Easy White Bread

If there's one thing  I'm afraid of (besides birds...don't ask) it is making anything bread related.  Particularly pie crusts, but not limited to loaves of bread.  This recipe has six easy ingredients and doesn't take too much work on your part to get it all together.  I will say that I have found that my biggest weakness is kneading dough, so next time I will definitely whip this up in my Kitchenaid mixer and save myself some trouble.  This bread is sweet on it's own, but delicious with some butter and honey.

Easy White Bread
yields 2 loaves
from Allrecipes.com

2 c. warm water (110 degrees F at the max)
2/3 c. white sugar
1 1/2 tbl active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c. vegetable oil
6 c. bread flour

In a bowl dissolve the sugar in the warm water then stir in the yeast.  Let it sit until the yeast has become foamy (and has that incredible yeast smell), this took me about 10 minutes.

Then, mix the salt and oil into the yeast.  Add the flour one cup at a time until incorporated.  Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth.   I found that this dough was pretty sticky so keep lots of flour on hand.  Place the dough in an oiled bowl and let rise until doubled in size (took me a little over an hour.

When the dough has doubled punch down the dough then divide the dough in half (this is where you'd freeze half of it if you don't want to make two loaves that day).  Allow to rise in a greased loaf pan for about an hour.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until slightly brown on top.

-D

Buttery Brioche

This bread doesn't have crazy ingredients and really the steps for it are very simple if you just take a glance at them, but the time it takes to make it really will blow your mind.  That being said, if you love soft and buttery bread then it is totally worth it.  Better than that if you make the full recipe (which Dorie Greenspan says you should...so you definitely should) it makes enough dough for two loaves OR a loaf AND honey buns.  Buttery, gooey, sticky, honey buns.  So good. I've linked to another website with the ingredients and directions because honestly I just don't have enough patience to type it all out.  I will say that the hardest part is being patient enough to wait for the butter to be incorporated, so make sure you pull up a magazine and get ready to sit for a litle bit!

-D

Ode to the Irish: Whole Wheat Beer Bread

Go ahead and get your green outfit ready because St. Patty's is upon us.  I would hate for you to get pinched.  There's really nothing more annoying.  Well maybe Chick-fil-a being closed on Sundays is more annoying.  Anywho, I made beer bread.  And its really easy.  And great slathered with butter.  Win-win.

 
Whole Wheat Beer Bread
adapted from Allrecipes


1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 12oz. bottle of the beer of your choice


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan.  


In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flours, baking powder and sugar.  Mix on low until just combined.  With the mixer on low, stream in beer and continue to mix until all ingredients are combined.  Scrape dough into prepared loaf pan.  Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  


{T}

Banana Bread

I have a love/hate relationship with bananas. I buy them at the store, eat one or two, and then I'm done. Done with them for a while. Until a couple months down the road when I see them again. They just sit in the grocery store calling my name. They taunt me saying, "Quick breakfast! Before work!" So I give in. And they do their job for the first couple I eat. And the the cycle begins again.

So last week I just happened to be nearing the part of the cycle where I decide bananas are indeed a good idea. And this week...I had 3 overripe bananas staring at me as I left for work this morning. But alas! This time they would not hit the trash. This time they would become the delicious treat they were meant to be: Banana Bread.




I again went to my trusty friend allrecipes to find a suitable recipe. Here's what I found with a few modifications I made:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9 x 5 loaf pan.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.

Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.

Stir flour mixture into banana mixture just until moistened.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.


For all of you out there screaming, "Where are the nuts???" (I can hear my mom saying this in my head as I write this), let me explain. While this particular recipe does not call for nuts, you could certainly add them or anything else you wanted to throw in. I refrained from doing so for two reasons: 1) I don't really care for nuts in my bread or brownies or much else. I realize to some, this is a sin. And 2) I was plum out of nuts in my pantry. Mostly because I don't buy nuts. But nonetheless, I was out.

Let's talk. This recipe was extremely fast to mix up! Which I think is a plus for anyone whether they have all day to bake or not. From pulling the ingredients out of the pantry to sliding the loaf pan into the oven was 20 minutes, tops. Waiting for this dense loaf to bake, however, is a different story. So be patient and enjoy the aroma that seeps through your house.

In the end I only baked this loaf 50 minutes. Banana bread is one of those things you really have to keep an eye on. A few minutes too long and you'll end up with the darkest loaf you've ever seen. I would definitely make this again...it was moist and dense and everything banana bread is supposed to be...without the nuts of course.


Get baking!

~T