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.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

This is the only picture that remains of my lovely Cinnamon Raisin Bread. My habit during this challenge is to bring my digital camera into the kitchen and snap a step by step journey. I did that. I loaded the pictures into my computer and at the same time asked it to delete the pictures from the camera. (Mistake #1) As I was looking through the recently uploaded pictures, I noticed one that didn't look good. I decided to delete that picture. (Mistake #2) When I told it to delete that single picture, (Mistake #3) my silly computer decided to delete all my lovely pictures. I won't be making those mistakes again.

As you can see from the single surviving picture, take after my mean computer deleted all the rest, I had a very nice swirl going on.

I liked the taste of this bread. It was very easy to make. I made a slight change to the recipe. When I was looking for bulk raisins at Henry's, I saw crimson raisins. I had never had them and so I sampled one raisins and then bought the cup and a half for the recipe. I would do this again even though the cost is a bit more.

My friends at work said that my bread rivaled Dudley in Ramona. If you live in San Diego, you know what a big compliment that is.

My dh does not care for raisins, in the future, I would make one loaf with dried cranberries.

I loved the walnuts in the bread, great crunch.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I want to thank my sistah, Tammy from the Missing Piece. My silly computer deleted all my pictures and she told me how to recover them. Thanks Sis.
Mess in Place. I have the sugar crystals to decorate the top of the loafe.

Dry ingredients in the bowl.

Wet ingredients added to dry ingredients.

Cinnamon sugar in a bowl.

I love having my kitchen help kneading my bread. I have to steady her when it gets close.

Time to take the dough out of the KA and knead in the raisins and walnuts.

The first rise the time is on the wrap so that I don't forget.

A new find at Henry's, Crimson Raisins. A little costier than regular raisins but a lot more tasty.

It took a bit to knead in the raisins and the walnuts but worth it.

Second rise. I made two loaves in 9 inch pans instead of 8 inch.

In the oven with a lot of oven spring. Looking yummier. I can't wait.

Melted butter for the top of the loaf.

Cinnamon sugar with the egg wash.

It's out of the oven. Love the look. I don't care that it's warty that means that goodness is awaiting under the surface.

On the cooling racks.

With the sugar crystals, cinnamon sugar on top. Unfortunately, the crystals didn't ahere very well. Ended up on the floor.

A lovely swirl.

A friend told me this bread rivals Dudley Bakery.

The crumb shot with the crimson raisins and the swirl.

Cinnamon Rolls

Finally, cinnamon rolls, I have been looking forward to cooking these since I first paged through the Bread Bakers Apprentice Cookbook. This was a busy week, I was an actor in our vacation bible school, A Week in Rome. I was an early Roman Christian and led our visitors to the Cave. We also had an out of town visitor, Pete (Waldo) Greenwald made it safely back from Afghanistan.

Here is the recipe. The picture of the book looks great.

My ingredients waiting to become something very yummy! I used the last of my lemon extract in this recipe. I will experiment with other extracts. I think maple, rum, butter would also give the rolls a nice flavor.

The ingredients are in the bowl, the kneading starts.

The kneading is complete. Doesn't it look so pretty.

This window pane test, this is the first time that I have actually taken the time to see what this meant. Looks pretty. Hard to photograph being both the photobug and the hand doing the test.

Time for the first rise. Since its busy here at the house, noted the time to finish the rise on the saran wrap.

Since neither Larry nor I drink buttermilk, where is Alden when I really need him? Guess up in Bremerton going to college and enjoy that Lovely Bride, Katherine. I put 1 cup of buttermilk into ziplock bags to go into the freezer and await for another time when I need buttermilk. Great addition to my frozen assets.

The first batch of rolls got over cooked. Not quite burnt, although Larry said that he really like them that way. Mulligan, here are the dry ingredients added to the creamed ingredients.

A bit more adding. I am glad that I decided at the beginning of this challenge that I would let my kitchen help do that task for me.

Time for the buttermilk to be added.

The paddle did it's task so prettily. Dough hook, it's your turn.

The process of kneading the dough. Looking good.

Time for the rise. Note the time in green.

Cinnamon sugar in a bowl. Looks pretty. I wonder if my colored sugars would work here.

The rectangle is rolled out. The pretty cinnamon sugar is spread. Time to roll it up. I found the dough really sticky and a little hard to roll but guess it needs to be sticky to stick into a roll.

The roll look very pretty. Tammy, do you like this picture better. I tried to get closer to the bread.

A little longer view of that lovely roll.

Tammy suggested cutting the dough with thread. I found this very awkward. I did use my rocker knife. It did a great job and it was easy to transport the rolls to the pan.

Don't they look pretty on their pan?

This step is done. Time for them to rest and rise for 90 minutes.

The rise is complete. Time for them to go into the oven. Not the 30 minutes, we will check on them at 20 minutes and then let them go for a bit longer. I am heartsick that I burnt the first batch. I was happy that these were pretty easy.

A close up of the rolls after they rose. Love the look of the cinnamon.

After 20 minutes of baking. They look very pretty.

A close up of one of the pretty babies. It looks like she was ready for her close up.

Here are the cooled rolls. Note the glaze in a ziplock bag to make it very easy to drizzle the glaze.

It's hard to drizzle and snap a picture also. I think I did a good job. Don't they look lovely?

Yummy. There weren't enough of these beauties to make it to work this week. I will definitely make these for a future red hat event. The ladies will love them. I think if I want to make them, it would be easy to find other people to give them to eat. The hard part would be not having enough to give everyone who would want one.