Crusty French Bread in a bread machine

A while back I made this crusty French bread in my bread machine. I made a half batch (which is what the recipe reflects) to see if we liked it first.  We did!  Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients:
1C Warm Water (110-115F)
1T Sugar
1 1/4t Yeast
1T Veg or Olive Oil
3C A/P Flour
1 1/2t Salt
Egg      (Ignore that little guy)

I always add my ingredients in the same order: 

Warm water, sugar, yeast and oil first.  

This allows your yeast to bloom.  

Let it sit for about 5 or 10 minutes.

After the yeast has bubbled up and proved it's worth, 

I add in my flour and salt.

Now, you see how there's an egg in my ingredient picture?

Well, I had this idea that I was going to make the dough in my bread maker, 

form a loaf, brush with egg, then bake a crusty loaf in the oven.  

Soon realizing it was going to get to 587 degrees that day outside, 

I decided to just use the bread machine.  Moving on....

Hit small light loaf on your bread machine and hit start.

A couple of hours later, you have this little bundle of joy!

I waited until it was cool enough that I didn't scorch my hands off, 

then cut myself a piece and slathered with some whipped butter! 

Yumm-o! It was crusty, it was tear-y 

(tear, like rip, not tear, like boo hoo), it was delish! 

Later that day, we had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch!

What is the deal with my camera person?!  Sheesh!

The next day, we had eggs, bacon and you guessed it...toast!

It was good and crusty.  Just do it in the toaster rather than 

the toaster oven.  That makes it hard as a rock!

Why not make some homemade bread yourself? Go on, give it a try.  You can do it!  The best part...

It only costs about 35c to make this whole loaf!  Now, that's almost as satisfying as eating it!
Recipe courtesy of Lynda's Recipe Box, adapted to use in bread machine.
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Homemade Croutons

Ever made homemade croutons?  Why not?  They're so easy, I promise!  You'll never pay $2 to $3 a package ever again when you can make them for pennies.  Start by saving that hard old heel of bread that no one will eat!  Here's what you need:

 Ingredients:

An old heel (NO, I'm not talking about your husband!  A heel of bread!)
Olive Oil
Garlic Powder
Salt
Pepper

If you bread is not already sliced, do so now.

Brush each slice with olive oil.  I find it best

if I put a couple of Tablespoons in a little ramekin

and dip my brush in it.  If you squirt it on top, 

you tend to use a lot more.

Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Use any 

dried herbs/spices that you enjoy.  Be careful with the 

garlic powder.  I used a little too much and it was a 

little overpowering and the slightest bit bitter.

Cut into 3/4" to 1" pieces depending on preference.

 Place on a parch-lined baking sheet in a single layer.

Bake at 250F for about 1/2 hour, depending on the amount of

moisture left in your bread.  Flip about half way through.  They're done 

when they're crunchy without any chewiness left to them. 

Place in a zip top bag and date.  I keep mine in the cupboard.

My heel of bread was cut into three thick slices.  This made enough to easily fill a bag or box of store bought croutons and costs about 15 cents to make.  I love how much I'm saving by doing this!  So easy, too!

New to making things at home from scratch?  This is probably one of the easiest things you can start with.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.  Crunch, crunch, crunch!
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Sandwich Bread

Here's a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com for a highly-rated 

sandwich bread.  Here's what you'll need...

Ingredients:
1C Warm Water (110F/45C)
2T Sugar
2 1/4t Yeast (1pkt)
1/4C Vegetable Oil
3C Flour
1t Salt

Run some warm water from the tap and measure 1 cup.
(assuming you have drinkable water from the tap, that is)

I don't usually take the temp, but if you're worried about 

getting it just so, you can use your candy thermometer.
Aim for around 110 to 120 at the most.

Add in your yeast and sugar and give it a good stir.

It will look like cafe au lait, but will smell like a cross between

your brother's gym socks and a dirty dish rag.  Yummy!

Let it sit for about 10 minutes and it will bloom.  I walked

away and came back probably 15+ minutes later and this is

what I found.  Gotta watch that little devil!  It won't hurt
anything, but you could lose some of your yeast if you
go away for too long and it spills over.

Give it a good stir, being sure to get all the yeast off the sides 

and dump it into the pan of your bread machine.

Next, add your oil. 

Then dump in your flour and salt. 

Note: I made my salt a (scant) heaping teaspoon

because I read the reviews of the recipe and it said some people were

having trouble with this bread collapsing.  Supposedly, more salt helps.

Select your basic light loaf option on your bread machine.  In my

case, it's called Regular Light.  Hit start and it does all the work for you!

Here's a picture of my beautiful bread.

This makes a really nice toast!

Notes and things I learned:

This bread is nice and soft and I found I had to cut a really wide (3/4") piece in order for it to hold together to make a sandwich or even just some bread to butter.  The taste is decent, with a tiny bit of a bitter aftertaste that is fairly common in store-bought white bread.  So, if you're looking to recreate store-bought taste, this is a good recipe.

I don't know how to describe the next part except to say that the air holes are larger and farther apart than store-bought bread.  This makes it have a tendency to tear and fall apart easily.  Almost like it's too soft.  Not sure if that makes sense, but that's the only way I can describe it.

This bread has a nice, soft, crispy outside.  I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but it's somehow soft, yet crisp at first.  Once you cool it and put it in a zip top bag, it stays soft from that point.  I did notice that it seemed to smell a little more inviting than most of the loaves I've been making lately.

It puffs up quite nicely!  I got what normally would be considered a large loaf out of 'small loaf' ingredients!
My top did cave in a tiny bit, but no biggie.

The lady that suggested to used extra salt for avoiding collapse used 1 1/2t salt.  Not being a huge salt fan, I probably put less than 1 1/8t total.  I may up that next time to see if it helps with structure.

Some say the trick to making your bread-machine bread more light and fluffy is to use the proofing of the yeast (step two) rather than to throw it in the pan as suggested by the manual.  Seems logical.  That's how you'd do it if you were doing it in a bowl.  Next time, I may try it like normal, by throwing it all in, then comparing the end product.

This bread is really economical, coming in at  82 cents!  The yeast is the most expensive thing.  I'm going to try to find a different way to get it than the grocery store.  Ooooh, black market yeast!   :)  Just kidding...don't bust me, food police!

An exciting find...I got a five pound bag of flour at Aldi's for $1.38 today!  That's only 7 cents a cup!  Can you believe it!?  Amazing!  If you don't know about Aldi, look it up today!  It's worth the trip and I honestly have to say that their brands are just as good as the name brands 99% of the time!

If you try this recipe, let me know what you think.

If you end up with a heel that is hard or just doesn't get eaten like this one....

 

Please don't throw it away.  Put it in your food processor

and turn it into bread crumbs. Throw it in the freezer and

use it to bread cutlets or chicken nuggets/strips in the future!

  

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Homemade Pizza, Sauce and Crust

Monday night, Tommy and I made some homemade pizza and sauce together. It turned out really well.  Here's a picture of our finished masterpiece.  Wanna know more?  Read on...

(Note: There aren't any missing ingredients. I keep getting spaces between my ingredients and can't figure out how to remove them.  When I go to edit, they're not there, grrrrr!)


Crust Ingredients:
3/4C + 2T Water                                                     
3/4t Salt                                                                  
2T Crisco*                                                           
2 1/2C A/P Flour                                                                                            
2t Sugar                                                                 
2t Active Dry Yeast                                                    
Cornmeal for dusting pan (not pictured)                                                                                   

Place Water, Salt and Crisco in your Bread Machine pan. 

 Add Flour, Sugar and Yeast.  Shut lid and select Dough 

option on your machine and press Start.

NOTE: You do not have to let it go through the whole cycle 

that takes an hour and a half.  

By the time you complete your sauce, your dough should be ready.

Now is where you'll start your incredibly simple, awesomely cheap sauce! 

 Sauce Ingredients:
1- 8oz Can Tomato Sauce

1t Garlic Powder                                                          

1 1/2t Sugar                                                        

1/4t Onion Powder                                                                                                                       

3/4t Italian Seasoning                                            
1t Paprika                                                                                  

1/8t Salt                                                                                 

1/8t Black Pepper 

Now, these next few instructions are incredibly difficult, 

so please pay attention, ha ha ha...

Dump your sauce into a bowl and place your spices on top.  

Oooohh, this is a lot of work, no?

Next, mix them together....oh, the agony...

So, back to our dough... 

What?!  That's it?!  The sauce is done?  Yes, ma'am!  It is!  

I don't have to cook it?!  No, ma'am, you don't!

But it can't possibly be that easy!  Yes, ma'am it is, now shut your mouth!
~

As I stated earlier, your dough should be done by the time you finish your sauce.

You should have a lovely little dough ball like this.  

And because we used Crisco,

you can easily pick it up and work with it and it won't stick to your fingers!  

Ahhh, beautiful Crisco!

 

Next, I just stretched the dough a bit in my hands, then laid it on my sheet pan 

(lined with parch and dusted with corn meal).  

Forgot to take a pic of the cornmeal dusting.  Sorry 'bout that.  

I then took a small rolling pin and flattened the dough out a bit.  

Didn't even care that it didn't get into the corners. I just go with the flow...

Next, take a fork and dock your dough.  This will help to avoid large bubbles,

which I actually like now that I think about it, so maybe I'll skip this step next time.

Now you can slather on as little or as much of that inexpensive, 

incredibly tasty** sauce you made in two minutes!

Then, add the toppings of your choice!  

On the left, we have Tommy's choices, which are Bacon and Black Olives.

On the right, Mommy chose Hamburger*** and Onion.

(Please take a moment to note that my beef is not really gray, merely frozen)

Then add your cheese of choice.  Sorry, I have to sing it...

"Cheese, Glorious Cheese!  So wonderfully Scrumptious!"

Put that baby in the oven at 350 on the bottom rack 

so the crust cooks all the way through 

(unless your oven runs too hot).  I cooked this for

about 15 minutes.  Please note your oven may vary.

 If you have alittle one like I do,
transfer it to a cooling rack for about 10 minutes.  

Awesome homemade pizza (and sauce) for

a fraction of the price of take out/delivery!

Notes and Things I learned:

*I used Crisco instead of Olive Oil, which is what the recipe called for.  I did this because I was thinking it would come out crispy, perhaps, which is what we love.  Well, it didn't come out crispy, but it was decent.  I think if I had a bigger sheet pan, perhaps it may have.  Or, you could do two smaller pizzas. 

**The sauce does NOT taste good before it's been baked on the pizza, so please don't let that deter you from using it.  I only used less than half the sauce and put the rest in the fridge for the next pizza.  I love that it doesn't have to be cooked beforehand.  That saves a lot of time.  I also think that's why a lot of people don't make their own, because it usually takes so long or that they perceive it to be difficult.  It's not!

***I usually buy a 3 to 5# tube of ground beef  each time.  I season and cook at least two pounds of it right away.  I drain it off and let it cool for a few minutes. I then put it in a large (gallon) zip top bag and lay it flat in my freezer.  Once frozen, I bend/knead the bag and break up the frozen chunks into little bits.  Usually, I can get it to break up just like it looked before I froze it, essentially creating a bag of hamburger crumbles.  When I need hamburger for a recipe, I just grab a handful/cup full out of the bag.  I can't tell you how much easier this makes dinnertime.  It's almost like having your own convenience food.  Not to mention the better price of buying a larger tube.

I always buy block cheese because it's (usually) more economical and is so much fresher.  I hate that
white "keep it from going bad too soon" powder that comes on the pre-shredded stuff! Makes ya wonder what you're really eating.

If you look closely at the pizza, you might notice that the cheese has little flecks of orange in it.  That is because I only had about 1C of Mozzarella left.  We covered the rest with what we had, which was Muenster.  It was REALLY good!  If it wasn't so expensive, I would use it all the time. 

This whole pizza cost probably less than $5, which I do not consider to be too terribly cheap for being homemade, but the Muenster cranked that price up a bit.  Otherwise, I'd estimate it to be around $3. 

Overall, we were very happy with this pizza.  If you've ever been to Big Freds in Omaha, it ALMOST tasted like that, sans the totally awesome, crackery crust they have.  Still have to figure that one out.  Not sure if it's how I seasoned the beef (which was a little heavier than normal) or if it was the muenster or the sauce.  Either way, it was really good!

We had the leftovers last night.  I always reheat my pizza up in a frying pan with a lid on LOW.  It takes about 15 minutes or so, but it's soooo good and the cheese melts slowly and returns to its 'just out of the oven' form, believe it or not!  The key is the lid! It helps if it's see-through, then you don't have to keep checking it and losing your heat/moisture.  Once our cheese looks melty, it's done! I think we actually enjoyed the pizza more the 2nd day because the crust got all crunchy and golden brown in the pan...kinda like I was hoping for it to be the first time around!  So good!

If you give this pizza a try, let me know how it turns out for you! Thanks for stopping by!

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Deluxe White Bread

Here's a simple recipe for some nice, inexpensive sandwich bread...

Ingredients:
10-12 oz Milk
1 1/2t Salt
2T Butter
4C Bread Flour*
1 1/2T Sugar
2 1/4t Active Dry Yeast

Put ingredients in bread maker in same order as listed. Select Large Light option (or similar selection on your brand of machine) and press Start.  In just over 3 hours, you'll have this lovely loaf.  Cool for about 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.  Cool completely and store in a zip top bag.

Notes and What I've learned:
*I used A/P Flour because that's all I have and I cannot see paying way more for bread flour.

When first made, the inside is very soft and can be difficult to cut, even with a proper bread knife.  After a day, it gets easier.
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Breadmaker Banana Bread

While getting out some parchment paper the other day, I saw this recipe on the package.  I thought....why not?  I'm on a baking marathon this week anyway, mostly because baking at home is one of the first ways I can think of to save money.  Sidebar: if you ever hear me say 'parch', that's parchment.  I know the rest of the world doesn't know my strange language so I thought I'd clear that up right now.  On to the recipe, which incidentally, does not call for the use of parch...

Ingredients:
2C Flour
1C Sugar
2t Baking Powder
1t Cinnamon
1/4t Nutmeg
1/4t Salt*
2 Medium or 3 Small Over-Ripe Bananas, cut into small pieces
2 Eggs
1/3C Veg Oil**
1/4C Milk
1t Vanilla Extract
1C Chopped Walnuts
Optional: 1/2C Mini Chocolate Chips***

Directions:
Dump all ingredients except Walnuts and Chips into the pan of your bread machine.
Select the Sweet Bread option on your machine and press Start.  (NOTE: I made this again today and I realized my instruction booklet says to use the Quick Bread Option for Banana Bread, not Sweet Bread.  I'm trying that to see how it comes out.  It does bake it for a lot longer with the quick bread option, so I'm a little
worried about wasting a whole pan of ingredients.  I may take it out a little early???  Will let you know hoe it turns out.
If your machine is like mine, it will mix for about 5 or 10 minutes, then beep several times, letting me know that it's okay to add the nuts and the chocolate chips.  Add them in at that time.
That's IT!  The machine does all the work for you!  When the alarm goes off and the bread is done, I let
it sit in the pan for about 20 minutes to cool down a bit before I slide it out so it's not so fragile.

If you don't have a bread machine, you can always bake the loaf in a pan at 350 for 50 to 60 minutes.

Notes and Things I learned:
*While this was a very nice-tasting Banana bread, it seemed a little flat to me.  I felt it needed a little more salt, perhaps another 1/4t.  A nice salty butter spread on top can help to curb that flatness, too.

**I used the oil as instructed, but I felt that it needed a more buttery taste to it.  Next time, I'm going to add butter instead of oil.

***I opted to leave the chocolate chips out, but I think it would actually be pretty good.

I have never had Banana Bread with cinnamon in it before!  It was really good!  As a matter of fact, I wish I had even put a little more in.

I like the bread that came out of my bread machine instead of a regular pan because you get four sides of golden brown crust instead of three!  That's my favorite part!

If you try the recipe, let me know how it comes out for you!  Have a great day!

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