Hasselback Garlic Cheesy Bread

Ahhh pinterest...how do I love thee :) I am finding so many recipes on there its RIDICULOUS.

Here is my latest:

Hasselback Garlic Cheesy Bread
http://www.laurenslatest.com/hasselback-garlic-cheesy-bread/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+laurenslatest%2FyMlk+%28Lauren%27s+Latest%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Prep Time: 2 hours

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Yield: 2 loaves; 8 servings

4 slices

Who doesn't love garlic cheesy bread?

Ingredients

* 1 cup warm water
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast {1 envelope}
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 3 cups bread flour
* 1/2 cup Garlic & Herb Butter
* 1/4-1/2 pound extra sharp white cheddar or any cheese you like

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, stir water, honey and yeast together. Let yeast proof 5 minutes. Once you know yeast is active, stir in salt and the flour in 1/4 cup increments. If you are using a stand mixer, be sure to not increase your speed higher than a 2 or 'stir'. Once dough starts pulling away from the sides and the bowl seems to be pretty clean, set a timer for 5 minutes and walk away. Let the machine knead the dough. After 5 minutes, dough should be smooth and tacky but when touched shouldn't leave any dough on your fingers. Grease bowl and dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.
2. Punch down dough and cut into two equal portions. Form into two long baguettes the length of the cookie sheet. I like to twist mine because it looks cool, but it also keeps its length and doesn't shrink. Cover with plastic wrap and rise 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place dough close to the oven. Once oven is preheated, remove plastic wrap, reduce oven to 350 and bake 20 minutes.
3. In the mean time, slice the cheese into thin slices and melt the butter.
4. Pull loaves of bread out after 20 minutes and brush with butter. Bake another 5-7 minutes or until bread begins to turn a golden brown. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes.
5. Cut 1-inch slices 3/4's of the the way through the loaves. Brush garlic butter in between each slice and fill with a slice of cheese. Bake another 3-5 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.
6. Serve immediately.


***My notes***

The bread ended up being rather salty. I blame this on the commercially available garlic butter. Lesson? Make your own.

Over all was really good and with a bit of tweaking re: cheese amount and garlic butter it'd be even better.

Saucy Roast Beef Big Mouth Sliders

So pinterest is an evil black hole that sucks all of my free time away and into nothing-ness, but its a super inspirational black hole that I find some really awesome recipes through.

This is one of them.
http://mommyimhungry.blogspot.com/2011/02/saucy-roast-beef-big-mouth-sliders.html

I'm just going to post what I did and not what the recipe calls for.....

Three Envelope Picante Roast Big Mouth Sliders
From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

3 to 4 pound beef chuck roast
1 cup of water
One envelope of dry onion soup mix
1/4 cup zesty italian salad dressing
One envelope of dry brown gravy mix
12 Dinner Rolls
1 sweet onion, sliced and sauteed until browned
Cheddar Cheese, shredded
Horseradish Sauce


Horseradish Sauce:

1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonaise
2 tbsp horseradish

Basically throw roast in slow cooker for 6-8 hrs on low (or about 4 on high) with the water, both dry mixes and the italian salad dressing.

Shred (or slice) the beef.

Put on buns with horseradish sauce, onions and cheese.

Eat.


***My notes***

Beef needs more flavour....needs some tweaking still.....
Horseradish sauce...super yummy...
Definately on my must make again list.

Cupcakes anyone?

So we all love those mini morsels of cake-iness. I mean...really who doesn't?

My very good friend J had a birthday a few weeks ago and I told her I whip up some cupcakes for her party. I had a plan for 24 mini cupcakes (you know...those one/two bite ones?) of each flavour; Devils Food(I used a box cake mix for this one) with Nutella icing and Lemon with raspberry icing(all from scratch). Well the batter kept going and going and by the end of baking night I had 96 mini cupcakes AND 2 6" cakes.

The same over abundence carried on into icing day. I managed to ice all the cupcakes (except for the 6 or so that my fiance Cody and daughter stole the night of baking) and the cakes and STILL have icing leftover.

Here are the recipes:

Nutella Buttercream Icing source: http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/nutella-cupcakes/

Yield: enough buttercream to frost 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 13-ounce jar of Nutella
pinch of fine grain sea salt
1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioners’ sugar, sifted
6-8 tablespoons heavy cream or milk

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and Nutella until well combined. Slowly add in confectioner’s sugar, and continue creaming until well blended.

2. Add salt, vanilla, and 3 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk. Blend on low speed until moistened. Add an additional 3-5 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk until you reach the desired consistency. Beat at high speed until frosting is smooth and fluffy.

****My notes****
This icing turned out fabulous and was everyone's favourite. I had a TON of this icing leftover...I put it into a yogurt container and froze it. When I get around to baking again I'll whip it out and see how freezing went.


**warning...this is three recipes in one**

Lemon Pound Cupcake with Raspberry(and blackberry) Buttercream Icing:
source: http://www.cakespy.com/blog/2009/8/14/guest-blog-post-lemon-berry-cupcakes-by-patisserie-natalie.html

Lemon Pound Cake

* 3 cups all purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 sticks unsalted butter; softened
* 2 cups sugar
* 3/4 cup plain yogurt
* 3 tablespoons lemon zest
* 2/3 cup lemon juice
* 5 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Whisk together in a large bowl thoroughly, and set aside.
3. In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until smooth.
4. In a medium bowl, stir together yogurt, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
5. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar one at a time, beating in between each addition.
6. With the mixer on a low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the yogurt mixture in 2 parts. Start and end with the flour mixture.
7. Line a muffin pan with paper liners and scoop even amounts of the batter into the cups, filling almost to the top.
8. Bake for 16 minutes, rotating the pan after 8 minutes. Once golden brown around the edges, remove from oven and place on a cooling rack for at least 2 hours before icing.

Blackberry & Raspberry Buttercreams

* 2-1/2 sticks unsalted butter; softened
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2-1/2 cups powdered sugar; sifted
* 1/4 cup blackberry sauce
* 1/4 cup raspberry sauce

1. Beat butter and 1 cup of powdered sugar until smooth. Divide into two parts, removing half from the mixer bowl. Add the blackberry sauce to the mixer bowl, along with 3/4 cup of powdered sugar. Place buttercream in a piping bag and pipe a circle around the outer edge of the cupcake top, spiraling in towards the center.
2. In the same mixer bowl, add the remaining half of the butter and powdered sugar that was set aside. Add the raspberry sauce and 3/4 cup powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Place in a piping bag and pipe an extra dollop on top of the blackberry buttercream.

Blackberry Sauce

* 1 cup blackberries
* 2 teaspoons sugar
* 1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice

Combine ingredients in a sauce pan and place over medium heat. Stir frequently until juices from berries boil. Using a wooden spoon, crush the berries in the pan. Let boil for 2 minutes to make sauce more dense. Strain the mixture if you prefer to have smoother frostings. Cool in refrigerator.

Raspberry Sauce

* 1/2 cup raspberries
* 2 teaspoons sugar
* 1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice

Combine ingredients in a sauce pan and place over medium heat. Stir frequently until juices from berries boil. Let boil for 2 minutes to make sauce more dense. Cool in refrigerator.

****My notes****
J only liked raspberries so I did JUST raspberries...I actually did 2 cups of frozen berries.
These turned out really good. The cupcake part is pretty dense(at least it was this time...) much like a pound cake.
The buttercream seperated a bit but I also didn't whip it on a high speed like the Nutella one. I think that if I had it wouldn't have seperated...maybe.

All in all super good. Everyone liked them and there was enough that we gave the 6" cakes away as we just didn't need any more cake.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Source for recipe: http://annies-eats.net/2011/09/23/pumpkin-snickerdoodles/

So I want to be really honest. I really wanted to love these cookies. I'm not a huge pumpkin dessert person so I really wanted these cookies to win me over. The fiancé loves pumpkin pie etc so I knew even if I didn't love them, maybe he would. He didn't. The taste of them is really good, kind of pumpkin pie but not as heavy, BUT they were either really chewy to the point of almost tough or underbaked.

Here is the recipe if you want to try them out, maybe it was just my baking skill which I'll admit isn't fantastic.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Yield: about 3-4 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

For the cookies:

3¾ cups all-purpose flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the coating:

½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
Dash of allspice

Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk to blend and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Blend in the pumpkin puree. Beat in the egg and vanilla until incorporated. With the mixer on low speed add in the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Cover and chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Combine the sugar and spices for the coating in a bowl and mix to blend. Scoop the dough (about 2½ tablespoons) and roll into a ball. Coat the dough ball in the sugar-spice mixture and place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough to fill the sheets, spacing the dough balls 2-3 inches apart. Dip the bottom of a flat, heavy-bottomed drinking glass in water, then in the sugar-spice mixture, and use the bottom to flatten the dough balls slightly. Recoat the bottom of the glass in the sugar-spice mixture as needed.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until just set and baked through. Let cool on the baking sheets about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough. Store in an airtight container.

Antojitos

So we all have those favourite restaurants with those menu items that we LOVE and would do just about anything to get our little fingers onto that recipe and be able to scale it down to normal people portions.

The fiancé and I went out on a date night last week and went to Montana's Cookhouse. We normally just get the spinach dip thingy but branched out and went for the Antojitos. Yum. Well I figured I could make them just as good if not better.

A quick google search led me to a copycat recipe. I changed a few things as we were just having them for dinner so wanted more substance to them.

Here is my recipe:

Antojitos

Ingredients:

1 pkg cream cheese
1 pkg MacLaren's Imperial Cheese
1/2 jalapeño pepper
1/8 cup bread crumbs
1/2 of 1 green pepper
1/2 of 1 red pepper
5 tortillas
1 fl oz hot sauce
1 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 cup green onions
1/2 cup cooked chicken

Preparation:

1. Mince jalapeño, bell peppers and green onion.
2. Mix cream cheese, imperial cheese, jalapeños and 1/2 of green onion together. Set aside.
3. Chop cooked chicken into small pieces.
4. Mix rest of green onions, chicken and bell peppers together
5. Mix 3/4 of chicken and veggie mixture with cream cheese, bread crumbs and hot sauce.
4. Spread cream cheese mixture on tortillas.
5. Sprinkle remaining chopped vegetables and shredded cheddar over the tortillas.
6. Roll the tortillas.
7. Cut 5 or 6 perpendicular lines in the top of the wraps.
8. Store or bake.

Baking:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spread garlic butter on top of the wraps for a golden colour.
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and crisp on top.


**My notes:
---I found I needed to broil them to get them nice and brown on top.
---Make sure that you leave space between all the Antojitos so they get crisp all the way around.
---Dip that Montana's serves with them is sour cream with a dollop of pesto on top.

**So coming back and re-reading this after hitting "post" I realised something. The recipe says to cut lines into the roll ups. I cut all the way through and seperated them. I'm going to have to try this again NOT cutting all the way through and laying them down on the baking tray.

Hello :)

So as I've become a still-staying-at-home-mom I've decided to embrace the culinary side of my job more. I'm going to try to share my recipes and if I remember a picture or two of the end result.

I've always had lots of success with the cooking side of the culinary world but the baking side...not so much. I'm going to embrace both sides and venture out of my normal cooking more often. I also am going to attempt to make everything just a bit healthier than what it was previously, so I'm seeing a lot of trial and error but promise to share the failures and the successes side by side.

I have a one and half year old daughter and desperatly want her to grow up appreciating everything that our world has to offer so while I may think twice about curryish soup or eggplant or zucchini I want her to try it and see what she thinks about it.

Welcome and come along on this ride that I have decided to drag my family on.