Bread Maker Cinnamon Bread

Happy Thursday! On top of self  isolating, we have been doing a kitchen reno so we haven’t had a kitchen for a few weeks and will not have one for a few more at least. I am already having baking and cooking withdrawals as that’s what I love to do. I especially love to bake every Friday night as a release after a long week at work. Since I anticipated that I’d be out of a kitchen for a little while, I did some baking beforehand to “get it out of my system” so I’ll be sharing those recipes with you for the next little bit. Once the new kitchen is done, we can do lots of baking and cooking in there to share with you all.

I tried out another bread maker recipe not long ago. This time I made some raisin bread and boy was it delicious. I actually made it a few times and did a loaf right before the kitchen was pulled apart so that I could have some yummy bread for breakfast’s.

Bread Maker Raisin Bread

You will need...

1¼ cup of warm water (microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds roughly)

2tbsp. of butter

3¼ cup of flour

2tbsp. of sugar

1¼ tsp. of salt

1tsp. of cinnamon

1tsp. of active dry yeast

½-3/4 cup of raisins

Warm your water and add to the bread maker pan.

Now add in the butter, sugar, salt, yeast, and flour and sprinkle the cinnamon on top.

Put on the sweet setting on your bread maker and choose the large loaf and darker crust.

You should hear a bunch of beeps about half way through and that’s when you’ll add in the raisins.

When it’s ready, allow it to cool before slicing it and put it all in a tightly sealed container. Enjoy!

Bread Maker Rolls

Happy Thursday! I’m making good use of my rediscovered bread maker and I tried out a dough recipe this time. We were having some pasta, so I thought I’d make some fluffy rolls to go with it and it they were a huge success! I actually have made them twice since pulling out my bread maker a few weeks back. Take a look at my adventure in roll making below.

Bread Maker Roll Recipe

You will need...

1 cup of warm milk (microwave for 1 minute and 50 seconds)

½ cup of margarine

¼ cup of sugar

2 eggs

1½ tsp. of salt

4 cups of sifted flour

2 ¼ tsp. of active dry yeast

Warm the milk and then add to the pan.

Add in the soft margarine.

Then add in the sugar, salt, eggs, and flour.

Finally, make a little well in the center of the flour and spoon in the yeast.

Select the dough setting on your maker and then wait for it to mix up, about 1 hour and 30 minutes depending on your machine.

While the machine is working its magic, grease a 13x9 inch pan or glass dish. This is where your rolls will rise and eventually be baked in. 

When you hear the final beep and the dough is ready, turn the dough onto a floured surface.

Divide into 24 balls and placed in rows of 6 in your 13x9 inch prepared pan/dish. The balls may look “rough” and they may seem super close, but all will be fine in the end.

Cover the balls of dough in your pan/dish with a dish towel and place in a warm spot. Allow to rise for about 45 minutes. Since it isn’t Winter and we don’t have any heat on or super consistent sunny spots, I allowed my rolls to rise in my oven on the Warm and Hold setting which is a very low temperature just enough to keep food warm. If you feel more comfortable then you can dampened your dish towel before placing it in the oven if you’re using this as your warm spot.

Once risen, the dough balls will look like very pale dinner rolls all connected together.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 16 minutes. I like my rolls to be a bit more golden so I let them bake for about 3 extra minutes. You can do what you like though. Add extra time for extra golden rolls. 

You can let them cool for a bit in the dish and then break them apart (they have natural “division lines” where you can separate them) but if you’re like me and my family, we pretty much started snacking on some as soon as they came out of the oven. They’ll be super hot so be careful but they are so tasty warm with melted butter on them!

Baked Manicotti

Once again another week at home. I think I say that every week! I thought I’d make some comforting pasta and since I had more time on my hands, I thought I’d make one that takes a little more time. I decided on a stuffed pasta, manicotti to be exact. Now, the filling that I made can be used for any of your favourite stuffed pastas. Manicotti was what I could find at the store. It’s a little bigger in size than the cannelloni that I usually use and a lot bigger than the jumbo shells that I sometimes stuff as well. So enjoy the pasta!

Stuffing

For this stuffing you will need...

About 2 lbs. of ground beef

¼ cup of parsley

2 cups of mozzarella cheese, shredded

½ cup of parmesan cheese

3-5 cloves of garlic

1 small onion chopped, optional

1-1  ½ cup of tomato sauce

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Brown the garlic and onions in a pan with some olive oil.

Once browned, add in your ground beef and cook well. Drain.

Once cooked and drained, add in the cheeses, tomato sauce, salt and pepper, and parsley.

Mix it all up and cook until all incorporated and gooey ooey.

Place in a glass dish. Once cooled, cover and put in the fridge overnight.

Usually the next day, I prep a tomato sauce. I add peppers, zucchini, diced tomatoes, etc.  whatever you like in your red sauce, add in. Let that simmer.

While your sauce is simmering, stuff your pasta. Some stuffable pastas you can fill when uncooked and they will cook in the oven when you bake your pasta, but the one that I got requires you to boil them first, so that’s what I did.

I just followed the package instructions and then let them cool slightly so that they were easy to handle.

When they were cool enough, I stuffed each of them with the ground beef filling that I made the day before. Be sure not to over fill as they will explode in the oven.

You can freeze any of the leftover filling or use it in another pasta or sauce.

Once the pastas were all filled and ready, I placed them in a casserole dish (put some sauce on the bottom first) and then cover with more of your sauce and then with a layer of mozzarella cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until boiling. Since the pasta is already cooked, you want to make sure you don’t overcook and make the pasta mushy. The pasta is ready when the cheese is all melted. You can put it on a broil at the end to brown the cheese a bit.

Serve warm and enjoy!  

Bread Maker Bread

Another week at home so as I was cleaning up I rediscovered my bread maker. I haven’t used it in some time as I have been so busy and it was easier to just buy bread. Since I have been left with so much free time on my hands, I thought I’d make some fresh bread (I’ve actually made a few loafs and will be making even more). Fresh bread is always so yummy. I made some to have for breakfast and I made some to go along with some pasta the other night.

I will admit that in the past it took some figuring out which recipe worked the best. I have made some bread that didn’t rise and some that were super dense, but take a look at the recipe below to see one that worked out perfectly!

White Bread Maker Bread

You will need...

4 cups of sifted flour (must must must be sifted)

1 ½ cups of warm water (must must must be warm)

2 tsp. of sugar

2 ½ tsp. of dry yeast (I use break maker yeast)

2 tsp. of salt

2 tsp. of oil

How to...

Sift flour.

Warm up your water. You don’t want it to boil but you want it slightly warmer than room temperature. I put it in the microwave for about a minute. Pour the water into the bread maker pan.

Now sprinkle the yeast and then the sugar on top. Allow to sit and foam/bubble for 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes are up, add the salt and then the oil. I used Mazola oil but you can use olive oil instead.

Finally add the flour.

Place the pan into the machine and put it on the basic bread setting. Choose your crust colour and then press start. This setting usually takes about 3 hours.

Once the final “bread is ready” beep occurs, remove the pan and allow the bread to cool in the pan. The pan should be cool to the touch before you try to remove the bread.

You can slice and serve the bread warm or you can let it cool completely and either leave it or slice* it all and store in an airtight container.

Enjoy the fresh delicious bread!

*a regular bread knife will do the job but my dad gave me an electric knife and it sliced my next loaf so perfectly.