cheddar biscuits

I love buttermilk biscuits. I don't care how full I am, I will always make room for them. Add cheese and garlic, and you've got some of the best biscuits ever that taste pretty much like those from that red crustacean restaurant chain. Ya know the one. But I get to control the butter, so yay! I got the recipe from America's Most Wanted Recipes. It's actually the first recipe I've made from it even though I received it as a gift last year from James. (Hi James!) I made them for one of our Thanksgiving potlucks as an alternative to the normal dinner rolls. Yum!

Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits
adapted from that book linked above, lol

For the biscuits:
2 rounded cups of buttermilk biscuit mix
1/4 rounded tsp garlic powder

4 tbsp cold butter

1 overflowing cup of grated cheddar - I used a mix of mild and sharp cheddar
3/4 C cold whole milk

For the buttery topping:
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 tsp garlic powder
dried parsley flakes for color

Mix garlic powder into biscuit mix. Cut butter into the biscuit mix until incorporated but bits are still about the size of peas. Gently mix in the cheddar. Stir in the milk until just combined.

Preheat oven to 400. Drop into big dollops (about 1/4 C sized) onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Smooth the tops so you don't get any crispy parts. Bake for 15 minutes or until they're lightly golden.

Melt the butter and mix in the garlic powder and parsley flakes. Brush the baked biscuits while hot.

Makes 1 dozen.

baked garlic croutons

Remember how I said I'd post all my Easter recipes, and how I was working backwards, and yet somehow I stopped with the main course? I didn't forget the rest of my meal! Our salad course was a caesar topped with these big, crunchy, garlicy croutons. They are so good I'm featuring them by themselves.

Croutons are my favorite part of any salad, and I can happily eat a salad sans dresssing as long as there are good croutons involved. Snacks(salty+crunchy)=happy Caroline. (This is also why I love popcorn, potato chips, shoestring fries, pretzel crisps, etc.) I can eat croutons by themselves, which is exactly why I made an entire loaf's worth instead of enough for one meal. Good thing is that they keep well in a zip top bag for many days of future munching.

Garlic Croutons

1 loaf day old italian bread, cubed into big 1+" chunks (the loaf I got was so big, it made almost 100 huge cubes , thus the amount of oil listed next)
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 375.

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium-low to low heat. Smash the garlic cloves with your knife and discard the skin. Put the cloves into the oil and heat until the oil is infused with the garlicy goodness -- I let it simmer while I cut the bread - took about 10 minutes. Don't let the garlic brown.

Dump the bread cubes into a really big bowl. Drizzle the garlic infused oil over the bread, tossing regularly to ensure even coating. Season with salt, garlic powder, and a few grinds of pepper. Taste one and adjust seasoning to your liking. Spread out evenly in a single on a sheet pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Toss the croutons. Bake for 8 more minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool.

You an also season it however you like, too - get crazy with herbs, cheeses, ranch powder, etc. Eat with your favorite salad, or on soup, or as a snack :)

super easy pizza dough

We decided to have a make your own pizza girls night. Any time I've made pizza before, I just bought some premade dough from the grocery, but this time I wanted to give it a go myself. Turned out it's really easy to make! The original recipe says you can let it rise for only 30 min, so you'd be able to eat in about an hour, but I let mine rise over an hour just because I had that much time before going over to Melissa's house. Turned out light and the bottom was nice and crisp.

I actually made 2 doughs - a plain one and one with 1/2 tsp each of garlic powder and oregano. Once we covered the 2 half pizzas with some mushrooms, tomatoes, diced onions, and over a pound of cheese (seriously - 1 lb mozz and maybe a quarter cup of grated parm), you couldn't tell the difference in doughs. But I think the garlic/oregano one would be awesome on a white pizza or as breadsticks.

Super Easy Pizza Dough
adapted from allrecipes.com

1 packet active dry yeast
1 C warm water (around 110 degrees, if you have a thermometer)

2 tsp white sugar, divided

2 1/2 C bread flour

1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil

cornmeal for dusting (optional)

In a small bowl, dissolve the dry yeast into the water, and sprinkle 1 tsp white sugar on top. Allow to sit for about 10 minutes, or until foamy.

In a large bowl, combine the other tsp sugar, flour, salt, and olive oil. Pour in the yeast mixture and beat until a stiff dough has formed. I used my kitchen aid hand mixer with the dough attachments to make it super quick, then knead it 4 or 5 times until it was a soft, supple ball.

Take it out of the bowl long enough to coat the bowl with cooking spray, then drop the ball back in and turn to coat with the oil. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for about an hour until doubled in size.

To make the pizza:

Preheat oven to 400. If using a baking stone, put into oven to heat up for 15 min, too. Roll out dough into pizza shape of your choice. (I did this on granite and it didn't actually stick, but if you have a stickier dough just lightly flour the surface first.) Sprinkle some cornmeal on the surface to coat the bottom of the rolled out dough.

If using a cookie sheet, place on sheet. If using a baking stone, either use a pizza peel to slide the dough ontot it, or carefully take it out of oven and place the dough on it, then put back in. Don't burn yourself! Make sure to kind of press little dents all over the dough so the middle doesn't rise so much.

Prebake for about 10 min, then take out and top with your favorite toppings and continue to bake until cheese is bubbly and edges are golden, about 15-20 min.

my first yeast bread!

Well, besides the cinnamon rolls, haha. But those were sweet (and awesome) and covered in sweet cream cheesy goodness (drool). Sweet breads are an entirely different ball game in my opinion - they're desserts, special occasion events. This... this is real I could eat this every day bread!

Hmm I'm noticing a bread theme lately. Guess that's what happens when you get almost 5 work days (plus the weekend) off due historic amounts of snow -- plenty of free time to let this rise, braid, and then let it rise again. The baking was the shortest part of the process, I think. I also could have looked around for my dough hook for my mixer to make this go quicker, too, but since I had the time, I opted for the hand kneading method. Best way to get a feel for this. And there's something SO satisfying about working with your hands.

So this recipe for buttermilk honey bread makes 2 loaves of white bread. You can make it in loaf pans, but I opted for the prettier version: It's just a simple 3-braid coiled into a bun. (By simple, I should say that I watched this video several times to get an idea of how to do it.) I should have watched my oven a bit closer because I toasted the top more than I'd have liked, but it wasn't enough to burn it. Next time - and yes there'll definitely be a next time where I'll probably add a touch more honey because I like things sweet (like me, HA!) - I may even try a 6-braid loaf. Daring :)

prebaked, eggwashed loaves:

Buttermilk Honey Bread

from Rosa's Yummy Yums

3/4 C warm water
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 C buttermilk, room temp
2 Tbsp butter, melted
3 Tbsp honey, heated a bit so it's runny
1 Tbsp kosher salt
6 C flour
egg + 2 tbsp milk, beaten together for egg wash

Pour warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle yeast and sugar on it. Let it sit until it foams - about 10-15 min.

In a really big bowl, combine buttermilk, butter, honey, and yeast mixture. Add salt and 2 cups of the flour. Using a wooden spoon, beat hard to combine. Add 1/2 C flour at a time, beating hard until shaggy dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes or until soft and smooth and not overly sticky.

Spray a glass bowl with cooking spray and place dough into it, Turn dough over so oiled side is up. Cover with a cloth towel and leave in a warm (like cozy room temp) place to rise until double in size - about 2 hours.

Turn dough out onto slightly floured surface and genlty press down with fist. Split into 2 pieces. Split each piece into 3 pieces and roll out into long ropes. Braid, then coil. Repeat with other piece. Cover with a cloth and allow to rise for another 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place loaves far enough apart to allow for some rising while baking. Brush tops with egg wash. Bake approximately 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown.

Other than fresh with butter and jam, this is really great sliced, toasted, and topped the same way, too.

snow day banana bread

Today makes 3.5 work days in a row that the federal government was closed due to the Blizzard of 2010 (of which round 2 kicked in today and dropped even MORE snow on us, yay!), therefore my office was closed. The sleeping in has been really great... but to be honest, I'm starting to get a little stir crazy. I haven't been out much in the last few days except to shovel and then for a few hours for dinner and hanging with Ang. yesterday. And for that matter, going out with Ang.... it was really weird being surrounded by other people again! I miss my routine. But in the mean time, I'm not one to waste *that* much time... I've been baking. A lot. And despite the frigid blizzard winds and snow outside, my house is warm and smells like heaven thanks to the goodies.

Like this banana bread! I split the recipe into 2 8x4 loaves, mixing one with mini chocolate chips. I think regular size chips would have been better, but either way, they were moist and banana-y and awesome.

Banana Bread

3 very ripe medium bananas

2 eggs, beaten

1/3 C buttermilk

1/4 C apple sauce

1/4 C canola oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 C brown sugar

1 1/4 C all purpose flour

1/2 C white whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking soda

handful of mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325. Spray 2-8x4 tins with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mash bananas. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, apple sauce, oil and vanilla. Sift in the brown sugar, flours, salt and soda. Mix well.

Pour half the batter into one pan. Mix the chips into the remaining batter, then pour into the second pan.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a thin skewer inserted comes out clean.

You could also make this in one 9x5 loaf pan, and increase the cooking time until it is done.

snovernight cinnamon rolls

Snowmageddon. Tsnonami. Snowpocalypse. Snowcano. And... snOMG that's a ton of snow. Mother Nature dumped between 2-3 feet on the DC metro area in about 24 hours, leading all those cute little snowriffic phrases. Or you could just call it the Blizzard of 2010, but that's not nearly as fun, right! I heard the average snowfall a *year* in DC is like 20", so this is quite the special happening. Wanna see?

Because I haven't touched the back with a shovel yet, here's a good idea of just how much we're talking about: That's a car under that tree, poor girl.

The snow weighed down quite a few trees in the area:

Knowing that we'd be snowed in over the weekend, I wanted to make something that I had otherwise never quite had time for: the overnight - excuse me, SNOvernight (I can go on and on with these, folks) cinnamon rolls from Alton Brown. Look at them proofed and ready to bake with all that snow outside...

Actual hands on time was probably 20-30 minutes, and then the rest is rising or baking, during which I was either shoveling or sleeping. I also didn't want to bother looking for the dough hook for my mixer, so I just knead it by hand. They turned out to be nice and fluffy, albeit a bit burnt because I wasn't paying close attention to baking time... but once frosted, they were the perfect reward for a hard morning's work.

Snovernight Cinnamon Rolls

adapted from Alton Brown

dough:

1/4 C sugar, split
6 oz. buttermilk, split

1 packet active yeast

4 egg yolks

1 egg

6 tbsp butter, melted

4 C flour (approx)

1 1/4 tsp salt

filling:

1 C brown sugar

1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon

3 tbsp butter, softened

Warm up half the buttermilk and stir in half the sugar and the yeast. Let sit until it gets bubbly. In a large bowl, whisk together the rest of the buttermilk, sugar, egg yolks, egg, and butter. Add in the yeast mixture and stir. Add salt and 2 cups of the flour, and use a wooden spoon combine, stirring until it forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Knead for about 5-8 minutes, adding flour as necessary to get a soft and moist but not sticky texture. Lightly oil a large bowl, and put dough in it. Spin it around to coat with oil, then cover with a cloth and allow to rise for 2-3 hours - it should double in volume.

Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside. Butter a 9x13 glass baking dish.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a rectangle. Roll into an 18x12 rectangle, the long side closest to you. Evenly spread the softened butter onto the dough, leaving a 1/2" line free at the top edge. Spread the cinnamon-sugar mix over the dough, leaving about a 3/4" border at the top edge. Starting at the long edge closest to you, roll the dough into a tight cylinder. If it's a bit uneven in thickness, gently squeeze til it's even. Using a serrated knife, cut into 12 even pieces. Arrange rolls cut side down into the baking dish, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and put into the fridge overnight. Sleepy time.

The next (snowy) morning, take the plastic wrap off the dish and put into the not-turned-on-yet oven on the middle rack. Place a shallow pan on the bottom rack, and fill about halfway with boiling water. Close the oven and allow to proof for 30 minutes - the dough will puff up a bit. Take both the rolls and the pan with the water out.

Preheat oven to 350. Bake cinnamon rolls about 25 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. (I baked at 30 and the burned a bit, so watch them,)

Icing:

2 tbsp butter

4 oz cream cheese

1/2 tsp vanilla

2-3 tbsp milk

powdered sugar to the sweetness you want (I just kept adding byt the tbsp-full until it got there

While the rolls are cooling, prepare the icing by blending all the ingredients together. Once it's to the sweetness you like, slather them on the cinnamon rolls and enjoy.

what can you do with just 1 egg?

It's snowing again - second time in 4 days. Today I was prepared - rented The Hurt Locker (which is AMAZING by the way, is far superior to Avatar and I hope it wins best picture) and have a fully stocked fridge. See, Saturday caught me off guard, and I was sitting at home bored out of my mind. Normally I go on a baking spree when I get bored, but I was looking in my fridge at ONE egg. What on earth could I bake with one egg? (Besides shortbread, which I wasn't craving. Cravings dictate what I make, oh, 95% of the time.)

While I didn't have the ingredients to make a warm and comforting chili, I still wanted someting comfort food like. That I could make with one egg. Lucky for me, I had corn meal in my pantry and I whipped up these muffins. I even "healthed them up" by using whole wheat flour and no oil. I think those adjustments made them a bit denser, but they totally balanced out the slathering them in butter :)

Corn Muffins
adapted from Allrecipes.com

1 C stone ground white cornmeal
3/4 C white whole wheat flour
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 C apple sauce
1 C milk

Preheat oven to 400. Grease a muffin pan.
Mix together all the dry ingredients, then gently stir in the wet ingredients until combined. Use an ice cream scoop to dish out into the muffin pan.
Bake 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.