The Bread is in the Baking

I got the idea for this recipe off Foodgawker, but I didn't really follow the recipe. I just scanned it and then did my own thing. Pretty much, you can take all of your left overs and stuff them into these small oval shaped tasty treats.


What is a croquette you might ask? A croquette or croquetas is a small ovular shaped fried or baked dumpling. They are usually made of mashed potatoes, and/or meat and vegetable, and bread crumbs, egg, onion, spices and herbs. These croquettes will be made out of all your left over Thanksgiving goodies!


Baked Thanksgiving Croquettes
Finely diced turkey
Mashed potatoes
Stuffing
Gravy
Sauted finely chopped onions and garlic
Pepper and salt to taste
Fine bread crumbs

Since you never know how much leftovers you're going to have the recipe is based in ratios. You want the amount of turkey to mashed potatoes (1:1) half the amount of stuffing to turkey/mashed potatoes (1/2:1) and enough gravy to hold the ingredients together in an oval shape.
Preheat the oven to 450° F.


Mix all the ingredients (except the bread crumbs) together in a bowl until evenly mixed. Then begin to form the ingredients into egg shapes and toss them in a bowl of bread crumbs. Place the now breaded croquettes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven for 15 minutes and they're done!


Tastes great with cranberry sauce!


Total Time: About an hour

I bought a bunch of apples with the intention to snack on them, which is what I have been doing, but since there's only one of me and I only eat a few every couple of days, I'm not eating them fast enough. I stumbled on this recipe on Food Gawker, which is a WONDERFUL recipe site. I love it. Anyhow, I thought "Perfect!" and then realized I didn't have any cinnamon (I live in the dorms, okay?) but I did have pumpkin spice, so I used that instead and it came out great.

The recipe is a bit messy, but if you're careful it's really not much worse than anything else you'll make. I've cut some of the rising and proofing times down and cut some ingredients I didn't care for or have (orange zest, cinnamon, dark rum) and I chose not to make a glaze (it's sweet and sticky enough as it is), but if you want to see the real recipe it is here.

 Apple Spice Bread

Ingredients for the Dough:
1/2 Cup (4oz) Water, lukewarm
1/4 Cup Runny Honey

1 1/2 Tbs Dry Active Yeast
7 Tbs Vegetable Oil
2 Large Eggs
17oz. All-purpose Flour (about 4 cups, but it's best to weigh it)
1 1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Ingredients for the Apple Filling:
2 Medium/large Apples, cored and diced in 3/4" chunks
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Sugar

Mix the warm (not hot) water with the honey and yeast. Then add the rest of the ingredients for the dough. Mix and then knead them, using a mixer with a bread hook, or by hand, until you have a soft, smooth and elastic dough (about 8-10 minutes).

Put the dough in a oiled bowl and let it rise, covered, for 1 1/2 hours or until it's puffy and nearly doubled in size. Lightly grease/butter a 9inch springform pan or cake pan (I suggest you use a springform pan, they work really well).

Toss the apple chunks with the sugar, pumpkin spice.

Gently deflate the dough, transfer it to a lightly greased work surface, and flatte n it into a rough rectangle, about 8 x 10 inches.

Spread half the apple chunks in the center of the dough.

Fold a short edge of the dough over the apple in order to cover it, patting firmly to seal the apples and spread the dough a bit. Spread the remaining apple atop the folded-over dough. Cover the apples with the other side of the dough, again patting firmly (Basically, you've folded the dough like a letter, enclosing the apples inside.). Take a long knife and cut the apple-filled dough into 16 pieces. Cut in half, then each half in halves, etc. (This is the messy part)

Lay the dough chunks into the pan (Crowd them so that they all fit in a single tight layer and just tuck fallen apple pieces in among the dough pieces, or simply spread them on top.).

Cover the bread gently with lightly greased plastic wrap or a damp towel and let it rise for about 1 hour until it has almost doubled in height. Twenty minutes before the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 325° F. Place the bread in the lower third of the oven. Bake it for 45 minutes, or until the top is at least light golden brown all over and has no white spots.

Remove the bread from the oven, and after 5 minutes loosen the edges and carefully transfer it to a rack.

Total Time: About 3 1/2 hours