Gluten Free Banana Bread

I heard that yesterday was National Banana Bread Day.  Whether it was or not, I didn’t confirm it, but I did get in the kitchen and make some banana bread.  Don’t really need excuses here, we always have bananas ready to eat, almost always have overripe ones needing to be taken care of and by taken care of I mean turned in to something banana-yummy. 

Four bananas who have been screaming at me for days now, became this banana bread last night.  I’ve actually made it many times, always just a little different, but enough the same that it comes out every time.  I love that I make a gluten free (and refined sugar free!) treat that I can enjoy.  Bananas are one of my favorite fruits.  Probably one of my favorite foods.  They are cheap, readily available, sweet and tasty and can be used in so many things.  What is not to love?  (Don’t answer that, Deborah.) ; )

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

1 tablespoon water

1/4 cup raw honey

1/4 cup coconut sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 tablespoons almond milk, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup mashed overripe banana (about 4 small bananas)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1  3/4 cup gluten free all-purpose flour (with xanthan gum)

1/2 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips (optional) add nuts instead if you’d like

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a 9x5 inch baking pan with foil.  Brush the foil with coconut oil.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, water, honey and coconut sugar.  Add the almond milk, vanilla, and mashed banana and whisk together until combined.  Next add the salt, baking powder, baking soda and flour and stir together with a spoon.  Fold in the chocolate chips.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.  Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let sit on wire rack for 5 minutes then using the foil edges, remove the bread from the pan, peel off the foil and let the bread cool completely on a wire rack. 

If you don’t want chocolate in your banana bread (crazy!), you can add walnuts or pecans instead or just have it as good ol’ plain banana bread.  I’ve done them all.  This has a great outside crust and is nice and soft and moist inside just the way banana bread should be.  I love having a slice of this with a little peanut butter spread on it.

 

Big Fat Delicious Clone of a Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls

I wanted to wish my friend Shelby from The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch a Happy Birthday today!  You might recall at the beginning of this month when I participated in my last Secret Recipe Club assignment, I got to make something from Shelby’s blog.   And at that time, I decided to go all out and throughout the month since getting my assignment, instead of making one thing, I cooked and baked from recipes on Shelby's blog and made a dozen things instead of just one.  So I wanted to post another one of those recipes today in her honor. ; ) 

Who can resist a cinnamon roll?  Not my family.  Shelby’s cover photo on her blog are these cinnamon rolls.  It seemed wrong to not make them since they were right there every time I turned to her blog and seemed so right to try these because I knew they would be a big hit here.  While eating them, Sam could be heard saying, “These are the BEST cinnamon rolls ever.”  While that makes me feel a little sad because I already have a tried and true family favorite recipe for cinnamon rolls that I’ve been making forever, these ARE really good.  They look awesome and are huge, which is what makes them most like a Cinnabon roll. 

This Cinnabon clone recipe isn’t too far off from the size of ingredients of mine when I usually halve it.  But the reason they are like a clone is because the recipe only makes eight rolls!  I’ll definitely make these again because the boys all really liked them.  I made a few small changes (I used 2% milk instead of almond milk and butter instead of margarine) to the recipe Shelby posted, so I’ll post mine here. 

Big Fat Delicious Clone of a Cinnabon, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from The Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch

For the rolls:

1 cup warm milk (I used 2%, you could use any kind you’d like)

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup butter, melted

4  1/2 cup bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2  1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

2  1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/3 cup butter, softened

For the icing:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1  1/2 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons milk

Put the milk, eggs and melted butter in the bowl of a mixer.  With the dough attachment, mix together.  Add the bread flour, salt, sugar and yeast (adding the yeast last).  Let the mixer stir the mixture together on low until all combined into a dough.  With the mixer set to about medium speed, knead the dough for 5 minutes.  Turn off mixer and let the dough stand for 10 minutes.  Turn mixer back on and knead for another 5 minutes.  Put the dough in a bowl that is lightly greased and cover it with plastic wrap.  Let rest in warm place until doubled in size, about an hour.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Roll the dough into about a 16-21 inch rectangle.  Spread the dough with the 1/3 cup softened butter.  Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar, then cinnamon.  Roll up dough and cut into 8 rolls.  (I rolled from the short side of the dough, but you could roll the long way and get even bigger rolls.)  Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan.  Cover and let rise until nearly doubled in size, about 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Bake rolls for about 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.  While rolls are baking, beat together 1/4 cup butter, powdered sugar,  salt, vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of milk.  Add a little more milk until it is the consistency you want.  When the rolls are somewhat cooled, spread the icing over them.  Serve! 

Hope you have a wonderful birthday, Shelby!  I’m sure you will, since you get to be with your boys!

Banana Apple Bread (Gluten Free) and Rachel’s Chocolate Chip Cookies—Secret Recipe Club

I was SO happy to find this banana bread recipe on my Secret Recipe Club blog assignment for this month.  I’ve been dying to find a banana bread recipe that looked like it would be easy to make gluten free and refined sugar free and decided this was it.  Thank you Chris and Rachel from The Keenan Cookbook (my secret blog).  This is perfect.  NO ONE would ever know this is gluten free.  I also made it with coconut sugar and you can’t tell.  Perfect for me.  My silly boys, who love banana bread, turned up their noses and wouldn’t even try it when I told them it was gluten free.  This is my way of hoarding the loaf for myself.  I savored it for days.  Because of the bananas and the apple and some applesauce, this bread is nice and moist and the walnuts I added were a perfect crunch. 

Banana Apple Bread (Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free), adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys! from The Keenan Cookbook (Check out the link for their “unadapted” recipe.)

1  3/4 cup gluten free flour blend (I used Premium Gold ancient grains blend, found at Costco)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1  1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup coconut sugar

1 teaspoon unsulphured molasses

1/3 cup coconut oil

2 large eggs

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

3 tablespoons almond milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large bananas, mashed

1 medium apple, peeled and finely grated

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped and lightly toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spread some coconut oil evenly in a 9x5 bread pan (I also love putting nonstick foil in the pan first, but still usually coat it with coconut oil, you can spray with cooking spray, too).  You can also make this batter in to muffins, spread oil in each muffin cup.  Set aside.  In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Whisk together.  In another bowl, combine the sugar, molasses and coconut oil.  Stir together until well combined.  Add the eggs and applesauce and stir to combine.  Stir (or whisk) in the almond milk and vanilla.  In a another bowl with a fork, or small food processor, add the bananas and pulse until mashed into a puree.  Add the bananas to the wet ingredients and grate the apple into the bowl.  Stir to combine.  Fold in the walnuts.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.  Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.   Let bread sit on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, then carefully turn the bread out onto the wire rack to cool completely. 

I love banana anything.

Instead of bread, I usually make muffins because they bake so much faster, which means you can be eating banana bread sooner.  So I tried that with this recipe.  Great muffins!

I made the bread weeks ago and the muffins just last week.  I have more bananas on the counter, ready and waiting to make this bread again soon!

Mmmm!  THEN just because I like looking at cookies on blogs and because my family is “suffering” with my new health changes with my baking less (poor, poor family), I saw the Keenan’s also posted their favorite chocolate chip cookies recipe and I had to make that—for my family and because it was chocolate chip cookies.

I didn’t even taste them, but they were gone in a day or two.  They are definitely simple to make.  Rachel has taken the original Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe and added an extra cup of flour, which is think is brilliant because I’ve never cared for the Nestle recipe (still love the company and Ruth Wakefield and her invention of the chocolate chip cookie).  I’ve always thought the cookies turn out too flat and a bit greasy.  I know many like their chocolate chip cookies that way, and that’s fine.  But what a simple idea and an easy way to make a thicker, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie—just add a little more flour.

Thank you, Rachel, for that idea.  I didn’t change a thing from her adapted Nestle recipe, so get it at The Keenan Cookbook.  I really enjoyed their blog.  They both share in the cooking and baking, she photographs the recipes and he writes up the posts, sharing their yummy recipes and their thoughts about being parents to two little boys.  Hey, I know a thing or two about that times two.  ;  )

I love being a part of the Secret Recipe Club.  Check out all the yummy stuff below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Gluten Free Buttermilk Bread

Since going gluten free and refined sugar free last June, I have hardly had any bread (made a couple gluten free loaves before months ago) and I have been really craving bread!  Sometimes I just want a sandwich—peanut butter and honey or jam to be specific.  I couldn’t even wait to take a bite before getting a picture.

Just kidding.  I did get a few pictures, but I bit right into this slice as soon as I could.

This bread is perfect for toast.  Though even Kevin, who doesn’t eat gluten free, had a slice untoasted with some jam and said it was pretty good.  I just can’t tell you how happy I am to eat toast!

I received the Apricot Jam from a friend for Christmas.  She purposely made some with agave instead of sugar so I could eat it.  So nice.  And the jam is so good.  Tastes like fresh, slightly tart apricots.  Thanks, Jackie!

I got a bread machine cookbook from our friend, Bob, for Christmas and it has a couple gluten free bread recipes in it.  I took one of the recipes and totally changed it up, then didn’t bake it in my bread machine, so here’s my take on a gluten free bread.

I’ve noticed in the few times I’ve made gluten free bread, it doesn’t come out the prettiest and rise as nice and high as regular bread, but it tastes great.

Gluten Free Buttermilk Bread, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 cup low fat buttermilk

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, slightly melted

3 tablespoons raw honey

4 large egg whites, beaten until frothy

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 cup whole grain sorghum flour

1  1/2 cups brown rice flour

3/4 cup arrowroot powder

1/4 cup tapioca flour

1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

Put the buttermilk and water in a microwave safe dish and heat until warm, about 25-40 seconds on half power.  Add the vinegar, slightly melted butter and honey with the buttermilk and water and whisk to combine.  Whisk the egg whites until frothy in a separate bowl.  Add to the wet ingredients and whisk together.  Pour into a stand mixer (of course, you can do it all by hand) and add the yeast.  In another bowl, combine the sorghum flour, brown rice flour, arrowroot, tapioca flour and xanthan gum and whisk together.  With the dough hook attached to the mixer and set at low speed, add half a cup of the dry ingredients at a time.  Add more as it mixes until all combined.  Cover the bowl and let sit in a warm place for 30-45 minutes.  Stir mixture with a wooden spoon, then put it into a greased 9x5 inch bread pan (I used coconut oil).  Let rise for about 30 minutes, just until it starts to come up over the pan.  During the last rise, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown on the top.  Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes.  Remove from pan (it took a little prying with a knife, but it really wasn’t stuck anywhere.)  Cool on a wire rack.

Happy me!  Now if I could just get over this nasty cold that is knocking me for a loop.  Welcome to winter, happy new year!

Paleo Breakfast Bread—It’s Cinnamon Goodness Is Not Just For Breakfast!

Hi!  Besides not feeling well lately, I’ve also had to deal with some family issues.  (Don’t worry, all is or at least will be fine.)  Just know that it’s nearly killing me to have ignored my blog for so long.  So I had a few minutes today and wanted to get a post up for you.  I sure do appreciate all my readers and hope you’re still around waiting patiently for me to post something.

You may have noticed I’ve been trying a lot of Paleo (grain free, dairy free, refined sugar free) recipes lately and posting some of them.  Here’s another.  I hadn’t realized I never blogged it, but it’s good and SO easy to make, so I wanted to share it with you.  I take no credit for it and didn’t even change anything in the recipe that Elana from Elana's Pantry came up with.  Love this lady and her blog.  We could be twins. (Ha!)  We do have a few things in common.  She has MS.  I have MS.  She has all boys (2) and I have all boys (4).  She’s got a great blog.  I’ve got a blog. ;)  But really, she is an inspiration to me and I have found many recipes on her blog that I enjoy.  She is a cookbook author and blogs great gluten free and Paleo recipes.

I first made this “breakfast bread” back in July and it was great.  I can be an easy thing to grab for breakfast as you and/or your kids are running out the door, but it also makes a great little snack when you just need something.  It is full of protein with almond butter and eggs and has just a few other ingredients, like honey, salt, baking soda and the star of the show—cinnamon.  This is packed with cinnamon.  You can add less if you’d like, but it’s pretty tasty.  Oh, it has a touch of Stevia drops, too.  Get some and keep it for recipes like the ones Elana shares and that I link.  It’s a great all natural sweetener and just a little dab will do ya.

Check out Elana's recipe for Paleo Breakfast Bread.  Better yet, make it.  I’m going to again right now.

It bakes in 12 minutes in an 8x8 square pan.  So easy. 

Just takes a couple minutes to mix up the ingredients in a bowl and stir them with a spoon.  Bake and done.  It can even be enjoyed warm.  Yep, see, ya gotta go make some right now.

Banana Bread Recipe—Secret Recipe Club

This month for the Secret Recipe Club I had the privilege and pleasure to fill-in for a blogger who wasn’t able to make their assignment at the last minute.   After volunteering and getting the blog information I would be filling in for, I was a little overwhelmed because I’ve been following this blog for years and have been so impressed with it that I almost felt I wouldn’t be able to do it justice.  That said, I certainly loved looking through all the wonderful posts and deciding what I could do with just a couple days left until the reveal.

Spinach Tiger is the blog I am posting for since our Group A leader, Jane, didn’t want her left out.  Angela’s blog, if you haven’t been there yet, is full of such great recipes.  But not only that, she has added a perfect balance of wit, humor and knowledge with her sharing.  She lives in Nashville with her husband and writes great posts for restaurants they visit in the area.  You should finish my post and go right to hers.  Read more about her on her About Page.  You’ll soon wish you were her BFF.  How I would love to be able to cook like she does.  My family is too picky.  If I was real life friends with Angela, I would eat everything she makes. ;)

In my haste to find something to make from her blog, as I only had two days to do it, I settled on this Banana Nut Bread.  I know, kind of lame of me—but with overripe bananas on the counter and everyone here loving banana cake, bread, muffins, I decided to try her recipe.  I’ve probably made too many banana bread recipes in the past to count them, but just like chocolate chip cookies, you can never try too many.

Angela got the recipe from a friend and it is quite similar to many others, though she cut the sugar, which is totally fine.  I agree with her, banana bread often has more sugar than necessary.  What I did like was that she said you can basically put whatever add ins on the top of the loaf or inside.  Her friend puts the nuts on top that are mixed with a little brown sugar.  That then reminded me of one of my favorite cakes, this Absolutely Delicious Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake that has a swirl of brown sugar, nuts, cinnamon and chocolate in the middle and on top.  I decided I had to do that with this bread.  Had to. ;)  I only wish I could eat some of it.  It looks great.  Technically I could eat some, but since I’m not eating gluten or refined sugar right now, I haven’t eaten any of it.  The boys are eating it and Kevin even made a piece of French toast with some this morning while making breakfast for the boys.

Banana Nut Bread with Cinnamon Chocolate Swirl and Topping, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Angela at Spinach Tiger

1  1/2 cups all purpose flour

2  1/4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

dash nutmeg

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup mashed over ripe banana (3 medium)

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup canola/vegetable oil

3/4 cup walnuts, chopped

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 9x5 inch pan with cooking spray.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and 1/2 cup brown sugar.  Whisk together to combine.  Mash the bananas. (I also do this in the food processor, I like it more like a puree than a little chunky.)  Combine in a separate bowl the eggs, vanilla and oil.  Add the bananas and egg/oil mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just to combine.  Don’t overmix.

Make the swirl/topping mix.  Combine in a small bowl the nuts, 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, mini chocolate chips and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon.  Pour half the batter into the pan.  Sprinkle evenly half the swirl mix over the first layer.  Pour the rest of the batter into the pan and spread evenly.  Sprinkle the remaining topping mix over the batter.  Bake for 45-50 minutes.  Let cool completely in pan.  Remove from pan by carefully turning it to the side and letting the loaf fall into your hand.  (A few of the nuts and topping will fall off, but it’s okay, you can eat those.)

Definitely a test of wills here for me with this one as I love all things banana and adding nuts and chocolate are like heaven to me.  I suppose there comes a time when we choose our health over indulging in all the treats we’d like and I don’t feel like I’m suffering.

That reminds me, do you know how cool Angela from Spinach Tiger is?  Just because she wanted to see what it was like, try it out, be in the know and understand what being gluten free is like, she did just that for a month recently.  Check it out here.  She had a craving for a fresh tomato tart at that time and made a gluten free pie crust.  I SO wanted to get that done in time for this posting, but it was not to be—it WILL happen soon though.  I’ve been craving apple pie, so I do plan to try her Gluten Free Pie/Tart Crust here.  Her post is full of tips on making a gluten free crust work just right.  An apple tart or galette is calling my name. ;)

I, like Angela, don’t have dietary reasons for giving up gluten (or refined sugar for that matter), but after being diagnosed with MS recently, I decided to try going gluten free and sugar free.  I don’t really know if it is helping me, but I KNOW it certainly can’t be hurting me to not have white flour and refined sugars.  I am finding a world of good things that are still just as much a treat as the refined things out there.  And I know it will be okay to go for that splurge once in a while if I really want.  Check out my blog in recent months for those “healthier” treats I’ve been making. 

Thanks for picking me to fill-in this month, Jane.  My apologies to Angela for not being able to do her blog more justice that it deserves.  The best thing to do is CHECK OUT SPINACH TIGER for yourself, especially if you haven’t been there before.   Since I have two posts today, don’t miss my other post for my October secret assignment for Kate’s blog, Kitchen Trial and Error.  So many great blogs out there, so little time. 

English Muffin Bread and Very Little Bother Bread—Secret Recipe Club

I love this bread!  I made this for the Secret Recipe Club from my assigned blog this month.  I seriously don’t eat white bread, like almost never.  I just know that whole wheat bread is much better for me and I most often prefer it, especially over store bought bread.  When I saw this bread on Shannon’s blog, Searching For Dessert, I remembered seeing it before other places online and wanting to make it, but never had.  Kevin likes English muffins so I figured he’d like it, too.  The loaf of bread was eaten pretty quickly and I have to admit, I ate more slices of it than I thought I would—a couple pieces one day, a couple the next. 

I love the denseness of it and all the little nooks and crannies that perfectly hold melting butter and my other favorite, honey. 

While I certainly think the bread is good freshly sliced (and it slices so nicely), my favorite way to have it is toasted, with the aforementioned butter and honey.

Love the crispy crust and still tender middle.   I adapted Shannon’s recipe ever-so-slightly.  Check out her English Muffin Bread, she added a little cinnamon to it.  I decided this first time to leave it out.  I also needed more flour than she used.

English Muffin Bread, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Searching For Dessert

3  1/3 cups all purpose flour (I used unbleached)

2  1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (which is the same as one packet)

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup milk (I used 2%)

1/4 cup water

1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, whisk together one and a half cups of flour, the yeast, and baking soda. Heat in a small saucepan over medium heat the milk, water, sugar and salt just until warm.  Stir to combine the sugar and salt.  Remove from heat before it is hot.  Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and combine well.  Stir in one and a half cups of flour.  If the dough is still quite sticky, add some of the remaining 1/3 cup flour to the countertop and put the dough on top of it and begin working in some of the flour, adding more of the remaining 1/3 cup until it isn’t too sticky.  It only needs to be kneaded just until it all comes together and isn’t too sticky to shape. 

Shape it into a loaf and place it in an 8x4 inch loaf pan that is greased.  Cover the pan with plastic wrap sprayed lightly with cooking spray and let it rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes.  After about 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Bake the bread for 25 minutes.  Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool on a wire rack until you just can’t stand it anymore and need to slice in to it. ;)

Ready to bake with no kneading and just 45 minutes rise time.

Perfect in just 25 minutes.

I also made this bread from Shannon’s blog, Searching For Dessert because I love the name of it and the idea of it being easy!  Very Little Bother Bread  The recipe makes enough for two loaves, so I halved it and only made one loaf.  It was good and easy.  The mixer does the short time of kneading.  The dough then goes through two 30 minute rise times, then is shaped and put in the pan for one more 30 minute rising.  Baked, then—with very little bother, you have a great homemade bread.  I used about half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour.

Very Little Bother Bread

Other recipes I printed out from Shannon’s blog and plan to try soon are---

Southwest Quinoa Sliders

Crisped Rice Cookies

Banana Brownies with Peanut Butter Drizzle  (Shannon loves creating all kinds of different flavored brownies, so do I!)

There is so much more deliciousness on Shannon’s blog.  Check it out, especially if you are Searching For Dessert. ;)

 

Rustic Potato Loaves—Tuesdays With Dorie, Baking With Julia

I made the Rustic Potato Loaves for Tuesdays With Dorie, Baking With Julia and took one of them to a neighbor I helped with dinner. 

This was definitely “rustic” since the potato skins are left on the potatoes that are used in making the dough.  I actually peeled the potatoes about 3/4 of the way and I kind of wish I would have peeled them all completely.  I thought the little pieces of “gray” skin that were flecked throughout the dough wasn’t very pretty.  The bread did end up tasting fine, so that’s good!

I followed the recipe instructions exactly and knew also that the shaping of the dough would be a little strange with the seam of the dough on the top.  I had a feeling it would open up on the top a bit while it baked.  And it did.  But it was still good with a nice crust and tender inside. 

If I made this bread again, I’d definitely go for less rustic and peel the potatoes and I’d shape the loaves differently.  The cooked potatoes are also beat in the mixer as well as the dough, which really gave my mixer a workout.  Sometimes “kneading” bread in a stand mixer is a little rough.  It made it through, but sure worked the bowl in to sticking to the stand like the dickens.

Our host with the recipe this week is Dawn at Simply Sweet. Check out her bread that she so creatively stuffed with cheese, bacon and green onions, just like a baked potato!

Focaccia Bread—Tuesdays With Dorie, Baking With Julia

Grilled Chicken Pesto Focaccia Sandwich

This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie, Baking With Julia recipe is Focaccia.  I hadn’t made focaccia before (and can’t for the life of me spell it without looking it up every time).  I decided to make it last Friday and play around with a couple ideas for dinner.

I followed the recipe exactly, which you can get from our host this week.  Sharmini from Wandering Through is the host with recipe. 

After making the dough, it rises for an hour or so.  Then it is punched down and rises again.  After that, it then needs to spend 24 hours in the refrigerator, which is what develops all the bubbles focaccia is known for. 

Here it was ready for it’s second deflating.

After spending a day in the fridge, the three balls of dough are ready for their future.

For the boys, I just made a quick “pizza” with olive oil, mozzarella cheese, a little parmesan, and some pepperoni.  They ate it up!

Scott said he loved it just as it was with some dried (I didn’t have any fresh herbs) oregano and basil.

For Kevin and I, I carefully sliced open a couple pieces and made sandwiches like the one in the top picture.  Grilled chicken breast, some basil pesto I had in the freezer that I’d thawed, some roasted red pepper and some sharp cheddar cheese, I made them in to a panini to melt the cheese and toast the bread.  It was delicious!

With this third one, we didn’t eat it until the next night.  With our spaghetti dinner, I sprinkled mozzarella cheese and some more parmesan cheese on it and put it under the broiled (forgot to take pictures).  It was cut into breadsticks. 

I’d say it was all quite delicious and fun to play with.  You should try it.  It’s not difficult at all (the mixer does all the kneading).  You just need to plan ahead so you can make the dough a day earlier than you want to use it. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Rolls—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking With Julia Rewind

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Roll, adapted from Baking With Julia’s Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaves

Today for Tuesdays With Dorie, we get to do a rewind recipe (one that we might have missed that has already been done by the group).  The one I’m sharing with you today was just made the first week in October.  I didn’t realize then until the Monday before that TWD post was due that the recipe took some time with an overnight stint in the fridge and then another six hours on the counter the next day, so I wasn’t able to get it made in time.  It worked perfect that this month has five Tuesdays and with the extra one, the group decided to make this a rewind week.  I didn’t want to miss the pumpkin loaves, which are a yeast bread, but also made with pumpkin puree' and delicious fall spices.

I started the dough, but instead of adding the suggested walnuts, raisins and fresh cranberries, I decided to use mini chocolate chips.  The recipe really is not difficult at all, but included many steps.  I like that the mixer did the 15 minute kneading session and the refrigerator did all the chillin’.  After the chilled dough sat on the counter for my busy morning hours yesterday, I decided when I was ready to finish the loaves to only make one of the small loaves.

It rose beautifully and baked up perfectly.  With the remaining dough, you might have already guessed, I decided to make cinnamon rolls!  I rolled out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness, spread it with some softened butter, then liberally sprinkled on brown sugar and cinnamon and a few more chocolate chips.  Rolled up the dough, sliced it in to 10 rolls and they did their rise time.  I have to say, they baked up beautifully as well.  This was a great dough/recipe!

The rolls would have been just fine as they were, but of course, I had to put icing on them.  I just happened to already have some orange-tinted icing leftover from something else, so I thinned it out just a little and drizzled it over the rolls.

You’ll want this Tuesdays With Dorie--Baking With Julia recipe.  Rebecca from This Bountiful Backyard hosted and the link is for her post with the recipe.  

Bagels—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking With Julia

Sure had fun with the Tuesdays With Dorie--Baking With Julia recipe this week.  We made bagels!  I had never made bagels before.  It turned out to be quite the process! 

First, I made the dough (half recipe, made with bread flour and no pepper as mentioned optional in the dough) late a couple nights ago and after letting it rise on the counter for an hour, it did its time in the refrigerator for the night. 

The next morning, I read through the whole recipe, got everything ready and started making five perfect and delicious bagels.   Though it was quite the process to get to a finished bagel, none of it was hard to do.  The bagels were formed and ready for a short time in a boiling water bath.

Each bagel spent about two minutes in the water.  The oven was preheating to super hot with my pizza stone in it.  Some ice water was ready to throw in the bottom of the oven after setting the bagels on the pizza stone.  It all went really well.

I didn’t really want savory bagels, so I sprinkled two of them with some cinnamon-sugar—

two of them were topped with a little sea salt—

and one was left plain.

These turned out nicely crisp/chewy on the outside and not to heavy/dense on the inside, they were perfectly bagel-y.

Kevin ate one of the salted bagels.

I had some yummy fun with the cinnamon bagel by dousing it in some cinnamon-sugar melted butter.

And then because I couldn’t go a week without chocolate somewhere it just only seemed right to add a little chocolate to the plain bagel to the tune of some Nutella. 

I was thinking there’s no way I’d ever go through all it took to make bagels again, but they are good and it really wasn’t that bad.  I think it would be fun to try them again with some other flavors.  The boys (including Kevin) all whined that they only like blueberry bagels—sounds like a challenge to me and now I know where to turn for a great bagel recipe.

If you’d like the recipe, Heather from Heather Bytes is hosting this week and she’s posted the recipe.  You know, if you’re one of the few who don’t have Dorie Greenspan’s Baking With Julia in your cookbook collection. ;)