Zucchini Harvest

As many of my followers know, my husband has quite the green thumb. We have the biggest zucchini I have ever seen, so I decided to put one (yes one) to good use yesterday. I made 3 different kinds of zucchini bread.



The first was found on myrecipes.com/CookingLight:
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups shredded zucchini (12 ounces)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
Cooking spray
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through baking soda) in a large bowl.

Combine egg substitute and next 4 ingredients (through egg) in a large bowl; add sugar, stirring until combined. Add zucchini; stir until well combined. Add flour mixture; stir just until combined. Stir in walnuts.

Divide batter evenly between 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

**So for one of these I just made it plain, no nuts.

And I made a smaller one with chocolate chips

The next recipe was a little different. I was sucked in by the color of the bread from the original poster. See how yellow it is???

Zucchini Bread


**This one only made one large loaf. I had wanted to make 2 loafs, one plain & one with pecans. So instead I did half with pecans and half without.

The showdown results
Its easy to say the chocolate chip one was the best, I mean it had chocolate chips in it. But the yellow one had a much lighter feel to it. The plain one you could really taste the cinnamon. So I think my winner is the yellow one!

My Cousin Gina

Some of the best recipes are the ones you acquire from a family member-especially the ones that don't have an actual recipe. My cousin Gina made Italian Sausage & Peppers one year at Christmas. They were to die for. She graciously told me how to make them and while mine are pretty darn good, they don't handle a candle to hers.


Her recipe:
First & foremost get some good Italian sausage. I prefer something that is a little spicy. Cut up the peppers like I did and toss them with some olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, a little crushed red pepper, and oregano. Then just mix them in with the sausage and put in the oven at about 400. I'd say it probably takes about an hour. Check them every 10-15 minutes and stir it up so the sausage cooks on all sides. When it starts to get fairly brown (about 40 minutes) put in some chicken broth. You can also use a little white wine if you'd like. You want that to get a little dark which will happen with the browning of the sausage. I sometimes add a little more oregano, pepper, etc...if it seems to need it. I like to have a good amount of juice (its great for dipping bread) so I often end up adding a little more broth close to it being done if there doesn't seem to be enough.

I follow this word for word. Sometimes I skimp on the sausage & I think that is why mine aren't as good as hers.

This time I wanted to make some homemade bread for dipping. I pulled out the recipe for the Garlic Swirl bread

Garlic Herb Swirl Bread
Ingredients:
3 ¼ cups bread flour, divided
1 tbsp. sugar
1 pkg. active dry or quick-rising yeast
½ tsp. salt
1 cup very warm water (115-125°)
2 tbsp. butter or margarine, softened or melted

For the filling:
4 tbsp. butter, softened
5-6 cloves roasted garlic
1 tsp. dried parsley
½ tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. dried basil
¼ cup Parmesan cheese

Directions:
In a large bowl or in the bowl of a heavy duty mixer combine 2 cups bread flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Add in water and butter/margarine and mix by hand or on low speed for 1 minute. Add in remaining flour ¼ cup at a time until the dough is moist but not sticky.

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes by hand or with the dough hook on low to medium speed, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and turn it over to coat with oil. Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 40-45 minutes.

Grease a 9×5” loaf pan. Punch down the dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a large rectangle no more than 9” wide. Combine butter, garlic, parsley, oregano, basil and Parmesan cheese in a small bowl and mix until well combined. Spread the butter mixture over the surface of the dough rectangle. Tightly roll up the dough into a cylinder shape, pinching and tucking ends to form a tight seal. Place seam side down in prepared loaf pan. Oil the surface of the loaf and cover loosely with a clean cloth. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 20-45 minutes. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with Parmesan cheese if desired.

Preheat the oven to 450°. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350° and bake for about 30 minutes more. To prevent over-browning, cover with foil toward the end of baking if necessary. Bake until crust is golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Transfer from pan to a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing.

Source: adapted from Amber’s Delectable Delights

I had a hair appt so the hubs filled in for me while I was out. I mixed it all up & left right as it needed to rise. He did the rest. Thanks Hubs!

Pumpkin Pound Cake

I went on a baking/cookie extravaganza this past weekend. My house was clean, laundry was done, I didn't know what to do with my time. So I decided to bake. I had cleaned out the lazy susan and came across 4 cans of pumpkin. I went to my trusty word document that had my "to-bake" items on it & found Pumpkin Pound Cake w/buttermilk glaze.

Now this pumpkin bread/pound cake has a funny story. I'll tell you it at the end.

Ok I didn't want the cake part so I decided to make it in a loaf pan. For some reason this makes me think its ok to eat it for breakfast. Secondly I didn't want the glaze so I left that part of the recipe out. I had high hopes for this recipe. The banana bread I made a few weeks ago called for Buttermilk & it was FABULOUS!

Pumpkin Pound Cake with Buttermilk Glaze
www.myrecipes.com
Ingredients
Cake:
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour (about 13 1/2 ounces)
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup fat-free buttermilk

Glaze:
1/3 cup fat-free buttermilk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare the cake, lightly coat a 10-inch tube pan with cooking spray; dust with 1 tablespoon flour. Spread pumpkin over 2 layers of paper towels; cover with 2 additional layers of paper towels. Let stand about 10 minutes. Scrape drained pumpkin into a bowl.

Place 3/4 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 3 minutes or until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in pumpkin and vanilla. Lightly spoon 3 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture and 3/4 cup buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from pan, and cool completely on wire rack.

To prepare glaze, combine 1/3 cup buttermilk and remaining ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until thick, stirring constantly; remove from heat. Drizzle cake with glaze.

I knew this would take longer to cook, it was more like 75-80 minutes. I think I should have turned the temp down to 325 after 60 minutes & let it cook for an additional 30 minutes. It was a little gooey but still super tasty.

Now the funny part. I was baking at about 7am on a Saturday. I cant sleep in anymore with this baby. I get too uncomfortable. Well I must have been half asleep because for whatever reason I used 2 sticks of butter. Only I didn't realize I had used 2 sticks until later in the afternoon when I made cookies. Said cookie recipe called for 1/2 cup of butter, when I set the stick on the counter, I saw the conversion thing on the side. You know, the one that says 8 Tbsp=1/2 cup=1 stick. I dug the recipe out of the trash & re-read it. I wasn't going to say anything to the hubs but I thought it was too funny to keep to myself. Needless to say, the center of the pumpkin bread is not really edible.

Best Banana Bread Yet!

As this pregnancy progresses, I find I can no longer sleep in. I am lucky if I make it until 7am on a Saturday. So I find myself baking some kind of breakfast goodie while the hubs sleeps. This past weekend my friend came out to help paint the baby's room. With a 9am start time, I thought banana bread would be a good quick snack.

I had some frozen bananas to use and b/c I actually had the forethought to make banana bread, I pulled them out of the freezer the night before & put them in the fridge. Now, I have never used frozen bananas in my banana bread so I was a little bit skeptical.

I remembered, from years ago, that I had printed out a recipe for banana bread from Williams-Sonoma & that it contained buttermilk. So I went on a search & found this one. Now I didn't have any buttermilk in the house, but I knew there was some concoction you could use to make buttermilk at home. (Its 1 cup of milk & 1 Tbsp of white vinegar or lemon juice.

Banana Bread
Williams-Sonoma
Ingredients:
6 Tbs. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room
temperature
1 cup sugar
2 or 3 very ripe bananas, coarsely mashed
(about 1 1/2 cups)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, pecans
or hazelnuts


Directions:
Preheat an oven to 350°F. Grease and lightly flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the bananas and eggs and beat until smooth. Add the buttermilk and beat just until combined.

In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, salt and nuts. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and beat just until combined. The batter should be slightly lumpy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. It should be no more than two-thirds full. Bake until the loaf is dark golden brown and dry to the touch and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan, 55 to 60 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. Let the bread rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn the loaf out onto a wire rack and let cool completely. Cut into thick slices to serve. Makes one 9-by-5-inch loaf.

This was awesome & by far the best banana bread I have made. I ended up using the 2 frozen bananas and another almost too ripe one I had on the counter. I omitted the nuts this time around b/c sometimes, nuts are just too much! This will definitely be my "go-to" banana bread recipe from here on out. It took longer than 60 minutes, more like 75 minutes.

Cheesy Beer Bread

I was trying to come up with a snack to bring to my book club yesterday. I opened up my "Holiday Baked Goodies" document to see what I had saved to make during this holiday season. The beer bread looked so easy to make and since I am not drinking beer these days, I guess this is the only way I can taste it.

I wasn't sure what to serve with the beer bread though. The original recipe suggests chili, but that wasn't really what I was looking for when I was baking this. I needed something more appetizer-like. So I picked up some ranch dip. I mean, cheese, beer & ranch, sounds good to me!

Easy Cheesy Beer Bread
Annie's Eats
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
4 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
12 oz. beer
2 tbsp. butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 9×5” loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flours, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and garlic powder. Whisk to combine well. Add cheese and whisk to combine. Slowly add beer to dry ingredients and stir lightly until just combined, and all ingredients are completely moistened. Place into a prepared loaf pan and pour melted butter over the top. Place in the oven and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I had some bread leftover so we are going to try it with the chili today. I can see how this would be a great base for many flavors. Apple beer with sharp cheddar, Stout beer/Guinness with some dill. Use your imagination.

An Apple Parade

I feel like maybe I should create a link on my blog for "apples". I have quite the abundance, but they did freeze well. I needed to make some kind of breakfast food for the hubs & I for the week & cinnamon rolls sounded awesome. I thought I'd add some apples and make it a little more healthy for us. So I defrosted a bag & realized I had way too many apples for the amount of cinnamon rolls I planned to make. So I made 2 apple treats, one to keep at home, one for the guys on my husband's team.

First we will start with the cinnamon rolls. I used a recipe I had used long ago. In fact, its the same one I used to use when I would bake rolls with my mom. I distinctly remember using a really thick thread to cut the rolls up. Well, now I have a really sharp knife, so much easier!

The recipe comes from my Better Homes & Gardens CookBook.
4 to 4 1/3 cups of all purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Powdered Sugar Icing (recipe follows)

1) In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of flour and the yeast. Set aside. In a medium saucepan, heat & stir milk, 1/3 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of butter and salt until warm and butter just melts. Add milk mixture to dry mixture along with the eggs. Beat on low for 30 seconds, change to high for 3 minutes. (On my kitchenaid I did the stir setting for 30 secs & 2 or 3 for the 3 minutes, I also using the paddle) Stir in remaining flour until it becomes elastic.
2) Turn dough on floured surface and knead until it is smooth & elastic. (At this time I changed to the hook and let it knead the dough for me) Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
3) Punch dough down. Turn onto lightly floured surface & divide dough in half. Cover & let rest about 10 minutes. Lightly grease two 9" round pans.
4) roll each portion of the dough into a rectangle. Brush with melted butter. Combine the cinnamon & sugar & sprinkle over the butter (this is where I added the diced apples) Roll up, jelly style, starting from the long side. Slice each roll into about 12 pieces. Place in prepared pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
5) Bake in a 375F oven for about 20-25 minutes or until browned. Cool slightly. Drizzle with the powdered sugar icing.

Powdered Sugar Icing
1 cup of powdered sugar
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 tsp of vanilla
1) Mix in a bowl, once blended, add additional milk 1 Tbsp at a time until you have the consistency you like.

Garlic Swirl Bread

I promised my friend Betsi I would post this for her today! The hubs & I are visiting a friend tonight who recently have birth to a gorgeous baby girl. Being the kind friend I am, we are taking them dinner. On the menu: Fresh Greens salad w/ cherry tomatoes, the hubs deep dish pan of lasagna, garlic swirl bread & lemon raspberry cake.

I will be the first to tell you, I do not have success with yeast bread very often. I will only try it if I promise I will not be upset with myself if it doesn't work. Well, yesterday started out with an all around good day. Got all the errands ran I needed to, so I started on the bread. I truly believe that the reason my yeast bread does not work in my house is b/c its too cold. Yesterday it was a comfortable 75-78 degrees inside & I think this is what helped it along.

I found the garlic swirl bread at Amber's Kitchen. She made it sound so easy, and in fact it was. I will probably use this as a base recipe for future breads (sun dried tomato & parmesan cheese anyone??)
Here it is before I rolled it up:

For the filling, I used my food processor to mix together the ingredients to get a nice whipped butter.

I will say I was very thankful this turned out. My day took a turn right before I was waiting for the second rise, so I was just praying it would work. I don't have any pictures of the swirl so we will have to wait for some feedback from my friend on how it is!

No pics, but good recipe

I didn't have a chance to take pictures of these, but I wanted to post the recipe b/c it was delicious!
Zucchini, I know, I sound like I am repeating everything! But I made a choco-zucchini muffin & bread recipe.

Choco-Zucchini Cupcakes

Instead of cupcakes, I used my mini-muffin pan and a regular loaf pan. I also did not frost these, which brought up the conversation at the homestead on what makes a cupcake a cupcake & a muffin a muffin. So I google'd "cupcake vs muffin" and apparently there is a huge debate on how to tell the difference. My take is you frost a cupcake, you don't frost a muffin. Easy enough!

I froze the bread portion of this recipe & we had the muffins for breakfast. In the recipe I did substitute egg beaters for the eggs.

Zucchini & Squash

Oh garden, you bring me such joy. Now just make the tomatoes red already!!

So we have a lot of zucchini & squash. Not just small ones, but giant ones. I had to put something next to it so you could have a scale of how large my zucchini are.


Anyway, I made 2 types of zucchini bread to bring into the office. (And only used one large zucchini)
Type 1: Betty Crocker Zucchini Bread

Type 2: Cooking Light Zucchini Bread


I also made Chicken w/Goat cheese sauce (it had toasted walnuts, basil) & served it with sauted zucchini, sqaush & carrots. But when I looked at the pictures, it looked like vomit & I didn't want to subject any of you to that. I swear it was tasty, just not pretty.

PB Banana Chocolate Chip

Yes its a mouthful people. Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Bread.
I was home from work, craving some peanut butter, noticed we had some bananas going bad so I decided to do a little baking.

I snagged this recipe from Miss Nemmie at Cast Sugar

And basically added the chocolate chips to it. Now, the best part, I had contemplated adding the chocolate chips. Then thought, no no, that's too much stuff in a bread. The hubs came in and said "What are you making?" I told him & he said "Oh you should add some chocolate chips". Great minds must think alike right?


This was good, but I think I used a a loaf pan that was too small. The tops & edges were browned, but the inside was pretty mushy. I just didn't take a picture of that part :)

Muffins!

I am so tired of eggs for breakfast. Don't get me wrong, I really love eggs. I just need something else. I like making stradas, quiche, etc... It gives the eggs a little extra something, but to be honest. I only had 4 eggs left and it's pretty hard to bake a quiche out of that small amount.
So onto baked goods. I had some cream cheese in the fridge and I remembered I had bookmarked a Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffin from CL. So I went in search for it.

I realized after reading the recipe, it wasn't all that healthy (not that bad for you in comparison but still not great) and I was missing some things. So I will denote in pink what I did differently.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Filled Muffins
Cooking Light
Ingredients
1/4 cup (2 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese --> I had reg. cream cheese
2 tablespoons strawberry preserves
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour --> I used 1 1/4 cup all purpose & 1 cup whole wheat stone flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons poppy seeds --> Omitted b/c I didnt have any on hand
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk --> I used 1 Tbsp white vinegar & enough skim milk to make 1 cup. In place of the 1/4 cup I used low-fat sour cream.
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
Cooking spray

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375°.
Combine the cream cheese and preserves; stir with a whisk.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 5 ingredients (flour through salt) in a medium bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk, oil, egg whites, and egg; stir well with a whisk. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray, filling one-third full. Top each with about 1 teaspoon cream cheese mixture; divide the remaining batter evenly over the cream cheese mixture. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove the muffins from pans immediately, and place on a wire rack.

Yield
1 dozen (serving size: 1 muffin)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 182(29% from fat); FAT 5.9g (sat 1.7g,mono 1.6g,poly 2g); PROTEIN 5g; CHOLESTEROL 23mg; CALCIUM 94mg; SODIUM 231mg; FIBER 0.7g; IRON 1.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 27.4g



They were delicious, but, like anything else I stuff, they kind of exploded. I lost quite a bit of filling in some of them. Oh well. I mean, I cant stuff chicken, or tortillas or bread without the insides oozing out, what would make a muffin any different? The recipe also said these would work well for freezing so maybe if you have some extra time, whip a batch and toss em in the freezer for a rainy & non-eggy day.

ED: Hot Cross Buns

This was number one of my recipes. I had to start with this one b/c it had, at least in my mind, the highest risk of failing. I have some problems with bread rising. I blame it on my husband. You ask, how can you blame this on your husband? He keeps the house too cold. I turned the oven on first thing Saturday morning and opened the oven door to warm up the kitchen. I was reading my recipe when I decided I needed a different one. This recipe called for fresh yeast, which I couldn't find. The hubs had gone to the store the day before with my detailed list and bought some breadmachine yeast.

This is where I discovered what I have been doing wrong with my yeast baking experiences. I was trying to figure out how many teaspoons of bread machine yeast are in one active dry yeast packet when lo and behold, on the side of the container it says "For Active Dry Yeast: mix xxx teaspoons of bread machine yeast, with xx cup of warm water & 1 tsp sugar" Hum... I had never done this before. So I get it all mixed up, it looks good, then I knock over the cup. HS*&*(%^&! I start over, this time the yeast is sticking to my spoon & not mixing with the water. HS*&*(%^&! One more time, I make the water a little warmer, mixes perfectly, I set over on the kitchen table, as I know I wont be over there anytime soon.
Anyway, back to recipes, I found 2 on food network that I liked so I combined them. I had this one from the Levain Bakery & another one from Betsy Oppenneer (no clue who she is BTW). I liked the spice mixture from the first one, but I liked the raisins in the second one. So I will post my kluged together recipe.
Hot Cross Buns
For The Dough:
1 scant tablespoon or 1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
1 1/2 cups warm milk (about 110 degrees)
1/3 cup soft unsalted butter
1/2 cup light brown or raw sugar
2 eggs
Spice Mix (see below)
3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached flour
golden Raisins
dark raisins

For The Glaze:
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

For The Icing:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 to 2 tablespoons heavy cream (or milk)


In a large bowl, stir yeast into water to soften (omit this if you are using the bread machine yeast). Add milk, butter, sugar, eggs, spice mix. Add the raisins and stir to combine.
Gradually add flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough begins to pull away from the side of the bowl.Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead, adding flour a little at a time, until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Put dough into an oiled bowl. Turn to coat the entire ball of dough with oil. Cover with a tightly woven towel and let rise until doubled, about one hour.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface and divide into 24 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and put into two well-seasoned 9 by 12-inch baking pans. Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.
About 10 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Just before baking, cut a cross into the top of each bun.
Combine the milk and sugar for the glaze and brush lightly over the top of the buns.Bake for 20 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the buns reach 190 degrees. Immediately remove buns from pans and cool on a rack for about 10 minutes.
In a glass measuring cup with a pouring lip, combine the confectioners' sugar with lemon juice and enough heavy cream to reach the consistency of honey. Use to pour into the cross on the top of each bun.

Spice Mix:
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Mix together all the ingredients.



Let me just say that this process started around 9am and finished around 3pm. My hubs was very thankful they worked b/c I get super pissed off when my baking/cooking fails. Its that red headed leo temper I have. I was/am very proud of these. My grandpa was a baker and I couldn't help but think how proud he must be of me. I am not nearly as fearful of the yeast as I once was.

Irish Soda Bread!

Well I am trying to get into the spirit of the season! Spring is upon us, St. Patrick's Day is upon us, Easter is right around the corner-everything seems to be sneaking up on me!
I was perusing PopSugar yesterday and saw their post for Irish Soda Bread (actually on YumSugar but whatever) I was intrigued by the caraway seeds. I thought about leaving them out b/c I dont particularly like the way they taste, but the certainly lend well to this bread.

And while I was looking for the recipe I came across this gem: (yumsugar.com)
"Kym Douglas and Cindy Pearlman, authors of The Black Book of Hollywood Diet Secrets, appeared on The Early Show this morning to give away some of their secrets. While they mostly spilled the beans on diet tips, there was one thing that stood out to me: dishwasher salmon. That's right I said dishwasher. You just seal the fish up in foil, toss it in the dishwasher and let it go. The steam, along with a waste of power and water, cooks it through. Just be sure you don't use any soap.

If you think this sounds totally wacko then I should let you know that this is not the first time this has been done. Bob Blumer, aka The Surreal Gourmet, has poached salmon in more than 100 dishwashers on three continents. His recipe actually looks pretty good and comes complete with a piquant sauce. I don't know if I can actually endorse this method, it seems like a waste of energy, but I do think it would be fun to tell your guests you made it in the dishwasher. If you want to try it yourself, get his recipe when you read more "

Um what?? I don't think I would ever do this!

Mini Muffins!

Yowser! Its been awhile since I updated!! Sorry everyone! I have been cooking and such, just been busy! Plus I have been living off stir fry for the past few weeks, and if you recall from the last bought of P90X, I was pretty tired of posting about it.
Anyway, I received this great mini-muffin pan from my friend Kala for Christmas. Now, muffins are a total no on the diet, but I decided that a) I couldn't waste my bananas b) they are mini, thus mini-calories & c) it was a Christmas present I hadn't used yet!
In an effort to keep somewhat to the diet I tried to use something that didn't have butter in it.


I got this recipe for allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour ** I used whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup sour cream ** I used low fat sour cream
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together banana, sugar, egg and vanilla. Stir in the sour cream. Stir banana mixture into flour until just combined. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool before serving. For best flavor, place in an airtight container or bag overnight.

Aren't they cute!

They were not greasy at all which is what I was looking for!!

Apple Pumpkin Bread

I picked up a Weight Watchers cookbook at the library the last time I was there. I have a few friends who are on WW & send me recipes. They all look good-but do they taste good?

Not so the case with the pumpkin apple bread. I don't have the recipe with me, but i don't even think I will post it. The bread was pretty bland to say the least. You would think, pumpkin bread would be bursting with flavor. Nope not really.

We even tried to top it with homemade whipped butter, flavored with McCormick pumpkin spice and whipped cream cheese, flavored with pumpkin spice. Nada. Nothing did the trick. It tasted like flour.

But it took some good pics!

A successful Bread!

So the last two times I have attempted to make some form of homemade bread I have failed. I failed to rise to the occasion. The recipes were actually for rolls & bread bowls, so maybe I should stay away from the small-type breads, because this one turned out PERFECTLY!

I saw this on megpug.blogspot.com, it was adapted from Williams Sonoma. She found it from a recipe for Cinnamon Raisin Bread, but made Apple Cinnamon Bread. So I combined the two & you have:

Cinnamon Apple Raisin Swirl Bread

Ingredients:
1 Tbs. active dry yeast
3 Tbs. granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (105° to 115°F)
1 cup warm milk (105° to 115°F)
3 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
1 Tbs. salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
6 to 6 1/4 cups bread flour, plus more as needed
3/4 cup golden raisins i used 3 cups of peeled, cored, diced apples instead of raisins
3/4 cup dark raisins
For the filling:
2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar mixed with 4 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Directions:
In a bowl, sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of the granulated sugar over 1⁄2 cup of the water and stir to dissolve. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the remaining 3/4 cup water, the milk, butter, the remaining granulated sugar, salt, egg and 2 cups of the flour. Beat on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the yeast mixture and 1⁄2 cup of the flour and beat for 1 minute. Add the raisins, then beat in the remaining flour, 1⁄2 cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Switch to the dough hook. Knead on medium-low speed, adding flour 1 Tbs. at a time if the dough sticks, until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes. Transfer the dough to a greased deep bowl and turn to coat it. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1⁄2 hours.
Lightly grease two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Divide the dough in half and roll or pat each half into an 8-by-12-inch rectangle. TIP: using flour for my first loaf didn't really work - this is a very sticky dough. For my 2nd loaf, I sprayed the wax paper with non-stick butter spray and my hands a little on my hands and it worked like a charm. Lightly sprinkle each rectangle with half of the filling, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. Beginning at a narrow end, tightly roll up each rectangle into a compact log. Pinch the ends and the long seam to seal in the filling. Place each log, seam side down, in a prepared pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until the dough is about 1 inch above the rim of each pan, 1 to 1 1⁄2 hours.
Preheat an oven to 350°F. Bake until the loaves are golden brown and pull away from the sides of the pan, 35 to 40 minutes. Turn the loaves out onto wire racks and let cool completely. Makes two 9-by-5-inch loaves

I put it in the toaster this morning & had wonderfully fresh cinnamon apple raisin toast for breakfast.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

So its the fall & pumpkin seems to be the ingrediant of choice on the blogging network. I have seen a lot of the pumpkin rolls, pumpkin muffins, etc..

I saw this in my "Food & Family" from Kraft & decided to give it a whirl.

Layered Pumpkin Loaf

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar, divided
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 egg whites, divided
1/2 cup fat-free milk
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups flour
2-1/2 tsp. CALUMET Baking Powder
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. salt
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, 1/3 Less Fat than Cream Cheese, softened

PREHEAT oven to 350ºF. Grease a nonstick 9x5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Mix pumpkin, 1 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 3 of the egg whites, milk and oil in large bowl. Add flour, baking powder, pie spice and salt; stir just until moistened. Set aside. Beat Neufchatel cheese, remaining 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar and the remaining egg white with wire whisk until well blended.
SPOON half of the pumpkin batter into prepared pan; spoon Neufchatel cheese mixture evenly over the batter. Cover with remaining pumpkin batter.
BAKE 1 hour to 1 hour 5 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Run knife or thin spatula around edges of pan to loosen bread; cool in pan on wire rack 10 min. Remove bread from pan to wire rack; cool completely.

The hubs LOVES this. Its really moist & delicious!