No-Knead Bread - Part 1

A while back I picked up some instant yeast from the grocery store with the intention of trying out my Mother-in-Law's No-Knead Bread recipe (from her Minimalist Cookbook). I've made many quick breads and beer breads but never anything with yeast. This one seemed like a simple enough recipe and a good one to start with.
Mix the dry ingredients:


Heat water to 120 degrees:


Pour water into dry mixture and stir until fully moistened:


Scrape dough from the sides of the bowl and cover, leave for 8 to 18 hours:


When I get home from work today, I'll be baking bread! Watch for part 2 for the final results :)

Minimalist Cooking eBook

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might remember that I used to post recipes occasionally. My Mother-in-Law recently released an e-cookbook for the minimalist cook that I love and I think almost anyone would benefit from reading.
If you like to keep cooking simple but still eat tasty, nutritious food check it out: Minimalist Cooking - 27 Practical Recipes
For under $5.00 you'll get a collection of healthy and easy to prepare recipes including bread, veggies, meat, pasta, salads, and desserts. Some of my favorites are the Roasted Root Veggies, Roast Beef, Veggie Lasagna, Chicken Pecan Salad, Apple Crisp and Frozen Yogurt...

If you'd like to spend less time preparing food and more time enjoying a meal with your family, this is the perfect cookbook for you! And if you want to check out some of her recipes for free you can find a few at MinimalistCook.com

wonderful things about summer

fresh blueberry nut bread!

Kumquat Bread

Last week at the grocery store I spotted a display of kumquats. I'd had them before but it had been a really long time so I picked up a big carton of them. When I got them home I thought, "ok, what do I do with kumquats?" So I looked up some recipes. I ended up settling on Kumquat Nut Bread but during my search I found some reviews of bread recipes. Someone had mentioned that their breads kept turning out heavy and dense, just the problem I had with my last 2 attempts at beer bread. The solution, it turns out, is to use fresh baking powder. My baking powder was several years old and kind of clumpy so I ran out and got some fresh stuff and proceeded to make my kumquat bread and voila! Beautiful, perfect bread!



Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2/3 cup milk
2 beaten eggs
2 tbsp oil
2 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
3/4 cup pureed kumquats
3/4 cup chopped nuts
3/4 cup sugar

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, combine milk, eggs and oil.

2. In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients. (this includes the sugar, I almost forgot this because I generally assume sugar is part of the "wet" ingredients)

3. Add liquid mixture and stir until moistened.

4. Fold in pureed kumquats and nuts.

5. Bake in a greased 8" x 4" x 2" loaf pan in 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes. (mine was done in about 53 min.)

6. Cool and remove from pan.

Beer Bread

The last time I made beer bread it came out with the consistency of a wet brick. It was extremely heavy and dense but squishy in the middle. Not good. So this time I thought I'd try this whole wheat beer bread recipe. It was much better, though still not the best beer bread I've had. I added a bunch of spices to it (pepper, chili powder, garlic salt) and sprinkled cheese on the top during the last 20 min of baking (thereby making it not vegan anymore... but you could use fake cheese too I would imagine.)



I used a bottle of Red Stripe which is maybe not the best beer bread beer but it's all we had. It turned out a bit dry and crumbly but went really well with the chili I made for dinner. I think it might be better with half white flour, half wheat...

Tonight I'm making Lentil Veggie "Meat"loaf so watch for a post about that...

Orange... bread?

This weekend I wanted to make some cookies. My husband and I decided that sugar cookies sounded good and I remembered these lime sugar cookies being excellent. I had a bunch of oranges, but no limes so I thought I'd try it with oranges. But before I started, I decided to look through a magazine of holiday cookies that I had picked up last year.

I found a recipe for Orange Cookies that was pretty simple and I had everything I needed for it. The process seemed strange from the beginning. The dough was thin and sticky. I ended up with this (after tasting a couple of course):

It was one big fluffy, cakey cookie. So I poured the rest of the "dough" into a baking pan and it became Orange Sweet Bread:

It tasted good but the texture was strange... almost like cornbread. I won't make it again but luckily my husband likes it so it's getting eaten. I'm sticking to my well-known recipe next time.

Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale and Cowboy Jack's Beer Bread

We acquired a six-pack of Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale this weekend. I haven't tasted it for a proper review yet but it's a Michelob product so I'm not expecting much. However, I thought it would make a good addition to some beer bread so I whipped some up last night to go with dinner. I used this recipe because it was simple, quick, used few ingredients. It had mixed reviews but I figured I'd give it a try. I have to say I'm not impressed. I've made beer bread several times before (this recipe is good) and it's always come out really tasty and moist (it's one of my husband's favorite foods.) This time it was super dense, dry and rock hard. I added some chopped walnuts and I think that was a good idea(compliments the pumpkin spice and brown sugar flavors) but I'll have to try it with a different base recipe next time because this one was awful. Anyone have any good beer bread recommendations?