secret recipe club: 1 hour cinnamon swirl bread with honey butter

we are total carboholics in our house, especially the boys, who have never met a bread product they didn't like. bread, monkey bread, stuffed bread, bagels, croissants, biscuits, english muffins, buns, cornbread, pancakes, fried donuts, baked donuts, muffins, waffles and too many scones to count, they love them all, both sweet and savory. sometimes, we have to hide loaves of bread or packages of rolls out of our youngest's view, or else he won't eat his dinner. 

before the kids were born, i had time to putz around and make a yeasty loaf of bread. now, not so much. as soon as i saw this recipe promising fresh baked bread at home in an hour(!!!) from lori at lori's culinary creations, i was set. the one thing it needed: a heavy dose of cinnamon and sugar.

oatmeal sandwich bread

there's something delicious and homey about a slice of still warm homemade bread, spread with a thick layer of peanut butter and homemade jam. each and every time i make bread i remember how incredibly easy it is - especially on a weekend in the dead of winter, when the hour i wait for it to double in size is easily filled with shows from my dvr or boring household chores - and how the taste is so much better than store bought bread.

and i can't help but mention how fitting it is that this, my two hundredth post, is a simple loaf of bread. considering that's how it all started.

cinnamon swirl whole wheat bagels [12in2012]

bagels have been on my to make list for at least a year. i can't believe how long it took me to make them, considering how easy they are to make, how delicious they taste, and how well they freeze. my advice to you: make a large batch. it's just as easy to make 18 or 24 as it is to make 12. especially if you have room in the freezer.

i flavored half of my bagels with cinnamon sugar and left half plain for making breakfast sandwiches. it's super easy to make whatever flavor you like. fold dried cranberries, whole blueberries, raisins, chocolate chips, or other chunks in step 6. love cheese? fold it in similar to step 6. or brush the tops of the formed bagels and sprinkle with seeds before baking. with one base recipe, the variations are endless.

great northern cornbread

along with those amazing peanut butter cookies, we had a huge spread of food for jason's birthday a couple weekends ago. i made another batch of homemade pickles and our good friend chris smoked pork and made cajun corn. this cornbread is the perfect accompaniment for barbecue - and i bet it would travel really well, also making it perfect for camping.

easy english muffins

last weekend, between barbecues, fireworks, lazy drives for ice cream in the thing, yardwork, and 90+ degree days, i decided it was time to bake something yeasty. [and check something off the list at the same time!]

baked's monkey bubble bread

monkey bread has been on my to make list for a while now, but it somehow got shifted down the list as waffles and baked donuts and other good eats have taken over my saturday mornings. a quick breeze through baked explorations for something else (i have no idea what i was originally looking for) led me to this bread. the perfect way to wake up saturday morning.

italian stuffed bread

don't try to make this during the week. unless you can get home earlier than 6.

or you don't mind eating at 9:30 at night. it's not that it's hard to make, it's the wait time that gets you.

regardless of the time, it was incredibly easy to put together. i started with a whole wheat bread dough and then used a classic italian combination - prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato, and basil - and layered them on the bread, rollled it up, and baked it.



feel free to change up the filling to your liking. i bet ham and cheese would be good. or artichokes and cheese. really, ___________ (you fill in the blank) and cheese would be excellent.

italian stuffed bread

1 pound of your favorite bread dough - i used whole wheat
2 ounces prosciutto
1/2 cup basil leaves
2 roma tomatoes, sliced thin
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced

1. make your bread according to the recipe directions.
2. when the bread is ready for baking, roll out into a sheet about 1/4 inch thick.
3. build your layer of filling starting with prosciutto, then cheese and tomatoes, and topped with the basil.
4. carefully roll the sheet into a log, starting at one end.
5. pinch the open ends of the log closed by pulling the top down to the bottom. pinch any openings in the bread, or the filling will ooze out while baking.
6. put the log on a sheet pan and place in a warm place for 30 minutes.
7. preheat the oven at 350. brush the top of the bread with water.
8. bake the bread on a sheet pan for 50-65 minutes, until browned on the outside.
9. cool on a wire rack and wait until almost completely cool to cut.
   

baked donuts

they're all over the blogs. so i figured after my somewhat failed attempt at fried donuts last fall - i made apple cinnamon fried donuts that came out dense and hard and no good - that maybe the baked version would be a bit more forgiving. at least that's what i was hoping.

i got up this morning and made the dough. my dough was a bit wet so i added more flour until it was smooth and elastic. easy enough. and let it rest for about 45 minutes before i checked on it. when i finally checked, it hadn't risen much at all. since i don't have a really warm place in my house to stash it, i turned the oven onto "warm" and set the bowl in for the last 15 minutes. the dough rose a bit more, but in hindsight, probably not as much as it should have.

after jason searched online and in stores for a donut cutter for me at christmas, with no luck, i gave up and picked up these biscuit cutters yesterday. i needed a set anyway. and i like how they're fluted on one side and smooth circles on the other.



i rolled out the dough and used the 3.5" to cut out the circles. transferred them to the sheet pan and punched out 1.5" middles. i put the dough back in the warmed oven for about an hour to let it proof again. and again, they rose, probably not enough as they should have, but i baked them anyway. and after 8 short minutes, i had nice baked dough.



but that's all it was. baked dough. they aren't bad, but not amazing. definitely don't have the same light and airiness that i was expecting. i'll have to try these again sometime, with a different recipe.

but honestly, submerging in melted butter and rolling in cinnamon and sugar saved the day.

the recipe is found on 101 Cookbooks

the best (brown) soda bread

honestly, i've never thought too highly of recipes in the newspaper. i don't know why, i just never gave them much thought.

tonight i needed a quick bread to go with soup. i like irish soda bread, but i wanted something with wheat. most of the wheat soda bread recipes i found included something i didn't have on hand or the combination didn't sound all that appetizing. until i landed on this one...

and if you thought the irish soda bread from last month (or was it january?) was good, this one is waaaaay better.

it was just as quick - 5 minutes to throw together & 25 minutes to bake, i had all the ingredients, and the wheat flour definitely adds a really good nuttiness.

i halved the recipe to make one loaf, and it was the perfect size for four people....(or two if you're bread hounds like us...we ate three quarters of the loaf tonight with dinner)

brown soda bread
from the boston globe at http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2009/03/11/brown_soda_bread/

alton's cheese bread

this bread - warm out of the oven - is the perfect combination to homemade cream of tomato soup. jason ate half the loaf dipping it into the soup! it's a breeze to throw together and all but the cheese i had on hand. (and it makes a dinner of tomato soup a bit more exciting!)

the only downside is that once the bread cools to room temperature, it doesn't have the same kick. definitely not as exciting, not quite as good. i tried lightly toasting it and eating it on its own - without the soup - the next afternoon. also not the same. needless to say, we only had a couple slices left after the first night's dinner. this is definitely one i'll make again.

alton's cheese bread
from "i'm just here for more food"

1. preheat the oven to 375F

2. mix together:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard (in a pinch you can omit this)
add 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese and mix well

3. in a separate bowl, mix together:
2 eggs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

4. spray the inside of a loaf pan with non stick spray or use butter to lubricate the pan.
5. make a small well in the flour mixture and pour in the egg mixture.
6. mix just enough so a dough is formed and there aren't any large pockets of flour.
7. pour into the loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes.
8. immediately remove from the pan and cool on a rack.

2011.10.10 this was Cook book of trial and error's pick for the secret recipe club!

irish soda bread

i love fresh, home baked bread. i hate kneading and waiting for yeast to do its thing. so when saturday's "america's test kitchen" had soda bread, i was all over it.

all in all, it took about 5 minutes to mix together and get into the oven. ATK recommended baking the bread in a cast iron skillet. since i don't have one, i used a dutch oven with the lid off. and it worked perfectly. mixing, baking, and cooling took a total of 70 minutes to whip up a loaf of bread.

and honey butter (soft unsalted butter mixed with a bit of honey) goes perfect.

important notes:

• don't knead the bread. otherwise it will come out tough and not so good.
• i transferred my dough onto a piece of parchment paper before putting it into the pan. the loaf is kinda patched together, so it doesn't stay in one ball, making it hard to move.

irish soda bread
adapted from america's test kitchen (aka cook's illustrated)

1. preheat your oven to 400F and mix the following in a large bowl:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar

1. cut in 2 tablespoons of very soft butter with your hands.
2. make a well in the center and add 1 3/4 cups buttermilk.
3. use a fork to quickly mix in the buttermilk just until incorporated. do not overmix.
4. turn out and press into a loaf. do not knead.
5. cut a cross slit in the top of the loaf.
6. bake in a greased cast iron skillet or dutch oven without the top for about 40 minutes. check with a wooden skewer to ensure the loaf is done.
7. let cool in the pan for about 20 minutes before turning out and slicing.

honey graham bread

with all the baking i've done in the last year or so, i've never attempted bread. sure, i've made pretzels, rolls, biscuits, and quick breads, but i'm talking about adding yeast, wait for it to double, etc, and end up with a great homemade loaf of bread.

and really, nothing beats a slice of warm, fresh baked bread with butter. especially on a sunday morning, with fresh coffee and a newspaper.

so i gave it a shot.