bread

December 27, 2015

Challah French Toast.

French toast is one of those breakfast foods that I rarely eat. Obviously, it’s delicious. I tend to eat pancakes and waffles more often; French toast is a breakfast that’s been relegated to that “fancy schmancy breakfast” category in my brain. And that’s kind of silly, is it not? After all, French toast is basically just egg-fried bread.

{Several weeks back, I made the challah French toast for a “friendsgivingmas” feast. I had it plus homemade breakfast pizza, bacon, hot cocoa spiked with Bailey’s, and some delicious Califia Farms orange juice [my current favorite orange juice by far]. Yum!}

French toast, does however, require specific breads to be delicious. My usual go-to, store bought (gasp!) bread is a simple, whole wheat/whole grain (sometimes a honey oat wheat) bread, and that would not translate well to French toast. If I’m going to make French toast, then at least some preparation and forethought has to be involved. I guess that’s why I don’t eat it very often. As a single person, I can’t exactly have an entire loaf of Texas toast bread or challah or brioche laying around… Because I would eat it all on its own before even getting around to using it for the dang French toast!

But every now and then, I get a fierce craving for some homemade challah (recipe coming soon!). I absolutely love making and eating challah. My current go-to recipe makes two loaves, so after I’ve pawned a bunch of it off on other people, I always end up having extra challah. It should be considered a cardinal sin to waste something as delicious as challah, and it just so happens that stale challah is perfect for making French toast! Challah is already an egg-based bread, so it just makes sense that frying it up in an egg-based mixture will bring it back to life.

topviewfrenchtoast — {Aerial views of food are my favorite.}

The recipe for this challah French toast is basically my original recipe (although I’m sure the same recipe exists somewhere out there), but it is adapted from the infamous Ina Garten. I made it for a “Friendsgivingmas” [my roommate made up that word, haha] feast a few weeks ago, and it was a hit! It should go without saying that starting with something already delicious [aka challah] and repurposing it with a few ingredients will make it that much more delicious.

This challah French toast is still soft and moist on the inside, but it’s got that perfect, golden brown crunch on the outside. With the orange zest, vanilla bean paste, and cinnamon, it’s spiced and flavorful in just the best way possible. I especially love the French toast with fresh blueberries and strawberries, a slight dusting of powdered sugar, and a dash of real maple syrup. Now that’s a fancy-ass breakfast [or Friendsgivingmas dinner] that’s worth splurging on every now and then. 😀

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Challah French Toast.

Yield: A lot. Haha. This will easily serve six people. It tends to reheat well as leftovers, too. In fact, I was nuking leftovers at work the next day.

Ingredients:
– 7 large eggs
– 1 cup half-and-half
– 1/2 cup 2% (or whole) milk {Note: You can sub all half-and-half or all milk. I just prefer that the fat content is at least 2% or higher.}
– 1 tsp. grated orange zest
– 1 tsp. vanilla bean paste (or sub pure vanilla extract)
– 1 TBSP. good-quality honey
– 1/2 tsp. salt
– 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
– 1 large loaf challah or brioche bread {Note: I used my homemade challah that was beginning to go stale. I will be posting the recipe for this soon, but you can opt for store bought challah. I won’t judge you too harshly if you choose to go this route. 😉 }
– Unsalted butter and vegetable oil for frying
– Optional toppings: berries (strawberries and blueberries pair wonderfully with this!), powdered sugar, and real maple syrup.

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.

2. In a large, shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs, half-and-half/milk, orange zest, vanilla, and honey. Whisk the cinnamon and salt in a separate small bowl, then add it into the liquid mixture.

3. Slice the challah into about 3/4-inch thick slices. Soak as many slices in the liquid mixture as possible for about 2-3 minutes, turning once.

4. Heat one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add several soaked bread slices at a time, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until the slices are nicely browned on both sides.

5. Place the cooked bread on a cookie sheet and keep it warm in the preheated oven until ready to serve. Continue frying the bread as aforementioned in step four until it’s all fried up. You’ll need to add more butter/oil as time goes on to continue frying. Serve hot with fresh fruit, fruit preserves, powdered sugar, and/or real maple syrup.

+ Recipe adapted from Ina Garten, via The Food Network.

challahcloseup — {A closeup. I love how the berries look with the bread.}

December 19, 2015

Single Lady Banana Bread.

One of my favorite guilty pleasure* hobbies OF ALL TIME includes listening to copious amounts of rap and hip-hop. Usually I can be found listening to lots of modern songs, but I am gonna go ahead and throw it out there: I have a “2000s Hip-Hop” station on my Pandora account, and it’s one of my favorite playlists to throw on when I wanna get pumped up.

*I actually have zero shame, tbh.

I mean, let’s be honest: who doesn’t like “Laffy Taffy,” “Salt Shaker,” “U and Dat,” and other songs?! They’re just classics for those of us that grew up in the early 2000s.

On the topic of 2000s Hip-Hop, do you remember the song “Independent” by a dude named Webbie? The lyrics are below:

“I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T.
Do you know what that means, man?
She got her own house, she got her own car.
Two jobs; work hard.
YOUSA BAD BROAD!”

Secretly, I’ve always liked to think that song was meant for me. I’ve always been a bit independent to a fault. I have two jobs right now, and I have my own car, and I pay my own rent. I like to think that makes me a “bad broad.” 😛

If you’ve made it this far in this post, you’re probably wondering what in the heck hip-hop music has to do with a food blog or better yet with banana bread. Well, this isn’t just any ol’ nanner bread recipe. This recipe is for one single miniature loaf of banana bread. It’s an adorable, delicious little loaf, perfect for a badass, independent chick (or dude) such as yourself. You could technically share it with your significant other, if you have one and felt so inclined. But it’s also a nice amount for one person.

Well, I’m not gonna lie. I ate the entire loaf in what was probably more than a 24 hour period but less than a 48 hour period of time. It’s juuust the right amount of banana bread to satisfy a craving, plus use up that single overripe nanner that’s sitting on your counter, daring you to use it for something (but of course, one banana is never enough for a regular-sized loaf of bread).

Alright, now that rambling is over, go make a miniature loaf of nanner bread and listen to some good ol’ 2000s hip-hop songs while you’re at it. It’s a great way to use up a banana and feel like a total badass. Winning. 😎

nannerbreadslices — {Cute little slices of nanner bread on my favorite yellow gingham tray!}

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Single Lady Banana Bread.
Yield: One small loaf (a miniature loaf pan’s dimensions are usually about 5 ¾” x 3” x 2”).

Ingredients:
– 1 small (6-7”) over-ripe banana
– 3 TBSP. unsalted butter, at room temperature (plus extra for pan)
– 3 TBSP. granulated sugar
– 2 TBSP. honey
– 1 large egg yolk
– ½ cup all-purpose flour
– 1 TBSP. flax seed meal [Christina uses wheat germ, but I don’t ever keep any on hand. I always have flax seed meal, though. Personally, I think a tablespoon or two of flax seed meal adds a nice, nutty flavor, with the added benefit of some extra nutrition!]
– ¼ + ⅛ tsp. baking soda
– Pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 5 ¾” x 3” x 2” mini loaf pan with butter or cooking spray (and a little parchment paper!). Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mash the banana into a puree using a fork or potato masher, if you have one. Next, add the butter, sugar, and honey to it and stir well.
3. Stir in the egg yolk well. Finally, sprinkle in the dry ingredients: flour, flax seed meal or wheat germ, baking soda, and salt.
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool in the pan slightly before moving it to a wire rack. Enjoy!

+ Recipe via Dessert for Two.

May 17, 2015

Peanut Butter Banana Bread. {With Chocolate Chips!}

Do you ever have those times in which you just know something you’re making [or baking, as the case may be] is gonna be good? That was the case with this nanner bread.

Now, this nanner bread isn’t something I’d eat slice after slice of in a row. It’s pretty rich, hence the bananas/chocolate/peanut butter. However, it is really, really good banana bread!

I took some to a little STL foodie get-together at Urban Chestnut Brewery in The Grove, because I needed to pawn it off on people [read: so I wouldn’t eat it all, because I would, despite its richness]. I packaged it up in some simple Saran wrap, but then added some pretty Washi tape and emoji stickers! Yes, emoji stickers are a thing. I found some on Amazon. I know they’re probably a bit ridiculous, but I love them. They’re so fun!

{Photo courtesy of We Eat Stuff STL.} — {Photo courtesy of We Eat Stuff STL. Because they have a WAY cooler camera than me… And they are much better at food photog than I am.}

If you’ve got some overly ripe bananas sitting on your counter, and some creamy Jif [Jif peanut butter is the only peanut butter that matters] sitting in your pantry, well then you should probably make this quick bread. If you know what’s good for ya, of course. Package it up all cute-like, and hand it out to people you barely know! They’ll probably think you’re super sweet [or super creepy; your mileage may vary]! And they’ll snack on it while they wait for their food for 45 minutes. 😀 😉

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Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips.

Ingredients:
– 2 cups all-purpose flour
– ¾ tsp. baking soda
– ½ tsp. salt
– 3 medium bananas, mashed
– ½ cup creamy peanut butter
– ½ cup granulated sugar
– ½ cup light brown sugar
– ⅓ cup buttermilk [I used a buttermilk substitute.]
– ¼ cup vegetable oil
– 2 eggs
– 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a standard sized loaf pan, or cut parchment paper to fit it so that the paper hangs over the sides. Set prepared pan aside.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. In a separate large bowl, beat together the banana, peanut butter, sugars, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Fold together until no raw flour clumps remain. Gently stir in the chocolate chips.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then smooth the top of the batter. Bake until the loaf is golden brown, and a toothpick or knife inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. This should take about an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes. Note: If your bread is browning too quickly, place a tended piece of foil over it. [I had to do this at about forty minutes, so just keep an eye on it. But don’t open your oven too much.]

6. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. The banana bread will keep for several days, wrapped tightly and kept at room temperature.

– Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker.

April 18, 2015

Giant Cinnamon Rolls.

daffodilrolls — {Yay for cheery daffodils from the Missouri Botanical Garden + fresh, giant, delicious cinnamon rolls!}

I’m in a pretty straightforward mood today. So let me just get straight to the point with this blog post: I’m pretty sure that these are the best cinnamon rolls I have ever made. Yes, I realize that was a bold statement. But – not to brag – I have made a few cinnamon rolls in my day, and these take the cake [err, take the roll?].

These mofos are huge, as you can clearly see. They are filled with layers upon layers of buttery, delicious, sugary, cinnamon-y swirls. The brown sugar in the filling is probably my favorite part; I absolutely love how it tastes with cinnamon. There is also just a tad bit of cocoa powder in the filling, which I think just deepens the delicious filling even more. The dough is also great; yeast doughs can be tricky, and sometimes lackluster. But I really liked the dough for these.

And that vanilla bean cream cheese frosting? *Homer Simpson drool/gurgle noises* It’s so creamy and delicious. I would bathe in it. [Sorry/not sorry for that visual.]

I made them for Easter Sunday, which was definitely a wise choice. But I’d make them again at any time. You can even let the dough do its first rise; form the rolls, let them rise a bit more, then place them in the fridge overnight. Take them out in the morning, allow them to rise for about 30-60 minutes, then bake in the morning. And be everyone’s breakfast hero. Either way, just make these giant cinnamon rolls. They’re worth it. {The only downside is that you might be in a sugar/carbs coma after eating one. YOLO.}

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Giant Cinnamon Rolls.
Yield: Two 9×13″ pans of GIANT cinnamon rolls (total 12 large rolls).

Ingredients:

For the Dough:
– 1 and 1/2 cups whole milk
– 1/2 cup half & half
– 6 tsp. active dry yeast [about three packets]
– 1/2 cup plus 1 TBSP. granulated sugar
– 8 TBSP. unsalted butter, melted
– 1 whole egg
– 2 egg yolks
– 1 TBSP. pure vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste
– 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
– 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
– 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
– 1 1/2 tsp. salt

For the Cinnamon Sugar Filling:
– 16 TBSP. salted butter, softened to room temp. [You can also use unsalted if you like.]
– 1/2 cup granulated sugar
– 1/2 cup light brown sugar
– 1/2 cup ground cinnamon
– 1/2 tsp. unsweetened, plain baking cocoa

For the Frosting:
– 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
– 8 TBSP. unsalated butter, softened
– 1/2 cup heavy cream
– 3 cups powdered sugar
– 1 TBSP. pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
– 1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions:
1. Begin heating the milk and half & half in a saucepan. Heat until it reaches about 105 degrees F [use a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature].
2. Remove from heat, and allow to cool slightly if it got a bit too hot [you don’t want to kill the yeast]. Add the yeast and one tablespoon of granulated sugar. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.
3. Melt the butter, and mix it into the yeast mixture. Add the whole egg and egg yolks, and the vanilla, then mix well.
4. Sift together the dry ingredients together, and set aside.
5. Add the yeast mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. Next, add half of the dry ingredients, and combine slowly. Add remaining dry ingredients, and combine with a dough hook for five minutes. [*Note: You can also knead for about 6-8 minutes by hand, if you do not have a stand mixer.] Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover it. Allow the dough to rest and rise for about 1.5 hours.
6. Once the dough has rested for an adequate amount of time and doubled in size, divide the dough in half. Turn it out onto a large floured surface [e.g. a clean counter top]. Roll each half into a large, thin rectangle, about 1/4″ thick. For these rolls, we want very thin layers so that the individual rolls will have more layers.
7. When you have one half of the dough rolled out, spread half of the softened butter all over the entire rectangle. Combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder in a bowl. Sprinkle half of this mixture over the buttered dough.
8. Carefully roll the dough, being sure that it’s rolling tightly, so that it forms a long roll. Measure the dough and divide it into six even pieces. Place the rolls cut side down into a sprayed 9×13″ pan. [Note: They will look a bit tall and odd in the pan; this is normal.]
9. Once you’re done with the first pan, repeat the same process for the second pan of rolls. Cover the pans in plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rest/rise for about an hour.
10. When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Bake the rolls until golden, about thirty minutes. Remove the pans and cool on a wire cooling rack.
11. While the rolls are cooling, combine the cream cheese, butter, and heavy cream in a mixer bowl. Mix until sooth. Sift the powdered sugar, and add it, the salt, and vanilla. Mix until smooth, and top the cinnamon rolls with your frosting. Enjoy!

– Recipe from Southern FATTY.

March 1, 2015

Buttermilk Banana Bread.

There are so, so many banana bread recipes out there. I have at least 10-15 nanner bread recipes pinned on a Pinterest board, most of which I still have yet to try. But I recently realized that it had been awhile since I made some good nanner bread, and so I found this buttermilk banana bread recipe. I’ve been intrigued by it for awhile because I haven’t ever used buttermilk in a quick bread such as this. Also, as with most baked goods that have over 9,000 recipes in existence, I enjoy trying out as many as possible. For science, of course. 😀

The sun was so bright, shining through our kitchen windows that my slice over on the right is way too over-exposed. Whoops.

This recipe makes a mama loaf and a baby loaf of bread [or you could make one larger loaf, but I have a mini loaf pan and I enjoy putting it to use on occasion]. Look at how cute they are together!

In my opinion, the buttermilk adds a unique tang to the bread, and it makes it more moist, of course. This bread isn’t quite as intense with banana flavor, so I may eventually try it again and add more bananas. The initial recipe doesn’t call for any spices, but I couldn’t resist adding cinnamon, because cinnamon and banana bread are just meant to be. Overall, I liked this bread. It’s a bit different from what I’m used to, but it was a nice little change! Try it out; you might be pleasantly surprised. 😀

PS: It’s also a lovely treat to hold us over on the rest of these gross winter days…

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Buttermilk Banana Bread.

Ingredients:
– 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
– 1 cup granulated sugar
– 2 large eggs
– 1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 medium sized bananas)
– 4 TBS. buttermilk
– 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
– 1 tsp. baking powder
– 1/4 tsp. salt
– 1/8 tsp. baking soda
– 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a large loaf pan (about 9 1/4 x 5 1/4 inch) or use a combination of a mini loaf pan and a smaller loaf pan (e.g. 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch). [Note: I just grease my pans with cooking spray and place parchment paper in them for easy removal, but you do you. Just make sure you can get the bread out easily!] Set pans aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the sugar and butter and cream until light and fluffy. Next, add the rest of the wet ingredients (eggs, bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla). Mix until combined.

3. Add in the dry ingredients [flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon], and mix until combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. {Note: Oven times and temperatures often vary. I think my larger loaf only baked for about 45 minutes before it was done, so keep an eye on it!}

4. Allow the bread to cool in its pan on a wire rack for about 15 minutes. Then carefully run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread and then remove it from the pan. Allow to cool completely, then slice and serve (or serve it warm; that’s the best!).

– Recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod.