Diary of a Recipe Addict (2024)

My kids L~O~V~Epretzels. OK, so do I {especiallyjalapeñoones like the one pictured below}. I have been meaning to come up with a recipe we really like for a long time. Why have I waited so long??? They really are not that complicated and they are SO worth it! They are actually kind of fun to make! Get creative and personalize them according to what YOUlike! What would you get yourself if you were actually at the pretzel shop? Once you have the basic recipe down, it is so easy to do!

Homemade Soft Pretzels

makes 12 pretzels

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup baking soda

4 cups hot water

4 Tbsp melted butter, for topping

Kosher salt, for topping

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough {I use my kitchen aide bread hook which makes my life very easy}. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. {I can never find a good place for dough to rise around here, so I warm the oven to 120-170 degrees, then turn it off. It is then a perfect environment for dough to rise}.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope {about 24" long} and twist into a pretzel shape.

Bring baking soda and water to a boil in a large skillet. Place pretzels in the boiling solution 2 at a time for about 15-20 seconds. Remove with a large spatula to a kitchen towel or paper towels to dry the excess water {to prevent the bottoms from burning}. Place the pretzels on a greased baking sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned.

Melt 4 Tbsp. of butter. As soon as you remove the pretzels from the oven, lightly brush them with butter using a pastry brush. Immediately sprinkle them with kosher salt.

Enjoy plain or with a dipping sauce of your choice! Our favorite is cheese sauce!

Variation: Add 1/4-1/3 c. of Jalapenos to the dough for spicy Jalapeno Pretzels! This is a favorite of mine! That is what you see in many of the pictures above! You can get creative and add just about anything your heart desires to the dough! Don't be afraid to experiment with other toppings too! Parmesan cheese is a delicious coating instead of the kosher salt!

Last night, I got the urge to bake. I also had the urge for chocolate.As many of you know, the urge for chocolate should not be denied. If you deny it, it only results in a horrible chocolate binge later. At least it does for me;) The problem was that I also had some bananas sitting on the counter that had been calling my name and begging to be turned into a baked good all day. I was not it the mood for my regular chocolate chip banana bread recipe (plus my husband doesn't like chocolate chips in his banana bread) so I decided it was time to search for a new recipe to try. This is so delicious! I think I might need to make another loaf today with my remaining 3 pathetic bananas;) Sorry about the pictures. Horrible lighting since it was pretty much dark out when I made these.

I spread mine with nutella, and it was divine. Hey! I told you I had a chocolate craving! My boys topped theirs with butter this morning, my daughter with peanut butter, and my husband took his plain. It is delicious no matter how you take it!

Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread

2 c. flour

¾ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 c. sugar

¼ c. butter, softened

1 ½ c. mashed ripe bananas (about 3-4 medium bananas)

2 eggs

1/3 c. plain lowfat yogurt or sour cream

½ c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups and level. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Cream sugar and butter. Add bananas, eggs, and yogurt, beating until just blended. Add flour mixture. Beat on low until just moistened. Microwave chocolate chips in a medium bowl for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 c. batter to chocolate, stirring until well-combined. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter (so you have stripes of plain and chocolate batter) in an 8 ½” x 4 ½” loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Swirl batters with a knife.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes (give or take a little; I’d probably set your timer for 1 hour and 10 minutes to be safe) or until a knife comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan and then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

As I said yesterday, this week I am attempting to clean out my pantry and freezer a bit by not doing any real shopping this week. I have been scrounging through what I have, creating meals. I haven't had to get very creative, which tells me I could probablydo this for another week. I don't think I will do that, but I do think I will start to use my pantry/freezer to cook on the fly, creative meals more often.

Today, I have a beautiful roast beef going in the slow cooker. I was thinking that it would be so good on homemade buns, which made me think of the recipe I am sharing today. I haven't made these in quite some time, but a couple of years ago I became a bit obsessed with them. They are SO DARN GOOD. Anyway, my searching for the recipe made me realize 2 things: 1.) I didn't even HAVE them on Recipe Addict (I shared them on my first blog, which I no longer use), and 2.) I don't have cottage cheese so I can't make them. Boo-hoo.

Herbed Sandwich Buns

1/4 c. water (70-80*)

1/4 c. warm milk (70-80*)

1 egg

2/3 c. small-curd cottage cheese

1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. salt

3 c. bread flour

2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp. dried minced garlic

1/4 tsp. dried basil

1/4 c. finely chopped onion

4 1/2 tsp. butter

In bread machine pan, place the first 12 ingredients in order suggested by the manufacturer. In a small skillet, saute onions in butter until tender; add to bread machine pan. Select dough setting (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 Tbsp. water or flour if needed).

When cycle is complete, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 10 pieces; shape each into a ball. Place 2 in. apart on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 375* for10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Yields: 10 buns

Tip: Since I cannot usually find a warm enough place for my dough to rise, I usually preheat my oven to about 170*. Once it reaches that temp., I turn it off and place my dough in the oven to rise. It works great!

Source: I got this recipe out of my 2004 Quick Cooking Annual

I know I posted recently about how storebought bread has really been grossing me out. I mean, it can just sit there, in my bread drawer, for weeks and weeks and look exactly the same as when I put it in there! There is something SO very wrong about that. I don't want to be filling my growing children with those kinds of chemicals. I am really trying to get back to the basics around here. I want my family to eat REAL, natural food. The kind of food that has been around for hundred of years. I don't want butter substitutes made in a labrotory or snacks filled with enough preservatives to keep them good for years and years.

This means, I need to make most everything from scratch. It has been something I have slowly been transitioning to for the past several years. No, I am not insane about it....as a matter of fact, just last week I let my daughter buy Oreos. For me, it is about what I am putting into my children's little bodies most of the time. This bread deal is big. Bread is something they ingest A LOT of, and it should be good for them! Yes, I know I would be a better mother if I fed them whole grain bread, and maybe we will get to that. For now, it is one little step at a time, and this bread got the thumbs up from 3 picky children and 1 husband (unlike my previous attempt).

Everyday White Bread

2 c. tap water, warm

1/2 c. sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp. dry yeast

1/4 c. oil (I use Canola)

1 1/2 tsp. salt

6 c. bread or unbleached flour (I use bread flour)

Tonight I served these Sweet Dinner Rolls alongside my Baked Potato Soup. Can I just say, YUM! I have been known to be a bit of a failure at making rolls, but I think I have redeemed myself with these. I plan on doing a lot more bread/roll making. I have recently decided that I am going to start minimizing the store-bought breads that I buy. It totally yucks me out that they can sit around in my bread drawer for 2+ weeks and still look THE SAME as when I put them in there. That is just not natural. For some reason, I always think making breads is such a chore, but it really isn't at all. It really just requires time and planning ahead, especially if you are like me and can toss the dough in the bread machine for the kneading/rising process.

Sweet Dinner Rolls

1/2 c. warm water (about 110*F)

1/2 c. warm milk

1 egg

1/3 c. butter, softened

1/3 c. white sugar

1 tsp. salt

3 3/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast (I buy it in bulk and used 2 1/2 tsp.)

1/4 c. butter, softened

Place water, milk, egg, butter, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough/knead cycle & first rise cycle, then press start.

When the cycle finishes, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle and spread with softened butter over both entire rounds. Cut each circle into 8 wedges (a pizza cutter works great for this). Roll wedges starting at the wide end; roll gently but tightly. Place point side down on ungreased baking sheet. Cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400*

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden (10 on the nose was perfect for me, 15 would have burnt them).

Enjoy!

Source: allrecipes.com

Last week, I finally found a roll recipe that even I can handle. I don't have the best track record with roll making. If I don't use the bread machine, yeast breads just do not like me. As a matter of fact, I made some truly horrible rolls for Thanksgiving this past year. They were hard, flat, and burnt on the bottom. It was supposed to be one of those "fool proof recipes" but I'm thinking it wasn't fool proof enough for this fool;-P


Well, this was WAS. Oh my gosh, they were so perfectly delicious. See this entire pan? They were all gone by bedtime. They were adored by all.

Parker House Rolls

3 Tbsp. warm water

3 Tbsp. sugar

2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

8 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1 c whole milk

2 c. bread flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

3/4-1 1/2c. all-purpose flour

Stir together warm water, 1 Tbsp. sugar, and yeast in a small bowl until yeast is disolved. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)

Melt 6 Tbsp. butter in a small saucepan. Add milk and heat until lukewarm. Pour into a large bowl, add yeast mixture, remaining 2 Tbsp. sugar, bread flour, and salt, and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. Stir in 3/4 cup all-poupose flour, then, if necessary, add up to 1/2 c. more flour, 1 Tbsp. at a time, to make a slightly sticky dough that forms a ball.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more all-pourpose flour if dough is very sticky, until smooth and elastic but still slightly sticky, about 10 minutes. (I used the bread hook in my kitchen-aid stand mixer to knead the dough for me.) Form dough into a ball, put in a buttered large bowl, and turn to coat with butter. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking pan. Divide dough into 20 equal pieces. Roll each one into a ball and arrange evenly in 4 rows of 5 in baking pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm draft-free place until almost doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

Using a floured chopstick or edge of a ruler, make a deep crease down center of each row of rolls. Let rolls rise, loosely covered, for 15 minutes.

Put a rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt remaining 2 Tbsp. butter; cool slightly. Brush tops of rolls with butter and bake until golden, 20-25 minutes, then turn out onto rack and cool, right side up, until warm.

Cook's Note:

*These rolls can be baked up to one day ahead. Cool completely, then wrap well in foil and keep at room temperature. Reheat in the foil in a 375 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

Variations-Cloverleaf Rolls:

The cloverleaf shape is easy to form and gives these rolls a showy little fillip.

After the dough has doubled in bulk, butter eighteen 1/3 to 1/2 c. muffin cups. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into thirds. Work with one portion at a time, keeping the remaining dough covered with plastic wrap. Cut off Tbsp. sized pieces of dough, form into balls, and put 3 balls in each buttered muffin cup.

Let rise, loosely covered, in a warm draft-free place until almost doubled in bulk, 30-40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush the rolls lightly with egg wash (1 large egg lightly beaten with 2 tsp. water) and sprinkle with poppy and/or lightly toasted sesame seeds. Bake until golden, 15-20 minutes. Cool as directed above.

Source: The Gourmet Cookbook

These rolls were created in the 1870s at the Parker House Hotel in Boston.

My family, like so many, LOVES pizza. We have basically always had pizza at least every other weekend. We used to order our pizza from a pizza chain. About 3 years ago, we moved a few miles out of town and get this...no one would deliver pizza to my door. I was flabbergasted. Since once I am home, I am usually too lazy to get back in my vehicle and drive back to town, I had to come up with another plan.

Luckily, I discovered a deliciously easy whole wheat crust from a friend. It is also fairly healthy, which is wonderful. I still make this one on occasion. I probably would have stuck with it forever, except that my oldest complained one day, "can't we make a crust that is more like Pizza Hut?" So, for a time I tried Pizza Hut copycat crusts. Then I discovered that, for us, Pizza Hut did not in fact make the holy grail of crusts. That is when I began to branch out. I am so glad I did because, for us, this crust is perfection.

When you make it for the first time, do not be alarmed, it is EXTREMELY wet compared to every other pizza dough I have worked with. It can be difficult to work with if you don't know a few tricks. For instance, DO NOT try to roll it out with a rolling pin. That will only lead to lots of stickage and frustration. In my experience, it is best to work with this dough while it is warm, with your hands, slowly stretching it out to size. It is soft and pliable so you can finish stretching it out to fit the pan after you place it on your pan.

Please be advised: I used weights for the flour because that is a MUCH more accurate way to measure flour. Also, you may want to keep an eye on the dough the first time you make it because it does typically hit the top of my bread machine. I just wipe the top down with a damp cloth when it does this.

My Very Favorite Pizza Crust

Makes 2 large pizzas

2 1/4 c. warm water

3 tsp. yeast

3 tsp. sugar

24 oz. bread flour (about 4 1/8 cups)

5.25 oz. semolina flour (3/4 c.)

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil

Place warm water, yeast, and sugar in bread machine. Let sit to make sure your yeast is active (you will begin to see small bubbles forming). Add all of your dry ingredients and start bread machine on dough setting. Once the bread machine is done kneading, add 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil to the pan, close the bread machine, and let it finish the dough cycle.

Yes, I know there are a gazillion banana bread recipes out there. I have tried many of them;P This one really is the best though. So please?? Try one more, OK?

The Best Banana Bread

1/2 c. butter (softened to room temperature)

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. sour cream (I often use light)

3 medium bananas, mashed (should equal about 1 c. worth)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, using a mixer, whip sugar and butter together until it is light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix well.

Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir into the butter mixture until smooth. Finally, fold in the sour cream and mashed bananas. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yesterday, I decided to try my hand at making Texas Chili (you know, the kind with bite-sized pieces of beef and no beans?). My inspiration was that I have been craving chili, but I know my husband doesn't actually care much for the ground beef/bean version. A couple of years ago, when we were swimming in Roma tomatoes fresh from our garden, he made a big batch of Texas Chili and it was DIVINE. The problem was, he did not use a recipe, nor did he record anything, nor can he remember really anything he put in it.

When I saw the newest issue of Cooking Light, with it's recipe for Chili Con Carne(A.K.A Texas Chili), I thought I had hit the jackpot. I mean I usually LOVE recipes out of cooking light. Many of our family favorites have come straight from their pages. I don't know WHAT happened but this recipe was TERRIBLE- totally bland without any real deapth of flavor! Not to mention VERY time consuming and EXPENSIVE to make. We were able to season it up enough to make it edible- no way was I just throwing that expensive pot of chili out. By the time we were done though it was incredibly spicy and I had to make soup for the kids to eat.

Enought about the bad chili, do you know what was good??? The Cornmeal Drop Biscuits that I made. I do believe that they are the best conrbread recipe I have ever made. My kids couldn't get enough of them either. As an added bonus, unlike the Bad Chili, they are cheapand easyto make.

Cornmeal Drop Biscuits

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

3/4 c. fine yellow cornmeal

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 stick (1/2 c.) butter- the recipe calls for unsalted, but I went ahead and used salted and they turned out great

1 c. milk

Preheat the oven to 375*. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Using a pastry blender (I don't own one of these, I always just use a fork and that works fine for me.) cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few larger clumps remaining.

Pour in the milk; using a rubber spatula, fold milk into the dough, working in all directions and incorporating crumbs at the bottom of the bowl, until the bowl just comes together. The dough will be slightly sticky. DO NOT OVERMIX.

With two large spoons, drop mounds of dough (about 1/3 c. each) about 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. The origional recipe says this will make 10 biscuits, I made 12.

Bake, rotating the sheet halfway through, until the biscuits are golden, 15-20 minutes. Slide the parchment paper and biscuits onto a wire rack to cool.

Recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook