Sally Lunn Bread

     Ladies and gentlemen, I think I have found my go-to bread recipe. This could very well mean my never buying a loaf of white bread again. I decided to poke around in my Frugal Gourmet cookbooks for a Sunday baking recipe when I found this little gem in The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American. Sally Lunn bread. Who is Sally Lunn? Instead of just copying and pasting the answer, simply follow this Wiki link to Sally Lunn! The bread is soft and springy with just the right amount of crust. The recipe says you can even do these up in a cast iron muffin pan and make rolls! As always, any notes or changes will be in blue.

Sally Lunn Bread
via The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American

Ingredients

• 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 package dry quick-rising yeast
• 3 eggs
• 4 cups flour

Directions

1. Scald the milk, or bring it almost to a simmer, and add the butter, sugar and salt. Let cool until tepid or just warm (95F)(If you don't own a digital thermometer for the kitchen, you really need one. Baking and grilling is so much easier when you know stuff isn't raw and poisonous. Unless that's what you were going for and carry on)
2. Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup of tepid water
3. Using an electric mixer, if you have one, beat the eggs and then add the milk mixture, the yeast water, and finally the flour. Beat until smooth, about 5 minutes (I used the Kitchenaid here, but any electric mixer will do. This batter will be pretty thin so it won't strain most mixers. You could do it by hand but it will be a bit of work.)
4. Leave the dough in the mixing bowl and allow it to rise for one half hour. Beat it down with the mixer for just a moment and then allow it to rise again (when they say "just a moment," this is not an exaggeration. I only let the mixer go for a second or two and it knocked the batter down at least 50%. Don't panic, this is normal). Do this a total of 3 times and then put the dough in 2 large greased bread pans (I used nonstick cooking spray with no issues). Allow to rise to double the bulk (I just let it go for about an hour)
5. Bake in a preheated 375F oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour (this came out in 45 minutes on the button for us. For once something cooked on the short end of time. Cooking times vary. You can always jab a toothpick in there to see if it comes out clean). The bread should be light and have a nice crust.

Good times!

Corn Muffins with Gouda, Kale and Sweet Pickled Peppers

     I'm really enjoying my Sunday baking. Each week I dig around trying to find something new to make. Sometimes, I can't find exactly what I want. This was one of those days. I knew I wanted to do something with a jar of sweet pickled peppers I had in the fridge, but no recipe I had calls for that. I wound up finding a recipe for Spinach Corn Muffins in (don't be shocked now,) Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals.  I wound up taking the basic muffin recipe and swapping out several ingredients. The result was fantastic. The muffins had just the right amount of sweetness and a nice flavor from the pickled peppers. I'll set you up with the original recipe and, as always, changes and notes are in blue.

Corn Muffins with Gouda, Kale and
Sweet Pickled Peppers
originally boring and dusty old Spinach Corn Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup fat-free milk (you should know by now that I used 2%)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil (didn't have any. I used an equal amount of vegetable oil)
• 1 cup chopped fresh spinach (I used kale instead. I loves me some kale.)
• 3/4 cup shredded reduce-fat cheddar cheese (I went with Gouda. I figured the taste would complement the sweet peppers)
• 2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped (normally I wouldn't wave off jalapenos, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I went with a scant 1/4 cup of chopped sweet pickled banana peppers. I'm not sure where you're going to find these, I canned these myself last year. In a pinch, if you could find bread and butter peppers, it would work. I imagine bread and butter pickles might be fun, too!)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine, the cornmeal, flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. 
2. In another bowl, beat the egg, milk and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
3. Fold in the greens, cheese and peppers (I used the Kitchenaid to do steps 2 and 3. No harm done as far as I can tell.)
4. Coat muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray; fill 2/3 full with batter.
5. Bake at 400F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean (mine took 22 minutes on the nose.) Cool for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack. 

These made 11 muffins for me. Depending on the size of your muffin cups cooking time and yield will vary. 

Good times!

Rustic Round Herb Bread

     I've got another bread recipe for you today, and you shouldn't be surprised at all when I tell you it came from Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals. Eventually I'm going to go through all the baking recipes and I'll be screwed. I'll have to start looking elsewhere for new and exciting breads to make on Sundays. This particular bread was a lot less time intensive since there is no rising to be done. As always any notes or changes are in blue.

Rustic Round Herb Bread
via Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals

Ingredients

•  2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese (there's nothing really holding you back from picking a different cheese. I imagine Swiss would give a nice mellow taste.)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dill weed
• 3 tablespoons cold butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup fat-free plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup fat-free milk (as always, I just used 2%)
• 1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds (this is something I never have in the house. So little of what I cook actually calls for it, I never am willing to shell out the dough for a jar. I did, however have a jar of sesame seeds, so I substituted a little more than 1/2 teaspoon of those instead.)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the first nine ingredients; mix well. Cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs (nope, still haven't bought a pastry blender. Once again I went at it with a couple of butter knives.)
2. In another bowl, whisk the egg, yogurt and milk. Stir into dry ingredients until just moistened (what they neglect to tell you is that the dough will be insanely sticky. You're going to need a scraper to get it all out of the bowl for the next step.)
3. Spoon into a 9" round backing pan coated with nonstick cooking spray (only coat the inside. Coating the outside would be wasteful and foolish.) Sprinkle with poppy seeds (or whatever has been substituted for poppy seeds. Or don't sprinkle anything over the top if you don't want. You're not going to hurt my feelings.)
4. Bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown (mine took 30.) Cool in pan on a wire rack. Cut into wedges.

Good times!

Caramel Apple Walnut Bread

     Sunday was once again a baking day for me. This time, however, I went with a dessert bread. The original recipe was for a Caramel Apple Bread from Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals. I made a few changes and have to say that I was very pleased with the results. The wife loved it and it's been very well received over on my Facebook page. The bread was moist with a nice crust. What was neat was that the top of the loaf split while cooking, so when the time came to put on the caramel topping, some of it leaked down into the center of the bread.

You can see the caramel running right down the center. It's magical.

     There's a whole lot of changes you can make with this. I imagine you could swap in pears or other firm fruits. Just about any nut could be swapped in or left out if you don't like nuts. As always, I will give you the original recipe with any changes I made or notes in blue.

Caramel Apple Walnut Bread

Ingredients

Batter

• 1 cup fat-free plain yogurt
• 3/4 cup white sugar 
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (I misread the directions and added this in to the batter. It still came out delicious, so no harm, no foul. It's staying in. Now the recipe is mine! Muahahahahaha!)
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 cup chopped peeled tart apples
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans (I didn't have pecans in the house, and the wife wouldn't have let me put them in there even if we did. I used 1/2 cup chopped walnuts instead)

Caramel Glaze

• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon fat-free milk (I used 2%. YOLO)

Directions

Batter

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the yogurt, sugar, eggs and vanilla. 
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; add to yogurt mixture and beat until combined (I totally didn't do it that way. I just threw everything into the yogurt mixture while the Kitchenaid was running. I figure it will all get combined eventually. Whoever said "focus on the journey and not the destination" has clearly never watched me cook.) 
3. Fold in apples and nuts
4. Pour into a 9"x5"x3" loaf pan coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake at 350F for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. (Mine took 105 minutes. One and three-quarter hours. There could be many reasons for this. Maybe my loaf pan was smaller than requested. Maybe my oven is off kilter. Maybe whoever originally wrote this recipe was drunk at the time. We'll never know. Just keep an eye on it after the suggested baking time. You'll know when it's finally done)
5. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

Caramel Glaze

1. In a small saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter and milk to a boil, stirring constantly. Cover and cook for 1 minute (how can I possibly stir constantly if I just put the damned lid on? The lid's staying off. I'm not a magician.)
2. Cool slightly (this is needlessly vague. I'm thinking somebody at the publishing company needs a whack in the head. Let cool until it thickens up. It should still be viscous, but not runny. We're looking to be able to spread it with a spatula)
3. Spread over cooled bread. Let stand for 15 minutes.