Garlic Bread

  Yummy -- homemade garlic bread :)  Super easy and delicious!!!

Ingredients

1 baguette sliced

3T softened unsalted butter

1/2T olive oil

Red pepper flakes

oregano

2 cloves garlic

salt & pepper

Parmesan cheese

Spread butter mixture over sliced baguette and put in oven on high broil for about 3 minutes.

Homemade Pretzels

I usually don't like pretzels but making them yourself makes them taste even better!!!  So good and even more delicious when dipped in this yummy cheese dip!!

 Ingredients:

• Yeast
• Salt
• Sugar
• Flour
• Baking Soda

These pretzels are easier than you think to shape. First you’ll want to separate dough into 12 sections. Using your hands roll the dough into ropes about 15-20 inches long and 1 inch thick. Then form the rope into a circle and twist the top ends together. 

Next bring the twisted ends down the center of the circle and pinch together with the bottom to form the pretzels.

You may wonder if you really need to do the boil with baking soda, but it is an important step. This is what will help give the dough that classic pretzel texture, flavor and color. All you’re going to do is boil about 8 cups of water. Then once it has started boiling, add in the baking soda.

Place the pretzel dough into the water for about 20 seconds, then remove it with a slotted spoon and place on a lined baking sheet. Sprinkle salt on top.

Once you’ve given all of the pretzels the baking soda boil, it’s time to bake them. Let them bake until they’re golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Sometimes I’ll broil them during the last minute of cooking to help brown the tops even more.

Garlic Bread

We are so FANCY!  We made homemade garlic bread!  A perk - you can make this and freeze it, and then just take it out and bake!  AND it was delicious!!!

Our Best Bites

Ingredients:
Leftover Italian or French bread or rolls
Your favorite garlic butter (like this, or Garlic Bread Seasoning, or mix 2-3 cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon of dry parsley, and 1 stick of softened butter together)

If your bread isn’t pre-sliced, slice it in half. Then spread each side with the garlic butter. If you’d like, sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese.

Tightly wrap each piece of bread in aluminum foil and then place each wrapped loaf in a Ziploc bag and label it with the date, unless you’re doing a whole baguette or loaf of french bread–then just wrap it in plastic wrap to try and keep it from freezer burning.

When you’re ready to serve it, take out as many pieces as you need. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and pop the wrapped loaves in there (you don’t even have to wait for it to preheat). Check on it after 20 minutes or so and place it back in the oven if it needs a little more time. If you’d like to toast it just a little, you can place the halves, buttered-side-up under the broiler during the last few minutes. Remove from oven and carefully cut it however you want to.

Garlic Croutons

Chef Rogers doing up homemade Garlic Croutons!!  These were SO great!  I could have just ate them plain...hehe.  BUT we made these for our Caesar Salad.

Ingredients:
4 cloves garlic
A generous 1/4 cup pure olive oil
2 packed cups 3/4″ bread cubes, cut from a good-quality baguette or Italian loaf
Large pinch of salt

Heat a 10-inch skillet over low heat. With motor running, drop garlic cloves through feeder tube of a food processor fitted with the steel blade to mince. (A blender works as well.) Scrape down sides of bowl and add olive oil through feeder tube as well. Continue to process so that garlic releases its flavor into the oil, about 30 seconds. Strain garlic from oil through a fine-mesh strainer; reserve half of the garlic for dressing.

Increase skillet heat to medium. Place bread cubes in medium bowl. Drizzle garlic oil evenly over bread, along with big pinch of salt; toss to coat.

Add bread cubes to hot skillet and toast, turning the cubes and shaking the pan often, until crisp and golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

FALL COOKBOOK CLUB -- what what!!  I'm not a huge fan of flavored bread, BUT I thought this recipe looked very fall like - AND turns out, I LOVED IT :) I'm not the best baker (I'll be honest - I don't like to bake...cook, yes....bake, no), so I let the other fellow cookbookers put this together.  It was easy and tasted good - so now I can try to make on my own :)

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour (spooned into measuring cup and leveled)
1 cup whole wheat flour (again, don’t scoop!)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup white sugar
6 ounce container vanilla yogurt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
15 ounce can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (plus a few extra for the top of loaves)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray two 9×5 (or similar sized) loaf pans with nonstick spray and set aside.

Combine flours (after you put your flour in the bowl, just grab a teaspoon or two of it and toss with chocolate chips), cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Whisk gently to combine and set aside.

In a separate mixing bowl combine brown sugar and white sugar and whisk to combine, breaking up any clumps of brown sugar.  Add yogurt, eggs, pumpkin, oil, and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet and mix together, being careful to not over mix.  When combined, gently stir in chocolate chips.   Divide batter between loaf pans and sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips on top.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out with a few crumbs attached.  All ovens are different, I would set your timer for about 45 minutes and keep an eye on it after that.  Don’t overbake!

Let cool for 10 minutes and then run a sharp knife around edge of pan and remove loaves from pan.

Mexican Sweet Corn Cake

So we made corn bread with corn....it was good - but ours came out in crumbles instead of pieces :)  Could be because I used baking SODA instead of baking POWDER - and apparently, those are different and shouldn't be used in place of one another :)  Could be why ours was a little runny....We made this with Taco Soup and they went really good together!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened (use real butter, not margarine)
1/3 cup masa harina
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup corn meal
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons milk or cream
1 1/2 cups fresh frozen corn

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine butter, masa harina, and milk in a medium sized bowl and beat until creamy.

Add corn meal, sugar, salt, and baking powder on top of the creamed butter mixture and use a fork or whisk to lightly whisk just the dry ingredients together.  Beat the entire mixture until smooth.  Place corn in food processor (I leave mine frozen) and pulse until roughly broken up.  Add water and corn to bowl and mix until combined.

Spread mixture in an ungreased 8×8 inch pan and top with foil.  Place 8×8 pan inside a 9×13 inch pan and place both pans in oven.  Pour hot water in 9×13 inch pan just until it goes about an inch up the sides.  Bake for about 55 minutes.  Remove from oven, uncover, and let sit 10-15 minutes before serving.

World's Best Dinner Rolls with Honey Butter

Okay - Meghan and I are the best pilgrims EVER!!  Yes, I said pilgrims because that's what we felt like making bread from scratch!!  We are awesome....I mean - we started with some flour and yeast and made dinner rolls....by ourselves!!!!  AND good news for you - if we made these....you can too!!  We are not good "bakers" - and I don't especially like to bake, but perfect cabin weekend to try it out!  It was was fun - and really pretty easy :)  We used whole wheat flour - to make it a little healthier, but next time I would stick with normal flour.  These were tasty!!  ESP - when you teamed up these rolls with the homemade HONEY BUTTER we made too!!!  Ahhhh pilgrims in the house!!!  :)

OBB - makes 24 rolls

Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk (if you’re in a pinch, you can use 2%, but whole is best. Don’t use 1% or skim)
½ cup + 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) butter
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
2 pkgs. active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 teaspoons), preferably bread machine yeast
2/3 cup warm (105-115-degree) water
8-9 cups all-purpose flour
3 beaten eggs

Combine milk, 1/2 cup sugar, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts. It’s salty. It’s sweet. Yum.

Remove from heat. Allow to cool to lukewarm. I usually rub some ice cubes along the sides of the pan or pop the entire pan in a sink full of ice cubes to cool the mixture down because this step can take forever. This step is really important because if the mixture is too hot, it will kill the yeast.

 

While the milk mixture is cooling, dissolve the yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes. If the yeast hasn’t bubbled, you’ll need to repeat this step–moving on with yeast that hasn’t been activated properly will only end in heartache for you.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups flour and milk mixture. Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Add yeast mixture and beat on high for 3 minutes.

Add beaten eggs. Why should you beat your eggs first? Same reason you should combine your dry ingredients before adding them to moist ingredients when making cookies and cakes–it ensures everything is well-mixed and can be evenly-distributed through your dough or batter. If you add the whole eggs, your dough may not be as consistent.

Stir in as much remaining flour as needed to make a soft dough. This dough should be very soft–it will be coming away from the sides of the bowl, but it will still stick to your finger when you touch it. Don’t worry, it will firm up during the rising process. Part of what makes these rolls so good is that they’re so soft and light; if you add too much flour, they will be heavy and dense. Place the bowl in a warm place and cover with a clean towel; allow to rise 1 hour.

 

Punch down dough. Lightly flour your work surface and turn dough out onto surface. Divide in half.

Spray (2) 9×13 glass pans with cooking spray. Roll first portion of dough into a rectangle and then cut it into 12 equal-sized pieces. I like to use a pizza cutter because it has a blade on each side, so it cuts right through dough without sticking to the blade. This dough should be very easy to work with, almost like playdough.

Shape each piece into a ball and place in prepared pan. Repeat with remaining dough in the second pan.  Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes. When dough has about 15-20 minutes to go (depending on your oven), preheat oven to 375.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden-brown. When done, remove from oven. Rub a stick of cold butter over the tops of the rolls. You must now eat one. Now. While it’s hot.

Honey Butter

Ingredients:

2 sticks real butter, (close to room temp- works best when slightly chilled still.)
2/3 cup honey
¾ cup powdered sugar


(If your butter is too soft, you’ll end up with a gooey mess, so I just leave it out on the counter for about 20 minutes or so before beating and it turns out nice and fluffy).  Just place it all in a bowl and beat with an electric hand-mixer for about 30 seconds.  Serve at room temp!

Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread

Why oh why am I such a bad baker....I'm so glad I took this pic before I dumped this out - because much like my bundt cake I made, I didn't let this sit long enough before I removed from pan - and it came out in crumbles....Happy 4th of July Sodahl clan - guess you will be eating this will a spoon :)  It was really good though - so next time, I'm going to be patient.

OBB cookbook

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
¼ cup butter, softened
1 ½ cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3-4 medium bananas) **make sure these are not still frozen...another lesson learned :)
2 eggs
1/3 cup plain lowfat yogurt or sour cream
½ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups and level. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Cream sugar and butter. Add bananas, eggs, and yogurt, beating until just blended. Add flour mixture. Beat on low until just moistened.

Microwave chocolate chips in a medium bowl for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 c. batter to chocolate, stirring until well-combined. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter (so you have stripes of plain and chocolate batter) in an 8 ½” x 4 ½” loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Swirl batters with a knife.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes (give or take a little; I’d probably set your timer for 1 hour and 10 minutes to be safe) or until a knife comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan and then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Lemon Poppyseed Bundt Cake

So I wanted to try something new for Mother's Day.....and it was a bit of a disaster!  :)  Good thing my in-laws are awesome.....So when it says to let it cool - um, let it cool....if not - you will get a bundt "pile" like my picture.  Still tasted awesome!!

Tiffany's blog

Ingredients:
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/4 cup milk
1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

Soak poppy seeds in milk for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, stir together cake mix and pudding mix. Make a well in the center and pour in water, oil, and eggs. Beat on low speed until blended. Scrape bowl, and beat 4 minutes on medium speed. Blend in poppy seed mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Whole Grain Banana-Pecan Muffins

So even love I love carbs / bread - I don't really like making bread or eating muffins....weird, I know!  BUT I decided if I can start liking Brussels sprouts - I can start liking muffins!  So I thought I would give this a try....seemed easy for a "to go bfast" too - and I will be eating these all week :)  The little touch of brown sugar makes you feel like you are eating a treat - me likey!!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup flour

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup honey (you can substitute 1/4 c. sugar here if you prefer)

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 2 large bananas or 3 smaller ones)

1/3 cup low-fat sour cream or plain yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup pecans, chopped

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a muffin tin with liners–you’ll need about 15-16.

Whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the sugar, honey (if using), and butter. Add each egg in one at a time, combining completely after each addition but not over-mixing. Add the mashed banana, yogurt, and vanilla. Slowly add in the flour mixture and beat until just combined (don’t over-mix).

Divide the batter evenly (so the cups are about 2/3 full) among 15-16 muffin tins. Combine the chopped pecans and brown sugar and sprinkle them on top of the batter. Bake for 23-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack and allow to finish cooling. Serve with breakfast or as a snack.

Sour Cream Poppyseed Streusel Muffins

So at cookbook on Thursday we were too full to make these muffins - so I thought since the Sodahls were home this weekend, I would try them out for some breakfast sides!!  Now I love my bread - but I'm not usually fan of muffins....home cooked breads (banana bread...etc), but these muffins -- LOVE THEM!!  It's like a dessert after my bfast!!  Try them out and you will love them I promise!!

As you can see from the pic - I must have filled my cups too high because these turned into gigantor muffins, but just more loving for your belly!!

Ingredients:
2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk (trick to making this: take 1 tablespoon white vinegar and put in measuring cup - then add milk so it goes up to 1 cup....stir and let sit for 5 min)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
8oz container light sour cream

Streusel
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoon butter, melted
2 teaspoon poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 375.  Prepare streusel by combining the streusel ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.  To prepare muffins, combine sifted flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.  Make a well in the center of the mixture.

Combine buttermilk and remaining muffin ingredients in a small bowl and add to flour mixture, stirring until just moist.  Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups.  Sprinkle evenly with streusel mixture.  Bake for 18 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove muffins from pan immediately and place on a wire rack to cool.