poppy seeds – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

17-10: Poppy Seed Bread

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods January 23, 2018August 31, 2020all-purpose flour, anise, baked goods, breads, buns, butter, cheese, cumin, dough, egg wash, eggs, fairly hard, granulated sugar, grated, inexpensive, kneaded, milk, parchment paper, poppy seeds, proofed, rolls, salt, sesame seeds, side dish, Silpat, untested, vegetarian, white bread, yeast

One of the last entries from the Baked Goods chapter, 17-10: Poppy Seed Bread is essentially white bread with a sprinkling of poppy seeds on top. Simply Delicious shows it as a loaf, but I chose to make it into rolls/buns–since you’re already topping the bread with seeds, it makes it very reminiscent of sesame seed hamburger buns. 🍔

Even 20+ years later, most mentions of poppy seeds inevitably end up referencing this Seinfeld gag, where Elaine’s love for poppy seed muffins keep causing her to test positive for opium on a work-administered drug test.

This often leads to the question: Can poppy seeds really affect a drug test? And the answer, according to the New York Times, is actually “Yes!” 🤔 You’d have to eat a LOT of them (much more than what the recipe for this bread contains) to have it show up at levels that would cause alarm–but the claim does actually have merit.

20-12: Basic Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 20: Basic Recipes, Section 4: Cooking School December 19, 2017October 18, 2020all-purpose flour, appetizers, baguette, baked goods, bread series, breads, breakfast, brushed, butter, cardamom, cheese, chopped, cinnamon, coarse salt, cooking school, crescents, cumin, curry powder, dried herbs, egg wash, eggs, granulated sugar, grated, herbs and spices, lunch, melted, milk, nuts, party food, poppy seeds, pretzels, proofed, rolls, saffron, salt, scored, sesame seeds, slit, snacks, sunflower seeds, untested, vegetarian, white bread, yeast

Playing a bit of catch-up here since unscheduled interruptions, other non-food-related projects, and massive amounts of holiday baking have put me far behind in terms of keeping up with posts. I had started working on a Bread Series, starting with 18-1: Basic Yeast Dough I which I published back in October. Covering 20-12: Basic Rolls was intended to play off of that concept, giving you an easy recipe to utilize the lessons presented in both that post and its follow-up, 18-2: Basic Yeast Dough II.

Quick review: the last three chapters of Simply Delicious are part of its Cooking School, intended to review basic techniques, ingredients, and recipes with which all aspiring chefs should be familiar. I’ve covered a few bits and bobs out of those last few chapters, but much of it still remains untapped.

18-1: Basic Yeast Dough I

Jamie Martin Group 18: Basic Techniques, Section 4: Cooking School October 5, 2017September 30, 2020all-purpose flour, anise, baked goods, beer, bread series, breads, breakfast, butter, cake yeast, canola oil, cinnamon, cooking school, cumin, dairy-free, dried herbs, dried spices, durum wheat flour, eggs, fennel, garlic, granulated sugar, herbs and spices, milk, olive oil, poppy seeds, rye flour, saffron, salt, sesame seeds, shortening, snacks, untested, vanilla extract, vegetable juice, vegetable oil, vegetarian, wheat germ, whole wheat bread, whole wheat flour, whole wheat kernels, yeast

I’ve made a lot of bread during the 3.5 years I’ve been working on this project (both for the project and outside of it), and I hear a lot of the same remarks whenever I talk about making bread: “Oh, that seems hard”, or “It’s too much work to make bread”. I used to feel the same way, and shied away from yeast recipes for a long time out of a fear of failure. In cooking (like most things in life), you have to be ready to embrace failure and learn from it–otherwise, you’ll never get past heating up Hot Pockets in the microwave.

Simply Delicious even notes in their recipe blurb that bread making is perceived as hard. It’s maybe not the easiest thing in the world, but you’ll make a lot of friends fast if you can make them fresh bread. 18-1: Basic Yeast Dough I is the first in a three-part series on bread making, where you’ll learn some tips and tricks for improving your bread baking, as well as a few basic recipes that you can use.

17-1: Croissants

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods August 28, 2016August 23, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, breakfast, brushed, butter, chilled, croissants, dough, egg wash, eggs, fairly inexpensive, flaky, folded, French, gift ideas, granulated sugar, hard, kneaded, lukewarm, pastry, poppy seeds, proofed, salt, snacks, untested, vegetarian, yeast

Croissants are a culinary item that have been around for well…a really long time. Crescent-shaped rolls are a part of several cuisines–one example would be the kifli from Eastern Europe, versus the well-known Western European version, like 17-1: Croissants. 🌙

Wikipedia mentions that frozen pre-formed croissants are pretty readily available these days (and have been since the 1970s), so making this recipe’s truly a labor of love–it takes a good amount of effort, as noted above.

5-15: Cheese Sticks

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters August 14, 2015October 14, 2020all-purpose flour, anise, appetizers, butter, cayenne pepper, Cheddar, cheese, coarse salt, cookie press, creamed, cumin, egg-free, fairly hard, hors d'oeuvres, inexpensive, lunch, paprika, parchment paper, Parmesan, pastry bag, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, Silpat, snacks, sticks, Swiss, untested, vegetarian

The other recipe I cooked before I took an extended break (the first being 3-2: New England Clam Chowder) would be these Cheese Sticks. I think this was one of those “burn off leftover ingredients” recipes.

Think of these Cheese Sticks as kind of like big Cheetos. This recipe is Card #15 in Subgroup #5 (Eggs & Cheese), found in Book 1.