spinach flatbread, one pot baked chicken with chimichurri, and a mango supreme cake
each can be done within an hour and makes a perfect meal
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Welcome to Baking Simplified, a progression of my ever evolving newsletter to you.
In my continued efforts to simplify baking and make functional recipes that you will actually use, and look forward to using, this week we are trying out something new. I’m bringing you three recipes, each doable within an hour, that make up a complete meal for you and your family: a warm bread, a one pot savory bake, and a delicious dessert.
I will still create an archive of technical recipes on here, but the focus will shift into this new functionality. I’ve written two books and have built a career around making slowly fermented sourdough breads, but there is a new energy surrounding my style of baking lately. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a father with a household to maintain and am having to learn how to budget my time better, but there really is something to the whole “quick and simple” in the kitchen thing.
The most fun thing about all of this is that I’m using my skillset as a former head baker and bakery operator and compressing it down into something practical that anyone at any skill level can achieve. Warm, flavorful bread for your dinner table? Check. A dessert that can be put together in an hour? Check. Dinner or lunch in the form of a one pot bake? Check.
As a baker in production, I used to work long hours making really incredible sourdough breads and pastries that took days to make. But you know what the bakery team would eat for shift meal? Something that took 30 minutes to put into the oven and came out incredibly delicious and satisfying.
My wife Bridget is slowly but surely getting back up to speed after giving birth to our son, and one of the things she needs for feeding is lots of food - things that don’t take forever to make, are delicious, and are extremely comforting.
Moving forward, we are going to be bringing you our real life, easy to bake recipes that we are currently preparing for ourselves and making with minimal effort, time constraints, or advanced technical know how.
Spinach Flatbreads
Tortillas, rotis, pitas, wraps….there are so many names given to the unleavened beauty of hot skillet flatbreads. I would probably call these tortillas since my upbringing dictated as such, but of course I’m making them in a way that is not tied to any particular technique or cultural tradition so i’m just going to call them Flatbreads. The recipe for these is quite simple, yet extremely flavorful.
Shopping List:
All purpose flour (substitution: bread flour or 00 flour)
Fresh spinach (substitution: frozen spinach)
Vegetable Oil (substitution: coconut oil, ghee, or lard)
Salt (no substitution)
Water (substitution: coconut milk)
One Pot Baked Chicken with Chimichurri
If ever there was a combination of things that I loved, it’s chicken and chimichurri. I started making this when I lived in NYC a few years ago and I had a little grill in my tiny patio that I would use when the weather was nice to smoke a whole chicken for hours on end. However, I wanted to make this much quicker so I came up with a nice seasoning blend that gets this chicken crispy but still juicy and done in about 45 minutes. For the chimichurri, make sure to use fresh parsley for the most flavorful outcome.
Shopping List:
Chicken breast (substitution: chicken thighs)
Yellow Onion (substitution: white or red onion)
Red Bell Pepper (substitution: yellow, green or orange bell pepper)
Cherry Tomato (substitution: any other tomato, chunked)
Olive Oil (no substitution)
Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, Cumin, Paprika (substitution: any seasonings you have on hand)
Full Fat Yoghurt (substitution: omit)
Fresh Parsley (no sub)
Dried Oregano (no sub)
Red Wine Vinegar (substitution: white or apple cider vinegar)
Fresh Garlic (no sub)
Red Pepper Flakes (no sub)
Mango Supreme Cake
Mango is probably the greatest fruit of all time, and I happen to have a huge mango tree in my backyard that was my inspiration for this recipe. I collected some nice, juicy mangos the other day and realized I need to start cooking and baking with them at a fast pace because they are about to start dropping like crazy. Enter the mango supreme cake, a very moist cake highlighted by a simple vanilla buttercream frosting but letting the mango be the star of the show.
Shopping List:
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
Unsalted butter
Granulated sugar
Eggs
Vanilla extract
Buttermilk, room temperature
Mangos
Limes
Powdered Sugar
Heavy Cream
Mint
How should I time making this meal?
If you want to get this done for your families mealtime, here is the timing that I would suggest:
Get the cakes into the oven first thing so that they have time to cool.
While the cakes are baking, marinate the chicken and set aside in the baking dish ready to be popped into the oven
Make the mango filling and buttercream frosting. Place in fridge until assembly.
Once the cakes are out of the oven, crank it up and pop in the chicken. It should take about 35 minutes to bake.
Make the flatbreads during the chicken bake.
Assemble the mango cake (10 min)
Make the chimichurri.
Serve.
*HEAD OVER TO THE SUBSTACK POST TO GRAB THE RECIPE PDF DOCUMENTSs
Love this! Reminds me of the lemon almond Birthday Cake I celebrate with every year.
check it out:
https://thesecretingredient.substack.com/p/turning-24-my-lemon-almond-birthday
I really enjoy the pivot, as time being our most precious commodity