So why in the world is this chick doing a bread pudding? Grandma was very generous and let us stay with her during our Christmas traveling, but her one request was that I would cook with her and make her some home made bread pudding. So I had to practice!

Well, the pudding never happened while we were visiting her due to schedules not meeting up. Lame. But it was still fun to make and now I can actually say “I’ve eaten bread pudding.”

That’s a goal I have this year, to say “I’ve eaten _______ “. I’m a crazy picky eater and I need to change my ways. I want to say that statement a lot.

I also should probably start actually paying attention to recipes. Because sometimes 2 cups just isn’t the same in my world.

Plus any recipe that lets me demolish things always makes me happy.

So many times through making this, I kept looking at it and wondering “is this right?” I’ve never made anything like this so I really didn’t know if it was right or not.

Tempering eggs always makes me nervous. I’m always afraid I’m going to end up with my dish being filled with scrambled eggs or strange chewy bits. So far I’ve been lucky in that respect but I’ve always been OVER cautious.

Plus pouring hot liquids into a bowl is generally rather wiggy, since I always tend to spill that stuff everywhere and make a huge mess. It helps that I found a great pot at a thrift store with a pouring spout!

This is the point where I started questioning myself. Was there enough bread? Too much bread? Would this thing even taste remotely good?

I sprinkled the top with some cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg and sprinkled some raw large grain sugar on top. And I have to say it actually was really good. The top was crunchy and the bottom was soft, it was sweet and slightly spicy at the same time. The second day the top softened and the whole thing was a big gooey blob in my mouth. I can handle bread pudding the first day but I guess after that it’s going to be a no-go.

Next time I think I want to use more bread, more crust, maybe a bigger pan, try to make it thinner and have more of that lovely crunchy top. I’ve been told that it is normally served with a brandy sauce, I’ve never made one but I might have to try that soon.

Simple Bread Pudding
Serves 6-8

• 3 cups cubed day old French bread
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups milk, scalded
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar or raw sugar

1. Preheat oven to 300F. Generously butter an 8×8 inch baking dish.
2. Scald 2 cups of milk and set aside to start cooling
3. Place bread cubes in the baking dish. In a medium bowl, beat together eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Very slowly whisk in the scalded milk, tempering the eggs so they do not curdle. Pour mixture over the bread.
4. Combine the nutmeg, cinnamon and brown sugar and sprinkle over the top of the bread.
5. Place baking dish in a larger oven safe dish and fill with hot water until it is half way up the pudding. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve hot.

My skills with a bread knife and cutting in a straight line leave much to be desired. Its also probably why I can’t cut fabric in a straight line either. I think I have a genetic disposition to having a crooked hand.

I really hate the fact that my bread all turns lopsided when I try to cut into it. If you notice the cinnamon swirl bread on the right, the slice was rather lop sided. Either one end ends up twice as thick as the other or just all around retarded looking when I would come after it with a knife to enjoy its yeasty goodness.

I also hated the fact that I could never slice a good slice for a sandwich. Not only was it horribly lop sided but also super thick. More conducive to french toast than a turkey sandwich.

I had been thinking of buying a bread slicing guide online, but they always had such bad reviews for being cheap, thin plastic that would break or crack easily if used often.

But then I found this “beauty” while at a local thrift store. I love thrift stores, I think a good portion of my cooking and baking supplies have come from there. It only cost about $3 and was a nice sturdy plastic. I almost didn’t get it since I thought I would never use it.

I use it multiple times a day.

Its great because each slice is the same width and perfect for a sandwich. PLUS you don’t have that weird bread tilting thing going on after I’ve cut the bread.

Who knew that such joy could be found for only $3…

Especially when I suddenly bust out things like home made cinnamon rolls randomly.

He’s slowly getting used to the fact that I’ve started learning how to cook. He still won’t take bites of things when I walk up to him with a spoon and say “eat this”. That freaks him out.

But waking up to fresh cinnamon rolls doesn’t scare him… At least not that I know.

Plus I already have the perfect dough for this project.

This lovely dough was left over from the wonderful Sweet White Bread monster dough. Remember that stuff? Yeah, it rocks my socks off.

Anyways. Take your lovely dough. Knead it lightly. Tell it you love it.

Then roll it out. I rolled it as thin as I could without tearing it. I think it was somewhere between 1/8″-1/4″ thick. Try to make it as rectangular as possible, it makes it easier to cut off the ends later if its mostly even.

You also have to make the filling. I used a little bit of super soft butter, sugar and cinnamon. My butter is unsalted so I added just a pinch of salt to it. Just because I could.

Spread the filling all over the rolled dough. Its a little hard to make sure its completely even, but get it as close as possible. Also, leave one long edge of the dough uncovered. You need one of the long ends to pinch over at the end to help seal your log so it doesn’t come undone while rising or baking.

And now we get to roll the dough. I had issues with this part since I was afraid to make the inside too thick without enough filling. I think I was just being obsessive. Its just cinnamon rolls for crying out loud, not brain surgery. I make things more difficult than they are.

After its all rolled up, make sure to pinch the uncovered side to the rest of the long, seal it closed.

Using the back of a knife, start dividing the dough to make your cutting guides. Its easier that way, plus you only get one chance to cut the dough and you want them to be pretty even. I made mine into 8 rolls, but you could easily make them into 12. They were huge.

Its also easier to use a serrated knife to cut them. Make one pull through with the knife and cut half way down, then one more pull through to cut the rest of the way.

And make sure to cut your ends off too. Or else they just look funny.

Aren’t they pretty? So nice and swirled. Now we just have to let them rise and become what they were meant to.

While I let them rise, I made some Cream Cheese frosting. I had made butter cream frosting before and figured it would be similar, since just cream cheese and sugar really didn’t sound appetizing, I added butter!

Because butter makes everything better.

Cream cheese and butter, with a little vanilla extract and a whole lot of powdered sugar. I think somewhere around 2 cups. After everything was mostly incorporated, I just let my whisk attachment go wild and put it on high for a few minutes. It turned from a slightly yellow (from the vanilla) color to a nice whiter color. Pretty.

Now go put it in the fridge and stop sticking your finger in it.

Now that the rolls have risen its time to put them in the oven. They get a pretty good rise, which is not surprising because of the dough I used. Its awesome dough. But then again thats what happens when you use lots of yeast.

After baking, they just have to be the most glorious cinnamon rolls I have ever tasted. Not nearly as sickly sweet as Cinnabon, and fresh from the oven.

Did I mention that this whole recipe I just winged? It was one of those “soul cooking” endeavors. A little of this, a little of that, add more butter. Sometimes those just happen and its so wonderful that it turned out delicious.

Cinnamon Rolls
Makes 8-12 rolls

• Dough: See Sweet White Bread recipe. Use 1/3 of the dough for this recipe.

Cinnamon Filling:

• 1 cups brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2-1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1-1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Take the dough and roll it into a large rectangle, roughly 1/8 inch thick, 16” x 20” wide.
2. Stir together all ingredients for the cinnamon filling, until the butter is fully incorporated and mixed in.
3. Spread the cinnamon filling over the dough evenly, leaving 1” along one long side bare. Start rolling the dough along the long cinnamon covered edge and end on the uncovered side of dough, pinching down the seam to make sure it seals.
4. With a serrated knife, cut off the ends of the roll then cut into 12 equal sized portions. Let rise in a greased 9” x 12” pan for 40 minutes.
5. Bake at 350ºF for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Top with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Whip together the cream cheese and butter until completely incorporated. Add the vanilla and salt.
2. Slowly whip in the powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time until all is incorporated.
3. Turn the mixer on high and whip for 1-2 minutes, until the mixture has lightened in color, scraping down the bowl often.
4. Refrigerate until used.

I do believe I have found it. This bread is sweet, lovely, mouth watering, and super soft. Its the bread I make at home that has that same softness as Wonder Bread from the store.

Its a sweeter bread, so it does make good sandwiches but makes them slightly sweet. It makes a mean Italian Grilled Cheese, and would probably make the greatest French Toast known to man.

The one thing about this recipe is that it uses a whole 8 cups of flour! That’s a huge mount! AND 3 tablespoons of yeast! I knew in the beginning they would turn out to be these beastly loaves. The slice above is about 1.5 slices tall if you compare it to normal sandwich bread. The loaf pans are 3-4 inches tall, and the loaf goes another 3-4 inches above the rim.

These are serious loaves of bread.

This is just the sponge. Water, sugar, yeast, salt and half of the flour. That bowl? That’s the bowl to my mixer. Its the second largest bowl I own.

This is after about an hour. This sponge is going to take over my bowl soon if I don’t get on with it.

Plus the sponge was incredibly sticky. It tried to eat my spoon. It didn’t mind the fact that it would get stuck in its teeth something bad. I made the mistake once of trying to knead this beastly bread in the mixer. I think the mixer then got mad at me because all it did was throw flour at me.

Angry little mixer.

So then I knew I had to knead it by hand. It really is a large piece of dough to mix by hand but it really isn’t too bad since the dough is rather soft.

It will usually take almost all the flour I throw on the board, but sometimes like today it decided it just wasn’t as hungry. I guess the appetizer of my spoon helped its hunger.

After all that kneading, its a nice and soft ball. It doesn’t look like a beast, but its like a child. They grow and grow and before you know it, its completely taken over and its toys have taken over your whole house.

I don’t know what normal people use to oil their bowls for rising. I tend to use olive oil because it’s what I have in my little drizzle bottle next to the stove. I just have a thing against that spray stuff because I some how end up getting it all over my glasses.

I just have issues in the kitchen.

The first time I saw this, it scared me. I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I had never seen dough get that big before.

This was only after about 45 minutes.

Seriously. Has this happened to you? This is the largest bowl I own. I don’t want to say I need bigger bowls, but that might be a necessity.

Its like one of those evil aliens you see in movies. What was that, something about a blob? Blob attacks or something. It just might attack me. Or eat my oven.

Now I suck at shaping loaves. They look like weird worms half the time. So I’m not showing you that.

I bet your wondering why I only have 2 strangely shaped loaves and one lump. That lump is going to be turned into something to shock my husband. He loves it when I suddenly whip up something and he looks at me wondering “We had that?”

Sweet White Bread
Makes 3 large loaves. Or 4 closer to regular sized loaves. Or other great things.

• 3 cups warm water
• 3 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 8 cups bread flour

1. In a large bowl, combine warm water, yeast, salt, oil, sugar, and 4 cups flour. Mix thoroughly, and let sponge rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
2. Gradually add about 4 cups flour, more or less until a soft dough is achieved. Kneading until smooth.
3. Place dough in a greased bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
4. Punch down the dough, let it rest a few minutes. Divide dough into three equal parts (roughly 700g each).
5. Shape into loaves, and place in three greased bread pans. Let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.
6. Bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes. Reposition the loaves for even baking and tent loosely with foil. Bake an additional 15 minutes or until the internal temperature of the loaf is around 190ºF and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
7. Let the loaves cool on wire racks for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

I’m referencing one of those times where you make the dough yourself, everything is made start to finish (well except cheese, I don’t know how to do that yet).

We made our first pizza a few days ago, and I have to tell you I’m in love.

Normally I have a hard time eating delivery pizza. The grease really doesn’t sit well with my stomach and usually the toppings just aren’t up to par with what I’m craving. You also then have the whole topping issue. It really is rare to get people to agree what to have on a pizza (other than cheese).

This cheese was wonderful and didn’t upset my stomach at all! My half had bell pepper, grape tomatoes, and mushroom. My husband went for pepperoni. I really enjoyed my veggie side more than the pepperoni (less greasy) but it really had great flavor.

I do have to admit to making one mistake. I got the recipe from AllRecipes and I didn’t read far enough into the comments to realize that it made 2 medium size pizzas or one REALLY BIG pizza. From the picture you can tell what I did. That sucker took over my pizza stone and expanded over the sides! Next time I would definitely make it into 2 pizzas and make them thinner. This pizza was a beast!

The leftovers really weren’t as good as the first day, but I still liked it.

Note to self… Read before doing… ha!

This whole cooking thing has been a journey for me, from not knowing that some foods like marshmallows could actually be made by hand, to actually making the things that cause others to say “You did WHAT?”

That has to be the best reaction ever by the way.

I have to say my biggest disaster was my Franken-bread.

I had just gotten my very first bread machine and wanted to make bread. It was one I had gotten used, but it had the manual and seemed to work ok so I had to go for it.

Keep in mind I had never made bread until I started with this. Ok, correction. I had never made yeast bread before. I am the queen of quick breads (zucchini, pumpkin, banana), but never the yeast.

So home I went, with my ingredients in hand, a cook book for bread, and my beloved bread machine. I turned it on, threw in the ingredients and let it do its thing. What came out was not expected, though it was slightly edible the farther down it got.

Over time I slowly got better at making bread, not have another horribly disastrous loaf like my first one, but they were still slightly misshapen.

They were edible though! Well, after you cut the burned top off at least. It yielded great, fluffy crumbed bread that tasted great with a little butter and honey on it. It even made the greatest French toast.

After a while, I finally realized that what everyone was saying on my favorite baker forum The Fresh Loaf was right. I needed to actually pay attention to my measurements and weigh my flour. It makes such the difference.

I went from having the crazy loaf to having a wonderful and perfectly sized loaf of bread.

I eventually branched out and made a great honey wheat bread, but I think my white bread will always be my favorite.

See? Everyone makes mistakes. It’s just learning and listening to get it right.

I was first introduced to Indian curry from a friend in college. She loved this stuff and was absolutely convinced that it would cure the common cold.

She was a little…unique. But in a good way.

My favorite is tikka masala, but I just can’t find a place that makes something as good as the little hole in the wall Indian place she would take me to. Spicy but mild in heat, and oh so flavorful. I haven’t ventured much out of the realm of tikka masala, I think I need someone to teach me the different styles, and most importantly, how to cook it.

Well here’s a start on it. Naan is a flatbread that is usually served with curry. Its warm, flavorful and wonderful for wrapping around some meat while dipping into the sauce. Absolutely wonderful I think.

I was leery about making naan for a while since most of the recipes called for lard or shortening, and that for some reason didn’t sound right. It sounded more like a giant tortilla than a soft and wonderful piece of naan. But I did find this one and really thought I could do it. And I did. I don’t have any curry in the house, but right now I’m enjoying it plain, warmed up in some foil in our toaster oven.

I love this bread and I think it could be used for a lot more than just plain bread to dip in curry sauce. My husband agrees that it would make some pretty awesome individual pizzas, and maybe brush some garlic butter over it to have with pasta. I could probably even roll it flat enough to use as a basis for a sandwich wrap.

So many possibilities.

Naan
Makes 12 naan depending on size

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dry active yeast
• 1 1/2 cup warm milk, heated to 110F
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon melted butter for brushing

Directions

1. Add the yeast and sugar to the warm milk and let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Combine the flour, salt and milk mixture. Knead by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Add more flour if the dough is too sticky.
3. Allow to rise for two hours, covered with a towel or plastic.
   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll the dough into balls and let rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
4. Add a heavy cookie sheet or pizza stone to the bottom rack of the oven. Preheat the oven to 500F.
5. Once the dough has rested, roll out each ball until it is roughly 6” – 7” wide, and quite thin.
6. Moisten hands with water and gently pass the dough between your hands to moisten gently, and lay on the hot cookie sheet. Bake for 1-2 minutes, until it starts to puff. Gently flip the bread and bake another 1-2 minutes or until lightly browned in spots.
7. Remove from the oven, brush lightly melted butter and cover with a cloth. If the naan is still puffy after brushing with butter, gently press on the bread with a cloth to release the air.
8. Serve warm.

Now that I am finally feeling better from this evil-death-flu that has been going around the nation, even though it only took a whole month out of my life, I finally have the bug to start cooking again.

I always know when I’m feeling better when I start wanting to cook again. So I bit the bullet and decided to do it.

I made the baked donuts I’ve been wanting to make. It’s basically the same recipe that is used for making the yeast donuts, but instead I baked them.

I didn’t have any frosting handy so I dipped them in butter and then in cinnamon sugar. My husband already has deemed that he likes them, but would rather have a frosting or a glaze on them.

The recipe makes quite a few, almost 2 dozen donuts, not to mention all of the donut holes that I made as well.

I do have to say that the next time I make them I’d rather have them ALL be the donut holes. The perfect bite sized snack. I also can imagine myself making these and having a donut party, letting everyone dress their own donuts. I think that would be a blast!

There is a difference texturally between the baked donuts and the fried ones. The baked version is a little heavier than the traditional ones, but still quite yummy. They also took forever to rise, I kept thinking that I didn’t do them right or something happened with the yeast, but as soon as they got put in the oven they really blew up!

Ok, on to the recipe:

Baked Donuts
Makes 2 dozen donuts or hundreds of donut holes.

• 3 teaspoons instant active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F.)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar (divided)
• 1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F.)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 eggs, room temperature and beaten
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. Mix the warm water, yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in a bowl and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. In a bowl, mix together all remaining ingredients until a soft dough forms. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough becomes elastic and soft – about 10 minutes. Form into a tight ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover with plastic or a damp tea towel and let rest for 20 minutes. (Or add all ingredients to a 2lb bread machine and put on the dough cycle.)
3. Pull out dough and roll out to roughly 1/3″ thick. Using a floured donut cutter (or one 3″ cutter and one 1″ cutter for the center) and cut out donuts. Place cut donuts on parchment lined cookie sheets.
4. Let donuts rise, covered in plastic, for roughly 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size. Don’t worry if yours don’t rise after an hour, cook as normal.
5. Bake in a preheated 375F oven for 7-8 minutes, or until the BOTTOMS are just golden brown. Remove from oven and let sit for 1-2 minutes (or until just warm)
6. Top with frosting or dip in melted butter then cinnamon sugar.

The husband loves pretty much anything sweet or covered in chocolate, so in the mode of trying to help our waist lines while still enjoying what we’re eating, I found a great recipe for one of his favorites. Banana bread.

One of the things that really stick out to me in this recipe is that it uses apple sauce to keep it moist and not a whole lot of butter. I changed the recipe around a bit from the original, mainly using half whole wheat flour. One of the reasons this is a great trick is it keeps you fuller for longer. Eat two muffins and you feel full and satisfied for hours.

One of the things to note about this recipe is that it definitely does need to rest before going into the oven. Usually the time it takes for the oven to preheat is enough time for the batter to relax a bit before baking. If it doesn’t rest, then it sometimes can have a rubbery outside to it, and not the soft yet crunchy that we all love.

Low Fat Banana Bread
Makes 2 loaves or 24 muffins.

• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 whole eggs (or 2 egg whites)
• 2 cup banana, mashed (about 4 bananas)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir together apple sauce, bananas, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract and egg until combined. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda. Stir just until combined. Let batter sit while lightly greasing pan using butter and flour. Pour batter evenly into pans.
2. Preheat oven to 350F, letting the batter rest while the oven preheats.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes for an 8″ x 4″ loaf pan, or 20 to 25 minutes for muffins, until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean. Let sit in pan for 10 minutes or until cool enough to touch. Turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.