Bread Recipes

I got the idea to make these rolls a few weeks ago when I made the sauerkraut pies. I used the breadmaker to prepare the dough with those pies and I guess I liked what I saw. I’m so used to making dough by hand that I really need to be in the mood to make any type of bread. With the breadmaker though, all I have to do is put the ingredients in and let the machine do all the work. It really is a better way to do things.

The Recipe

This recipe is built off one that’s used for making Parker House rolls. There’s only one change; I don’t make the three inch dough circles, brush those circles with butter and then fold the circles in half. Instead, I roll the pieces of dough into balls and place them in the skillet to rise. During this time, I brush the individual balls of dough with butter and then sprinkle salt over them. I also brush them with butter after they come out of the oven. I made all of this up myself and what I found as a result was a buttery roll with just the right amount of salt on top. These are actually really good rolls. The buttermilk adds that bite and they’re perfectly fluffy to enjoy during dinner. That’s when I’ve been eating them for the past few days.

Ingredients

Makes: 16 Rolls

1/4 Cup Warm Water
1 Teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
3/4 Cup Warm Buttermilk
6 Tablespoons Butter, Melted, Divided + Some for Buttering Skillet
1/4 Cup Sugar
4 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
2 Large Eggs
Salt

Step-by-Step Instructions

I’d like to thank Southern Cast Iron for the inspiration behind this recipe. While I did change things up quite a bit, I got the idea for the rolls from them.

Prep the Yeast

Add the 1/4 cup of warm water and the yeast to a small bowl and wait about five minutes for the top of the water to get frothy. Doing this gets the yeast ready for rising and baking and it also tests the yeast out to make sure it’s alive.

Mix Buttermilk & Sugar

In a medium sized bowl, mix together buttermilk, four tablespoons of the melted butter and the sugar.

Combine Ingredients

Add the yeast mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. Then, add in the buttermilk mixture and two and a half cups of flour. Use the hook attachment and turn the mixer on to medium speed. Mix until these ingredients are combined well. Add in the two eggs and 3/4 teaspoon salt and continue mixing for another two minutes. Then, add in the remaining flour slowly so it has time to incorporate itself into the existing dough. Mix everything until you have a nice smooth ball of dough.

Knead Dough & Let Rise

Remove the dough from the mixer and knead it for about five minutes. Then, place the dough in a greased bowl and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for one hour at 75 degrees. The dough should double in size during this time.

Divide into Pieces

On a floured surface, roll the dough into a tube shape that’s about a foot long. Then, cut the dough in half and continue cutting the pieces in half until you have 16 in all. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and stretch each piece around your thumb so it has a tight surface. Place each piece, seam side down, in a buttered 12-inch cast iron skillet. Then, brush about half the remaining butter onto the surface of each piece and lightly sprinkle some salt on their surfaces as well.

Cover the skillet and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size. This shouldn’t take any longer than a half hour if the conditions are warm enough (75 degrees).

Pre-Heat Oven

About half way through this last rising period, arrange your oven racks so one is in the center position. Then, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the Rolls

When the dough is ready, add the skillet to the oven for approximately 30 minutes. The tops of the rolls should turn golden brown. If you are looking for more brown color, you can turn on the broiler and place the skillet on the top shelf for a few seconds. This will add the color you’re looking for, but I advise you to be very careful with this. The broiler can burn the rolls easily, so you’ll need to keep an eye on things closely.

When they’re finished, pull the skillet from the oven and turn off the heat. The rolls will appear dryer than when you put them in the oven. Brush the remaining butter on the tops of the rolls now.

The Final Buttermilk Rolls

I think the butter and salt on the tops of the rolls was a good addition. Those two ingredients really added interest to what I have been eating and enjoying thoroughly for the past few days. If you decide to give this recipe a try, please let me know your thoughts in the comment section down below. Thanks for reading!

Well, St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone. It was another festive weekend of eating all sorts of cabbage, mashed potatoes and soda bread. I made a loaf of the bread yesterday and thought I’d share the recipe here. It’s a really good one, but it’s not the authentic Irish version that contains only four ingredients. What I have to share today is the American version with two types of flour, raisins and caraway seeds. Trust me, this version is better.

The Recipe

There are tons of different methods for making soda bread. Just choose one and go with it. If you don’t like that version, try something else. But when you do find one you like, keep that recipe and make that bread every year. It’s such an easy bread to pull off that there’s no reason not to.

Today’s version is very good. The bread is more moist that many other types and there’s really not a lot that can go wrong with it. I added raisins as a flair and some caraway seeds for some flavor. This is the perfect bread to enjoy with a pat of butter on top. It really is.

Ingredients

Makes: 1 Loaf

3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Cup Cake Flour
1/4 Cup Granulated White Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
1 1/2 Teaspoons Cream of Tartar
1 1/2 Teaspoons Regular Table Salt
5 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Softened in 1 Tablespoon Pieces
1 1/4 Cups Buttermilk
1 Large Egg, Lightly Whisked
1 Cup Raisins
1 Tablespoon Caraway Seeds

Step-by-Step Instructions

This is a culmination of a few different recipes I’ve used to make soda bread in the past. Since I enjoy this one the most, this is the one I prepare every year.

Pre-Heat Oven

Adjust the oven racks so one is in the middle position and then warm the oven to 400 degrees.

Combine Dry Ingredients

Add both types of flour, the sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer. With the hook attachment, combine these ingredients for a minute or so.

After that, add the butter to the bowl and mix everything until you don’t see the butter lumps anymore.

Add Remaining Ingredients

Next, add the buttermilk, egg, raisins and caraway seeds to the bowl and mix just until the ingredients come together. You don’t want to overmix this dough because that will create a gluten complex that won’t work out. Combine with the mixer for a few seconds and then by hand if necessary. Just until there are no more dry parts of the dough.

Place Dough in Pan

You can use anything you want for this step, but I prefer to use my cast iron pans. It just looks so cool. With extra flour if necessary (so the dough doesn’t stick to your hands), form the dough so it’s a round disk that’s about two inches high in the greased pan of your choice. Then, make two cuts across the top of the dough that are in the shape of an X and that are about 1/2 inch deep.

Bake the Bread

Place the pan or skillet in the oven and let bake for 45 minutes. Begin checking on the bread after 35 minutes to be sure everything is going well. You can tell if it’s finished by the nice golden color of the crust and if there is no wet dough if you insert a toothpick in it’s center. Once finished, remove the dough from the oven and turn off the heat. It’s finished.

Plate & Serve

When it’s cooled off a bit, go ahead and make a few slices and add a few pats of butter. Serve and enjoy!

The Final Soda Bread

This is a very straightforward recipe, so you shouldn’t have any trouble with it. I think you’ll enjoy it. If you give this one a try, please let me know what you think in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!

It takes a very special recipe to get results like this. Trust me when I tell you to be careful out there. The internet is full of all types of bread recipes that don’t work. Making any type of bread is a half day investment, so you really want to make sure you are working with something that has a tried and true track record. This recipe does. I’ve prepared these rolls enough times to tell you that they’re the real deal.

The Recipe

For these perfect dinner rolls, I decided to merge two recipes that I’m familiar with and that I’ve had good luck with in the past. I used a basic roll recipe and infused it with a variety of dried herbs. Then, I baked the rolls in 12-inch a cast iron skillet as opposed to a casserole. What I ended up with was 16 really fluffy and great tasting dinner rolls. There’s not much more to ask for. They’re moist, flavorful and just the right size. I’d definitely make these again, with or without the herbs. They’re good either way.

Ingredients

Makes: 16 Rolls

For the Rolls

5 Cups All-Purpose Flour
2 1/4 Teaspoons Yeast
2 Teaspoons Salt
1 1/2 Cups Whole Milk, Room Temperature
1/4 Cup Honey
1 Egg, Room Temperature
4 Tablespoons Vegetable Shortening, Melted
3 Tablespoons Butter, Melted
1 Teaspoon Dried Basil
1 Teaspoon Dried Parsley
1 Teaspoon Dried Rosemary
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

For the Eggwash

1 Egg
1 Tablespoon Water
Pinch Salt

Step-by-Step Instructions

For these rolls, I took advantage of the same recipe as I the one I used a while back. That was my base. Then, I found some tips and ideas on a few random websites out there and decided to not only add the herbs, but to use a cast iron skillet as well. I couldn’t believe the results. You can see them for yourself in the photos on this page.

Mix Ingredients

To start off, combine and mix the flour, yeast, salt, basil, parsley and rosemary in the bowl of a stand mixer. Then, combine the milk, honey, egg, shortening and butter in a medium sized bowl. Be sure the shortening and the butter are melted and that the honey is fully dissolved.

Next, while the mixer is running on low, slowly add the liquid mixture to the bowl. After all the liquid has been added, increase the speed to medium-low and let the mixer run for about eight minutes. After this time, the dough shouldn’t be sticky at all and should look like a regular ball of bread dough. You may need to scrape the bowl down with a rubber spatula a few times during this process.

Knead the Dough

After the time in the bowl, transfer the dough to a lightly floured counter top. Knead the dough for about two minutes. Then, transfer the dough to a large bowl that has been lightly greased with one teaspoon of olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm area for anywhere between one and a half to two hours. The dough should double in size.

Arrange the Dough in the Skillet

After the dough has risen, remove it from the bowl and place it on your counter top. Roll the dough out so it’s shaped like a log. Then, with a sharp knife, cut the dough log in half. Then, continue cutting the halves in half until you have 16 individual pieces.

Now, this is important. Form each piece of dough into a ball, but not just any ball. You’ll need to push your thumb into the dough a few times and stretch the dough around your thumb. The ball should be tight around the top and hide all the seams on the bottom. After you make each ball, place them in a greased skillet (1 tablespoon of olive oil) so they look like this.

Notice how the seams aren’t showing and how the balls are taut?

Cover the skillet loosely with plastic wrap and place it somewhere warm for another hour or so. The dough should rise to about double it’s size again.

Pre-Heat Oven

Arrange one of your oven racks so it sits in the center position. Then, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Add Egg Wash

Whisk the egg, water and pinch of salt together in a small bowl. Then, brush the egg wash over each of the dough balls in the skillet. You’ll likely have wash left over.

Bake the Rolls

Place the skillet in the oven and bake the rolls for 25-30 minutes. The goal is to create a golden brown color on the surface. The reason you’ll get this nice golden color and the shine is because of the egg wash, just in case you ever want to duplicate this effect with other bread recipes.

When you achieve the desired result, remove the skillet from the oven and turn off the heat.

Let the rolls cool for a few minutes and then dig in.

The Final Fluffy Rolls

Every time I look at these photos, I am just so proud to have made something so delicious looking. These really are the perfect dinner rolls. If you decide to try this recipe out, please let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

I’ll admit, I was nervous about this one. I had never made a bread recipe like this and I wasn’t sure how things were going to turn out. As I peeked into the oven after the dough had baked for 20 minutes, I was pleasantly surprised at what was sitting there. The most perfectly round boule I had ever seen. What a pleasure.

The Recipe

You’re just going to have to go with me on this one. There’s a lot of rising and a bit of kneading, but the end result is a bread that will rise. And I’m saying it’ll rise because the yeast is tested and the dough will have had a strong gluten complex.

There are only four ingredients necessary to make this bread. Apple cider, all-purpose or bread flour, salt and yeast. That’s pretty, cool, I must say. This is a rustic bread. It’ll come out of the oven in a round loaf and it’ll take a long knife to cut through it. Personally, I cut straight into it while it was still hot and popped a few pieces into the toaster. A few moments later, I was slathering the surfaces with butter and enjoying the fruits of my labor. I was more than satisfied.

Ingredients

Makes: 1 Loaf

2 Cups Apple Cider
2 Teaspoons Yeast
5–6 Cups Bread or All-Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt

Step-by-Step Instructions

I’d like to thank Downeast Magazine for this recipe. Downeast is Maine’s very own magazine and it’s got tons of really neat articles and recipes. I’m looking forward to many more interesting breads and dishes to come.

Combine Cider & Yeast

This step serves two purposes. It combines and dissolves the yeast into the cider and it also tests the yeast. If you see no action between these two ingredients, you’ll know your yeast is dead.

To start off, warm your apple cider to about 100 degrees. It shouldn’t be hot by any means, but warm to the touch. You can do this in a pot on your stove top or in a bowl in your microwave. It’ll probably take about two minutes in your microwave, depending on the heat setting.

Next, pour the cider into a large bowl. Add the yeast to it and mix both ingredients together. Let them sit in a heated area like next to a wood stove for about five minutes. After this time, you should see a raised foamy area floating in the middle of the bowl. That means the yeast is just fine.

I had a nice foam area in my bowl and then I swirled it and lost it. This was, of course, right before I remembered that I needed to take a photo of it. I still caught some of the foam though, which was good.

Add Some Flour

Add two cups of flour to the bowl and stir it into the cider well. The consistency should be like pudding. Bring the bowl back to your warm area and cover it with a damp cloth. Let it sit for one hour. The result of this should be a slightly risen and foamy sort of very wet dough.

Fold the Dough

At this point, you can add the salt to the bowl by sprinkling it around the edge of the dough’s surface. Also, add one cup of flour to the bowl and mix well. Continue to add flour to the bowl until the dough just begins to just pull away from its sides. Fold the dough 100 times with a wooden spoon. This will form the structure it will need in the oven to rise perfectly.

Knead the Dough

Liberally flour your counter top. Then, form a circle of flour (about one cup) that measures about a foot across. Transfer the dough from the bowl to the counter top. Begin to knead and if the dough is too sticky, continue to sprinkle flour over it. Do this until you can knead with no stickiness. Do this for five minutes. By this point, what you have in your hands should look familiar to you. Like regular dough.

Form the dough into a ball and tuck the edges under the bottom. The top should be taut. Lightly flour the inside of a large bowl and place the dough inside of it.

Cover the bowl with a damp cloth again and place the bowl back near the wood stove for another hour. During this time, the dough should double in size.

Let it Rise One More Time

Sprinkle some additional flour over the dough in the bowl. Then, reshape it into a ball by tucking the sides underneath the bottom. Cover the bowl again and let things rise for another 20 minutes.

Warm the Oven

While the dough is rising this one last time, warm your oven to 450 degrees. You should keep one oven rack in the center position and remove the other. You’ll need some room in there.

Also, place a large Dutch oven with its lid in the oven while it’s warming. The goal here is to make the Dutch oven very hot.

Transfer the Dough to the Dutch Oven and Bake

Be very careful during this next step as to not burn yourself. After the 20 minutes of rising, remove the Dutch oven from the oven (with oven mitts). Take the lid off and flour the inside liberally. Transfer the ball of dough from the bowl to the Dutch oven. Reshape if necessary. When the dough is in the Dutch oven, make four shallow slices like a number sign across the top with a sharp knife. Replace the top of the pot and put the entire Dutch oven into the regular oven for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, remove the top of the Dutch oven and allow the bread to bake for another 10-15 minutes. Keep your eye on things after ten minutes because you don’t want the top to burn. You just want it to end up golden brown.

When the bread is perfectly colored, turn off the heat and remove the Dutch oven from the regular oven. Remove the lid and the bread and allow the bread to cool for about 20 minutes. The bread is finished.

The Final Boule Bread

I have been cutting into this loaf of bread for two days now. I first ate a few slices with butter and then I made a nice sandwich with it. It’s perfect. It takes a bit of labor to make this loaf, but I would do it again because of the positive results I experienced. It’s pretty awesome. If you give this bread recipe a try, please let me know your thoughts on it in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Well, it looks like I now have a new bread recipe. For years, I’ve been using a bread maker that gave me so-so results. Actually, I never really knew what kind of bread I’d get out of the thing. It seemed like it would do whatever it wanted. I’ll tell ya – for something that does exactly the same thing, time and time again, I sure get some weird looking bread. I can even remember tossing something that felt like a log out into the woods. Good times.

The Recipe

I’ll be honest with you here. I had to prepare this recipe twice. The first time, I didn’t use the paddle attachment for our stand mixer. I used the dough hook instead. Because the dough in this recipe is so moist, the hook didn’t create a complex enough gluten network. To simplify what I’m trying to say here – the bread didn’t rise. It rose the first time quite well, but when I knocked it down and let it rise for the second time, it didn’t do so great. And it did nothing after I put it in the oven but sit there and get brown. Lesson learned.

There’s a reason the creators of this recipe explicitly ask you to use the paddle. It’s because the wet dough needs to be kneaded and kneaded and kneaded. If you skip out on the kneading, your bread will suffer the same fate as mine did.

As you can see from the photo above, the second go round wasn’t perfect either. The center sunk in, but I did manage to get a much better loaf of bread. During the second time, I used the correct mixer attachment and was overly sure to watch my times. I also used some shortening to grease the bread pan. Because of this, the bread popped right out after it was finished cooking.

This is a good hearty sandwich bread recipe. The bread’s got a nice soft center and an evenly distributed crumb. The flavor is what you’d expect a rich sandwich bread to taste like – good. That’s because of the two types of flour used. First is bread flour, with a much higher protein content than regular all-purpose flour and second is a whole-wheat flour. That adds some flavor and richness by itself.

This recipe may take once or twice to get used to, but I really encourage you to give it a shot, especially if you’re into making your own bread. If you get it right, the result can be great. It’s just the small nuances that need to be taken into account. This isn’t one of those “mix twice and pop into the oven” types of things. This will take some thinking, but the reward will be worth it.

Ingredients

Makes: 1 Loaf

2 Cups Bread Flour
6 Tablespoons Whole-Wheat Flour
2 1/4 Teaspoons Instant Yeast
1 1/4 Cups Plus 2 Tablespoons Warm Water
3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Melted
1 Tablespoon Honey
3/4 Teaspoon Salt

Step-by-Step Instructions

I’d like to thank America’s Test Kitchen for their awesome cookbook called Bread Illustrated. I’m working my way through this book, from front to back, and have to say it’s been a learning experience. This is exactly what I wanted.

Mix Dry Ingredients

Add the bread flour, whole-wheat flour and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer. The mix these ingredients together well.

Mix Wet Ingredients

Add 1 1/4 cups of warm water, 2 tablespoons of melted butter and the honey to a 4 cup measuring cup and mix until the honey is dissolved.

Mix Ingredients

Attach the bowl with the flour in it to the stand mixer and, using the paddle attachment, turn the mixer onto the low speed. Add the liquid slowly to the bowl and let the mixer run on low for 1 minute. Then, turn the mixer onto the medium speed setting and let the dough mix for 4 minutes.

You may need to stop the mixer periodically to scrape the sides of the bowl as well as the paddle with a rubber spatula. The above photo is what your dough should look like. Don’t worry if it looks wet. It’s supposed to.

Let Dough Rise

When the mixing is finished, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it’s twice its original size. This usually takes about 20 minutes, depending on the ambient temperature.

Pre-Heat Your Oven

Arrange one of your oven racks to the lower center position and turn on the heat to 375. Also, you can grease an 8 1/2 inch by 4 1/2 inch bread pan with either butter or shortening.

Add Remaining Water

In a small bowl, add 2 tablespoons of warm water. Then, add the 3/4 teaspoon of salt and mix until completely dissolved. When the dough is finished rising, add this water to the bowl, attach the bowl to the mixer and run the mixer for another 2 minutes on the medium speed. You’ll likely need to stop the mixer to scrape things down again. The water can make the dough look sticky at first. It will look normal once the water is mixed in thoroughly.

Add Dough to Bread Pan

Once the dough is mixed, add it to the greased bread pan, smooth out and cover tightly with plastic wrap.

Let the dough rise until it’s about a quarter inch from the plastic wrap. Keep your eye on this closely. Don’t let the dough touch the wrap. After it’s risen slightly, remove the plastic and let the dough rise until it’s mounding out of the pan. The entire second rise should take about 30 minutes, depending on air temperature.

Bake the Bread

After the dough has risen out of the pan, add it to the oven and let bake for 40 minutes, rotating the pan once during baking. When you see the top of the bread turn a golden brown, turn off the heat and remove the pan from the oven. Let cool for 1 hour before trying to remove the bread from the pan. You may also brush the last tablespoon of melted butter on the top of the bread.

The Final Sandwich Bread

Like I said above, this batch isn’t exactly perfect yet, but it’s getting there. I’ll continue using the same recipe and keeping my eye on the timings and technique. I’m sure it’ll be perfect soon. Besides the dipped center, it sure does taste good!