Jalapeño Bread for #BreadBakers

This month for Bread Bakers we are baking with Peppers. Our host for the month Sue of Palatable Pastime wanted us to bake a bread with some sort of pepper -- fresh, dried, ground, hot or sweet. So my entry is this spicy and delicious Jalapeño Bread.

My sister buys this bread at a local bakery and it is very soft and very tasty. I've tasted it once or twice at her place, but don't really remember how it looks or tastes. When I was thinking of making the bread, I asked her to take a video of the bread. She took the time to buy a fresh loaf and with the help of my BIL made a video showing the cross section of the bread.

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Saag Pizza (Indian Style Spinach Pizza)

Blogging Marathon# 66: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Pizza

Dish: Indian Style Saag Pizza

We are into 2nd week of blogging marathon and my theme for this week is 'Pizza'. With the kids home on summer vacation, I knew they would be very happy if I made some pizza at home, so picked the theme. First up is a Indian style pizza topping on an Instant pizza crust.

I have quite a few pizza recipes on the blog and most of them are traditional crusts that need at least 3 hours to up to 18 hours of rise time. So I wanted to try a crust recipe that doesn't need too much time to make. This recipe from Mel's Kitchen worked out perfectly. It needs just 10 minutes of rise time and then you are ready to make pizzas.

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Wholewheat Sweet Rolls with Mango Filling for #BreadBakers

We are baking with stone fruit for Bread Bakers this month. Our lovely host Mir, asked us to bake a bread with any kind of stone fruit, in any form, fresh, dried or juice. There are quite a few fruits to pick from like peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and mango.

With so many fruits to choose from, I was initially confused on what fruit to choose and which bread to bake. But finally decided on baking these sweet rolls with fresh mango. I flavored them with a little bit of ground cardamom instead of cinnamon.

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Easy to make Pizza Dough with Italian Vegetarian toppings

Blogging Marathon# 64: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Cook from 1 European Cuisine -- Italian

Dish: Pizza Dough with Italian Vegetarian toppings

Pizza is probably the most popular Italian dish all over the world. Each country conveniently customized the toppings to appeal to the local tastes -- like the spicy toppings in India and the extra cheesy toppings in America. But from what I heard, Italian pizzas are not overloaded with cheese or toppings and are usually made with light and refreshing tomato sauce instead of a slow simmered heavy tomato sauce that the American pizzas tend to use.

I've a few pizza recipes on the blog already, but wanted to try a new pizza crust recipe from King Arthur flour. They say this is the 'easiest pizza you will ever make'. After making it I can assure you that it is in fact very easy to make this pizza.

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Flax Oat Wheat Dinner Rolls for #BreadBakers

It's time to bake for Bread Bakers again. Our host for this month is Deepthi who blogs at Baking Yummies. She wanted us to make either yeasted or quick, sweet or savory rolls. I had quite a roll recipes that I wanted to try on my Pinterest board. Finally narrowed it down to these Flax-Oat-Wheat dinner rolls.

These rolls are hearty and have an earthy taste with the addition of oats, wholewheat and ground flax seeds. These are perfect whole grain alternate to the soft and squishy white dinner rolls. They are great to make for cookouts or for your everyday dinner.

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Buttery Garlic Pull apart Bread for #BreadBakers

It's time for another edition of Bread Bakers and this month's host is lovely Karen from Karen's Kitchen Stories. She chose 'Garlic' to be the theme in celebration of National Garlic day, that is celebrated on the 19th April.

Pull apart bread has been on my to-make list for quite sometime and when I saw this buttery herb bread on King Arthur flour, I knew I had to bake it for this month's Bread Bakers. I wasn't disappointed with my choice.

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Chocolate Yeast Bread for #BreadBakers

All the recipes so far this month revolve around Chocolate. After 4 posts for kid friendly chocolate posts from last week, I have yet another recipe with chocolate and this time it is for the Bread Baker's group. Our lovely host for the month Shireen Siqueira wanted us to make any bread with cacao, cocoa or carob in form.

Initially I was planning to bake something that is good for Easter, like chocolate babka or something in those lines, but when I saw this chocolate yeast bread recipe on David Lebovitz's site I dropped all the earlier ideas and made that instead. I have only tried baking chocolate yeast bread twice before, first time in this chocolate cherry bread and then in this sourdough chocolate bread, so I was intrigued on how this bread would turn out.

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Heart of Winter Loaf

After enjoying a relatively mild winter weather in January, we are back in the freezer for February. I'm not complaining, not that I enjoy the cold but I'm happy when the weather is seasonal, if it is not then I get worried about global warming.

This 'Heart of Winter' loaf recipe is from King Arthur flour catalog and it caught my attention with its name itself. We are technically in the middle of winter and what perfect time but to make this bread right now.

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Cheese and Potato Gözleme for #BreadBakers

I almost forgot that today's the posting day for #BreadBakers. I'm glad that I checked Facebook to see our lovely Host, Anshie's post about the event, otherwise I would have totally forgotten about it. So thank you Anshie for reminding and also for being such a gracious host.

Our theme for this month is 'Griddle breads' and I almost wanted to make an Indian bread. But then as I was looking through my Pinterest boards, I found these Turkish Gözleme that I had pinned a while back.

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Homemade flatbread

Blogging Marathon# 60: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: Bookmarked Dishes

Dish: Homemade flatbread
For the final day of this week's BM under 'bookmarked recipes' theme, I made these soft and multipurpose flatbread. Recipe is bookmarked from Mel's Kitchen.

I usually buy pita bread, but do take the time to make them at home sometimes. I also have couple of pita bread recipes on the blog already. They are like our very own naans but thinner and not as fluffy.

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Overnight Panettone

Bake-a-thon 2015: Day 10

Bake of the Day: Overnight Panettone

Panettone has been on my baking list for a very very long time. Last year I took the leap and even bought these panettone paper pans from King Arthur flour, then I chickened out in the last minute. So, this year I made up my mind to give it a try.

I followed this recipe for Overnight Panettone from King Arthur flour. This recipe has much less fat than the traditional more luxurious recipes. But it is light and delicious. Addition of Fiori di Sicilia extract gives it that special holiday flavor.

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Nutella Star Bread

Bake-a-thon 2015: Day 9

Bake of the Day: Nutella Star Bread

Star bread has been on my to-make list ever since I saw this beautiful loaf on Nalini's blog. Finally I got to make it for Bake-a-thon. Instead of Nalini's savory bread, I made a Nutella filling star bread and the whole family absolutely loved it.

I followed the recipe from King Arthur flour. The filling for this bread can be anything from cinnamon sugar to Nutella to even garlic and cheese. Since Nutella is one of my kids favorite I wanted to try it with that, but I'm definitely going to make the savory version sometime soon.

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Overnight Pecan Sticky Bread for #BreadBakers

This month's theme for BreadBakers is Overnight Breakfast Breads. Our host for the month is Holly Baker and she wanted us to come up with either a yeasted or quick bread that can be prepared the night before and then baked off in the morning. December being a busy time for celebrations and getting together with family and friends, it is always nice to have these overnight breads in your repertoire, so that you, the bake, can enjoy the fruits (or breads!) of your labor with your loved ones. Scroll to the bottom to get more ideas for overnight bread from my fellow Bread Bakers.

Initially I wanted to prepare a no-knead bread, but then I realized that it involved shaping and baking in the morning which didn't really fit into theme. I couldn't really find any bread that was appropriate for the theme and I almost panicked.

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Harvest Grains Loaf

Bake-a-thon 2015: Day 2
Bake of the Day: Harvest Grains Loaf

Here's another family favorite bread that is soft and delicious with a nice blend of grains and seeds. I used King Arthur's Harvest Grain blend which is a mixture of 4 grains and 4 seeds. You can use any combination of grains and seeds. Grains like oat berries, millet, barley flakes and seeds like flax, poppy, sesame, sunflower etc can be used.

I think the next time I make this bread I will use a higher ratio of wholewheat to all purpose flour. Like I said before this is a very soft and tasty bread that is great toasted for even in a sandwich. I made some potato curry & cheese sandwiches and also Nutella sandwiches with this bread. Both tasted great.

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Pumpkin Dinner Rolls for #BreadBakers

November is cruising by and with the festival season around, I'm sure all of you must be planning or at least thinking of your holiday menus. So you are in luck because our #BreadBakers group is baking up some special and festive loaves or rolls or breads that you can bring to a family feast or celebratory dinner. Actually I'm lucky to be hosting this month's event, big thanks to Stacy and Renee for the opportunity. Don't forget to scroll down to the bottom of the post for the list of breads by my fellow bread bakers.

We went apple picking last month and ended up with 4 little pie pumpkins from the patch. I kept them for display till Halloween, then roasted a couple and made pumpkin puree out of them. With that puree I made these Pumpkin dinner rolls. Recipe is from King Arthur Flour site.

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Pumpkin Raisin Bagels for #BreadBakers

It's time for this month's #BreadBakers event and the theme is very apt for this time of the year, 'Hearty Fall Breads'. Our host for the month is Wendy who blogs at 'A Day in the life on the farm'. She asked us what reminds us of fall and I immediately thought of Pumpkin and then made these 'Pumpkin-Raisin Bagels'.

Talking of pumpkins, my pumpkin milk shake post from last year got published in 'The Pumpkin Spice' handbook. I was so excited to see the glossy full size picture of the milkshake in an actual book. Publishers were kind enough to send a complementary copy and it is filled with nothing but pumpkin recipes.

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Homemade Cuban Bread recipe

Initially when I listed 'Cuban Tostada' as one of the breakfast entries, I wanted to use store bought Cuban bread to make the sandwich and call it a day. But when I started reading about Cuban bread, I realized that store bought Cuban bread might me made with lard (aka pig fat), so I decided to make the bake the bread at home.

I found this recipe on King Arthur flour and followed it to the 'T' except for substituting some of the all purpose flour with wholewheat flour. These rolls are perfect to make sandwiches and of course Cuban tostadas.

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Oats Bread with Maple and Walnuts for #BreadBakers

For this month's #BreadBakers challenge, our host for the month Rocio picked 'breads with oats'. We are free to pick any form of oats -- steel cut, rolled or quick and it can be a sweet or savory bread.

I chose to make Oats bread with maple syrup and walnuts from King Arthur Whole Grains Baking cookbook. Whole wheat and oats are the featured whole grains in this soft, high rising loaf. Original recipe used maple sugar, but since I don't have it, I just used light brown sugar. Maple syrup adds a hint of sweetness and the nuttiness of walnuts is a nice counterpoint. This bread is great as is or toasted with some butter, jam or my kids favorite Nutella.

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Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 10

Bake of the Day: Breads -- Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Today I have a cinnamon raisin bread made with sourdough starter. I was planning to bake a sourdough bread and fed the starter the day before I wanted to make it. Then in the morning, I checked my blog to see that I already posted that recipe. So had to change the plan and a new search in King Arthur flour site landed me on this cinnamon raisin bread with sourdough starter.

It's been a long time I baked a cinnamon raisin bread and so started working on it right away. The difference between the one I usually bake and this is: here the cinnamon sugar and raisins are layered in after the first rise whereas in the other recipe, they are simply kneaded in.

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No Knead Cheese Burger Buns

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 8

Bake of the Day: Breads -- No Knead Cheese Burger Buns

Today I have the recipe for some delicious burger buns that requires minimal hands-on time thanks to the no-knead method of preparing them. They are soft but sturdy enough to hold a veggie burger and all of its accouterments.

The ingredients are beaten in a mixing bowl for just 2 minutes and after that it is very very easy to make these soft, cheese-scented buns that are perfect for any kind of burger.

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