Light Brioche Burger Buns

I've been wanting to make bread for some time. I've been sitting on the floor playing blocks with my son and dreaming of making foccacia, or rosemary sandwich buns. Weird, i know. But I never found time to work it into my day until now. This recipe caught my eye on Smitten Kitchen, so I dropped what I was doing and got to it! The recipe was published in the New York Times dining section last week.

The recipe was straightforward and easy to follow, although I did end up adding a little extra flour to the dough to make it easier to manage. I tried making the dough in my kitchenaid mixer, however there simply weren't enough ingredients for the dough hook to get around. I think it might work if the recipe were doubled, but otherwise I'd make it by hand. And be prepared for super sticky dough! I also let mine overrise by mistake while running to the grocery store, so my buns were a little flatter then they might otherwise have been. Still, the sweet buttery taste of the buns was worth all the hassle! I don't know if this will become a regular due to the tricky dough (Moomie's recipe is easier to work with) but I will definitely make it again. The taste was truly spectacular, and has inspired me to make more bread!!

I did not photograph my buns (what a surprise!) however Deb at Smitten Kitchen has plenty of gorgeous pictures so I urge you to take a peek. You can find her post about this recipe here.

Light Brioche Burger Buns
Adapted from Comme Ça restaurant in Los Angeles, via the New York Times

Go! Make these! What are you waiting for?

Makes 8 4 to 5-inch burger buns

3 tablespoons warm milk
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Sesame seeds (optional)

1. In a glass measuring cup, combine one cup warm water, the milk, yeast and sugar. Let stand until foamy, about five minutes. Meanwhile, beat one egg.

2. In a large bowl, whisk flours with salt. Add butter and rub into flour between your fingers, making crumbs. Using a dough scraper, stir in yeast mixture and beaten egg until a dough forms. Scrape dough onto clean, well-floured counter and knead, scooping dough up, slapping it on counter and turning it, until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes. The dough will be on the sticky side so it can be a bit messy, but keep in mind that the more flour you knead in, the tougher the buns will get. Try to leave them tackier than you would a round loaf.

3. Shape dough into a ball and return it to bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, one to two hours. (In my freaky, warm apartment this only took an hour.)

4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using dough scraper, divide dough into 8 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball and arrange two to three inches apart on baking sheet. Cover loosely with a piece of plastic wrap lightly coated in nonstick spray and let buns rise in a warm place for one to two hours. (Again, this only took one hour in my apartment and I suspect, you’ll also only need an hour for a second rise.)

5. Set a large shallow pan of water on oven floor. Preheat oven to 400 degrees with rack in center. Beat remaining egg with one tablespoon water and brush some on top of buns. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if using. Bake, turning sheet halfway through baking, until tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Tofu Salad - My Way

With those yummy pickles residing in the fridge, I wanted to find a way to begin using them (while I can still get kirby cucumbers to make another batch). I really felt like egg salad (a craving I get about once a year), but we only had one egg since I dropped the other last night. Egg on the floor - awesome! Oh the dilemma.

Since eggs were out of the question, I began to contemplate alternatives. Luckily, I had a pound of lite tofu lurking in the back of the fridge. I decided to come up with my own variation of Tofu Salad. Now, there are two types of texture to tofu salad. There's the kind of tofu salad which resembles egg salad, and the tofu is mashed with the other ingredients. My recipe is not that kind of salad. I prefer dicing the tofu into small cubes, sauteeing them with a quick dash of cooking spray to cook off the water, and then mixing the browned cubes with the other ingredients. That's just my personal preference, but feel free to take the recipe in any direction you like.


Tofu Salad
Serves 3-4 (depending on how much you like to pack into your sandwich)

Ingredients
1 pound lite (or regular) tofu, drained and cubed into 1/4 inch squares)
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1/4-1/2 cup diced pickles (or relish)
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
Salt
Pepper to taste

Spray a nonstick frying pan with cooking spray, and turn on burner to medium-high heat. Add tofu, and stir. Cook tofu (stirring frequently) for about ten minutes, or until cubes begin to brown and turn golden. Turn off heat.

While tofu cooks, prepare other ingredients. Dice pickles (or add relish), and place in mixing bowl. Add mustard, salt and pepper, and mayonnaise. Add tofu cubes when finished cooking. Stir thoroughly to make sure ingredients are fully combined.

Add tofu salad to a sandwich, or a salad. Use as you would use egg salad. Enjoy.

Eggplant Parmesan Sandwiches

So, after finishing the muffins (and baking a batch of brownies but more on those tomorrow) I was somewhat at a loose end. M. was still asleep, and I was definitely feeling pangs of hunger. But what to make for lunch? I remembered a favorite recipe for eggplant parmesan that we both really enjoy, and a certain white eggplant lurking in the depths of our vegetable drawer. Lunch was determined, and after sampling the dish it is safe to say that we still really like the recipe. While it is a Weight Watchers recipe, the addition of parmesan to the breadcrumbs adds a nice flavor to the sandwich. I used some of my homemade marinara, and a sprinkling of fat-free mozzarella cheese and we were enjoying our sandwiches within 35 minutes of my decision to make Eggplant Parmesan Sandwiches for lunch. I threw together a quick side salad using up the last of the quinoa salad along with some romaine lettuce, carrots and red pepper chunks in order to round out the meal. And I think its safe to say that this will be a recipe often repeated - it's even fast enough to be a weeknight dinner if I think far enough ahead and cook the eggplant while preparing the salad.

Eggplant Parmesan Hero ~ 7 Pts.
Weight Watchers recipe - Take Out Tonight Cookbook

Weight Watchers' Notes - "A favorite Italian treat, our hero is kept low in points by spraying the eggplant with nonstick spray and baking it. For best flavor, use olive oil spray."

My notes - I had a mini-baguette so I used one small eggplant to make only 2 sandwiches. The leftover eggplant pieces were topped with a little sauce and cheese, and eaten plain.

1 pound eggplant -- unpeeled, cut into 1/4"-thick slices
1 large egg
1 tablespoon nonfat milk
1/2 cup bread crumbs, seasoned -- dried
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese -- grated
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, part skim milk -- shredded
1 cup marinara sauce
4 Italian hard rolls -- split

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray a nonstick baking sheet with nonstick spray; set aside.

Lightly beat the egg and milk in a shallow bowl. Mix the bread crumbs and Parmesan on a sheet of wax paper. Dip the eggplant in the egg mixture, then in the bread crumbs, and arrange in one layer on the baking sheet. Lightly spary the eggplant with nonstick spray. Bake until the eggplant is softened and lightly browned, about 25 minutes.

Divide the eggplant slices into 4 equal portions on the baking sheet. Overlap each group of slices so they are no larger than the dimensions of each roll. Top each portions with 1 tablespoon of the mozzarella. Bake until the cheese is melted, about 2 minutes.

Transfer each eggplant portion to the bottom of each roll, top each with 1/4 cup of the sauce. Replace top of roll and serve at once.

Hominy-Pinto Burgers with Roasted Poblano Peppers

This was dinner tonight (along with corn, baked sweet potato fries and sauteed vegetables). Overall, we were pretty unimpressed. I was excited to use hominy - I've never used it before and bought a can specifically at Whole Foods just to try. But this recipe just seemed dry, and somewhat tasteless. Even with the creamy sauce and roasted chile, it just lacked zip for us. We ended up sprinkling salt on the burgers and that made them a little better but overall this recipe will not warrant repeating in this household.

The plus side -the burgers came together pretty quickly. They didn't fall apart while cooking, and resembled Cooking Light's photograph quite closely. When not cooking tons of vegetables on the side in preparation for upcoming trip, this recipe would have come together very quickly indeed.

The down side - we just didn't think this recipe was a winner. The taste was lacking for us, and as a result the meal just seemed a little blah. Overall, this was a disappointment.


It is late, and I'm feeling quite tired. So, I'm not going to post the recipe here. But if my less than raving review hasn't put you off trying these vegetarian burgers, you can find the recipe on the Cooking Light website here.

I'm off to Florida, but will do my best to remember my Blogger password and id so that I can post from there! Stay tuned... Florida adventures are coming soon.

Technorati Tags: vegetarian, Cooking Light Magazine, poblano peppers, hominy, pinto beans