Blog Archives

Hot Cross Buns

Reply

Countless stories surround the origin and the history of hot cross buns. Suffice it to say they are eaten as a simple little sweet during Lent after weeks of abstinence and looking towards the crucifixion. It is our tradition to serve them here at the Community of Jesus every Good Friday.

There is one little saying about them that I particularly like. It is said that a bun baked on Good Friday and hung in one’s kitchen will guarantee the success of all baked goods prepared in that kitchen. Worth a try?

HOT CROSS BUNS

Print Recipe
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Hot Cross Buns
SERVINGS
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
COOK TIME
20minutes
PREP TIME
READY IN
55-60minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water and let stand 10 minutes in mixer until foamy.
  2. Add softened butter, instant powdered milk, egg, egg white. Mix well with dough hook.
  3. Add salt and flour only adding enough flour until dough is slightly sticky.
  4. Add citron and currants and cinnamon
  5. Continue to add rest of flour until the dough is soft and smooth and not too sticky to handle. You may not need all of your flour.
  6. Mix on slow for another 5 minutes – this will knead the dough.
  7. Let rise in mixer bowl until double in size.
  8. Punch down on floured surface, cover, and let rest 10 minutes.
  9. Shape into 12 balls and place in a greased 9 x 12 inch pan.
  10. Cover and let rise in a warm place till double, about 35-40 minutes.
  11. Mix egg yolk and 2 tablespoons water. Brush on balls.
  12. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 20 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and cool on wire rack.
  13. To make crosses: mix together confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and milk. Brush an X on each cooled bun.

Portuguese Sweet Bread

6
Most of the Convent Sisters love to cook and even those who may not, learn to, so that everyone can help prepare meals.  All are encouraged to be creative, which makes for a great deal of variety in our menu. As a result, we can actually go around the world in a week without ever leaving home.

Thursday evening has been established as Italian night. Many sisters love Asian and Thai cooking. Mexican is a long-time favorite, and Sisters who have spent time in Germany, Korea, and India all like to have a chance to relive their experiences there through cooking dishes native to each country…..thus the great diversity of our meals. We never simply have “the same old thing.”

But one day a week we choose to have only very plain food. Basically bread, cheese, fruit, and a simple soup. This has led to baking many different kinds of bread and one of our favorites has become this beautiful Portuguese sweet bread.

Print Recipe
Votes: 14
Rating: 3.71
You:
Rate this recipe!
Portuguese Sweet Bread
SERVINGS
5loaves
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
loaves
COOK TIME
45-60minutes
PREP TIME
READY IN
1-3hours

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Dissolve yeast in warm water, (not hot).
  2. Add warm milk and 1 Tablespoon sugar.
  3. Whisk together and set aside to proof yeast.
  4. In a separate bowl, add eggs, sugar, and lemon juice. Beat well and then add melted butter.
  5. Add yeast mixture, the remaining flour and salt.
  6. Mix well and let rest for 10 to 20 minutes.
  7. Continue mixing until dough begins to pull away from bowl or knead with greased hands until dough pulls away from your hands. This takes a while and the dough is sticky unlike bread dough.
  8. Place in greased bowl and cover to let rise to double, about 1 to 3 hours. Punch down, turn over, and let rise to double a second time.
  9. Carefully break away about 2/3 pound of dough at a time, rolling dough into a nice loaf shape and place into greased loaf pans. This should make about 5 to 7 nice loafs.
  10. Let rise until double in the pans for a third rising.
  11. Make two to three 1/4-inch slits on the top of each loaf and then brush tops with 1 beaten egg mixed with water
  12. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes and then reduce heat to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit for another 25 to 30 minutes.
  13. Remove loaves from the oven and lay them on their side on a rack for a couple of minutes before removing from the pan.

Hot Ham and Cheese Pockets with Mustard and Chutney

Reply

Next week we start harvesting apples. How the year zips right along, from planting to harvest to seed again. We haven’t quite finished dealing with the pears yet, but we are getting there. Many more jars of chutney, and maybe some cordial to warm us in the winter months. I wanted to try the pear chutney in my favorite hot ham and cheese sandwich, so I made up some bread dough, slathered in some of our homemade mustard and a good dollop of the pear chutney, baked it until the cheese was oozing out the sides and it was quite good! Served with a nice bowl of butternut squash soup, who could ask for more on these nippy fall days? 

Print Recipe
Votes: 2
Rating: 1
You:
Rate this recipe!
Hot Ham and Cheese Pockets with Mustard and Chutney
SERVINGS
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
COOK TIME
PREP TIME
READY IN

Ingredients

Instructions

Bread dough:
  1. Dissolve yeast in warm water, add sugar, and let sit until bubbly.
  2. Add salt, olive oil and enough flour to make a just-sticky bread dough that springs back to the touch after kneading for about 5 to 10 minutes.
  3. Keep adding flour until not sticky.
  4. Put back in bowl, and cover.
  5. Let rise about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Filling:
  1. Divide dough into 6 lumps.
  2. Roll out into 7 inch circles.
  3. Spread center of each circle with mustard, then grated cheese, chutney, and finally ham bunched on top.
  4. Pull up edges of circle, and press edges together to form a ball.
  5. Place with seam side down on a pan lined with parchment.
  6. Let sit about 15 minutes.
  7. Brush tops with olive oil, and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until bubbly and golden.

Blueberry Coffeecake Ring

Reply
When I got up this morning to go to Lauds, I thought I might need a jacket…wow, how things change. Last time I wrote we were in the middle of a humid heat wave. Last weekend was Transfiguration Sunday, a feast reflecting the name of our church. We always have a coffee hour after church to celebrate. I found a blueberry pie filling and wrapped that in the dough we had made the day before. They were really delicious, and moist! Of course the huge amount of frosting I drizzled on helped, but it was a very light moist cake and the filling was perfect. There were lots of compliments on this latest adventure.
Blueberry Coffeecake Ring
Print Recipe
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Blueberry Coffeecake Ring
SERVINGS
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
COOK TIME
PREP TIME
READY IN

Ingredients

Instructions

Vegetable Stack Sandwich on Homemade Focaccia with Pesto and Ricotta

Reply

Vegetable Stack Sandwich on Homemade Focaccia with Pesto and Ricotta

Print Recipe
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Vegetable Stack Sandwich on Homemade Focaccia with Pesto and Ricotta
SERVINGS
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
COOK TIME
35-40mins.
PREP TIME
READY IN
155mins.

Ingredients

Instructions

Focaccia:
  1. Pour the warm water in a small bowl.
  2. Sprinkle the yeast, sugar and 2 Tablespoons of the flour over the the water.
  3. Stir until dissolved, and then let sit until foamy, about 15 minutes.
  4. In a large bowl, place the 4 Tablespoons olive oil, salt, 1 cup of the flour and the yeast mixture.
  5. Whisk hard until smooth, about 3 minutes.
  6. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until a soft, sticky dough is formed.
  7. Turn onto a floured surface and knead to form a springy ball, dusting with flour to prevent sticking, about 3 minutes.
  8. Place the dough in a greased deep container, and let rise until triple in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.
  9. Grease a 17 x 11 inch baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal.
  10. Place the dough ball on a lightly floured surface.
  11. Press and flatten the dough.
  12. Lift and pull gently, stretching to fit the baking sheet.
  13. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk.
  14. Meanwhile combine herbs and 1/3 cup olive oil, let sit for 30 minutes.
  15. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  16. Using fingertips or knuckles, gently poke indentations all over the surface of the dough about 1/4 inch deep.
  17. Drizzle the oil/herb mixture over the surface of the dough, letting it pool in indentations. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until nicely browned.
  18. Sprinkle with salt if desired.
Stack Sandwich:
  1. Lay the eggplant out onto trays lined with paper towel, sprinkle with salt, and let sit for about 10 minutes.
  2. Blot with more paper towel.
  3. Place eggplant, zucchini, red pepper and onion on baking sheets greased with olive oil.
  4. Brush all vegetables generously with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake in a 400 degree F oven until tender.
  5. Cut Focaccia into squares, and then cut into 2 layers. Spread each layer with pesto, and the bottom with 2 teaspoons ricotta.
  6. Place baby spinach next, then a slice of eggplant, onion, tomato, a couple of slices of zucchini and finally some strips of red pepper.
  7. Place top layer of focaccia on this and you have a great sandwich!

Orange Rolls

Reply

This year Palm Sunday was a bright day, and even though it was cold, it felt like a promise of things to come. Everything about this week points to Easter. As I write this, we are beginning the Triduum, the three holy days before Resurrection Sunday, and some of the most special services of the year. Often we celebrate Maundy Thursday with a meal of lamb, pita bread, bitter herbs (endive). Good Friday we usually have hot cross buns together as a community after the Lauds service, and then later that night, the convent has a “Lenten meal”: home made bread, cheese, honey, eggs. It’s amazing how food is so integral to our holiday gatherings. I love Easter breakfast — with egg dishes, french toast, fruit, and everyone’s favorite — orange rolls. We began making these several years ago in an effort to use up a generous donation of candied orange rind, and they were a hit — the citrus taste makes me think of spring!

Print Recipe
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Orange Rolls
SERVINGS
CHANGE SERVING SIZE
COOK TIME
15-20mins.
PREP TIME
READY IN
2 1/2hours

Ingredients

Instructions

For roll dough:
  1. Boil 1 cup of water in saucepan and set off stove.
  2. Add butter and shortening and stir until melted.
  3. Add sugar and salt.
  4. Cool to lukewarm.
  5. In a large bowl put 1 cup of warm water, add yeast and stir to dissolve.
  6. Add butter – shortening mixture and eggs to yeast mixture and mix.
  7. Thoroughly mix in flour. This is a very soft dough.
  8. Cover and let stand 2 hours.
For filling:
  1. Place sugar and peel or rind in food processor, and mix for about 20 seconds.
  2. Roll dough out on flour covered surface to make a rectangle about 15″ by 26″.
  3. Spread the butter all over the dough, and then cover generously with the sugar mixture.
  4. Roll up rectangle like a jelly roll.
  5. Cut into 1 inch slices.
  6. Place rolls into greased pans (9″ round pans, or muffin tins, square pans, or rectangular.) You will have roughly 24 rolls.
  7. Let rise about 1/2 hour or until puffy. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden.
For glaze:
  1. Combine above and drizzle over rolls to glaze.