Breakfast Bread

Eating at my sister Sandy’s house is always a culinary treat. I think I could gain 5 pounds just thinking about what she might be making!

Our recent visit was no exception. My amazing nephew put together a to-die-for breakfast bread that is still making me drool.

I won’t even tell you how many pieces I ate – but let’s just say it’s a good thing he made three loaves so that everybody else got some, too!

He made it with bacon (yum!) but I think he should definitely make some with ham or sausage, or even pepperoni! I’d be happy to taste test them!

I also don’t think this bread should just be for breakfast – I would eat it any time. Like right now.

I was quite impressed with the fact that he made it ahead, froze it, and baked it up fresh for us in the morning – making it a perfect meal for overnight guests!

And – the best news of all – he shared his recipe!

Breakfast Bread

1 batch of White Bread Dough
1 [0.7 oz. or 19 grams] packet of dry Italian dressing mix
2 cups of cheddar cheese
2/3 cup of real bacon bits

Mix the envelope of Italian dressing mix into the bread dough, put it into a greased bowl, cover with a clean towel and let rise till doubled.

On a floured surface, roll out into a large rectangle. Evenly spread the cheese and bacon bits over the surface.

Starting on the longest side, roll up the dough as you would cinnamon rolls. Place the roll on a greased jelly roll pan to rise.

Once risen, bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Freezing directions:

Once the roll has been made, do not let it rise. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and freeze for one hour.

After one hour, remove the roll from the freezer ad completely wrap in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and freeze up to 1 month.

When you are ready to bake, remove from the freezer and unwrap it. Set it on a greased jelly roll sheet and cover with a clean dish towel. Let thaw and rise overnight.

Then bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Note: This makes one loaf, but would be very easy to double or triple! You could use frozen bread dough, but could not freeze the unbaked roll.

Enjoy!

Baguettes

Baguettes I adore bread – especially fresh bread right from oven.

I’m so thankful that God blessed me with a daughter who’s goal for the year is to learn to bake beautiful hard crusted artisan breads. (Are you jealous yet? You should be you know!)

For our Valentine’s party – she worked all afternoon to make these out-of-this-world French Baguettes.

She was so thrilled to pull them out of the oven and thump that hard crust and hear the crunch when she cut into it.

We were thrilled with the soft pillow-like inside and the wonderful yeasty flavor!

They did take some time to make – but weren’t difficult. We just had to do a little planning ahead to get them done in time.

Trust me – they were worth the effort!

French Baguettes

5 cups white bread flour (we used only all-purpose flour and it was fine)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 ounce fresh yeast
2-1/4 cups lukewarm water

Sift the flours and salt into a bowl. Add the yeast to the water in another bowl and stir to dissolve. Gradually beat in half the flour mixture to form a batter. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for about 3 hours or until nearly tripled in size and starting to collapse.

Add the remaining flour a little at a time, beating with your hand. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes to form a moist dough. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise, in a warm place, for 1 hour.

When the dough has almost doubled in bulk, punch it down, turn out onto a floured surface and divide into 3. Shape each into a rectangle measuring about 6 X 3 inches.

Fold the bottom third up lengthwise and the top third down, and press down to make sure the pieces of dough are in contact. Seal the edges. Repeat two or three more times until each loaf in an oblong. Let rest in between folding for a few minutes, if necessary, to avoid tearing the dough.

Gently stretch each piece of dough lengthwise into a 13-14 inch long loaf. Pleat a floured dish towel on a baking sheet to make 3 molds for the loaves. Place the breads between the pleats of the towel to help hold their shape while they are rising. Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise, in a warm place, for about 45-60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to the maximum, at least 450 degrees. Roll the loaves onto a baking sheet, spaced well apart. Using a sharp knife slash the top of each loaf several times with long diagonal slits. Bake at the top of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Spray inside the oven with water 2-3 times during the first 5 minutes of baking, or place a pan with water on the bottom rack of the oven beneath the bread. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 3 wonderfully crusty loaves.

I’ve linked this post up over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam’s Tasty Tuesday.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Cinnamon Swirl Bread This is one of my favorite recipes to make! It looks so fancy and tastes wonderful – but the recipe is so simple – especially when I mix it up in my Bosch mixer!

Since it makes 3 loaves, I slice the bread when it’s cool and freeze it. Then I can grab out however many slices I need for a delicious and simple breakfast treat.

I like to lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast them for a few minutes in a moderate oven. (Do not put them in the toaster! The cinnamon filing melts and runs down making a big mess!)

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

1 package (or 1 Tablespoon) active dry yeast
1/4 cups warm water
2 cups milk, warm
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 teaspoons salt
7-1/2 to 8 cups flour
2 slightly-beaten eggs

Mix yeast and water together and let set to proof the yeast.

Combine next four ingredients; cool to lukewarm. Add 3 cups of the flour; mix well. Stir in yeast and eggs; mix well. Add enough of remaining flour to make a soft dough.

Turn out on lightly floured surface. Knead till smooth (8 to 10 minutes), or if you have a mixer with a dough hook, let it do the kneading for you for 8 to 10 minutes.

Place in lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover and it rise in warm place till double (1-1/2 to 2 hours). Punch down and divide dough in thirds. Cover and let rest 1o minutes.

Roll each third in 15×7-inch rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick. Spread softened butter over the dough and sprinkle one third of the cinnamon and sugar mixture on top. Carefully roll each rectangle up beginning on the narrow side (like a cinnamon roll). Seal long edge. Place sealed edge down in 3 greased loaf pans. Let rise till almost double. (45 to 60 minutes).

Bake at moderate over (375 degrees) 35 to 40 minutes or until done. Turn out of pans and let cool on rack.

Enjoy!

Flapper Fannies

Since I had bread dough rising at lunch time, I took a little trip back in history for lunch and served an old family recipe, Flapper Fannies.

My mom remembers these from growing up. On days that Grandma was baking bread, she would sometimes make these for lunch if the bread wasn’t quite ready.

After the bread dough had risen, she would take a sharp knife and cut off small hunks. Then she would take the hunks of dough, flatten them, and place them in an iron skillet that was hot and greased (usually with lard). She would fry the dough until brown, then turn it over and brown the other side. These were served hot with butter.

My only variation to this traditional method was to fry these in butter, being careful to not let them burn. Then, since I was the cook, I also had the privilege of sopping up the browned butter in the skillet!

Yum! Flapper Fannies are a comfort food that ties the generations together!