Twisted Pizza Sticks

These pizza sticks are the best thing since sliced bread!

Pizza sticks make great party food, especially for kids parties. You can make these in large quantities and serve them to your guests as snacks or appetizers. Or just instead of bread- add a twist to the regular sliced bread.

Ingredients:

Pizza dough:
1 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp flax seeds (optional)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp active dry yeast

pan or oil

1 Tbsp butter

1tsp coarse salt

Parmesan cheese

garlic powder

dried oregano

Start with my favorite pizza dough recipe. Split the dough in 6 parts and roll them out into sticks like on the picture below. Preheat the over to 450F at this point.

Wrap them around skewers for grilling kebabs. Oil the pan and place pizza stick skewers on it.

Melt butter in a separate dish.

Use a brush to spread it over the pizza sticks.

They should look shiny like this.

Sprinkle salt, garlic powder, Parmesan cheese and oregano on top.

Bake at 450F for about 15 minutes.

Serve with marinara dip on the side (maybe not such a great idea if you are making those for kids party).

Flatbread Pizza with Artichoke Hearts

Here is a simple idea for easy to make party food- flat bread pizza! It is very night, not loaded with cheese and sauce. It looks pretty- everyone will ask you how you made it.

Ingredients:

Pizza dough:
1 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp flax seeds
1 tsp salt
1 tsp active dry yeast

Toppings:

1/8 cup olive oil

3 garlic cloves

t tsp oregano

salt 1 tsp salt

3 tbsp crumbled feta cheese

5 slices of ham

5 baby portobello mushrooms

5-6 pieces marinated artichoke hearts

1-2 tomatoes, sliced

grated Parmesan cheese

Roll out the pizza dough and place it on the parchment paper, or in the pregreased pan.

Mix oil, garlic, salt and oregano in a cut and allow it to infuse for some times. I usually prepare this while the dough is getting ready. Spread it over the dough as a base layer. You can also use butter instead of olive oil.

At this point, preheat the oven on 450F.

Then place all the toppings in order.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Then you can brush more olive oil on the crust and sprinkle some Parmesan over the top.

Featured products:

Banana Bread

Banana bread is easy and quick to make, and it makes a great breakfast or a snack. I could really go for some banana bread now, I wish I had some left.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup crushed walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Mix all the ingredients together and pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Test with a toothpick to see if the loaf is done. If the dough sticks to the toothpick, let it cook a while longer.

Rose Bread by Ana Lazic (Serbian = Погача Ружа)

Ingredients:

1 cup water
1 cup milk
2 tea spoons dried yeast
1 tea spoon salt (if salted butter is used, use less)
1/3-1/2 cup oil
4 cups white flour
1/4 lb unsalted butter

Mix flour, yeast and salt in a bowl. Heat up milk for 1 min on high in the microwave. Add water and oil to the warm milk, pour this mix over the flour mix. Mix everything well and let the dough sit for 45-60 min. Split the dough into four portions.

Stretch each portion relatively thin.



Spread the butter on top.


Roll into a log.



Cut the log into pieces (each piece will become a rose after baking) and place them next to each other with some space in between in a buttered pan. Let the dough rise for 30 min. more - the individual pieces should start touching each other.



Bake at 400ºF for 25 min. In a small bowl, mix a small amount of water and vegetable oil. While the dough is still warm, cover each rose with a thin layer of oil+water mix using a brush.




Featured products:

Leek Bread

Leeks, just like onion and garlic, belong to Allium vegetables.  Hence, leeks have similar nutritional benefits of garlic and onions, but a milder flavor.  They are low in saturated fat and cholesterol, High in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate, Manganese, Dietary Fiber, Vitamin B6, Iron and Magnesium.  Benefits of leeks as Allium vegetables include lowering LDL cholesterol (aka "bad" cholesterol), while raising the HDL or "good" cholesterol.  Leeks also reduce the risk of heart attack or a stoke by lowering high blood pressure.

Leek bread is so easy to make, and everyone likes it.  It makes a great appetizer or just a snack.  I took this to a friend birthday a couple of weeks ago, but everyone was impressed. 

 

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of oil
2-3 cups chopped leeks, finely chopped
1 cup feta cheese
2 cups flour
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp of baking powder




Preheat the oven to 430F.

Mix eggs first.

 

Add flour and milk and continue mixing until its smooth. 

Then add the rest of the ingredients and mix again. Bake in a pre-greased pan at 430F until the top becomes golden brown and the toothpick comes clear.

Featured product:

To avoid sticking to the baking dish, it is always convenient to use parchment paper:

Pogačice- Butter Puffs (Serbian=Погачице)

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter (softened)
250 g feta cheese
250g flour
2 tbsp baking powder
salt to taste

glaze:
1 egg yolk
sesame seeds

Combine butter, cheese, flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and using a mixer, make he dough.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Sprinkle some flour on a clean and dry kitchen counter. Stretch the dough with a rolling pin to about 1cm thickness. Then use cookie cutters to cut circular shapes out.

Roll out the remaining part of the dough and repeat this process until you run out.

Arrange the pastries in a pre greased pan.


Spread the egg yolk over the pastries and sprinkle sesame seeds.


Bake at 400F for about 15 minutes.

You can also see Svetlana's butter puffs here.


Featured products:

Pogačice- Butter Puffs ala Svetlana (Serbian=Погачице)

Svetlana has been cooking up the storm lately! I cannot write her recipes fast enough. The other day I went to her house, she was cooking 3 meals all at ones! I really hope she doesn't move to San Francisco, because then how would I get a taste of her cooking or stop by for a quick chat after work? I really hope she reads this and reconsiders staying where she is at.

In any case, these butter puffs came out of the oven, and I was asking her what it was and she was describing how she prepared it... Finally, when I got to taste it, I got this warm and fuzzy feeling from my childhood- of course my mom made these too, and I grew up eating them, but I haven't had it in so long, I forgot it existed. What a great discovery for me!

Ingredients:

250g butter
300g quark cheese
250g flour
1 egg
salt
sesame seeds and/or cumin seeds

Glaze:
1 egg

Soften the butter and fluff it with mixer. Add cheese, egg, flour and salt (depending on how salty the cheese is). Mix the dough by hand, or use a spiral attachment for mixers. Pour the dough into the mini muffin pan, filling the compartments onto about 1/3 - 1/2 full.

Beat one egg and brush it over the dough. Sprinkle some sesame seeds and/or cumin seeds and some salt.

Bake at 370F.

You can also see my butter puffs here.


Featured products:

Projara- Serbian Corn Bread with Cheese (Serbian = Пројара)

Proja is another authentic Serbian dish. It was a popular food among peasants, in the old days because it is cheap to make. Proja is made of eggs, cornmeal, flour, milk and oil. Now that we can afford a little more flavor in our food, we make a fancier version of proja, called projara. Projara has the same ingredients as proja, but in addition it also contains fetta chese, which gives it a really nice flovor.

My friend Svetlana is the master of projara. She makes them in a mini muffin pan, which is great for parties as finger foods. You can also make them in a regular baking dish and cut it into pieces. Here is her recipe, and it is quire easy to make.


Ingredients:

4 eggs
200ml oil
200ml kefir or yogurt
1 cup flour
1 cup corn flour, fine grind
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
300-400g crumbled feta
2 Tbsp corn flour, course grind


Preheat the oven to 400F.

Start with mixing the eggs.


Then add oil and yogurt.


Mix in the dry ingredients (flour, fine corn flour and baking powder).


At the end add feta cheese and mix it with a spoon.

Oil the baking ban. Mini muffin pan is ideal to use for projara. Then sprinkle the coarse corn flour onto the bottom of the pan.

Finally, pour the mixture into the pan, but don't overfill since it will raise in the oven.

Bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes.




Featured products:

Gibanica bez kora- Cheese Bread

Gibanica is a traditional Serbian dish (as well as other Balkan countries), and it is made of filo dough, white cheese and oil. In case you don't have filo dough, you can make "gibanica without filo", which is the literal translation of the name of this dish.

Gibanica without filo is very easy to make. It makes a great snack, appetizer, or a party finger food.

Ingredients:

4 eggs
2 cups yogurt
1 cup feta or sheeps cheese (crumbled)
1 cup oil
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt (depending on wow salty the cheese is)
1 tbsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 440C. Mix all the engredients together starting with eggs. Transfer the mixture into the pre-greased pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the top gets a reddinsh brown color.

Pumpkin Bread

Celebrate the pumpkin season with a fresh home made pumpkin bread. Pumpkin bread makes a good breakfast, desert, or just a snack. This particular pumpkin bread loaf went to AMC with us to help us enjoy Avatar.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

I like to double the recipe to make two loaves. It just seems more efficient that way- same amount of time, one mess, but two loaves.

Start with baking a pumpkin. A small pumpkin is enough to make 2 loaves. Cut it in half and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350F for one hour. Peel the skin off and puree the rest. It would be falling apart after baking anyways, so not so much pureeing is necessary.



Mix all the ingredients together with a mixer. If you have a fancy mixer like mine, this should take just a few minutes. I love my new mixer! This was my Christmas present to myself.

Pour the mix into the bread loaf pan (9 x 5 x 3) previously greased with butter. Bake at 350F for one hour. Do the toothpick test to see if your pumpkin bread is ready. Cool on a rack before serving.

Featured product:

Kitchen aid mixers are especially useful in baking because you can add the ingredients while they mix. No mess, no splashes and you still have both of your hands to do other stuff. This mixer makes baking easy and quick.

Butter Rolls with Cheese

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk
1 large egg
2 1/3 cups bread flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp active dry yeast
feta or sheep cheese

Glaze:
1 egg

Make the dough out of the above ingredients. I use my bread maker, so it's pretty easy. It takes 1 hour and 45 minutes.



Split the dough into 14 equal balls and allow them to rest covered with a kitchen towel for 20 minutes.



Use the rolling pin to stretch the doing into triangles.



Add cheese and roll each triangle starting from the wide end.



Place the rolls on the greased baking pan. Spray a little water and allow to rise at 90F for about 30 minutes or until they double in size.



Beat one egg for the glaze and brush each roll.



Bake at 350F for about 15 minutes until they are golden brown.



Good old days-
We tend to eat lots of dough during the winter time in Serbia. We make something similar to butter rolls with cheese, and we call it "kiflice". Everybody loves kiflice! Kids can hardly wait till they come out of the oven. Here are my first attempts to make kiflice. These pictures are from the 80's, taken in Belgrade, Serbia.



Featured product:

I use this Zojirushi bread maker to make various breads as well as dough. It works great. You just pour all the ingredients in, and get the dough out. No trouble, no mess, guaranteed success.