Jalapeno Cheddar Sandwich Bread

As soon as I saw this recipe for Jalapeno Cheddar Bread, I knew I needed to make it. I went out to the grocery store that day and bought the few ingredients I was missing and got to work right away. The smell of the cheddar and jalapenos permeating the air made turning my oven on (twice!) during a 100+ degree day totally worth it.

This is not the same kind of jalapeno cheddar bread you'll find in the bakery section of the grocery store. This is a loaf of bread intended to be sliced up for sandwiches, not the round hunk covered in melted cheddar and jalapeno slices.

As soon as this was cool enough to cut into, I started slicing chunks off to eat, warm and soft. Slathered with soft butter, or even plain, this bread is so good, that I haven't even tried making sandwiches with it yet!

Next time I might add some dried crushed jalapeno to add a bit more spice to the bread. I'd also knead in more cheese, creating pockets of cheddar throughout the bread. I felt like the cheese was too mixed into the dough, though since I didn't use a sharp cheddar, my opinion may be skewed. Overall, I loved this bread and plan to make it again and again; it will definitely liven up my workweek sandwiches this year!

Jalapeno Cheddar Sandwich Bread
Source: Pink Parsley
Printable Recipe

Ingredients
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup cold buttermilk (I used regular milk and added some vinegar)
1/3 cup water
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 Tablespoons honey
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (1 envelope)
4 small jalapenos, seeds and ribs removed, diced
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese

Directions
Adjust one oven rack to the lowest position, and another to the middle position. Heat the oven to 200 degrees. When it is preheated, maintain the temperature for 10 minutes, then turn off the oven.

Toss the jalapeno and 1 cup of the cheddar with 1 Tablespoon of flour in a small bowl.

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add the cold buttermilk and stir to combine.

Mix 3 1/2 cups of the flour and the salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.

Add the buttermilk/water mixture, butter, honey, and yeast to a liquid measuring cup. Turn the mixer on low, and add the liquid in a slow stream, increasing the speed of the mixer as you go to medium. Continue mixing until the dough is smooth and satiny, stopping to scrape the dough from the hook as needed.

After about 2-3 minutes add the jalapeno-cheese mixture, and continue to knead about 10 minutes total, adding the remaining flour 1 Tablespoon at a time, as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead to form a smooth ball, about 15 seconds. Knead in the remaining 1/2 cup cheese to create pockets of cheddar in the bread.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, rubbing the dough around the bowl to coat with the oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and place the bowl in the oven until the dough doubles in size, 50-60 minutes.

Turn out onto the floured surface and gently press the dough into a rectangle that is 1 inch thick and 9 inches long. With the long side facing you, roll the dough firmly into a cylinder, pressing with your fingers as you roll to make sure the dough sticks to itself. Turn the dough seam-side up and pinch it closed.

Place the dough seam-side down in a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan, and press it gently to make sure it touches all four sides of the pan. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rise in a warm spot until the dough almost doubles in size, 20-30 minutes (Note: I placed my dough in the garage to rise on a hot day, cutting the rising time in half).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place an empty baking pan on the lowest rack of the oven. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and pour into the empty pan. Set the loaf onto the middle rack, and bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf reads 195 degrees, about 40-50 minutes.

Remove the bread from the pan and cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Slice and serve.

Whole Wheat Pita

Once I made homemade hummus, I knew I needed to try homemade pita; the two are just made for each other. I am so glad I finally tried my hand at this recipe; these pita turned out soft and flavorful and paired perfectly with some sliced grilled chicken and hummus.

The process is a bit time consuming, though not difficult. I put my bowl of dough in the garage to help speed up the rising process, especially since I had the A/C blasting while making these, transforming my kitchen into a cool, drafty space-pretty much the exact opposite of the environment needed for dough to rise.

Whole Wheat Pita
Source: Annie's Eats
Printable Recipe

Ingredients
2 ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1 Tablespoon honey
1¼ cups warm water
1½ cups bread flour
1½ cups whole wheat flour
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Cornmeal, for sprinkling

Directions
Combine the yeast, honey and 1/2 cup of the water in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, and stir to combine. Add in 1/4 cup of the bread flour and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, and mix until smooth.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Remove the plastic wrap and return the bowl to the mixer, fitted with the dough hook attachment. Add in the remaining 3/4 cup water, 1/4 cup bread flour, 1 1/4 cup wheat flour, olive oil and salt. Knead on low speed for about 8 minutes; the dough should be smooth and elastic.

Lightly oil a large bowl (I sprayed mine with Pam), and transfer the dough to the bowl, turning it over once to coat. Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap or clean kitchen towels and let rise in a warm place for about an hour, until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees, with the rack in the middle position. Preheat your baking stone, on the middle rack, at this time.

Once the dough has risen, transfer it to a lightly floured surface and punch down the dough. Then, divide it into 8 equal pieces (I used a ruler to measure it out and cut the dough with a long knife).

Form each piece into a ball. Working with one piece at a time, flatten each ball into a disk, then stretch out into a 6½-7 inch circle. Transfer the rounds to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and lightly sprinkled with cornmeal.

Once all the rounds have been shaped, loosely cover the sheet with clean kitchen towels. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, until slightly puffy.

Transfer 4 pitas, one at a time, to your hot baking stone (you can also bake these on a baking sheet) and bake for 2 minutes. Using tongs, gently flip each pita over and bake for an additional minute. Set the cooked pitas on a rack to cool and repeat with the remaining dough.

Store in a large ziplock bag or other airtight container in the refrigerator.

Onion and Rosemary Foccacia

I recently posted a recipe for champagne chicken, courtesy of The Rookie Chef. I knew I was going to need a chunk of bread to sop up all that sauce, so I turned to my trusty copy of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and found this recipe for foccaccia bread.

I already had a batch of olive oil dough on hand; I like to keep it around for when the urge to make pizza or a loaf of bread strikes. I added some rosemary to the bread to tie the flavors into the rosemary in the champagne cream sauce; this was the perfect accompaniment. It later went well with a hearty bowl of chicken noodle soup on my first day back to work after a 2 week vacation.


Onion and Rosemary Foccacia
Source: Adapted from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day
Printable Recipe

Ingredients
1 pound of olive oil dough
1/2 medium onion (yellow or white), thinly sliced
2 tablespoons, extra virgin olive oil, plus one teaspoon for drizzling
1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
course salt and ground pepper for sprinkling on top
oil to grease the cookie sheet

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees, with a metal broiler tray on the lowest shelf. You will be pouring water into this tray once the dough is in the oven, so give yourself some room between the broiler tray and the rack you cook your dough on.

Saute the onion slices in the olive oil until softened, but not browned. If you brown the onions they will burn in the oven.

Grease a cookie sheet with a little bit of olive oil, or line with a piece of parchment paper (I recommend this option: easier clean up and no worry about the bread sticking). Dust the dough with some flour (I also recommend dusting your hands with flour as this is a wet dough) and shape the dough into a ball by stretching it out.

Place the dough on the cookie sheet and spoon half of the onions onto the dough (spread them out in one layer). Fold the dough over itself, covering the onions, and reshape it so the onions are inside the dough.

Flatten the dough to 1/2"-3/4" of an inch thick. Spread the remaining onions over the top of the dough. Do not completely cover the surface of the dough or it won't brown correctly (you may have leftover onions). Sprinkle the surface with the rosemary, salt, and pepper. Lightly drizzle with the teaspoon olive oil.

Allow the foccacia to rest and rise, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Place the cookie sheet in the oven and pour 1 cup of hot water into the metal broiler tray. Quickly shut the oven door, trapping the steam in the oven. Do not open the oven door for at least the first 15 minutes, or the steam will escape, affecting the crust.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until the foccacia is medium brown. Cut into wedges and serve warm.

This is a great bread for dipping in soups and sopping up sauces; I served it with champagne chicken and it was a perfect accompaniment to the creamy sauce.

Olive Oil Dough

I love using this recipe to make pizza crust. I haven't tried making a loaf of bread from it yet, but I have made several pizzas to rave reviews from my husband.

This is a very wet and sticky dough. Keep that in mind when stretching it out for pizza; I tend to flour my hands a bit, or use extra cornmeal on the parchment paper.

This makes a lot of dough...I tend to get about 4ish pizzas out of one batch of dough. The original recipe states that it makes 4 one-pound loaves of bread. I recommend making this dough a day in advance of using it as it is easier to work with it when it it cold. The additional time in the fridge also helps the dough to develop mire intensity in flavor.


Olive Oil Dough
From Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons active yeast (1 1/2 packets)
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (use a high quality olive oil...it lends a better test to the final product)
6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions
Combine the first 5 ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer using the paddle attachment. (You can mix by hand in a large bowl if you don't have a stand mixer. But....just go buy a Kitchen Aid stand mixer and make life in the kitchen easier).

Change the attachment from the paddle to the dough hook. Gradually mix in the flour, with the machine set to medium, until all the flour is incorporated. Make sure there is not any flour left hiding under the dough.

Cover (either in the mixer bowl or in another clean bowl) and leave to rest at room temperature until the dough rises (about 2 hours).

Use the dough right away for pizza, bread, calzones, etc or refrigerate in a covered bowl. Best used within two weeks.

Whole Wheat Bread Dough

I have been referring to this whole wheat bread dough in several posts lately, so I figured I should just create a separate post for the recipe.

I use this dough to make loaves of bread, pizza crust, and calzones. It is an easy recipe to work with and can be made using regular bread flour or all-purpose flour, instead of wheat flour. I have found the dough to be extremely sticky however, when not using whole wheat flour. To remedy that, I suggest omitting 1/4 cup of water or using 1 cup of whole wheat flour in place of one cup of white or bread flour.

Whole Wheat Dough
*Adapted from this recipe

1/2 cup warm water
1 envelop instant quick rise yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp if you are using jarred yeast)
1 1/4 cups water, room temp
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp salt

Pour the warm water into a bowl (I use my 6 cup liquid measuring cup) and sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside for 5 minutes, allowing the yeast to dissolve and react with the water.

Using your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the flour and salt together until just combined.

Add the room temperature water and olive oil to the yeast water. Gently mix together and then pour into the flour. Fit the mixer with the kneading attachment and knead until it forms a ball and all the flour is incorporated (about 5 minutes). The dough should be smooth and elastic.

Spray a large bowl with nonstick spray (I use Smart Balance Omega spray). Place the kneaded dough in the greases bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside and let rise, until the dough has doubled in size (about an hour or so). If you are NOT using quick rise yeast, it will need about 2 hours to rise.

From here, you can refrigerate for use at a later date, or use immediately for pizza, bread, etc.

MMMMMM, Pizza

I love pizza. I think it just might be the world's most perfect food. I mean, who doesn't like a good slice of gooey hot cheese with an assortment of toppings? Pizza, in my opinion, should be its own food group.

When I was growing up, my parents didn't cook dinner on Friday nights. It was usually tuna fish sandwich night, but every once in a while we went out for pizza. THOSE were my favorite Friday nights.....coming home after 2 hours of swim practice, tired but excited for the weekend, and finding out that instead of eating tuna we were having pizza!

Now that I am an adult, I still have the same passion for pizza. In fact, that was one of the best parts about going to college in San Francisco....you can buy pizza by the slice there! The guys who worked at my local SF pizza joint even knew me by name. :)

Recently I decided I wanted to try to make pizza at home. I thought it would be fun, impress my husband, and I could make it a bit healthier (always a bonus right?). I swapped regular fatty pepperoni for turkey pepperoni (only 80 calories verses 140), low fat mozeralla and a whole wheat crust. Here's my recipe for a healthier take on my Friday night favorite.

Healthy Pizza

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust (adapted from this recipe)
1/2 cup warm water
1 envelop instant quick rise yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp if you are using jarred yeast)
1 1/4 cups water, room temp
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp salt

Pour the warm water into a bowl (I use my 6 cup liquid measuring cup) and sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside for 5 minutes, allowing the yeast to dissolve and react with the water.

Using your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the flour and salt together until just combined.

Add the room temperature water and olive oil to the yeast water. Gently mix together and then pour into the flour. Fit the mixer with the kneading attachment and knead until it forms a ball and all the flour is incorporated (about 5 minutes). The dough should be smooth and elastic.

Spray a large bowl with nonstick spray (I use Smart Balanace Omega spray). Place the kneaded dough in the greases bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside and let rise, until the dough has doubled in size (about an hour or so). If you are NOT using quick rise yeast, it will need about 2 hours to rise.

Place your pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees. You will need to preheat the stone for about 30 minutes.

Push the dough down with your hands so it deflates. Tear the dough into 2 equal pieces, shape them into balls, and cover with a damp towel to rest for about 30 minutes (do this while the oven is preheating).

Using your hands, stretch out the dough to the desired shape and size of your pizza. I stretched mine a lot to make a thin crust pizza. Top with pizza sauce and your desired toppings.

Here's my pizza before going in the oven. It's topped with my pizza sauce (see recipe below), fresh basil from my garden, low-fat mozzerall, and turkey pepperoni.

Sprinkle the heated pizza stone with cornmeal and place the pizza on top. Cook for about 8 minutes....until the cheese is melted and slightly browned.

Here's the finished product. I had some trouble getting it in the oven, so the ingredients slide all over the place, leaving a not-so-pretty pizza, but the end results *tasted* great!! My husband even said he liked it almost more than our favorite local pizza joint. :)

Homemade Pizza Sauce

(I decided to whip up some semi-homemade sauce to take advantage of my herb garden)
1 can tomato paste (plus half a can of watter)
2 handfuls fresh oregano leaves
7-8 fresh basil leaves
pepper

Heat the tomato paste and water in a saucepan. Stir to combine the water and tomato paste, thinning out the paster to a sauce-like consistency (add more or less water based on your desired thickness.)
Chop the fresh herbs and add to the tomato paste. Add a dash or two of pepper. Stir to combine and heat through.
Set aside until ready to spread on the pizza.

Better than Wetzel's Soft Pretzels

Mmmm, I absolutely *love* soft pretzels. Lately, whenever my husband and I are at the mall, I *have* to stop by Wetzel's Pretzels and buy a plain, original pretzel and a lemonade. They are SO good, but pricey, so I decided that I should try making them at home.

Total score!! These pretzels came out so good. My husband, who is not a huge soft pretzel fan, ate two of them! I didn't have any pretzel salt though, so I just used the regular fine grain table salt I already had, which worked just fine. I think I will be buying some pretzel salt on my next grocery store trip; I know I will be making these snacks again.

Thanks to Branny Boils Over for the recipe!

PS I promise to upload pics as soon as I find my camera cord!

Better than Wetzel's Soft Pretzels

Makes 8 pretzels

• 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt (I used sea salt)

• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

• 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups

• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted

• Vegetable oil, for cookie sheets

• 10 cups water

• 2/3 cup baking soda

• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

• Pretzel salt (Again, I just used regular table salt for this)

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and pour the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam.

Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Increase speed to medium and continue kneading until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Place dough in a well oiled bowl (I sprayed mine with Smart Balance cooking spray) and cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel. Allow bowl to sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan. When you dump in the baking soda, beware of foamy overflow!

While the water comes to a boil, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and place on the oiled parchment paper. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. (I rolled mine between my hands, the way little kids make Play-Doh snakes. ) Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, once at a time, for about 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. (My pretzels were done right at the 12 minute mark.)

Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving. You can serve with mustard, cheese sauce, or whatever else you like to dip pretzels in; We ate ours plain. I plan on sneaking these in my purse the next time we go see a movie!

Enjoy!