Whole Wheat Garlic Knots

As many of you will most certainly know, I think Joy the Baker is pretty rad. So, when Tracie (of Tracie’s Tastie Treats) and I were searching for something new to make, her blog was an obvious choice. On this particular day, our usual sweet fare just wasn’t appealing to us, so we decided to venture into the savory with these Whole Wheat Garlic Knots. The process of making the knots was fun, and they ended up looking very pretty. They were great on their own, but found they paired beautifully with my homemade spaghetti (post coming soon). I have to admit, stepping into the world of savory baking made me feel pretty legit. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Garlic Knots (from Joy the Baker)

What you need…

·         1 package active dry yeast, about 2 1/2 teaspoons

·         1 cup warm water (just warmer than body temperature)

·         1 cup whole wheat flour

·         1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

·         2 tablespoons olive oil

·         1 teaspoon sea salt

·         2 teaspoons sugar

·         For the garlic mixture:

·         4 to 6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

·         2 tablespoons melted butter

·         2 tablespoons olive oil

·         1/4 cup chopped parsley

·         1/2 teaspoon sea salt

What to do…

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar with warm water.  Let sit for 5 minutes until yeast is frothy.  That means it’s alive and ready to go.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours and salt.  Create a small well in the center of the flour mixture.  Pour in the yeasty water and add oil.  With a fork, mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  If the dough is too sticky, add more all-purpose flour.  Dough should be slightly sticky, but not stick to your hands too much.\

3. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for about 5 minutes.  Place dough in a large greased bowl.  Flip the dough over to coat the dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel, and leave to rest in a warm, draft-free place for 1 hour, or until the dough is doubled in size.  At this point, you can make the garlic knots, or let the dough rise in the refrigerator overnight.  Just bring the dough to room temperature before rolling it out.

4. When ready to prepare the garlic knots, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface.  Roll into a 10-inch by 10-inch square.  Roughly…. it doesn’t have to be perfect.  Use a pizza cutter to slice 10 1-inch stripes.  Tie a knot in the center of the dough, and wrap the ends under and around the knot.  This doesn’t have to be perfect either… just make sure that the dough is all tucked into itself.  Cover with clean kitchen towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

5. Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.   Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Place dough knots on prepared baking sheets and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden brown.

6. While bread bakes, in a large bowl whisk together minced garlic, butter, olive oil, parsley and salt.  When rolls come out of the oven, immediately toss them in the garlic butter mixture.  Toss until coated and remove from the butter bowl.  Serve rolls warm.

Rolls are best served the day they’re made, but will last for 3 days if well wrapped.  Just reheat in a piece of foil in a 350 degree F oven for 10 minutes.

Tracie and I seem to always bake with wine...

...and cheese

Kneading the dough

Pre-baked garlic knot

Butter, garlic and parsley? Yes, please.

I'm not gonna lie, these are some pretty sexy garlic knots

Lemon Blueberry Bread

Upon the arrival of my roommate’s organic fruit box, I was thrilled to see the plethora of lemons that lay in waiting among the apples and oranges. Lemon flavored things are among my favorite to eat, and, as I make what I like to eat, bake with. After opening the box, I went on a search for some lemon-themed recipes and came upon this one for Lemon Blueberry Bread. Blueberries and bread also number among my favorite things, so trying this recipe seemed like a natural. The original site states: “this bread is best served on the day it is made” but I can’t tell you if that is true or not because the bread never made it to day two. If that isn’t a good review, I don’t know what is. 

Lemon Blueberry Bread (from Joy of Baking)

What you need…

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1/2 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
Lemon Glaze:
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

What to do…

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Butter the bottom and sides of a loaf pan (9 x 5 x 3 inch).
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Beat the butter with a stand or hand mixer until softened (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in three additions) and milk (in two additions) alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix only until combined. Gently fold in the blueberries.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 55 to 65 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the 1/4 cup (50 grams) of sugar and the 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
When the bread is done, remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Pierce the hot loaf all over with a wooden skewer or toothpick and then brush the top of the loaf with the hot lemon glaze. Cool the loaf in the pan for about 30 minutes then remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Makes 1 loaf.

Incorporating the blueberries into the batter

Love the color of the blueberries with the lemon

Pumpkin Bread

I can’t believe it got to be so late in the fall before I got the chance to make pumpkin bread. Like many of the recipes on here, this was my first attempt at pumpkin bread so I didn’t modify this recipe, from allrecipes.com, very much. I did add more pumpkin (it comes in 29oz cans and didn’t want to waste any) but left everything else the same. It resulted in pretty tasty pumpkin bread with a deliciously gooey center that tasted just like pumpkin pie. Happy fall!

What you need…

• 1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

What to do…

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 loaf pans with nonstick baking spray.

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. 

The flavors of fall

Oil and water

Finished product