52 in 52 #22 Sweet Dough for the Bread Machine

So I made cinnamon rolls a few weeks ago and they were amazing.  Well, I thought they were amazing; Corry thought they were 'so-so'.  I have always wanted to have an amazing cinnamon roll recipe in my proverbial back pocket for recipes, so I kept looking. 

I looked for every kind of cinnamon roll on Pinterest and was unimpressed by most of them.  I knew that I wanted the mixture for the inside to have more than just brown sugar and cinnamon but I wasn't sure what I wanted that to be. 

Thursday night was a pretty significant ice storm in DFW, so what better to do on a Friday morning when you are iced/snowed in, than to experiment with homemade cinnamon rolls?  Corry found this recipe on Pinterest for Sweet Bread Dough that we can make in the bread machine.  It was simple to put together with basic ingredients that most people would have on hand.   

A warning:  This dough is VERY sticky.  We only used the bread machine to mix/knead the ingredients together and then we took it out to rise in the oven because we were making two batches so we would have some for this morning as well.  After the dough rose for right at an hour, I took it out and kneaded about 1/2 cup flour into each batch just to make the dough manageable enough to roll out. 

We used this recipe for both our Basic Cinnamon Roll recipe (shown above) and also our Fancy Cinnamon Roll recipe and they both turned out amazing.  This dough is not overly sweet and could be used with any cinnamon roll recipe that you would like to try. 

Cinnamon Roll Dough for the Bread Machine
Prep time: 5 mins
Mix time: approx. 20 mins - we aren't sure how long - just use the 'dough' button on your machine and wait for it to stop mixing/beating
Rise time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp butter
1 beaten egg,
2 and 1/4 cups bread flour
1/4 white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp yeast

Instructions:
Select loaf size on your bread machine.  Add all ingredients and select Dough button.  Remove from machine once dough has finished kneading.  Add to well greased pan, and cover with a greased piece of plastic wrap.  Allow to rise in a warm, draft free location for an hour.  Once risen to at least double the original size, remove from pan and knead in enough flour to make dough less sticky.  You don't want the dough to be too sticky or else you won't be able to roll the dough out.  Fill with your desired toppings and bake according to instructions for your recipe.  See recipes for Basic Cinnamon Rolls or Fancy Cinnamon Rolls. 

Enjoy! 

 

Homemade Pumpkin Bread

Two years ago, I roasted my own pumpkins.  It was at that point that I realized that we needed more recipes for pumpkin.  Insert pumpkin bread.  I had always heard people talk about how awesome pumpkin bread was and a certain un-named major coffee shop has a pumpkin cream cheese bread that is to die for.  I wanted a bread like that in my repertoire. 

I searched online and found a recipe for pumpkin bread from the website where I first got the information about roasting the pumpkins.  I tried it that weekend and it was amazing!  Since then I have made this recipe about 20 different times and have changed very little.  I will admit that we now add chopped pecans and white chocolate chips this year and it makes it really special.  I recently took this to a potluck at my job and it was met with rave reviews. 

Homemade pumpkin bread

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 65-70 mins

3.5 cups all purpose flour - I have used bread flour and it seems to work exactly the same
3 cups white sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg - I grate my own for each use so sometimes I use more, sometimes less.  I have found that nutmeg is a taste that not everyone loves...
1.5 tsp salt
.5 tsp allspice
2 cups roasted pureed pumpkin
.5 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
4 whole eggs, beaten
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.  I never use a mixer for this because you want to stir as little as possible and I get better control over the amount that is mixed with a whisk than the stand mixer.  After dry ingredients are mixed together, mix in wet ingredients until fully combined.  Pour into loaf pans.  This bread will rise a bit so I normally don't fill my loaf pans anymore than 3/4ths of the way full.  It normally takes 3 medium sized loaf pans - I use the aluminum ones.  Bake 65 - 70 mins.  I normally cool mine 10 minutes in the pans and then remove and cool completely on a wire rack. 

Enjoy! 

Bread Machine - Basic White Sandwich Bread recipe

Once upon a time, many moons ago, I convinced Corry to buy me a bread machine.  In order to convince him to buy me one, I had to promise that I would use it all the time.  Fast forward to yesterday and we had only used it a handful of times and I had never used it by myself.  Less than ideal results on my part. 

I decided yesterday that I wanted to start using our bread machine primarily to make our sandwich bread.  Our household typically eats at least 4 sandwiches per day, so we go through a lot of bread in a month.  Because I am trying to reduce our trips to the grocery, this seems like a step in the correct direction.  Plus, since I am using a bread machine, this is possibly the easiest thing that I have baked in months. 

This recipe makes a 1.5-2 lb loaf of awesome white sandwich bread.  It has a slight sweetness to it and a super thin crust that does an amazing job of helping the bread hold it's shape and is absolutely perfect for a sandwich or toast.  We allow ours to sit out after cooking for a few hours to cool and to develop a bit of a tougher crust because we light a more crusty bread. 

Basic White Sandwich Bread
1.5 - 2lb loaf
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 3 hours in bread machine

3 cups flour - the recommendation is bread flour, but I use A/P and it works fine
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons white sugar
2 & 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup warm water - recommended 110 degrees Fahrenheit

• Mix water and yeast together and set aside.  You are not waiting for the yeast to fully activate but you do want them combined while you measure and add the other ingredients to the pan. 
• Add all other ingredients and pour water & yeast mixture over the top. 
• Start machine - should run for 3 hours in a bread machine.  We say medium color, size 2lbs, and sandwich bread. 

We cut ours into slices as we use it.  You could also slice it as soon as it is done in the machine.  Because there are no preservatives in this bread it will mold quickly so you will want to eat in 2-3 days. 

More bread machine recipes to come!!