A round up of carb-forward recipes to add to your repertoire from Raleigh bakers, culinary pros and food writers.
by WALTER Staff
Whether you’re feeling nostalgic for your first attempts at bread-making from the beginning of quarantine — nearly a year ago, now! — or looking to take up baking for the first time, jump right in with one of these recipes. From Instagram sensation Hannah Page’s Fluffy Sourdough Rolls to longtime Raleigh chef Jeff Seizer’s pizza dough, consider mastering at least one of these before it’s too hot to crank up the oven.
Hannah Page’s Sourdough Fluffy Rolls
Hannah Page shared her sourdough rolls recipe with us in February following a Q&A about her passion for baking and her widely popular Instagram account. With the brown sugar added in, these rolls are the perfect combination of fluffy and sweet. She says the key for maximum fluffiness is letting them rise as long as it takes until the dough has tripled in size. For her that meant 14 hours!
Ingredients
400 grams* (2 ½ cups) all-purpose flour
100 grams (½ cup) 100% hydration sourdough starter
125 grams (1 cup) milk + 100 grams cream (1/2 cup) or 225 grams (1 cup) milk
50 grams (5 tablespoons) butter
60 grams (4 tablespoons) brown sugar
1 egg yolk
8 grams (2 teaspoons) salt
Directions
Pour wet ingredients into mixing bowl, then slowly incorporate dry ingredients. Once everything is fully incorporated, let it sit. Give the dough two sets of stretch-and-folds every half hour, for two hours. (This dough is quite enriched, so it will not ferment at all in that time, even if you’re in a warm climate.) By the time you’ve given your last fold, this dough should be smooth and strong. Divide into nine sections, and roll each into a ball, using a dry surface to create tension. Heavily grease a 9-inch round pan or a 9-inch square pan and place the rolls in it. (You can also divide them into eight sections and put them in a loaf pan.) Let the rolls rise until tripled in size. Taking the time to do so will ensure they are truly fluffy. This will take different amounts of time depending on the ambient temperature (Page’s took 14 hours). Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, or until lightly brown. *Page encourages working in grams for precise baking, but we’ve included approximate standard measurements as well.
Jeff Seizer’s Pizza Dough
Triangle Jeff Seizer grew up in Brooklyn and comes from a large Italian family, which meant lots of pizza growing up. He shared 7 Easy Family Recipes with us in our June 2020 issue including a sourdough pizza dough. He said this about getting started: “A scale is a great tool if you’re into baking and pizza. Get creative with your toppings (corn, thinly sliced zucchini, various cured meats) and be generous with your flour. Bake on sheet trays or a preheated pizza stone.”
Ingredients
500 grams (a little more than 2 cups) flour
312 grams (1 ⅓ cups) of warm water
175 grams (¾ cup) sourdough starter
38 grams (3 tablespoons) extra virgin olive oil
13 grams (3 teaspoons) of salt
13 grams (3 teaspoons) of sugar
1 gram (½ teaspoon) instant active yeast
Directions
Weigh out all the ingredients, then mix in a bowl with your hands. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and leave out to rise at room temp for 2 to 3 hours. Once it has begun to rise, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours.Take out the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Separate into three equal portions, give each section a quick knead and mold into balls. Place each ball into individual greased bowls or small storage containers, then return to the refrigerator for 24 hours. Pull out dough one hour before you want to bake it.
To prepare pizza: preheat the oven (with pizza stone, if you have one) to 500 degrees. Stretch dough onto a pizza peal or sheet pan and top with desired ingredients. Bake in oven for 6-10 minutes.
Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
Making bread can oftentimes feel intimidating‚ but Seizer makes it simple. A whole wheat sandwich loaf recipe was also included in Seizer’s 7 Easy Family Recipes last June that will get you started in the bread-making world. Imagine how satisfying it would be to have made the sandwich bread you use to make Seizer’s maple BLT, also on his list.
Ingredients
454 grams (nearly 2 cups) sourdough starter
680 grams (5 ½ cups) whole wheat flour
100 grams (1 cup) bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
50 grams (½ cup) vegetable oil
Directions
Lightly mix all ingredients by hand or with a mixer to make an unfinished dough (it should not look fully mixed). Rest for 20 minutes. Knead the dough until smooth and slightly sticky, then transfer to a lightly oiled bowl. Let rise for 60-90 minutes, until it has more than doubled in size.
Turn the dough out onto a floured table and fold a couple of times. Divide dough in half and loosely shape each into a loaf. Place the loaves in lightly greased bread pans and let rise again for 60-90 minutes, until the dough has risen above the rim of the pan. Near the end of rising, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until golden brown (an internal temperature of 210 degrees). Rest in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto a resting rack. Let the bread cool before removing, then enjoy!
La Farm’s Irish Soda Bread
As we approach St. Patrick’s Day, try your hand at Lionel Vatinet of La Farm Bakery’s Irish Soda bread. In our February post, Vatinet said of the bread, “We make a traditional Irish Soda quick bread that’s tender & crumbly & has a little sweetness from the plump raisins we fold into the dough.”
Ingredients
2 cups white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoon butter (softened)
1 ½ cups buttermilk
⅓ cup raisins
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, butter and salt in bowl. Add buttermilk to dry ingredient mixture. Fold until liquid is incorporated. Add raisins to mixture and mix until blended evenly. Divide into 1.5 lb round. Dust outside of loaf with flour, use a knife to slash 1in deep cross on top of the loaf. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.
Cafe Carolina’s Sweet Potato Biscuits
Ron Hines, the owner of Cafe Carolina, referred to his sweet potato biscuits last October as “nothing too complicated” and followed up with, “there’s a simple science to it.” These no-fuss classic southern treats are great for the beginner baker. And who would have thought they’re made with just three ingredients including a can of sweet potatoes and bisquick? These would be great to throw together on a Saturday morning and they freeze great.
Ingredients
4 cups Bisquick
1 cup brown sugar (reserve half for topping)
2 cups canned mashed sweet potatoes
Directions
Preheat a convection oven to 325 degrees. Combine the Bisquick and brown sugar and, with your hands, work through any clumps. Add the mashed sweet potatoes, then hand-mix until batter is evenly incorporated. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop biscuits onto a baking tray. Top each with a generous sprinkle of brown sugar and bake for 18 minutes. Makes 17
Savory Galette with Sweet Potatoes, Apples and Blue Cheese
When Kaitlyn Goalen shared From Our Fields: Whole Grain in October 2014, she reflected on the role of flour in baking told the story of Carolina Ground, a North Carolina craft grain mill, before sharing savory galette with sweet potatoes, apples, and blue cheese. Goalen’s use of rye flour gives the crust a hearty flavor: she wrote, “I used the rye flour in a tried-and-true galette crust recipe, making a few tweaks, and the result was so good that I might never go back to all-purpose flour.
Rye Galette Crust Ingredients
1 egg
¼ cup heavy cream
⅔ cup rye flour
⅔ cup pastry flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Directions
In a small bowl, beat the egg and the cream. In a food processor, pulse the flours, salt and sugar to combine. Add the butter and pulse until pea-sized pieces form. Add half the egg-cream mixture and process. Continue to add the egg mixture in small amounts until the dough just comes together. Turn the dough out onto a flat surface and form into a ball. Flatten into a disc, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
Filling ingredients
Galette dough
1 medium sweet potato, peeled
1 Granny Smith apple
1 yellow onion
8 to 10 brussels sprouts
¼ cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme
⅓ cup whole grain mustard
½ cup crumbled high-quality blue cheese (I recommend Maytag)
Directions
Remove the galette dough from the refrigerator and let it temper (rest to stabilize). Preheat the oven to 400°. Cut the vegetables (Goalen likes to use a mandolin for this): Thinly slice the sweet potato into rounds and place in a large bowl. Halve and core the apple, then thinly slice it and add to the bowl. Slice the onions lengthwise so that some of the slices remain attached at the root. Slice the brussels sprouts lengthwise as well, and add both to the bowl. Drizzle the vegetables with the olive oil, then season generously with salt and pepper and the herbs. Toss to coat. Taste a piece: the seasoning should be pronounced.
Triple Berry Galette
In a conversation with Brigid Washington in May 2020, the food writer talked about her comfort foods, spoke on including kids in the kitchen, and shared her recipe for triple berry galette. Washington reflected: “A galette is a pastry of beautiful improvisation.” You won’t regret this delicious berry cobbler-like desert. Just in time for strawberry season here in North Carolina, this is a great one to make with children.
Ingredients
Strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries
1 lemon
½ cup sugar
¼ cup of fruit based liquor
Basic eggwash
Your go-to pastry dough
Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Combine strawberries, blueberries or raspberries in a large bowl with the juice of 1 lemon, ½ cup of sugar and a ¼ cup of fruit based liquor. Allow to stand for ten minutes. Ready a basic eggwash. Employ your go-to pastry dough and on a floured surface, roll out to roughly a 14 inch diameter. Transfer the dough on to a sheet pan or perforated pan. Gingerly spoon out the moist berries unto the dough and then roll the edges of the dough to enclose the berries. Using a pastry brush, apply the egg wash. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until the berries bubble and the crust is golden brown.
Quick and Incredible Cheese Biscuits
Andrea Wiegl shared recipes from the Junior League of Raleigh’s cookbook, including these simple cheese biscuits, the perfect dinner appetizer or side for a picnic or potluck, back in May 2013. We’re resurfacing it in time for spring entertaining and of course picnics!
Ingredients
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
1 cup sour cream
2 cups self-rising flour
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix cheese and butter in a bowl; cool for 2 minutes. Add sour cream and mix well. Stir in flour. Spoon mixture into greased miniature muffin cups. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.
Note: You can mix ½ teaspoon garlic powder or ½ teaspoon cayenne powder with the flour. Or you can combine the butter and sour cream with a mixture of the flour and 2 teaspoons dried dill seeds; after baking, brush the biscuits with 2 tablespoons melted butter and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon dried dill weed. Makes 40 biscuits
Butternut Squash and Sage Galette
This butternut squash and sage galette recipe from food writer Brigid Washington was originally shared in her essay, On Galettes and Gratitude, in October 2017. Washington certainly succeeded in her goal to create “a dish dripping with the syrupy, fake sweetness of humble-brag.”
Crust ingredients
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 stick butter, cold and cubed
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped
½ cup iced cold water
Filling ingredients
1 medium-sized butternut squash, peeled
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt
½ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
2 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
Directions
Make the crust dough: In a food processor, pulse the flour, cold butter, salt, and sage until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 20-30 seconds. Stream in the iced water, a quarter-cup at a time, until the mixture takes a globular shape, roughly one minute. For a delicate, flaky pastry do not to overwork the dough. Ready an ample-sized piece of plastic wrap, then turn dough onto the wrap, and gently form into a roughly five-inch disc. Chill for at least an hour.
Meanwhile, make the filling: Preheat oven to 350. Peel the butternut squash and divide the longer part from the round base which contains the seeds. Cut the longer part of the squash in half, down the middle, to make two half-moon logs. Following this, slice each half into half-inch pieces. (You will likely get 30 slices per half.) Place these slices on a sheet pan lined with either a Silpat or parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil and season with coarse salt, pepper, and the remainder of the sage. Bake for 9 – 11 minutes.
Remove the sheet pan from the oven and allow it to cool. Increase the oven temperature to 400. Ready another sheet pan with a double lining of parchment paper. Make the egg wash and set aside. Retrieve the dough from the refrigerator. On a generously floured work surface, roll the dough, starting from the middle and rolling outward. This should form a circle roughly 12 inches in diameter. Very carefully, transfer the dough to the parchment lined sheet pan. Arrange the baked butternut squash slices in whatever manner that preference dictates on the dough, leaving a one-inch border. Take caution to fully cover the dough with squash. Fold edges of dough over the squash, creating a pleat with the dough to enclose the galette. Brush the prepared egg wash onto the galette and bake for 30 – 35 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack for five minutes. Serve warm on its own, or with a simple side salad. Serves 4-6
Rustic Apple Tart
Lionel Vatinet, owner of La Farm Bakery, said in a contribution to a piece on international comfort food, “the smell of the crust baking and the apples caramelizing reminds me of home.” Bring the aroma of Vatinet’s rustic apple tart to your own kitchen and enjoy a buttery, fruity treat with this simple French dish.
Pastry Dough Ingredients
4 cups flour
2 1⁄4 cups butter
2 1⁄4 cups powdered sugar
1 egg
Directions
In an electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, mix flour, butter and powdered sugar until there are just tiny balls of butter. Add the egg and mix for approximately 25 seconds on 1st speed, until everything is well combined.
Filling Ingredients
6 Granny Smith Apples (or any tart apple)
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Filling Directions
Slice apples and toss in cinnamon and sugar.
To Assemble
1 Egg
2 tablespoon water
Directions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out pastry dough to 1⁄4” thick. Cut into 6” round circles. Spoon cinnamon apple mixture into center of pastry dough circle. Fold edges of dough up around apple filling, leaving the center uncovered. Place on parchment lined baking pan. Mix water and egg together and brush edges of tartelette with mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Top with powdered sugar or drizzle with caramel sauce.
