I've taken up a lot of new interests recently but my absolute favorite new hobby is baking. I've made cookies and Joe and I have created fun rice krispie treat concoctions, but my focus has been bread. Joe made a batch of bread back when we had all the snow, but we didn't love the recipe. It came out with a really tough crust and didn't rise as much as we would have liked. I found a really simple recipe a few months ago and started working off of that. The first batch was really tasty, kind of flaky crust, soft insides, etc. After that came out well Joe and I started thinking up fun bread concoctions. We started with olive bread. It was pretty tasty, but nothing crazy awesome. After that we made FETA olive bread, but I was a little wussy on the amount of feta I put in. Still, tasty. Next I made cheddar, jalapeño and it was pretty darn good, but again I was wussy with the jalapeños. I also tried a garlic, rosemary bread but it was way too much rosemary and I really wasn't a fan.
My sister finished her national boards this week which is a HUGE deal. She and I celebrated with a trip to Love of Jesus (an amazing thrift store), DSW and Melting Pot. Amazing. I promised her a special treat and she chose some form of cheddar bread. I added in some garlic powder to give it a little kick. I didn't get to try this batch but she claims it was tasty.
After making this loaf for Maggie, I felt badly for teasing Joe with the scent of rising bread all afternoon so while we were at the store I picked up a block of kroger brand "chipotle white cheddar" cheese. Joe likes spicy. So I grated up the whole damn block and threw it into the bread mix. Let's just say... you know a bread is good when you don't even need butter.
Needless to say, I'm pretty proud of my new baking skills. I'd love some bread suggestions since I'm a little stuck with cheese and... anything. Not that that's bad! But I'd love some fresh ideas =)
4 comments:
So fun! I wish I had a bread machine... is that what you use? I suppose I could go old-fashioned and make it the hard way... meh I'm too lazy.
Some sort of olive-onion-garlic-Italian seasoning bread would be amazing... drool... and, you know, cheese :)
ooh that does sound good, Marie! and i don't have a bread machine either- i was totally intimidated at the idea of doing it by hand but it is REALLY easy! luckily I have my mom's kitchenaid mixer which makes it super easy, but the kneading is actually kind of relaxing and you don't have to do too much of it. besides- it's totally worth it for fresh bread!
Well I just ate dinner an hour ago and then had to re-raid the kitchen after reading that post. My dad was startled because I was laughing so much at your humorous commentary in another room. I love your style. It feels like I am sitting with you over a cup of coffee and you are talking about your baking ventures :)
Wow! Well then, I'll have to unlazify (?) myself and give it a go! Thankfully I do have a Kitchenaid mixer-- my mom's also. I keep thinking about your cheddar jalapeno bread and... drool... Thanks for the inspiration! I love baking, more so than cooking, but I've never tried bread before.
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