Pumpkin Bread

Instead of pumpkin pie, I present you with pumpkin bread. And just in time for Thanksgiving! This bread is pretty amazing. It tastes just like pumpkin pie, but has a bread texture instead. The texture is similar to banana bread. So if you enjoy that sort of thing, you should absolutely try this.

I made this pumpkin bread a few weeks ago as a single loaf, but the middle remained a gooey mess. I made another attempt the following week, but split the batter between two bread pans, and it was a wonderful success. I can't remember where I found this recipe, I just remember that when I went back to check it, the website was down. If I find it again, I'll share the source.

Pumpkin Bread
2 1/2 C flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
3t cinnamon
2 t ginger
1/2 t cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t salt
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted and cooled
15 oz can of pumpkin
3 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prep the bread pans

Place the first seven ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, salt) into a bowl and whisk together. Set aside.

In another bowl, stir together the brown sugar, white sugar, and butter. Mix in the pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla.

Combine the contents of the two bowls together until just blended.

Split the batter between the two bread pans. You can put it all in one, but I didn't have success with that method. Don't let that stop you, though.

Bake for 45 minutes (2 pans) to 1 hour (1 pan). Test with a toothpick to determine doneness. (The toothpick test can lie, just so you know.)

Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from the bread pan.

Optional: Drizzle the bread with a simple glaze made from 1 cup powdered sugar, a bit of vanilla, and almost 2 tablespoons of milk. Be sure to place a paper towel under the cooling rack unless you want to scrub a sugary mess off your table/counter.

Garlic Bread Sticks

I eat a lot of pasta. I could easily live on pasta. I enjoy pasta so much that I've even had pasta for breakfast many times. Besides the combinations of noodles and sauces, the bread that goes with the pasta is very important. Different sauces and noodles go better with different sorts of bread, although any freshly baked bread will be just fine.

I love the bread sticks from Olive Garden, so I wanted to give one of the many recipes online which claim to be "just like the real thing!" a try. I got this recipe from The Country Cook. They are delicious and relatively easy to make.


Garlic Bread Sticks
1 1/2 cups very warm water
1 package active dry yeast 

4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, sotened

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt

Garlic Butter topping:

1/2 stick unsalted butter 

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon table salt

Proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of water with a bit of sugar until nice and foamy.

Place the sugar, salt, and butter in a bowl. My softened butter melted a bit, but that is okay!

Add the remaining 1 1/4 cup of warm water to the bowl of sugar, salt, and butter. Mix in one cup of flour.

Add the yeast and mix. Slowly add the remaining flour until a slightly sticky dough is formed.

Knead the dough until smooth.

Break the dough up into several pieces and roll these pieces into strips. The size and number of strips will depend on how many bread sticks you want and how big you want them.

Cover with a non-fuzzy towel and let rise until doubled in size.

While the dough is finishing it's rise time, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bake the bread stick dough for 6 minutes. 

While the bread sticks are baking, melt the 1/2 stick of butter and mix it with the garlic powder and salt.

Remove the bread sticks from the oven and brush with the garlicy butter. Return bread sticks to the oven for an additional 6 minutes.


Remove the bread sticks from the oven and brush them with the garlicy butter yet again. 


Let cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

Quick Rolls

These rolls are quick to throw together... compared to the other dough that I have made. No kneading is required, so that is nice. You just mix up the ingredients, let it rise, make whatever shape of roll you want, and bake. The entire process still takes at least an hour and a half.

I didn't think these rolls had enough flavor, but other people absolutely loved them. Putting butter on them is a good idea. They would most likely go well with anything that tends to go well with bread or dinner rolls.

Quick Rolls

1 C milk

1/4 C sugar

1/4 C shortening or butter

1/4 C warm water

1 packet dry active yeast

1 egg, beaten

3 to 4 C flour, sifted

1 t salt

Scald the milk. Proof the yeast in the 1/4 C water (add 1/4 t sugar if you want).

Meanwhile, assemble the ingredients. Sift the flour into a bowl and put the butter/shortening, sugar, and salt into another bowl.

Pour the scalded milk into the bowl with the sugar. Stir until the butter/shortening melts almost completely. Let cool to lukewarm.

Add a cup or two of flour and stir until well mixed. Add the proofed yeast and stir.

Mix in enough flour to make a thick dough. This will take nearly 4 cups of flour and you may have to mix with your hands near the end.

Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with a non-fuzzy cloth, and let rise until 3 times the original size (around an hour or so).

Shape the dough into a roll shape. I greased two muffin pans and made cloverleaf rolls (place 3 small balls of dough in each cup).

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until lightly browned.

Enjoy!

Italian Bread 2

This attempt at Italian bread turned out much better than the previous attempt. I used a completely different recipe and made the bread in one day. While the bread turned out nice, I thought that it was lacking flavor. The previous recipe had a "starter sponge" or "pre-ferment" part to it, which seems to provide the typical Italian bread flavor. This recipe did not have anything like that. The Italian bread recipes that I use from now on will have the pre-ferment included, even though they are much more time consuming.

This recipe comes from How to Cook Like Your Grandmother by Drew Kime. The bread is good and had a nice crust to it. If you aren't too picky about the strength of the flavor, go ahead and try this bread.

Italian Bread (link to the original)

1 package (1/4 ounce, 2-1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast

1-1/4 cups warm water (105°-115°)

3 cups unbleached flour or all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

cornmeal for dusting

Proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of water. Or you can forget to pay attention and proof it in the 1 and 1/4 cups of water. It turns out fine; the yeast just won't get as foamy on top.

In a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, and salt.

Once the yeast is proofed, pour it into the flour mixture and combine until all the liquid is absorbed. At this point, add the olive oil and mix well. I did all this mixing with my hands. 

Place the dough on a clean surface and knead until smooth. Put the nicely kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Let rise for an hour or until doubled in size.

Sprinkle some cornmeal onto a wooden cutting board. This will prevent the dough from sticking to it.

Place the dough on a clean surface and lightly punch it down. Roll it into a loaf shape. Cut the loaf into two pieces.

Roll each piece of dough until it has a length of around 10 inches. Place the pieces of dough onto the wooden cutting board, leaving room for them to rise. Cover with an oiled piece of plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in width. Slice the top of the dough pieces with a very sharp knife.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit with a baking stone or baking sheet inside. I don't have a baking stone, so I used an upside down baking sheet! To create steam in the oven, which will create a better and "crustier" crust, place a pot or small pan of water at the bottom of the oven.

Once doubled in width, scoot the dough onto the preheated cookie sheet. This is tricky if you haven't done this before! I accidentally flipped the dough upside down at least once. Be careful or the dough will deflate.

Return the cookie sheet to the oven. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for an additional 25 to 30 minutes. The bread with be finished when it sounds hollow when tapped.

Slice and serve immediately or let cool completely.

Enjoy!

Italian Bread Fail

I think the title of this post explains it pretty well. There are so many possibilities for what went wrong here. I will say it is a combination of confusing directions and having to chill the dough overnight before baking because I ran out of time.

The bread turned out flat, very dense, and very chewy. I tried a piece. It was painful to eat.

I'll attempt this again next week. I even have half of the dough in the freezer! That means I can test and see if the rise time was too short before baking or the dough is just bad.

White Bread - Final Version

I finally made white bread which I think is perfect. I took two of the previous white bread recipes, combined them, and slightly altered the result. This bread is soft and chewy. It isn't too sweet like the bread I posted last week. It tastes great warm and cool. I will have to make dinner rolls out of this recipe at some point!

The method for making this bread is exactly the same as the last recipe. You mix all the ingredients together, let it rise for a total time of nearly 3 hours, and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Baking bread is actually very simple. And having fresh bread is a great thing!

White Bread (Printer-friendly PDF version)

1 packet dry active yeast

1/4 C warm water + 1/4 t sugar

1 C milk, scalded

1 C water, warm

2 T butter

1 t salt

2 T sugar

6 C sifted flour (perhaps a bit more)

Proof the yeast in the 1/4 C warm water (add the 1/4 t sugar to feed the yeast).

Scald the milk. Place the scalded milk into a large bowl with the warm water, sugar, salt, and butter.

Mix in two cups of the flour. Add the yeast and stir. Slowly mix in the remaining 4 cups of flour. Add the flour until the dough isn't very sticky. I added just a bit too much flour, but it turned out fine.

Knead the dough until smooth. My dough was too non-sticky to do the method I usually use, so I just kneaded normally.

Roll the smooth dough in a bit of flour and place in a floured bowl.

Cover with a towel. Place in the oven (oven OFF) with a pan of hot water. Let rise for an hour.

Punch down the dough. (The dough was sticking to the bowl a bit, but I didn't add oil or anything. The sticking won't ruin anything.)

Return the dough to the bowl (reflour the bowl!), and return it to the oven. You might want to refresh the hot water in the pan to create more steam.

Remove the dough from the bowl and cut into two pieces. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Form into a loaf shape and place in lightly greased bread pans. Cover and let rise until doubled (at least 30 minutes).

Uncover and brush the top of the dough with melted butter. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.

Let cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy!

Snow White Bread

First of all, my bread did not turn out white. It was a sort of yellowish color. That might be because I decided to use butter instead of shortening because butter just seems like a better option! Also, I scaled down this recipe. The original made 6 loaves of bread which is way too much for me! Here is one of the lovely loaves and a few slices.

This bread is good, but it strangely had a slight taste of a cake style donut. I don't think I'll use it again. It's a bit too sweet for just plain white bread. The recipe is almost identical to the first white bread that I made, so I'm not sure why the taste is so different. For the next white bread I make, I'm going to use the first recipe and change the 2 cups of milk to 1 cup milk and 1 cup water. It might cut down on the sweetness a bit. We shall see.

Snow White Bread (Printer friendly PDF version)

1 packet active dry yeast

1/4 C warm water

2 C milk, scalded

2 T sugar

2 t salt

1 T butter (or shortening)

6 C flour, sifted

Proof the yeast in the 1/4 C warm water. Add 1/4 t sugar if desired to feed the yeast during the proofing process.

Scald the milk. Meanwhile, place the sugar, salt, and butter in a bowl.

Pour the scalded milk into the bowl and stir. Let cool to lukewarm.

Once cooled, add the yeast and 2 cups of flour. Mix together with a spoon.

Slowly mix in more flour until you get a slightly sticky dough. You will most likely have to use your hands near the end of the flour adding process.

Plop the dough on a clean surface and knead. (As mentioned before, I use the "lift, flip, smack down, stretch out, and fold over" method. See the sweet dough recipe for more info!)

Once kneaded, lightly coat the dough ball with flour. Place the dough ball in a lightly floured bowl and cover with a non-fuzzy cloth. Let rise for an hour or until doubled in size.

Punch down the dough. I do this by removing the dough from the bowl and placing it on the clean surface. I then press it down all over with my finger tips. Fold it and repeat until you get a ball shape again. Return the punched down dough to the bowl, recover, and let rise again until doubled (about an hour).

Remove the dough from the bowl and split it into two pieces. Let these pieces rest for 10 minutes before shaping into loaves and placing in lightly greased loaf pans.

Cover the loaf pans with a non-fuzzy towel and let rise until doubled again.

At this point, I decided to make a slit in the top of the dough and brush them with a lot of butter. The slit in the top made prevented the loaf from rounding much, but nothing else.

Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool for a bit in the loaf pan before removing. Let cool at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy!

German (Soft) Pretzels

I wanted to make these pretzels since I found the recipe in one of the old cookbooks. The main reason that I wanted to make these pretzels is that they contain a mashed potato. Potatoes are a great food and anything with potato is possibly awesome. Living up to my super high expectations, these pretzels are great. I will do a few things different if I make these again, but the method I used produced a deliciously edible soft pretzel.

As a note, be sure to grease the baking sheet that you use. I neglected to perform this step and every single pretzel stuck completely. I basically had torn pretzel tops instead of full pretzels. The clean up wasn’t very fun either.

German Pretzels (Printer friendly PDF version)

1 medium sized potato (boiled & mashed)

1 C potato water

1 C warm milk

1/4 C sugar

1 packet dry active yeast

1/2 C shortening

Approximately 7 C flour

Kosher salt or pretzel salt (any large chunk salt might work)

10 C water

3/4 C baking soda

Proof the yeast in 1/4 C of the potato water.

Peel, cube, boil, and mash the potato. I added a little bit of milk to make them creamier. I'm sure that wasn't necessary.

In a bowl, combine the remaining potato water, milk, sugar, and shortening. If it isn't completely mixed at this point, that is fine.

Stir in 2 cups of flour. Make sure this is combined. Add the yeast. Mix in 4 more cups of flour. Add a bit more flour until it isn't too sticky. I think I used 6 and 1/2 cups of flour total.

Dump the slightly sticky dough onto a clean surface and knead. I use the same method that I used in the sweet dough post. (It's the lift, flip, slap down, stretch out, and fold over method.) Knead until the dough is smooth. Shape into a ball and lightly coat with flour.

Place the floured dough ball into a lightly floured bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled. (If your kitchen is cold, place the dough in the oven with the oven off along with a dish of boiling water.)

Once the dough is doubled in size, punch it down. Divide it into sections and roll those sections into strips. Let the strips rest for a few minutes.

Cut the strips in half, roll out more, and then twist into the shape of a pretzel. Place on a non-fuzzy dish towel. Let the pretzel shaped dough rise until doubled.

Make a baking soda bath with 10 cups of water and 3/4 cup baking soda. Heat this mixture until boiling.

Once the baking soda bath is hot, place the pretzels in the liquid for 30 seconds. I think I should have heated the solution to a higher temperature, but I was afraid that I was going to burn myself. Next time I'll make the solution boil and not just simmer.

Place the bathed pretzels on a well greased baking sheet and sprinkle them with the salt.

Bake the bathed pretzels for 10-15 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Baking time will vary depending on how large your pretzels are and how dark you want them.

Let pretzels cool for a minute on the baking sheet before removing to a wire cooling rack.

Enjoy!