Zucchini Bread

This is such a simple savory bread and is always a total hit. It's perfect for a potluck, a side dish, or a Sunday morning breakfast. This recipe makes one loaf and is adapted from The Kitchn.

Garlic Basil Beer Bread

I have a little basil plant sitting in my kitchen, begging me to use its leaves every time I walk in the room (so expect a lot of basil posts in the next couple weeks). If you don't know this about me already, I love cooking (especially baking) with beer, because you don't have to add additional yeast and you can just put it right in the oven with no wait time. This recipe makes one loaf of bread and is perfect for a filling snack.

Rosemary, Gruyere & Swiss Beer Muffins

I found this amazing recipe from The Beeroness for cheddar beer bread muffins. I am a huge fan of cheddar, but for these muffins, I decided to change course a bit. I bought the beer first, actually, and decided to choose the herbs and cheese around that. I started with Long Trail Brewing Co.'s Ramble. It's a Kolsch "with a hint of lemon and pepper." This sounded amazing and refreshing to me - especially as I am wishing the winter to go away - and I decided to make a lighter savory muffin, thus settling on rosemary, gruyere, and swiss. This recipe makes 10 muffins.

Coconut Banana Bread

I found this recipe on Pinterest and immediately wanted to make it. Not only does it add coconut (one of my favorites!) to banana bread, but it's low-fat at only 115 calories per slice! The recipe originally comes from FitSugar and makes one loaf of delicious bread.

Caprese Appetizers

I made a bunch of these for a friend's party the other night. They were very easy to make (I actually prepped and assembled everything on-site) and people really enjoyed them. This recipe makes about 16-20 servings.

Slow Cooker Herb Stuffing

Why is stuffing primarily a Thanksgiving dish? I mean, it uses up leftover bread (extra points for that, for sure) and is a truly delicious and filling side dish. I am totally an advocate of year-round stuffing. For Thanksgiving dinner this year, I was busy cooking other things, so I tossed all of this in the slow cooker (Stirring occasionally? I think I can handle that) and let it do its thing. This recipe was inspired by A Year of Slow Cooking & fills a 4-quart slow cooker. Enjoy & happy Thanksgiving!

Cucumber Sandwiches

I recently made these cucumber finger sandwiches for a friend's baby shower (hence the duck-shaped bread). This recipe is so simple that I'm not sure I even need to write it out, but they were such a hit that I wanted to share the love. These sandwiches are a great meatless addition to a party spread or even as an everyday lunch. This recipe makes about 12-20 sandwiches, depending on how you slice them.

Cinnamon French Toast

Reasons that I'm writing this post: (1) French toast is delicious. (2) I made some beautiful-looking French toast this weekend and took photos of it. (3) I wanted to post something this week and it looks like French toast is it.

So, you may not need a French toast recipe, but if you ever find yourself with amnesia, or teaching a toddler to cook (Is that the age that people let kids around a skillet? Just kidding -- kind of), then I got you covered. This recipe feeds two.

Leftovers Club: Peanut Butter Bread

This month for Leftovers Club, I made peanut butter bread and it is magical! It tastes a little like a peanut butter cookie, but not as dessert-y (or, as my partner suggests, "It tastes like victory.") I suggest eating it warm and topped with butter, topped with jelly (your own PB&J!), topped with Nutella, topped with cinnamon apples, topped with vanilla ice cream or simply by itself. The possibilities! I got the recipe from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice and it makes one loaf. My Leftovers Club partner (Dan from Platter Talk) will be very happy!

 

St Paddy's Day: Irish Soda Bread

This year, I stepped it up for St Paddy's Day with Irish soda bread and cheddar ale potato soup! Here's the recipe for the delicious bread (the soup recipe will be posted later on today). This recipe is pretty standard, but doesn't include raisins because of my fiery hatred for them (ha!). This recipe is based off of a Country Momma Cooks recipe and will make one loaf of bread.

Leftovers Club: Spiced Vanilla Honey Biscotti

Jennifer of Savory Simple is spearheading The Leftovers Club, which is a network of food bloggers sending non-perishable leftovers from the recipes that we make. Most of the time, especially with baked goods, I end up making at least a dozen, if not more, of one recipe. For the most part, I bring the leftovers to work, but why not send them over to other food bloggers and receive some treats in return? It's a great idea!

 This week, I decided to make a spiced vanilla honey biscotti. Biscotti is perfect to send in the mail to my Leftovers Club partner, but also because I hosted a clothing swap this weekend and it was a great treat for my guests. This recipe makes one dozen biscotti (or two loaves).

Homemade Herb Croutons

I know that croutons are not really a meal, but knowing how to make them is vital, especially when you have crusty bread lying around. I bought a loaf of sun-dried tomato bread at the farmers' market and now it's a little too crusty to eat on its own. Making croutons is extremely easy, and it's upcycling at its finest.

Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
Crusty/day-old bread -- about half of a loaf, but really just whatever you have left over
Three (3) tablespoons of olive oil -- you can substitute with melted butter if needed
One (1) teaspoon of minced garlic
One (1) teaspoon of dried parsley or other herbs
One (1) teaspoon of onion powder
Pinch of salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 300F degrees.
Slice bread into small squares, or if your bread is really crusty, break into bite-sized pieces with your hands.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine oil, garlic, herbs, onion powder, and salt. Mix until blended.
Toss bread pieces in mixing bowl until evenly coated.
Bake on baking sheet for 15 minutes.

At the 15-minute mark, remove from oven and stir croutons around, so they bake evenly.
Bake for another 10 minutes.
Remove and let cool completely.
Store in a sealed bag or container and enjoy!

Blueberries & Cream over Biscuits

This is a great summer dessert (or snack, or breakfast) that my partner introduced me to a few years ago. This time I made my own biscuits and used the blueberries left over from the blueberry milk syrup I made yesterday.

Pair with: a blueberry ale (like Oliver's Something Borrowed, Something Blue)

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
(for biscuits)

Three (3) cups of all-purpose flour
2/3 cup of butter
One (1) cup of milk -- I used almond milk
Four (4) teaspoons of baking powder
One (1) teaspoon of sugar
3/4 teaspoon of salt
(for toppings)
One (1) cup of fresh blueberries
One (1) cup of vanilla ice cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 450F degrees.
Mix all dry ingredients for biscuits together in large mixing bowl.
Mix butter in until it is in small clumps.
Pour in milk and mix slightly.

Remove from bowl and place onto floured surface. -- Using a cutting board usually makes for easier clean-up.
Knead dough until it is cohesive.
Roll out dough into a 1/2" thick rectangle and cut into circular shapes. -- I used a little Tupperware bowl to cut consistently.
Bake biscuits for 8-10 minutes, or until a little golden.
When they come out, top with a little butter.
Cut one of the biscuits in half, place blueberries on it, and top with vanilla ice cream.
Grab a book, sit outside in the sunshine and enjoy!

Honey-Beer Bread

Honey. Beer. Bread. Enough said, right?

Ingredients
Three (3) cups of all-purpose flour
Two (2) tablespoons of sugar
One (1) tablespoon of baking powder
One (1) teaspoon of salt
Two (2) tablespoons of honey -- I warmed the honey so it would mix easier
One (1) bottle (12 oz.) beer -- I used Heavy Seas Classic Lager
Four (4) tablespoons of melted butter -- I used vegan butter

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Whisk together all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder & salt).
Slowly pour in honey and beer & continue mixing -- You may want to use a spoon for this, as the dough will start getting thicker.
Pour half of the melted butter into the bottom of your greased loaf pan.
Spoon your dough into the pan & cover with rest of the butter -- You can use a pastry brush for this if you so desire.
Bake for 50-60 minutes.
Let cool & serve.

Homemade White Bread

After realizing how many ingredients store-bought bread has (usually upwards of twenty), and knowing that bread really only needs four ingredients (I actually use five in this recipe), I decided to make my own. This has opened doors to so much more bread-making in my future. This adventure was spear-headed by my partner (see his blog here), and he is the one featured in the photos.


Ingredients

Four (4) cups of bread flour
Two (2) packets of Fleishmann's RapidRise active yeast -- You don't have to use the RapidRise, but it dramatically decreases the time needed for the bread to rise
One & a half (1 1/2) cups of water
Two (2) teaspoons of salt
1/8 cup of olive oil

Directions
Mix yeast, salt and two (2) cups of flour in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
Heat water and olive oil in a saucepan until warm (specifically 120F - 130F degrees). -- I would make sure to actually test the temperature of the water; we used a food thermometer for it.
While stirring, add water to dry ingredients. -- For the mixing portion, you can use an electric mixer, but we did it all by hand.

It works best to knead the dough
flat, fold in half & repeat.

Slowly introduce the other two cups of flour to the mixture, while still stirring. It should create a doughy mixture (and start smelling delicious).
Start kneading the warm dough. You can do this in the bowl or on a flour-covered flat surface. (For kneading tips, go here.)
Let sit for ten minutes to rise initially. After ten minutes, knead again for a couple minutes. Some of the air will release and it will look flat again.

Place in greased loaf pan. Cover and keep in a warm area (such as a warm kitchen). Let sit until it doubles in size (this took 40 minutes for us).
Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden-brown and cooked through.
Let cool and eat to your heart's desire!

Tips
Your kitchen should be warm while you're prepping the bread; this helps with the kneading and the rising of the bread.
Determine when your bread is done rising by it doubling in size, rather than a specific passing of time.
Also, a special shout-out to the Reluctant Gourmet blog, who gave us great bread-making tips. Check it out here.