Wednesday 22 April 2015

White Bread


I don't usually eat white bread, but I haven't been making bread lately and my whole wheat flour turned and I wasn't going to replace it until I knew I had time to warrant buying another sack, so I made white bread. It was good as far as white bread goes. A good crust, dense yet fluffy inside, but kinda of lacking in the flavour that I'm so used to with whole wheat. But the great thing about this bread is how nicely it cuts. A lot of fresh bread just ends up a mess, or you have to cut thick slices in order to cut it, but this cut beautifully and thinly.

Recipe from Robin Hood

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

7 Tsp. Sugar
1 C. Water, warm
2 1/4 Tsp. Instant Yeast
1 C. Milk, warm
2 Tbsp. Butter
1 1/2 Tsp. Salt
5 1/2 C. All Purpose Flour

Directions

~Combine all ingredients, reserving 3 1/2 C. of flour, in the bowl of your electric mixer. Mix until well combined.
~Gradually stir in remaining flour as needed until you get a dough that forms a ball and leaves the sides of the bowl. 
~Knead for 5 minutes with electric mixer, adding more flour as needed
~Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning the dough around to coat all sides.
~Grease one side of a sheet of plastic wrap and place that side down over the bowl. 
~Cover with a tea towel and let sit in a warm place and allow to rise for 1 hr
~Flip out onto a greased surface and punch down.
~Divide into two balls and roll each out with a rolling pin and then roll to form the loaf.
~Place in greased bread pans
~Cover with greased plastic wrap and a tea towel and allow to rise in a warm place for another hour
~Preheat oven to 400 F
~Bake for 25-30 minutes (or until internal temperature reads 190 F)

Enjoy



Tuesday 21 April 2015

Mississippi Mud Bars



I think I have about a dozen different Mississippi Mud Recipes saved to my computer. I don't think one of those recipes is similar to the next one, so I honestly don't know what the 'true' Mississippi Mud Bar recipe is. All I know is these are good. Quite good really and really worth making again.

When I made these, I didn't have pecans and as an afterthought I added chopped cashews to the top, but the frosting had kind of set and so I had to squish them down to keep them from rolling away, so it's best to put them between the marshmallow and frosting so they stay in place.

Recipe from Real Mom Kitchen.

Ingredients

1 C. Butter
1/2 C. Semisweet Chocolate Chips
2 C. Sugar
1 1/2 C. Flour
1/2 C. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
4 Eggs
1 Tsp. Vanilla
3/4 Tsp. Salt

1 Bag (10.5oz) Mini Marshmallows

1 C. chopped pecans (optional), or any other desired nuts

Frosting:
1/4 C. Butter
2 1/2 Tbsp. Unsweetened Cocoa
2 1/2 Tbsp. Milk
2 C. Icing Sugar
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F
~Melt butter and chocolate chips in a large pot over low heat, stirring until smooth
~Remove from heat and add in sugar, flour, cocoa, eggs, vanilla and salt. Stir to combine
~Pour batter into a greased 9x13 pan
~Bake for 20 minutes
~Remove from oven and sprinkle marshmallows over and return to bake for 5 minutes until marshmallows have puffed
~Remove from oven and sprinkle with nuts if desired
~In a large saucepan, combine butter, cocoa and milk, and heat until combined
~Beat in icing sugar and vanilla until smooth
~Spoon into a piping bag or freezer bag (snipping the corner) and pipe over bars (while marshmallows are still warm (but not right out of the oven, wait approximately 10 minutes)
~Cut into squares

Enjoy!