My NEW Obsession, Pretzel Bread!

I love soft pretzels. Anytime I go to a baseball game or event that has soft pretzels I have to get one...that and a hot dog. I love them served warm with butter and salt and dipped in cheese!! (I'm getting hungry just thinking about them). So you think I would have heard of Pretzel Bread by now! So when I first saw a recipe for Pretzel Bread from Kathleen's blog a few weeks ago I have been thinking about them ever since. And when I looked to see what ingredients I needed to make it I realized I already have everything so I immediately made it as soon as I got home from work yesterday. I've included the recipe Kathleen uses below but if you want step by step instructions with pictures (which help a lot if your not experience with using yeast and making bread) click on the link to her blog.

Doesn't it look so delicious!?! I decided to make rolls with my dough and of course served mine with butter, salt and cheese. You can also serve yours with butter and a mixture of cinnamon and sugar as well. It is all that it lives up to be. This is the best bread I've had in...I can't even remember! It's AMAZING!!! If you love soft pretzel,s you will absolutely love this recipe. I even had it for breakfast this morning! I make the mistake of only making one batch because I wanted to make sure it was good. I will definitely be doubling or tripling this recipe and freezing half so I can have it anytime I want.

All buttered and salted and ready to eat!

Pretzel Bread Ingredients:

• 2-1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 cup water (110-120 degrees or bathwater temp)
• 2 Tbsp milk, room temp
• 1 Tbsp dark brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1 tsp Kosher salt
• 2-1/2 to 3 cups bread flour
• 4 quarts water
• 1/2 cup baking soda
• Kosher salt to taste
• 2 Tbsp melter butter
  

Directions:

1. Add yeast, water, milk, brown sugar and butter into a large bowl, whisking until all ingredients are combined. Let mixture rest for 10 minutes for yeast to activate. Mix in kosher salt. Start by adding two cups of the flour to the bowl, combining it with other ingredients. Add more flour as it’s needed, reserving just a bit for coating the dough mat later.

2. The dough should form a slightly tacky, but firm ball. Oil the bowl, place the dough ball in the bowl, and cover with a damp towel for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, knead the dough by hand or machine for at least 5-10 minutes until the dough is elastic and satiny. Place dough back in the bowl and recover for 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bring the 4 quarts of water to a boil. When the water is boiling, slowly add the baking soda.

4. Remove the dough from the bowl and gently degas it. Form two separate balls of dough, forming them into the shape you want. Drop one of the smaller balls into the baking soda bath for no longer than 30 seconds, turning it once to guarantee both sides covered. Drain the excess water from the dough and place it on an oiled baking sheet. Repeat with second ball of dough.

5. Sprinkle the kosher salt over the bread to your specific tastes, and make sure to use a knife to cut a small incision on the top of the bread so the dough has somewhere to expand.

6. Cook the bread for 22 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once.

7.Once removed from the oven, immediately brush the melted butter over the loaves to guarantee a soft crust.

My First Cake!

I made my first cake over the weekend!! And yes someone actually hired me can you believe it! My co-worker Sara asked me, or more like informed me months ago I would be making her daughter's birthday cake. I thought she was kidding because it was when my obssession with cupcakes began, however she was not!! Her daughter Avery's birthday is on Halloween, how awesome is that for a kid, so of course of all cakes for her birthday, she wanted a Haunted House Birthday Cake. I thought this was a tall order for being my first cake and a lot of pressure, but Sara reassured me it was for a 5-year old's birthday so she would think it's the coolest no matter how it turned out. She had all the faith in me!!

Luck for me I found a stand-up house cake pan by Wilton from Michael's Crafts which I used for the house and a 13x9 pan for the graveyard. I baked this white cake recipe (which I had to triple), with a buttercream frosting (gel colors included brown, black, purple, orange and green).

Coming all together

I put a couple Oreos in a food processor for the dirt walkway, black sprinkles on top of the roof, Milano cookies for the gravestones, and white chocolate pumpkins tinted orange around the house I made from a mold (those were add-ons at the last minute and not pictured).

Still need to work on my writing, it's hard! It doesn't help that I have child-like handwriting anyway! :)

The birthday girl asked for a flying witch, I made a few attempts at a witch on the roof but it was an epic failure so I opted for a witch in the window in the back of the house.

I hope to post a picture of the birthday girl with her cake...

Happy Halloween!

I made my first batch of Halloween cupcakes for a Halloween party we went to last night. They were so much fun and easy to make. There's no wrong way to decorate a cupcake but having a theme sure makes them more fun! Hope everyone has a great Halloween and stays safe trick or treating!

Make Now Bake Later

I love baking but there are times I don't feel like it or I just don't have enough time. I've always wanted to try to freeze cupcakes. I know you can bake cupcakes and THEN freeze them but I've always been to nervous because I want them to still taste fresh when eaten. I recently came across this website with 3 ways to freeze cupcake batter! That means all you have to do is mix all the ingredients now and then bake them later. Now any one of these three ideas will work just fine, however I prefer to stick with the first or third ways just because they are easier and less time is involved of course. I recently tried out the first way, freezing the batter in the wrappers and I LOVED IT! This is a great option to use if you have unexpected company coming or your short on time. They go from freezer to oven and that's it. You can then either whip up your favorite frosting or use a pre-made store brand kind.

For option 1, Freeze batter in wrappers, you make your cupcake batter as directed, line your muffin trays like normal, and then fill the cups. Cover with plastic wrap tightly (so it doesn't drag on the surface) and freeze. Once frozen, remove tray and toss the cupcakes into a ziploc bag and remove as much air as possible. When your ready to bake them put them back in the muffin tin and you can either allow them to come to room temperature before baking or leave them in the oven for an extra 5 to 7 minutes. See super easy!!

Frozen cupcake batter

Put frozen cups in freezer bag and throw them in the freezer for a rainy day, or a day your craving cupcakes but don't want to do the dirty work.

I put my frozen cupcakes straight into the oven while it was preheating, once the oven had reached the desired temperature I baked them for the same time normally needed.

Pumpkin Time!

One of my favorite things about Fall is all the pumpkins that are ready to be picked and used for decorating, carving and baking! This year was the first year my father-in-law planted a pumpkin patch out in our garden. With the so called "pumpkin shortage" there apparently was this year I was very happy he planted them. My husband said we should sell them to our friends to make some money! We weren't sure how well the pumpkins would do but we ended up actually having a REAL pumpkin patch! My FIL thought we would get more pumpkins then we did but I picked 20 pumpkins!!! TWENTY PUMPKINS! I think that's a pretty good year, especially being our first year planting them. So what do you do with that many pumpkins?!?!

Our growing pumpkins!

The perfect pumpkins for carving! I picked four of them of course (one for me, one for my husband and one for each dog!) The dogs are so ready to get their pumpkins carved in this picture, ha ha!

Now what to do with all these pumpkins? I gave a couple away but with the rest of them I'm going to use them for baking! I have many pumpkin recipes that I've used in the past and new ones I want to try (cupcakes, cheesecake, bread, muffins, pancakes, etc) and using fresh pumpkin is suppose to be the best. Of course all these recipes will be coming up in the next couple months so stay tuned. As for now, it's pumpkin carving time and the main reason I love carving pumpkins is roasting the pumpkin seeds!! And I am NOT is short supply of those this year, remember 20 pumpkins! This week I sat down and cleaned out our four pumpkins and turned them into jack-o-lanterns. Dave took a look at them and asked me "Where's the happy one?" Jack-o-lanterns aren't happy, their suppose to be scary! Although I think two of them look more scared then scary.

Now making pumpkins seeds take a little more. I divide the seeds into one bowl and put all the pulp in a garbage bowl. Pumpkin seeds are extremely slipper suckers so beware! Once I have all the seeds out for all the pumpkins I'll soak them in a large bowl of water and squish the pulp to pull away from the seeds. I then put the seeds in a large colander and rinse with water a few times until the seeds are completely clean. Once clean I usually soak in salt water for a while then drain, season as desired and put them in the oven for roasting. I usually just coat my seeds with some extra virgin olive oil (evoo) and salt. This year I have two recipes I used this year that I got off allrecipes.com.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

• 2 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds
• 2 Tbs butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
  

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Toss seeds in a bowl with the melted butter and salt. Spread the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown; stir occasionally.

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

• 1 1/2 tablespoons margarine, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic salt
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds
  

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Combine the margarine, salt, garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce and pumpkin seeds. Mix thoroughly and place in shallow baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.

What's your favorite Comfort Food?

I have many, but mac & cheese is definitely one of them and NOT from the box!! So I am on the hunt for some good homemade macaroni and cheese recipes. My first recipe to try comes from The Pioneer Women , which I found on another blog ( just can't remember which one) that had some rave reviews. I've seen recipes from The Pioneer Women all over the Internet so I thought this would be a good place to start.

Doesn't this look delicious? It was a pretty quick and easy recipe to follow and lucky enough for me, I already had all the ingredients so no extra trip to the store which is even better! You can choose to bake your mac & cheese or not, either way it's still good! I decided to throw mine in the oven afterwards because 1. it gives me an excuse to add extra cheese on top and all for more cheese, and 2. I like getting that crisp golden top layer I think it just adds more to the texture when you first bite in! Yum!

Macaroni and Cheese Ingredients

• 4 cups dried macaroni
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 2 tsp dry mustard, more if desired
• 1 egg
• 1 lb cheese, grated
• 1/2 tsp salt, more to taste
• 1/2 tsp seasoned salt, more to taste
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• Optional Spices: cayenne pepper, paprika, thyme

Directions:
Cook macaroni as directed on package. In a small bowl, beat egg, set aside. In a large pot, melt butter and sprinkle in flour. Whisk together over medium-low heat. Cook mixture for 5 minutes, whisking constantly. Don't let it burn.

Pour in milk, add mustard and whisk until smooth. Cook for 5 minutes until very thick, reduce heat to low. Take 1/4 cup of the sauce and slowly pour it into beaten egg, whisking constantly to avoid cooking the egg. Whisk together till smooth. Pour egg mixture into sauce, whisking constantly, stir until smooth.

Add in cheese and stir to melt. Add salts and pepper. Taste sauce ans add more salt and seasoned salt as needed. Do Not Undersalt. Pour in drained, cook macaroni and stir to combine.

Serve immediately OR pour into a buttered baking dish, top with extra cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and golden on top.

And it's Time to Eat!

Red Lobster Biscuits

One of my favorite things from Red Lobster has nothing to do with the seafood but it's their biscuits! Those cheddar cheese biscuits are just so good I could eat an entire basket by myself before they set my drink down. And now I can have them anytime I want! There's nothing like the real thing but these come close. Brushing the melted butter on top after they bake is a must. These are really easy and fast to throw together in no time!

Red Lobster Biscuits

• 2 cups Bisquick
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven to 450. In a medium bowl mix Bisquick, milk and cheese until blended, batter will be thick. Drop by tablespoons on ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Mix together butter and garlic powder and brush onto biscuits with pastry brush immediately after removing from oven.