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Apr 12 2012
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Happy National Grilled Cheese Day!

In honour of National Grilled Cheese day, I’m making grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner tonight. Now I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous to have a day that is dedicated to a sandwich but the grilled cheese sandwich does hold a certain nostalgic spot in my heart that reaches back to childhood days when anything loaded with butter and processed cheese was the right choice to make when looking for a snack. Today, I’m skipping all the extras that go into the grilled cheeses that I make now in my adulthood and using the ingredients that truly ring with childhood days, white bread and processed cheese. However, I am trying a new method that promises perfectly golden crust and a gooey melted inside. Better yet, this method makes a whole bunch of grilled cheese sandwiches all at once!

Classic Oven Baked Grilled Cheese Sandwiches – makes 6

Based on the idea found here at Where Flours Bloom

  • 12 slices of white bread
  • 12 slices of processed cheddar cheese
  • Butter, softened

Preheat the oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit. Butter one side of each piece of bread and place half the slices butter side down onto a baking sheet. Place two pieces of cheese onto the bread and top with the other slice of bread, butter side up. Put a second baking sheet on top of the buttered bread and gently press down. Bake in the preheated oven for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown.

When I tried this the top baking sheet wasn’t heavy enough to brown the top slice of bread, which lead to me having to flip over the sandwiches after ten minutes. Next time, I will try weighing down the sheet by putting a pot on it.

Enjoy!

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Aug 22 2011
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Banana Nut Bread

Banana-Nut Bread

Adapted from All Recipes.com – Banana Banana Bread

  • 2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup of room temperature, unsalted, butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas
  • 1 cup of chopped mixed nuts (I used a combination of cashews, almonds, hazelnuts and pecans)

Preheat the oven 350 degrees F. and grease a 9×5 loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and nuts. In the bowl of a mixer cream butter and sugar. Add the eggs and mashed bananas and mix thoroughly. Create a well in the flour mixture and stir banana mixture into it until the dry ingredients are just moistened.

Bake the banana loaf for 60 – 65 minutes, rotate the pan half way through baking. Let the bread cool for ten minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Additionally, you can create a crunchy nut topping for your loaf by combining a 2 tbsp of granola, 2 tbsp of chopped nuts, 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp brown sugar, and sprinkling it on the top of the loaf before baking.

Enjoy!

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Aug 12 2011
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Cheddar Cheese and Onion Bread

Making bread is something that I love doing; the rewards of breaking into a warm yeasty loaf after the labour intensive process of kneading and waiting for the dough to rise into a soft pillowy cloud just to be knocked back down again. The reward that comes from making your own bread isn’t just the sense of accomplishment that comes from the process, economically speaking it just makes sense to DIY instead of spending several dollars on artisan bread from your local bakery. That being said, knowing very well that most people don’t buy bread from a bakery, I can guarantee that you will find making your own bread to be better than any pre-sliced supermarket “wonder-whats-in-it” loaf. Give it a try, and have the patience of a ninja, bread doesn’t take kindly to rushing it.

This bread makes 2 x 1.5 litre loaves or you can do what I did an make a loaf plus six buns using muffin tins. Make sure to oil your baking devices well, as the cheese has the tenancy to adhere to even the best nonstick surfaces. This bread would be great with a salad at lunch or could be used to make a really intense sandwich with slices of thick cut smoked bacon, fresh tomatoes and spicy grainy mustard.

I recommend starting a second  batch immediately, I’m sure the first won’t last very long!

Cheddar Cheese and Onion Bread

Adapted from Robinhood.ca Canadian Cheddar Cheese Bread

  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 1/2 cups warm water
  • 1 tbsp active dry yeast
  • 1/3 cup oil ( I used safflower oil but melted butter would probably make this recipe even more delicious)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 3 1/2 – 4 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
  • 2 cups shredded aged sharp cheddar cheese, reserving 1/2 cup for sprinkling on top of the loaves
  • 3 green onions, finely sliced

In a large bowl, dissolve honey in warm water and add the yeast. Let it sit for ten minutes until it starts to foam.

Beat in eggs, cayenne pepper, oil and salt.

Stir in two cups of flour and Parmesan cheese, add flour 1/2 cup at a time until the mixture becomes too stiff to stir, and the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and begin kneading, adding more flour as necessary to form a soft dough. Keep kneading for about ten minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm place until the dough doubles, approximately an hour.

Punch the dough down, and place on a lightly floured surface, knead 1 1/2 cups of cheese and the green onions into the dough until they are well incorporated. Cut the dough into two equal pieces and form into loaf shapes.

Place the dough into the well oiled pans and let the dough rise again until the dough rises about an inch above the top of the pan. Bake the loaves at 375°F for 30-35 minutes in the lower third of the oven. After the first 15 minutes of baking, rotate the loaves to ensure even baking and sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese.

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Jun 18 2011
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Balsamic Caramelized Onion and Parmesan Focaccia Bread

Caramelized Onion and Parmesan Focaccia Bread

Recipe adapted from Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook by Audrey Alsterberg and Wanda Urbanowicz (2001)

Makes one 10″ x 16″ loaf or two 15″ pizza crusts

  • 1 3/4 cups (420 ml) warm water
  • 1 tbsp (15 ml) baking yeast
  • 1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) honey
  • 2 tsp (10 ml) salt
  • 1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil
  • 4 cups (960 ml) unbleached flour

Topping

  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • Crushed Red Chili Flakes
  • 2 tsp Coarse Salt
  • 4 cloves of minced garlic
  • Balsamic Caramelized Onions
  • Olive oil
  • Black pepper

In a large bowl, combine the warm water, yeast and honey. Let it stand for approximately ten minutes or until the mixture had foamed. With a wooden spoon stir in olive oil, salt and one cup of flour. Continue to sir in flour one cup at a time, until you can no longer stir the dough. Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and proceed to knead until the dough has a smooth elastic appearance.

Place the dough in a large lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean, damp tea towel and let the dough rise until it has doubled in volume, about an hour and a half. Punch the dough down and let it rise until it doubles in size.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, placing the rack in the middle of the oven. Take a well oiled 12″ x 16″ baking sheet and stretch the dough out to roughly fit the dimensions of the pan. Remember the loaf is a rustic style, do not worry if the sides are not even in length. Brush the dough lightly with olive oil making sure to cover the surface. Add the minced garlic, coarse salt, chili flakes, black pepper, caramelized onions and cheese. Press into the dough with the tips of your fingers to create a dimpled surface. Let the dough rise for another 15 minutes.

Bake the dough for twenty minutes, making sure to rotate the pan after ten minutes to ensure the bread bakes evenly. Serve warm.

You can have fun with this recipe and change-up the toppings. Try adding sun-dried tomatoes, pitted black olives, and finely chopped fresh herbs like rosemary or sage.  If you’re making this for pizza, split the dough in two after punching it down after the first rise. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and let it rest for  ten minutes. Lightly oil a pizza pan and dust it with cornmeal, I use the bottom side of a large commercial baking sheet so I can easily slide the pizza off onto a cooling rack after its been baked, and stretch the dough out to fit the pan. Cover the dough with a damp tea towel and let rise for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, brush the perimeter of the pizza dough with olive oil to ensure a golden crust, add sauce and toppings (Don’t over load the pizza, less is more in pizza making, purchase high quality toppings and spread them evenly over the surface). Place the pizza in the bottom rack of the oven and reduce the temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the cheese is melted. Serve the pizza with fresh herbs sprinkled over the top.

Enjoy this recipe! It’s by far the best I have come across and tried.

What are your favourite toppings on focaccia or pizza? Please comment below.

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Feb 28 2009
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The evils of procrastination… NK Bread

Saturday February 28th 2009… READING BREAK IS OVER! WHAT?!? I managed to outsmart my essays and clay project this week… I managed to find better other ways to spend my time this week… Blogging, cooking, shoveling snow. Now I’m here wired on extra strong coffee(thanks to my Krups grinder!), babbling about how I should have started essaying or at least playing with clay. I guess I should pull out my books at least… or maybe wash another load of laundry, can’t forget to unload the dishwasher, heck I know ! I should bake a loaf of bread!

Starting the night before allows you to make bread without the hassle of kneading it!

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  • 3 cups bread flour ( use all purpose if you don’t have bread flour)
  • 1 5/8th cups of room temperature water (purified, filtered if you have it)
  • 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1 tsp salt

In a large bowl, add flour. Create a well in the middle add salt and yeast. Add H20. Stir to combine. cover with cling film and put in a warm dark place for 14-18hrs.

on a flowered surface tip out the wobbly mess. (Use a wet spatula to get it from clinging to the dough!) fold the dough over itself three or four  times. At this point you have two options. I have been using a baking release sprayed loaf pan for the second rise so that I can just toss it into the oven. The other method involves using a floured tea towel, which I honestly think is a hassle and makes a mess. Let the dough rise again for 2 hours. This is the interesting part. I don’t have one of those fancy $5,000 steam injection ovens that all the boulangeries use. Instead take out a large roastingpan (the one that 15lb turkey roasts in twice a year ;) ) and put a baking rack in the bottom. Fill it up with water up to the bottom of the rack. Put the lid on and toss it into a 450 degree oven half an hour before your ready to bake your bread. Take out that hot little steam oven you’ve created, be careful not to burn yourself on the steam that escapes when you open it, and place your loaf pan inside. Put the lid on put it back in the oven, turn the temperature down to 425, bake for 30 minutes. No peaking! After thirty minutes has passed remove the lid and bake for another 10 -15 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned. Alternatively, if you do want to mess around withthe floured tea towel, instead of building your own steam oven you will need a heavy duty crock pot with a heavy lid. This method creates a rustic boule style loaf. Heat the pot an hour before baking. Tip the dough out of the tea towel into the pot, cover and bake in the same manor as the other method!

boulestyleloaf

Click here for the original recipe!

See how great I am at procrastination! I’ve baked a loaf of bread and shared it ! … whats for dinner?

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