You knew once I posted my first bread post that it would only be a matter of time until cinnamon raisin bread came up.  This time I used Lisa’s recipe for Bread for a Week.  It was delicious and since it makes 4 loaves I made two sandwich loaves and two cinnamon bread loaves.  You’ll notice there are no raisins apparent.  I discovered I was out as I was rolling the bread out to sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  However, if I had added raisins I would have chopped them and tossed them in the cinnamon sugar before I sprinkled it over the dough.

The cinnamon sugar at our house is actually a blend and always good to have on hand (also seen here).  I used about 1/3 cup but I would use a lot more next time.  Just roll out your favorite bread dough, brush with a beaten egg, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and raisins if desired.

Cinnamon Sugar

• 2 cups white sugar
• 2/3 cups cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

1. Combine, store in an air tight container.  Use on toast, coffee, etc…

Homemade pesto is a delicious way to punch up the flavor in any dish.  Chimichurri sauce is a pesto-like sauce from South America that is as great as a dip with chips as it is on a steak.  It is a simple sauce to make-only 4 primary ingredients thrown into a blender-and can be used as a marinade or an accompaniment.  I like to brush flank or sirloin steaks with chimichurri sauce and grill for a quick, fun dinner.  It is also great with tortilla chips or plantain chips.

Chimichurri Sauce

• 3 bunches parsley, roughly chopped
• 6 tbsp chopped garlic, 6-12 cloves
• 2 cups olive oil
• 1 cup white vinegar
• salt and pepper

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor.
2. Process until a smooth sauce, allow to sit at least 2 hours before serving.

Has enough time sufficiently passed from New Year’s to post a dessert recipe?  Because the only thing I feel like eating lately is this.

Why is it that the most delicious foods are the hardest to photograph? This Cream Pie Recipe is amazing! It is rich and velvety, sweet and thick, and it can be adapted to make a Coconut Cream Pie, Banana Cream Pie, Chocolate Pie, or any other combination of pudding and pie you like. My grandfather’s wife, Sunny, shared this recipe with me after we had her wonderful Coconut Pie on vacation.

The picture above of some glop on top of some gloop is the best Banana Cream Pie you’ll ever have. Don’t want pie? Just make Banana Pudding. Don’t want Banana? Make it with Coconut or Chocolate or even just Vanilla. I love these old fashioned pudding pies because they are so delicious and rich. This recipe, like my lemon pie, is made entirely in one pot without having to temper the eggs so it is perfect for a beginner.

Old-fashioned Cream Pie

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 tbsp flour
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 1/2 cups milk or half and half
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
• 2 tsp vanilla
• pie shell, baked

1. For a vanilla pudding base: mix all ingredients, except vanilla, in a sauce pan.
2. Stir well and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. This took almost 30 minutes for me.
3. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
4. Pour into prepared pie crust. Top with whipped cream or meringue. Chill overnight.

Banana Cream Pie

• Cream Pie base
• 3 bananas, sliced (toss with 1 tsp lemon juice if desired)
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 cup sugar

1. Top pudding base with sliced bananas.
2. Whip cream and sugar, cover bananas.
3. Chill overnight.

Chocolate Pie

Here is the chocolate pie variation that came with the recipe but I prefer this chocolate pie filling.

• Cream Pie base
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder

1. Add cocoa powder to flour mixture before heating.
2. Continue as for cream pie base.

Coconut Pie

• Cream Pie base
• 3/4 cup coconut
• reduce sugar by 1/4 cup

1. Add coconut to flour mixture before heating.
2. Reduce the sugar if using sweetened dried coconut.
3. Continue as for cream pie base.

Call it comfort food, but the only thing I have been craving lately is a big, thick bowl of the vanilla pudding base from this recipe.  I could eat it forever, at least that’s how I feel right now.  I had to throw half of this pie away because I was eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  You know, just a spoonful here and there easily adds up to half a pie by the end of the day.

Considering I have been known to make my own mayonnaise-or at least attempt to make it-it should be no surprise to you then that I hate grocery store bread. It is such a staple of our diets and yet it is probably one of the most overly processed foods we can buy. Typical supermarket sandwich bread is like a blank slate on which to construct your sandwich: boring, tasteless, structurally sound deli meat showcase. Unfortunately, it is difficult to turn off the part of your brain that demands this type of bread even when you know a fresh baguette or ciabatta roll makes an equally delicious sandwich base. After being raised on the familiar texture and shape of sandwich bread I knew that if I was going to convince my family, and myself, that fresh, homemade bread was worth the effort, it would need to be familiar and comfortable.

So far it is working. We ate the entire white loaf within 48 hours and the kids loved it. The oldest actually ate her crust first, declaring that it tasted like dough (whatever that means, it is good enough for me). I just finished putting the wheat loaf in the freezer for the rest of the week, but so far I think it is a success. The biggest problem I am having is that the grocery store bread comes in the convenient loaf shaped bag but homemade bread defies all of my current storage solutions. Those of you who bake, how do you store your bread? I want to retain freshness as long as possible but I don’t know how to make it convenient to grab a few slices and make sandwiches for the day.

You can see my wheat loaf developed a big air pocket between the bread and the crust, any ideas on why that happened? Otherwise it was perfect, delicious and tender. The dough was very different from all yeast doughs I have worked with before. So I wasn’t sure at what point to stop adding liquid. On the other hand, it looks like maybe I didn’t push enough air out when I was rolling up the dough to put it in the loaf pan. I am definitely getter better each time: faster and more confident. Start to finish, each loaf took about four hours of babysitting. I used my stand mixer to do the kneading and mixing so the only work involved was putting the ingredients in the bowl, otherwise it is all wait time. I think I could keep this up for a while, especially since I received such an enthusiastic response from everyone.

I used this white bread recipe from Annie’s Eats and this wheat bread recipe from smitten kitchen. I would like to find a recipe of each that makes two loaves because I know if I don’t have it easily accessible, I will fall off the wagon. But both of these recipes are easy and taste great so I recommend them for any other beginners.