Batch Cooking On A Saturday Afternoon

Batch cooking.. it’s one of my favorite things on the planet to do.  Not only is it enjoyable, especially when you have kids around to help out, it also helps makes your busy life a little easier. Ready made lunches in the freezer for the kids to pull out and shove in the microwave or oven, things to put in your own lunch box as you head out to work, not to mention things to pull out for dinner and heat up quickly.

I had lost my recipe for pretzel dogs, so I did some searching on the web to find one.  I FOUND ONE!!  You can check it out here over at The Slow Roasted Italian. She has a lot of great looking recipes to go along with this one. I plan on making more of her things in the near future.

I didn’t use the beer for this recipe. I used water. Still came out perfect. This recipe is actually better then I remember my old one being. The beauty of this recipe for me today, especially, the temp to bake these is the same temp the oven needs to be for my bread loaves. I made 4 batches of these while my sourdough sandwich bread was on their second rise.  Total batches of Pretzel dogs made:  6 for a total of 48 pretzel dogs.  We ended up eating a batch of the pretzel dogs out of the 6 we made today.  Was a great lunch, still 5 batches left for the freezer.

We kind of miscounted a batch, so as I made the dough for the 7th, I realized we were going to be out of hot dogs.  Production line fail!  We turned them into pretzel bites instead.  The inspiration came from The Slow Roasted Italian, however, we used the pretzel dog dough recipe instead of the pretzel bite dough she has since it was already prepared. Waste not, want not.  It’s only different by 1/4 cup of liquid, and she uses milk for them.  Still her recipes and concept. We also divided the dough into balls, was more fun for the 3 and 4 year old… we got 65 bites, of various shapes and sizes.

I had some extra Sour dough starter from my buddy “Charlie”, so I made an old fashioned Sour Dough Cake my grandma used to bake.

Prompted by a conversation I had with co workers on Wednesday about the Edweilwiss restaurant, I started craving German food. I found a recipe for one of my favorite foods, Bierocks. 20 of them puppies made today!  (We used to call these Grubby Ducks when I was a kid… as I think most Michiganders do).  Changes I had to make: 4 cups of flour gave me a dough that was more like…. slime.. couldn’t knead it at all. I had to add an extra cup of flour to the dough.
I also used cheddar cheese and 1/4 cup of goat cheese in mine. A whole batch was consumed as dinner. This recipe tasted just as remembered. I live in Colorado, so altitude may have been the reason why I had to add the extra flour.

 

Bierock variations I remember as a kid:

• Pizza filled – pizza sauce, meats, cheeses and sauteed vegetables
• Ham, cheese and potato
• Scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese
• Scrambled eggs, sausage and cheese
• Pulled BBQ Pork

Ideas for Bierocks in the future:

• Mexican – Add some corn meal to the flour, refried beans, seasoned meat, cheese and a little salsa
• Chicken Cordon Bleu – Chopped up chicken, bacon or prosciutto, spinach and Gruyere cheese.
• Fruit Filled – Fresh fruit, cooked until softened, butter, cinnamon and sugar or honey.

Bierock Dessert Test I Did:

I made half a batch of dough, rolled it out into two rounds, cut into strips.  On each strip, I put small pieces of butter, sprinkled on some cinnamon and sugar, added walnuts, then rolled each into a pinwheel, crimping the ends to make a small ball.  Baked at 350, for about or until golden brown.

 

Batch Cooking :

In My Freezer Today:

• 40 pretzel dogs.
• 8 pizza dough balls
• 10 Bierocks

On My Counter Today:

• 2 loaves sourdough sandwich bread
• 64 soft pretzel bites
• 1 old fashioned sour dough cake