Basic Sandwich Loaf + Lots of Encouragement

If you’ve been to the grocery store recently you’ve no doubt witnessed (and probably been adversely effected by) panic buying as the situation with Covid-19 unfolds worldwide. Bread has been the foundation of our diets for centuries and I’m hoping to relieve a little stress with this post by walking you through how to make it.

You do not need a stand mixer. You do not need a bread maker. People have made bread with their own two hands with simple ingredients for a very, very long time. This recipe is very flexible and I will go over some issues you may encounter if this is your first time making bread.

I know that’s a lot to process but all in all you’re only actively working with the recipe for about 20 minutes so don’t be discouraged! Making bread is a lot of waiting on the yeast to work it’s magic.

Notes:

*This recipe was designed to be used with All Purpose Flour. If you do not have All Purpose Flour because it wasn’t available, do not panic. Different flours have different protein contents and the more protein your flour has, the more liquid you need. I just tested it out in my own kitchen with White Whole Wheat flour (perplexingly the only flour left at the store when I went the other day) and it works just fine, I just had to add more fluid. Bread is more forgiving than you think!

*There will be a lot of side notes and descriptions in this recipe so I apologize in advance! I’m trying to make this recipe as accessible as possible with what you may have on hand.

*This recipe makes two loaves of sandwich bread. If you’re using a standard bread machine, cut the recipe in half (I’ll add a halved recipe at the bottom), follow step 1 and then add the rest of your ingredients, select Basic or White Bread and press start. 

The Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups warm milk (115°F preferable, if you don’t have a kitchen thermometer use your finger to check it’s a little warmer than body temperature but not hot, too hot will kill your yeast. If you’re worried about this it’s okay to use cold milk, it’ll just take longer to rise. If you don’t have milk this recipe will still work with water, just add another tbsp butter for fat content.)

• 4 teaspoons active dry yeast (or two packets if that’s what you have on hand)

• 2 tablespoons honey (this is for flavor but you can use any sugar, just don’t skip it as it’s food for the yeast)

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

• 1 tablespoon salt

• 6-6 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour (if you have a different flour, see notes above)

• Cooking spray (I use canola)

The Recipe:

1. Pour half of your milk into a microwave safe bowl or glass mixing cup and microwave in 30 second bursts until 115°F (or a little warmer than body temperature but not hot to the touch). Add your honey to the warm milk and stir until mixed, then sprinkle your yeast on top and let sit to activate for about 10 minutes until foamy.

2. In a separate microwave safe bowl, melt your butter (best done in 30 second bursts as well). Once this is melted you can add the other half of your milk, set aside.

3. In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, add half of your flour and all of your salt. I like to mix this thoroughly since salt can inhibit your yeast. Add both bowls of milk mixtures to the flour and mix. (It will be very wet at this stage but this is good, you need to mix it for a while wet so the gluten can form the long strands that will trap gasses from your yeast to make a good airy loaf.)

4. After about five minutes of mixing you should see the dough coming together to form a ropey sort of texture, now its time to start incrementally adding the rest of your flour in 1/4 to 1/2 cup portions. If you’re hand kneading this process can take 10-15 minutes, with a stand mixer it usually takes about 5 minutes.

5. The bread is ready to rise when it is no longer sticking to your hands and has a springy bubblegum sort of texture. Take your dough and form a ball with your hands, cupping the dough down to the bottom and rotating to create tension. It’s okay if it’s not perfect.

6. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray and gently roll your dough ball in it to coat with oil (this keeps in the moisture) and cover with either a plastic bag, shower cap, saran wrap, or a clean dish towel. Let rise until the dough is doubled, about two hours.

7. Once your dough has risen, turn it out on your (clean!) counter and flatten that sucker out. We’re getting rid of all of the air here so press it down firmly but without tearing it. With a bench knife, pastry knife, or a good old regular knife, cut the dough evenly into two halves.

8. Take half of the flattened dough and fold the two ends into the middle like an envelope. Take the opposite sides and fold them towards the middle again, then tightly roll the whole thing into a log, taking care to not allow any air into the middle. This takes some practice but just do your best.

9. Repeat with the other half of dough and place them seam-side down into a greased square bread pan. (If you don’t have a bread pan, place them seam-side down on a greased baking sheet—they’ll make perfectly fine loaves, they just won’t have the sandwich bread look without the sides of the pan to form them.) Cover and let the loaves rise until doubled again, about an hour and a half..

10. Once your loaves are about ready, preheat your oven to 375°F and bake for 40 minutes. The bread will be nice and brown on top and sound sort of hollow if you knock on the bottom when it’s done.

11. Let cool on a cooling rack (not in the pan!) if you have one but straight on the counter is fine. You should really wait until the bread is completely cool to slice your bread so it doesn’t become dry. Store in either a bread bag or airtight container.

Half recipe for bread machine owners:

1 cup + 2 tbsp warm milk

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (or one packet)

1 tbsp honey (or sugar)

1 tbsp melted butter

1/2 tbsp salt

3 cups all purpose flour

Happy Cooking!

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Bread Pudding; a Story of Ambition, Regret, and Redemption

So, you bought a fancy loaf of bread, stars in your eyes in the bakery section of the grocery store, with big aspirations of making a nice garlic bread for your mid-week pasta meal. “Treat yourself,” you think, “You deserve it." Wednesday rolls around, you make your pasta in a post-work blear and while the idea of garlic bread is tempting, the effort is just too much. “I’ll use that bread later,” you think.

But you don’t.

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Now it’s Sunday and you have a rock hard loaf of bread staring at you that you don’t want to throw away because food waste is a sin. But fear not, my friend, for bread pudding will be your salvation.

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The ingredients

• 2 cups milk

• 2 tbsp butter plus extra for greasing

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/3 cup sugar

• pinch of salt

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1 loaf of stale bread, cubed

• 2 eggs beaten

The recipe

1. In a small saucepan over low heat, warm milk, butter, vanilla, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Continue cooking until the butter melts, then set aside to cool.

2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

3. Meanwhile, butter your baking dish and fill with cubed bread.

4. Add eggs to cooled butter/milk mixture and whisk; pour mixture over bread. (IMPORTANT: liquid must be cool before you add the eggs or you will cook them and end up with scrambled eggs in your pudding!)

5. Bake your bread pudding for 30-45 minutes or until the custard has set but has a little wobble. The edges of the bread will be browned when it is ready.

6. Let cool for 15-20 minutes so the custard sets before serving.

Closing notes

I usually make this as a Sunday breakfast item, companion to bacon or sausage and a nice cup of coffee. Maple syrup tastes great over bread pudding, but you can go the traditional dessert route and sprinkle it with some powdered sugar.

This recipe is even better if you’ve baked a big loaf of challah bread that you couldn’t finish! I will admit to reserving a half loaf of fresh challah and letting it get stale just to make bread pudding with but any bread that you’ve forgotten about until it could break rocks will do.

Happy Cooking!

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No Chill Sugar Cookies

“Tell you what I really think? Okay…”

No, these cookies aren’t super sassy or brutally honest. These sugar cookies are no-chill because they require no time in the fridge before rolling and cutting. They come out perfectly soft and buttery, won’t crumble if you decide to icing-decorate, and are all around a great utility cookie for add-ins if you want to get creative and add dry tea for flavor (a personal favorite is finely ground Earl Grey).

The Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 cup unsalted butter (softened to room temperature)

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 egg

I promise you the crumbly dough you’re about to make will look like this, just knead it!

The Recipe

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until fluffy, then mix in your egg and vanilla extract.

3. Gradually mix in flour mixture until fully incorporated. Dough will look too crumbly but don’t add any extra liquid!! (This is also where you’ll add in that finely ground dry tea if you’re feeling adventurous

4. Start kneading the crumbly dough together with your hands—your body heat will soften the butter slightly and bring the dough together. When ready to roll the dough will have almost have the texture of play-dough.

5. Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thickness, cut with a cookie cutter, then transfer to a greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

6. Bake for 7-8 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

7. Let the cookies sit until firm, about a minute, then transfer them to a cooking rack. This step is important, they will be very soft right out of the oven and will crumble or dent if you try to handle them too quickly

And we’re done!

Easy peasy sugar cookies you don’t have to wait to chill or wrestle with hard dough when you forget about it in the fridge for too long.

You’ll get about 2 dozen cookies from this recipe so you may want to double or triple it if you’re baking for a get-together or bake sale! Or if you’re just a sugar cookie junkie. I don’t judge.

Happy Cooking!

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Cranberry Sauce From Scratch, A Lesson in Compote

A sweet bowl of lies.

Here’s a holiday secret: cranberry sauce isn’t a sauce at all. It’s a compote. Yup, the same kind of compote you might serve on top of a slice of cheesecake or a stack of waffles. That is, it is simply a fruit cooked in syrup. Making a compote is similar to making a jam, and instead of using packaged pectin we’ll be using apple for that jelly-like quality.

Why the distinction before the recipe? Because I embrace the compote-osity of my cranberry “sauce” and don’t serve it over turkey, I serve it on the side as a companion to dessert items and treat it as such by adding toasted walnuts for texture. I am completely transparent in my love for sour fruits, however, and urge you to eat your “sauce” how you see fit!

The Ingredients:

• 1 lb bag of fresh cranberries

• 1 medium apple, diced

• 2 - 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar

• 1 1/2 cups water

• 1/2 cup orange juice (fresh squeezed from two oranges preferred)

• The zest of two oranges

• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

• Pinch of nutmeg

• Pinch of cloves

• Pinch of salt

• A little squeeze of lemon juice

  (Optional)

• 1 cup of walnut pieces, toasted

Prep-work/tips:

Don’t forget to rinse all of your fruit, including the cranberries!

You can juice an orange without a juicer. Before you zest your oranges, roll them around on the counter firmly to break up the membranes around the fruit’s juice capsules. Doing this for a few minutes will make the fruit feel softer to the touch. You can also use a pair of kitchen tongs to get a good grip on them for juicing once you’ve cut the orange in half.

To zest an orange, you will need to use a rasp or a grater with fine holes (the small size of a box cheese grater will work) to remove the colored outer skin, otherwise known as “the zest”. Be careful not to cut into the white part underneath the skin, this is called the pith and it is very bitter.

To toast your walnuts, place them on an ungreased baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for 5-7 minutes. It’s not an exact science, just pull them when they smell good and have a bit of color. This brings the nuttiness out and brings the natural oils to the surface. Raw nuts will taste a little bitter which is why I recommend this step any time you’re adding nuts to a recipe.

The recipe:

1. Combine sugar, orange juice, and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar into a syrup.

2. Once the syrup is boiling, add the whole cranberries, orange zest, pinch of salt, and your cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

3. Reduce pot to a simmer and allow the cranberries to open, you will hear a “pop!” like popcorn. This can take anywhere from 8-10 minutes for all of the cranberries to burst, just take your time and stir so the sugars don’t burn at the bottom. Once most of the berries are open you can use a wooden spoon to burst the stubborn ones.

4. Add your diced apples and allow to cook for a few more minutes, this will release the pectin in the apples and make your compote more jelly-like.

5. (Optional) Reduce the heat to low and stir in your toasted walnut pieces. The oils from the walnuts will velvet your compote and make it glossy.

6. Reduce your heat gradually and continue stirring until cool, scraping down the sides as you stir. This step is important for anything sugar syrup based, it prevents crystallization of your compote and keeps you from having a crunchy sauce after refrigeration.

And there you have it! I recommend tasting your cranberry compote after you add in the apples but before you start the cooling process to see if it needs any more spices or sugar. If you decide to add in additional sugar to taste, don’t just dump the sugar straight in the pot—combine another 1/4 cup sugar with 1/4 cup hot water and allow it to dissolve before you add it so you don’t get any crystallization started in your dish.

Happy Cooking!

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The Softest Ginger Boys You'll Ever Love

Your new ginger love.

If you’re looking for sturdy structural gingerbread for confectionery holiday constructions, these cookies are not it. Neither are they ginger snaps—there is no “snap” to be found in this recipe other than, maybe, the eureka kind you do before you go, “This is it!”

These cookies are quick to whip up and full of those holiday spices that make your neighbors jealous because your house will smell so amazing. The recipe makes about two and a half dozen cookies, you may opt to double the recipe the second time you make them because they’re seriously that good.

The ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened to room temperature

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tablespoon water

• 1/4 cup molasses

• 2 additional tablespoons white sugar in a separate dish for rolling

The directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter/margarine and sugar until lighter in color and fluffy (for new bakers: this is called “creaming”). Beat in the egg, then mix in the water and molasses. Finally, mix the dry ingredients into your molasses/butter mixture until fully incorporated (dough may seem a little crumbly, this is fine as long as it holds together when pinched.)

4. For best results, place dough in refrigerator for 20-30 minutes and refrigerate leftover dough between batches. (This step is optional but recommended, it helps the dough hold its shape during baking.)

5. Roll dough into one inch balls, about the size of an unshelled walnut or a shooter marble, then roll them around in a dish of sugar until coated.

6. Place the cookies two inches apart onto an ungreased (or silpat lined) cookie sheet. You can flatten them slightly at this step if you’re nervous about them spreading.

7. Bake in your preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for a couple of minutes before moving them from the cookie sheet to a cooling rack (moving them immediately will cause them to fall apart—they are very soft!) and allow to cool completely.

That’s it! Super easy. Go ahead and eat one (or three) and store the rest in an airtight container. They keep their softness for about a week stored this way (but I sincerely doubt they’ll last that long).

Happy Cooking!

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