Cheesy Garlic Bread with Pizza Dough!

We've had some pizza dough in the fridge that we have just been putting off using. Today I was making soup and thought it would be nice to have some bread with it - but I didn't want to go to the store.  I decided to try for some cheesy garlic bread.  WOW!

Delicious.

Ingredients
1lb refrigerated pizza dough, at room temperature
3-4 cloves garlic
2 T butter
1/4 C parmesan cheese, shredded
1 C mozzarella cheese, shredded
flour for rolling

Directions
1. Preheat a pizza stone or upside down cookie sheet in the oven to the highest setting (450-500 degrees)
2. Cut a piece of parchment paper the size of your stone and flour it
3. Roll/Stretch the dough out into the shape of your stone - ours is a rectangle on your parchment paper
4. Crush garlic into a bowl and combine with butter
5. Butter the dough with the garlic/butter mixture
6. Sprinkle the cheese over the butter
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and dough is cooked through
8. Cut and serve warm

Deconstructed Grilled Cheese

The other day I got this Martha Stewart newsletter that featured this little beauty of a recipe  Grilled cheese wheel. I left this open on my browser for two days. And by the end of the day today I knew I had to have it.  A whole cheese wheel for one person is a little ridiculous...so I had half but it was SO WORTH IT.  I recommend this for your next party appetizer!

Ingredients:
1 baguette
olive oil
salt & pepper
1 round of brie cheese (pick a round that fits the size of your party)

Directions:
1. Heat the grill to 400 and then turn off one burner.
2. Diagonally slice bread. Brush the slices with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. If you are using less than the entire round of cheese, take the cut piece of cheese and wrap in foil. If you are using the whole cheese, brush lightly with olive oil.
4. Grill bread 1-2 minutes per side over the flame.
5. Grill cheese over indirect heat or on the grill rack for about 2 minutes per side
6. Serve cheese and bread slices immediately and warm

Homemade Buttermilk Bread

 When we were at Epcot in February I had this delicious ham sandwich in France.  It was just ham, butter and cheese on a very fresh baguette. It was fantastic. I recall it as one of my favorite meals while there.  Ever since we returned I have been craving a similar ham sandwich.  So today, since I was at home I decided to make some bread.  The thing about bread is that it's like 10-15 minutes of hands on time and hours of hands off time. Perfect when you are working from home!

This bread uses buttermilk and that is primarily the reason I chose to make it--because I already had buttermilk!  The bread may not have worked exactly how it was intended to work because it was really dense and a little spongy possibly because of the Pam I sprayed on the pan and bowl a little bit greasy. Regardless it was a really hearty dinner! It is fun to make bread and then use it right away!  I recommend it. And if you are lucky, your yeast might be more active than my yeast.

I used this recipe. But with my perpetual fear of other blogs going away I am reposting it here.


Ingredients
1/4 C water, warmed
1 package active dry yeast
pinch of sugar
4 1/2 C flour
1 t salt (use regular because I think Kosher was too salty)
2-3 t honey
1 1/2 C buttermilk, warmed
1 egg, whisked (for baking)

1. Place yeast and sugar in the warmed water and let sit 10 minutes until foamy. Note - If it is not foamy after 10 minutes your yeast is not active and you must try again, always buy extra yeast!

2. Meanwhile, measure out all other ingredients into a mixing bowl.  Add yeast mixture and mix with the dough hook until a soft ball forms.

3. Remove the dough and place on a well-floured board and knead about 10 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise 1 hour/

4. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead about 5 minutes. Shape into a loaf and place into a loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 40 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 375.  Remove plastic wrap and brush bread top with egg.  Bake 45 minutes.  Wait a tiny bit for your hot bread to cool before enjoying.  We loved it with ham sandwiches for dinner!

Cheese-Filled Corn Muffins

Have you noticed how catalogs are getting up with the times recently by offering other content to set them apart from others? For instance the Crate & Barrel catalog has a section called "get the download" where you get free books, apps and music to use in conjunction with their products.  Another catalog that has caught on is William-Sonoma. They provide recipes--some which feature their products and some you could make even if all your kitchen paraphernalia is from Target.

This month, the William-Sonoma catalog had an intriguing recipe for mini cheese-filled cornbreads.  Excited about the melty-creamy quality of Fontina in my recent recipe pizzaccherri, I was interested to try these so I made sure to have the ingredients on hand for the week.

When Friday finally pulled around I had the chance.  I only keep white cornmeal at home so I picked up some yellow in the bulk section at the grocery store. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 Cups of cornmeal and can you believe that is exactly what I guessed at the store?  Amazing.

I made these two ways--cheese & rosemary and cheese & jalepeno.  Both were good and neither had an overpowering flavor. I liked the cheese in the middle and didn't need any butter.  This makes 12 large muffins. Heat leftovers for 20 seconds in the microwave before eating for the cheesiest deliciousness.


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups finely ground cornmeal
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Tbs. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. sugar
2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary pr 1/2 jalepeno finely chopped, seed removed
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
6 Tbs. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
5 1/2 oz. fontina cheese, cut into twelve 3/4-inch cubes
Directions:
Preheat an oven to 400ºF. Spray the wells of a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and rosemary (or jalepeno)*. Make a small well in the center.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk and butter until just blended. Pour the egg mixture into the well of the cornmeal mixture and gently fold until the batter is blended and no lumps remain.

Spoon about 2 Tbs. batter into each prepared well and place a cheese cube in the center of each one. Spoon the remaining batter evenly on top, covering the cheese cubes. Bake until the edges of the corn bread are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 15 minutes.

*If you want to make half rosemary and half jalepeno then don't mix it in with the dry ingredients. Instead sprinkle in the flavorings when you add the cheese.

Homemade Hot Dog Buns

On Sunday we went to the store with the plan to get fruit and food for the week. We did get fruit but when it came to dinner for the week we only half-heartedly got anything. We got hot dogs but no buns! It was a sad realization when we got home.

Today, as I worked from home after jury duty, I decided to try out this recipe for hot dog buns that I found online. It seemed like it would be so easy! I had all the ingredients! I knew my skills at bread making were lacking but I tried it anyway!

Well, the results were lackluster. Our house is apparently very drafty, even with the bread dough in the closet it didn't get close to rising after an hour. Later, trying to rise the dough again proved futile even in the hottest closet in the house!  Could the car work?

The final product was more like a dinner roll than a hamburger bun, but it was still a worthy project with little hands on time.  I don't know what I would try next time for better results but at least I have a go-to dense dinner roll recipe!  These buns were filling, tiny and delicious. I told Joey at dinner that I wanted 1 hot dog and three buns. It wasn't a reality but this is my kind of bread!

Note to self, bread skills still lacking.

Hot Dog Buns  - we got 7 buns for our 7 dogs,

1 T sugar
1/4 C warm water
1 package yeast
4 C flour
1 C warm milk
1 T vegetable oil, plus more for the bowl
1 tsp salt

Directions
1. In the bowl of your stand mixer stir together sugar and water until sugar dissolves
2. Add yeast and let sit 10 minutes until foamy. If it isn't foamy when you get back, start over with a new yeast packet.
3. Add milk, oil, salt and 3 cups of flour to the bowl and beat with your dough hook in your electric mixer. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes.
4. Add additional flour in spoonfuls until the dough stays away from the sides
5. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead 5-7 minutes until smooth and elastic
6. Place in a well oiled bowl, cover with a light towel and let sit 1 hour or until doubled in size
7. Later, when it has doubled, divide into 7-9 equal pieces and roll into logs about 4 1/2 inches long
8. Place logs just barely touching on a parchment lined baking sheet, cover with the same towel and let rise 45 minutes until almost doubled in size
9. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
10. Bake about 20 minutes and serve warm

Irish Soda Bread

My family is not Irish, but my mom always celebrated St. Patrick's day with a little corned beef, soda bread, and sometimes dyed green milk.  I loved celebrating the holiday that really meant nothing to me with a little green!  My husband isn't a huge fan of corned beef so I knew I wouldn't be making that this year, however, just before the holiday I came across a super easy recipe for homemade Irish soda bread.  The bread uses buttermilk, which, we happened to have hanging out in our fridge!

This is the EASIEST bread recipe I've ever made. Easier than no-knead and it yields a circular loaf of dense bread in just an hour!

I used this recipe from the Christian Science Monitor. This would be great to do with kids.  It is super easy even if you've never cooked before you could do it!

Ingredients:
4 Cups all purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 3/4 C buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
1. Spray a 9 inch round cake pan with cooking spray or rub with a bit of butter.  If you don't have a pan just spray a cookie sheet
2. In a large bowl combine flour, salt and baking soda
3. Create a well in the middle of the flour mixture by pushing the flour to the sides, pour in the buttermilk and stir until it just comes together
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead 10 times.
5. Shape into a round and place in the cake pan or on a baking sheet.  If you have another cake pan set it on top, if not, don't worry about it. Cut a cross shape on the top with a sharp knife
6. Bake for 30 minutes, remove top pan and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Bread will be golden brown. If you can wait, let it cool a bit before eating.  Delicious with butter and honey!

Parker House Rolls - What Happened?

When we first got an iPad the most interesting app we downloaded was my subscription for Everyday Food iPad version. This magazine is seriously fantastic on the iPad. It does everything it does well in magazine form plus interactive features and videos! My only complaint is that you can't dog-ear or bookmark the pages to remember it for later.

All the way back in the Thanksgiving issue, Joey and I watched a video for Parker House Rolls. The video and the pictures pretty much put them on a pedestal of best looking dinner rolls you have ever had.  We were immediately disappointed we had offered to bring dessert instead of dinner rolls.  We put the recipe on the back burner to remember for later.

Later came, and at a weird too late hour to really be ready by dinner, we decided to make the Parker House rolls. Only issue? We didn't have any milk and weren't confident in the active-ness of our yeast. I rushed to the store and we started the process realizing that with this sidestep we may be having dinner after 8:30pm.

We followed the directions and got to the part of "using a dough hook mix bread for 10 minutes until in a ball." It took us maybe 2 minutes and that's a stretch to reach the ball stage and already by then the dough hook was determined to launch the dough across the kitchen.

We set the wet-towel covered bowl upstairs in the guest room to be in the warmest place and draft free (lucky guests!) to rise for the first hour.  After the first hour it seemed to have risen and we moved on to the roll stage and second rise.  After the second rise the rolls seemed slightly bigger so we baked 8 of them and threw the rest of the dough into the freezer for another day.

We baked our rolls starving as we waited for the pork tenderloin to finish cooking and dinner to be ready.  The result was a very dense roll much like a biscuit but more bready.  It was not a horrible thing.  All the rolls we baked were eaten but they weren't the fluffy examples we'd poured over from the video we'd been watching since November.  We decided that we could fix the bread with what we had left in the freezer on another occasion.

That other occasion came on the weekend.  We took the bread from the freezer and let it "rise" in the bag overnight while we let it defrost.  We then threw it in a bowl with a wet towel and gave it all day to do it's thing.  It didn't.

Then we turned to Google and I discussed our problem with my baking friends and we decided that what most likely happened was that the "room temperature milk" needed to activate the yeast was too cold.  The internet said that we could indeed fix our mistake by mixing 1t yeast + 1/4t sugar + 1/4 C warm water.  We let the yeast mixture sit ten minutes until it foamed and bubbled (the yeast is fine!) and then kneaded as much of it as we could into the slightly drier dough.  Then we set the dough in a bowl with a damp cloth over it and left it overnight.

The next morning we were both absolutely thrilled to see that the bread dough had risen!  Our problem was fixed!  Unfortunately, it was early morning and we had no time to bake bread.  We stuck the bowl covered in plastic wrap in the fridge and hoped for the best.

This evening I finally was able to make it. I pulled the dough out and did a little bit of kneading and then cut it into large chunks trying to make the equivelent of hamburger bun sized rolls.  We plan to have them with pulled pork when they come out of the oven...they smell fantastic although they didn't so much stick together in roll-shaped circles.  And the verdict?

The rolls were good but still not right.  They weren't fluffy inside and out, they had a bit of a crust on the outside and were still a little dense but rather fluffy inside too just not as light as a dinner roll. The rolls were actually perfect for pulled pork sandwiches! They are not perfect for Thanksgiving dinner though.

Next step - Make a new bread recipe because it sure does make the house smell delicious at the very least!

Pizza Dough Breadsticks

As you know, Trader Joe's is not my favorite ever store. However, I was moved to go there last week to pick up some cookie butter.  I was hungry and picked up a whole slew of other ingredients including their world-famous pre-made pizza dough.

Little known fact: Joey and I have not once been successful at pizza making.  It's true, I know it's tough to even fathom being such cooks and bakers.  We can't believe it either.  Every time we try to roll out the dough it springs back into a small round.  When we finally have it so we think something else goes wrong and our pizzas aren't anything close to the likes of our favorite neighborhood shop.

So when I bought the pizza dough I was a little bit hesitant.  But I got it all the same. Then later in the week I picked up some toppings with every intention of making pizza.  By Monday night we still had no pizza and we decided to just order some because we'd been craving it for days!

With pizza already out for dinner (since we just had it), I knew I had to come up with something to use this pizza dough.  Tonight Joey had to work late so I didn't want to make anything to crazy-complicated for dinner. Plus, we really didn't have any food except the ingredients for pizza and canned goods.

As a result I decided on a light dinner of soup and breadsticks.  I would make breadsticks with the pizza dough.  Has anyone ever done this before I wondered?  I went to my old friend google and searched for "pizza dough breadsticks" nearly the first post was a favorite blog of mine "Playing House" with a recipe for pizza dough breadsticks using TJs dough!

After following the directions and letting the dough rest it was too sticky to roll so I added some flour.  Then I tried again.  I had the same terrible rolling results as usual. Luckily breadsticks are forgiving!  I rolled it to whatever I thought might be big enough, brushed with olive oil, sprinkled on some oregeno, garlic powder and a dash of salt.  I also added a quick shred of Parmesan.  I baked my whole-wheat sticks for 14 minutes and came up with a glorious warm side dish for my soup.  So delicious!  I highly recommend you skip the pizza next time and make these.

Soft Pretzels

Recently I stumbled across a blog called Hide the Cheese. I loved the creative name and soon the content and the pictures. I scrolled through countless blog posts and came across one for Homemade Soft Pretzels. Once I saw the picture, I HAD to have them.

A few days went by and finally I decided to make the pretzels to accompany some soup that I was making. I started at 2pm and mixed together the ingredients and then set aside the dough to rise. When I came back an hour later it had not doubled in size as the recipe told me it was. It occurred to me that since our house was, at that time, less than 62 degrees in the kitchen (because it was 62 upstairs and obviously I needed to turn the heat up), the dough wasn't warm enough to rise. So, I brought the bowl upstairs and turned up the heat. I waited an additional half hour and the dough....still didn't look that big but I decided to go for it anyway.

Now tell me, friends, when was the last time you rolled out a dough snake? Unless you hang out with kids all day, I'm guessing your answer will be something like 20 years ago. And that was my answer. I first tried to roll out dough snakes in the air but then I realized it would be lots easier if I rolled the snakes on the counter, with two hands, starting from the center and moving outward. So much easier! If you have kids around this is an activity that they can help you with!

Anyway, these pretzels were delicious and a great addition to our dinner table.

Recipe here.

Cheese Puffs

For a shower/wedding gift, Joey and I received Barefoot in Paris. Ina Garten is one of my favorite food network chefs. I would gladly have her and Jeffery over for clams any day. The best part about these cookbooks (we have 2 of Ina's) are the delicious looking pictures that compliment the recipes as well as her conversational banter accompaniment in introductory paragraphs. I can almost hear her telling each little antidote.

Joey and I both looked through the book searching for recipes that interested us. His first choice was Cheese Puffs. These are little puffed dough that are flavored with cheese (you could probably surmise that from the name). I was a little worried at first because the recipe seemed difficult and time consuming, but as it turned out it wasn't really that hard at all.

The cheese puffs were very tasty. We made ours a little too big so some of them were a little to doughy on the inside but still golden brown on the out. Next time we make these, we will hopefully have received (and mastered) the use of a pastry bag and tips (a zip-top bag doesn't work for large doughs).

Cheese Puffs
from Barefoot in Paris
Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1/4-pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (we used iodized salt)
  
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (already ground pepper)
  
• Pinch nutmeg
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 extra-large eggs (4 large eggs)
  
• 1/2 cup grated Gruyere, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• 1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water, for egg wash

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Grate cheeses, keeping them separated. Set these aside.

In a saucepan, heat the milk, butter, salt, pepper, and nutmeg over medium heat, until scalded. Add the flour all at once and beat it vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together. Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat for 2 minutes. The flour will begin to coat the bottom of the pan. Dump the hot mixture into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Immediately add the eggs, Gruyere, and Parmesan and pulse until the eggs are incorporated and the dough is smooth and thick.

Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip. Pipe in mounds 1 1/4 inches wide and 3/4-inch high onto the baking sheets. With a wet finger, lightly press down the swirl at the top of each puff. (You can also use 2 spoons to scoop out the mixture and shape the puffs with damp fingers.)** Brush the top of each puff lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with a pinch of Gruyere. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown outside but still soft inside.

**The dough becomes very sticky. The two spoons and wet hand combination is harder than we thought. Ah, a pastry bag, what the life.

Baked Brie with Pesto in a Bread Bowl

So, Jeff's Aunt Cindy (a future contributor to this blog and an amazing cook) and I were preparing appetizers for CJ's party. I was thinking cheese plate, chips and salsa, hummus and pita, and cake. Cindy saw the extra brie I had purchased and the left-over loaf of No Knead Bread from the night before and said, "Let's whip up a baked brie!" Never one to turn down a cooking experience with Cindy, I agreed. Soon we were clipping oregano, thyme, and basil from the garden to make a simple pesto and in no time at all the smell of melted cheese was wafting through the house. What a way to impress the guests! Here's the recipe, as close as I can record it:

1 bread bowl (sourdough or other crusty bread like homemade no knead bread)

1-2 brie triangles

herbs, olive oil, and pine nuts

olive oil

Slice the top off the bread and cut out the center to create a bowl. Trim the edges off the brie and cut it in a few large pieces. Brush the inside of the bread and inside of the top generously with olive oil. Chop the herbs and pine nuts in Cuisinart; then slowly add olive oil to make a pesto. Brush the pesto generously on the inside of the bowl and inside of the top. Spread brie out over bowl and put bread top on.

Bake for 1 hour at 350. Serve with extra bread from inside bowl to scoop, plus additional bread or crackers. When the brie has been eaten, you can slice the bowl up as an additional appetizer.

No Knead Bread

If you haven't heard about the No Knead Bread craze, you haven't been in the food blogger world long enough! No Knead Bread became a phenomenon last year after a New York Times article was published. For the busy,the stay at home mom, or the home office employee, this is just the kind of bread that is hands off enough to make over a two day period but hands on enough to make you feel accomplished.

I have made the bread several times and each time I think that it would be even better with the addition of rosemary--but then by the time I get to the stage where I would add in the rosemary, I completely forget. Next time I will remember!

I made the bread the other day in a shortened period of time and it still turned out delicious. I had the day at home, so I thought I'd give it a shot and if it didn't work out I'd just make something different as a side for the potato soup I was making. The only thing that didn't work out was that I forgot to flour or grease the bottom of the pot I made it in and as a result the entire bottom half of the bread was impossible to extract. Luckily, I was able to salvage much of the loaf and the rest dislodged during a hot water spa soak in the sink.

I use Jaden's directions because she does it in pictures so it is easy to follow. Also, it really shows you just how the bread should look on each stage. The best part about this was that when I made it in half the time yesterday, I compared mine with hers to determine its state of readiness. I think my bread was a little flatter because of the small amount of time I let it rise, but it still tasted great!

Ingredients:
3 cups bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
Covered pot (five-quart or larger cast iron, Pyrex, ceramic, enamel…something that can go into a 450F oven.)

Directions:
-Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl
-Cover in plastic wrap and set aside on the counter for 12-20 hours or overnight (I set it aside for 8 hours)
-Later, remove dough from bowl and place on a floured surface, form into a ball folding in all sides (this is where I would add the rosemary had I remembered it)
-Flour a cotton dishtowel and place bread on towel and cover. If you put the towel in a pot, the bread will shape like the pot, if you put it on the counter it will be flatter. Let sit for 2 hours (I did 1 hour).
-With 1/2 hour left in resting time, put pot in oven (without the bread) and heat to 450. Remove the hot pot and add bread (GREASE AND FLOUR THE PAN FIRST).
-Bake covered for 30 minutes
-Remove the cover and bake for an additional 12-15 minutes until golden brown
-Cool on a wire rack, the bread will crackle as it cools, serve the same day, I have not found this bread to be as delicious the next day.