner of my eye and I knew it was meant to be.

As I said, I adapted Heidi Swanson's recipe on the fly, because once you have the idea of mixing eggs and cheese with quinoa, you can create these a hundred different ways with whatever is in the kitchen. She recommends adding any vegetables and serving them with a variety of condiments.

Recipe:

I took 2 cups of the cooked, drained quinoa and mixed it with white cheddar cheese. The quinoa was still hot, so the cheese melted and helped to hold it together. Then I added 1 egg, some flour, salt, freshly cracked pepper, paprika and a spoonful of crushed garlic. Then, you simply drop spoonfuls of dough into a hot frying pan with a little bit of oil. When you flip them, be sure to flatten them out so that they get cooked through.