Hey guys! We’re back on the series I’m doing for Simple Recipes to Build Your Recipe Box, and if you want to see the other recipes from this series, have a look over there! Today though we’re touching on bread.
I wanted a super simple bread recipe that worked well for a classic sandwich bread loaf, but that can also be a great base for other bread recipes! What you get here is a pillowy center of bread, a medium-thickness crust, and an overall buttery, lightly-sweet flavor.
In a lot of ways, I’d totally love to be one of those moms that makes homemade bread for the homemade lunches of her children every week, but I also know that’s never going to happen for me. It’s cool, we do not have to do this actually, it turns out grocery stores really give us a hand sometimes.
BUT, it is really, really nice to have the smell of homemade bread wafting through your house sometimes, and this is a great place to start.
Baking bread at high-altitude is really tough. It’s always been one of the most-failed types of recipes for me, but often the fix is fairly simple here. The thing that is most important for high-altitude bread baking is to not let it rise to much! Where sea level recipes typically take longer to rise, you also don’t want to rise your dough as much in size- for example, if it says to double the size, you probably only want to see it rise by about 1/3 in size here at altitude.
I actually usually take a picture of my dough with my phone right when I set it aside to rise, and use it for reference to make sure I know how big it’s getting. It’s tough to remember, or maybe that’s just because I’m getting old? Anyways, my point is- don’t over-rise your doughs!
The other main issue here is that liquid evaporates a bit faster up here, so I usually add an extra couple of tablespoons of water or milk to my bread recipes to compensate for that. And finally, you may notice bland-tasting bread on occasion, so you just want to be a bit more generous with salt and sugar!
So here we are. The perfect sandwich bread. It’s sweetened with a little bit of sugar and also a little honey, which adds a nice touch of flavor. Plus, it’s brushed with butter both before and after baking, it’s fantastic you guys!
I hope you enjoy this one- there’s really nothing quite like fresh-baked bread, so if you’ve never done it, make today the day!
In a microwave safe bowl, heat the water, milk, sugar, honey, and 1 tbs. butter in the microwave until it reaches 110-115 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Stir in the active dry yeast, and set aside to bloom for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture is bubbly and foamy.
Transfer the yeast mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer (or into a large mixing bowl), and add in two cups of flour along with the salt. Mix until combined with a paddle attachment, or with a wooden spoon. The mixture will be liquidy and lumpy at this point.
Add in another cup of flour, and continue adding in 1/4 cup portions until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Switch to a hook attachment at this point. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky when you stop adding flour.
Knead either in the mixer or by hand until the dough is elastic. By hand, this will take about 10 minutes, and by mixer it should take about 5. The dough may still be slightly lumpy, but should spring back when you touch it.
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled large bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise by about 1/3 in size, which takes about 30 minutes for me, but keep an eye on your dough size to avoid over-proofing.
Grease an 8 or 9 inch loaf pan. Set aside.
Roll your dough into a large rectangle. One side should be about the same length as the length of your loaf pan. Roll the dough, starting on the loaf-pan-length side, into a tight log, and place seam-side down into your prepared loaf pan. Cover with plastic.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes. It will be just slightly puffed. Brush the top of the loaf generously with some of the melted butter, and bake for 45-48 minutes. The dough should reach a deep golden brown color, and you can use an instant read thermometer to see that the inside reaches 195 degrees.
Brush the remaining melted butter over the top of the loaf immediately when you take it out of the oven. Cool for about 20 minutes in the pan, and then turn out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling. Wait until the bread is completely cool to slice. Enjoy!
Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and Dough-eyed is a food blog for people who want to bake for their family and friends in high-altitude areas. Think of me as a friendly voice there with you in the kitchen, here to give you confidence when you’re baking, and to help you with the struggles of baking at high-altitude. Come back every week for new recipes, tips, and advice on high-altitude baking!
Hey guys! It’s been a while since we’ve gone to the savory side of things on here, so I think it’s about time.
I’ve been watching the newest season of The Great British Bake Show, and first of all, if you aren’t watching this, get on it. It’s like a breath of fresh air compared to American food competition shows. Everyone is super nice to each other and the whole thing feels way more wholesome.
And anyways, every time I watch a season of this show, when it comes to pastry week, those savory pies give me a craving. On Sunday morning a while back, I was watching the latest season, and the bakers where making savory pies that were KILLING ME. I had to have one.
Also, side note, why don’t Americans eat more savory pies? I don’t know why it’s not a thing here, outside of chicken pot pie that is, because savory pies are so flippin good. It’s like full on comfort food. Flakey pie crust, gravy, potatoes, meat? It’s the perfect meal.
So anyways, onto this pie. Because there’s a lot of steps here (and I have a baby to tend to), I’m using a couple of shortcuts here. The first is store-bought pie crust. I know, I know, I’m a baker, and listen, it’s not that I CAN’T make a pie crust. It’s that I don’t always have the time, and you probably don’t either. Anyways, I also bought pre-sliced mushrooms for this, huge help because honestly chopping takes time.
I baked mine in a braiser-style dutch oven. If you don’t have one of those, you can also bake it in a regular standard 6-7 quart dutch oven, or similar oven-safe pot. Or if you have a deep dish square-ish casserole dish, that would probably work as well.
As for the steak, I used short ribs. They were at a good price at my store. Now, I’m gonna be honest, I’m not great at cooking red meat, so I don’t have a ton to go on here, but the short ribs worked really well for me. I hear that any type of stew meat would work well here.
So anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this one, it’s one of my favs lately!
In a large saucepan, cook the sliced onions, olive oil, sugar, 1 tsp. of salt and 1 tsp. of pepper over medium-high heat until the onions are caramelized. This should take about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, mince the garlic cloves, and place them into a medium bowl. After the onions are caramelized, scoop them into the bowl with the garlic. Set aside.
Place your saucepan back on the stove, and return to medium-high heat. Cut the steak into bite-size cubes, and toss with the 2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. pepper, and 2 tsp. garlic powder. Brown in your saucepan until the edges have reached a deep brown, and the meat is cooked through. Remove the steak from the pan, and place into a small bowl, set aside.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line your baking dish with the bottom pie crust, and prick with a fork. Bake for 15 minutes, until it's reached a light golden brown. Set aside.
Back on medium-high heat, add the sliced mushrooms, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. pepper, and beer into your pot. Cook until the beer has reduced significantly, and then add the onions and garlic back into the pan. Stir in the tomato paste, and then the beef stock.
Add the cubed potatoes, 1 tbs. salt, 2 tsp. pepper, rosemary, thyme, and 1 tbs. garlic powder, and boil for about 10 minutes, or until the potatoes have cooked through. In a small bowl, stir together the cornstarch and water until combined. Pour into the boiling stew, and stir constantly until it becomes very thick. Stir in the cooked steak.
Pour the mixture into your prepared bottom crust in your baking dish. Place the top crust over the top, and slice vent holes. Beat the egg, and brush over the top of the crust. Sprinkle with salt and pepper lightly. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top crust is golden brown. Serve hot.
Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and Dough-eyed is a food blog for people who want to bake for their family and friends in high-altitude areas. Think of me as a friendly voice there with you in the kitchen, here to give you confidence when you’re baking, and to help you with the struggles of baking at high-altitude. Come back every week for new recipes, tips, and advice on high-altitude baking!
Do you guys watch Seinfeld?
My husband is obsessed with sitcoms, and Seinfeld is definitely on the list. There’s an episode where babka plays a big role, which is one thing I think of when I think of this recipe- “Lesser babka? I think not!”
Anyways, if you don’t watch the show, that was probably nonsense to you. The bigger reason I love babka, though, is that I am carb-obsessed. If you’re here, you probably are too. It’s cool, this is a safe space for us bread lovers.
Basically, babka is typically a sweet number, but today we’re switching it up a bit. Normally you’ve got lots of layers of a dense yeast bread and some kind of gooey chocolate or cinnamon filling, and let me tell you, that version of things is fan-freakin-tastic. But sometimes you need a little bit of savory bread too.
The way this recipe works is by rolling your dough super thin. It rises while baking, so even though the dough feels super delicate while you work on filling and shaping it, the result is perfect.
Since pesto has both olive oil and cheese for moisture, it offers a very similar texture to your traditional babka recipes as well. More importantly, I love pesto.
Baking bread at a high altitude is tough you guys. I get it. Baking in general is much more complicated at altitude, but when you spend hours letting bread rise, and shaping it, and letting it rise again, only to end up with something you don’t want to eat?? It’s suuuper disappointing.
Here’s my biggest tip for bread at a high altitude- watch the dough, not the clock. When I realized I was over-proofing most of my bread doughs, everything got better.
Make the pesto babka. It’ll work, it’ll taste awesome, and it’ll impress you’re friends.
Ingredients
Instructions
Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and Dough-eyed is a food blog for people who want to bake for their family and friends in high-altitude areas. Think of me as a friendly voice there with you in the kitchen, here to give you confidence when you’re baking, and to help you with the struggles of baking at high-altitude. Come back every week for new recipes, tips, and advice on high-altitude baking!
Hi everyone! Today is a special post- it’s actually my 100th recipe on the blog!
I’m going savory for number 100 with these soft pretzel twists, and they’re super easy to make actually. Let’s just have a real moment here, where we all admit to ourselves that soft pretzels are one of God’s gifts to earth. Like what self-respecting carb-lover does NOT like soft pretzels?
It’s actually one of the easier bread types to make because it only has to rise once, which means there’s less chance to screw it up basically. It does, however, have the odd step of boiling the dough before baking it, but that’s what gives it that pillowy texture we all love.
Here’s the idea; you make the dough, give it a bit to rise, until it doubles in size and looks about like this:
Then, divide your dough in half, in half again, and then into fourths. Roll into a rope, fold it in half and twist. Then tuck the ends into the loop so you end up with a twisted roll shape, like this:
Next, you’ll boil the dough twists in water mixed with baking soda for about 30 seconds. Place it on your baking sheet, brush on an egg wash, and sprinkle coarse salt and pepper over the tops:
Then bake ’em up! Here’s what they look like all pretty and golden:
Even if you haven’t been following Dough-eyed for too long, I hope you celebrate this 100th post with me, and bake up some pretzel twists. You can use them as slider buns, a twist on dinner rolls, or just with nacho cheese- the classic.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
Instructions
Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and Dough-eyed is a food blog for people who want to bake for their family and friends in high-altitude areas. Think of me as a friendly voice there with you in the kitchen, here to give you confidence when you’re baking, and to help you with the struggles of baking at high-altitude. Come back every week for new recipes, tips, and advice on high-altitude baking!
Fresh baked bread is maybe the best thing you can do. Your whole house is going to smell AMAZING, I promise, and you can enjoy it with super yummy butters, like this garlic pesto version.
This is a high altitude recipe, so if you’re making this at sea level, you’ll want to decrease the liquid by about 1/4 cup, and let your dough rise for 15-20 minutes longer on each rise.
On another note, if you’ve ever tried to make bread at a high altitude, you’ve probably been unhappy with the results. In my case, I almost always ended up with a very dense, heavy, and overly chewy end product that was… not good basically. In high altitudes, the rising times are a huge factor, so pay close attention to each rise for your dough!
Eating bread thats still warm from the oven is one of the better things in life, and this recipe is an easy one. Bake bread today. Tomorrow. And everyday. (JK, that’s just a dream of mine).
I also made mine with a honey cinnamon butter, which is fantastic too!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
Instructions
Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and Dough-eyed is a food blog for people who want to bake for their family and friends in high-altitude areas. Think of me as a friendly voice there with you in the kitchen, here to give you confidence when you’re baking, and to help you with the struggles of baking at high-altitude. Come back every week for new recipes, tips, and advice on high-altitude baking!
Today we’re talking biscuits guys.
For me, biscuits are up there on the list of comfort foods, and I’m kind of a carb-o-holic. Biscuits and gravy is maybe my favorite breakfast meal, and guys, can you imagine THESE biscuits under your gravy??
This version is loaded with sharp cheddar cheese, thyme, rosemary, and bacon. Could there really be anything better? Don’t get me wrong, I love plain old classic biscuits, but these are crazy flavorful. I pulled them out of the oven and they barely lasted long enough for me to take pictures.
I used thyme and rosemary for mine, but you can really add any fresh herbs that you prefer in here. I also used traditional yellow cheddar cheese, mainly just for the color appeal, but if you’ve got white cheddar, that’ll taste just as amazing!
The key with biscuits is to avoid over-working them. Just keep it gentle, and don’t worry about getting everything perfectly incorporated- that will make for a tough biscuit!
The cheese will caramelize a bit in the oven, and with some coarse sea salt on top, you can just eat these babies plain. I was going to serve them with some herb butter, but the herbs come out in a beautiful way already inside the biscuits, so it’s totally not needed.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
Instructions
Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and Dough-eyed is a food blog for people who want to bake for their family and friends in high-altitude areas. Think of me as a friendly voice there with you in the kitchen, here to give you confidence when you’re baking, and to help you with the struggles of baking at high-altitude. Come back every week for new recipes, tips, and advice on high-altitude baking!
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