Sage Advice to Cover Up a Murder! (Outer Banks Baker Mystery Series Book 2) (12 page)

Lemon Sage Bread

Ingredients:

4 Cups Flour

2 ¼ Cups Water

2 tsp Salt

¼ tsp Dry Active Yeast

2 Tbsp. Fresh Sage Chopped Finely or 1 Tbsp. Dry Sage Flakes

2 Tbsp. Lemon Zest

Cornmeal - Sprinkled in the Dutch oven – not mixed in dry the ingredients

Instructions:

Mix flour, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl.  If using Dry Sage Flakes then mix them in the dry ingredients.  Or if you’re using Fresh Sage then mix it with the water and allow it to soak in the water for at least 5 minutes to allow the flavor to spread through the water.  Then pour and mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Stir until ingredients are well mixed.  Dough may seem extra moist, which is perfectly normal.  Then cover the bowl and allow to sit at room temperature for 12-18 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500ºF with a cast iron Dutch oven or Le Creuset style enameled pot in the oven preheating as well.   Once the oven and Dutch oven has been preheated, pull the Dutch oven out of the oven and remove the lid.  Then sprinkle some cornmeal in the bottom of the Dutch oven.  On a lightly floured surface pour out the dough, form into a ball, and place the dough ball inside the Dutch oven.  Replace the Dutch oven lid and place the Dutch oven in the oven.  Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and continue to bake for 8-15 minutes, depending on how brown you want the crust to be.

Note:  If you don’t have 12-18 hours to allow the dough to rest, you may increase the amount of yeast to 1 tsp and only wait 6 hours before baking the dough.  However, the longer you wait, the more sourdough-like the bread will be.

The trick to this bread is allowing it to rest for the 12-18 hours and its high moisture content, which turns to steam while being baked with the lid on the Dutch oven.  Once we remove the Dutch oven lid, then we begin to bake the outside for a nice crispy crust!

Italian Herb Bread

Ingredients:

4 Cups Flour

2 ¼ Cups Water

2 tsp Salt

¼ tsp Dry Active Yeast

2 Tbsp. Herbes of Provence (Victoria Taylor’s Seasonings is the best!)

Cornmeal - Sprinkled in the Dutch oven – not mixed in dry the ingredients

Instructions:

Mix flour, salt and yeast and Herbes of Provence Seasoning in a large mixing bowl.  Then add the water to the dry ingredients.  Stir until ingredients are well mixed.  Dough may seem extra moist, which is perfectly normal.  Then cover the bowl and allow to sit at room temperature for 12-18 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500ºF with a cast iron Dutch oven or Le Creuset style enameled pot in the oven preheating as well.   Once the oven and Dutch oven has been preheated, pull the Dutch oven out of the oven and remove the lid.  Then sprinkle some cornmeal in the bottom of the Dutch oven.  On a lightly floured surface pour out the dough, form into a ball, and place inside of the Dutch oven.  Replace the Dutch oven lid and place the Dutch oven in the oven.  Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and continue to bake for 8-15 minutes, depending on how brown you want the crust to be.

Note:  If you don’t have 12-18 hours to allow the dough to rest, you may increase the amount of yeast to 1 tsp and only wait 6 hours before baking the dough.  However, the longer you wait, the more sourdough-like the bread will be.

The trick to this bread is allowing it to rest for the 12-18 hours and its high moisture content, which turns to steam while being baked with the lid on the Dutch oven.  Once we remove the Dutch oven lid, then we begin to bake the outside for a nice crispy crust!

This bread naturally pairs with Italian dishes,

but I honestly can say that it’s well received with almost any fare!

Maddie’s Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups Flour
  
• 1 Cup Sugar
  
• 4 tsp Baking Powder
  
• ¼ tsp Salt
  
• 8oz. Cream Cheese (at room temperature)
  
• 2 Eggs
  
• 1 Cup Milk
  
• 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
  
• ½ Cup Butter (melted and cooled)
  
• 1/8 Cup Brown Cane Sugar
  
• 1/8 Cup Brown Sugar
  
• ½ tsp Cinnamon
  

Instructions:

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into large mixing bowl.  In another bowl/mixer beat the cream cheese and eggs until smooth and then add milk, vanilla, and the melted butter, mixing thoroughly.  Now add the flour mixture to the cream cheese mixture and mix thoroughly.  Now gently fold in the blueberries.  Preheat the oven to 400ºF.  Now spoon the mixture into 12 muffin liners inside of a muffin pan.  In another small bowl combine the cane sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon and mix well.  Then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture generously on the tops of the muffin mixture in each muffin liner.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are firm and beginning to brown.

Ideally, serve them with butter while still warm. 

You may want to share them with the local detective. 

You never know when you might need a friend at the police department!

Copyright © 2015 by Timber Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, subject line “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at email address [email protected].

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

First Published, 2015

Timber Publishing
Oakley, UT 84055

www.timberpublishing.com