Wednesday, March 13, 2013

English Muffin Bread

Hello, hello!
Lucky me had a day off today, so I decided to try to make some English Muffin Bread! This recipe looked absolutely DELISH so I had to try it for myself! The recipe came from Blisstree, and it was ah-mazing!


I had the wrong sized loaf pans (I only had very large ones!) so the bread came out a little flatter and wider than expected, but it tastes good none-the-less!

Ingredients: (makes 2 loaves - one to eat right away and another for tomorrow, obviously)




Look at that adorable honey bear, he is so excited to help!

  • 5 and 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 tablespoons dry yeast
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 2 teaspoonsful kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 and 1/4 cups warm milk
  • Butter for greasing pans
  • Coarse Cornmeal




Directions:
Mix the yeast, honey, and water, and set aside. (The warm water activates the yeast which eats up the honey and will get all nice and foamy!)
Om nom nom. Foam.
Sift the sale, baking powder, and flour together. 
Add the milk and 1 cup of the flour to the yeast mixture, and mix well.
Add the remaining flower and beat to create a verrrrrry sticky dough.
Grease the loaf pans with butter and dust them with the cornmeal. 
Divide up the batter between the two pans and let them rise in a warm place.

I put them in a warmed oven for just over an hour - this allowed the dough to rise up!


Then preheat the oven to 425oF, dust the top of the loaves with cornmeal, and bake for 20-25 minutes.

You will get this deliciousness:

Wait until it cools to slice it up and toast it... and then of course, as always, enjoy!



Saturday, March 9, 2013

New England Clam Chowder



Hello, reader(s)! :) It's been awhile! 
My apologies for the lack of posts... Things got busy, and this fell by the wayside. But tonight, I'm back! And I come bearing a yummy bowl of New England Clam Chowder!


This has always been a comfort food, and after the 2 feet of snow dumped on us the past few days, I needed a little comfort food! This is an easy, quick recipe that makes a delicious chowdah :)

Ingredients:
2 small yellow onions, peeled and minced
3 tablespoons butter
21 ounces of minced clams (with their juices!)
I couldn't find this exact amount of ounces. I ended up with 26 ounces (4-6.5 ounce cans.) No harm in extra clams! :)
2 cups diced, peeled potatoes. 
Or however many potatoes you want! I probably doubled this... but I love potatoes!
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
2 cups of milk
1 cup light cream


Directions:
Fry the onions in 2 tablespoons of butter. Cook them over moderate heat until they are pale golden (about 5 to 8 minutes). You don't want to brown them.
This was the only picture I took of the process, because I got too distracted!
After the onions are done, drain the liquid from the clams into the pan. Add the potatoes, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer 10-12 minutes until the potatoes are nearly tender, stirring occasionally.
I have to use clip art due to my lack of pictures. Hope you don't mind :)
How does a clam make a call? On a shell phone!
Then, add the clams, milk, and cream. Cover and simmer 5-7 minutes, just enough to heat through!

At the very end, add the remaining butter, and stir until melted.

Ladle into bowls, and sprinkle with paprika if you want to! At the very least, serve it with some oyster crackers!
And make sure you use the puffy ones, not those silly cracker ones. Good job. :)
Enjoy!