Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Lemon Glazed Mini Pistachio Loaves

We had a great surprise here at 37 Cooks! One of our own, Donna Currie, has a great new cookbook coming out soon, Make Ahead Bread: 100 Recipes for Melt-Your-Mouth Fresh Bread Every Day, and her publisher generously allowed us a sneak peak at ten of her wonderful bread recipes! She has an awesome, easy method for making bread...make up the dough one day and bake the next. I loved this! Our challenge was to put our own spin on these recipes. I chose Donna’s Mini Sunflower Seed Loaves. Right away pistachios popped into my head, so here is my twist…Lemon Glazed Mini Pistachio Loaves. Enjoy!

Lemon Glazed Mini Pistachio Loaves
by Susan W.
Adapted from Mini Sunflower Seed Loaves in Make Ahead Bread: 100 Recipes for Melt-Your-Mouth Fresh Bread Every Day by Donna Currie

1 1⁄4 cups water, room temperature
2 1⁄4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 cups (14 1⁄4 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon canola oil
3⁄4 cup chopped pistachios, divided
Nonstick baking spray
1 egg beaten
1 Tablespoon water
Lemon Glaze (recipe below)

The day before baking:

In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, sugar, flour, kosher salt, canola oil and 1/2 cup of the chopped pistachios (reserving the remaining 1/4 cup for baking day.) Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand until the dough is elastic. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size, (about 1 hour.)

After the dough has risen, spray four mini loaf pans with nonstick baking spray and set aside. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 4 equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, pat each into about a 5-inch square. Roll each dough-square jellyroll style into a log. Pinch the seam and the ends closed. Place the dough loaves, seam side down, into each of the mini loaf pans. Cover the pans with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (and no more than 24 hours.)

The next day (baking day):

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Make the egg wash by whisking the egg with 1 Tablespoon of water.

Take each mini loaf pan out of the refrigerator and remove the plastic. Brush the tops with your egg wash and sprinkle the tops with the reserved 1⁄4 cup of chopped pistachios. Bake the mini loaves approximately 25 minutes, until they are golden (if you wish, you can also check the internal temperature, which is a cool new trick I learned from Donna’s book…it should reach 195°F.) Remove from oven and let loaves sit for about 5 minutes and then remove the loaves from the pans and cool completely on a cooling rack.

Once cooled, make your lemon glaze and drizzle over the tops. They are also delicious without the glaze!

Lemon Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon half and half

Whisk ingredients together in a small bowl, making sure to whisk out any lumps. Drizzle over pistachio loaves.

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