Focaccia Caprese #BreadBakers

I enjoyed baking this Focaccia Caprese bread, when I finish baking felt as though it was a 'pizza'  minus the sauce.
Focaccia Caprese….Caprese is a salad made by using Tomatoes, fresh Mozzarella cheese. Hence, a Focaccia Caprese is nothing but a basic Focaccia dough topped Caprese salad

Ingredients
For the Dough
1.1/2 Teaspoon Instant yeast
1 Teaspoon Sugar
2.1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1-1/4 Cups Warm water - more or less
A little more olive oil for brushing dough

For the Caprese Topping
6 Tomatoes - sliced
6 Round Slices Fresh Mozzarella
Few Fresh Basil leaves

For the Herbed Oil 
1/4 Cup Olive oil
1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
1 Teaspoon Dried Parsley
1/4 Teaspoon  Chilli flakes
4 Cloves Garlic-  finely minced
A pinch of Salt 

Method
To make the herbed Oil

Make the herbed oil in advance so that the oil absorbs all the flavors. Tip in all the ingredients into a small bottle and shake it well. Keep aside till required.

To Make the dough
Place  in the yeast, sugar, flour, salt and oil into the bowl of the food processor and give a pulse it so that all ingredients mix well. Gradually add about a cup of warm water  and knead until you have a soft elastic dough  The quantity of water varies from flour to flour, so add more water  if required to knead the dough.

Remove the dough from the processor bowl, take it on to the work surface and knead it again till you get a smooth and soft dough.   Then shape it into a ball  and place it in a well oiled bowl turning the dough around so that it is coated with oil. Cover it using a damp cloth or cling film and let it rise till it doubles in volume.

Take two to three  rectangular or square pans depending on the size of the pan and oil them well. Punch down the dough and then divide it into equal portions and lightly roll them (or press out) out on a lightly floured surface  according to the size of the pan.

Transfer the rolled dough gently to the baking pans. The dough will shrink a little. Using your fingers push  the dough  from the center towards the edges. Make sure it’s evenly thick throughout the pan.  Keep  it rise again for 20 to 25 minutes. Lightly oil your finger tips and press into the dough creating evenly spaced ‘dimples’ in it. Finally brush the surface with a generous amount of herbed oil or olive oil .

Bake at 200 degrees C for about 15 to 17 minutes till it is almost done and is beginning to turn golden brown.

Once the Focaccia is removed from the oven, lightly brush or drizzle some of the ‘Herbed Oil’ over the Focaccia and then evenly arrange the slices of mozzarella over the bread, leaving very little space between them (this ensures that the cheese spreads out leaving no spaces on melting). Arrange the tomato slices over the cheese slices and place the basil leaves over this.  Ensure that the topping should cover most of the surface of the bread so that every piece gets the cheese and tomato.

Drizzle some more ‘Herbed Oil’ over the topping and return the bread to the oven. Turn  the oven to 220 C. Bake the Focaccia for 5  minutes or until the cheese has just melted (note : the mozzarella once melted, browns fast). Remove from the oven.

Cut the Focaccia into slices or wedges and serve immediately while it is still hot.  We had it  with a bowl of soup. 

While enjoying this bread my daughter said Ma! this it ultimate goodness.

My Notes:

I make a cup of the Herbed  oil and store it in the refrigerator, use it to make herbed mayonaise or even brush this on crusty breads for soup.

I have used a food processor to knead the dough, you can knead the same by hand , take a look at my previous bread post that are kneaded by hand.

 Labels: Breads, Focaccia, Caprese, Bread Bakers, Italy, Cheese 

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.
We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Our host for this month is Anshie Dhar, who choose the theme "Breads from Italy". Thank you Anshie for hosting this month's event.
If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com

Check out the other bread from Italy our other bakers have baked :- 
Casatiello by A Shaggy Dough Story
Ciabatta Sandwich Rolls by Herbivore Cucina
Classic Italian Bread by Hostess At Heart
Cornetti by Gayathri’s Cook Spot
Einkorn Parmesan Piadina by The Wimpy Vegetarian
Fingermillet and Rosemary Focaccia by Sizzling Tastebuds
Focaccia Caprese by Sneha’s Recipe
Grissini by Sara’s Tasty Buds
Gubana – An Italian Sweet Bread by The Schizo Chef
Il Pane di Matera by Food Lust People Love
Italian BLT Focaccia by A Salad For All Seasons
Italian Easter Bread by Palatable Pastime
Italian Easter Cheese Bread by A Baker’s House
Italian Herb and Garlic Focaccia by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
Italian Stuffed Pane Bianco by Cook’s Hideout
Mini Panettone by Mayuri’s Jikoni
Pane Bianco by Veenas Vegnation
Pane di Genzano by Spiceroots
Piadina by Passion Kneaded
Pizza alla Siciliana by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
Rosemary and Cabernet Salt Focaccia by What Smells So Good?
Torta Salata Pasquale by A day in the Life on the Farm
Tuscan Coffeecake by Ambrosia

Affogato - Vanilla Ice Cream With Espresso, Caramel Sauce And Salted Almonds

This classic Italian dessert is a coffee-based made with espresso and vanilla ice cream, gelato or sorbet. The word affogato means "drowned" in Italian.

This is an elegant, quick and easy, to make dessert. It taste divine and leaves a deliciously lingering taste of the salted caramel and almonds.
Ingredients
Eggless Vanilla Ice Cream - Homemade 
Espresso or strong coffee - chilled
Salted Caramel Sauce - Homemade Recipe below
Salted Almonds - sliced

Method

Scoop ice cream into dish
Pour espresso / strong coffee over ice cream
Drizzle caramel sauce over it and top with,  salted almonds and enjoy

Homemade Salted Caramel

Follow these easy steps to make  salted caramel sauce at home. Perfect for cakes, cupcakes, puddings, cookies, ice cream sundaes, cheesecake, glass desserts,  sweet breads ... endless... as you like it with !

This sauce should cool down completely before using it in any recipe. The caramel will thicken as it cools. Then you can heat it if required and use it.  This should be prepared a day before you want to use it.  This can be stored for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Ingredients
200 Grams Granulated Sugar
25 Grams Salted Butter
200 Ml Heavy cream
100 Ml Milk
3/4 Teaspoon Salt

Method

Mix the milk and cream together keep aside.

Heat granulated sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

Sugar will form clumps and eventually melt into a thick brown, amber-colored liquid as you continue to stir. Be careful not to burn.

Once sugar is completely melted, immediately add the butter. Be careful in this step because the caramel will bubble rapidly when the butter is added. 
Stir the butter into the caramel until it is completely melted, about 2-3 minutes. A whisk helps if you find the butter is separating from the sugar.

Very slowly, drizzle in heavy cream mixture while stirring. Since the heavy cream is colder than the caramel, the mixture will rapidly bubble or splutter when added.

Allow the mixture to boil for a minute. It will rise in the pan as it boils.
Remove from heat and stir in the  salt. Allow to cool down before using. The salted caramel will thicken once it cools down.

My Notes

 Make this caramel in advance. Make sure it is covered tightly and store it for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Warm the caramel up for a few seconds in the microwave before using in a recipe.

Labels : Affogato, Italy, Sweets & Desserts, Ice Cream, Foodie Extravaganza Party, Homemade, Salted Caramel, Jams & Sauces

Foodie Extravaganza is a monthly party where bloggers come together to create recipes using the same ingredient. The host, this month it's Kathleen from Fearlessly Creative Mammas, picks an ingredient from the website The Nibble. If you're a blogger and would like to join in the fun, you can request to join on this Facebook page. Posting day is alway the first Wednesday of the month. If you'd like to see past recipes, you can follow our Pinterest board too.

Gooey Caramel Cake – - Fearlessly Creative Mammas
Easter Coconut Bird’s Egg Nests - Palatable Pastimes
Ooey Gooey Salted Caramel Cake - A Day in the Life on the Farm
Caramel Apple Granola - Hardly a Goddess
Caramel Apple Dip - Sew You Think You Can Cook
Banana Chia Pudding with Date Caramel - Caroline's Cooking
Affogato – Vanilla Ice Cream With Espresso, Caramel Sauce And Salted Almonds - Sneha's Recipes
Fa’ausi (Samoan Coconut Caramel Bread) - Tara's Multicultural Table

Shrimps And Tagliatelle Pasta In Napoletana Sauce #FISH FRIDAY FOODIE

When the theme for this month was given by our host Caroline Williams - create some pasta dishes with fish and seafood. I was quite thrilled, always prepared pasta with poultry or veggies, never even thought of making it fish or seafood. Joining Fish Friday Foodie - is pushing me to venture into different cuisines with fish and seafood, I am loving it. Thanks Caroline for hosting this event and choosing such a wonderful theme.

This group is a brain child of Wendy , if you wish to join this group,  kindly send her an email, with your blog url at (wendyklik1517@gmail.com)   and she will gladly add you to the group.

Since my hubby is out on a trip for two days who hates the smell of fish and never touches it, by the way he is a pure vegetarian ... so you can understand.  Causally told  my daughter today  shrimp pasta for lunch, she had a very funny expression on her face. When she had it for lunch she looked at me, Ma this is tasting good, happy me..... Packed a container for my friend whose family also enjoyed this, sent me a message, yummy..

Here are the ingredients for the delicious dish...

Serves 4 - 5

Ingredients

To marinate the Shrimps

200 Grams Cleaned Shrimps
1 Teaspoon Lime juice
1/2 Teaspoon Paprika powder
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

Other Ingredients

1 Medium onion - finely chopped
4 Cloves Garlic - minced
1 Medium Carrot - peeled and finely chopped
3 Tablespoons Olive oil
2 Tablespoons Tomato paste
4 -5 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
A few Basil leaves
1/2 Teaspoon Paprika powder
1/2 Teaspoon Pepper powder
500 Grams Ripe Tomatoes - finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh Parsley - chopped
1 Teaspoon Sugar

1 Small cube Fish seasoning

Salt to taste

300 Grams Tagliatelle Pasta- home made

1 Small Capsicum - sliced for garnishing

Method

Marinate the shrimps with salt, pepper powder and paprika powder keep it in the refrigerator, till ready to use.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan, then add the garlic, onion, carrot,  saute till the garlic releases an aroma. Cover the pan and cook for about 5 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally.  Now add the tomatoes, 2 cups  water, parsley, thyme, a few basil leaves and sugar. Bring the sauce to the boil, reduce the heat to low and cover and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.   Then add the tomato paste fish cube seasoning,  salt, freshly ground black pepper and paprika. Let the sauce thicken, if the sauce becomes too thick, add ½–¾ cup extra water until the required consistency is reached. 

This the home made pasta drying... check the recipe here, used the same dough.

In the meantime, add the tagliatelle pasta to a large pan of rapidly boiling water and cook until al dente . Drain thoroughly in a colander and oil it well with olive oil.  Keep aside.

In a another large pan heat a tablespoon of olive oil,  add the shrimps and capsicum toss on high flame till shrimps are done for about 4 - 5 minutes,  pour about two-thirds of the sauce,   add pasta and gently toss until combined.  Add some fresh thyme, basil and parsely, toss again .  Serve  hot with a spoon of sauce on it ... and enjoy....

Labels : Fish, Fish Friday, Italy, Pasta & Noodles, Jams & Sauces

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Eggplant Rollatini with Spinach - Vegetarian

Rollatini is an Italian-style dish that is usually made with thin slices of eggplant, which are dusted in wheat flour or lightly breaded and covered with ricotta and often other cheeses and seasonings, then rolled up and baked ( taken from wiki).

This is a one dish meal and filling, we had this as our dinner with garlic bread.

Sending this to this month's BM week 3 - Do Eggplant Dishes.
The eggplant is sliced so thin (I used the V slicer for even thickness of slices)

Ingredients

2 Long Black Brinjals -  sliced lenthwise
1/2 Teaspoon  salt 

1/2 Teaspoons Fresh black pepper
1 1/2 cups  Marinara sauce - homemade
1/2 Cup part skim ricotta cheese
1/2 Cup  Cheeza Cheese - grated
1 Cup Blanched Spinach
1/2  Garlic  -  minced
1/3  Cup Mozzarella cheese - grated

1 Tablespoons Fresh Bread crumbs

1/2 Teaspoon each Oregano and Rosemary herb

Method
Cut the eggplants lengthwise, into 1/4-inch thick slices .  I used the V slicer on the thick sides to get even slices. 

Sprinkle little salt to remove excess moisture and bitterness from the eggplants. Set aside for about 10 minutes. Pat dry with a towel.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Season the eggplant with a little pepper, then grease a frying pan and arrange eggplant is just tender for a minute on each side only. Then place the eggplants on a a absorbent paper towel to remove any oil. I used this method.

OR in the oven - arrange the slices on a greased baking tray for about 4 minutes on each side.

Mix the ricotta cheese, pepper to taste, garlic and spinach together and keep aside.

Spread 1/4 cup marinara sauce on the bottom of a greased baking dish. 

Dividing the ricotta-spinach mixture according to the slices of eggplant  (about a tablespoon each). 

Spoon onto one end of each eggplant slice, spreading to cover. 

Starting at the end, roll up slices and arrange them each seam side down in the prepared dish. 

Top with remaining marinara sauce and  grated cheeza. 

 mozzarella cheese and  again spinkle bread crumbs on top with  oregano and rosemary , tightly cover with foil.

Bake until the eggplant is very tender, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes before serving. Devour the yummy rollatini

My Notes :

You must have  noticed that I have not added salt in the mixture, cause spinach has enough salt and even the ricotta cheese has some quantity of salt.  If you wish add salt but taste it then add.



Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 57

Labels : Brinjal, Continental Cuisine, Italy, Cheese, Baked, Vegetarian, Blogging Marathon, Marinara Sauce

Tigella Bread of Modena ( Italy)

Modena is located in Emilia Romagna, known as the culinary bread basket of Italy. Tigelle are the quintessential food of Modena, a symbol of pride. 

In Modena, many people own a cast iron tigelliera (see photo) to make their tigelle stovetop. It is also common there to have an electric tigelliera cooking device. You can also use your griddle on the stove top.. Since I do not own a cast iron tigelliera, made this on a stove top sandwich toaster .  Don't worry, the result will still be satisfying.

   

This week for BM I choose International Flat Breads.  When I was looking up wiki I found this name.  Looked up google to find more about it.  I was easy to make since it uses the normal bread dough.  But as you read above it requires a special mold. One look at it and I decided to use the stove top sandwich toaster and let me tell you got amazing results.. Once baked, tigelle have a soft center, and a crisp crust. To be eaten, they are split open with a knife, then filled in a variety of ways.

You  must try this recipe its keeper and can be had with any filling as a brunch too

Ingredients

1.1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1.1/4 Teaspoon Instant yeast
2 Tablespoons Oil
1/2 Teaspoon salt

1/2 Teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup warm water and more to knead into a soft dough

Method

Mix the yeast into the warm water and stir.
Add the salt to the flour and then the oil. Mix the oil into the flour first,  till it looks like bread crumbs.  Add the yeast, sugar, water and mix to make a soft dough. Knead the dough until smooth. Cover and let rise for an hour. I kneaded the dough in the previous morning and kept it in the refrigerator.  The next day it had risen perfectly.

Roll out the dough to about 3/4 ” high. Use the top of a water glass / katori or bottle cover to cut disks. ( make sure it fits in the gas sandwich toaster mold).

Cover and let rise again for about 10 to 15 minutes.  I made half of the dough and  then started cooking them.  By the time I finished this lot the remaining had risen perfectly.  

Lightly grease the mold and lay in the tigelle. Cover with top and cook on low flame until brown spot appears and it puffs up. Flip the mold so both sides cook. If using a griddle, just flip them. When cooked, cut open and fill.

Traditional filling is Italian prosciutto minced with garlic and fresh rosemary. or cheese or nutella. We had it nutella. It is amazingly delicious, we enjoyed this for our breakfast.

This is my entry for the BM #50 week 2 day 1, theme International Flat Breads

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#50.

Labels : Breads, Blogging Marathon, Continental Cuisine, Italy

Italian Chicken Pot Pie

Had a small packet of chicken in the deep freezer and only 4 puff pastry sheets remaining, since there was Bechamel Sauce too in the refrigerator I decided to make this pot pie for our evening meal.  I got only two pot pies.    In this pot pie I used different type of spices, dill and steak pepper.

Earlier I used to never like the smell of dill but after using the dry dill, started to like the flavour of the same.  In this pot pie even the  steak pepper gives a very awesome.  If you do not have this do not hesitate to prepare this pie you can use pepper powder.  This was very filling and complete meal with veggies too.  We enjoyed this for our dinner.   So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients

4 Sheets Puff pastry - square sheet
1 Egg - beaten
1 Cup Chicken – cut into small pieces
½ Teaspoon Ginger- Garlic paste
½ Teaspoon Black pepper powder
1 Teaspoon Lime juice
1 Tablespoon Oil
1/2 Medium size Onion - minced
1 Tablespoon frozen Green peas,
1 Tablespoon chopped carrots- chopped in small cubes
2 Tablespoons Red, yellow and green capsicum – chopped in small cubes
Pinch  grated Nutmeg
A pinch dried Celery
A pinch dried Dill
A pinch dried Mint

 A pinch Steakpepper
A pinch White pepper powder
Salt to taste
½ Cup Bechamel Sauce
1 Cheese cube

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Season chicken with ginger – garlic paste, lime juice, salt and pepper. Heat oil in a pan add onion and all the vegetables saute for a minute then chicken and all the spices and saute add water a little cover and cook. Check if cooked then on high flame dry all the moisture and add the béchamel sauce cheese and mix well add nutmeg and mix well. Remove from heat and cool.

Roll out the puff pastry sheet. Brush the bowl with the oil, then place the dough.  Add the filling in the centre.  Crimp the dough to fold over the side, pressing it to make it stick cover it a another piece of dough. Brush the dough with egg wash and make 3 slits in the top. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Bake until the crust is puffed and golden brown and the filling is bubbly, another 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before serving. 

Labels: Chicken, Continental Cuisine, Bake a thon,Pie & Quiche, Italy

Bake-a-thon 2014

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