Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Yummy Bread!

I definitely haven't posted enough this year, and I truly miss posting here, but things did go a little crazy this past few weeks around here and I barely had time to sit and plan my menus and figure out the recipes I wanted to try. Plus, since we are going for a few weeks we had to enter the mode "eat what is in the fridge before we leave" and our meals has been quick and simple, but tasty nonetheless!
And although I didn't post much, I just had to come here and give you all a Hello and a quick post before we leave tomorrow, because I know I won't be able to post anything in the next few days.
So, here comes a very simple and quick recipe, which I made not just because I had ham and cheese in the fridge, but also because it looked pretty and delicious at Valentina's blog, which got it originally from Silvia's blog Doce Casinha.
This is a recipe that comes from Silvia's mother in law, and let me tell you, the lady does have great taste! The dough was super easy to work with and after baked it turned into a nice light and fluffy bread, very pleasant to eat. Both my husband and my son loved it, I made half the recipe and got about 5 nice "rolls" filled with ham, cheese, a bit of oregano, and sun dried tomatoes, so be prepared because the whole recipe provides a nice yield.
I didn't know how to properly name the bread, I have so much in my little head going right now that I couldn't think of a way to describe this sort of filled and rolled bread in English, so I am sorry... any suggestion will be appreciated! I guess it is sort of a "Stromboli", right? (not really sure though)
Thank you both so much, Valentina's for pointing me to Silvia's nice blog, and of course thanks Silvia for sharing your great family recipe with us all!!
I used ham and cheese, but the combinations for fillings here are as varied as can be. I bet it would be also good with turkey and cheese, or even spinach and ricotta/some other cheese, yum! (I am planning to try different fillings when I came back from Brazil!)
You know a good recipe when it is very forgiving and let you adapt with the ingredients you have in your own "in-need-to-clean-fridge"!!
Enjoy, and see you all soon, from the sunny and "full of family" Terra Brasilis!!
Ana

Oh, and if you would like to take a peek, the original recipe is posted in Portuguese here.

Silvia's Mother In Law Bread

About 2 pounds all-purpose flour (more or less depending on your dough)
3 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup oil
14 grams active dry yeast (2 packages)
2 cups warm water
Salt to taste

For the filling I used shredded mozzarella cheese, pieces of ham, and some sun dried tomatoes that I soaked in some warm water to plump up. I also sort of seasoned my filling with a little bit of salt, pepper, and dried oregano. But use your imagination, because there are definitely other combinations that would taste great here!

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, add the sugar and let sit for about 5 minutes. Add oil, eggs and salt and mix well. Little by little add the flour until you get a nice workable dough that doesn't stick to your hands. Put dough into a clean bowl and let it rise until it doubles in volume (1 to 2 hours).
Open dough into a rectangle, sprinkle with your filling of choice and roll it like a cake roll. Brush top with egg wash and bake at 350 until golden on top.

1 comment:

Cinara said...

Também preciso fazer esse pão, Ana! Com tanta gente elogiando, só pode ser ótimo! Boa viagem e aproveite MUITO as suas férias! Se vier a SP, dê um alô e talvez possamos nos encontrar... Bjs