Beer and Smoked Gouda Bread

As you may know, I've always loved making bread since I find it so relaxing and exhilarating. So far, all the breads that I have made are done so by hand (KitchenAid cheat here and there lol) and baked through an actual oven. However, I do own a bread machine and have put off using it for around 5 years now...I don't know why but I think it has something to do with the indention of the built-in kneading blade...
Anywhos, this time around, I decided to bake a few loaves in the machine and see how it goes. My tasty combo; beer and smoked Gouda cheese. One thing you should know is that I am absolutely NOT a beer fan. I dislike the taste and idea of it being a party must-have. Unfortunately, with all the men in my family, beer shows up here and there but seldom do I have much left over...
At a recent party, around 14 cans of cheap beer were left over and finding it a waste of an ingredient to pour down the drain, I decided to use it as the liquid ingredient in bread.
After placing all the ingredients conveniently into the bread pan and waiting 3 hours, a beautiful, golden and aromatic loaf emerged. The crust was so glorious and the crumb was deliciously fluffy, changing my perspective on bred machines.
I will definitely be using the machine again for future breads.

1 can of light beer
1 2/3 cups shredded smoked Gouda cheese
2 tsp salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp active dry yeast

In order, starting at bottom of bread pan, add beer, cheese, salt, flour, and sugar. Make an indentation in the flour and add yeast. Make sure the yeast does not touch the liquid. Close the bread machine and press the Basic setting or Plain White Setting. Wait for the cycle to complete and there you have it-a loaf of freshly made bread.

 

Vegan: Broccoli and Spinach Stuffed Pizza

I follow a vegan cook on Youtube called The Vegan Zombie and he had a recipe for stuffed pizza that I could not resist trying out. Since vegans do not eat/use any animal by products like cheese, milk, honey and the such, I was very excited to find that his pizza still contained cheese; vegan cheese. The product is called Daiya, a non-diary, cheese-flavored creation that melts and stretches just as real cheese would. The ingredients for the v-cheese included tapioca flour, coconut and safflower oil, pea protein and flavorings that made it taste like mozzarella/cheddar/or pepper jack. And the awesome part is, there is absolutely no cholesterol. I would justify it as a guilty pleasure. 
I picked up a bag at the Canadian Superstore for just $5 bucks and there was plenty left over after my pizza. The taste of it before cooking was alright, not great but after it was melted down, I could eat the gooey goodness forever!
The pizza was loaded with spinach, broccoli, garlic and onions on top of my homemade pizza sauce, covered with Daiya and covered with my whole wheat pizza crust. Brushed with extra pizza sauce and baked. YUMMMM!

Visit http://www.daiyafoods.com/index.html for more information on Daiya.
Visit The Vegan Zombie video for the recipe.

Hollow Bread- "Banh Tieu"

This deep-fried bread is a common snack in Vietnam, usually eaten with steamed glutinous rice cakes. I made a few batches for a ceremony at my local temple, and in less than 1 hour, they were all gone. I am proud. :)

Poached Egg Bites

I was hungry...and I did not feel like cooking up anything fancy. I had homemade bread in my fridge, free-range eggs and sun-dried tomato paste. In a desperate attempt to throw something together for a late night snack, I toasted thick slices of the bread, poached some eggs, and whipped up a simple sweet n tangy mayo spread. THE SPREAD WAS DIVINE. And it is so simple, it's ridiculous! Definitely making a jar of this for future sandwich usage.

Sweet n' Tangy Mayo Spread

 ¼ cup Canola Oil Mayonnaise

2 tbsp Japanese Mayo (Kewpie Mayonnaise)

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp stone ground mustard

1 tsp ground black pepper

Whisk all ingredients together. Done.

 

 

Look at that yolk!

Bread Days: Adventure IV

On this bread-making venture, I made a few rustic loaves that are delicious and nutricious. It was also an excuse to try out a few different techniques with baking, shaping and slicing as well as a new kind of starter.
The loaves I made included two rustic, round quinoa loaves; two blue cheese and walnut loaves and a fig and orange breakfast loaf.
The quinoa loaves were experimental, using a ratio of 1:1:1 unbleached flour, whole wheat flour and quinoa flour made from ground up quinoa grains. The result was an incredibly moist crumb with a thick, crunchy crust giving off the distinct earthly aroma of the quinoa. Fantastic with butter!

 

The blue cheese and walnut loaves was an experiment conducted with a pre-ferment or biga, a starter that uses 3 1/2 cups of flour, 1/4 tsp of yeast and 2 cups of warm water, mixed together and left overnight to ferment. Although the loaves were delicious in flavor thanks to the blue cheese and crunchy walnut combo, I was disappointed with how the crumb turned out; it was too dense. I will have to retry the pre-ferment again next time.

The fig and orange loaf was an extra that I made when I found a small package of figs and since I dislike how it tastes alone, I decided to chop it up and throw it in some dough to make bread, with some orange zest.
IT WAS SUPERB! Better than cinnamon and raisin bread, with a moist crumb and amazing crust. Now I have a reason for those sweetened figs.

This bread adventure was very experimental but the most success came out with the crust of the breads. I made sure to keep my oven at a very high temperature all the while keeping it humid, whether with a pan of water boiling under the racks or spraying the oven with water in the first and last 10 minutes of baking; this ensured my crust was crunchy but left my crumb moist and delectable.
More bread to come!!!

Bread, Bread and More Bread!

I love bread. Hands down, I love baking fresh bread and go through all the waiting and anticipation in the preparations, proofing, kneading, shaping and baking. I love it.
I made Kobacha bread, made of kobacha squash which gave it a golden yellow color.
I made cheesy jalapeno bread, so fluffy and savoury that it's deliciousness should be a sin ahaha!
And...I made a sun-dried tomato foccacia....
And...plain potato bread in rustic loaf form.
Yum, yum, yum!

Yellow Sweet Potato Bead

It's been so long since I made bread...I've been stressed out with school and some financial mish-mash so I needed a stress reliever and kneading dough was it. There's just something so satisfying about it, punching out the air-bubbles and kneading that sucker with all my might...
Check out my other bread page!

Autumn Pot Pie

I love pie, either desert or savory, I love them all! I came across a pot pie that used squash as a filling and since I love squash and I love pie, I decided to try it with my own revision of the recipe.
My fillings for the autumn pot pie had kabocha squash, carrots, potatoes, leek, celery and some spices such as nutmeg, cloves and coriander powder. All were simmered with some water in a pot to make something like a stew, then seasoned with salt and pepper.
Of course, you can add whatever you want as the filling but that was what I had and wanted in the pie.
I doubled a basic pie crust recipe, which made approximately 10 pies with some dough left over. I divided the crust into aluminum pot pie pans, filled them up with the filling, covered with a vented pie top and brushed with milk (you can brush with egg white to give it a better shine).
Yum, yum, yum, I'm going to make these again!

Nested Egg (Attempt #1)

This idea was introduced to me by a co-worker. It's a rendition of "toad-in-a-hole" or "eggs-in-a-basket" with the yolk and white separated. The white is whipped into a meringue and then filled into a hole in a slice of bread. the yolk is gently placed into the meringue then baked until the meringue is golden brown. I made this for a quick breakfast for myself and my best friend. I also sauteed some portabella and tempeh together for a quick side.
I liked how the presentation looked but I think this is something I need to try again, as in better meringue and other preparations.