As you huddle at home, try baking a loaf bread to pass the time. It's easier than you think. In fact, it's pure magic.
Simply mix plain, old flour, a wee bit of salt, yeast, and water and to see the lump of dough transform into a crusty, delicious loaf. We promise you, your bread will be worthy of a prime spot in an artisanal bakery. Mix the dough in the evening, let it sit overnight, and bake in the morning. And voila! You'll have the most divine bread for lunch! Here is our Blisshaus Label with the recipe:
We mix the dough with a wooden spoon and pop that spoon in the dishwasher. You won't even have to wash your hands ('cause we're all doing plenty of that!) Use the heaviest pot with a tight-fitting lid. Place the pot with its lid in the oven to pre-heat the oven AND the pot. Then, when the oven is super hot, pull out the pot, sprinkle in some polenta as your edible, non-stick coating, and plop in the dough. This plopping in part is best done by an adult since the pot is so, super, crazy hot. Then cover the pot with the lid and place the whole thing into the oven. You basically are creating a mini oven in your oven by using the pot. The moisture of the bread will stay in the pot and automatically create the steam needed to produce that amazing crust. When the bread is a nice, chestnut brown, check it's temperature. The bread is done at 200 Fahrenheit (93 Celcius.) Pull the bread out of the pot and let it rest on a cooling rack.
To store your bread, wrap it in a sheet of parchment paper and then seal it in our favorite beeswax wrap.
Did you know that each of us tosses 200 pounds of food a year?This is a third of our food production.So for every 3 grocery bags we buy at the store, we toss one of them without eating what's inside. The 200 pounds of wasted food per person sound huge. And they are. But when you think about how heavy your garbage and compost bins are when you roll them to the curb, the 200 pounds per year start to make sense.
When you add up all our food waste, the numbers become enormous:
Each year, we toss 30-40% of all food produced in the U.S.
This food weighs 133 billion pounds
That is $162 billion of food - wasted!
All that while 37 million people lived in food-insecure households. The garbage pile is daunting. But there are simple, small steps we can take to turn the tide. One of them is to save up your stale bread and turn it into homemade breadcrumbs. It takes only a few minutes. And next time you make some schnitzel, you can rejoice in saving food, money, and the planet.
You can use your breadcrumbs for meatballs, schnitzel, and even breaded cheese sticks or tofu. When you order your breadcrumbs jar, let us know what your favorite recipe is and we'll send it to you!
CHILLIN' AT HOME
... how to make cherry granita - aka snow cones - from scratch
June - July - August... no matter what these months will bring in 2020, they always deliver on cherry trees heavy with sweet, ruby-red jewels of fruit. So quick, pack a bunch of paper bags, or your favorite basket, and head the orchard to pick your own bushel.
If you can't find an orchard to pick your own cherries, pop by your local farmers' market. They will have fresh cherries for sure. We always buy at least three pounds.
Back at home, hide two pounds of cherries for your recipe. Set the remaining cherries out for all those cherry fans in your family.
For the granita, pit the cherries and then puree them in a blender or food processor. Season to taste with sugar and lemon juice. You want the mix to be on the sweet side since the sweetness level goes down once frozen. Once nice and smooth, pour the puree into a loaf pan. We love to use our Blisshaus fridge glass containers for this. They stack well and have the perfect, long, narrow shape.
Place the container into the freezer and set your timer for 15 minutes. When the time is up, take a fork and scrape all frozen bits loose. Repeat freezing & scraping your slushy every 15 minutes until all of the puree has transformed into the most delicious granita!
If you don't have cherries, you can use strawberries or raspberries instead.Also, try our Coffee Granita recipe. We make it with decaf coffee so you can have it as dessert after dinner. It's simply divine when served with unsweetened, whipped cream. The recipe for the coffee granita is on the second Freezer Glass Container in our Granita Container Kit.
You can use any loaf pan to freeze your granita. (Of course, we recommend not to scrape anything inside of non-stick coated pans.)But why not give yourself the gift of home-made snow cones with our Blisshaus Granita Container Set? It's 2 fridge glass containers complete with the recipe labels, one for Cherry Granita and one for Coffee Granita, plus our favorite ice cream scooper.
As you are cooped up in your home, this is the time to get your tortilla making game on. From beginning to hot-steaming tortillas on the table, it only takes 30 minutes, and you'll have extra tortillas for the following day. Best of all, you can make these tortillas from masa flour out of paper bags - so you can skip the pre-cooked tortillas in plastic pouches!
All you need is masa harina, which is nixtamalized corn flour*. In the Southwest and West Coast any conventional grocery store should have masa flour, usually under the brand name 'Maseca.' Finding masa harina is more tricky elsewhere. Here in London, we head to our local specialty food stores that carries Latin American foods. They stock masa harina near the cans of mole and salsas.
After a few test-runs, we discovered the secret to a perfect tortilla.
The magic lies all the Tortilla-Toasting-Timing.
Our shorthand to time your tortillas is "20-80-20" as in "20 seconds-80 seconds-20 seconds". Read on for all the detailed scoop:
To make your own corn tortillas from scratch, without plastic, you just need masa, salt, water, parchment paper, a skillet, and a bowl with a tea towel or cloth napkin.If you have one, pull out your tortilla press. If you don't have a press not to worry, you can shape your tortillas also by hand or press them with a flat-bottomed pan.Here's the recipe for 10-12 4" tortillas:Ingredients2 cups masa flour1/4 tsp salt1 1/4 - 1 3/4 cups warm water, more or less depending on the humidity in your homePreparationIn a large bowl, mix masa flour, salt, and water. Knead into a smooth dough. This is a perfect task for little hands! The dough should be just a tiny tad sticky but not gluey. Let rest for a few minutes.Heat up a cast-iron skillet to medium-high. Your skillet is ready when a drop of water sizzles away immediately.Take 2 tbsp scoops of dough (about the size of a golf ball) and press into the desired shape. We use a tortilla press lined with two sheets of parchment paper. If you don't have a press, put the dough ball on a sheet of parchment on your counter. Cover with a second sheet of parchment and then press into a tortilla with a heavy, flat-bottomed pan. Or simply pad the ball into a flat tortilla by hand.Now you'll follow our 20-80-20 Tortilla-Toasting-Timing rule: Toast 20 seconds, Flip and toast 80 seconds, Flip and toast 20 seconds more.So, place the tortilla onto the skillet. Wait 17-20 seconds on the first side until the edges just dry out a tiny bit.Flip the tortilla over. Wait until the tortilla starts to puff up ever so slightly, around 70-80 seconds.Then flip for the last time.Now is the moment of truth. On this third side, the tortilla should puff up into a little pillow. This will take only 20 seconds. Now take the tortilla onto the skillet.Transfer the newly cooked tortilla into your bowl lined with a towel or cloth napkin and cover with another napkin so the tortilla can steam. Shape the next tortilla and toast using the 20-80-20 Toasting Timing rule.Place the next tortilla directly onto the previous one and cover it with the napkin again. Repeat until you have used up all the masa dough.This recipe, of course, is on our masa flour Blisshaus label:
Get Your Very Own Masa Flour Jar
And voila! Homemade, authentic corn tortillas completely plastic-free in 30 minutes - simply heaven.Bonus Tip: Cut any leftover, dried up tortillas into strips and fry them in an inch of oil to make your very own tortilla chips. Sprinkle with a little salt. You won't even need guacamole. People will eat all of them right away. Of course, if you manage to hide them from the crowds, store your homemade tortillas in a Blisshaus jar when they have completely cooled down. They'll stay crispy for weeks.
And there you have it, another pretty simple tip to skip the plastic.
Show us a photo of your tortillas: Tag us at #blisshaus or send us your photo to hello@blisshaus.com. We love to see & share how all of us are healing our planet one kitchen, one trip to the store at a time!
Wishing you many blissful moments in your home,
- Wiebke & the Blisshaus Crew
