Wow, two posts over the weekend!  I realized that I am doing my giveaway tomorrow, so I decided to post my Bizzy Weekend eats. šŸ˜€   While I already submitted my Pork Chops with Lemon-Thyme Sauce to this weeks hostess, Heather from Girlichef.   But I had buttermilk pancakes on my brain this morning – only one problem, I didn’t have any buttermilk!

But that didn’t stop me – to make your own buttermilk, just add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to 1 cup of milk and you are good to go.  The best part about these pancakes?  Only 2 PointsPlus per pancake.

Mock Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups white flour
  • 1 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups 2% milk
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
  • 2 large eggs, slightly beaten

Mix dry ingredients together.  Make a well in the middle and add remaining ingredients.  Stir until just combined – the batter will be a bit lumpy, don’t worry.   Now the most important part, and the part Hannah didn’t like this morning because she was hungry – you have to let the batter sit at least 15 minutes.  This will ensure fluffy pancakes every time.

I did throw about 3/4 of a cup of blueberries in the batter because by tomorrow they wouldn’t be good

with sugar free pancake syrup – perfect way to start a Sunday!

My parents-in-law bought me a Tuscan Kitchen cookbook for my birthday.  While Tony and I were driving to the grocery store yesterday, I got to the back of the book and found a recipe for schiacciata.  I read the recipe out loud to Tony and he was so excited – he remembers eating schiacciata at his grandpa’s house in Italy, and having sandwiches with salami with this bread.  I knew I had to make it.

The recipe calls for “fresh” yeast.  I have no idea what that means, so I used 1 ounce of yeast from a jar – probably 3 times as much yeast that I normally use, but it worked.

Schiacciata

Ingredients:

  • 5 cups flour (I used all-purpose)
  • 1 ounce yeast
  • 2 cups warm water

Dissolve yeast in 1 cup of warm water.  Put flour in large bowl.  Add the yeast water, than the second cup of water.  Mix with a wooden spoon.  While I would normally use my stand mixer to do the work, I decided to go old school and just used a wooden spoon.  Mix as well as you can, then dump on your counter and knead for about 10 minutes.  I actually really enjoy kneading bread.

Put in a bowl, and pour 2 tablespoons good olive oil over the top and 1 teaspoon sea salt.  Let rise 1 hour.  After the first hour, pour the dough on a 9×13 pan.  Spread out and cover with another tablespoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon sea salt.   Let rise another hour.  Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Just before going in the oven, form indentations over the entire surface of the dough using your fingers.  I put rosemary on half of the bread.  Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

after the 10 minute knead
after the first rise
ready for the oven šŸ˜€

The inside is tender and light, with a nice crunchy crust on the outside – the only thing I would do a bit different is add 1 teaspoon of salt to the actual dough – but this was so delicious – and Tony loved it.  šŸ˜€

Thanks again for hosting BSI this week Heather!  See you tomorrow. šŸ˜€