perpetually tired, truly loved: recipes

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Braided Egg Bread

Again being inspired by so many awesome foodie blogs I decided it was time I learned how to make homemade bread. We are a bread loving family. My husband was running to the store and I told him to get flour for some cookies I was going to bake (Lemon Spiral), on a whim I told him to grab some yeast. I thought that at least if I have it in the house I would be able to make it when inspiration struck. He brought home Fleishmanns Rapid Rise yeast. I went straight to the internet to find some recipes that specifically called for it. All of those called for cream, which is something I am finding out most chef and bakers always have on hand. I on the other do not keep cream on hand. So off the allrecipes.com to find the perfect loaf. I searched Bread, Non-Machine, Loaf, Top 20. A recipe came up that looked and sounded delicious... and it was!
Ingredients:

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 package Fleishmanns Rapid Rise dry yeast

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup water

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 eggs + 1 egg yolks

TOPPING:

1 egg

1 teaspoon water

Directions:

1.	In a large mixing bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a saucepan, heat water and oil to 120 degrees F-130 degrees F. Add to dry ingredients along with eggs. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
2.	Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place rest about 10 minutes.
3.	Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Set a third of the dough aside. Divide remaining dough into three pieces. Shape each into a 13-in. rope. Place ropes on a greased baking sheet and braid; pinch ends to seal and tuck under. Divide reserved dough into three equal pieces; shape each into a 14-in. rope. Braid ropes. Center 14-in. braid on top of the shorter braid. Pinch ends to seal and tuck under. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
4.	Beat egg and water; brush over dough. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cover with foil during the last 15 minutes of baking. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool. This recipe was adapted from Marlene Jeffreys recipe on Allrecipes.com

Lemon Spiral Cookies

One of my favorite stores is Mardel, I love to shop their bargain books section as well as the clearance shelf in the kids section. Recently I was browsing around and stumbled upon a box of recipes cards for kids. They are from Usborne and looked really cute. The idea is that one side has pretty pictures of all the treats, so the kids look at everything and decide what to make. Then you turn the card over for the recipe. Sounded fun and they were 50% off, who could resist? When we got home I let Oliver spread them out and look at them, he chose Lemon Swirl Cookies, which looked really fun. Oliver said he wanted to bring them to school for his class, so I let him know that we would need a lemon. For two days that is all he talked about, sweet lil guy, something to be said for perseverance. Daddy went and got a lemon, pronto. (I was sick so I was not willing to go walk around the grocery store, that is why I didn't go the 1st day.)

On Saturday we baked them. I learned a few lessons on this first "go around". I would have double the recipe, followed the directions and only refrigerate for 30 minutes. I couldn't roll the dough out as much as I would have liked, as a result when I rolled the two colors only the ends stayed "spirally" the rest looked as though the were happy faces with no eyes, lol. Also, I should have used a sharper knife when cutting, and finally I DIDN'T TAKE A PICTURE OF THE FINAL PRODUCT (duh)! They turned out yummy, the boys ate them all up on Sunday. All in all, I enjoyed doing this recipe, I will make it again, just make some adjustments, stay tuned...