Oat Bread Cockaigne (pg 601)

Check out that egg wash shine

In Joy, the designation "cockaigne" means that a recipe is one of the authors' very favorites. The word has a connotation of gluttony and lots of interesting history in literature that you should Google or that maybe a smarter member of the family will write about. This poem, The Land of Cokaygne, is a good start though. Here are a few lines and reading the whole thing will make you proud to be an American:

In Cokaygne food and drink are had without worry, trouble or toil.  The meat is choice and the drink is clear at every meal: noon, afternoon and evening.  I swear this land has no peer under heaven or on earth for such joy and bliss. 

There are many sweet sights; it is always day, never night.  There is no quarrelling or strife, no death but ever life.  There is no lack of food or clothing, and no man or woman is ever wroth.³

Alright, alright! On to the bread...

To the list of things that sound like a good idea but are definitely not a good idea, let's add, "starting bread at 6pm." Why do I always forget that bread needs one million hours to rise and rise again and bake and cool? Oh well... we made it

This recipe called for 2 things we didn't have on hand; soy flour and wheat germ but I phoned in a quick mom-consult and was assured that substitutions could be made. So here we have AP flour, wheat flour (extra to make up for the soy), oats (extra to make up for the wheat germ), milk, egg, salt, brown sugar, veggie oil, and yeast

The star of this quarantine? Stand mixer.

That all got mixed for 10 minutes of dough hook kneading, had a 1 hour rise, a rise in the pan and a bake with an egg brushed on top. I was in bed by 9 

Em: ⭐⭐⭐⭐  because they like "a less dense bread" (no offense taken)

Jess: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ because it tastes like bran flakes in a good way and was really easy to make but maybe wasn't quite "cockaigne." Should have instantcarted soy flour...

Chicago-Style Deep-Dish Pizza (pg 616)

According to Joy, the key to a Chicago-style pizza is to use plenty of cheese and to put the sauce on top. Otherwise, you can fill it with whatever you like. We had some red peppers and a random andouille sausage to use up and were not disappointed by the flavor combo at all. For inspiration, there are some recommended combos on pg 615 that look fun to try: @Dad... if you still have leeks laying around; "melted leeks", mushroom, cheese & olive oil?

Here's how this recipe went...
THE DOUGH
What I (this is Jess) know of deep dish pizza is what I've eaten at Uno's which always had a VERY buttery crust. Spoiler: this was not that. Joy only recommends adding 2 tbsp of melted butter to the basic pizza dough recipe (pg 614) of flour, water, yeast, olive oil and salt and it didn't really seem to make a difference. On the bright side of dough making... The molten butter didn't kill my yeast and kneading with the Kitchen Aid worked just fine.

Pictured above is a cat paw dent. Dough and cats like the same warm spot in our house.

After a 90 minute rise, the dough gets spread out into a round sheet and placed into a buttered/corn-mealed cast iron pan. 10/10 would recommend buttering with bare-hands. It was very fun.

THE FILLINGS

On top of the dough, go the cheese and goodies. As recommended, we used shredded mozzarella and sliced provolone (there's never a shortage of cheese in our house.) Then on top of that, put our sliced red pepper, onions and andouille. Note: use MORE MEAT!!! Like a lot more meat.

We didn't have the ingredients to make marinara (pg 556) so topped with a jar of spicy red pepper sauce we had in the pantry and a LOT of grated parm.

We threw our (literal) pie into the oven for 5 seconds at 425 and pulled it right back out because we forgot to drizzle it with olive oil. 34 minutes of baking later, we had a golden brown crust, gooey cheese and really great sausage/pepper/onion flavor. Would definitely make again with MORE MEAT!!!!

⭐⭐⭐⭐ from Jess whose crust expectations were ruined by Uno's.

French Toast (pg 644) with Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread (pg 599)

One of the things you still can't find in the grocery stores around here is bread, so I've been baking ours myself. 

This is great for my mental health and bicep strength but it does have a tendency to dry out quickly.  So we're always looking for something to do with stale bread, and what's more classic than French Toast?

The basic recipe in Joy is pretty simple...make a batter with eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla (rum is also given as a variation), soak the bread, and fry it up.  I also added some nutmeg (because evidently we Piepers are incapable of actually just following a recipe as written).

Joy recommends using a non-stick skillet with a tablespoon of butter to fry your toast, but I was taught to deep fry the stuff in vegetable oil (let's hear it for seventh grade Home Ec at King's Canyon Junior High!) and some things can't be unlearned.

It was perfect if I do say so myself.

The white stuff is powdered sugar which is how any sensible person dresses their French Toast.

Julie:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mike:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (even though he sort of ruined his with syrup)

Turkey Burgers (pg 430), Hamburger Buns (pg 619), Quick Cucumber Pickles (pg 929) and a Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie (pg 770)

We started on our burgers the day before by seasoning our cast iron skillet with a giant chocolate chip cookie yesterday.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Both Em and Jess agree that this was a perfect cookie in taste and texture. Plus smashing dough into a skillet is way faster than measuring out individual balls)

Em had already baked the buns
⭐⭐⭐⭐  (from Jess who thinks they were a little too small for burgers and storing them hot steamed them up to bao texture)

and had quick pickled the cucumbers
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Seriously we're going to pickle EVERYTHING now. These are crunchy with A+ dill and garlic flavor)

So next up was patty making and if you're worried about turkey burgers being dry, fear not...

because Joy includes an option for butter cubes 😍 to be added into the burger mix! A recipe option we, of course, opted into along with the recommended measures of salt, pepper and some yellow onion we had to sub in for green. We also opted-in for chili powder and took the liberty of cooking our patties in the fat left from frying our burger bacon (I am my mother's daughter. Please see her US Senate Bean Soup post)

We topped these guys up with some sharp white cheddar, a little romaine (the only green thing left at the grocery store), that bacon, those pickles and Em's toasted buns. Turned out to be pretty dang decadent but it's quarantine and we deserve it.

Overall Turkey Burger Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (from Jess who could have used a flavor other than bacon in there somewhere. Maybe more pickles next time...)

??? (from Em who is in a butter coma on the couch 🙄