Crusty, No-Knead Bread

About ten years ago, I decided to make homemade bread for my co-workers for their Christmas presents.  All I remember from the experience (I think I blocked it out as it was so traumatic) was that I swore I would never make bread from scratch again.  Ever. Kneading bread dough was just not my cup of tea.

Trying to find good bread without any dairy in it is possible, but definitely not an easy task.  I found this recipe on Pinterest and decided to try it because it didn't have any dairy and because you didn't have to knead it.  Praise the Lord for no knead bread recipes!

I loved this recipe for so many reasons.  Have I mentioned that you don't have to knead it?!?  There are only four ingredients, all of which you probably already have in your pantry.  Your active work time for this recipe is only about 5 minutes.  And lastly, the bread has this wonderful crust while still being soft and moist inside.  Delicious!  Also, you can easily add-in other ingredients if you'd like to make flavored bread.  I think my next loaf will be a breakfast bread with dried cranberries and pistachios in it...

Crusty, No-Knead Bread

recipe from Simply So Good (for step-by-step pictures, check out SSG's blog post)

3 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1 3/4 t salt
1/2 t yeast
1 1/2 c 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 and set aside (don't refrigerate) for 12-18 hours.  Overnight works great.  Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven reaches 450 degrees, place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and let pot heat for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Remove pot and carefully place dough into pot.  Cover with the lid and return to oven for 30 minutes.  Take lid off and bake another 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and let cool on a cooling rack.

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Cheddar Rosemary Biscuits

For dinner the other night, I prepared Pulled Pork with Homemade Peach BBQ Sauce served atop Cheddar Rosemary Biscuits. The Pulled Pork was great (just a word of warning to the Texas BBQ fans - the sauce is a vinegar BBQ sauce rather than a ketchup/tomato-based one), but the biscuits really stole the show. They were buttery, slightly cheesy with just a bit of beautiful rosemary flavor. Delicious on their own, but they also paired wonderfully with the vinegary, tender pork!

After the three of us devoured all of the biscuits, I decided to whip up another batch this morning to freeze for part of our Thanksgiving menu. I love things that can be made ahead of time for big holiday meals! To freeze the biscuits: prepare the dough, cut into biscuits, place the biscuits on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and freeze completely. Once frozen, place the biscuits in an airtight ziploc bag. Bake them frozen at 425 degrees for 22-30 minutes, or until lightly browned and cooked through.

Cheddar Rosemary Biscuits

adapted from Daily Cravings, who adapted the original recipe from Ina Garten

2 cups self-rising flour, plus more

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon dried rosemary

12 tablespoons very cold butter, diced

1/2 buttermilk, shaken

2 extra large eggs, divided

1 cup grated extra sharp cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon milk or water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place 2 cups flour, baking powder, salt and rosemary in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, add the butter and continue to mix until the butter is the size of peas.

In a small bowl, beat buttermilk and 1 egg together. With the mixer still on low, add buttermilk mixture. Mix until just moistened. In a small bowl, mix cheddar with a small handful of flour. With mixer still on low, add cheese and mix until just combined.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead lightly a few times. With a floured rolling pin, roll dough out to a 10-inch x 5-inch rectangle. With a 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits and place on a greased baking sheet.

In a small bowl, mix remaining egg with 1 tablespoon milk or water. Brush egg wash over tops of biscuits. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly golden.

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Naan (Indian bread)

{homemade naan}

{my little kitchen helper}

As I was prepping for dinner this morning, I realized that I forgot to buy naan at the grocery store. Any Indian food fan knows that naan is essential for a great Indian meal. I found a recipe online, checked to see if we had all the ingredients in the house (we did!), and then Finley and I went to work making homemade naan! I'm not a breadmaker - not a fan of kneading - but with the dough hook and my trusty Kitchen Aid stand maker, preparing the naan was surprisingly easy. If I can do it, then you certainly can too! I think next time I'll have to try a stuffed naan...

Naan

recipe from Southern Pink Lemonade as seen on Indian Food Forever

4 c flour

1/2 t baking powder

1 t salt

1/2 c milk

1 T sugar

1 egg

4 T oil

water, as needed

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl and make a well in the middle.

In a separate bowl, stir together milk, sugar, egg and 2 T oil. Pour wet ingredients into the well. Using the dough hook and a stand mixer, knead ingredients together, adding water as necessary to form a soft dough. (I think I used about 3/4 c of water.) Add remaining 2 T oil and knead again.

Cover bowl with a damp cloth and let rest for 15 minutes. Knead one last time. Cover with damp cloth and let sit 2-3 hours.

About 30 minutes before baking, preheat your oven to 475 degrees.

Divide dough into 8 balls and let rest 3-4 minutes. Shape and stretch each ball into a long oval shape. Bake on lightly greased cookie sheets for 8-10 minutes, or until puffed and golden.

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Olive, Goat Cheese and Olive Oil Loaf

My parents own an oriental rug shop, and now that my mom has retired from teaching, she takes the shop on Wednesdays so my dad can have a day off. My mom and her friends started holding "Board Meetings" every Wednesday afternoon at the shop. There's usually anywhere from 4 to 10 regulars who come for gossip, wine and munchies. What better way to celebrate the midpoint of the week?!? Anyway, board meetings are potluck affairs where everyone chips in and brings vino or an appetizer. Being a lazy mom, I usually just bring Finley under the guise that I've brought the entertainment. But every now and then, I get my act together and whip up a tasty appetizer.

I stumbled upon this recipe and knew that I had to try it! I love the versatility of the recipe as you can swap out cheeses and veggies to completely change the flavor profile of the bread. It paired excellently with wine and cheese too.

Olive, Goat Cheese and Olive Oil Loaf

recipe adapted slightly by Erin from Chocolate Shavings blog

3 eggs

1/4 c white wine

1/4 c whole milk

1/4 c olive oil

1 1/2 t baking powder

1 c flour

1/2 c grated Gruyere, tightly packed

4 oz goat cheese, crumbled, plus more for garnish

1/2 c sliced assorted olives, plus more for garnish

2 t fresh herbs (thyme, chives, oregano, basil, rosemary, etc.), plus more for garnish

salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, wine, milk and olive oil until incorporated. Add the flour and baking powder and whisk until blended. Fold in the Gruyere and refrigerate mixture for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Gently fold in goat cheese, olives, herbs, and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Pour batter into a greased standard loaf pan and garnish with reserved goat cheese, olives and herbs. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. (I made two smaller loaves and cooked them for 30 minutes.) If the loaf starts to brown too much, cover with foil and continue baking. Let cool a few minutes before removing from pan and slicing. Serve warm.

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Pumpkin Streusel Bread

Despite the name of my blog, I'm just not a big baker; however, it isn't fall unless you're baking (and eating!) pumpkin-something. I made this bread this afternoon and it filled the house with the most glorious aroma ever. My mouth is watering just remembering the smell! Other than the canned pumpkin and possibly the applesauce, you probably have all the ingredients in your pantry - unless you're a dweeb like me who ran out of sugar, had a baby sleeping, neighbors who weren't home and finally had to call my dad to bring me 1 1/2 c sugar. Anyhoo, the bread is wonderfully moist and flavorful. If so inclined, you can easily tailor it to your specific tastes - add chopped apples, raisins, nuts in the batter, etc.

Pumpkin Streusel Bread

adapted from Allrecipes.com

1 15-oz can pumpkin puree

1/2 c vegetable oil

1/2 c cinnamon applesauce

2/3 c water

4 eggs

1 t vanilla

1 c brown sugar

1 1/2 c white sugar

3 1/2 c all-purpose flour

2 t baking soda

1 1/2 t salt

1 t cinnamon

1 t ground nutmeg

1/2 t ground cloves

1/4 t allspice

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c flour

1 t cinnamon

1/2 chopped nuts

2 T softened butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pans.

In a mixer, combine pumpkin, oil, applesauce, water, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar, and white sugar. Blend well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and next four spices. Slowly add dry ingredients into wet mixture. Mix until just combined.

To make streusel topping, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and chopped nuts. With a fork, mix in softened butter until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Pour batter into two or three 7' x 3' loaf pans. Sprinkle evenly with streusel topping. Bake in preheated oven 60 to 80 minutes. [The cooking time varies so much because it depends on if you make two ginormous loaves (like I did and it took 80 minutes) or three regular sized loaves. You could always make muffins or mini-loaves too and adjust the cooking time accordingly.]

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French Countryside Bread

For Christmas I gave Andrew a bread maker since he's mentioned an interest in making his own bread. Having made bread from scratch before, I knew that he wouldn't enjoy the kneading part so I thought the bread maker could do the hard work for him. We tried out our first loaf tonight and it turned out beautifully! The crust was golden brown and deliciously crunchy. Hot out of the bread maker with a pat or two of butter and I was in heaven!

French Countryside Bread

1 3/8 cups water

1 1/2 T olive oil

1 1/2 t salt

4 c bread flour

1 T sugar

2 t active dry yeast

Measure and add liquid ingredients to the bread pan. Measure and add dry in gredients (except yeast) to the bread pan. Use your finger to make a well in the flour and pour yeast into the well, being careful not to allow yeast to touch the liquid ingredients. Snap the baking pan into the breadmaker and close the lid. Press the 'Select' button to choose the French setting. Press the 'Crust color' button to choose medium. Press the 'Start/Stop' button.

Source Oster Breadmaker User Manual and Bread Recipes

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Sweet Potato Biscuits

My infatuation with the sweet potato continues and led me to this recipe. I actually made these biscuits for Thanksgiving but I'm just now getting around to posting it. I first had sweet potato biscuits at Hoover's, and while I loved the flavor of them, they weren't moist enough for my tastes. I searched online for recipes and didn't find any that looked that great and then I stumbled across this recipe in a Junior League cookbook. It turned out to be a good, basic place to start as it had few ingredients and was an easy recipe to make - especially since I didn't cut the biscuits rather I just dropped them by the spoonful on the baking sheets. The cons for the recipe are that it didn't make very many biscuits (or I just made mine too big) and the biscuits didn't have as much flavor as I was expecting. They definitely have potential, but the next time I will add some more spices to enhance the flavor of the sweet potatoes - maybe a little cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, basically whatever floats my boat.

Laura Bush's Sweet Potato Biscuits

1 c flour

2 t baking powder

2 t sugar

1/4 t salt

3 T butter, chilled

1 c cold mashed cooked sweet potato

milk, melted butter or cream

Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix well. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Add the sweet potato and mix well. Pat the dough 3/4-inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut with a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter. Arrange the biscuits on a greased baking sheet. Brush the tops with milk. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or just until the biscuits begin to brown.

Source: Austin Entertains - The Junior League of Austin

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