Category Archives: baking

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

baking, breakfast 16 Comments

This. Is. Heavenly. This is without a doubt the softest, best-tasting bread that has ever come out of my oven. And part of it is whole wheat! I was a little intimidated by the recipe, never having attempted such a thing, but it came out great. I’ve been having this with my coffee every morning, and I can’t WAIT to make french toast with it! This is adapted just a bit from the King Arthur flour recipe.

You will need for the bread:

  • 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 7-9 ounces lukewarm water (use more or less depending on humidity where you are)
  • 4 ounces KAF white whole wheat flour
  • 8 3/4 ounces KAF all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/4 ounces sugar
  • 3 ounces butter at room temperature
  • 5/8 ounce dry milk
  • 1 1/2 ounces instant mashed potato flakes

You will need for the filing:

  • 1 3/4 ounces sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons AP flour
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tablespoon water

Now put it all together:

  1. If you’re using anything other than instant yeast, dissolve the yeast with a pinch of sugar in 2 Tbsp. of your lukewarm water; I use instant yeast, so I skip this step
  2. Mix instant yeast (or dissolved yeast) with the rest of the bread ingredients. Knead everything together until dough is smooth. I plop it all in the bread machine set to the dough cycle. Easy! If you knead with a stand mixer, knead for about seven minutes on the second speed; it’s okay if it sticks at the bottom of the bowl a bit. We don’t want dry bread!
  3. If you’re using a bread machine, let the dough cycle run all the way through the first rise. If you’re hand- or mixer-kneading, put the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover it with a tea towel. Let the dough rise at room temperature till it’s almost doubled in bulk — about an hour, but may take longer if you hand-kneaded
  4. While the dough is rising, use a fork to mix together the sugar, cinnamon and flour for the filling mix
  5. After it’s risen till it’s nice and puffy, move the dough to a lightly greased work surface or a silicone mat and pat the dough into a 6″ x 20″ rectangle
  6. Beat together the egg and water, and brush it onto the rectangle
  7. Sprinkle the cinnamon/flour/sugar mix evenly over the dough
  8. Starting with a short end, roll the dough into a log, and pinch to seal at the ends and along the seam
  9. Put the bread, seam-down, into a greased loaf pan and cover with greased plastic wrap
  10. Let it rise till it’s just above the rim of the pan while you’re preheating your oven to 350F
  11. Bake the bread for 15 minutes, then tent lightly with aluminum foil
  12. Bake for an additional 30 minutes or so, until inside of loaf reads 190 degrees
  13. Loosen sides of pan with a knife if needed, and turn bread onto a rack. Brush the top of the loaf with butter and let that soak in while the bread cools. Then slice and enjoy!

Guinness Cupcakes

baking, dessert, tools 7 Comments

You know this is going to be good, don’t you?

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and LovesToEat.

You will need:

  • 1 cup Guinness beer
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2/3 cup sour cream

Now:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F
  2. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners
  3. In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, melt 1 cup of butter and pour in 1 cup  Guinness; bring to a simmer then whisk in cocoa powder till smooth. Set pan off the burner
  4. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl to blend
  5. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl
  6. Add slightly-cooled stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture a little bit at a time and beat just to combine
  7. Add flour mixture and beat on slow speed for about one minute
  8. Using rubber spatula, scrape down bowl and fold batter until completely combined
  9. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way
  10. Bake until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean — this took me about 20 minutes, but check after 15 just to be sure
  11. Put cupcakes on a rack until completely cooled

Now is a good time to revisit my previously mentioned lesson: Know Your Bakeware. I cooked 12 of these in my silicone Kitchenaid muffin pan; it was a wedding present and has never failed me. I also cooked 12 of these in my heart shaped stand-alone silicone muffin cups from Wilton. Although these worked beautifully for the cherry limeade cupcakes, something went horribly wrong here. See?

Lovely, right? I honestly have no idea what happened here. I used a scoop, so they were all filled with the same amount of batter. Any ideas? The only thing I did differently this time was to put paper liners in the silicone cups. Anyway, the good news is that all but four of them were salvageable with a little cleanup and a good cover of icing.

Speaking of icing! I used Wilton’s buttercream icing.

You will need:

  • 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract (I don’t use the Wilton-recommended clear, just the regular stuff)
  • 4 cups sifted* powdered sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
  • 2 tablespoons milk

*A note on sifting: I hate sifting. So I don’t do it. A few seconds whirring around in the food processor breaks up any clumps, aerates the sugar and doesn’t make me want to spork my eyeballs out the way a sifter does.

To mix it up:

  1. In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer
  2. Add vanilla and mix again
  3. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating well on medium speed — adding it gradually helps incorporate it really well and keep it from being at all grainy when you’re done
  4. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often (unless you have a cool Beater Blade. Which I don’t. Humph.)
  5. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

Now ice away to your heart’s content! I used disposable icing bags from Wilton, and a fantastic giant star tip I ordered on Etsy from Bake It Pretty. And it is giant. Here it is next to a 1-cup measuring cup:

So, the finished product:

I set aside a few of these (including the four Fail Cupcakes) for us to enjoy at home, and the rest I took to The Yankee at work today in my awesome carrier from Costco:

And that’s it! Go bake, people! Oh, unless you have a brilliant theory as to what caused Cupcake Fail, in which case please leave me a comment and then go bake.

Artisan monkey bread

baking, breakfast, dessert 5 Comments

I know, I know. You’re thinking, “Artisan monkey bread??” And now you’re humming “One of These Things is Not Like the Other.”

Oh that’s just me?

Anyhoo…

I bought Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. And it’s awesome. Great concept, especially for those of us who are prone to thinking, at 5:00 in the evening, “Ooh fresh bread with supper would be great!” Poor planning = no bread. Or it did, but not now. NOW I have bread dough in my fridge, ready at a moment’s notice. Ready to become chewy pizza dough, or a crusty loaf for supper or… monkey bread.

My gorgeous baby sister got married this weekend, so our very dear friends came to stay the weekend with us. I was scooting out in the morning before everyone was up, but I wanted to have something ready for everyone for breakfast anyway. So I did this:

I rolled little balls of my refrigerated artisan dough and plunked them into a cake pan. I – wait for it – do not own a Bundt pan. I know — how is that possible?! But I don’t. So silicone cake pan. I melted some butter and drizzled it over the dough, then covered it and stuck it back in the fridge overnight. Then I melted half a stick of butter in a measuring cup and stirred in a tsp. of vanilla and 1/2 cup of brown sugar; I covered that and put it in the fridge too:

I left intructions to let the pan sit out on the counter while the oven was preheating to 350, then bake for 15 minutes. At that point, nuke the topping until it’s pourable, then pour it over the bread and bake for 15 minutes more.

Now, want to know what happens when you do such things but forget to ask for a picture of the pretty finished product? You come home to this:

I love it! Reckon it was good, huh?

So, to recap:

  • Roll chunks of artisan bread dough, about donut hole size; I made around 40
  • Drizzle with a couple melted Tbsp. melted butter
  • Melt 4 Tbsp. butter and stir in 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla for topping
  • When ready to bake, leave on counter to puff a bit while oven preheats to 350F
  • Bake for 15 minutes
  • Drizzle on topping
  • Bake for 15 minutes more
  • Don’t burn your fingers 😉

Oatmeal peach muffins

baking, breakfast Leave a comment

I cooked down and pureed a bunch of peaches, thinking I would sneak it into yogurt for The Kiddo. Unfortunately he’s onto me and watched the yogurt preparation with an eagle eye. Plan B: something sneakier.

So I found this recipe here (there are TONS of peach recipes! Check them out!) and gave it a go, with a little modification.

You will need:

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup pureed peaches
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup milk

Easy assembly:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F
  2. Mix together flours, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon
  3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add peaches, vanilla, egg, oil and milk
  4. Mix together till just combined — do not overmix
  5. Scoop batter into greased or lined muffin cups and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean

Oatmeal peach muffins

baking, breakfast Leave a comment

I cooked down and pureed a bunch of peaches, thinking I would sneak it into yogurt for The Kiddo. Unfortunately he’s onto me and watched the yogurt preparation with an eagle eye. Plan B: something sneakier.

So I found this recipe here (there are TONS of peach recipes! Check them out!) and gave it a go, with a little modification.

You will need:

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1-1/2 cups oatmeal
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup pureed peaches
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup milk

Easy assembly:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F
  2. Mix together flours, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon
  3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add peaches, vanilla, egg, oil and milk
  4. Mix together till just combined — do not overmix
  5. Scoop batter into greased or lined muffin cups and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean