Super Basic Bread
This, but skip everything other than the flour, water, salt, yeast. Make sure your camera is zoomed-in as much as possible.
In a 3-cup bowl, whisk together 1 cup of warm water (100-110F)+ 1 tbsp active yeast + 3 tbsp sugar, and let sit for 15 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk 1 tsp salt into 3 cups of flour, make a hole in the middle of the flour, and slowly add 1 cup of warm water, and slowly stir the flour into the water.
After the yeast is active (top of the bowl has 1/2″ layer of foam), slowly add that to the flour mixture.
Stir everything together as best as you can.
Get your hands dirty and knead mix into a dough.
If it’s too dry, add 1 tbsp of warm water, and keep kneading. Adjust slowly! If it’s too wet, keep kneading and let evaporation work some magic.
Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to prevent clumps of crusty dough from forming.
Once the dough forms a smooth, pillowy ball that does not stick to your hand, spray the dough with some cooking oil, cover the bowl with some clingwrap, and place in a slightly warm oven until the dough doubles in size (approx 30 minutes).
Remove from the bowl, cut and shape the dough into whatever shape & size you want, and place the dough in a well-oiled loaf pan.
Return the pan to your warm oven for another 20-30 minutes, or until it has risen to the size you want.
Heat the oven to 350, and remove the bread once it’s golden brown.

Dill Pickle Hummus?
I did look this up on a thing called “Google”, which lets you search for things. It’s even called a “search engine”. Crazy, right?
Anywho, “dill pickle hummus” has been done at least once before, and the idea I had was, apparently, NOT new, but here’s my idea:
Below + 1/4 cup finely-minced dill pickle, and 1/2 tbsp finely chopped dill (or freeze-dried works). Cut the tahini to 2 tbsp, and think about adding another 1tbsp of lemon juice. 2-4 tbsp of very cold water will help smooth this out, and make it more floofy.
Note – Skip the cumin. It does not go well with the dill

Hummus

Print Recipe

Course Side Dish

Ingredients

1 can 19 oz / 540 grams chickpeas/garbonzo beans ( see notes on soaking/boiling/gas )
2.5 tbsp lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp kosher salt ( use 1/8 tsp less if using table salt )
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil ( plus another tbsp for garnish )
3-4 tbsp tahini ( optional )
3 tbsp ice-cold water, or ice cubes add more after processing if it seems dry

Garnish

1/2 tsp paprika for garnish
some sprigs of parsley for garnish

Instructions

Start with 2.5 tbsp olive oil and the rest of the main ingredients in a food processor or blender, and puree.
If the mixture seems too dry, and more olive oil.
Plate, garnish, serve. It's that easy.

Notes

You can soak the chickpeas overnight, but I find that boiling (starting with cold water) for 45 minutes, drain, and cool in a large bowl of ice-cold water 3" above the chickpeas, rub off the hulls, and scoop them off the top - they float. This has the wonderful side effect of making you a bit less gassy. The tradeoff is less fiber and an extra hour of prep time. You can also boil 6-ish cloves of garlic with the chickpeas to make them much more mellow and buttery.
Ultra-hardcore method for the smoothest hummus is to take 500 g dried chickpeas, soak them overnight, rinse and drain, put in a pot with 1 tsp baking soda, cover with 2" of water, and bring to a boil. The foam that appears needs to be stirred back in. Reduce heat to medium, and cook for 1/2 hour, then put a lid on and cook another 30-60 minutes. Remove the lid and allow any excess water to evaporate. Transfer to a plate and allow to cool completely. Puree 4 minutes in a food processor (scrape sides every minute), and add (one at a time): 70g ice until lighter and smooth, 250g tahini until fluffy, 75 ml lemon juice & 2 tsp salt. Adjust to taste. Here's where we can add garlic, cumin, or any other flavourings.