Scones!

 The scone is a pretty standard part of any coffee shop and is definitely in most any Starbucks. They are usually pretty good but I would prefer to make my own. You get a lot more for your money and I prefer my scones to be a little less sweet and a little more buttery.

I'm sure there is a reason but I have no idea why they are triangles.

Banana Nut Bread! Pure Goodness!

Biscuits!

I am a sucker for a good biscuit. In my experience, the best place to get a biscuit is the south. They know what they are doing. This is a recipe from one of the Junior League Recipe books. I tweeked it a little just because I didn't have all the ingredients but it made a pretty sweet biscuit.
   

It is a super simple recipe:
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons shortening, I used pork lard just cuz I didn't have any shortening
1 cup milk

You mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together and then put the lard into a food processor and mix until a nice crumb texture.

Then you make a well and pour in the milk and mix it together. It will be a pretty sticky dough. Flour the counter and knead the dough for a few seconds. Then roll out the dough until its about 1/2 inch thick. Then cut out a biscuit cutter or you could do what I did and use the baking powder container as a guide and cut it with a butter knife, but a biscuit cutter is way easier.

Then bake them on a cookie sheet at 450 for 12-15 minutes.

I had these biscuits with butter and jam but they would go great along with dinner. 

Third Times The Charm

I am definitely not alone when I say that pizza is one of my favorite foods. It one of those dishes that most everyone has had and most everyone likes it. It is also something that I have always been afraid to make, just because I had gotten it in my head that anything I made would not be nearly good enough. I decided that if I am making bread I have no business to bake then I might as well try to make pizza. I made the crust the day before. I made enough for six small crusts.
 I put five in the freezer and one in the refrigerator. The next day I took the dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit out and puff up a little for two hours.I then spread it out pretty thin on this disposable pizza pan I bought and the grocery. I set the oven at 550 because that is the highest temperature on my stove. Pizza are supposed to be cooked quickly at very high temperatures. I had made tomatoes sauce a couple days before so I used that for the sauce and about a cup of mozzarella. The first pizza I made I just used mozzarella. This pizza turned out to be very undercooked on the bottom because the disposable pan didn't get hot. It wasn't so great. So I tried again the next day and I mixed some Italian Seasoning in with the cheese. This pizza was better cooked but the cheese lacked salt and didn't taste too much like anything. The third night I mixed in a quarter cup of romano cheese and a little Parmesan and the Italian Seasoning. This time I used my stoneware pan. It was perfect. The crust was perfectly crispy, the cheese was just salty enough and the seasoning gave it a great taste. It was just as good as pizza from a restaurant. 

Time Lapse Raisin Bread!

Sweet or Savory? I pick Savory.

    I am a fan of breakfast. As they say, it is the most important meal of the day. I may have a loose interpretation as to when you can call a meal breakfast, but I love it nonetheless. I am an even bigger fan of eating breakfast foods for lunch or dinner. One of my favorites is the english muffin. The ones you get in the store are great and serve as the perfect vehicle for other breakfast food combinations. These english muffins are delicious by themselves or with some cheese, bacon, and eggs in a do-it-yourself style egg McMuffin. Because these take about three hours to rise and proof, I decided to make these for a  breakfast at dinnertime sort of thing.
   This recipe or formula comes from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Extraordinary Bread. I am really into these days and I have been really happy with everything that I have made from it. It makes six muffins.

2 1/2 Cups Bread Flour
1/2 Tablespoon Sugar
3/4 Teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon unsalted butter or shortening
3/4 cup to 1 cup milk or buttermilk



Combine dry ingredients:flour, sugar, salt, and yeast.
Add butter and milk

Knead dough for 10 minutes until it is tacky but not sticky

Oil a bowl and coat the dough in the oil than cover it.

Let it ferment for 60-90 minutes

Then cut the dough into six pieces and then roll them into balls. 

Put dough balls onto a parchment paper lined sheet pan. Lightly oil the balls and cover loosely with plastic wrap. 

Let them proof for 60-90 minutes 

Then comes the fun part!

Heat a skillet at medium heat and pre-heat the oven to 350.

Spray the skillet with oil then place the muffins in the skillet making sure not to let the muffins touch. I did it in to batches of three or four. Let them brown on both sides in english muffin fashion and then immediately put them in the oven for 5-8 minutes. Don't wait for the all the muffins to be finished on the skillet to put them in the oven. 

They come out looking pretty legit. I felt pretty accomplished with myself when they came out. 

Gosh Darn Good Rolls

Dinner rolls are a wonderful thing, at least I think so. There are a lot of alright rolls out there and some great rolls out there. These were pretty fantastic. My last post was of a white bread recipe that could be used for rolls. The loaf that I made didn't quite rise like it needed to and it was much more dense than it should have been.

 I definitely prefer this recipe for rolls just because this is such a sweet and buttery bread that goes perfectly with a savory meal. I had them with a delicious birthday dinner.

Some lovely flowers from the boyfriend and an adorable card from the mom. 

 This time the bread rose perfectly and the rolls were light, but still  creamy and soft inside. It was just like the white bread recipe in my last post but instead of shaping it like a loaf I shaped the dough into little balls and let them rise a little.

Then you bake them for 10-12 minutes or until they are golden brown.

They are a delicious addition to a meal and not too much trouble, that little extra something to a nice meal.