Apple Bread

I think this is a recipe I found in the French language Metro newspaper.

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil or applesauce (we used applesauce)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup apples, peeled, cored and diced

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a big bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, mix together applesauce, sugar, brown sugar, egg, orange juice, vanilla and apples. Mix into the dry ingredients.
4. Pour batter into a greased 8 inch loaf pan.
5. Bake 30 to 40 min or until done (our needed almost an hour).

Verdict: This bread took forever to bake. It just didn’t want to be ready. Still, it was a very good bread. Normally, I’ve just had banana breads, but this apple bread had a nice taste to it, even if I thought it was a  little dense.

Chocolate-Marbled Banana Bread

This is another Kraft recipe.

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 squares of Baker’s semi-sweet chocolate, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Beat egg, mayonnaise and bananas in a large bowl with a whisk until blended. In a medium bow, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Add to the banana mixture and stir until just moistened.

3. Pour half the batter into a medium bowl. Add the chocolate to the mixture in the medium bowl. Spoon batters alternately into a 8×4 inch loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray. Swirly gently with a knife.

4. Bake 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes of until toothpick comes out clean.

Verdict: I found this banana bread a little too dense and with not a whole lot of flavour (which is odd because banana is usually one of those flavours you can’t miss).

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I found this recipe in the French language Metro newspaper.

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 cup ripe banana, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar together. Add vanilla and egg.  Add bananas and yogurt. Mix well.

3. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda.

4. Incorporate dry ingredients into wet ingredients.

5. Add chocolate chips and mix well.

6. Pour into a greased bread pan.

7.  Bake for 60 min or until done.

Verdict: The batter was a little hard to work with; I don’t think there were enough wet ingredients. The bread ended up coming out a little denser than I normally like, but it had a really nice flavour.

Cocoa-nana Bread

I am pretty sure I found this recipe on another food blog, but I can’t remember which one.

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup cocoa powder (the original recipe said to use semi-sweet cocoa powder, but we couldn’t find that anywhere up here and had to use the unsweetened cocoa powder)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (we used salted butter so we didn’t add more salt)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 9×5 inch loaf pan. (The original recipe says to place the pan on two baking sheets, to prevent burning the base of the loaf. We used only one and didn’t have a problem with burning, but we were happy to have the one sheet we used, as the loaf expanded quite a bit and some batter dripped out of the pan.)

2. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt (if using) and baking soda.

3. In a large bowl (or with a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, as the original recipe said) beat the butter until softened. Add sugar and brown sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add bananas (if using a mixer, the original recipe recommends lowering the speed). Add the dry ingredients in 3 batches. Add the buttermilk. Stir in chopped chocolate. Scrape batter into prepared pan.

4. Make a tin foil tent over loaf. Bake 30 min then remove foil. Bake an additional 40-45 minutes without the foil or until knife inserted comes out clean. Let cool.

Verdict: Maybe it was because we couldn’t find the semi-sweet cocoa powder, but it felt like something was missing from this recipe. The chocolate taste was nice, but kind of muted. You could taste the bananas, without them overpowering the chocolate taste (we’ve found in other recipes that bananas can sometimes take over a whole recipe, no matter how many different flavours it seems there should be). The loaf wasn’t really moist and seemed to get dryer on the second day.

Parmesan Basil Biscuits

I found this recipe in a WeightWatcher’s magazine.

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into pieces
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons basil (we used 1)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• Cooking spray (we used 1 egg for an egg wash instead)
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425F.

2. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Cut in butter until coarse mixture forms. Stir in Parmesan cheese and basil. Add in buttermilk and stir until just moist.

3. Spoon out 8 mounds of dough onto a baking sheet. Lightly coat tops with cooking spray (or brush with an egg wash) and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

4. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until golden.

Verdict: This is going to sound strange, because it is right there in the title, but these had too much basil in them. And we used half of what was supposed to be there! The basil taste just overwhelmed everything else.

Light Brioche Burger Buns

I found this recipe on another food blog.

• 3 tablespoons warm milk
• 2 teaspoons dry active yeast
• 2 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups bread flour (we just used all purpose flour for a total of 3 1/3 cup)
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt (didn’t use because we used salted butter)
• 2 1/2 tablespoon butter
• Sesame seeds (optional, but we used)

1. Combine 1 cup warm water with milk, yeast and sugar. Let stand 5 min or until foamy.

2. Beat 1 egg and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour and salt (if using). Cut in butter until crumbly. Add yeast and egg mixture and stir until dough forms. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead 8-10 minutes until elastic. Dough may be sticky, but try to minimize the flour used in the kneading process as these will make the buns tougher.

4. Shape dough into a ball and return to mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, 1 – 2 hours (ours doubled in 1 hour).

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut dough into 8 equal parts and roll each into a ball. Place on baking sheet and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise 1-2 hours (ours only needed 1 hour).

6. Preheat oven to 400F. Set a large oven dish with water on the lower rack of the oven.

7. Beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon of water (we didn’t) and brush on top of buns. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake 15 min until golden brown.

Verdict: These were very good with homemade burgers. I am always a tough critic with homemade bread, because I have become too used to store-bought bread. To me, these were not as sweet as I would have liked. My sister loved them and has added this recipe to her ‘keep’ list.

Cheesy Bread

I got this recipe from a leaflet for Black Diamond cheese that I found in my grocery store.

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon yeast (fast acting)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt (we didn’t use)
• 1 cup hot water
• 1/4 cup warm milk
• 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• 3 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup egg whites, beaten (we used 1 egg)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (we used garlic powder)

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Mix together flour, yeast and salt (if using) in a large bowl.

3. In another bowl, mix together water, milk, oil and corn syrup. Slowly add to dry ingredients. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 3 min or until uniformly elastic.

4. Separate dough into 2 equal parts. Roll out and fit one piece to the size of the baking sheet (we didn’t quite get it big enough). Sprinkle 3 cups of cheese on top, leaving a border. Roll out other dough and fit over top. Pinch closed. Cut into 20 equal stripes (or kind of stripe like pieces) but do not pull apart. Cover with cloth and let rise 20 min.

5. Beat egg, oregano and garlic together and egg wash top. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake 15 to 17 min.

Verdict: These were very good. They tasted like the cheesy bread you would get from restaurants, only better.

Banana Blueberry Bread

I am pretty sure I found this recipe on another online food blog, but I can’t remember which one.

• 1 1/2 all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour (we just used 2 cups all-purpose flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (we didn’t use as we use salted butter)
• 3/4 cup sugar, divided
• 3 very rip bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoon butter, melted (ours was semi-salted rather than the unsalted suggested in the original)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup blueberries

1. Heat oven to 350F. Spray loaf pan.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, (if using) and 1/4 cup of the sugar.

3. In another medium bowl, mix tother mashed bananas, yogurt and vanilla.

4. In a large bowl, mix together remaining 1/2 cup sugar and butter. Add eggs, one at a time.

5. Beat in half of the flour mixture, then one-third of the mashed banana mixture, half of the remaining flour, another one-third of the bananas, the remaining flour and then the remaining banana mixture. Do not overmix.

6. Scrape batter into pan and top with blueberries. Bake 55 min (ours needed 45).

Verdict: The banana bread was really good, really moist. I don’t think the blueberry taste along with the banana bread taste worked well together. If I made this again, I wouldn’t add the blueberries.

Buttermilk Oat Rolls

I found this recipe in an old magazine, Cooking Light, from November 1998.

• 3/4 cup oats
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 package dry active yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 1/4 cup flour, divided (we didn’t use this much)
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 3/4 teaspoon salt (we didn’t use)
• Cooking spray
• 1 tablespoon water (for the egg wash, but we didn’t use, instead using the whole egg)
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten (we used the whole egg)
• 1 tablespoon oats

1. Stir together oats, boiling water and the 1 tablespoon of sugar in a small bowl. Let stand 5 min.

2. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and the 1 1/2 teaspoon sugar in the warm water. Let stand 5 min.

3. Add the oat mixture, 1 3/4 cup flour, buttermilk, butter and salt (if using) to the yeast mixture.

4. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 min. Add enough of remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (our dough was pretty dry from the start, we didn’t really add any of the remaining flour.

5. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise until doubled, 45 min. Punch down and let sit for another 5 min.

6. Divide dough into 12 portions (because we used less flour and had less dough to start with, we were only able to make 8 decent sized portions). Shape each into a ball and place on lightly greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, 30 min.

7. Combine egg and water (if using). Brush over uncovered dough. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of oats. Bake at 375F for 25 min.

Verdict: These were really good, with a nice taste to them. Though, in terms of fresh bread, I would rank them second to the bread that my sister makes.

Parmesan Garlic Bread

This is a Kraft recipe.

• 1 8 ounce French loaf (we used a dozen mini buns instead)
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1.  Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Cut bread (or buns) in half lengthwise. Place on baking sheet, cut side up.

3. Mix together butter and garlic. Brush over bread. Sprinkle cheeses onto bread.

4. Bake 15 min or until cheese is melted (we broiled ours for a bit too).

Verdict: This was good. I liked the addition of cheese to a regular garlic bread. Very easy to make.