Kefir Rye Soda Bread Recipe

With St Patrick's Day just around the corner, I thought I'd share this easy, no yeast recipe for soda bread. It will go perfectly with Guiness Irish Stew or, heck, with a slab of butter and jam! If you don't have kefir, buttermilk can be substituted.

Ingredients

1-3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rye flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1 1/4 cup plain kefir

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flours, oats, baking soda and salt.
3. In another bowl or large measuring cup, mix kefir and egg.
4. With a fork, stir wet into dry ingredients. Do not over mix.
5. Flour hands and shape the dough into a flat, round loaf.
6. Place on floured or corn meal sprinkled baking sheet.
7. Flatten into a disc that is approximately 4-5 cm high.
8. Score a cross into the dough with 1 cm deep cuts.
9. Bake for 40-45 minutes until it sounds hollow when tapped.
10. Transfer to a wire rack and cover with a tea towel (keeps it soft).

Orange Spiced Tea Poppy Seed Loaf with OJ Glaze

I drink coffee. A lot of coffee. For the most part, I only drink tea if I'm feeling sick or my mom is in town. But baking with tea is something different - I love it. I didn't really think about it until I attended the IFBC 2014 in Seattle last September. There, I attended a session led by Cindi Bigelow, President & CEO of Bigelow Tea. I learned an amazing amount of facts and information about tea. We also tasted amazing baked goods with tea as a main ingredient. This what inspired this loaf. Bonus: My kids loved it!

Brush with tea glaze - poke holes in top of loaf to ensure maximum tea flavour.

Brush or pour the glaze on the loaf once loaf has cooled.

Let sit for at least 30 minutes to dry slightly.

Ingredients

Tea:

3 bags orange and spice tea

1 -1/4 c  boiling water

Loaf:

1½ cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3 Tbsp poppyseeds

3/4 cup plain yogurt

¼ c steeped orange and spice tea

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp orange zest

½ tsp vanilla

½ cup vegetable oil

Orange Tea Syrup:

1 cup orange and spice tea

1 cup granulated sugar

Glaze:

1 cup icing sugar

1 Tbsp orange juice

1 tsp pure orange flavoring (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with baking spray.

Tea

1. Steep 3 tea bags in boiled water.
2. Let steep 10 minutes.
3. Discards tea bags and let tea cool.

Syrup

1. Make orange syrup by placing 1 cup tea and 1 cup sugar in blender. Blend for 1 minute.
2. Set aside. Can be made ahead of time.

Loaf

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together yogurt and tea.
3. Add eggs and whisk until combined.
4. Add sugar, zest, vanilla and vegetable oil and whisk until combined.
5. Add in dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
7. Let cool 10 minutes in the pan.
8. Poke holes over top of loaf.
9. Brush syrup over orange poppy seed loaf.
10. Wait 10 minutes and brush with more syrup. (you’ll have extra syrup – just refrigerate for future use)
11. Cool loaf completely.
12. Create glaze by whisking together icing sugar, orange juice and orange flavoring.
13. Gently pour glaze over loaf, let set till crust forms on glaze, about 30 minutes.

Daring Baker's Challenge - Dutch Crunch or Tiger Bread

Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread! Here is a pdf of the recipes given to us this month. I made the soft white rolls.

Bread making scares people....including my seven year - probably had something to do with me telling her yeast were living organisms which made her ask if they bite. lol. Anyways, bread is easy to master..really. Sure you "knead" to follow directions but how hard is that? And the kneading part is kinda relaxing in a weird way.

It takes a couple of hours of your life but the aroma that fills your home makes it worth it and then when you take your first bite and you realize that you made this with your own hands...wow, you will think you are a genious and first class baker!! Try it, you'll like it.

The other part of our challenge was to create a sandwich with our "tiger" bread. I made Montreal smoked beef sandwiches with smoked gouda cheese, cheddar, avocado, horseradish and mayo. They were a hit with the whole family.

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Croissants - Daring Bakers Challenge

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!


I love freshly baked bread...the taste, the smell, the feel of it in your mouth. Mmmm. I have made homemade bread before but never croissants. I must say it was a long process. In fact, it took three days from the day I started until the final baking! Was it worth it? Well, yes in the sense that I can cross it off my baking to do list. But to be honest, next time I'd rather fly to Paris and enjoy an authentic croissant in a small, romantic French cafe!


I used a recipe from Fine Cooking (so, I guess, I technically failed the challenge) and not Julia's, because Fine Cooking's was super easy to follow and well laid out. I also kept it simple and chose not to add chocolate or anything else to fancy it up...sometimes simple is best!

Buttery Cinnamon Buns

Cinnamon buns - what's not to love? Ooey, gooey goodness of cinnamon and butter all wrapped up in a warm, soft sweet bread roll. And when you are lucky enough to wake up to their aroma slowly making its way from the kitchen to your bedroom...well, you are lucky indeed.

These ones are especially delicious and believe it or not, you don't need cream cheese icing. I know, I know some of you have already flipped to another blog at that comment! But really, the butter that is placed in the bottom of the pan before baking give these little "sin"amon buns a buttery, caramel flavour that needs to be enjoyed on its own. If you don't believe me ask my family who managed to devour a pan of these in less than 24 hours!


Bun Ingredients


1 cup milk
3 tbsp water, room temperature
1 large egg
2 tbsp butter, room temperature
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
3-1/4 cups flour
2 tsp bread machine yeast


Filling
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon (note: I love cinnamon - if you don't reduce the amount)
1/3 cup melted butter, divided


What to do:


1. In order of what is recommended by your bread machine maker, add milk. water, egg, salt, sugar, flour and yeast into bread maker.
2. Select dough cycle.
3. When finished, remove dough and put on lightly foured surface.
4. It is a soft dough but if necessary knead in enough flour to make it easy to handle.
5. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
6. Combine cinnamon and sugars in bowl.
7. Roll dough into 12 x 9 rectangle.
8. Generously brush with 1/2 of the  melted butter.
9. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture.
10. Roll dough tightly like a jelly roll starting on the long side.
11. Pinch the seam tight.
12. Shape back into 12 inch roll, if needed.
13.With a sharp knife cut into 1-inch slices.
14. Pour rest of melted butter in a 9 x 13 inch pan.
15. Arrange cut slices in pan in butter.
16. Cover loosely with waxed paper or kitchen towel and let rest for 20 - 30 minutes until doubled in size (resting place should be warm and free of drafts).
17. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.
18. Enjoy!