Tag: flat

Level 1, Levels 2 And Above, Recipe

Chortillas! (Cheese Tortillas)

brendanolen


I adapted this from the Fat Head pizza crust recipe here: https://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2013/06/30/weekend-bonus-the-older-brothers-oldest-sons-faux-carb-pizza/.


Here we have two types of Chortillas:

  • one with mozzarella and yellow corn meal and
  • the second is cheddar cheese, Monterey jack cheese, and almond flour.

I had a lot of fun making these. The only special equipment you will need is parchment paper. Almond flour is available almost anywhere, which is truly amazing. When I started this website, it was so rare (and if you found anything, it was usually almond meal).
I hope you enjoy these! I am especially proud of these! As a bonus, I cut them up and baked them at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes and made chips! They are sturdy enough to handle any salsa, guacamole, and MAYBE bean dip (not sure about that one).

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated (or 1 1/2 cup sharp cheddar/jack blend, grated)
  • 1 1/2 ounce cream cheese
  • 1/4 cup yellow corn meal (or almond meal)
  • 1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut 12-24 pieces of parchment paper to roughly 5 inch squares. Place grated cheese and cream cheese in a microwave safe bowl.

Microwave 1 minute, stir, then microwave 1 minute. Let the cheese mixture cool slightly, then pour the corn meal over the top, followed by the egg. Carefully mix (it will slosh around) until it looks like a cohesive dough.

On a flat surface (not a tile countertop), drop dough by Tablespoons (or use a Tablespoon cookie scoop) on 1 piece of cut parchment paper. Place a second piece of parchment paper on top of batter and gently flatten with your fingers. Take a flat plate, pie pan, or board and gently press down to flatten the dough. Don’t use all of your strength! You don’t want the edges too thin.

Place the parchment paper dough package on a cookie sheet (you can try to gently peel off the top piece of parchment paper so you can reuse that but it’s not necessary) and keep going. Once your sheet is filled, place in pre-heated oven for roughly 9 minutes, until there are a few brown spots. Let cool and place in a Ziploc bag to store in the refrigerator.

To serve, just heat them on a pre-heated skillet, on medium heat, just until warm.

Nutrition information: For 1 Corn Chortilla: 71 Cal; 4 g Protein; 5 g Tot Fat; 3 g Carb; 0 g Fiber For 1 Cheddar Chortilla: 84 Cal; 4 g Protein; 7 g Tot Fat; 1 g Carb; 0 g Fiber

Bread, Recipe

Naan Bread (or How To Make Your Dog Hate You)

brendanolen

Let me begin this post with a disclaimer: I know nothing about real naan bread.  I’m pretty sure I’ve only had real Indian food once.  That was at a restaurant in London, with a friend standing next to me saying, “Try that, not that” as he steered me away from the really spicy foods (I couldn’t handle those at the time).  I really can’t recall if there was anything there that resembled a bread product.  So, why am I making naan?  My husband.  He bought some at Costco (La Brea Brand) and really loved them.  So, I thought, how hard could they be to make?

Well, they aren’t very difficult to make.  It’s really the cooking that is tricky.  I will explain that in a bit.  First, I tried two different recipes.

The first was this one: How to make the perfect naan bread. She basically took a few recipes apart and put a new one together, with hers calling for water as the liquid and yogurt. She said it’s the perfect one, right? Well, maybe it was the cooking method I used (which I read about on another web page) but I doubt it. I placed two rimmed baking sheets in the oven and turned on the broiler. Once the sheets were hot, I placed the naan on the baking sheets and watched them carefully as they cooked. These had a fantastic flavor but didn’t have … not sure how to describe it, but they weren’t as elastic as they should have been.

These were still warm.
These were still warm.

The second recipe I just finished is this one: How to Make Naan Bread {Step by Step Instructions and Pictures}. She used milk as the liquid with no yogurt. The texture was fantastic! They were elastic and the dough behaved wonderfully BUT there’s little flavor. So, this is where I thought I saw my dog pack a bag to leave me: I cooked these as described in the recipe. I placed those same rimmed baking sheets in the oven and set the temperature to 500 degrees F. Well, when I opened up the oven door, a lovely cloud of smoke engulfed me and spread like a lethal fog throughout the house. My dog, who hates being outside alone, actually went to the back door and would not leave it until I let him outside. Take a look at how these turned out compared to the first batch:

These were still warm also but look at the difference in texture/density.
These were still warm also but look at the difference in texture/density.

So, what is my conclusion? I think the next batch, I will just add 5 Tablespoons of plain yogurt (have a little bit left so I will be making some more) to the second recipe After really looking at both recipes, that won’t work.  So, after looking long and hard, this recipe has everything: milk, yogurt AND butter, so this is the recipe I’ll use: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/onion-naan AND possibly buy a couple of baking stones (or brand new baking sheets). I’m not sure my dog can handle another day like today. 🙂

I just did this recipe (February 27, 2015) and cooked the bread on the charcoal grill. FANTASTIC! The flavor was perfect and the texture was fantastic! We learned the hard way NOT to roll them too thin or immediately put them over the coals (we ended up with a giant burned cracker). Here’s a picture of how we cooked them, followed by the recipe.

CAM00056

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/onion-naan

Onion Naan

  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • 1 1/4-ounce envelope active dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for surface and hands
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt plus more
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1 cup whole-milk yogurt (not Greek)
  • 2 tablespoons melted ghee (clarified butter) or vegetable oil plus more