December 9th, 2011 · 3 Comments
My mom is the bread baker in my family, so I usually leave all my bread requests up to her. It’s not that I can’t make bread. It’s just that she makes bread daily anyways, so why bother making my own when I can easily pop over to her house and grab a loaf that’s fresh from the oven? If I don’t eat it, her chickens will! That said, sometimes the aroma of warm, yeasty bread filling my home is too enticing to pass up, so I have a host of go-to recipes for those occasions. When I’m in the mood for an artisan bread that takes no time at all, I always go for the no knead bread. When I want something a little fancier, I bake some ciabatta. And when I want a sandwich bread, I have several loaves to pick from, including mom’s whole wheat bread and this delicious oatmeal honey sandwich bread.
oatmeal honey sandwich bread
Recipe source: Brown Eyed Baker
A delicious and healthy bread perfect for morning toast or afternoon sandwiches.
Ingredients
1¼ cups (10 ounces) boiling water
1 cup (3½ ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
1½ teaspoons salt
¼ cup (3 ounces) honey
1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
1-2/3 cups (7 ounces) all-purpose flour
¼ cup (1 ounce) nonfat dry milk
2 teaspoons instant yeast
Instructions
- Place the boiling water, oats, butter, salt and honey into a medium bowl, stir, and let the mixture cool to lukewarm.
- Mix the remaining dough ingredients with the oat mixture, and knead – by hand, mixer or bread machine – until you’ve made a soft, smooth dough. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover it, and let it rise for 1 hour; the dough should be doubled in bulk.
- Lightly grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Gently deflate the dough – it’ll be sticky, so oil your hands – and shape it into a 9-inch log. Place it in the prepared pan. Cover it gently with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow it to rise until it has crowned 1½ inches over the rim of the pan, about 1 to 1½ hours. Near the end of the bread’s rising time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Uncover and bake the bread for about 45 minutes, tenting it with foil after 20 minutes to prevent over-browning. The bread is done when it’s golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center registers 190 degrees F. Remove it from the oven, and after a minute or so turn it out onto a rack. Brush with melted salted butter and sprinkle with additional oats (if desired). Cool the bread completely before cutting it.
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http://www.dishingthedivine.com/2011/12/09/oatmeal-honey-sandwich-bread/ Copyright 2012 Dishing the Divine
Tags: breads
It’s a shame that I’ve been blogging for years and have never shared with you the recipe for the best chocolate chip cookie you will ever eat. I’ve been tinkering with this recipe for quite a while now and let me tell you… it’ll knock your socks off. I served it at a baby shower a few weeks ago and literally had ladies begging me with money in hand to sell them the recipe. I promised I would post the recipe soon (for free!) and then promptly forgot. Story of my life.
What makes these cookies the best? It really comes down to so many things. First, the chocolate. Don’t use chocolate chips. Use a bar of bittersweet chocolate chopped into chunks. I prefer to use Trader Joe’s Bittersweet Pound Plus Bar. Microwave it for a few seconds if it’s too hard to chop and it will soften just enough to allow a blade to cut into it. Texture is another important element to any chocolate chip cookie. These are crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside. Perfection. The original cookie recipe on which this cookie is based came from some anonymous source on-line that my mom emailed to me years ago. I’d love to give credit where credit is due, but unfortunately I cannot. The baking techniques are from Pam Anderson’s book The Perfect Recipe. This is one of the few cookbooks and refer to often. The sprinkle of flaked sea salt on top was my own idea, albeit borrowed from hundreds of other such cookie recipes on the web. Altogether, this cookie is phenomenal. And the other great thing about this recipe? You can cook exactly as many cookies as you want to eat that day so you will never have to eat a stale cookie again!
best ever chocolate chip cookies
These are the best chocolate chip cookies you'll ever eat. I promise.
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 - 2 cups chopped bittersweet chocolate (note: do not use chocolate chips. Buy a good bar of chocolate and cut it into chunks. I toss all the chocolate including the shavings into the dough, but some people omit the shavings so that the dough is a more traditional pale color)
flaked sea salt
Instructions
- Sift the flour, salt, and baking soda together and set aside.
- Mix the sugars and butter just until thoroughly mixed. Add the egg, yolk and vanilla and stir until creamy. Add the sifted ingredients and mix just until blended. Stir in the chocolate chunks.
- Drop the dough 1/4 cup at a time on a wax paper lined plate and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400.
- Place as many cookies as you will be eating today on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Without opening the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350. Bake an additional 7-9 minutes or until the edges look golden brown.
- Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with sea salt flakes. Let rest on pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. As tempted as you may be to eat these immediately, they are best after they cool enough so that the chocolate inside is not just a melted mess. But if you must eat them immediately, I will understand. Serve with a tall glass of milk.
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http://www.dishingthedivine.com/2011/12/06/best-ever-chocolate-chip-cookies/ Copyright 2012 Dishing the Divine
Tags: 60 min or less · dessert · easy
I’m a true chocolate fiend, and the idea of a chocolate pudding made out of black chocolate was instantly appealing to me. (You can find black chocolate at King Arthur Flour’s website.) While I still prefer chocolate mousse to chocolate pudding any day, this was such a fun and gloriously chocolatey dessert to serve my friends and family. Be sure to have some homemade whipped cream on hand. It balances out the rich chocolate flavors!
In other news, Tesco Foods emailed me and asked if I would be willing to host a Crockpot giveaway on my blog. Of course I would! I love my crockpot and I know that many, many families rely on the ease of tossing ingredients in a slow cooker first thing in the morning so that dinner is ready when they return home from work. Many of us are hunkering down for winter or gearing up for a Christmas buying frenzy, so whether you want this Crockpot for yourself or to give as a gift to someone else, here are ways you can enter to win it! Each comment gives you one entry, so you can get a total of 4 entries!
- Leave a comment below letting me know your favorite Crockpot comfort food.
- Leave a separate comment below if you follow me on Facebook. If not, you can do so here!
- Leave a separate comment below if you follow this blog on Twitter (@divinedishes) and also tell me your twitter handle.
- Leave a separate comment below if you subscribe to the RSS feed from this blog (if you don’t already, you can easily do so now by clicking on the icon in the upper right hand corner of this page!).
(If you live in the States, your crockpot will come from Amazon.com. You can read more about it here!)
This contest will close at 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, December 3, 2011. One winner will be chosen at random using Random.org.
And now…. back to our chocolate pudding. 
midnight chocolate pudding (and a crockpot giveaway!)
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (just 1/2 cup sugar if using regular cocoa powder)
1/3 cup black onyx cocoa powder
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
pinch of salt
Instructions
- Place 2 cups of milk in a medium saucepan with sugar and cocoa powder. Heat over medium heat until steaming and warm. You don’t necessarily have to bring the mixture to a boil. Just heat it up and whisk it together.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining 1/2 cup milk, cornstarch, salt, egg yolks, and vanilla extract. Drizzle about half of the steaming hot chocolate milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. This will temper the eggs, making them a bit warm before they’re cooked over a flame. Return all of the chocolate, milk, egg mixture back to the saucepan. Heat over medium heat, whisking nearly constantly. Make sure to get into the corners of the pan where the pudding might stick and overcook.
- When pudding starts to boil, continue to whisk and boil for about 2 to 3 minutes. Pudding will thicken. Remove from heat and spoon into 4 ramekins or jars. Cover with plastic wrap (on the surface of the pudding if you want to avoid pudding skin). Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
- For the whipped cream, whip together heavy cream, sugar, vanilla bean, and a pinch of salt. Dollop over cold pudding and serve.
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http://www.dishingthedivine.com/2011/12/01/midnight-chocolate-pudding-and-a-crockpot-giveaway/ Copyright 2012 Dishing the Divine
Tags: dessert
