Bread

All posts in the Bread category

Croissants

Published May 12, 2013 by jenmatteson

I have really been putting these off because I knew how time-consuming they would be. But, I’m really running out of time to get my 30 Before 30 list done, so I had to bite the bullet and go for it. It was actually a good weekend to make these because it was slightly chilly, and ridiculously windy.

I was home alone on Friday night, and whilst making enchilada sauce, cilantro pesto and prepping my veggies for the week, I thought it’d be a good idea to start the dough for the croissants. I’d just spent the afternoon at my parents house, relaxing by the fire with a cocktail, and then stopped at the grocery store on the way home. I got in my comfies, cleaned up the kitchen (of course only so I could get it dirty again), and opened up Baking with Julia to start the croissant dough. Like a good girl, I had already read through the entire recipe (and it’s LONG), so I knew what to expect. I knew I could let the dough do its second rise overnight in the fridge, so I wanted to get to that point. Well, guess what? I didn’t get any compressed yeast at the store, which was the first GD thing on the ingredient list. Seeing as though I was already in my comfies and had a glass of wine poured, I decided not to go to the store again. Plus, I wasn’t even sure my store would carry compressed yeast (I’ve never bought it before), so I didn’t want to take the chance of running out to grab some, and coming back empty-handed. What a waste of time.

Instead, I Googled a recipe for croissants using dry active yeast seeing as though that was what I had on hand. First recipe to come up: Martha Stewart’s. Now, she may be a thieving felon, but damn, that woman knows her way around a kitchen…and a home. I would absolutely love to live with her for a week. Okay, a month. Minimum. Though I know Momma Marsha was counting on me to make Julia Child’s croissant recipe (from the cookbook I borrowed from her), I went with Martha’s, purely for convenience.

Convenience is the farthest thing from making croissants, which I knew going into this from Momma Marsha. While making them, I thought, I don’t think I would ever make them again unless I wanted to punish myself. I didn’t at all think it was hard, but it really is time-consuming. I started the dough on Friday night and finished late late on Saturday night.Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, until I got to the baking part. The bottoms of the croissants completely burned. The tops looked pretty, tasted buttery and were ultra flakey, but the bottoms were far from elegant. I’m thinking maybe I let them rise in too warm of a place and the butter melted before putting them in the oven. That being said, I might attempt these one more time (not any time soon) so I can get a better result.

Croissants

Source: Martha Stewart
Servings: 16 croissants

Ingrdients:

1/3 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
1 tbsp sugar, divided
1 tbsp salt
1 1/3 cups warm milk (110 to 115 degrees)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
2 tbsp olive oil
3 1/2 sticks (14 oz) chilled unsalted butter
1 large egg yolk
2 tbsp heavy cream

Directions:

1. In a liquid measuring cup, combine water, yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Allow to proof for 5 minutes. In another measuring cup, combine remaining 2 tsp sugar, salt and warm milk.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour. Add yeast mixture, milk mixture and oil. Blend everything together by cutting and pressing with a rubber spatula, incorporating all flour. The dough will be wet.

3. On a well floured work surface, turn the dough out and let rest for 3 minutes to allow the flour to absorb some of the liquid. Start kneading by lifting edges and flipping over onto the other side. Continue movement, turning from one side to the other, end over end until dough is smooth and draws back to shape when pressed out, about 8-10 times. Do not over-knead.

4. Transfer dough to clean bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down and turn out onto lightly floured work surface. Using floured hands, push dough into 12-inch by 10-inch rectangle. Fold dough in three, like a business letter, and transfer to a lightly floured baking sheet or plate. Cover with plastic wrap and set in warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. You could also let it rise overnight in the fridge.

5. Punch down the dough, cover with plastic, and return to refrigerator for 20 minutes. This will allow the gluten to relax, making it easier to roll out.

6. Place butter on a lightly floured work surface and beat with rolling-pin to soften. Smear butter out with the heel of your hand so it’s spreadable consistency, but still cold. Refrigerate if it becomes soft and oily.

7. Place dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll out into 18 by 10-inch rectangle. Facing the rectangle, lengthwise, spread the butter as evenly as possible on the upper two-thirds of the rectangle, leaving a 1/4 inch border. Fold the bottom, unbuttered, third of the dough up to the middle. Fold top third down to cover it.

8. Lightly flour the top of the dough and the work surface. Turn the dough so the edge of the top flap is to your right. Roll dough out into 18 by 8-inch rectangle. Move quickly, starting within one inch of the end near you moving to within one inch of the far end. Fold dough in thirds as before. Wrap in plastic and return to fridge for 1 hour.

9. Remove dough from refrigerator and sprinkle with flour and deflate dough by tapping lightly with rolling-pin. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 8 minutes, to relax gluten, if necessary. Repeat rolling and folding process, as above, twice more. If butter has hardened and congealed into flakes, beat the dough with light firm taps, from one side to the other, until butter has softened. It must be able to stretch the length of the dough and width of the rectangle inside the dough as your roll it out until it has softened. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours, or overnight. If refrigerating overnight, cover with board and 5 pound weight. Resting overnight will facilitate shaping.

10. Place chilled dough on lightly floured surface. Deflate dough. Roll dough out to 25 by 12-inch rectangle. Cut in half, lengthwise. Return one half of the dough to the refrigerator. Cut the other half into triangles with a 5-inch base. One half should make about 8 triangles.

11. Roll the triangles out to enlarge slightly. Roll toward the tip, creating tension by using your other hand to stretch the top of the triangle away from you. The dough should overlap 3 times, with the tip sticking out from underneath.

12. Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet, about 2-inches apart, curving inward, creating a crescent shape. Cover with lightly with plastic. Repeat with second piece of dough. Let stand in a warm place very spongy and doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

13. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk and heavy cream. Lightly brush over the tops of the croissants. Open oven door and spritz heavily with water from a spray bottle and quickly close the door. Place croissants in oven and spray the bottom of the oven with water once more. Bake until puffed and golden brown, about 15 minutes, turning after 10 minutes to ensure even baking. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees and continue to bake until cooked through, about 5 more minutes. Transfer to wire rack and cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Soft White Sandwich Bread

Published March 5, 2013 by jenmatteson

I think I’ve finally come to the conclusion that I want to dominate bread, so I’m just going to keep making it until I feel like it’s great. I suppose technically, I should keep making the same bread over and over again, but that would be boring. Everyone needs variety! Although, after making this bread, I think I could easily whip up a few loaves over the weekend and store them in my new chest freezer!

Today would have been a wonderful day to stay home from work and cook or bake all day, but alas, I do have a day job, and had to make the trek in. It’s been snowing since late night on Sunday, with a brief interlude yesterday afternoon. I’m not sure exactly how much we’ve got so far, but they were saying to expect about 14 inches. Just when we think we’re on the way out of winter…I’ve once again underestimated the snowiest month of the year, and what a bitch she really can be.

But back to the bread. I didn’t stay home and bake this today, but I did bake it on Sunday. We flew through the sourdough bread I made last weekend, so I thought this weekend I’d give white bread a try. Soft white bread. Is there anything better than freshly baked soft white bread? Not to mention the entire house smells like heaven, or at least what I think heaven should smell like.

This turned out so great! I had three slices that night! I’ve yet to make a sandwich with it. I’ve just been eating it with a little spread of butter or sometimes some good ol’ fashioned Skippy! I was a little worried at first as the outside felt really hard, so I thought it might be more of a crusty bread. Once it cooled though, it was nice and soft to the touch and melts away in your mouth. This was simple and took very little effort since I used my dough hook on my Kitchenaid mixer, so I can easily see myself making this more often. The original recipe made two loaves, but I only have one loaf pan, so I cut it in half. After making and eating this, I feel as though I should invest in another loaf pan

Julia Child’s White Sandwich Bread

Source: Adapted from Dinner with Julie
Servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup warm water
1/2 tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 tbsp sugar
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter, softened

Directions:

1. Pour 1/4 cup warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Stir in yeast and sugar. Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the rest of the water and 1 3/4 cups flour. Stir until well blended. Add the rest of the flour (1 3/4 cups), salt and butter. Turn mixer on and mix until well blended. Use a spoon to scrape the flour from the sides if necessary. I let the mixer run for about 8 minutes. remove from bowl and knead a few times by hand to be sure the dough is evenly smooth.

3. Shape dough into a ball and return to bowl. Cover with a tea towel and let rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 – 2 hours, until dough doubles in size.

4. Punch dough down, remove from bowl, and form into a rectangle, about the size of a sheet of paper. Fold the dough, lengthwise, in thirds, and place, seam side down, in a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise for another hour, until dough puffs up right over the top of the pan.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake loaf on middle rack for 30-35 minutes, until the top begins to turn honey brown. Remove from oven and immediately transfer loaf to wire rack to cool.

Oasis Naan

Published February 26, 2013 by jenmatteson

I really had no intention of making naan, but it was suggested for my 30 Before 30 list by a reader, so I thought, why not? And I’m glad I did. What I’m not glad I did (or didn’t do) was not read the entire post before I made her recipe. I followed the recipe as written, and when I started typing up this post, I read through what she actually said. Guess what she said? She put cinnamon and sugar on one of the batches! What? That sounds amazing. But, I suppose they’ll be time to try that in the future. I was satisfied with what I made. The grass is always greener…

I’ve never had traditional naan, but if I had to guess, this is probably what it supposed to taste like. At least I sure hope so, because it was pretty delicious! As I was already planning to make sourdough this weekend, I didn’t think I needed a lot more carbs in the house, so I cut the original recipe in half. The recipe suggested chives and caraway seeds, but I didn’t have any, so I used only cumin. I really liked the smokeyness that the cumin brought to the naan. Now if I had only made some sort of Indian cuisine to eat this with. I didn’t. Something else to add to my list of “to-dos” I guess. I did cut them in half and stuffed them, like a pita pocket, with spinach and chicken, topped with a little yogurt-dill dressing. They were phenomenal!

Oasis Naan

Source: Adapted from Always Add More Butter
Servings: 4

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup tepid water (80-90 degrees)
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 1/2 – 3 cups bread flour
1/2 tbsp salt, plus more for sprinkling
1/4 tsp cumin

Directions:

1. Stir water and yeast together in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook. With the mixer turned on, add 1 1/2 cups flour. Beat for one minute, scraping flour from sides if necessary. Sprinkle salt over the mixture, and begin adding remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time until it forms a stiff dough. You may not need to use all the flour. Continue to knead the dough in the mixer, about 5 minutes.

2. Transfer dough to lightly oiled bowl, turning once to completely coat the dough in oil. Cover with damp towel and let rest at room temperature until it has doubled in size, about 2 hours.

3. Place baking stone in oven on center rack. Preheat to 500 degrees. Set aside a bakers peel or a baking sheet lightly dusted with flour. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into four equal parts. Roll each into a ball and flatten with palms. Roll each piece out to 1/4-inch thick, about 5-6 inches across. Sprinkle each with water, salt and cumin. Pierce each round several times with the tines of a fork.

4. Slide onto baker’s peel or floured baking sheet, and transfer to baking stone. Bake for 6-8 minutes, until tops begin to brown. Remove and let cool on wire rack before serving.

Knead-Not Sourdough

Published February 26, 2013 by jenmatteson

Ever have one of those moments when you’re on the verge of disaster, and you cannot for the life of you figure out what when wrong? I just did.

Another bread…and sourdough none the less. I found this recipe on the Food Network site, and it was Alton Browns (I really dig him!). The recipe had several great reviews, and it shouted “simple”. So I went for it. Knead-not means I knead-not use my new stand mixer. Oh well, plenty of future opportunities. This certainly didn’t turn out how I anticipated; I thought it was ruined before I even baked it. The dough was really lose and sticky, and after letting it rise for about 24 hours, I was supposed to punch it down, take it out and make it into a ball. I really didn’t see how that was possible because I had a super sticky mess. Was it possibly that I didn’t convert ounces to cups properly? Yes. Was it possible that I somehow didn’t add enough flour? Yes. Was it possible that I added too much water? Unlikely I only know this because the measuring cup had ounces on it and I remember filling it to 12.

Anyway, the point is that there are several things I could have done wrong, and I have no idea what it was. It is slightly possible that I did everything right, and it was just supposed to be sticky. Either way, when I turned out my sticky dough onto my heavily floured countertop, I dumped in about 1/2 – 3/4 cup flour just so that I was able to work with it and it wouldn’t stick to my countertop. I worked in the extra flour and then let it rest for another few hours before I baked it. It didn’t rise anymore, as the recipe said it should have, and I was confident that it was ruined. I baked it as directed anyway, seeing as though I’d made it this far, and surprisingly, it turned out really well! The outside was crunchy and crusty, while the inside was soft and chewy. However, it did not have the traditional tang of a sourdough. It was mildly tangy, but not what you’d hope for in a sourdough. At least it wasn’t a total disaster as I originally thought it would be. And it was perfect for dipping in my roasted tomato and basil soup.

Knead-Not Sourdough

Source: Adapted from Alton Brown
Servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

17.5 ounces bread flour, plus extra for shaping
1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 1/2 tsp kosher salt
12 ounces filtered water
2 tbsp cornmeal

Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add water and stir until combined. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 19 hours (mine sat for closer to 30).

2. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Punch the dough down and turn over itself several times. Cover with tea towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, with floured hands, shape dough into ball. Sprinkle tea towel with 1 tbsp cornmeal. Place dough on cornmeal and sprinkle the rest of the cornmeal over the top of the dough. Cover with tea towel and allow to rest for 2 to 3 hours, until dough has doubled in size.

3. Place dutch oven in oven and preheat to 450 degrees. When the dough is ready, transfer to the Dutch oven, cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove and let cool on wire rack for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Tomato Basil Bread: Panera Copycat

Published February 10, 2013 by jenmatteson

I have been eyeing a KitchenAid stand mixer for a few months now. When they first came out – okay, when they first came out again a few years back – I wasn’t buying into all the hype. But I also didn’t cook and bake nearly as much as I do now. I was completely satisfied with my hand mixer – seriously.

Nate and I moved in together in the summer of 2011, which meant the marrying of our stuff. He had an old Krups stand mixer that was a hand-me-down from Mama Marsha. I’m quite sure he never used it. But, I made some really good use out of it over the last year and half. Here’s what it looks like:

Once I started baking a little more, I realized that it didn’t have quite as much power as I thought it should – it couldn’t handle large bread doughs and thick cookie doughs. Finally, I came to the conclusion that I should invest in a new stand mixer for myself (I rarely spend a lot of money on anything, let alone kitchen gadgets – unless you count my awesome fridge!). Like almost any large purchase I make, I did a lot of research before making a decision on what I wanted. From what I found, the new Cuisinart and KitchenAid were fairly similar. Part of the reason I went with the majority and wanted the KitchenAid was because Mama Marsha had one, so we could swap attachments.

Just last week, I got my 20% off one item coupon for Bed, Bath, and Beyond, plus I saw that KitchenAid had a $30 mail-in rebate, which made the $350 Artisan Series $250 – a $100 savings! I immediately told Nate that I was going to get it, to which he responded, “no”. After a conversation, he said he didn’t think it was money we needed to be spending now, which I understand, but was sort of annoyed as I rarely buy myself anything, I’ve wanted this for a while, and I had the patience to wait until I could get it $100 less than regular price. But, I agreed, and begrudgingly decided not to buy it.

Turns out, his parents had purchased one for us for his birthday/our Valentine’s Day gift. I found out the next day. I was so surprised and super excited to start using it. Mama Marsha said it wasn’t the Artisan Series, which I didn’t really mind – as far as I know, the only difference is the Artisan has more power and a larger work bowl. Anything was an upgrade from what I’d been using! Here is my new baby:

I knew the first thing I wanted to make was bread – my sworn enemy. I had recently had lunch at Panera Bread, and I have always loved the tomato basil bread. I get it on any sandwich I order. It’s so light but packs so much flavor! After a quick Google search, I found quite a few copycat recipes. I’m not sure why, but I settled on a recipe from The Keenan Cookbook. It was a fantastic choice on my part, because this bread turned out so tasty! It was hard to be in the kitchen while this was baking. The tomato and basil combo smelled heavenly, which is exactly how the bread tasted. Someday, I’ll master this bread thing…but I think this is a great start!

Tomato Basil Bread

Source: Adapted from The Keenan Cookbook
Servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
3/4 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
1/4 cup fresh basil, minced
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
2 1/2 – 2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add basil, parmesan, tomato paste, sugar, olive oil, salt and crushed red pepper. Gently stir until ingredients are combined. Add 2 cups flour and start mixer. Once dough begins to come together, add an additional 1/2 cup flour. Add additional flour if needed to form a stiff dough. Continue kneading dough for 1-2 minutes in mixer, or by hand for 3-5 minutes.

2. Transfer dough to greased bowl, turning once to cover all sides of dough with oil. Cover with damp cloth and let rise until doubled in size, about one hour, in a warm place.

3. Punch dough down and knead for 1 minute. Shape into a round loaf and transfer to a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise for another hour.

4. With a sharp knife, cut a large “x” into the top of the loaf. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Published December 18, 2012 by jenmatteson

Bread is definitely a staple in almost every home. We generally always have a loaf of whole wheat bread in our fridge, as well as a few more in the freezer. I don’t feel like we eat that much bread, but we must as we seem to fly through loaves so quickly. I think we most often use it as toast. Wherever it goes, I refuse to pay more than $1/loaf, as I know that is the lowest price my local grocery store sells it for (when on sale of course). Additionally, we have a semi-local convenience store chain that sells freshly baked bread 2/$1.99 at all times. I try to grab a few loaves when I’m there so we always have some on hand, but inevitably we always seem to run out.

Today, I decided to try my hand at bread again. A few weeks ago, I made honey whole wheat bread for a recipe swap, but it didn’t really turn out so well. As I indicated in the post, I believe the recipe I was following might have been somewhat off, but who knows for certain. Anyway, this recipe was from Prevention RD, so I was confident I could at least get something resembling a loaf of bread! I think the original recipe may have been for two loaves, only because the measurements in Nicole’s recipe are unusual (I don’t have many 1/6 or 3/8 cup measurements ), but I made it work!

I had quite a bit more success with this bread than the last one I attempted. It was super fluffy and delicious! I’ll be keeping this recipe handy for when we want some freshly baked bread on hand.

Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Source: Prevention RD
Servings: 1 loaf, 12 slices

Ingredients:

1 3/8 cups hot water
1/6 olive oil
1/6 honey
1 tsp sea salt
3 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp dry active yeast

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the hot water, olive oil, honey and sea salt. Add in 1 cup of flour and mix until combined. Add yeast and mix.

2. Add in 2 additional cups of flour and mix until the consistency is somewhat even, knocking the flour off the sides of the bowl if necessary. Slowly continue to add the remaining flour until the mixture stop sticking to the sides of the bowl, but is still tacky to the touch. You don’t want to over mix the dough, and you don’t want too much flour, otherwise your loaf will end up dense.

3. When dough is ready, let stand in the bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise for 1 hour. The dough will be larger, but it does not need to double in size.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with olive oil and coat with flour.

5. Punch down dough. Turn out dough on a floured work surface. Sprinkle top of dough ball with flour and begin to work into a ball. Turning dough over itself several times, work into the shape of a loaf and drop into your loaf pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

6. Once baked, turn out onto wire rack to cool. Slice and serve right away, or store in a paper bag, inside of a plastic bag for up to a week.

I made a turkey sandwich with the first slices of this bread, with basil pesto mayo and sun-dried tomatoes. YUM!

Quick Biscuit Mix

Published October 30, 2012 by jenmatteson

I’m always on the lookout for creative camping ideas and recipes. I found these quick biscuits in Food and Wine and can’t believe I actually remembered to use it! I saved the recipe a few months prior to our annual canoe trip, and usually the recipes I tear out sit in my recipe “to try” binder, which I must go through and get to cooking!

This was perfect for camping as it didn’t take up one ounce of space in our cooler, which is so limited for our four-day canoe trip in August. I made the mix in advance, packed it in a zip top bag, and mixed batter right in the bag! The first time I made these on our canoe trip, they took longer than expected, but I don’t think I had the heat up high enough on the stove. I made these again for a camping trip my dad, Nate and I took to go diving in Crosby. This time we didn’t even bring a camp stove and just cooked the biscuits over the fire in a frying pan. They were awesome!

Here are some other pictures from our diving/camping trip.

You don’t have to use these just for camping. Nate used up an extra batch I made at home and had breakfast for a couple of days. I was a little skeptical of the powdered milk, but the biscuits turned out perfectly and would be a great vessel for a breakfast sandwich!

Quick Biscuit Mix

Source: Adapted from Food and Wine
Servings: 8 biscuits

Ingredients:

1 cup self-rising flour
3 tbsp whole-milk powder
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

1. In a bowl, whisk flour, milk powder and sugar. Using your fingers, work in the olive oil until incorporated. Use immediately, or store in airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

2. When ready to use, add 1/2 cup water and mix thoroughly. Scoop 8 mounds, about 3 tbsp each, into greased frying pan. Cook over medium heat for two minutes. Spray with cooking spray and flip. Cover and cook until puffy and golden, about 2 more minutes. Serve as desired.

Honey Wheat Bread Fail

Published October 19, 2012 by jenmatteson

I was assigned the Life and Kitchen blog for the bloggers choice recipe swap and at first I chose Lindsay’s honey wheat bread, a recipe originating from the cookbook Joy of Cooking. I may have gotten a little to ahead of myself saying “I was getting good at baking” because I screwed this one up, royally!

I’m 98% confident that I followed the recipe precisely, as I always do for baking. However, when it came time to take my dough out of the mixer and knead it by hand, I was sure something was wrong. The dough was so wet that I couldn’t even hold it in my hands, it was like a quick bread batter. I tried to follow the recipe source linked to Lindsay’s blog to make sure the recipe was correct, but the link was to Amazon to purchase the book. So I Googled it, and found a recipe on Tastebook also sourced to the Joy of Cooking, that used double the amount of flour. Naturally, I thought, oh, Lindsay must have inadvertently entered the wrong amount of flour (her recipe called for 4 total cups, this recipe called for 8), so I went ahead and started adding more flour to my mixture. Well, I only got about 2 more cups into my dough before it became really tough. At this point, there was no turning back, so I kneaded it, and let is rise (or tried to, as it barely rose).

The result was two very dense loaves. I didn’t even slice it that evening, thinking it would be crap anyway, so I let it cool and tried it the next day. Surprisingly, it has good flavor, but it is quite dense. Looking back to the Tastebook recipe, there was more water than Lindsay’s recipe, however, the rest of the ingredients were the same (excluding the flour of course). I don’t know which was right, which was wrong, or if I just totally screwed something up, but I’ll have to try this again someday. For now, here is the recipe I followed and then altered.

Honey Wheat Bread

Source: Life and Kitchen/Tastebook
Servings: 2 loaves

Ingredients:

1/4 cup very warm water (about 105 degrees)
2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups warm water (about 85 degrees)
4 tbsp butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup honey
2 cups all-purpose flour (I added an extra 1/2 cup)
2 cups whole wheat flour (I added an extra 1 1/2 cups)

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add 1/4 cup very warm water and sprinkle yeast on top. Let stand for 5-10 minutes.

2. Turn on mixer and add in egg, butter, water, salt and then honey. Once all ingredients are combined, switch to dough hook on your stand mixer. Slowly add the flour and allow mixer to knead bread.

3. Transfer dough to a well oiled bowl. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise for an hour.

4. Cut dough in two equal parts, placing each in an oiled loaf pan. Cover and let rise for another 45 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Once ready, bake loaves for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Remove from loaf pans and let cool on wire racks completely.

Recipe Swap: Banana-Oatmeal Bread

Published October 19, 2012 by jenmatteson

It’s time for another bloggers choice recipe swap, and I was assigned Lindsay’s blog, Life and Kitchen. She has gone vegetarian for the year, which is super cool! I skimmed through some of her recipes, but ended up landing on honey wheat bread. That didn’t turn out so well for me (see honey wheat bread fail), so I was determined to find something else that could be a success. I settled on her Banana-Oatmeal Bread.

At first glance, I was concerned because there weren’t any spices in this – usually I like some nutmeg or cinnamon in my banana bread, but I still followed the recipe as is. I after combining all the ingredients, minus the bananas, I was terrified that it was far too dry for a quick bread (I was having flashbacks of the honey wheat bread disaster). However, once I smashed up the bananas and added them to the mixture, it was super moist and resembled more of what I thought it should.

The result was heavenly. The bread was so super moist and had a ton of flavor, even without any spices. This might be a go-to recipe for future banana bread in this house. YUM!

Banana-Oatmeal Bread

Source: Life and Kitchen
Servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, unpacked
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 tsp olive oil
1 large egg and 2 large egg whites, beaten (I used just shy of 1/2 cup egg substitute)
3 large bananas, ripe or on the way to over-ripe
1 cup rolled oats

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Add olive oil and eggs and beat until well combined.

2. In a small bowl, smash bananas with a fork or potato masher and add to other combined ingredients. Add rolled oats. Beat until very well combined.

3. Pour mixture into a prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes, or until top is firm and browned. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool completely before slicing.

Cheddar Jalapeno Beer Bread

Published October 14, 2012 by jenmatteson

I bought a 5 lb bag of self-rising flour to make biscuits while camping (they were wonderful and I never got around to posting the recipe – I should do this). Since then, it’s just been staring me in the face every time I open my cupboard, asking me what in the world I am going to do with the rest of it. While the bag was staring at me, so was this recipe, which I thought would be excellent with chili. I grew up as a ‘saltine crackers in my chili’ person, and have evolved to a ‘tortilla chips in my chili’ type. I’ll still take the saltines in a pinch, though

Anyway, the flavors of this bread sounded like it would pair perfectly with chili, so I made it the same day as my four bean turkey chili. The original recipe calls for canned jalapenos, but I used fresh, seeds and all so it was extra spicy. For my non-cheese preference, I made the loaf half cheese, half no cheese, but the recipe below depicts a full cheese loaf. It was awesome in the chili. Perfect! I’m not sure what else this would be good with, as I didn’t love it alone, but if you find out, let me know!

Cheddar Jalapeno Beer Bread

Source: Adapped from Essesntials Everyday
Servings:

Ingredients:

3 cups self-rising flour
1/4 cupsugar
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2-3 jalapenos, sliced (seeded for less heat)
12 oz. beer (I used Oktoberfest)
3 tbsp melted butter

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cheese and jalapenos. Slowly stir in beer until all ingredients are incorporated and the dough is sticky. Transfer to a prepared loaf pan. Cover with a damp towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pour melted butter over top and bake for 50-60 minutes, until top is browned. Remove and let cool on wire rack in loaf pan for 5 minutes. Remove loaf and continue cooling on wire rack, at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

becoming pigzilla

Bread

All posts in the Bread category

Croissants

Croissants

Soft White Sandwich Bread

Julia Child’s White Sandwich Bread

Oasis Naan

Oasis Naan

Knead-Not Sourdough

Knead-Not Sourdough

Tomato Basil Bread: Panera Copycat

Tomato Basil Bread

Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Quick Biscuit Mix

Honey Wheat Bread Fail

Honey Wheat Bread

Recipe Swap: Banana-Oatmeal Bread

Banana-Oatmeal Bread

Cheddar Jalapeno Beer Bread

Cheddar Jalapeno Beer Bread

Follow “becoming pigzilla”