Tag Archives: Bread

Rosemary Flatbreads

8 Dec

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My dear friend, Keri Brennan, passed this recipe my way. And it was perfect timing as I was headed to a family dinner and wanted to bring some things. These lil flatbreads would be the perfect thing to bring.

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They require some yeast – but don’t let that keep you from trying. It’s so easy to throw these together.

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You just need a little bit of time to allow the dough to proof and rise.

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You can also toss in any herbs/seasonings you like. They are so versatile!

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They were delicious! I think next time I wouldn’t add as much sea salt to the tops of them – they were a bit salty. But they tasted great and made a great accompaniment to our meal!

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Rosemary Flatbreads

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup warm water (about 110 F/43 C)
  • 1 teaspoon (2 ¾ gm) active dry yeast
  • 3 cups (15 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour, plus more for rolling
  • 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp coarse salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 large egg whisked with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
  • sea salt, for sprinkling
  • 1/4 cup (¼ oz) fresh rosemary or thyme ( I used minced rosemary)
  • (homemade seasoned salt made by combining dried homegrown herbs with sea salt)

Directions:

Place the water in a medium sized bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let stand until the yeast is foamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour, oil, 2 teaspoons coarse salt, and the sugar. Stir until a dough forms. Add the minced rosemary.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 2 minutes. Use as much flour as necessary so it is not a sticky dough. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and roll the dough around in the bowl so that it is also lightly oiled on the surface all over. Cover with saran wrap. Let stand in a warm place until it doubles in volume, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to moderate 350°F. Divide dough into 16 equal portions and cover with plastic wrap. Roll out each piece to approximately 4″x10″ (or however small/large you like) on a lightly floured surface.

Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush with the egg mixture and sprinkle with sea salt and herbs (or homemade seasoned salt.)

Bake, rotating sheet halfway through baking, until crisp and golden, 18-22 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Storage and Freezing Instructions/Tips: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month. Prolong the freshness by freezing for up to 3 months.

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Mrs. Olson’s Banana Bread with Buttercream Frosting

21 Dec

When my girlfriends and I were visiting Jen Olson in Iowa last fall, we talked a lot about food and recipes. We started to swap some recipes as well. Jen showed me her mom’s banana bread recipe and I quickly asked Jen to email it to me.

This bread is heavenly. It’s like no other banana bread I’ve ever had. It’s much more of a cake than anything.

You can really taste the brown sugar in the recipe – I think that’s what sets it apart from the rest. That, and there is a great amount of bananas added. Pay no mind to the burned quality of the bread……my oven was in poor shape 😦

And the icing…..oh man. This buttercream icing will now be my GO-TO icing for everything from now on. It is fabulous and sweet and creamy. I will probably need to make it its own blog post in the near future.

It’s a very simple bread, that is very people-pleasing. I took some in to share with my co-workers after Hurricane Sandy, and it was eaten immediately.

I am so thrilled that Jen shared her mom’s recipe with me. This will be my only banana bread recipe that I will ever need for life.

Look at this stuff……..sinful!!!!!

Mrs. Olson’s Banana Bread with Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups brown sugar (you can sub a cup of white for one of brown if you prefer)
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups mashed very ripe bananas
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans.

Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla and bananas. Add dry ingredients last.

Pour in loaf pans. Bake at 350 45-50 minutes or until done. (start checking around 40 minutes)

Jen’s mom served this bread with a buttercream frosting recipe that she added just a little bit more milk to make it a creamy spread.

The BEST Buttercream Frosting:

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 6 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup half & half
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Directions:

Beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until creamy.

Gradually add powdered sugar and salt alternately with half & half and vanilla, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.

Stir in corn syrup.

When loaves are fully cooled, spread over top and serve.

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Zucchini Bread

14 Oct

It’s that time of year when the zucchini is plentiful and it’s being sold DIRT CHEAP. I love to buy a bunch of odd-shaped zucchini from the farmers market and turn it into zucchini bread!

This is my mom’s recipe. It’s really the only zucchini bread I’ve ever known. And I am boldly saying that it is the ONLY recipe you will ever need for this bread.

Hand grating….the old fashioned way

Start off with freshly grated zucchini. You can either run it through the food processor grating-blade if you are doing a couple batches – fast and easy. Or if you are just whipping up 1-2 batches, you can grate your zucchini on a hand-grater (see above).

The ingredients really come together quite easy.

If you are a nut person, DEFINITELY add the walnuts. I am not really a nut person, but I know that the walnuts take this zucchini bread from great to amazing!! You can also add raisins if you like, but I never do.

I tend to go nuts and make a TON of the little mini-loaves and bring them to work, give them to friends/family, and also keep some in the freezer to pull out on a random night.

You can see the zucchini, but it just tastes like heaven

Cant you get a whiff of the cinnamon??? My house smelled like sugar and cinnamon for a day after I made the latest batch…..yum!

Joan’s Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2.5 cups of sugar
  • 2+ cups grated raw zucchini
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour your pans. This recipe makes either 6 little loaf pans, 1 9×5 loaf pan, 2 large loaf pans, or 1 3-quart bundt pan.

Beat the eggs until foamy. Gradually beat in oil and sugar.

Add cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder – mix well. Then add grated zucchini.

Gradually blend in flour. Then fold in chopped nuts.

Bake for 1 hour. This bread freezes really well.

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Baked Bread in Dutch Oven

1 May

Here is a super recipe that my best friend, John, turned me onto! He’s been making it for months and has perfected the recipe. I am still tweaking and trying different flavors. I will always say that his is the best though 🙂

Simple Ingredients

3 batches of bread.....dry ingredients

This is seriously easy to make – but you MUST have a dutch oven. MUST MUST MUST. It will NOT work otherwise. If you dont have one, you can typically find a fabulous Dutch Oven at HomeGoods for $60. The cost is well worth the quality and craftsmanship.

Here is my baby

I made this as part of our Easter Dinner this year and everyone RAVED about it. I knew it was good, but I was stunned and thrilled that others thought it was that good, too. Especially the Lemon Rosemary Gruyere Bread…….holy smokes………AH-MAZING. Like, sinfully amazing. I have the Lemon Rosemary Gruyere bread recipe and pics below!

Wet dough - sitting out to rise

Dough in dutch oven - ready to bake

There are all different flavor combinations and ingredients you can use with this basic recipe. Here are some examples: Pepper jack cheese; Jalapeno and cheddar; Raisin, walnut, cinnamon; Cranberry, Walnut, Orange; Pumpkin, sunflower, poppy seed; Sharp cheddar; Rosemary, Lemon, Gruyere; Lemon, thyme, asiago; Asiago, mixed herb and rosemary; Chives and thyme.

Baked Plain Bread!

Slices of Delight

Under the basic bread recipe, I will give you the recipe for the Lemon Rosemary Gruyere Bread I made as well.

Crusty Baked Bread

  • 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1   3/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon yeast
  • 1  1/2 cups water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast. Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap tightly and set aside for 12 – 18 hours. Overnight works great.

Heat oven to 450 degrees. When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid (dutch oven) in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.

Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough. Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.

Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.

Lemon, Rosemary, Gruyere Bread:

I had to double the recipe since I was making 2 loaves of the Lemon, Rosemary, Gruyere, so remember that when looking at this recipe:

In the large bowl put 6 cups flour, 3 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon yeast.

After wisking those ingredients together addthe zest from two lemons, some chopped rosemary (I didn’t measure, sorry) and about 2 1/2 cups shredded Gruyere.

Mix all the ingredients together well and add 3 cups water (remember doubled). Stir until you have a shaggy dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let set 12 – 18 hours. Bake as instructed above.

Ingredients in a bowl - before adding water

Plain on the left..Rosemary Lemon Gruyere on the right

Closeup of inside.....Cheese and Rosemary, oh my!

Here is a recipe for Cranberry, Orange, Almond bread (sorry, no pics):

This recipe is NOT doubled.

In a large bowl put 3 cups flour, 1 and 3/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon yeast.

Add about 3/4 cup cranberries, orange zest from one orange and about 1/2 cups sliced almonds.

Mix it together well and add 1 1/2 cups water. Stir to form and shaggy dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let set 12 – 18 hours. Bake as instructed above.

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