"And perhaps a sticky bun...or 4..."

Once again, I went on a bit of a blog hiatus. I blame my show. It was a blast, but it left me with very little time to blog. I did bake a lot though. Mainly props for my show…and I figured I might as well share some of them with you, in case you ever have to play a hungry little girl in a Sondheim musical one day.

One of the specific sweets I needed to eat in the show was a “sticky bun”. Well, actually 4 of them…every night…however, they couldn’t actually be all that sticky as I had to be able to swallow them and sing and not get it all over my costume. So, I altered these buns to make them not so sticky…however, I made these twice last week and the second time I doubled the batch so I could have some for my cast and I sticky-ed them up with some cream cheese icing goodness. And they were divine.

I know there are a lot of cinnamon bun recipes floating around out there, and I’ve tried a handful…but these are my new favorite. They bake up beautifully and taste divine. So go make some sticky buns! And eat at least 4…

Cinnamon Buns
(Recipe adapted from Allrecipes Ooey-Gooey Cinnamon Buns)
I find that these are better if you roll the dough thinner and maybe up the filling a bit…this recipe is a great starter, but you can definitely improvise with these in terms of what you want to put in them.

Ingredients:

Dough
1 tsp white sugar
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:

In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and yeast in the warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter and salt; stir until melted. Let cool until lukewarm.

In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture, milk mixture, eggs and 1 1/2 cup flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.



Once risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, roll into an 18x14 inch rectangle (the thinner you can roll the dough though, the better - these dimensions are simply a guideline). Brush with 2 tablespoons melted butter, leaving 1/2 inch border uncovered; mix brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle mixture over the buttered dough.



Starting at long side, tightly roll up, pinching seam to seal. Brush with remaining 2 tablespoons butter. With serrated knife, cut into 15 (or more) pieces; place cut side down, into a buttered pan (I like to use circular foil pans that look like Chinese food take-out pans…they work pretty perfect for these). Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in volume. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.


Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool in pan for 3 minutes, then invert onto serving platter.

Finally, frost these babies up with some cream cheese icing and you’re good to go!

Yogurt Honey Scones

I had a major scone fail yesterday…I was sitting at home, wanting to bake something, and I came across Joy the Baker’s recipe for Grapefruit, Honey, and Yogurt Scones. I had just bought some grapefruits and had half a container of Greek yogurt in my fridge so I figured it was fate and I went about making the scones.

First off, I didn’t have any parchment paper so I greased some aluminum foil. Needless to say, the scones burnt…bad. Even though I turned down my oven. However, my oven is super old and likes to burn things sometimes…so I blamed it on that as well as my lack of parchment and substitution stupidity.

I was, however, able to taste the salvageable parts of the scones but unfortunately, I didn’t really like them…the grapefruit was nice, but the grapefruit sugar (made with the zest) had a frustrating bitterness to it that threw everything off for me. I think it’s cus I live in a polar climate where fresh grapefruit is rarer than green grass before March…and Joy probably had much better grapefruits, considering she lives in California.

Note to self: Move to California.

Anyways, today I wanted to take another stab at these scones, omitting the grapefruit this time around. The result? DELISH! They are light and flakey, almost like biscuits, and just scream for warm butter and fresh jam. I might be in love.

Mind you, I still had to turn my oven down a bit to avoid burning…

Note to self: Get new oven.

But the parchment really makes a difference. So definitely invest in some if you want to make these scones.

Yogurt & Honey Scones
(Adapted from Joy the Baker’s recipe for Grapefruit, Honey, and Yogurt Scones)

Ingredients:

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

Directions:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (IMPORTANT!) and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and baking soda.


Dice cold butter into small chunks and add to the dry ingredients. Using your fingers (or a pastry blender), and working quickly, break the butter down into the flour mixture until butter chunks are the size of oat flakes or small peas. The butter and flour combined will resemble coarse meal. Add the honey and yogurt. Toss together with a fork until all of the dry ingredients are moistened by the honey and yogurt.


Turn the scone dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Form into an 8 inch circle, about 1 inch thick. Use a knife or a bench scraper to cut the dough into six scone triangles. Place on the prepared baking sheet.


Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until golden brown on top and firm but soft in the center. Allow to cool on the pan for 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm with butter and jam.

Garlic Dill Cheese Biscuits

I’m a firm believer in the theory that dill makes everything better. Now, I may have made that theory up…but I still stand behind it.

And the combo of dill, garlic and cheese? THE BEST.

The other night, we had leftover chili for dinner. However, I decided to spice it up a bit with homemade biscuits. I had bought a huge bunch of dill, so I chopped some up and added it, along with some garlic, to my favorite biscuit recipe.

And it was good…Matt and I polished off nearly the entire batch between the 2 of us. There’s your warning.

Garlic Dill Cheese Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon sugar
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup cold butter
1 cup plus one tablespoon buttermilk
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp fresh chopped dill

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Oil a baking sheet. (This is important, as these suckers like to stick.)

Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar & garlic powder. Slice the cold butter into the flour mixture. Use a pastry blender (or two kitchen knives, or your hands) to cut the butter into the flour mixture until you have a coarse, grainy mixture

Stir in grated cheese and dill. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and pour the buttermilk into it. Stir just until moistened. The dough should be of a consistency like drop cookie dough or just a bit stiffer. If it is not moist enough, add another tablespoon of buttermilk.

Spoon the dough into rounded mounds on the baking sheet, leaving room for expansion.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until the biscuits just begin to brown. I actually ended up turning my oven down to in between 400 and 425 as my first batch nearly burned at 425, so watch them carefully. Remove the biscuits from the baking sheet and place them on a wire rack to cool.

Baked French Toast

So my new “eat healthier” resolution from yesterday? Went right out the window this morning. I was browsing The Pioneer Woman’s blog (one of my absolute favs) and I stumbled across her Cinnamon Baked French Toast recipe…and the pictures alone were pure food porn and I knew my life would not be complete unless I made that delicious delicacy as fast as possible. So I did.

Omg. Quite possibly one of the BEST things I have ever made. And it was so simple. Bread, milk, eggs and cinnamon streusel baked in the oven? Why have I not thought of this already!

It basically combines everything I love. It’s like if French toast and coffee cake had a baby…it would be this. And I would gladly baby-sit whenever they wanted.

…not really sure if that metaphor worked.

Regardless, this is amazingly delicious. Please make it. Just go. Do it. You won’t be disappointed.

Cinnamon Baked French Toast
(Adapted from The Pioneer Woman’s recipe)
I had to make a few alterations due to the fact that I had no cream…I figured that made it healthier. I also used a whole wheat baguette...however, let’s face it. This really isn’t that good for you.

Ingredients:

French Toast
1 baguette
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla

Topping
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

*Matt thought that there was too much streusel topping on this…but I disagree. So if you’re a fan of streusel, use it all, however if you’re not – you might want to half it.

Directions:

Grease a baking pan with butter (I used a pie plate as I broke my shallow casserole dish while pulling it out of the cupboard…). Tear bread into chunks (or cut into cubes) and evenly distribute in the pan.


Mix together eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla. Pour evenly over bread. Cover tightly and store in the fridge several hours or overnight (I omitted this step and it still turned out fine).

In a separate bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add butter pieces and but into the dry mixture until mixture resembles fine pebbles.


When you’re ready to bake the casserole, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove casserole from oven and sprinkle crumb mixture over the top. Bake for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture. Bake 1 hour or more for a firmer, less liquid texture.


Scoop out individual portions. Top with butter and drizzle with maple syrup.

Rye Bread

I apologize for the severe lack of baking last week. I was working 2 jobs and therefore, was only home to sleep and had very little time or energy to bake…I actually had zero baking in my house. That never happens.

So this weekend I baked like a madwoman! Today, I made more bread…as I’m embracing my newfound ability to correctly engineer yeast. I’m kind of in love with yeast now – it’s amazing stuff! I can’t believe I used to hate it so much. It’s like a guy I grew up with whom I couldn’t stand and used to drive me crazy...who suddenly got super hot, amazing and successful after high school. That is what yeast is in my life right now.

My life is kind of pathetic.

Anyways, today I made rye bread. I love rye bread. It’s without question my number one choice for sandwiches. And I will definitely be making a lot of those now.

Rye Bread
(Adapted from the back of my Rogers Dark Rye Flour bag)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp yeast

2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp sea salt
1¾ cups warm water
3 cups dark rye flour
2-3 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

First, dissolve your yeast and 1 tsp of honey in 1/2 cup of warm water. Let it stand for about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together the 2 tbsp honey, vegetable oil, salt and 1¾ cups warm water. Add the yeast mixture and mix well.

Add the rye flour and beat vigorously for 2 minutes. Stir in a sufficient amount of all-purpose flour to make a soft and workable dough. Knead for 5 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.

Form the dough into a ball and place in a greased bowl, turning it over once so that the top is greased. Cover and let rise for about 1-1½ hours, until doubled in bulk.



After the first rise, punch down dough and form it into 2 smooth balls. Cover and let rest for about 20 minutes, then roll each ball into a long, rounded loaf. Place on a greased baking sheet. Using a sharp knife, make 3 or 4 shallow diagonal slashes across the top of each loaf. Let rise an additional 1/2 hour.



Bake at 375 degrees F for 40-50 minutes. When done, remove from baking sheet and cool on a wire rack.

(*Note: My oven is old and testy, so I turned it down to 350 for the last 15 minutes to avoid burning. Just keep an eye on the bread to be safe.)

Basic French Toast

French toast. I don’t crave it very often – I’m more of a pancake kind of girl – but when I do get a hankering for that sweet, eggy bread…I usually have to satisfy it right away.

This weekend, I had it twice. I went for brunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Padmanadi, and had the most delicious coconut banana French toast. It inspired me to start making variations on French toast more often, as it’s like a pancake in the sense that it takes well to experimentation.

Today however, I’m just gonna share my basic French toast recipe. It’s kind of a no-fail, guaranteed delicious kind of thing. It’s also a great way to use up stale bread. I used some leftover whole wheat bread I made last week, but French bread is also really great and one of my favorite breads to use is actually rye bread.

P.S. Cinnamon raisin is pretty awesome too… in a heavenly I-can’t-believe-this-even-exists kind of way.

French Toast

Ingredients:

4-6 slices of bread
2 eggs
1 cup milk - vanilla soy milk is really nice too
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch cinnamon (optional)

butter (for the pan)

Directions:

Beat the eggs in a shallow bowl and slowly mix in the milk and vanilla (and cinnamon, if you’re using it).

Over medium heat, heat a frying pan coated with a thin layer of butter.

While the frying pan is heating up, place the bread slices into the bowl one at a time, letting them soak up the egg mixture for a few seconds, then carefully turn them to coat the other side. Only soak as many slices as you will be cooking, as they can get too soggy otherwise.



Transfer the bread slices to your frying pan, heating slowly until the bottoms are golden brown. Turn and brown the other sides as well.



Serve hot with butter, syrup, icing sugar, whipped cream, fresh fruit and anything else your little heart desires!

Cheddar Parmesan Buttermilk Biscuits

I have always had a deep love for biscuits. I remember when I was little, I used to ask to go to Red Lobster every year for my birthday solely so that I could eat dozens of those garlic cheese biscuits they have there. I also remember biscuits being one of the first things I EVER baked, back in a baking class I took when I was in elementary school. I’ve been making, eating and loving them for years.

My sister hosted our weekly Sunday family dinner last night, and usually I get conned into making dessert (which I never object to) but when I phoned her yesterday afternoon, she asked for biscuits (as we were having soup for dinner) – preferably with cheddar in them. So I played around with one of my favorite biscuit recipes, grated up some cheddar and parmesan cheese I had in my fridge, and created some friggen amazing biscuits. I actually had to stop my boyfriend from eating them, as I almost didn’t even have any left to bring to dinner.

Cheddar Parmesan Buttermilk Biscuits
(Adapted from the Prepared Pantry’s Easy Buttermilk Biscuits)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup cold butter
1 cup plus one tablespoon buttermilk
1 heaping cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Oil a baking sheet. (This is important, as these suckers like to stick.)

Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Slice the cold butter into the flour mixture. Use a pastry blender (or two kitchen knives) to cut the butter into the flour mixture until you have a coarse, grainy mixture.

Stir in grated cheese. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and pour the buttermilk into it. Stir just until moistened. The dough should be of a consistency like drop cookie dough or just a bit stiffer. If it is not moist enough, add another tablespoon of buttermilk.


Spoon the dough into rounded mounds on the baking sheet, leaving room for expansion.
Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until the biscuits just begin to brown. I actually ended up turning my oven down to in between 400 and 425 as my first batch nearly burned at 425, so watch them carefully. Remove the biscuits from the baking sheet and place them on a wire rack to cool.

Bread Take 2 - Whole Wheat

I took my bread making to the next level this week…I figured that if I could master a simple yeasted white bread, I should do something to try and make it slightly healthier.

So, I researched some other bread recipes, added some whole wheat flour and bran into the mix (because fiber is good for you!) and the bread turned out delicious. I used it for sandwiches all week and it’s amazing just the difference in flavor compared to most store-bought breads. It’s got a mild sweetness to it from the brown sugar that’s just lovely. It also makes a mean toast.

I may never buy bread from the supermarket again…

Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

4 tbsp butter
1 cup milk
1½ tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 cups flour (I used half whole wheat, half white)
1/2 cup wheat bran

Directions:

Melt the butter and the milk together in the microwave. While you do this, mix your yeast with a little bit of warm water to activate it. Let it sit for about 5 minutes.

After the butter is melted and your milk/butter mixture is lukewarm, mix it with the yeast in a large bowl. Add in the salt and sugar and mix well. Add the flour and bran last and stir until all the ingredients come together into a sticky ball.

Knead for about 5-7 minutes – dough should be elastic and moist. Place in a greased bowl and cover with the tea towel. Allow dough to rise for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

When dough has risen, punch down and knead out air bubbles. Form the dough into a loaf, place in a greased loaf pan and allow to rise, covered, for another 30 minutes.


Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Bread & Butter

Today, something magical happened.

I made bread.

Real, yeasted, soft, delicious bread. Not gummy on the insides, not burnt on the outsides…just, amazing. Today, I broke my curse. Today, I became a woman.

Now, I know that all sounds very dramatic (though, let’s be honest - I’m a pretty dramatic person) however it makes me feel so good that I have FINALLY accomplished this. I guess I just had to take the time to commit to it. To follow a recipe…and find success.

Oh, and I also made butter…

BUTTER.

From. Scratch.

I was, once again, pretty amazed with myself. I may have laughed maniacally for about 10 minutes...I may have also made up songs about how awesome I am...my brother may have stood in the corner of the kitchen and wondered if he was adopted while all of this was happening...

But now, if you’ll excuse me, I have half a loaf of bread left to eat.

Success Bread
I took this recipe from here, but I halved it as I only had one packet of yeast left and I also didn’t want to waste a bunch of flour if it ended up being a fail…thankfully, it was amazing and I’ll be definitely using this recipe again and making 2 loaves next time so that I can give one away! Or...freeze it. Or...eat it.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp butter
3/4 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp salt
3 cups of unbleached bread flour

Directions:

Heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat (I used the microwave and it worked just as well). Remove from heat when the butter is melted. Set aside to cool.

Pour 1/4 cup of the warm water into a small bowl. Slowly pour yeast into bowl while stirring. The constant stirring while adding the yeast will prevent the dry yeast from clumping. Set the bowl of yeast water aside for about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix the sugar, salt and remaining 1/2 cup of warm water. Add the milk and butter mixture and mix. Pour the yeast water into the large bowl (It is important that the batter is warm, not boiling hot. Hot liquid, such as the milk you heated up, will kill the dry yeast and prevent the bread from rising).

Begin mixing in the flour, one cup at a time. By the 3rd cup of flour, the dough will begin to get stiff and it will be difficult to mix it with a spoon. Turn dough out onto a floured board and begin to knead the dough. Continue adding more flour and kneading the flour into the dough until the dough is smooth, not sticky.

Grease a large bowl with butter. Put the bread dough into the bowl and then turn the dough over so that the top of the dough is buttered. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise at room temperature until double in size or about 1 hour.

Punch down dough. Turn it out onto a floured board and knead out all the bubbles for about 5 minutes. Divide the dough in half and form each half into a loaf by rolling the dough into a rectangle. Roll the dough up like a jellyroll. Pinch seam closed. Pinch and tuck edges under the loaf.

Set loaf in a buttered loaf pan, cover with kitchen towel, and allow to rise until double in size (about half an hour).


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake bread for about 45 minutes or until golden brown. Remove bread from oven and turn out loaves onto a rack or a clean kitchen towel. Allow to cool before cutting.

Butter
I knew that homemade butter wasn’t impossible. In fact, one time when I was whipping cream, I wasn’t really paying attention and my sister jokingly asked if I was trying to make butter. I researched this and discovered that it’s true - if you whip cream for a very long time, it turns into butter. And I decided that because I had a fresh loaf of homemade bread and half a carton of whipping cream in my fridge, I might as well give it a try!

First, you need whipping cream. I had about a cup of it.

Second, you need a stand mixer. I’m still saving for one so I used a hand mixer.

Pour the whipping cream into a pretty big bowl. Mix on high for about 10 minutes.


After 10 minutes of mixing, the pale yellow butter should separate from the butter milk (this is when the maniacal laughing began). You might need a towel at this point as it gets a little splattery if your bowl is too small.


Once it’s mostly separated, scoop it out with a slotted spoon and put in a bowl. You can add salt at this point too, if you want salted butter.


ENJOY! And praise yourself for being a domestic goddess...I did.

Banana Bread

In the process of cleaning out my fridge yesterday, I noticed a large collection of brown bananas in my freezer. I commonly forget about all those bananas until I’m throwing a new one in and at that point, I usually make a note to make banana bread in the future…and then I forget.

BUT NOT TODAY!

Today, I made banana bread. It surprises me that I don’t make it more often as I absolutely love banana bread. It is one of my favourite comfort foods. Plus it’s so versatile – breakfast, afternoon snack, dessert…you can eat it just about whenever. I do.

I used Joy the Baker’s recipe and tweaked it a bit. I tend to use many of her recipes…because I trust her. And I didn’t want to waste those bananas!!

Even if I have about a zillion more…banana muffins may be next.

Banana Bread
This was originally Banana Cranberry Bread…but I had no cranberries. I used chopped pecans instead. I’m kind of on a pecan kick right now.

Ingredients:

3 to 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted salted butter
3/4-1 cup light brown sugar, depending on the level of sweetness you prefer
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup of flour

1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.


With a wooden spoon, mix the butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla, then the spices. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour, mix. Add the nuts, and stir until just incorporated. Pour mixture into a buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Guest Blogger: Matty Matt's Orange Wheat Bread

I'm not the only one in my family with a passion for food. Aside from having a mother who is an absolutely terrific Ukrainian cook and a younger brother who works in 2 kitchens and is heading to culinary school in January, my older sister is also a fantastic cook and even my nieces and nephews are beginning to dabble into some culinary experimentation as well.

My oldest nephew, Matthew, is 15 and a ridiculously talented musician. Just recently, I discovered that he is also a very talented baker! He did a unique take on a whole wheat bread recipe and it turned out great so I've decided to let him be my first guest blogger!

Check it out ;)

“Matt really wanted to make bread and make it healthy. He changed the recipe a little bit by using orange juice instead of water. We also used more wheat flour (by ratio) than the recipe called for and added ground flax seed as well. We used quick rise yeast instead of regular and shortened the first rise. The recipe said to leave it for 30 minutes till bubbly and then add more flour but we only left it 15 mounts. We made two loaves and 6 buns because we only have two loaf pans and the recipe makes three loaves.”

Matty Matt’s Healthy Orange Wheat Bread
(Adapted from Allrecipe’s Simple Whole Wheat Bread Recipe)

Ingredients:

3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) (or orange juice)
2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast (or quick rise yeast and cut down the first rising time)
1/3 cup honey
5 cups bread flour
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon salt
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 1/3 cup honey. Add 5 cups white bread flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.

Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1/3 cup honey, and salt. Stir in 2 cups whole wheat flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky - just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch. This may take an additional 2 to 4 cups of whole wheat flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.

Punch down, and divide into 3 loaves. Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch.

Bake at 350 F for 25 to 30 minutes; do not overbake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely.


It is yummy toasted with peanut butter.

Pumpkin Double Whammy!

So, my pumpkin obsession got a little bit intensified over the weekend when I discovered that numerous vendors at the farmer’s market have lovely selections of sugar pumpkins! I’ve been searching for cooking pumpkins for awhile now and I’m so stoked that I can finally buy them from local farmers at the market. The vendor I bought them from last weekend even assured me that she’d be selling them until Christmas…needless to say, I’m a little excited.

Today, I have a double dose of pumpkin for you! 1 savoury dish and 1 sweet. I made a pumpkin soup and a gluten-free version of one of my favourite pumpkin breads :)

Curried Roasted Pumpkin Soup
(Adapted from Joy McCarthy’s Roasted Pumpkin Curry Soup)
This soup is so yummy and incredibly good for you. I’m kind of in love with it.

Ingredients:

1 small sugar pumpkin, seeds and stringy bits removed and cut into large chunks
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp freshly chopped ginger
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tsp curry powder
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Drizzle pumpkin chunks with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 40-60 minutes. When pumpkin is fork-tender, remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Let cool and remove flesh from skins. Set aside.

Melt coconut oil in a large pot on the stove on medium-high heat. Add onions and celery and cook until brown, stirring frequently. Once veggies have browned, add garlic, ginger, pumpkin, salt and pepper.

Add enough water to just cover the vegetables. Stir occasionally and skim off any foam that appears on the surface with a ladle. Once the soup has come to a boil, turn the heat down to low heat and let simmer. Sprinkle in the curry powder and stir. Allow the soup to simmer for 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

After letting it simmer for 15 minutes or so, remove pot from heat. With a hand-blender (or food processor), blend the soup until no chunks remain. You may need to add more water during this step if the soup is too thick.

Add any additional salt & pepper to taste. Enjoy!


Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Spice Bread
(Adapted from Joy the Baker’s Vegan Pumpkin Walnut Bread)
This bread is really crumbly and moist…and also very sweet. It’s more like cake. I think I might even love it more than the original.

Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour
3/4 cup oat flour
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
2½ tbsp water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place a rack in the center of the oven. Grease and flour one loaf pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.

In a medium bowl, carefully whisk together pumpkin puree, oil, maple syrup and water.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a spatula to fold all of the ingredients together. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl well, finding any stray flour bits to mix in.

Pour the dough into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven. Let rest in the pans for 20 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack.

Serve warm.