Parker House Rolls

 Another delicious recipe from JustIngredients.  I'm still experimenting and learning about baking sourdough bread.  These rolls were delicious.  I made a few changes to the recipe, including halving the measurements because I didn't have a large crowd to feed.  My changes are reflected below.

1 cup bubbly sourdough starter

1/3 cup room temperature water

1 cup evaporated milk

1/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup melted butter

1 1/2 tsp salt

about 5 cups flour (I used organic unbleached all-purpose)

extra melter butter to brush before baking

Gently mix sourdough starter and water in a small bowl.  Set aside.

In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, and salt.  Mix well.  Add 2 cups flour, mix well.  Then add sourdough mixture and mix just until incorporated.  Add 1 cup flour and melted butter and mix again.

Switch attachment to dough hook.  Add the rest of the flour, one-half cup at a time, until dough barely cleans side of the bowl.  Knead well for 5-10 minutes, until dough is smooth.  Cover and let rise for 6-8 hours.  After rising at room temperature, you can put dough in the fridge overnight before moving on to the next step.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 3/4-inch thick.  Use the top of a cup to cut dough into circles.  Place dough rounds on a baking sheet, brush with melted butter, and fold so that the top half slightly overlaps with the bottom half (looks a little like a taco on its side!).  Cover and let rise until doubled (about 2-3 hours).

Bake at 350 for 13-16 minutes.  Brush with melted butter (optional) and serve.

Blueberry Scones

Smitten Kitchen recipes never fail.  These were a tasty (and somewhat healthy) way to enjoy fresh blueberries.

1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
1 cup (120 grams) whole wheat flour
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
3 tablespoons raw (turbinado) or light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse or kosher salt
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small bits
1 cup fresh blueberries
2/3 cup (150 ml) milk, whole is best here
1 large egg, beaten
1 tablespoon raw (tubinado) or other coarse sugar for finishing

Heat oven to 400°F (205°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a large bowl, combine flours, zest, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add cold butter and work into the flour mixture until the biggest pieces are the size of small peas with either your fingertips or a pastry blender. Stir in blueberries, then milk, mixing only until large clumps form. Use your hands to reach inside the bowl and gently (so gently) knead the mixture into one mass. The more you knead, the wetter the dough will get as the blueberries break up, so work quickly and knead only a few times, if you can get away with it.

Transfer dough to a well-floured counter and pat into a roughly 1-inch tall disc. Cut into 8 to 10 wedges, do not fret if the blueberries are now making a mess of the dough; it will all work out in the oven. Transfer wedges to prepared baking sheet, spacing them apart. Brush the tops of each with egg, then sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until scones are golden brown on top. Serve warm. I find most scones to be best the first day, but these were not bad at all on day two, gently rewarmed in the oven before eating. 

If freezing: I like to freeze scones unbaked and usually hold any egg wash until I’m ready to bake them. Simply spread the wedges on a baking sheet and chill until frozen solid and will no longer stick to each other, and pack tightly into a freezer bag. You can bake them right from the freezer; you’ll only need 2 to 4 minutes extra baking time.

Overnight Cinnamon Eggnog French Toast

Happy New Year!  I think this might become a New Year's morning tradition in our home, because who doesn't love starting a new year by eating dessert for breakfast?!  I made several changes that are reflected below.  The original recipe can be found here. 

1 loaf day-old French bread cut into 1” cubes
6 eggs
2 cups eggnog (full fat)
1/2 cup milk (whatever kind you want to use)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Brown Sugar Pecan Crumble Topping

1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped

1 Tbsp pure maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup butter, cubed (1 stick)

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1. Lightly spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray then add French bread cubes.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together all remaining ingredients (not including Crumble topping) then evenly pour over bread cubes. Cover pan and refrigerate overnight.
3. Brown Sugar Pecan Crumble:  Add pecans to a medium bowl and add 1 Tablespoon maple syrup and 1 teaspoon vanilla; toss to evenly coat. Set aside.
4. Add butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to food processor and pulse until it resembles coarse pebbles (or use a pastry cutter).  Add brown sugar mixture to pecans and toss to evenly combine.
5. Evenly sprinkle Brown Sugar Pecan Crumble over the bread and bake at 350 F degrees for 45-55 minutes, depending on how soft/”eggy” you like it. Serve with fresh berries and/or bananas and lots of coffee!

Pumpkin Challa

My kids and I had been learning about the Jewish calendar and certain Jewish festivals in school, so one of our projects for the week was to make Challa bread.  Challah is a braided bread made with eggs that is traditionally eaten on the Sabbath or certain holidays.  Since we are also enjoying Fall, I decided to make a less traditional Challah bread and use pumpkin!  We followed this recipe exactly, and used this video as our tutorial to do a six-strand braid for our loaves.  The bread was especially delicious toasted with butter and honey on top!

As we started to roll out the dough to make our strands for the braid, I quickly realized we had an excess of dough.  The recipe says you can make one six-stranded loaf or two smaller three-stranded loaves.  But I divided the dough and we had plenty to make two six-stranded loaves.  If you make that change as I did, be sure to reduce the baking time to about 35 minutes.    

1 cup warm water

1 package yeast

3/4 cup eggs and egg yolks (I used 7 yolks and 2 whole eggs, plus 1 egg yolk for the egg wash

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree

7-8 cups flour (bread flour, if you can find it), plus more for rolling.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine water and yeast. Allow to sit for 10 minutes, or until bubbles start coming to the surface. With the mixer on low, add in eggs, sugar, syrup, butter, salt, spices, and pumpkin. Slowly add in 2 cups of flour.

Switch to the dough hook, and slowly add most of the remaining flour until a nice, slightly sticky dough is formed. Add the rest of the flour, if needed. Cover bowl with a towel, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Punch down and let rest for ten minutes.

Divide the dough into 6 equal parts and braid into 1 large loaf with the 6 strand method, or make 2 smaller loaves with the normal 3 strand method. (see my note above about making two loaves) Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, cover, and let sit in a warm place for one hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together an extra egg yolk and a teaspoon of water. Brush over the top of the loaf. Place in the oven and toss a handful of ice cubes on the bottom of the oven (optional). Close oven door and bake for 1 hour.

Apricot-Almond Bread

This recipe comes from the Moosewood Cookbook.  The forward to the recipe said it is a good mid-evening snack, "when you want something - sweet, but not too - and you don't know exactly what you want".  After tasting the bread, I think the description is spot on.  I would adjust the baking time, though.  90 minutes was far too long for my loaf.

butter for the pan
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced dried apricots
1 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 cups flour (I used one cup whole wheat and the rest all-purpose)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp softened butter
1/2 cup honey or real maple syrup
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 to 1 tsp orange rind zest
1 cup finely chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 350.  Butter a large loaf pan.

Place apricots and water in a medium-sized saucepan and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for ten minutes.  Transfer to a medium-sized bowl, and allow to cool for about 15 minutes.

Sift together dry ingredients (except almonds) in a separate bowl.

Stir the butter plus honey or syrup into the cooled apricot mixture.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients, orange rind, and almonds.  Mix minimally but well.

Spread into the prepared pan, and bake about 1 1/2 hours, or until a probe inserted all the way down comes out clean.  I took my bread out at about 75 minutes and it was already past done.  Let cool for ten minutes in the pan, then rap the pan firmly a few times on its sides and bottom.  The bread should slip right out.  Cool at least 15 minutes more before slicing.

Banana Oatmeal Bread

I'm slowly building up my baking cupboard again and, thankfully, had what I needed to make this yummy bread for breakfast.  I made some changes from the original recipe and baked the "loaf" in a circle casserole dish that I used to mix the batter in, because that's all I have available in our hotel kitchen!  I served it up in wedge slices with some yogurt and we pretended we were eating cake!

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
4 tsp canola oil
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup oats

Preheat oven to 350F.  In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients.  Add oil and eggs; mix thoroughly.  Add mashed bananas and oats to batter and stir until well combined.

Spray a loaf pan (or casserole dish!) with cooking spray.  Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch and springs back when lightly pressed, 40-50 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes.  Flip out and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes.

Coconut Oil Biscuits

These were easy enough to put together for a weekday breakfast.  he biscuits have a slightly denser texture than buttermilk biscuits.  I loved the hint of coconut flavor that comes out from the oil.  A smear of butter and dab of honey was all we needed to polish off this batch!

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup coconut oil (room temperature)

3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Add flour, baking powder, salt, and coconut oil to a mixing bowl, and use a pastry cutter or forks to cut the coconut oil into the flour until the mixture is like fine crumbs. Stir in the milk until mixture forms a soft dough and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Knead the mixture until combined, but be careful not to over-knead.

Turn the dough out onto a cutting board that has been lightly dusted with flour. Gently roll the dough out until it reaches a 1/2-inch thickness. Use a biscuit cutter (mine was heart-shaped cookie cutter!) to cut out the biscuits, and transfer to a baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until the biscuits have risen and ever so slightly begin to brown on top. Remove and serve immediately.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

My middle gingersnap and I made this simple, yet moist and delicious bread to give as gifts to teachers before the Easter holiday.  I doubled the recipe below, which originally says will yield one loaf, but divided the doubled batch between four disposable loaf pans and it worked well.  We gave three loaves away, but I felt better about the gifts after I tasted the one loaf we kept at home.  Though if you're looking for a really special banana bread recipe, I'd point you to this one.    


A couple changes made from here:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 Tbsp milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease one 9x5-inch loaf pan, or use two loaf pans to get two smaller but still substantial loafs.

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  Stir bananas, milk and cinnamon in another bowl.  Beat butter and sugar in a third bowl until light and fluffy.  Add eggs to butter mixture, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Stir bananas mixture into butter mixture.  Stir in dry mixture until blended.  Fold in chocolate chips until just combined.  Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 70 minutes for one loaf or 50 for two.  Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Pumpkin Cranberry Nut Bread

I love flipping through the Penzeys catalogue for the recipes and found this one last week.  This bread would be absolutely perfect in the Fall, but my feeling is there's never a wrong time to eat pumpkin!  I really liked the hint of orange, but the second loaf (the recipe makes two) started drying out after a couple of days so I'd make sure to have enough people to share the bread with, or go ahead and stick a loaf in the freezer for another time.
  

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. grated orange rind

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 15-oz. can pure pumpkin purée

1 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup chopped nuts of your choice


Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine the dry ingredients and set aside. 
In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each one. Add the vanilla, pumpkin and dry mixture approximately 1/2 cup at a time, alternating between the pumpkin and dry mixture until all is combined. Stir in the cranberries and nuts. 
Divide the batter between two 8x41/2-inch greased and floured loaf pans and bake at 350° for 55-65 minutes. 

Strawberry Banana Bread

I scored some strawberries marked way down in price because they needed to be eaten right away.  No problem for us!  My family was happy to eat this moist loaf of strawberry banana bread for breakfast with some yogurt on the side.


1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana, about 3 large bananas
2 eggs
1/4 cup greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sliced fresh strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a standard bread pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. 

In a medium bowl, combine wet ingredients and mix well.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the banana mixture. Stir until just combined. Gently fold in sliced strawberries.

Bake for 55 mins or until golden brown and cooked through. Cool on wire rack before serving.

adapted from this recipe

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

This was another tasty recipe shared by Jessie.  I made two standard sized loaves, froze one, but pulled it out of the freezer promptly after we finished the first in a couple days!



3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups white sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans.
3. Bake 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Sour Cream Chocolate Banana Bread

I got an email yesterday that said, "You HAVE to make this bread. That's an order. I know it probably means a special trip to the store for sour cream but it will be worth it, I promise".  Clearly, my friend knows me well (especially the part about not having sour cream on hand!).  I made a loaf this morning (I always follow orders!) and let me tell you - this bread is wonderful.  Moist, rich, chocolaty goodness.  If you'd like a slice, come now.  I'm pretty sure the kids and I will pound through the rest of the loaf by tomorrow.  And, yes - I like a little coffee in my cream.  Don't judge.
  

1 stick of salted butter, softened to room temp.
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 large ripened bananas mashed ( or 2.5 small bananas)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbl. cocoa powder
1/2 cup of sour cream (I couldn't get to the store, so I used full fat Greek yogurt)
1 cup of mini chocolate chips (I used 3/4 cup of regular chips)
optional 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

Preheat over to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan, or 2 mini pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Stir in egg, mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla until well blended.  Add baking soda, cocoa, and flour.  Mix everything until well incorporated (about 3 minutes in a Kitchenaid mixer).  Add chocolate chips and nuts (if applicable).

Pour batter into loaf pan(s) and bake for 50 minutes – 1 hr.  Insert a tooth pick into the center of the loaf and check to see if it comes out clean when you pull it out.

Remove from heat and allow bread to rest in the loaf pan for 10 minutes.  Invert the loaf pans onto a cooling rack. Enjoy warm or cold.

Bacon Cornbread

I served this with fried eggs and homemade applesauce for dinner.  It was yummy, but not as amazing as I anticipated.  It was lacking a little something, but I still haven't figured out what it is.


adapted from this recipe

6-8 slices of bacon, diced and fried until crispy
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup milk
1 15oz. can whole corn kernels, drained
1/2 can cream-style corn
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated


Preheat oven to 350 and grease two standard loaf pans.  The original recipe only says to make one loaf, but there was a lot of batter so I went with my gut and made two.  It worked.

Fry bacon bits until crispy.  Drain grease and set aside.

Sift all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  In another bowl, beat together eggs, butter and milk.  Pour into the dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Fold in the corn and bacon.  Pour batter into prepared pans, splitting evenly.  Sprinkle grated cheese over loaves.

Bake 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  If the top is browning too much, cover loosely with foil.

Remove from oven, allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before removing from pan.  Serve warm or room temperature.

No-Knead Bread

*I've posted the recipe at the very bottom without all the picture breaks (and added verbiage!).  As well as the recipe I tried - and liked - to make cinnamon raisin bread.

My mother-in-law gave me this for Christmas.  Bless her!

I've bought one loaf of bread since December 25th.  One.  (Ok - not counting special breads, like ciabatta rolls for a certain sandwich or a warm baguette for . . . um . . . eating as I walk home?!)  

  

When I saw this post, I thought that if I was ever going to consistently make my own bread, this is how I would probably do it.  I tried out the recipe in my old dutch oven, found it to be super simple and doable, but was a bit uncomfortable with the risk in baking teflon at such a high temperature.  So I asked for the cast iron dutch oven for Christmas and have been baking delicious bread since.  The bread is certainly not like what you will buy in the store, but in my opinion, it's better.  It's dense, a bit more chewy, has a sturdy crust and is full of flavor.  So here's how it's been working for me . . .

1/2 tsp. active yeast

1/2 cup warm water

3 cups warm water

6 cups flour (you can either use all-purpose for all six cups, or use up to two cups whole wheat as a combination.  I almost always use 4 cups all-purpose and 2 cups whole wheat)

3 tsp. salt

I've only ever made this using my Kitchenaid stand mixer.  I'm sure it'd be fine if you just put some elbow grease into the mixing.

Sprinkle yeast into 1/2 cup warm water.  Let sit while you take care of the other stuff (which will take all of about one minute!).

Put water, flour, and salt into large mixing bowl.  Add yeast and water combination.  Mix until everything is evenly moist.  It will look something like this:

If the bits on the side make you a little nutty, just scrape them down with a spatula to form a more uniformed looking ball of dough.  You don't have to do this.  But I can't handle the chaotic look.  Yes, I admit I'm weird.

Cover the bowl with a large plate.  Let rise for at least four hours, or overnight.  Sometimes my "overnight" is six hours.  Other times it's eight.  It always works out.  Don't freak out if, in the morning, you find that your dough looks like a science project determined to take over your kitchen.  Just scrape everything back in and go with it:

Put your dutch oven (with the lid on) in the oven and turn on to 500F.  Set timer for thirty minutes.  (Your oven should be done preheating to 500 before your timer beeps)  Read comments on the original post about using a pot that isn't cast iron.  It seems to work fine.

After thirty minutes, carefully take the pot out of the oven - it's super hot!  Remove lid and dump your dough into the hot pot.  Place lid back on pot and return covered pot to oven.  Set the timer for thirty more minutes.  I do this step as quickly as I carefully can because 1) I don't want to lose the heat from the pot and 2) preheating the pot cooks the seasoning oil inside, so when I lift the lid a large billow of smoke rises.  The dough helps keep that at bay, but if I've forgotten to turn on the hood vent before lifting the lid - our sensitive smoke alarm might go off.  I'm just sayin'.

After I've dumped the dough and put the pot back in the oven:

When your thirty minutes of baking are up, your bread is ready to be dumped onto a cooling rack.  Don't let it sit in the pot for too long or it might start to stick.  I've only had that happen once. 

This is the hardest part for me.  You should really let the loaf cool almost entirely before cutting into it.  Releasing too much steam by slicing it early can make the center a bit doughy.  But I almost never make it. Warm bread and butter is just too irresistable!  Enjoy!

No-Knead Bread

1/2 tsp. active yeast

1/2 cup warm water

3 cups warm water

6 cups flour (you can either use all-purpose for all six cups, or use up to two cups whole wheat as a combination.  I almost always use 4 cups all-purpose and 2 cups whole wheat)

3 tsp. salt

Sprinkle yeast into 1/2 cup warm water.  Let sit while you take care of the other stuff (which will take all of about one minute!).

Put water, flour, and salt into large mixing bowl.  Add yeast and water combination.  Mix until everything is evenly moist. 

Cover the bowl with a large plate.  Let rise for at least four hours, or overnight.  Sometimes my "overnight" is six hours.  Other times it's eight.  It always works out.  Don't freak out if, in the morning, you find that your dough looks like a science project determined to take over your kitchen.  Just scrape everything back in and go with it.

Put your dutch oven (with the lid on) in the oven.  Turn oven on to 500 F.  Set timer for thirty minutes.  (Your oven should be done preheating to 500 before your timer beeps) 

After thirty minutes, carefully take the pot out of the oven - it's super hot!  Remove lid and dump your dough into the hot pot.  You can scrape the bowl clean if you want to.  Place lid back on pot and return covered pot to oven.  Set the timer for thirty more minutes.  

When your thirty minutes of baking are up, your bread is ready to be dumped onto a cooling rack.  Don't let it sit in the pot for too long or it might start to stick. 

Let the loaf cool entirely before cutting into it.  Enjoy!

Cinnamon Raisin No-Knead Bread

1/2 tsp. yeast

1/2 cup warm water

3 cups warm water

6 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg

pinch of ground cloves

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp sugar

1 cup raisins, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes then drained completely

Follow directions as written above, adding all the ingredients in before mixing to make the dough.