Tagged: baking

October 1, 2013

Recipe: Blueberry Peach Bread

Thanks to Mom and Dad, being the avid blueberry pickers they are, my freezer is filled with bags of the yummy, little, purple tastebombs. I put them on cereal, in my yogurt, have made blueberry scones and blueberry banana bread, but still the berries are taking over my freezer. Having a full freezer is a good thing at times, how else am I supposed to decide what to eat for dinner? The game I play now is whatever the freezer spits out (usually smashing onto my toes) is the winner.

Yes, I allow the freezer to decide what I eat.

Upon further inspection of the freezer, (as I was attempting to make room for the large hunk of beef the boy brought home from Costco) I also found I had a surplus of peaches. I wouldn’t mind the overages of frozen fruit and berries, if it weren’t for the fact that I only have a tiny freezer at the moment. While a new freezer is on my list of things to buy before I start school in January, I wonder how will I choose what to eat if everything has a place and nothing is being rejected by the cooling box.

I googled blueberries and peaches, which is normally the way I find new recipes to try. Just punch in the ingredients you have and go from there. While the boy and I are trying to avoid carbs, it’s not really helping that I keep baking stuff that needs to be eaten. Such as this blueberry/peach bread, which turned out really moist and tasty.

Blueberry Peach Bread

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup blueberries
1 cup peeled and diced peaches (about 3 peaches)
1/2 cup Non-fat greek yogurt
Zest of one lime

Instructions

1 – Pre-heat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

2 – In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.

3 – Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg is added.

4 – Add in the vanilla and lime zest and mix well.

5 – Add in the greek yogurt and mix until well combined.

6 – Gently fold in the blueberries and peaches.

7 – Put batter in greased bread pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the top is lightly browned or toothpick inserted comes out clean.

8 – Cool before slicing.

*I cut the peaches a little too large for this bread, so there were holes in the bottom when I flipped it out of the pan, but it still tasted wonderful. The batter is a cross between a muffin and a cake batter, dense, soft and super yum. I’m sure it’s not that great for me, specially while trying to be all low-carby, but it makes for a great dessert. I will definitely be making this bread again.

Chef-In-Training Mandy 😀

September 26, 2013

Recipe: Thai Chilli and Old Cheddar Bread

This is my second attempt at making bread, and surprisingly, they’ve both turned out quite well. Now, I have an issue with bread… I am a breadophile. If there’s bread in the house, it’s not safe from my snacking. I have found a way around this, and that’s keeping it in the freezer. Only cause then I have to think of bread in advance and it can’t be a last minute snack idea. I’m not one for buying bread from the store, but I really enjoy making it. My first attempt at bread was a simple white bread, I halved the recipe and gave one of the small-ish loaves to my best friend. *(Along with a jar of the Guinness jelly.)

I did well on the white bread, and I had a ton of extra Thai chillies and cheese, so I opted to make this recipe.

Thai Chilli and Old Cheddar Bread

2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
10 minced (and seeded) thai green chilies
2 tbsp and 1 tbsp white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup warm water (not too hot, or you’ll kill the yeasties)
2 tsps yeast
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 – In a very large bowl, combine flour, cheese, jalapenos, 2 tbsp sugar and the salt; mix well.

2 – In a separate bowl (I used a measuring cup), combine the water, yeast and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Let sit about 10 minutes; stir until all yeast is dissolved.

3 – Add the oil to the liquid mixture, stirring . Add half of the liquid mixture to the flour mixture. Mix with hands to moisten flour as much as possible. Add remaining liquid mixture to dough and mix until flour is thoroughly incorporated. (I had to add more water to bring it all together, but it didn’t affect the bread at all.)

4 – Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand until smooth and elastic to the touch, about 15 minutes, gradually adding only enough additional flour to keep dough from sticking.

5 – Place in a large greased bowl and invert dough so top is greased; cover with a dry towel.

6 – Let stand in a warm place (90 – 100F) until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Punch down dough. (I gave it a few more kneads here.)

7 – Form dough into a ball, then stretch out dough with both hands and tuck edges under to form a smooth surface. Pop any large air bubbles by pinching them. Form into a loaf. Place in a greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan. Cover with towel again and allow to rise until almost doubled in size, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. (I waited 45 minutes)

8 – I sliced the top of the bread (not sure if it’s needed or not) and I added an egg wash (1 egg beat with a little water) to the top of the bread and sprinkled more grated cheese on top. (The egg wash isn’t in the photo, I decided to add it afterwards. I brushed off all the cheese, egg washed it and reapplied the cheese.)

9 – Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) until dark brown and done, about 1 hour, rotating the pans after 25 minutes for more even browning. Remove from pan as soon as bread will easily lift out, after about 5 to 10 minutes.

10 – Let cool about 1 hour before slicing.

It turned out pretty good. It’s a tolerable heat, so if you’re looking for a severe burn or something of the sort, I’d up the chillies considerably. I’d also consider adding more cheese to the dough itself, as most of the cheddar seemed to disappear with the kneading. I will definitely be making this bread again. 😀

Chef-In-Training Mandy