Monday, January 4, 2010
French Bread & all it's glory!
Upon just recently watching the wonderful movie 'Julie & Julia.' I was inspired to start my blogging once again. I found myself relating to the Julie character again and again. I too have always had problems finishing things. For instance my 3 year wedding anniversary is coming up soon and my wedding scrapbook is still not complete. I've finished a total of 4, maybe 5 pages. But you wouldn't believe the amount of time I've spent shopping and researching scrapbook items- definitely a lot more than the time I actually put into the scrapbook pages themselves. I've never been able to grasp why it is so hard to finish things, maybe I just get bored, or find something else more interesting. I don't know but probably would not have finished nursing school, had it not cost thousands of dollars.
Anyways on to cooking. A wonderful gift I received this christmas from my mother was a kitchen stand mixer- a beautiful red one that matches my cherry red kitchen! I found this marvelous french bread recipe that is just divine. WOW do these stand mixers make it sooo much easier to make bread! Most bread recipe's seem to take hours to make because you have to let to dough rise twice and it also has to double in size. This particular recipe doesn't call for the dough to double! Which means less time till it's done! According to the author of the recipe, the trick to wonderful french bread is to not allow it to let it double, but to let it cook to its fullness. This recipe makes two beautiful loaves. If you don't have a french bread pan, you can shape it into 3 loaves so it'll fit onto cookie sheets a little better.
A couple tricks to create a wonderful crusty bread is to spritz the bread with water while it is cooking, or place a pot of boiling water underneath the dough in the oven.
French Bread
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups hot water
2 tablespoons shortening
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons instant yeast
6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Directions
1. Place hot water in large bowl.
2. Add the shortening, salt and sugar.
3. Stir and let stand until lukewarm.
4. Sprinkle yeast over all. Allow it to foam for about 10 minutes
5. Beat until smooth.
6. Add 3 cups flour and beat until mixed.
7. Work in 2 cups flour with a wooden spoon.
8. Gradually knead the last 1-1/2 cups flour in until no longer sticky-about 3 minutes.
9. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
10. Punch down and place on floured board.
11. Roll out to a rectangle.
12. Cut lengthwise in half.
13. With each strip, roll up lengthwise and pinch seams.
14. Roll gently back and forth with hands to desired length and to smooth loaf out.
15. Lightly grease cookie sheet or use French loaf bread pans.
16. Cover and let rise for 25 minutes.
17. Cut diagonal slashes across bread about 1/4" deep.
18. Preheat oven, pour boiling water on large cookie sheet to fill.
19. Place cookie sheet on bottom rack in oven.
20. Brush loaves with warm water and place bread on higher rack in oven above water.
21. Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes.
After you pull your delicious bread out of the oven, and giggle with joy about its beautiful golden color, just dream of the endless possibilities of how you can enjoy your creation. My family chose to enjoy the first loaf with a delicous cheese fondue and and also with an olive oil dip. With the second loaf we choose to make cheesy bread using brie and parmesan-reggiano cheese. YUM! *Just an FYI - we didn't eat all this in one night!
A confession I need to make is that I have been on a cheese craze lately. I crave it all the time. And NO I am not pregnant. Just recently I counted over 10 types of cheese at one time in my fridge, which all included of course the basics of cheddar, parmesan, and cream cheese. I also had parmesean-reggiano, fontina, gorgonzola, smoked gouda, guyere, feta, blue cheese (which I hate by the way), monteray jack sliced sandwhich cheese, swiss and last but not least brie.
My cheese fetish started last September when my husband and I were on a trip to St. Louis and stopped at a cheese outlet somewhere along the way. There were so many choices of cheese, my senses just went wild and since then I haven't been able to stop.
Now which is my favorite? Well that depends on what it is and what I'm eating it with. If it's a sub sandwhich then my choice is provolone! If it's tossed in a salad then my choice is feta! If it's mixed in a casserole my choice is cheddar! My favorite for basic crackers & cheese - smoked gouda! AND I could keep going and going. Last week I made a trip to Sam's club where I had to stop dead in my tracks and admire the lavish array of international cheeses they possessed. Oh it was so hard to resist. Thanks to Dave Ramsey and our allocated spending plan - there was no money for an $8 block of delicious Spanish cheese. So I walked away, I resisted! One less cheese block to take up space in my fridge. After all this I'll admit I'm a little obsessed with cheese.
But the results are so amazing. Here are 3 beautiful recipe's enriched with cheeses to enjoy with your french bread!
Swiss Cheese Fondue
Ingredients:
6 cups shredded swiss cheese
2 cups shredded gruyere cheese
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cloves garlic, halved
2 cups dry white wine
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup dry sherry or kirsch
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
French bread, cut into cubes
Directions
1. In a mixing bowl, combine the first 3 ingredients; stir to mix well; set aside.
2. Rub the inside of a large saucepan with the cut sides of the garlic halves; discard garlic.
3. Add the wine to the saucepan; cook over medium heat until hot, but do not boil.
4. Add in lemon juice.
5. Gradually add in the cheese mixture.
6. Cook unti cheese melts, stir constantly.
7. Add in sherry, salt, and pepper; stir to combine.
8. Transfer mixture to a fondue pot.
9. Serve with bread cubes for dipping.
Brie Bread
1/4 lb butter
6 ounces brie cheese
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/4 teaspoon basil
1 loaf French bread
Directions
1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan and onion and basil.
2. Cut the Brie into small pieces and add to the butter mixture.
3. Stir until the Brie is melted.
4. Slice the French Bread in half lengthwise.
5. Take each half and cut ALMOST all the way through into slices about 1 1/2
inches each
6. Spread the melted brie mixture over each half of the loaf.
7. Note: At this point you can refrigerate the bread/brie and continue just
before serving.
8. Place each half of the bread under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly.
9. Tear the individual pieces completely off the loaves and place on
serving platter.
Copycat Macaroni Grill's Bread Dipping Oil
Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons Parmesan cheese (I used parmesean-reggiano!)
black pepper
Directions
1. Combine seasonings and olive oil top with Parmesan cheese.
2. Dip pieces of bread into oil.
Thanks for checking out my blog and remember... Homemade just tastes better!!! Next post I'll be blogging about copycat recipe's from a favorite Chinese bistro restaurant I found, something to do with lettuce, maybe? Check back in about a week to find out!
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Homemade just tastes better!!
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