h1

Crunchy Seed Braid Bread

May 1, 2013

Crunchy_Seed_Braid_1

I’m all about a seeded, grainy bread, and this Crunchy Seed Braid from King Arthur fit the bill better than I could have imagined. White whole wheat flour, rolled oats, and King Arthur’s Harvest Grains Blend give this bread lots of taste and texture.

This was another virtual baking session with my friend Michele, who also gets credit for suggesting this recipe. Thanks Michele! This one is a keeper.

Crunchy_Seed_Braid_2

Recipe notes:

  • Instead of mixed seeds, I used all sesame seeds on top, because a) That’s what I had on hand and b) I love sesame seeds.
  • I have a bag of King Arthur’s Harvest Grains Blend, but if you don’t want to buy it, take a look at the ingredients – I bet you could mix up your own.
  • Instead of using an egg wash to get the seeds to stick, I followed this method from King Arthur (but I rolled the dough to the length stated in the Crunchy Seed Braid recipe). It worked great!
  • This baked and browned more quickly than the recipe stated. Keep an eye on it, and be ready to top it with a foil tent to keep it from over-browning.

Give the Crunchy Seed Braid a try, and be sure to see how Michele’s turned out.

Posted in Food, Yeast Bread | 6 Comments »

h1

TwD Baking with Julia: Rustic Potato Loaves

April 2, 2013

I’m always up for a new bread recipe, so this week’s recipe for  the Tuesdays with Dorie group went on my baking schedule.

RusticPotatoLoaves

Cooked, cooled potatoes (I peeled them, but the recipe says to leave the peel on) are mashed and then the rest of the ingredients are added: potato cooking water, yeast, olive oil, salt, and flour. Although the first rise wasn’t as quick as the 20 minutes promised by the recipe, the second rise was quick, and overall, it didn’t take long to make this bread. The reward was a soft, tender bread that’s good with or without butter. In fact, this bread was so soft and tender that I wonder if it could be baked in a loaf pan and used as a sandwich bread. Something to think about for next time.

The recipe for Rustic Potato Loaves is on page 138 of Baking with Julia, or our host Dawn will have the recipe posted at Simply Sweet.

Posted in Baking with Julia, Food, Yeast Bread | 4 Comments »

h1

TwD Baking with Julia: Mocha Chocolate Chips

March 19, 2013

In summary, I screwed up these cookies, but they were still really good. Beautiful, no. Good, yes.

MochaChocolateChips

I made half the recipe but put in the full amount of granulated sugar. I realized my goof right away, so decided to leave out the dark brown sugar. Then I decided to use chocolate chips (plus a few cappuccino chips) instead of the chopped chocolate called for in the recipe. I didn’t want to waste my good chocolate in case the cookies were a bust. But they weren’t a bust – they were chewy, chocolatey, and coffee-y, and I imagine they’d only be better with dark brown sugar. I purposely omitted the dried apricots, because I cannot get on board with coffee + apricot.

Do you want a jolt of coffee in your chocolate chip cookies? This recipe, baked by the Tuesdays with Dorie group this week, is on page 330 of Baking with Julia, or pop over to Galettista, where Peggy has the recipe posted.

Posted in Baking with Julia, Cookies/Bars, Food | 6 Comments »

h1

TwD Baking with Julia: Focaccia

February 5, 2013

Here’s the deal: this focaccia was good. I topped it with fresh rosemary, black and green olives, and kosher salt.

Foccacia

But…just a couple of weeks earlier, I made the focaccia recipe from the Flour cookbook, with the same toppings. It was outstanding; therefore, this recipe had a lot working against it from the get-go. However, I will note that the recipe from Flour has a heck of a lot more olive oil in it, which is probably what makes it tastier, but also makes it much more decadent than an average bread recipe. I’d like to have more focaccia in my life, so I’m hoping to find a recipe that’s a happy medium.

Perhaps you, too, need more focaccia in your life. This recipe, baked by the Tuesdays with Dorie group this week, is on page 143 of Baking with Julia, or pop over to Wandering Through, where Sharmini will have the recipe posted.

Posted in Baking with Julia, Vegetarian, Yeast Bread | 5 Comments »

h1

TwD Baking with Julia: French Apple Tart

January 22, 2013

I was all in for the French Apple Tart that the Tuesdays with Dorie group made this week. A few months ago, I saw the episode of Baking with Julia when Leslie Mackie made this tart, and I wrote a note in my book that said “looks really good.” And it was!

French Apple Tart

The apples didn’t get very brown, but they were tender and tasty.

There are a number of components in this recipe, so I split the tasks over two days, starting the crust and making the filling on day one, and finishing it off on day two.

Crust: The crust is a pie dough made with a combination of butter and vegetable shortening. Pie crust makes me nervous! I had no idea if it was any good, so I took the scraps, sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar, and baked them. I took a bite and high-fived myself – the crust was flaky and delicious!

Flaky Pie Crust

Flaky pie crust scrap

Filling: To make the filling, apple slices are tossed with sugar, cinnamon, flour, and lemon juice (the recipe calls for bread crumbs, but I skipped those) and roasted in the oven. After roasting, the apples are mashed into an applesauce.

Topping: Sliced apples are arranged on top of the filling, brushed with melted butter, and sprinkled with sugar.

Put them all together, bake it, and the finished product is delicious!

You can find the recipe on page 379 of Baking with Julia, or click over to Laws of the Kitchen, where Gaye has the recipe posted today. Thank you Gaye for hosting this week!

Posted in Baking with Julia, Food, Fruit Desserts, Pies/Tarts | 11 Comments »

h1

Hummus Bread (the hummus is IN the bread!)

January 20, 2013

Hummus in bread instead of on bread? I love, love, love hummus, but this was a recipe I wouldn’t have given a second look if it weren’t for sent me several links from King Arthur’s website. I was intrigued by the hummus bread, so I thought what the heck, I’ll bake it with her. And it was awesome! The hummus makes it moist, but it’s not super-heavy. It was delicious served with a bowl of hearty vegetable chowder for dinner, and, oddly enough, it was great topped with hummus. Hummus on hummus bread!

Hummus Bread

There’s hummus in the bread! Sesame seeds too!

Recipe Notes

  • The bread recipe is designed for a bread maker, but I followed the instructions for making it by hand (I used my stand mixer).
  • The recipe includes a hummus recipe. I used one of my favorite hummus recipes instead (this one from Cooking Light). You could use store bought hummus too.
  • One of the recipe’s ingredients is Whole-Grain Bread Improver. I just bought some and this was my first time using it. I can’t say what the bread would be like without the improver (which is primarily vital wheat gluten), but it rose beautifully, and I’ll give some of the credit for that to the improver.
  • I didn’t have garlic oil, and didn’t want to simmer garlic in oil (which I how I assume you’d make garlic oil), so I used olive oil and sprinkled a little garlic powder in it.

This is a great recipe to try if you like hummus or if you have some hummus to use up. Be sure to click over to Michele’s blog to see how hers turned out.

Posted in Food, Yeast Bread | 8 Comments »

h1

Two Crafty Sewing Projects

January 11, 2013

I don’t have a lot of experience sewing, but do enjoy trying easy projects that help to build my confidence with this mysterious machine. I borrowed a copy of The Feisty Stitcher from my library and these Conical Coin Purses caught my eye.

What I really like about this project is that it uses 1 1/2″ wide grosgrain ribbon (you can see the strips of ribbon best in the flowered purse on the left). I found a similar pattern online that uses fabric, but I like the effect that you get from the ribbon. The instructions and illustrations in the book made this project a breeze. Before this I’d only sewn two zippers, and I was very happy with the zipper instructions in this pattern.

Next, I made a super-easy tissue holder using these instructions. I’ve had this one in my purse for a while and it works great. I made a few more of these for Christmas gifts.

I found that it worked better to use two pieces of fabric measuring 7″x7″ (instead of 6 1/2″x7″). With those measurements, there is no “long” side, but I considered the side with the 1/2″ opening to be the long side. I did do the 1/4″ overlap as noted as an option in the instructions.

I hope to do more sewing and crafting this year, so if I make anything else worth sharing, you’ll see it here!

Posted in Crafts | 4 Comments »

Older Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 34 other followers