Recipe

(from Kirbie’s Cravings)

Ingredients:
3 cups bread flour
1 cup of warm water (about 100-105F)
1 packet of yeast (2¼ tsp.)
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of olive oil
30 grams (2-3 tbsp) melted butter
herbs
salt and pepper
grated parmesan
bacon

Directions:

Combine warm water and yeast in a bread machine, or a bowl if you do not have one, and let stand for about ten minutes. Add the olive oil, flour and salt to the yeast mixture in the order your machine indicates then run the dough cycle of your bread machine. If working by hand, add the olive oil, then the salt and flour sifted together. Knead until dough is smooth then place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with saran wrap or a damp towel, and set in a warm area for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and turn it ou on a floured surface. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about ¼ of an inch thick. Brush butter lightly over the entire surface of the dough, then cover evenly with herbs, parmesan, salt and pepper.

Using a sharp knife, slice the dough into squares that will fit correctly into the pan you plan to use. Line the baking pans with parchment paper or grease them prior to stacking the slices of dough. As you stack the dough, place pieces of bacon between the bread slices. Cover and let rise for another 40 minutes.

Brush the top of the bread with butter and, if wanted, sprinkle with additional herbs and parmesan.

Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Bake for 18–20 minutes (or until tops begin to turn golden brown) and a knife inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven. They kept for two days wrapped in foil.

Recipe

Ingredients:
Store-bought wonton wrappers (also called egg roll wrappers, they should have eggs in the ingredients and be refrigerated)
Any kind of stuffing you like – I did some with bacon and cheese, and some with ground beef; you could also use a not-too-liquid chili, ground pork, curried chicken… Make sure it is cooked first!
For pot stickers, some form of fat. I used goose fat, but you could use olive oil if it makes you feel healthier ;)

Directions:
Take one wonton wrapper. Place a small amount of filling in the middle.

Wet the edges of the wrapper with water, then seal by pinching the four corners together and sticking the edges together. You can get creative and make other shapes, just make sure to wet and stick the wonton wrapper so no open edges remain, or your filling might escape!

For pot stickers, heat up your chosen fat in a pan on medium hight heat, then carefully place the wontons (flat side down) in the pan. Allow them to fry until the bottom looks slightly crispy and golden.
Lower the heat to medium, pour in about half a cup of water and immediately place a lid on your pan. The idea is to steam the upper half of the wonton wrappers. Leave the lid on until most of the water looks evaporated. If, like me, you find that your lid doesn’t quite allow you to check the evaporation level, just let it steam for 3-5 minutes. Remove the lid and leave on medium till any remaining water is evaporated, about 2 minutes.

For oven-baked wontons, preheat oven to 180C (350F). Place wontons on a cookie sheet and before cooking, brush with water, milk, butter, whichever you choose in order to remove the excess flour. I did not and the raw flour did not taste very good!
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until they look golden and crispy.

Serve with all sorts of sauces, like sriracha, honey mustard… yum :D

Recipe

(from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (about 6 ounces) grated flavorful cheese. Cheddar is standard, but cheddar costs outrageous prices in France, so I used a mix of Gouda and Emmental and it was very good
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
3/4 cup flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon milk, cream, half and half or the like (I ended up using a bit more)
Spices to mix in

Direction:

Preheat oven to 180C (350F).

If you have a food processor, use it to combine the cheese, butter, flour and salt in five 5-second pulses until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the half-and-half and process until the dough forms a ball, about 10 seconds.

If you do not, mix the flour, cheese and sale, then use a pastry knife or your fingers to crumble the butter in. The goal is to end up with pieces of butter than are at most the size of a pea (this is what will make your crackers flaky — it’s the same idea as making biscuits). Then add the milk and knead into a dough that should not feel sticky but shouldn’t be falling apart.

Split your dough into however many flavors you want to have, and knead in the different spices until they are well mixed. If you are making the whole batch one flavor, you can add it to the flour at the very beginning.

On a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out about 1/8-inch thick, then cut with a sharp knife. You can make straws as I did, or small squares, or go crazy with tiny cookie cutters if you’ve got them… don’t make large shapes, though, they wouldn’t have time to properly crisp up before the edges burned. Then transfer to a cookie sheet.

Bake the straws on the middle rack for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the ends are barely browned. Remove from the oven and set the cookie sheet on a rack to cool. If you chose to make squares, watch the oven carefully, they may take less than 10 minutes.

According to smitten kitchen, these will keep in the refrigerator, in a sealed container, for two days. I wouldn’t know, because I ate them all right away!

Recipe (from Lemon Drop)

makes 16 rolls

Ingredients:

Dough:
1 large egg at room temperature
1 1/4 cups warm water (80F or 27C)
3 1/2 teaspoons oil
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups white bread flour
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Filling:
1/2 cup unsalted melted butter
1/4 cup fine white sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I left this out)
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

Caramel Sauce:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
2 tablespoons cream or milk

Directions:

Grease a 9X13″ baking dish.

If you have a bread maker, add all the dough ingredients in the order your machine requires. Select the dough course and press start.

If you don’t have a bread maker, you can make the bread dough by hand.
First, mix the a tablespoon of the sugar, the water, and the yeast.
Let stand for 10 minutes, then mix in the egg and oil.
Sift the salt, the flour and the rest of the sugar together, then mix with the liquid ingredients.
Knead the dough on a floured surface until it is soft and not too sticky. To be honest, I can never get it to not be sticky at all.
Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a towel and let rise until doubled, about an hour and a half, in a warm area.

While the dough is rising, combine all the caramel sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Allow to simmer until you get caramel. Original recipe said to simmer for one or two minutes, but I did this and it was definitely not long enough. I’d like to give better advice, but clearly I am not the person for it!
Pour the caramel into your prepared baking pan and ensure it covers all areas of the bottom of the pan.

Once the dough course is complete or the dough has finished rising, liberally sprinkle a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to a large rectangle (12″ x 16″).

Brush the melted butter on dough leaving 1/2 ” edge on all sides. Like I said, I had way too much, I ended up pouring, not brushing.
Combine the sugars and cinnamon together in a bowl, then sprinkle all over the buttered area.
Top with the chocolate chips.
Starting with longest side, roll up the dough tightly to form a log. Seal the outer edges.
With a sharp or serrated knife, cut the roll into 1 1/2″ slices.
Place the rolls in the baking dish over the caramel sauce.
If you have leftover butter, you can drizzle it on top of the rolls. That’s what I did!
Cover with a clean tea towel and let rise in a warm area for 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 180C (350F).

Remove the towel and bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the top of the bread is golden.

Allow buns to rest in baking dish at room temperature on cooling rack for 5 minutes, then invert buns onto a plate… or a cookie sheet, like me, if you don’t happen to have a baking dish-shaped plate.

They kept for a few days wrapped in foil.