Home Baked Mediterranean Olive Bread Revisited

I had a really good day off today.  I got charged up after visiting and reading some of the other food bloggers' adventures in baking.  So, I decided to prepare three different types of bread.  I revisited our family favorite Mediterranean Olive Bread that I learned in class.  I am not in particular fond of my High Gluten flour that I bought.  It seems to make my bread texture to come out translucent in the past baking ...  I just skipped the 2nd 1 lb portion of it and just use the bread flour.
There are two challenges I want to complete in this baking - "No Knead" bread and how many days will it keep without becoming rock hard - this is achieved by adding the special ingredients I learned from some of the dear food bloggers.  (They are really great bakers!!  I am so proud of them--Happy Home Bakers, Angie's, Sea Dragon, etc, etc.)  Normally, kneading is required to make this bread - to build gluten.  Since one other bread that I am making is the infamous "No Knead Bread" recipe that my friend Debra shared with me, I want to see if the Olive Bread would turn out just as fine.
I weighed all ingredients and mixed them all together in my extra large bowl with spoon, including the new 'secret' ingredients.... ha, ha,,, when you find out what it is, you will be so mind boggled--What! that?  that's not secret? is it?  Your mom must have forgotten to pass it down.  Then, I covered it to let it rise.  After the 1st rise, then, I completed the kneading with hands.  Portion it into thirds - rather than into two's (the full recipe makes 4 loaves and I used half batch) because I got three special munchkins to give to.  The result:  very good.
(*Double Click on the image to enlarge.)

Puff-Goes-the-Chicken Pot Pies Adventure

So, March came quietly and is almost gone.  I have been very busy with school work assignments and testing them at home before the class - whenever possible.  Luckily this recipe is a winner - Curry Chicken Pot Pie (www.foodnetwork.com - Alton Brown's).  I added my own favorite vegetables or seafood (shrimps), and they all turned out delicious.  My family loves them.
The only tricky part with this chicken pot pie is the Puff Pastry (Bo Friberg's "The Professional  Pastry Chef", 4th ed.  I make only 1/2 batch).  How can you keep the puff pastry from getting soggy bottom and keep the rise.  After my first pot pies, I immediately thought of freezing the Puff tops; then also the temptation to make it more 'soupy' is not too great an idea.  The Puff pastry top didn't like too much 'moisture' underneath.  Draping the sides over the ramekin helped some, but freezing the puff tops and baking at 425'F helped in baking beautifully.
Other than that, I baked 8 to 16 pot pies each week for the past 3 weeks, and they turned out great.  Delicious!
(*Double click on images to view larger image.)

SOFT NOUGAT ISLANDS

I was looking for a recipe for Soft Nougat filling for making Chocolate confection.  My friend found a recipe called Nougat Centers.  I gave it a try.  It is good.
The white blob you see in the picture is the original soft nougat center.  For variation I added walnuts, raisins, candied cherries, and rum.  But the candied cherries didn't have distinct flavor, so I added maraschino cherries, marachino juice + rum.  That's the pink blob you see on the plate.  If you like maraschino cherries, then this is good.  The other pink blob is with extra chopped raisins and maraschino juice with rum. 

 

Squeeze the parchment paper to separate the chocolate cup off of it.

This nougat is mixed with melted milk chocolate.  Then fill with nougat with cherries...