Rosebud's Bread

As you've probably guessed, I sort of like trying new recipes.  I mean, I have a fantastic recipe for bread that I use all of the time but why not try a new one, right? 

This one is a Pinterest find and it's pretty darn good.  I just made it yesterday but its still moist and delicious.  The original recipe was for white bread but I added about half white wheat flour just to get some of that nutrition into it. 

There isn't a ton of flavor (which is kinda the point of bread, in my opinion) I mean, don't you really want to taste what you're putting inside of your sandwich or on top your toast? So I like it.  My other recipe for bread has honey in it so you get a little more flavor, however, my other recipe doesn't rise up and get as big as this one does.  However, I love the texture.  It's moist and holds together well for a sandwich. 

Rosebud's Bread

Recipe from The Curry Carrot

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 tsp (two packets) active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 3/4 cup additional warm water
• 9-10 cups all-purpose flour (i use King Arthur)
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• extra spray or butter for greasing

Cooking Directions

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer add the yeast and 3/4 cup water. Let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Add to the yeast mixture, sugar, salt, unsalted butter and the remaining water and mix.
3. Add 5 cups of flour, slowly, until mixture becomes smooth. Slowly add in the remaining flour until it becomes smooth.
4. Switch to the dough hook and knead in your mixer for 10 minutes. Alternatively, this amount of dough might be hard on your mixer unless you have a large or professional mixer. So you can also knead on a floured work surface.
5. Put dough into a large greased bowl and cover with either a floured towel or plastic wrap for about an hour. Set in a warm spot.
6. Punch down dough and cut into two even sized pieces. Working with one at a time, roll out to about a 12x12 sized square and make sure it's a uniform thickness. Now tightly roll the dough into a roll, pinch together the ends and place it seam side down in a greased 9" loaf pan. Do the same to the remaining dough and cover. Let sit a warm place for another hour to rise.
7. Preheat the oven to 425º
8. Bake both loaves in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, then cover with tin foil and bake for another 15 minutes so they don't get too dark. Remove from the oven and let cool in the loaf pans, then remove from pans to a wire rack.

Banana and Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

I know I haven't posted much lately, and here's why.  It's the New Year and of course we're trying to eat better in my house.  My husband is gluten free and I'm just sort of doing my own thing but all of us are trying to eliminate sugar from out lives.  So, sadly I haven't had much that's interesting to cook.  I mean, you probably don't need to read about me making a grilled steak or chicken but slowly I'm finding more recipes that we can all eat. 

Like this one. 

Sweetened with maple syrup (love), gluten free, and my daughter's favorite flavor combination!  We're all happy with this one. My daughter ate two right out of the oven, which she never does.  She even knew they were good for her!  I think the banana chocolate chip flavor won her over.  I also let her make these, pretty much all by herself (not the oven part) and I think that helped also (she's super picky).

I loved that these muffins stay nice and moist, yet have a great texture from the oatmeal.  I used old fashioned oats and there is a nice chew with those.  Plenty of banana flavor and chocolate chips. My favorite part about these muffins is that they are the perfect amount of sweetness, and there's no sugar in them!  This will definitely become a favorite in my house, for everyone!

Banana and Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

Recipe from Organize Yourself Skinny

Ingredients

• 3 cups quick or old fashioned oats
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 cup (2 large) bananas, mashed
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup 1% milk
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• cooking spray

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350º
2. spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray, set aside .
3. In a medium bowl add the oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and salt and set aside.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, bananas, vanilla extract, and milk until smooth.
5. Add the oats into the wet ingredients and mix well, then add the coconut oil and chocolate chips and mix.
6. Fill each muffin cup with an equal amount of batter and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool slightly before removing to a wire cooling rack.
7. These can be frozen or refrigerated.

Top 5 of 2016

This past year, there were some defining favorites for my viewers.  There was a significant number in views on these recipes, more than any other.  I love being able to share my cooking trials with you all, thank you for your support!  I can't wait to see what 2017 brings!

5.

Who can blame you all for this choice, I mean, soft delicious fudge in 3 minutes.  Yep, and it's so good!  Find the recipe here

4.

We're all on a diet now, right? OK, not all of us but who couldn't use a little extra energy during the day? Find the recipe here

3.

These little candies are totally worth their name.  Delicious and not hard to make, I can see why they're of of your favorites.  Find the recipe here

2.

These little gems were a quick hit, I only posted this recipe a couple of months ago and they're already in the number 2 spot.  I decorated a cheesecake with them but I snacked on all the rest.  

Find the recipe here

1. 

The number one favorite recipe was this brownie!  They're healthy and delicious.  No really, they're healthy.  Find the recipe here

No-Bake Avalanche Cookies

So, this recipe was recently going around Facebook, and I thought, man those look good. And they're no bake, it was like they were begging me to make them. 

I'm really, really glad I did. 

These cookies are the bomb.  Easy to make and they stay delicious for a while after you make them too.  No stale cookies here, no sir, these taste just as good as they did the day they were made.  Oh, and I already had all the ingredients in the house, so Win! Win!

These Avalanche cookies have a soft texture, like fudge.  But they also have the wonderful texture of the Rice Krispies and the marshmallows. The peanut butter flavor is mild because it's mixed with white chocolate, but still noticeable.

Just an all around awesome cookie in my book, this one is going in "my favorites" section.  Yum!

No-Bake Avalanche Cookies

Recipe from The Slow Roasted Italian

Ingredients

• 16 oz vanilla flavored almond bark/CandiQuick
• 15 oz creamy peanut butter
• 2 cups Rice Krispies cereal
• 1 1/2 cups mini-marshmallows
• 1/2 cup + more for sprinkling mini chocolate chips

Cooking Directions

1. In a large microwavable bowl, melt the almond bark in 30 second increments in your microwave until smooth.
2. Add the peanut butter and stir until smooth.
3. Add the Rice Krispies, marshmallows and chocolate chips and stir until evenly distributed.
4. Line 2 cookie sheets with wax paper and then scoop a large amount (about the size of a small orange) of the mixture into a ball shape and place on the wax paper.
5. Sprinkle more mini chocolate chips over the top if desired.
6. Let sit in a cool area until hardened, you can also refrigerate until set.

Homemade Bailey's Irish Cream

Is there anyone on your Christmas list that just isn't easy to shop for? Well, this homemade drink might be just the thing.  Turns out that Irish Cream is really easy to make.  it took me 5 minutes to pour all the ingredients into a blender and mix it up.  Just buy a fancy glass bottle and wrap it up beautifully and you're done!

I don't usually slug down Irish Cream by itself so I'm not sure how great this information is, but they look very close to each other.  They smell very much like one another.  I think this version is thicker if you use heavy cream (which I did) and it might be a little stronger than the original (feel free to use a little less whiskey).  I drank some tonight in my coffee and it was really good, its also good over ice, just sayin.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Homemade Bailey's Irish Cream
Recipe from Running From The Law

Ingredients

• 1 cup light or heavy cream
• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 1 2/3 cup Irish Whiskey (or less, this amount makes a strong drink)
• 1 tsp instant coffee granules
• 2 Tbsp chocolate syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract

Cooking Directions

1. Pour all the ingredients into a blender and mix until well combined. That's it.
2. Store in your refrigerator for up to two months.
3. **You can also skip the booze and add some skim milk instead, if you're looking for a non-alcoholic version. 

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

So, let me start off by apologizing for the lack of posts.  See, Thanksgiving happened and then soon after that I started to get word that my gramma wasn't doing well.  Well, I'm in South Carolina and she's in Montana so I was sort of playing it by ear.  When the call came that it had gotten more serious, me and my daughter jumped on a plane and flew to Montana.  My gramma passed away at the age of 96, so it was expected but still difficult.  So, that's why there hasn't been any posts from me lately.  But I'm back and ready to hit the kitchen again!

This recipe was made before I left.  My husband, as you may or may not know, is on a gluten free diet as it greatly helps with his asthma.  

This cake had great chocolatey flavor.  It's more dense than your average flour cake but I didn't mind it and neither did my husband and daughter.  It didn't last long in this house! Because, when you're craving chocolate cake you just gotta have it!

I just used a store bought gluten free frosting but homemade would be delicious too.  I'm glad I tried this recipe and now have one more for my gluten free recipe box!

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

Recipe from Hershey

Ingredients

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 3/4 cup gluten free flour mix
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350º
2. Spray 2 9-inch cake pans with non-stick spray and then dust with cocoa powder.
3. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and whisk together. Add the eggs and milk and stir, then add the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth and lump free.
4. Pour into the prepared cake pans. Place in the oven and bake for 35-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
5. Remove from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack. After about 5 minutes you can run a knife along the edges and then remove so a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

Sugared Cranberries

You might be wondering what you would use sugared cranberries for.  Well, snacking for one thing.  They are delicious.  You may or may not know that cranberries are tart when eaten fresh by themselves.  They aren't very many people's snack.  Plus, they are hard to find during the rest of the year when it's not Thanksgiving time. But sugared, they are devine.  You still get the tart bite and then the sugar coats your tongue with sweetness and you go back for more.

As it turns out, this year I found a recipe for a cheesecake that needed some sugared cranberries on top for decoration and for deliciousness.  So, I had these for two purposes and I've still got some left that I'm snacking on.  I love them.  Now I wish fresh cranberries were available all year.

Sugared Cranberries
Recipe from Damn Delicious

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar (divided)
• 1 (12 oz) bag fresh cranberries

Cooking Directions

1. Place 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 a cup of water in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves.
2. Pour in the bag of cranberries and stir around to cover.
3. Place the cranberries on cooling racks with wax paper underneath and let dry for at least an hour.
4. Use the other 1 1/2 cups of sugar to coat the cranberries in. Set aside to dry for another hour.