Apple Cheddar Biscuits

I like to have some bread or a biscuit to enjoy soup with, especially when the soup is so tasty I want to mop up every last drop of it to be sure that none is wasted.  I don't have time to make a nice french loaf very often and getting all of us out of the house to go pick up a loaf from the local baker is sometimes a little daunting.  Especially on rainy days when every one is tired.
I have had a bunch of old magazines with recipes I have wanted to try piling up in my house over the years.  Recently I have decided to look through them and tear out the recipes I think I will actually try and then recycle the rest.  After I try the recipe, if I like it I will post it so I don't have to keep the loose recipe around and I know I will always be able to find it when I want it.  The other day I found this wonderful biscuit recipe in Canadian Living.  It is a perfect biscuit to enjoy with fall soups.  They were a hit in our house and one of my little ones kept sliding a chair to the counter so she could help herself to them.  The batch didn't even last 24 hours.  I am sure I will be making these again soon.

 Apple Cheddar Biscuits

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cold butter cubed

1 cup shredded extra-old Cheddar cheese

1 cup grated, cored and peeled baking apple

2 tbsp minced chives or green onions

3/4 cup milk

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
2. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse oatmeal with a few large pieces.
3. Stir in the cheddar, apple and chives.
4. Using a fork, stir in the milk to form a ragged dough.
5. Drop into roughly 1/3 cup mounds on a parchment lined baking sheet.
6. Bake at 425 for 13-15 minutes or until they are lightly browned.

Pizza Dough

In our neighbourhood there is a very fancy expensive pizza joint and their pizza is amazing.  They have pizza designed for a sophisticated palate and their creations are delicious.  I decided that I too can make fancy pizzas with what I have at home and cater it to my current cravings.
In order to do this, I could not use something store bought for the crust, I had to find a recipe I could put together without too much effort and that didn't take too much time to be ready to use.  After some searching, this is what I decide on using.  This recipe made a nice light crust.  The crust is fine as it is but if you want to add a little extra flavour you could always add a little seasoning to it.  

Pizza Dough

2 cups flour

2/3 cup plus 2 tbsp lukewarm water

1 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp yeast

1. Mix together 1 cup of the flour, water, sugar, salt and yeast (and any extra seasonings you may desire).
2. Gradually add the remaining cup of flour until it forms a ball.
3. Knead briefly on a floured surface.
4. Let the dough raise for 10-15 minutes in a bowl covered with a towel or plastic wrap.
5. Spread out onto a pan and cover with your favourite toppings.
6. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.

Beer Bread

Now that fall is in the air, soup season has began at our house.  This year we have harvested over 40 squash from the farm and an easy way to use them up is to make soups (these are just some of them in the picture).

I like having a nice warm loaf of bread to enjoy with soup and yesterday I wasn't in the mood to make a yeast bread so I opted for beer bread instead.  I like it as a quicker alternative to a yeast bread and I love the taste.  I have put the basic recipe below but I often add different things to it like rolled oats, herbs and or cheese.  Yesterday I added some chunks of apple and fresh sage to complement the squash soup it was accompanying.

Beer Bread

3 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 can of beer

1/4 cup butter

1. Sift the flour into a bowl and mix with the rest of the dry ingredients.
2. Mix in the beer.  If you want a soft crust, mix in the butter.
3. Put the batter into a loaf pan and if you want a crispy crust poor the butter on top.
4. Bake for one hour at 375. *** If you put the butter on top, your oven may get a little smokey.

Whole Wheat Bread

I love having the smell of fresh baked bread in my house and there are few things as satisfying as eating  a fresh piece of bread with melted butter all over it.  I must admit I am not a huge fan of the kneading involved in making bread from scratch but I found a recipe that looked simple enough that I decided to try using the bread hook on my stand mixer instead of doing it by hand.  It worked well and raised very nicely.

Whole Wheat Bread

2 1/2 cups very warm water

1 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp honey

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp salt

1tbsp instant yeast

2 cups white flour

3 cups whole wheat flour

1. Stir together the water, lemon juice, honey and oil in a bowl.
2. In a large bowl stir together the flours, salt and yeast.
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until combined.
4. Either knead for 10 minutes or use a bread hook on a stand mixer for about 5 minutes.
5. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and allow to double in size (about 45 minutes to 1 hour).
6. Punch the dough down and form into loaves (makes 3 regular sized loaves).  Place the loaves in well greased pans and allow to rise for 30-45 minutes.
7. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Mrs. H's Cranberry Orange Bread

This is a recipe that is a favourite in the neighbourhood I grew up in.  Every year one of the grade two teachers at the local school would have the parents come in and help her students make this bread.  This teacher retired recently and I remember talking to many of her past students and they all remember this bread and many of them still make it on a regular basis.  It tastes amazing and it is one I look forward to making and enjoying every year.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Mrs. H's Cranberry Orange Bread


2 cups sifted all-purpose flour


1 cup white sugar


1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder


1 teaspoon salt


1/2 teaspoon baking soda


1/4 cup butter


1 egg, beaten


1 teaspoon orange zest


3/4 cup orange juice


1 1/2 cups golden raisins


1 1/2 cups chopped cranberries

1.   Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray or grease one 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
3. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add egg, orange peel, and orange juice; stir to mix and fold in raisins and cranberries.
4. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 70 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. 
5. Remove from pan; cool on wire rack.

Cheesy Zucchini Bread

Here is yet another way to use up some of the summertime zucchini goodness.  The zucchini helps keep the bread nice and moist.  I really enjoy this bread and I think it is a perfect match with some nice soup in the winter.  In the summer I will make a bunch to put in the deep freezer and take it out throughout the winter when I make soups at least once a week. It tastes great on its own, warmed with some butter.

Cheesy Zucchini Bread

3 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp onion flakes

1 cup grated zucchini

1/3 cup melted butter

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup butter milk

3 tbsp parmesan cheese, plus extra for sprinkling on top

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9"x5" loaf pan or some mini loaf pans.
2. Combine the toasted onion and grated zucchini, allow it to sit for at least 10 minutes.
3. Combine and mix together the dry ingredients.
4. Stir in the eggs, butter and butter milk and parmesan cheese into the flour mixture.  Add the zucchini mixture and stir until just combined
5. Pour into the loaf pan(s) and sprinkle the tops with extra parmesan.
6. Bake for 50 - 65 minutes for a regular loaf and 25-35 minutes for mini loafs.  (It is ready when it passes the tooth pick test)

French Baguette

After making yeast bread a couple of times I am feeling more confident on trying recipes with yeast so I decided to try another recipe.  Tonight I had my grandmother over for dinner and she loves the different preserves that I make and so I thought I would try making a baguette instead of buying one to serve with the relish and chutneys.
I came across this recipe online and thought it looked easy enough so I went for it.  It is a very straight forward recipe and it doesn't require many ingredients.  The process is a little long and drawn out but if
you are going to be at home anyways I think it is worth the effort.

French Bread Baguette

4 cups Flour
1 tbsp. Dry Active Yeast
1-2 tsp. Salt
2 cups Warm Water
Oil for bowl

1. In a bowl, mix together the flour and the salt.
2. In another bowl, combine yeast, warm water, and half of the flour/salt mixture. Using your hands, mix until it forms a dough. Then, cover with a dish cloth and let sit at room temperature for 3 hours. It should triple in size.
3. Gently incorporate the rest of the flour/salt, using your hands.
4. Place on a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. It should be supple and elastic when you stop kneading.
5. Lightly oil a bowl. Place dough in bowl. Cover with a dish towel. Let sit for 1 hour. It should double in size.
6. Preheat oven to 450°F. Knead again. Then cut dough into 3 parts and form each part into a long baguette. Place on a baking sheet. Let sit for at least 20 minutes.
7. Place a bowl of water in the oven. Bake baguettes for about 25 minutes (maybe less). Remove the bowl of water after 15 minutes of baking.

Preparation Time: about 25 minutes
Cooking Time: about 25 minutes
Resting Time: about 4 hours, 30 minutes 

Whole Wheat Bread

I have been wanting to try making homemade bread for a while now but with hearing so many horror stories about unsuccessful attempts from friends and family I have always been a bit hesitant to try it out.  A couple of weeks ago my husband and I had some friends over and one of them had just started playing around with bread recipes herself and brought a really nice no knead bread recipe with her.  After talking to her I decided to bite the bullet and finally make an attempt at making bread from scratch.
I had some different recipes that I wanted to try at home but I realized that the jar of yeast I bought was the wrong type for the recipes I wanted to make.  Luckily the last time I was at the grocer I grab some packages of dry active yeast so I decided to go online to search for a recipe to try.  I came across so many recipes that looked good but I finally decided on one called Fabulous Homemade Bread. It was a great first recipe to try.  I am lucky enough to have a stand mixer with a bread hook so the whole process was not too bad.  Once the dough was made I had to wait for it to rise, I was so worried that it wouldn't so I tried to distract myself by working in the garden.  By the time I went back to check on the dough it had really grown, I was so excited! I divided it up into pans to let it rise again before placing it into the oven.  As it was baking it smelled so good, both my husband and I had a hard time making ourselves wait for it to finish.  It looked awesome when it came out of the oven and it tasted amazing.  I definitely recommend this recipe.  I know it makes a lot of bread (6 loaves) but it won't last long and if you have a deep freeze you can save some for later.

Whole Wheat Bread

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 3 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup bread flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons salt
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 10 cups bread flour

1. In the mixing bowl of an electric mixer, stir together 1/2 cup warm water, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 cup bread flour, and yeast. Let grow for about 5 minutes. It will bubble almost immediately.
2. Measure oats, 4 1/2 cups warm water, whole wheat flour, salt, 2/3 cup sugar, and 2/3 cup oil into the mixing bowl. Mix on low speed with a dough hook for 1 to 2 minutes. Increase speed slightly, and begin adding bread flour 1/2 to 1 cup at a time until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Humidity determines how much flour you need before the bread pulls away from the edge of the bowl. It is normal for the dough to be sticky.
3. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover with a damp cloth. Let rise in a warm spot for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
4. Divide dough into 6 pieces. Shape loaves, and place in greased 8 x 4 inch pans. Let rise until dough is 1 inch above rim of pans, usually 1 hour.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F ( 175 degrees C) for 35 minutes, or until tops are browned. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

*** If you don't go through a lot of bread and you are worried about it going bad I recommend these silicone mini loaf pans.  They are great because one loaf turns out to be about four slices.  I really like using them for different loaves because as much as I love things like banana bread if it is just you or you and your spouse eating a whole loaf can be a big task.  These also work great for freezing portions of soup, chilli or homemade broth for later use.