Country White Bread

I have been looking for a great, simple bread recipe for a while now. After scouring various websites and recipes I devised a fairly basic recipe and decided to give it a shot! The bread turned out even better than I expected :)

While this recipe is simple in the fact that it uses few ingredients, it is by no means quick. There are a few times that you must let the bread sit and rise.... so have patience! :)

After making a few modifications, here is the recipe I used:


Ingredients

1 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1 cups warm water (110 degrees to 115 degrees)
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 cup honey1/2 tablespoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1/8 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 1/4 bread flour

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar, salt, eggs, oil and 2 cups of flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 to 8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Divide in half and shape into loaves. Place in two greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to cool on wire rack.



Recipe based off of this one from All Recipes

Soft Pretzel Bites

There are lots of recipes that I have seen lately that I've wanted to try but could not until now because the instructions always involved a stand mixer. Well, I recently bought a Kitchenaid mixer and decided to put it to good use immediately! 

Soft pretzels are one of the recipes that sounded amazing but required said stand mixer. So this is the first recipe I tried using it, and these turned out great!!

I did find that this is easier as a two person job when it comes to boiling the pretzels right before baking. Since you need to boil these in small batches, and arrange them on a cookie sheet fairly quickly, another pair of hands comes in handy. But this could definitely be done solo, just requires a bit of quick moving and good timing. 

Enjoy!!

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 and 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) active dry yeast

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 quarts water

3/4 cup baking soda

For the egg wash:

1 large egg

1 tablespoon cold water

Coarse sea salt, for garnish

Oil, for prepping your bowl to rise the dough in

Instructions

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the water, brown sugar, yeast and melted butter.  Stir to combine, and then let sit for about 5 minutes, or until slightly foamy.

2. With the mixer speed on low, slowly add the salt and flour until just combined.

3. Increase the mixer speed to medium-low and knead until the dough is elastic and pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl (approx. 3-4 minutes)

4. Place in a pre-oiled bowl, and cover with a towel.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

5. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

6. Punch down the dough and divide into 8 equal portions on a clean floured surface.

7. Roll each portion into a long rope, about 18-20 inches in length.

8. Cut each rope into 1-inch portions and place each one on a lightly greased baking sheet. Set aside.

9. Meanwhile, in a large sauce pot over medium-high heat, bring the water to a boil.

10.  Very carefully (the water will spray and foam up), add the baking soda.

11. In small batches, boil the pretzel bites for about 30 seconds or so.  (Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the boiling water and place them back on the baking sheet, about 1 to 2 inches apart.)

12. To make the egg wash: In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and cold water.

13. Lightly brush the boiled pretzel bites with the egg wash and lightly sprinkle with the coarse sea salt.

14. Bake until lightly golden brown, about 15-18 minutes.  Let cool slightly before serving.

Source:  Two Peas and Their Pod. 

Cherry Cake

I recently ran across this amazing looking cake over at Taste and Tell. My sister's birthday was coming up and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try out this recipe. I used the basic recipe but changed it up a bit, and it turned out delicious! I had a lot of fun decorating this cake and even decided to attempt some chocolate garnish.

Ingredients:

For the Cake
• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon raspberry extract
• 2 Tablespoons marachino cherry juice 
• 1 10-ounce jar marachino cherries, chopped

Frosting 
• 4 egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract

Instructions:

For the cake:
• Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray 2 9-inch round cake pans with cooking spray. Set aside.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the milk and egg whites.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the sugar and butter until very light and fluffy, at least 3 minutes. Beat in the raspberry extract and cherry juice. Add one third of the flour mixture, beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the egg-milk mixture, then half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat until incorporated. Beat in the rest of the milk mixture, then add the remaining flour mixture. Beat the mixture for 2 minutes to make sure everything is incorporated and aerated. Fold in the cherries, then divide the mixture between the two pans.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the pan and release the cakes from the pans. Cool completely on the cooling racks.

Frosting:
• In a stand mixer, beat the egg whites, raspberry extract, and vanilla until they form stiff peaks.
• Meanwhile, heat the sugar and corn syrup over medium heat. Heat until it comes to a full boil, then remove from the heat.
• Once the egg whites are stiff, slowly pour in the hot sugar mixture. Do not scrape the sides of the bowl, or you will have sugar crystals in the frosting. Beat the frosting until it forms a shiny, fluffy marshmallow frosting, 5-7 minutes.