English Muffins

This is a recipe that I've been eagerly awaiting baking. This is actually a mess in place, believe it or not, I have all the ingredients in this picture. Would someone pick Tammy up off the floor because I know she just fainted.

I love having my own personal kneading machine. Didn't take too long to knead it.

First rise. This was one of the hardest parts of this recipe, waiting for time to do the next step.

Nice and pretty with the rise complete. I think because the kitchen was hot, it took less time than originally determined.

The parchment lined pan waiting for the second rise.

Lovely to look at with the cornmeal.

I used my George Foreman Grill for the first step. I have the one that you can change out the grill pans. Made it very easy to grill the muffins.

The bottoms aren't really very brown. Guess I should have let them go longer on the griddle, but they tasted good.

The crumb shot. Looks great. See the nooks and crannies? I used a fork and split the muffins. I ate one right away, OK, after 30 minutes. Then next one I ate the next morning for breakfast. I have one set aside for tomorrow's breakfast. The rest were tossed into the freezer as frozen assets to be enjoyed in the future.

The English muffins made into egg muffins. I used Egg substitute and the cheese was garlic onion white cheddar cheese. Very yummy. The muffins were very tender. I think I may stop buying English muffins and make them.

I finished up breakfast with watermelon and blueberries.

Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread

Miss in Place. It seems that whenever I set out my ingredients, I always miss one. I made a few changes to this recipe out of necessity. I did not have Lemon extract, so I used Butter Flavor. I only had 1 cup of craisins so they were a little short.

The dry ingredients are gathering together to start making dough.

This was the missing ingredient. Butter. I popped it into the microwave and melted it. Yes, I did take off the wrapping first.

The wet ingredients are together except for the eggs. I don't know why I decided to go eggless with this bread but I did figure it out and added them a bit late. Glad I didn't toss it into the oven before I figured out my error.

Here is the bread dough before I figured out that the eggs were missing. It looked very dense and not quite right.

The eggs are in and the kneading process is complete.

Add a little flour because the dough is toooooo soft.

After the cranberries and walnuts are kneaded in before the first rise.

Ready for the first rise. It should take until 1110. I'll have to throw it into the refrigerator and pull it out after church.

Before time to go to church and because the house is so hot, it completed it's first rise before I had to leave for church. Punched it down and then went to church.

Threw the dough into the refrig to await my return after church. When I came back, the dough was as big as it was before I punched it down.

The three big rolls are rolled out. The small rolls are awaiting their turn.

The big rolls are braided into a triple braid. Looking pretty.

The small one is done. Looks like an old man with the eye and his nose and cheeks.

The egg wash and my favorite basting brush. It cleans up in the dishwasher. Must have in the kitchen.

The egg wash is complete.

The double celebration bread. Two triple braids atop of each other.

The temp is just right for the bread.

Fresh out of the oven. A pretty shade of golden brown. It thumped nicely also.

Mama, do you have bread??

Do you mean this bread?

No, I mean this bread. Please Mama. I came all the way from Washington to San Diego just to get some of the bread.

Sliced the end off to get this crumb shot. Made sure that I got low and close. UMMM.

The crumb shot. I got in close on the loaf and the slice. Looks as yummy as it tasted.

The bread is all packaged and ready to leave with Alden. When it was time to go, he almost forgot it until I mentioned that he had bread to enjoy this week.

Corn Bread

I am amazed that the only quick bread that we are making in this challenge takes two days to make.
Here are the ingredients for the overnight soak. I was very happy to pull out 2 cups of buttermilk from my frozen assets (out of the freezer).

The next day, the polenta looks so very pretty.

It is easy not to forget anything when it is on the counter waiting to be used. Doesn't it look so pretty.

This is what 8 ounces of bacon looks like. I know because I weighed it. Turned out to be 9 pieces.

Since I was making cornbread, out came my great grandmother's skillet. I put the bacon in the skillet and tossed it in the oven.

The dry ingredients in the big bowl.

I don't like sifting together dry ingredients, whisking it together gets the job done.

The three eggs awaiting the whisks.

The eggs are beaten.

2 Tablespoons of butter, yes, I did take the wrapper off before I melted it in the microwave.

Adding the honey and butter to the eggs. I was worried about the hot butter cooking the eggs, but it didn't happen.

All the wet ingredients are combined, this is a very easy bread to make.

Adding the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. I really liked this shot.The wet ingredients combined with the dry ingredients.

The corn is in the mix. I liked the idea of corn in cornbread.

The bacon is coarsely crumbled. Of course I had to test if first.

I baked up all the bacon figuring that I would put the excess into my frozen assets. I forgot to figure in the hubby. He came home and wanted dinner. His evening plans had changed. The evening was supposed to be him enjoying time at a local pub and eat there. I gave him 2 BLTs for dinner and had no extra for the freezer.

The batter is in the skillet. The bacon is on the top. Looks good enough to eat. Time to throw it into oven for 30 minutes. I checked it after the thirty minutes, it was very wet in the center and the internal temp had not been achieved. I added 5 minutes to time because it just wasn't ready. The final time was 50 minutes because of the skillet.

The final product looked superb. Because of the bacon grease, it flipped out of the pan very easily. I think next time I make this bread (and there will be a next time) I will reduce the 2 tablespoons grease in the skillet. The bread was a little greasy. The next day, the extra was absorbed and the bread was very moist but not too much.

Isn't this a very pretty crumb shot. See the corn kernel peeking out of the middle.

I would like to add some onions with the corn in the future.