A Daring Baker I Am!

So I've seen this cute little logo on lots of blogs for months now and always wondered what it was. Turns out there's this really cool group called the Daring Bakers. And now I'm one too! I've completed my first DB challenge and really enjoyed it. The assigned recipe for November was potato bread. I've baked a few loaves of yeast bread here and there, but I've got minimal experience especially when it comes to the whole kneading by hand thing. I find the thought of kneading by hand to be the most intimidating part of bread baking. I always worry that I won't have enough flour, or I'll have too much and I won't knead enough, or I'll knead too much and the bread will be tough. Well I decided to suck it up and just give it a try. The bread was good, but I didn't love it. Maybe that was due to my lack of experience or maybe I would just prefer a different type of bread? Your guess is as good as mine. I chose to make a standard loaf of "sandwich bread" and a loaf of focaccia, and I was most pleased with the focaccia. I'm open to any tips or suggestions you experienced bread bakers have. Stay tuned for next month's Daring Baker challenge!

Puttin some 'nanas to good use

Who wants some banana bread? I decided I did! I make banana bread from time to time usually trying out some random recipe in hopes of finding the one that will end my search. This is supposedly a Paula Deen recipe, but I'm not absolutely sure. I looked on the FoodNetwork website and didn't find it there. I made a few changes - the addition of cinnamon in the batter, a few slices of bananas on top for appearance and some cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. Yum, doesn't cinnamon make almost everything better? This would be perfect with some nuts added in to make banana nut muffins...one of my favorite breakfast treats! Bodacious Banana Bread 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature 1 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon cinnamon 3 ripe bananas, mashed (reserve 4 or 5 slices to add on top once the batter is in the pan) 1-2 Tbsp. cinnamon sugar Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan. In a mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar; mix well. Add the salt, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and bananas. Mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, top with reserved banana slices and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 50 minutes, or until wooden skewer inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes and remove from pan to cooling rack. Variation: For muffins fill regular size muffin cups 2/3 full, top each with a slice of banana and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes and remove from pan to cooling rack until completely cooled.

Breakin' Bread

I absolutely LOVE bread..I'm a carb addict, honestly. I swear to you I could never do the Atkin's Diet, I wouldn't last a day without carbs. Breakfast/lunch usually consists of bagels, waffles, homemade muffins or something along those lines. And, with that said..I made bread! From scratch, with yeast and everything. My goal is to learn the art of bread making. And I will be honest, that seems like no small feat to me. Bread baking has always been a bit intimidating to me. All that kneading, and rising..scary. I used a recipe from The Weekend Baker, which by the way is a fantastic book. It seems to have lots of great recipes. The book is broken down into 3 sections, based on the amount of time you are able to devote to the recipes. The only thing I don't like about the book is there aren't a lot of photos. I'm super visual so great color photos are a HUGE must for me when it comes to cookbooks! Peasant Boule Makes 1 round loaf 3 1/3 cups all purpose flour 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) instant yeast 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/3 cups very warm water (between 115 & 125 degrees) 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted Optional: 2/3 cup finely chopped mixed fresh herbs (recipe can be prepared by hand, however instructions are for using a stand mixer, as that's the method I used) 1. To mix in a stand mixer In a large bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt and baking powder. Whisk until well blended. 2. Check water temp; should register about 120 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. In order for the yeast to grow, the liquid needs to be between 115-125 degrees. 3. Fit mixer with dough hook. With the mixer on medium-low speed, slowly pour the warm water into the flour mixture and mix until the flour is completely incorporated. Add the chopped herbs (if using). Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the bottom and sides of the bowl, about 6 minutes. If the dough clumbs up the hook, stop the mixer and scrape the dough back into the bowl. Don't venture too far away while the dough is mixing, as the mixer might dance around on the counter because of the large amoutn of dough. 4. Let the dough rise Scoop up the dough & shape into a ball. Lightly grease the bowl & pop the dough back into it. Cover the top securely with plastic wrap. Let the covered dough rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. 5. Generously butter an 8-inch round cake pan. Turn the dough out onto clean work surface (no need to flour; the dough is soft, but not sticky) and press down gently to deflate it. Shape dough into a rough 7 inches wide & place it, smooth side up, in the prepared pan. Generously brush with some of the melted butter. You may not need all the butter. 6. Let dough rise (no need to cover it) in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 25 minutes. It will fill the pan and will be light and airy to the touch. 7. Position an oven rack on the middle rung. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Brush dough with remaining butter. 8. Bake until the boule is well browned and sounds hollow when tapped, abuot 40 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack, tip the baked bread onto the rack, and remove the pan. Set the loaf right side up and let cool completely. I was pretty pleased with the outcome. This is just a good basic crusty white bread. Definitely a good beginner recipe for others like myself who want to start baking bread. I was afraid of over kneading the dough and actually I think I should have kneaded it more because it was a bit sticky. So I'll try the recipe again and be sure to knead the dough more. The only other thing I'm not sure about is why the bread softened up after it had been sitting overnight. It's by no means soggy, but initially it was fairly hard and when tapped the loaf sounded hollow. I put the loaf in a large ziploc bag on the counter overnight and the next morning I noticed it seemed to have softened up. My muffins often do this too. I guess something to do with moisture, does anyone have any clues or suggestions? If so I would love to hear from you, please let me know.