Cheesy Bread

Mmmm....cheesy bread. Who doesn't love it? I happen to love it. Love the smell, the cheese, the softness, and, especially, the taste. I was craving for cheesy bread while I was studying late at night for my classes. Did not want to order from Pizza Hut or Dominos (Dominos was just a walk away) because I know I can make just as good cheesy bread without paying extra. I had 2 different kinds of cheese in my fridge and flour so I decided to make it all from scratch. 3 words...well worth it. I used the most simple ingredients and it tastes just like the delivered cheesy bread sticks. I don't have much experience with making the perfect bread, but I always go with a simple bread recipe.

Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour,plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons unsalted butter,softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fine salt

Topping:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter,melted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 of 1 lbs block of cheddar; shredded (about 2 cups shredded cheese)
1/4 of 1 lbs block of mozzarella cheese; shredded (about 1 cup shredded cheese or less)

Place 1/4 cup warm water in the bowl or mixing bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Set it aside until it's foamy which is about 5 minutes. Add the flour, butter, sugar, and salt. Mix with the paddle attachment or with a wooden spoon until a slightly sticky dough forms. this takes about 5 minutes. If you have to use your hands....go right ahead.

Knead the dough by hand on a floured surface until very smooth and soft for about 2-3 minutes. Cover with a cloth and let it rise in a warm spot until almost doubled in size. This takes about 45 minutes and then divide the dough in half. Use a lasagna pan or a 9 x 13 baking pan and spread the dough to the bottom of the baking pan. If it doesn't touch all sides or corners, it's okay.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush the dough with the half the melted butter for each bread dough and sprinkle with half the kosher salt to each. Sprinkle the oregano seasoning along with the shredded cheese to both bread dough. Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

I baked hald the bread dough on an 8x8 baking pan...
which came out to be a think bread.

Serve with some marinara sauce and voila`.....
no need for delivered cheesy bread sticks!

Simple Bread

I love breads, especially fresh out of the oven. Frankly, I should stay away from carbs, but breads go great with everything. I needed bread one late night for dinner and my husband took the car so I had to make it from scratch. It's not hard to make it from scratch, but it's a longer process to make. Advice: make it ahead of time before dinner. Waiting for the dough to rise and all took forever...atleast it felt that way. It was worth the wait...definitely. Nice, warm, soft, buttery dinner rolls for dinner...that's pretty much all I ate. Of course, everyone has their own simple bread recipe, it's not hard to make. This one happens to be mines, the perfect recipe for me. 

Fresh dinner rolls out of the over, brushed with melted butter

1/2 cup milk

3 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp butter

2 pkg active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

5-6 cups AP Flour

In a small pot, heat up milk, sugar, salt, and butter until butter melts and sugar is dissolved. Set aside and let cool slightly.

In a bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the warm milk mixture and about 4 1/2 cups of flour. Knead with hands until all ingredients are mixed. Add 1/2 cup of flour at a time while still kneading until dough comes cleanly off the sides of the bowl. You may not use all the flour, which is okay. Continue kneading dough on a flour surface until dough is smooth and elastic. Then place dough into a greased bowl and cover for about 1 hour. Punch dough down and divide evenly in half. Shape to desired sizes. Cover again and let rise for another hour. Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes or until goldne brown. Cool immediately on wire racks. **May brush tops with melted butter for extra flavor**

2nd Batch: no butter brushed on top...same delicious results

Beer Bread

I've never had beer bread in my life until I went to a SimplyTasteful event held at a friend's house. It was served with a spinach herb dip, but I fell in love with the beer bread. I love bread...all kinds. I was determined to find a recipe to make beer bread. I can't remember how beer bread tastes like, but I'm happy with the recipe I came up with. It's nice and crunchy on the top with a soft, chewy inside. You can smell the beer too...for this recipe I used Budwieser.

 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer

4 cups flour

2 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 eggs slightly beaten
1/3 cup white sugar
2 Tbsp butter, melted

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Add beer and continue to mix, then add the eggs. Batter will be sticky. Pour into a 9 x 5 inch greased loaf pan. Pound the pan on the table to level off the batter.

Preheat oven at 350 F. Bake for 60-70 minutes brushing the melted butter on the top the last 10 minutes. Let it cool for about 10 minutes. The top will be crunchy, and the insides will be soft.

the batter was very sticky, but came off the bowl very nicely too

I wasn't patient so my bread was higher on one side than the other, but it was still good

One Weekend Dinner Meal

So lately I've been very busy with life and husband was very busy with work. We didn't have much time to spend together on the weekdays and so one weekend, he decided to come up with a dinner menu that we've never tried before. He wanted some shark. I wanted something with coconut. And so, our dinner meal was created. We had seared shark fillets with a lemon grass sweet sauce topped with stir fry cole slaw. I also made coconut filled bread rolls and monkey bread as a dessert. Sadly, everything I made came from the top of my head and I didn't write down the recipes. It turned out very delicious. That shark was great with the lemon grass sauce and the cole slaw gave it a nice, healthy crunch.

shark fillets with lemon grass sauce and cole slaw

I seared the shark fillets with just salt and pepper

lemon grass sauce: minced lemon grass, diced onions, and sweet dark soy sauce

cole slaw: cole slaw, salt, pepper, soy sauce

 Coconut Bread Rolls

basic yeast bread recipe

coconut filling: egg, shredded coconut, honey

soft doughy bread rolls filled with warm sweet coconut

Monkey Bread

Pizza dough recipe

Sugar, cinnamon, and brown sugar

when it's done baking, flip it upside down and let all the syrup run down

my husband's new favorite junk food and he doesn't like cinnamon