“Stop making bread, you’re making me fat!”

Yesterday, I wanted to try another new bread recipe to go with our Italian dinner, I was planning.  So I popped on over to Pinterest to see what I could find.  And I came across this lovely bread here.  But as you can see that recipe is not in English, and I really, really didn’t want to go to all the trouble to translate it.  But it does have lovely pictures, and I realized that what I liked about the bread was more about the technique and how it looked than it was about the taste.  Any dough that is stiff enough to work with will work just fine.  I actually used the French Bread dough recipe that I tried the other day, because I wanted mine to be savory and not sweet.  If I was going to make it into a sweet/cinnamon bread I would use my sweet roll recipe, (cut the recipe in half and use a bit more flour until the dough, cleans the sides of the bowl).

 After your dough has risen and is ready to shape, roll it out flat, like cinnamon rolls.  Then add whatever filling you want.  I used butter, Italian seasoning, garlic powder and grated parmesan cheese.

Then roll it up just like a cinnamon roll.

Then you cut it completely in half lengthwise.

Then you take the two halves and twist them together

Then join the two ends to make a circle. Then I brushed it with an egg wash.  Let it rise again for about 15-20 min.

Then I baked it according to the French Bread directions.  If you’re using your own recipe then it took about 30 min half of the time at 400 degrees and the other half of the time at 350. But if I was making my sweet bread recipe I would probably start with 30 min @ 350 and then go from there.

It was super fun, to make and super tasty too.

ENJOY!!

Oh, and the title of the post is a direct quote from my husband.  He also said that this was the best bread he has eaten… this week. 

French Bread

You know me, I LOVE a good yeast bread recipe.  Well I found this on Pinterest the other day and knew I kneaded (hee hee)  to try it. It turned out wonderful and it was super fast especially for a yeast bread, it takes roughly 90 min. You can print the recipe right here it’s called Fabulous French Bread and boy howdy it is fabulous! And of course I can’t wait to play around with it and add some herbs and other fun flavors.  I served it with creamy broccoli soup and it was perfect dunked right in the soup or with butter and a bit of strawberry freezer jam, YUMMY!   Hope you make it and enjoy it soon!

ENJOY!!

Homemade Croissants

There might not be anything yummier than, homemade croissants.  I don’t make them very often, because they are rather time consuming, and they have a whole lot of butter in them.  But with Thanksgiving fast approaching I wanted to share this recipe with you because they are perfect for a Thanksgiving dinner; and because I’ll be a little busy making pies to share them with you later.

The Recipe (from Better Homes and Gardens Bread book)

The butter

1 1/2 cups of butter (you can use margarine but butter works way better)

1/3 cup flour

The dough

2 packages active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 egg

3 1/2 to 4 1/4 cups of flour

The egg wash

1 egg yolk

1 TBS. milk

The Directions

Cream butter with 1/3 cup of flour

Roll butter mixture between two sheets of waxed paper into a 12 X 6 inch rectangle. Chill at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.

After the butter mixture has been in the refrigerator for a while, maybe 40 minutes I start the dough. 

In a large mixing bowl combine the 1/2 cup of warm water and the yeast, I also sprinkle it with a little sugar, just to get things going. In a separate microwave safe bowl combine the milk, sugar and salt, heat until warm and the sugar is dissolved.  Let it cool to lukewarm (if needed) and then add it to the yeast mixture along with 1 egg. beat well. Stir in about 3 1/2 to 4 cups of flour mix well.  Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface.  Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3-5 min total) Cover and let rest 10 min.

Roll dough into a 14 inch square. 

Place chilled butter on one half of dough;

 

fold over other half and seal edges.

Roll into a 21 X 12 inch rectangle. Chill dough in refrigerator.  (I always put my dough on a cookie sheet and cover it with plastic wrap while it’s in the fridge so it doesn’t dry out.)

Fold the dough into thirds, seal edges.  Roll into a 21X12 inch rectangle.  Chill dough. Fold and roll dough twice more. Chill after each rolling.  After the last rolling fold the dough into thirds then chill in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. **If some butter starts leaking out the side of your dough while rolling just sprinkle a little flour over it, to keep it from making a big mess**

After the dough as chilled for several hours or overnight.  Cut the dough crosswise into fourths.

Roll each fourth into a 12 inch circle.  Cut each circle into 12 wedges. 

Roll up each wedge loosely, starting with the wide edge.

Place, point side down, on a ungreased baking sheet, curve ends.

Cover and let rise until doubled. Beat egg yolk and milk together and brush over rolls.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from baking sheet and serve.  Makes 48 wonderful rolls.

They are full of buttery wonderfulness. The were so good in fact, I thought we were going to eat all 48 of them at dinner. Thankfully we didn’t.

ENJOY!!

French Herb Bread

I found this recipe on the back of my bread flour.  It’s really good, after messing around with it a little this is what I came up with.

The Recipe

1 TBS. of yeast

2 TBS. of sugar

1 tsp. of salt

4 cups of bread flour

1/4 of butter or margarine

1 cup of milk

1/4 cup of water

1 TBS. vinegar

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Sauté these ingredients together in a pan and let cool.

1/2 cup of minced onion

1 clove of garlic minced

1/2 salt

1 TBS. minced parsley (I used 1 TBS of dried parsley)

2 TBS of butter or margarine

The Directions

Combine yeast, sugar, salt, and flour in a large bowl.  In a separate microwavable bowl ( I used my 2 cup glass measuring cup)  melt the 1/4 cup of butter. To the melted butter add the milk and water, return to the microwave for 30 seconds. Add the milk mixture, vinegar and sautéed mixture to the flour mixture.  Mix until well incorporated, and dough is smooth and elastic.  Let dough rise until it doubles in size. Punch the dough down and roll the dough out flat on a floured surface.  Roll the dough back up to form a loaf (like cinnamon rolls).  Cut into two loafs and let rise again until they double.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Brush hot bread with melted butter.

The original recipe had you spread the butter and sauté mixture into the middle of the loaf and then roll it up.  So you could do it like that.  BUT no matter how you make the dough you should still roll the dough out and roll it back up to form a loaf.  They come out prettier that way.

We made ours into pizza bread.  Which I would totally recommend, the herb flavors of the bread went really well with the pizza toppings.  It was delicious.

Enjoy!!

FYI - it’s not your typical crusty french bread, it’s pretty soft, but still it’s worth a try.

Lime Rolls

We have a plethora of limes around our house these days.  While thinking of ways to use those limes, I came up with this recipe.  It is super fresh and bright.  I will definitely be making these again.

First you’ll need dough.  If you don’t have a recipe that you love you can try this one.  (I only used half a batch) After you dough has risen the first time punch it down and roll it out into a rectangle.  Spread with butter.

In a separate bowl mix together the zest of 4 limes and 1 cup of sugar.  You might need more depending on how much dough you made, but that is a good ratio to use.

Sprinkle/spread evenly over the buttered dough.

cut into rolls and let rise again for about 30 min.

I also added a little bit of crumb topping to a few of the rolls to see how that would taste.  The crumb topping was a little butter, flour, sugar and more lime zest. It’s good if you go light.  Then Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 min.  BELOW THE CENTER OF THE OVEN!

The glaze for the top was a scoop of butter (2-3 TBS??) then two scoops of powdered sugar (1/2 cup??)  then thin it out with lime juice and the zest of 1 lime.

They were seriously yummy.  I’m pretty sure they have replaced cinnamon rolls at our house for good. 

P.S. This week will be recipe week, I have a lot to share so hopefully you’ll enjoy some!