Gnocchi, a food that I can not pronounce.

Well it all started at 4:30 when I decided that I wanted to make dinner. But what shall I make? I offered to make soup, but my family has this thing, where they don't consider soup to be a meal, which I totally don't get because soup fills me up just fine. So the quest was on to find something that would be deemed suitable for dinner. About a year ago I remember wanting to make Gnocchi, just because I like to work with dough. So I found the recipe and started! Of course, when i told my mom what I was going to make, she had no clue what it was, and we both didn't know how to pronounce it lol. That gives me the advantage of surprise ; ) So I began by baking my potatoes, two pounds of them. I am always baffled when a recipe calls for pounds because, I don't have a weigher in my kitchen. So I weighed myself of a scale then put a bunch of potatoes in my arms and weighed myself until my original weight had two pounds added to it lol. So wile the taters were baking, I made some basil pesto to go with it.Then I got out my extra shiny grater!Now I must tell you that using a grater, food mill, or food ricer is completely essential!! I have learned from Smitten Kitchen, that Potatoes are 85% water! Yes! I know, impossible! But it isn't. So if you puree the potatoes, you will end up with tater soup, and we all know that there is nothing worse than a broken potato. So, since I don't have a food mill, I used a grater. I peeled my baked potatoes, then grated them on the side with the largest holes.Then I dumped out the potato contents, and prepared my lightly beaten egg.Then I mixed it all together with a cup and a half of flour and formed it into a dough.Yeah, this is a messy project, yet strangely satisfying! So i cut the dough into 6 pieces, then rolled the piece until the rope was 3/4 " thick, then I cut pieces 1" wide.Then if you want, you can make little ridges in them, but they are yummy either way. So you take your pieces and lay them out on a sheet, then cook them.I decided to cook them in a pan, then add my basil pesto.It was really yummy! Next time I make these I will try boiling them, then having spaghetti sauce and maybe meatballs or sausage. Or I could pan cook them again, but add veggies! The possibilities are endless.

Gnocchi
From Smitten Kitchen

2 pounds Russet potatoes
1½ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Prick the potatoes all over with a fork, and bake them on a baking sheet for 45 minutes to one hour, or until tender. For best results, turn the potatoes over halfway through the baking time. Let the potatoes cool slightly.
2. Peel the potatoes, and then pass them through a potato ricer, food mill or grate them over the large holes of a box grater into a large bowl. Add the lightly beaten egg and the salt to the potatoes and mix well with a wooden spoon.
3. Add the flour to the potatoes a little at a time, using only as much as you need so that the dough will not stick to your hands. When the flour has been incorporated, bring the dough together with your fingertips.
4. Dump the dough and any remaining floury bits onto a slightly floured surface. Knead the dough as you would bread dough. Press down and away with the heel of your hand, fold the dough over, make a quarter turn, and repeat the process. Knead for about three or four minutes.
5. Form the dough into a ball and then divide it into 6 smaller balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the six pieces using your fingertips into a long rope about ¾ inch thick. Cut the dough into 1 inch pieces.
6. You can cook the gnocchi as it is now, but traditional gnocchi has ridges. To create the ridges, press each piece of dough against the tines of a fork. With your finger, gently roll the pressed dough back off the fork. This takes a little practice. If you find the dough sticking to the fork, dip the fork in flour before you press the dough against it.
7. Place the gnocchi in a single layer on a lightly floured or parchment-lined dish. If you’d like to freeze them for later use, do so on this tray and once they are frozen, drop them into a freezer bag. This ensures that you won’t have one enormous gnocchi mass when you are ready to cook them.
8. To cook the gnocchi, place them into a pot of boiling and well-salted water. After a few minutes the gnocchi will float to the top. Continue to cook for one minute then remove and set aside. You can also pan cook them by adding a little oil to the pan, and letting brown over low heat.
   

Twinkies!!

Wow. Is there anything better than a childhood favorite remade? These Twinkie's are completely adorable! They are fairly easy to make, and totally worth the extra effort. So my Twinkie equipment came with this cute non-stick Twinkie pan!Last time I made Twinkie's with my good friend Lizzy, the pans were a complete pain to clean up. I don't know, maybe it was because angel food cake loves to stick to stuff, of maybe, just maybe its because I forgot to butter and flour my baking pan. Well this time, the Pan came out completely clean!! Ok so back to my Twinkie story... So I was in a mood to bake. One slightly huge problem, were out of eggs. . . NOO!!!! But I really wanted to bake something!! So I looked up what I could substitute for eggs. They said that you could Use two tablespoons of cornstarch for each egg. Hmm seems a little strange, but I will try it. So I mixed up my favorite supposed to be yellow cake recipe, and it was not yellow, and sorta really stiff.Well I continued with my adventure, and filled my pans that were carefully buttered and floured, hasty not to repeat a horrible pan clean up.
So I place them anxiously in the oven. They will turn out all right. . . wont they?
Well mostly yes, with a glitch. So near the end of the baking, I peeked into the oven to discover that they were puffed up huge, and then slowly deflating!!!! When they were slightly golden I took them out, and they deflated, leaving a crater in the middle.Well I guess that is what you get for using cornstarch instead of eggs lol. Well nonetheless I was determined to make awesome Twinkies! So it was a huge relief that the bottoms were still beautiful and golden.I let them cool wile I made some yummy vanilla frosting. Then I filled my frosting injector!So I took each Twinkie with care, and injected it with the frosting through each end, and once in the middle of the crater side, to ensure maximum frosting goodness. I still had tons of extra frosting, so I also drizzled the tops with frosting. What I thought was ridiculously cute was that my Twinkie kit came with an individual Twinkie holder, so as to not squish your Twinkie!
All you do is flip his hat off and insert Twinkie! So all in all it was a great success. My family loved them, eating all but two of them!In this picture, you can see how it looks when broken open.
Pure Twinkie goodness. If you want to make Twinkies, you can buy the kit I have at amazon.

Sugar cookies cake

• 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 large eggs + 1 yolk
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Put rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350 degrees

In a bowl beat the butter and sugar. In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients.

In another bowl mix the milk and vanilla.

Add 1/2 the flour mixture, and 1/2 the milk mixture to the sugar and butter. Beat together then repeat.

Bake for 25-30 min in a cake pan (less for Twinkies, about 15 min.)


Vanilla frosting

• 1 stick of butter softened
  
• 1 Pound of powdered sugar
  
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbs milk

All you have to do is cream it all together starting with the butter and sugar, then vanilla and milk. If you need it less thick, (like I did for my Twinkies) Add more milk, or vanilla to the consistency of your choice.

Oh so Sweet Spiced Sugar Coins

After a long day shopping, I decided to make some spiced sugar coins. Well actually i put the dough together sometime around Christmas, prepared the logs, and froze them for a later date. Well I'm really glad I did because they are really yummy : ) So it was actually a last minute plan... there was no dessert. So that calls for extreme change! Then it dawned on me, I have cookies waiting to be baked in my freezer!! So i took them out and let them thaw a little, and prepared them to be sliced. Then i got the sugar out.
Then I drew a monkey in the sugar because my log had not yet thawed enough to slice it.Then it had thawed!! Yesss! So I sliced and rolled the edges of the coins in sugar. My dog Bear lies down and dreams of me dropping a cookie. Not going to happen BearBear.

Then I bake them up.I really encourage you to try these cookies, especially if you have the Christmas blues. They have a very nice spice to them, and they almost remind me of eggnog.


Spiced sugar coins
Baking and Books
"The essential Baker" by Carole Bloom.

Ingredients: Makes about 5 dozen cookies

• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar + 1/3 cup granulated sugar (divided use)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 extra large egg yolk

Place the butter in the bowl of an electric stand mixer or in a large bowl. Beat the butter on medium speed until it’s fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of sugar, and cream together well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed.

Add the vanilla to the butter mixture and blend well. Over a large piece of waxed or parchment paper or a bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Add the nutmeg and salt and toss to blend. Add this mixture in 3 stages to the butter mixture. Stop after each addition and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix thoroughly.

Place two large sheets of waxed paper on a flat surface and divide the dough evenly onto them. Use the waxed paper to shape and roll the dough into cylinders about 10 inches long and 1 inch wide. Cover the cylinders tightly with the waxed paper and wrap each roll in plastic wrap. . Chill in the freezer for 45 minutes or in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, until firm enough to slice. (I left my dough in the freezer for an extended length of time, so if you do that, make sure to let it thaw so you can slice it without it cracking.)

Adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower thirds and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line each baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick baking liner. Using a fork, lightly beat the egg yolk in a small bowlDivide the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar evenly between sheets of waxed or parchment paper. Unwrap each cylinder. Using a pastry brush or a spoon, coat the outside of each cylinder with yolk, then roll in the sugar, coating each completely.(I omitted this the second time, because it was messy, and somewhat unnecessary. I just rolled them in the sugar without it, and it worked fine.)

Place the cylinders on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut each cylinder into 1/2 inch slices. Cut straight down and roll the cylinder a quarter turn after every 6 slices so it will keep its round shape. If the dough becomes soft while you work with it, re-wrap it and chill for another 10 to 15 minutes, then continue slicing.

Place the slices on the baking sheets, leaving at least 1 inch of space between them. Bake for 5 minutes. Switch the baking sheets (between racks) and bake another 5 to 6 minutes, until set. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies completely.

Sort of Peach-Almond Tart

I know what your thinking... and no this is not a PB&J Tart. Well it all started when I was bored, and there was nothing planned for dessert. So I was looking at Smitten Kitchens newest post, the pear almond tart, and I wanted to make it... but i had no pears, or apples. So I vaguely remember there being a post for an almond plum tart. I had peaches in the fridge. Thats close enough for me : ) So I begin my tart adventure minus a tart pan. I made the dough, and rolled it out

I then chilled it, pressed it in my cake pan with a removable bottom and put it in my freezer.
When I baked it I couldn't believe how much it shrunk! There was like a half an inch between the crust, and the pan edges!! So I poured my almond puree and topped it with my peaches. When it was all done with the glaze you brush on top of it, I thought that it sorta resembled a PB&J ; ) My older brother Yohann fancy pants was the first one to try it. He came to the conclusion that it tasted interesting. But the truth was revealed when my mom tried it. She took a bite of it and tasted it, and really thought about it. All of the sudden, she was like "This is the best tart/pie think that I have ever tasted!!" Of course I was in shock because of Yohann's comment that it hardly registered that she really liked it. She kept ranting and raving about how good she thought it was! She even went as far to say that this is the kind of dessert that she would order at a restaurant! Then my dad, and other brother Sven tried it, and had similar results. Yesss! The sweet flavor of success!

Plum-Almond Tart
Adapted from Plum almond tart from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 1 9-inch tart or 8 4-inch mini-tartlets

For crust
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons ice water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

For filling
1/3 cup whole almonds (about 2 ounces)
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 teaspoons framboise (raspberry liqueur) or brandy
12 ounces ripe red-skinned plums, or in my case, peaches, pitted, cut into 3/4-inch-thick wedges
1/4 cup red currant jelly

Whipped cream (optional)

Make crust:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine first 3 ingredients in processor. Using on/off turns, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Mix 2 tablespoons ice water and vanilla in small bowl. Pour water mixture over dough. Process until moist clumps form. (I did this process by hand, cutting the butter into the flour mixture, and then adding in the ice water and vanilla.)

Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Roll out on floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch. Fold overhang in and press, forming double-thick sides. Using fork, pierce dough all over. Freeze 15 minutes.

Bake crust until pale golden, about 30 minutes (crust may shrink slightly, or in my case, a lot!). Cool on rack. Maintain oven temperature.

Make filling:
Finely grind almonds with sugar in processor. Add egg, butter and 2 teaspoons framboise. Process until batter forms. Pour filling into crust. Arrange plums atop filling. Bake until plums are tender and filling is golden and set, about 50 minutes.

Melt jelly with remaining 2 teaspoons framboise, or creme de cassis, in heavy small saucepan over medium-low heat. Brush jelly mixture over plums, or peaches : )

Cool tart. Serve at room temperature with whipped cream, if desired.

Gingerbread people!!

You gotta love gingerbread people. They are just so cute and colorful. Its a lot of fun to make them, but I think that they taste nasty. Who likes the flavor of burnt dirt? Not me. So as you can see, I decorated them, or most of them anyways (I didn't decorate the one farthest to the right) and my brother Sven eats them, sometimes with the help of my family.
We first decorated these two ->
I made the one with the necklace, awesome belt, and pink slippers. Sven decorated the one with red footsie pajamas ; ) I think that the next batch came out sorta better, less colorful ->
Hehe. Well I'm really excited because one of my best friends just made a blog, and I can tell that it is going to be pure gold, so if I were you, I'd go and check it out. Its called Randomness, and if it is anything like her, it will be awesome.

Anything that you have always wanted to bake, but never had the courage to pursue it? Or just anything that you would like to see me bake? I'm open to any new ideas. Leave me a comment and I will be happy to give it a try.

Pita Bread

I am about to begin one of the most comprehensive posts that I will ever write, dedicated to my cousin Gwen. She doesn't think that she can bake bread. Everybody can bake bread, and I'm going to teach you how. So i was flipping through my favorite book, the Bread Bible, and I happened upon Pita bread. She described it so well, that i decided that i must try it, and let me tell you, it is AMAZING. Its so good that i might just make it every week. Ok so the first thing you gotta do is make the dough. Very simple, you just mix all the ingredients together, then flip it on to the counter and knead it. In other words, press it down, fold it, press it down and so on and so forth. Spray a large bowl with oil and put the dough in it, spray the top of the dough, cover with plastic wrap and stick in the fridge.


You leave it in the fridge over night. It will look like this ->
There are lots of bubbles in it because of the yeast. If you don't have yeast, go and buy some, the instant variety ->So you take the bubbly dough and dump it on a lightly floured surface. Take a knife and cut it into 8, or 12 equal pieces. I did mini pitas, so i cut it into 12 pieces. Then you roll them into a ball, and pinch to seal the bottom.
Wile shaping into balls keep the other pieces of dough covered with a damp cloth. After they are ball shaped, press them down into slightly flattened discs ->
Cover the mini discs with oil sprayed plastic wrap and let them rest for 20 min because they and very tired. After that uncover them and roll each disc into a flatter disc, about 1/4 of an inch thick. Let them rest uncovered for another 10 min.
->Preheat the oven to 475 degrees and put a bake stone, of simply a baking sheet on the lowest rack of the oven. Once preheated place one of the rested pitas on the sheet and bake for 3 min, this will be your test pita. After the 3 min, you pita will have risen, or bubbled.
->After they are risen. or have large bubbles let them stay in the oven till desired color. I like them with just a little brown on the edges, so they are still very soft inside.
->
Then remove them from your oven and place on a clean towel, so they will stay soft.
If they didn't puff up enough, knead a little water into the other dough discs, but even if they are not puffy like balloons, they will still be delicious. After is all said and done, everybody loved them!! My little brother Sven was a little confused. I asked him how he like them, and he was like they are really good, then i asked how he liked them in comparison to the store bought kind. He was like well the store bought kind have a lot of good flavors like sun dried tomato basil, and they are bigger and much flatter, yours are all puffy....
Dude TORTILLA WRAPS and not PITA BREAD! I should give him a bread lesson.

If you have an questions, comments, or concerns, leave me a comment, and I will be happy to help : )



Pita Bread
from the bread bible

Dough:

• 3 cups flour plus a scant 1/4 cup
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 2 tbs oil
• 1 1/4 cup water at room temp.

Mix:

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, except the scant 1/4 cup of flour. Mix with a large spoon, or with your hand, after it is all moistened, dump out onto counter and add the scant 1/4 cup. Knead for about 5 min. It will be sticky. Cover with inverted bowl and let rest for 5 to 20 min. Knead the dough for another 5 min, and place in a oiled bowl. Oil the top of the bread and cover with plastic wrap. Place tape where doubled height of dough would be. Refrigerate over night , or up to 4 nights.

Shape:

Cut dough into 8, or 12 pieces depending on if you want mini of large pitas. Shape each piece into a ball, and then a flattened disc, wile working with a piece of dough, keep the other pieces covered with a damp cloth. Cover the flattened discs with oiled plastic wrap, let rest for 20 min.
Roll each disc into about 1/4 of an inch and let rest uncover for 10 min.

Preheat:

Preheat oven to 475 degrees with a pan, of baking stone of the lowest shelf of the oven.

Bake:

Once preheated you will test making a pita. Take one pita and place it on the sheet, or bake stone. Let bake for 3 min. It should be completely puffed, but not browned yet. Keep it in the oven for addition minutes until desired brownness, but not too brown. If it is not puffy enough, knead more water into the rest of the dough and shape them into 1/4 inch discs again. If it worked out fine on the first try, of you just don't care continue with the rest of the discs. Let oven preheat again before making more batches . Once out of the oven place bread on a clean towel, this will keep the pita soft.
Enjoy!

Variation:

You can substitute half of the flour for whole wheat flour if you want to make the whole wheat version. You will need to add an additional 1/4 cup of water to the dough, with a total of 1 1/2 cups of water.

Best apple tart

One of my favorite things in the world -> Apple tarts. This is one of the easiest desserts I've ever made. The dough is very simple to roll out and pinch to put everything together! The result is an apple tart that is not too sweet, but completely awesome. I really like the look of it, with the swirls from the apples. I made the tart in the free form galette style because it looks cool, and also because I don't have a tart pan hehe. I got this recipe from one of my favorite blogs Smitten Kitchen.

Alice Waters Apple

INGREDIENTS:
For dough:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, just softened, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
3½ tablespoons chilled water

For filling:
2 pounds apples (Golden Delicious or another tart, firm variety), peeled, cored (save peels and cores), and sliced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
5 tablespoons sugar

For glaze: ½ cup sugar

MIX flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl; add 2 tablespoons of the butter. Blend in a mixer until dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Add remaining butter; mix until biggest pieces look like large peas.

DRIBBLE in water, stir, then dribble in more, until dough just holds together. Toss with hands, letting it fall through fingers, until it’s ropy with some dry patches. If dry patches predominate, add another tablespoon water. Keep tossing until you can roll dough into a ball. Flatten into a 4-inch-thick disk; refrigerate. After at least 30 minutes, remove; let soften so it’s malleable but still cold. Smooth cracks at edges. On a lightly floured surface, roll into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Dust excess flour from both sides with a dry pastry brush.

PLACE dough in a lightly greased 9-inch round tart pan, or simply on a parchment-lined baking sheet if you wish to go free-form, or galette-style with it. Heat oven to 400°F. (If you have a pizza stone, place it in the center of the rack.)

OVERLAP apples on dough in a ring 2 inches from edge if going galette-style, or up to the sides if using the tart pan. Continue inward until you reach the center. Fold any dough hanging over pan back onto itself; crimp edges at 1-inch intervals.

BRUSH melted butter over apples and onto dough edge. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar over dough edge and the other 3 tablespoons over apples. (Deb note: I found it nearly impossible to coat it with this much sugar, so I used a little less–more like 3 tablespoons. It made a lightly sweet tart, which we found perfect.)

BAKE in center of oven until apples are soft, with browned edges, and crust has caramelized to a dark golden brown (about 45 minutes), making sure to rotate tart every 15 minutes.

MAKE glaze: Put reserved peels and cores in a large saucepan, along with sugar. Pour in just enough water to cover; simmer for 25 minutes. Strain syrup through cheesecloth.

REMOVE tart from oven, and slide off parchment onto cooling rack. Let cool at least 15 minutes.

BRUSH glaze over tart, slice, and serve.

Valentines day!! <3

Cute cupcakes for valentines day!! They are mini too, the best kind! These cupcakes just top it all off : ) I used mini cups that you would use for candies and then piped the frosting heart. Its a lot of fun to make different designs. I hope that everybody had a great Valentines day!

My first post - Honey-Vanilla Challah

Id like to dedicate my first post to challah. This bread is really sweet and yummy, especially on the morning of a snow day : )I'm really excited because Winter break starts on friday! No school for a full week..i must have died and gone to heaven ^0^ So you can guess what i'm going to be baking in my precious days off. This bread is really easy to make. I got the recipe from Baking and books, the Honey-Vanilla Challah. Its especially fun to make because you braid it. Its awesome because after you set it in the oven, you can smell it- all of its honey vanilla goodness.






Honey-Vanilla Challah
from www.bakingandbooks.com

• 1/2 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup of warm milk (whole is best, low-fat is ok too)
• 2 eggs + 1 for the glaze
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil + 1 teaspoon for greasing the bowl and another for the glaze
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon honey

In a large bowl using a whisk combine the yeast, sugar, salt and 1 cup of the flour. Add the warm milk, 2 eggs, 4 tablespoons of olive oil, then the honey and vanilla. (Add the olive oil first, then use the same measuring spoon to add the honey - residual oil on the spoon will make the honey slide right out.) Vigorously mix the ingredients until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl halfway through, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, switching to a wooden spoon when the dough becomes too thick for the whisk. Continue mixing the dough until it is too stiff to stir.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until soft and springy, about 4 minutes. If the dough is sticky, dust with flour 1 tablespoon at a time - just enough to prevent it from sticking to the surface. The dough is done when it’s smooth and small air bubbles show under the skin. If you press your thumb into it the impression should bounce back. This is a slightly firm dough, which is exactly what you want for easy braiding later on.

Place the dough in a deep container greased with 1 tsp of olive oil. Turn the dough once to coat the top and cover with plastic wrap. Allow it to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease it with non-stick spray. Gently deflate the dough by pressing your fingers into it, then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.
Divide into 3 equal portions, and roll each portion out into a smooth, thick strip about 20 inches long, with the ends slightly thinner than the middle. Lay these ropes side-by-side, not quite touching.

Beginning in the middle and working towards you, braid the lower half of the three ropes. To braid, alternately move the outside ropes over the one in the center - left over, right over, left over -until you come to the end. Now go to the other side of your working space and braid the other half, this time moving the outside ropes under the center one. Braid tightly - you don’t want any gaps. When you finish braiding each side crimp the tapered ends together, then tuck them under.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and place the braided dough on your baking sheet, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until almost doubled in bulk, 30 to 40 minutes.

Just before the rising time has finished whisk together 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of olive oil, this is going to be the glaze for your bread. Gently brush the dough with a thick layer of it. Place the dough in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the bread is a deep golden brown and sounds hollow when you thump it on the bottom. Transfer to a baking rack to cool. Allow to cool completely before slicing- Enjoy!