Pita Bread with Hummus

One of our favorite dips and foods is Hummus.

Today with the Bakereoose we will be making the classic Pita Bread with Hummus

How to Make Pita Pocket Bread

T dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1T sugar

1 tsp salt

1T olive oil (I used a garlic infused oil)

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups bread flour

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy.

Combine flour and salt in large bowl.
Make a small depression in the middle of flour and pour yeast water in depression.
Slowly add 1 cup of warm water, and stir with wooden spoon or rubber spatula until elastic.
Place dough on floured surface and knead for 4-minutes. When the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic, it has been successfully kneaded.

Coat large bowl with vegetable oil and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated. Cover bowl.
Allow to sit in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

Once doubled, roll out in a rope, and pinch off 10-12 small pieces. Place balls on floured surface. Let sit covered for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 500 deg F. and make sure rack is at the very bottom of oven. Be sure to also preheat your baking sheet.

Roll out each ball of dough with a rolling pin into circles. Each should be about 5-6 inches across and 1/4 inch thick.

Bake each circle for 4 minutes until the bread puffs up. Turn over and bake for 2 minutes.
Remove each pita with a spatula from the baking sheet and add additional pitas for baking.

Take spatula and gently push down puff. Immediately place in storage bags.

Hummus 101

Hummus is a dip or spread made from chickpeas. Hummus is in fact the Arabic word for chickpea. Hummus has been eaten since ancient Egyptian times. Over 7,000 years ago. In almost every culture the use of mashed beans in some form are used.They are an excellent form of protein. Coupled with pita bread they provide all the essential components of a complete protein. Many people around the world don't eat meat to get their protein. The combine grains and legumes (beans and grains) to get all that their bodies need. It's a wonderful way to eat. There are not any set in stone recipes for hummus. When you don't have tahini, you may use sesame oil or sometimes we use sesame seeds. Tahini is a paste made from toasted sesame seeds. It's very strongly smoky flavored from the sesame.

Hummus with Tahini

1 16 oz can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans

1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas

3-5 tablespoons lemon juice (depending on taste)

1 1/2 tablespoons tahini

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:

Drain chickpeas and set aside liquid from can. Combine remaining ingredients in blender or food processor. Add 1/4 cup of liquid from chickpeas. Blend for 3-5 minutes on low until thoroughly mixed and smooth.Place in serving bowl, and create a shallow well in the center of the hummus

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

1 can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans (15 oz

1/3 cup tahini

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 cup -3/4 cup roasted red peppers (depending on taste)

Put all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

Sun Dried Tomato Hummus

1 can garbanzo beans/chickpeas (15 oz.), drained

3 tablespoons sun dried tomatoes in oil

2 teaspoons parsley

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation:

In a food processor, combine all ingredients and process until smooth and creamy. If too thick, add 1 tablespoon water until desired consistency.

thank you to About.com for the useful hummus recipes in this post: http://mideastfood.about.com/od/hummusrecipes/tp/kids_hummus.htm

Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies

Hi it's Dolphin Girl here,
One day we had to make some cookies for this dinner at a friends house and we wanted to use the new cookie press that I got for my birthday a week ago, and so we looked at the website that was on the box. And it came up with some recipes that we could use, And we all liked the "Cream Cheese Spritz cookie" one and when we tried it, we liked it a lot, so Here it is.
Cream Cheese Spritz cookies.
Makes 4 dozen cookies.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Ingredients:

(mind you when we made them we did a double batch so don't be confused when you see the pictures)

1 cup softened butter

1 (3 ounce) pkg softened cream cheese

1 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp Madagascar Pure Vanilla Extract (you can use plain vanilla extract too)

1 tsp grated lemon peel ( and if you don't have any you can just use some lemon juice too)

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter and cream cheese together.

Add sugar and mix well until light and fluffy.

Add egg yolk, vanilla and lemon peel. Mix well.

Gradually add flour and salt to cream mixture.

Shape dough into small logs and place in cookie press
(or in stead just roll out the cookie dough, cut, and put onto cool ungreased cookie sheet)

Press cookies onto cool ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Store in an airtight container at cool room temperature for several weeks or freeze for 2 months.

Enjoy :)

Peanuts and Cracker Jacks! Make with an Adult.

We officially had our first Bakeroose cooking class today with all the kid chefs and moms. It was outstanding! I, Chef Tess, was exceptionally pleased with how much our Bakeroose have already learned! Measuring and kitchen math are coming along. We got in some science as well. Not bad for a quick one hour class, right? What a great way to kick off our grandest of grand adventures in kid cooking. Would you like to join us? Here's your chance...

Have you ever had Cracker Jacks from the store? They come in a box. We sing a song about them at baseball games. Did you ever think in a million years that you could make them at home with your mom or dad? This one has to be made with an adult who's responsible and won't let you get burned. Find one first before you start this recipe. I think you will have a lot of fun. The first thing all good chefs do is gather their ingredients all to one place so they don't forget anything when they are cooking. Get everything in it's place and measured before you cook, and you will have a lot more fun...since you won't forget a very important ingredient! We can't have that happen, right?
Cracker Jacks
you will need:
2o cups of popped popcorn (measure after popping should be 20 cups...use microwave popcorn or homemade)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
3 cups peanuts (unsalted)
equipment:
Measuring cups, spoons, large one gallon pot, 2 large cookie sheets with edges to hold the popcorn, 3 gallon size metal or heat proof mixing bowl, 1 large wooden spoon, 2 large paper grocery bags (unused) or 5-6 paper lunch bags.



Do you want to know a random fact? Popcorn explodes and becomes the fluffy stuff we like to eat when the small amount of moisture inside the seed kernel gets hot enough to explode out of the shell. I bet you didn't know you where eating exploded seeds when you ate popcorn.

Directions:
Have an adult Turn your oven on to 350 degrees.
If you are allowed to use the stove, carefully put the butter, sugar and molasses in the pot. Turn on the heat to medium and once the butter is melted and the stuff starts to boil, turn on a timer for 4 minutes. Do not stir it. While it cooks, get the popcorn in the 3 gallon mixing bowl.

When your timer goes off, add the condensed milk, vanilla and peanuts to the pot of cooked stuff. Stir just until combined. Set your timer for 2 minutes and keep cooking on medium heat. When the 2 minutes is up...have an adult pour the sugar peanut mixture over the cooked popcorn in a large bowl.

Mix well to coat.

Divide the popcorn onto the two cookie sheets...again, this is hot so let an adult do this part.

Have an adult put the cookie sheets in the oven. Set the timer for 7 minutes. When the timer goes off, have an adult stir the popcorn. Set the timer for 8 minutes. Close the oven. When the timer goes off, have an adult take the cookie sheets out of the oven.

When popcorn is still hot, have an adult scoop popcorn into the grocery bags or divide it between the lunch sacks. Let them sit for 3 minutes. Then...kids carefully fold over the top of the bag and begin to shake. Adults, make sure it is cool enough to touch the bags!! Shaking helps the cracker jacks from sticking together.

It is also really fun!

After you have shaken the bag for about 2 minutes, the popcorn should be cool enough to touch. Have an adult check for you to see if it's ready.

Try to run around the back yard a few times after you eat this to burn off all the sugar. Your mom will be glad you did.

There you go. Oh...and here's a little clip of what we did...not even a minute, but a good glimpse.

Popcorn Without a Microwave

1/2 cup popcorn kernels. You will need a parent or guardian to help with this.

Add 1-2T of vegetable oil and a whirly-pop corn stove top pan.
If you don't have a whirly popcorn pan, you will need a gallon size pan with a lid that fits tightly. Put the popper or pan on the stove, again, have an adult nearby. Turn the stove on medium heat. When the pan has heated for 1 minute, add the popcorn kernals.

Close the lid right away. Start turning the handle of the popper, or if you have a pot, shake the pan. Keep turning the handle or shaking the pot until the popcorn starts popping. It will sound awesome. Keep turning until the pops dye down and are a few seconds apart. Sounds kind of like baloon tower defense. Its on http://www.ninjakiwi.com/ just click on bloons.

stIr and hear pop until you can't stir anymore.

When done, tell parent to help you get it off the stove.
Then enjoy in front of a movie. Good luck to all of the drivers out there.

http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/search/label/Popcorn

Homemade No-Bake Chewy Granola Bars we made with my mom. If you want all the pictures you'll need to go to her blog. But here's what you need:

4 cups granola, preferably in smaller pieces or my granola: Home-Spun Breakfast Cereal

4 cups rolled oats
4 cups crispy rice cereal
1 cup flax seed (optional)
1T cinnamon
2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup butter
2 tsp double strength vanilla
2/3 cup honey or molasses

Combine the dry ingredients in a large 2 gallon bowl.

Lightly oil 2 9 by 13 inch casserole pans and set them aside.

With an adult supervising:

In a 2 quart heavy pot, combine the sugar, butter, water, vanilla and honey or molasses.
Simmer the syrup over medium heat until a drop placed in cold water holds it's shape, about 5 minutes (soft ball stage). (see the pictures on mom's blog. It helps a lot!!)

Not ready yet...
Getting closer...
Ready! Pour immediately over the dry ingredients and combine well.
It will not be too gooey. Just right.
Scrape all the way to the bottom of the bowl.
Divide the mixture between the two pans. Lightly spray the top of the bars with non-stick spray or oil. Press down firmly, being careful not to burn your hands. Transfer pans to the fridge and chill 10-15 minutes.Have an adult cut with a sharp knife into bars of desired size. Standard granola bar size yielded about 45 bars.

Place in snack size bags or keep in an airtight container. Ours rarely last more than a few days, so I can't really say how long they will keep fresh.
There you go. Granola bars. You can do it!