Category Archives: Breads

Cardamom Braid

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In the scope of things, this bread has been the teensiest little ray of joy in the past few days. I’ll take it. When it turned out, I actually stopped and smiled. A new thing for me, since last Friday anyway. While I had no plans of writing a post this week (I am having a hard time just completing a sentence), I absolutely had to share this. With the hope that one of you will try it just to see what I mean. If you were here, I’d make it for you. I wish you were here.

This Cardamom Braid is a delicately sweet little bread that takes very little prep time and is easy to mix together. Serve it warm, with some honey butter (just add honey to taste to your butter), and you’ve got a little slice of paradise. It’s one of those things I love to have on hand for weekend (or Holiday) mornings.

Cardamom BraidOkay, so mine isn’t beautiful, but it doesn’t need to be to taste good and make you smile. Can you see the little pieces of orange zest in there? Oh my. For me, they’re everything (along with the cardamom) in this. There’s just enough to sweeten the bread a little bit, making it downright perfect.

The recipe is below, but here’s a few photos of it along the way:

Cardamom BraidFirst, you have to activate the package of yeast in warm water. Let it sit for 10 minutes while you mix up the other ingredients. Once the yeast is activated, add it to the mixture of other ingredients. Let it rest for another 10 minutes, then turn it all out on a lightly floured surface. Add enough of the flour so you have a smooth, elastic dough. Knead for 3-5 minutes by hand, or a little less time with your electric mixer and dough hook. Shape into a ball and place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Turn the ball once, to cover it with oil. Mine looked like this. Then, cover the bowl and set it in a warm place to rise (I always use my microwave for this) for an hour to an hour and a quarter. You want the dough to double in size.

Once it’s risen, punch down the dough and let it rest for another 10 minutes.

Cardamom BraidNow, split the dough into 3 equal parts. Roll each part out into 14-inch long ropes. (You can see mine weren’t perfect, but it didn’t matter in the least, they were still remarkably good). Place the ropes on a lightly greased baking sheet, one inch a part….

Cardamom Braid…then loosely braid. Start in the middle, it’s easier. Braid both ends…

cardamombread5…pinch the ends together and tuck under. Cover the cookie sheet, and let it sit for another hour or so, until the braids have doubled in size again.

cardamombread3Once the final rising is done, lightly brush the braid with water and sprinkle with coarse sugar. I used Raw Sugar, and it worked very well.

cardamombread2Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes. I had to place some foil over mine after about 15 minutes to prevent the bread from over-browning. Keep an eye on it to see if you need to do the same.

Making bread seems like a long, complicated process (at least I used to think so), but it’s not. The truth is, the hands on time for this bread is less than a half hour, the rest is rising and baking. And THAT is time well spent, in this case. I’m sure yours will be prettier than mine, but either way, the Cardamom Braid is such a joy to eat. And we could all use a little bit of joy right now, no matter how small it is. Take your time and enjoy it….

Cardamom Braid Recipe

Thank you Midwest Living

Ingredients:

  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/4 cup warm water (105 degrees to 115 degrees )
  • 3/4 cup warm milk (105 degrees to 115 degrees )
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon finely shredded fresh orange peel
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 1/2-4 cups all-purpose flour
  • Coarse raw sugar

Directions:

In a small mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in the warm water; set aside for 10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the warm milk, 1/2 cup sugar, the melted and cooled butter, oil, orange peel, cardamom and salt. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until combined. Stir in 1 cup of the flour. Add the yeast mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in 2 cups flour, one cup at a time. (The dough should be slightly slightly wet.) Cover; let dough rest for 10 minutes.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3 to 5 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease the surface. Cover; let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (1 to 1 1/4 hours).

Punch down dough. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Cover; let rest for 10 minutes.

Divide dough into thirds. Shape each portion into a 14-inch-long rope. Place the ropes 1 inch apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Starting in the middle, loosely braid to each end. Pinch the ends to seal and tuck under the loaf. Cover; let rise in a warm place until nearly doubled (about 1 hour).

Lightly brush or mist top of braids with water; sprinkle with coarse, raw sugar.

Bake in a 375 degrees oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when you tap the top. (Internal temperature should be 180 degrees ) If necessary to prevent overbrowning, cover loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes of baking. Remove from baking sheet. Cool on a wire rack.

Sage Cheddar Crackers and Goodbye to an Old Friend

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My food processor valiantly gave up its life today for these delicious, savory little crackers. I’m sad. But at least it was nice enough to wait to die until I was finished mixing up the crackers. That’s not surprising really, it’s been a good, reliable friend like that over the years.

I’ve had this food processor for years. YEARS. I bought it way before the cooking bug hit three years ago or so. I want to say I bought it not long after we moved into this house….12 years ago. At the time, it was the cheapest one I could find because I needed it, you know, just in case. At the time, I had no idea how much I’d be using it down the road.

In the past three years I’ve made some glorious soups with it. Not to mention the homemade Nutellas, the pastry and pizza doughs and the gnocchi. It got constant use. Oh sure, I’ve thought once or twice over the years about getting a new, better one. But why? This one worked and worked well. It worked much better than the Amazon reviews said it would. It lasted longer too. But then, to be fair, this food processor is so old, it doesn’t have it’s own Amazon reviews…..I was reading the reviews for the newer generations of Black & Decker food processors.

I’ll definitely miss this trusty, old kitchen friend. Like Hubby said, “it’s lived a long, fruitful life.” (sniff) R.I.P.

Okay, enough.

Back to the wonderful crackers…

I love munching on them. They’re easy and quick to make, and they’re a great way use up the fresh herbs I almost always have left over from something.

To start, just combine 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar (or Swiss, Gouda, Gruyère), 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of butter, 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped sage (or thyme, rosemary or another favorite herb) and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into your food processor.

Pulse until a ball starts to form. You want your dough to hold together, so add a teaspoon of water, only if you need it, one at a time, until…

…you can make a ball with it. (I find I need more teaspoons of water when I use pre-packaged shredded cheese, and no water at all when I shred the cheese myself (like this time).

Then, roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thick. I used a biscuit cutter to cut out 2-inch rounds, but you can make them any size you’d like. Cookie cutters will work too, so will the top of a drinking glass, to make the cut outs.

Place the rounds on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes.

Or, until they’re a nice golden brown. This recipe made just over 2 dozen 2-inch crackers. At this point, you may want to hide them in your snack stash. Last week I made a batch of 1-inch crackers with the same recipe, and didn’t know they were missing until Hubby emailed me the next day telling me the guys at work loved them. Ugh!

Enjoy! And hug your food processor for me :)

Sage Cheddar Crackers Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar (or Swiss, Gouda, gruyère)
  • 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped sage leaves (or another favorite herb)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in food processor. Pulse until mixture starts to form a ball. Add water, 1 teaspoon at a time, if needed, to make dough sticky enough to just hold together. Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out rounds, place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees F for 25-30 minutes, or until lightly golden.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins – My Happy Place

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You guys are gonna think I’m the biggest sap ever (I probably am), but I’m going to admit this anyway…

It all started with the floods in Duluth a couple of weeks ago. You see, Duluth is one of my favorite Midwestern cities (right after Chicago, of course) and we spend a lot of time there. The beautiful city on Lake Superior was thoroughly shaken up (and messed up) by flash floods. Then, just as they started to digest it all and began cleaning up, Colorado Springs (where most of Hubby’s family lives) caught on fire. (They’re all ok) And now, the BFF, who lives in northern Virginia, has been without power since Friday night, forcing her and her hubby to face 100 degree+ F days without air conditioning. Mother Nature is clearly reminding us who’s boss, and she’s doing it in places I hold dear to my heart for one reason or another. There wasn’t/isn’t a thing we could/can do about it but watch it all in the news. Frustrating.

Needless to say, the professional worrier side of me has been in overdrive for a good two weeks. On top of fighting some ridiculous sinus infection for three weeks……well, let’s just say my anxiety level was high, bordering on depression.

I don’t know what came over me yesterday morning, but I decided to remove myself from the fetal position on the couch and get back in the kitchen. It was the right thing to do. I had to make something. I decided to take on Ina’s (the Barefoot Contessa’s) Blueberry Streusel Muffins. I barely got into the recipe before I noticed that I started to relax. Boy, did that feel good. I took my time through the entire recipe so I could make that feeling last. It had been a while, you know? When the last muffin came out of the oven, I felt a little peace for the first time in weeks.

Here’s the sappy part I promised you – Once the muffins were cool enough to eat, I put one on a plate and brought it back to the couch to eat while I watched a little of the Food Network. Guess who was on? Yep, Ina. I held the oh so perfect muffin up toward the TV and whispered “cheers” to her. As I sat there and ate her recipe for what is probably the most wonderful muffin ever, tears actually welled up in my eyes. Happy tears, yes, but seriously, how incredibly sappy is that? Was I that stressed, worried and sick that the simplest of recipes by my most favorite cook actually made me so happy I cried? I can assure you, THAT has never happened before my friends, but I assume it has something to do with finding a comfort zone again. I sat there on the couch, with tears rolling down my face, just giggling at it all. It is so not me, but you know what? I am feeling a whole lot better this morning than I have in (literally) 3 weeks. Sappy, right? I could care less if it is, feeling happy again is wonnnnnnderful! I owe it all to these muffins….and Ina :)

The moral of the story? If you’re prone to stress and worry, and have been fighting a stupid sinus infection for a while….make these muffins. You will feel better. I promise.

The fantastic thing about these muffins is that they are very simple to put together. All you have to do is mix all the ingredients together (they’re listed below for you) in a large bowl….

….then fold in the fresh blueberries. Feel free to use whatever favorite summer fruit makes you happy. You’ll need two cups of it for muffin perfection.

Then, you’ll mix together a little more flour, light brown sugar, cinnamon, kosher salt and a half stick of cold butter in another bowl for your streusel topping.

Fill your paper-lined muffin tins with the batter, almost to the top, spoon 1 tablespoon of the streusel topping onto each muffin, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Mine took the whole 25 minutes. You want them to be golden and the streusel to be a little crunchy. That’s it! Let them cool a little in the muffin pan, before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. The recipe makes a whopping 20 muffins. Hooray! That’s more than enough to feed us both for breakfast for the next several days. All things considered, I wouldn’t want to start my days without them this week. ;)

Notes: This batch of 20 muffins cost us $2.00, which was for the fresh blueberries. We had everything else in the pantry, and if you do any baking at all, I’m sure you do too. That means the cost per muffin was just 10 cents. I love breakfasts that make you happy and only cost 10 cents, don’t you?

I have to know, have you ever made and/or ate anything that made you that happy?

Blueberry Streusel Muffins Recipe

Adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten, in her cookbook: Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics

Ingredients:

  • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 cups reduced fat buttermilk, shaken
  • 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
  • 2 XL eggs
  • 2 cups blueberries

For the streusel topping:

  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners.

2. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into large bowl and blend with your hands. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, butter, lemon zest and eggs. Stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with a fork until just blended. DO NOT OVER MIX. Scoop batter into prepared cups, filling them almost full.

For the streusel topping:

1. Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse until the butter is in very small pieces. Pour into a bowl and crumble the mixture with your fingers.

2. Spoon 1 tablespoon of the streusel on top of each muffin. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the muffin pan half way through, until golden.

No-Knead Focaccia Bread Recipe

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How is everyone doing? It’s been a little quiet here at my place for a week or so. I know! It’s not like me to be even close to quiet, but I do have my moments :) I hope you’re all having a terrific, happy week!

While I’ve been gone, I made this No-Knead Focaccia bread and could not wait to share the recipe with you. I’ve been experimenting with different bread recipes lately, mostly from the book, The Bread Maker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, which is fantastic. BUT,  I found this one too: Easy Fabulous Break Making: A collection of quick, no-knead homemade bread recipes by Barbara Mack. And what a find it is!

$13.67 for the paperback at Amazon, $4.99 for the Kindle version. Click on the picture to be taken to the Amazon listing.

When I found it on Amazon a couple of weeks ago, it was free for the Kindle (it’s now $4.99) I immediately downloaded it and read it cover to cover. Honestly, I didn’t have high hopes – I couldn’t believe that bread this easy could be any good. I was sooooooooo wrong. We’ve already made the Hawaiian Sweet Bread, the bagels and this No-Knead Focaccia Bread. These recipes, and the bread they made, weren’t just good, they were incredible. And yes, VERY easy to do. I can’t wait to try more of them!

An added bonus for this particular recipe for us was that we had every ingredient already in our pantry….so it didn’t cost us a penny to make.

I hope some of you bread lovers will give this a try and let me know what YOU think.

First things first:

In a large bowl, place 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 clove of minced garlic, 2 teaspoons of dried rosemary, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of rapid rise yeast and 3 cups of bread flour.  That’s all the ingredients for the bread. Mix them all together thoroughly. Then, cover the bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. I’d recommend leaving it in the fridge overnight. I learned from The Bread Maker’s Apprentice that this is where the flavor develops.

The next day (or after the 8 hours), remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature. This took about an hour in our house. Then, pat the dough into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Make some dimples in the bread with your fingers and drizzle some more olive oil over the top. Sprinkle some toppings on your bread at this point if you’d like. I sprinkled some sea salt over mine, but you can add herbs or cheese too. (Next time I’ll try adding some fresh rosemary at this point).

Now, bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. That. Is. It.

Let the Focaccia bread rest for about 5 minutes before serving, then dig in!!! Doesn’t it look fabulous? It was. I loved this bread so much. It had the right lightly sweet blend of garlic and rosemary flavor, the perfect crust and it made the house smell so good.

(I’m pretty sure half of the reason I love to make bread is because of how wonderful it makes the house smell :) )

Here’s the particulars:

No-Knead Focaccia Bread Recipe

Adapted from a recipe by Barbara Mack in her book, Easy, Fabulous Bread Making

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 clove minced garlic
  • 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon yeast
  • 3 cups flour
  • olive oil

Optional Toppings:

  • fresh rosemary
  • grated Parmesan
  • Kosher Salt
  • Sea Salt
  • Basil (or another fresh herb)

Directions:

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight.

After refrigeration, let dough come to room temperature again. Pat it into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Use your fingers to dimple the dough every inch or so and drizzle olive oil over the top. Sprinkle with your chosen toppings. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Sweetpotatobiscuits1

Aunt Freda’s Sweet Potato Biscuits

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Monday, I wrote about my Great Aunt Freda and one of the treasures we found in a box of her old things. Here’s another treasure we found in that box – a recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits.

Over on my About Me page, I admitted that I come from a long line of bad cooks. No worries, they were aware they were bad cooks, I’m not being harsh by saying that. But, it seems like Aunt Freda was holding out on us all. (In her defense she much preferred road trips, and the great diner food she found along the way, to cooking). But, I wish she’d shared these with us – These little biscuits are just wonderful!

I think they’re even more special to me because this is literally the first “old family recipe” I’ve ever received from either side of my parents’ families. Hubby, a biscuit connoisseur, loved them too.  The sweet potatoes give these a nice little touch of sweet. The texture is light, flaky and well, beautiful. They really are a nice little winter treat. I added some apple butter to mine, which took them to the next level of comfort food bliss!

It made me feel good to find this old, typed up recipe card…

…I get a kick out of the funky spelling too. “Cooky” especially made me smile. Cooky was a word Aunt Freda would use sometimes to describe people she’d met. As it turns out, it seems like she just likes the word :)

Here’s the journey of our little sweet potato biscuits…

The first thing we did was roast one large sweet potato in the oven until it was soft. This took us about an hour. Once cooled, we mashed it up and put 3/4 of a cup of it in a large bowl.

Next, we added the milk and melted butter to the potatoes and mixed everything up good.

Then we mixed the flour and baking powder together and sifted them into the potatoes. When that was done we added the sugar and salt…

…and mixed everything until just combined.

Time to turn out the pretty light orange biscuit dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough looks nice and smooth.

Then, we placed the dough on a lightly floured surface and rolled it out into until it was 1/2 inch thick.

Time to cut out the biscuits with a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter, (the rim of a drinking glass works well too) and place them on a baking sheet. (You’ll want to butter your baking sheet, or spray it with cooking spray) Bake for 11-15 minutes in a 450 degree F oven. Ours took exactly 11 minutes. Check them!

Time to enjoy! Look at those marvelous little things. I love that texture! They were so delicious. I’m not as big of a biscuit fan as hubby, but then I’d never had them made with sweet potatoes before. These are biscuits I can fully support. :) Especially with a little butter, or especially apple butter, on top.

It dawns on me as I write this just how happy Aunt Freda would be if she knew I was sharing one of her recipes with the world. She’d give me that little smug smile of hers. It would be cute, and hugs would ensue :)

Enjoy!

xoxo

Aunt Freda’s Sweet Potato Biscuits Recipe

Adapted from an old family recipe

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Ingredients:

  • ¾ cup cold mashed sweet potatoes
  • 2/3 cup milk
  • 4 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Add potatoes, milk and butter into large mixing bowl and mix well. Sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt over potatoes. Mix just enough to moisten flour.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead gently until dough is smooth. Roll out dough to ½ inch thick. Cut with a 2 ½ inch biscuit cutter, (or rim of a 2 ½ inch drinking glass) and place biscuits on a buttered (or sprayed with cooking spray) cookie sheet.

Bake for 11-15 minutes.