Sweet Potato Bread

I love dessert breads. They are a little less sugary tasting than cookies but just as satisfying to me. If you’ve tried my Honey Banana Bread, you may recognize this recipe – it is an adaptation.

For a different texture, try frying a slice of this in butter – it gets crispy and warm and delicious. It makes a great breakfast snack

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp (3/4 stick) salted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups grated raw sweet potato (one medium-large potato will do)
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease loaf pan well, especially the bottom. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
4. Add eggs, vanilla, and sweet potato. Mix until incorporated.
5. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.
6. While stirring sweet potato mixture, slowly add flour mixture until all is incorporated.
7. Pour batter into loan pan.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
9. Remove immediately from pan and let cool completely before cutting.

Double Cheese Mini Pizzas

Happy new year, friends! We've finally finished moving into our new home and I'm welcoming the new year with some fun snacks.

These mini pizzas are a good base because they can be jazzed up with a number of toppings. I anticipate us trying some with caramelized onions, finely chopped pepperoni, or even pesto.

You'll find two variations of the recipe: one in the traditional style, and one where the bread is toasted and cold mozzarella cheese is applied afterward. Both are delicious, although the cold variation does preserve the wonderful texture of cold mozzarella.

Ingredients

• fresh Italian bread
• pasta sauce
• fresh mozzarella, sliced (a 4 oz package will make one cookie sheet's worth of snacks)
• Parmesan cheese
• dried parsley

Directions - Hot Variation

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Cut Italian bread in half lengthwise, then slice into medium-thick pieces. Place on cookie sheet.
3. Spoon a small amount of pasta sauce and spread evenly on the bread.
4. Top each piece with a slice of mozzarella and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Finish with a pinch of parsley.
5. Bake at 450 degrees until cheese gets nice and gooey, about 5 minutes.

Directions - Cold Variation

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Cut Italian bread in half lengthwise, then slice into medium-thick pieces. Place on cookie sheet.
3. Spoon a small amount of pasta sauce and spread evenly on the bread.
4. Bake at 450 degrees for 3-4 minutes, until sauce begins to dry out.
5. Remove from oven. top with slice of cold mozzarella, sprinkle of parmesan cheese, and a pinch of parsley.

Goat Cheese and Grape Crostini

Looking through my recipe binder, I found a picture of crostini topped with grapes. There was no recipe with it, but I couldn't resist giving them a try. I made a big batch for appetizers at a dinner party and they had disappeared by the time dinner was ready.

My favorite part about this recipe is the combination of hot and cold. Your teeth sink into a warm piece of toasted bread topped with soft melted cheese, but the grapes are still cool with a different kind of crunch. I also like the balance of sweet and salty. If you're not a fan of goat cheese, you might consider making these with another spreadable soft cheese, like brie. Or if you are feeling adventurous, you could try one of the soft cheeses on this list.


Ingredients

• most of 1 baguette or French loaf, sliced into rounds
• 8 oz. soft goat cheese
• freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
• red seedless grapes, halved

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Smear each baguette round with goat cheese, then place on large cookie sheet with sides. 
3. Sprinkle crostini with pepper, then parsley.
4. Bake at 425 degrees for 8-12 minutes, until goat cheese is softened and bread is barely toasted.
5. Remove from oven. As crostini are cooling, top each round with a few grape halves.

Honey Banana Bread

One of my friends has an allergy to cane sugar, prompting me to develop a dessert recipe that didn't heavily rely on sweetness for its flavor. No cane sugar means no granulated sugar, no brown sugar, and no molasses. Sure, there are artificial sweeteners like Splenda, which contains xylitol, or natural ones like agave nectar. I wanted a sweetener that was natural but also probably already in people's pantries. 

Honey has a lower glycemic index than sugar, which is good for those concerned with high blood sugar. If you buy local honey, you are also ingesting nectar from the plants and flowers in your region, thus helping your body to be less sensitive to allergens. (Just be careful to buy real, unprocessed honey and not a product diluted with other ingredients. Check out this article for more information.)

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp butter (3/4 stick), softened but not melted
• 3 bananas, very ripe, mashed
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large mixing bowl, mix together butter and bananas with electric or stand mixer (medium or speed #4 using whisk attachment). 
3. With mixer on, pour in honey, vanilla, and egg. Mix for about 1 minute.
4. Add flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix for another 1-2 minutes, until batter looks smooth and creamy.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes.
6. Let cool on cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove bread from pan and let cool for another 30 minutes before cutting.

Comments

Baking with honey was pretty easy. It required reducing the amount of liquid in the other ingredients (i.e. using fewer eggs and less vanilla) and using significantly less honey than was required for the amount of sugar in my original recipe. 

The color of the bread was what most impressed me at first. It came out of the oven a beautiful golden brown color, with a smooth crust.

As for the flavor, I really couldn't tell that there was anything different about it - the banana flavor was pronounced but not overbearing, just the way I like banana bread. Tasted great without butter but would be great with it. Even with the reduction in liquid, the amount in the honey made up the difference so the bread was the perfect texture.

Dill and Sour Cream Rolls

Being Italian, I think that I have a natural inclination toward carbohydrates. Ask my husband, whose family's house we were at for the holiday season. By mid-week I was desperate for pasta, chips, even dry toast. So for an addition to the New Year's Day dinner, I made dill and sour cream rolls. Making bread in general can be a pain if your house is too cold or things aren't the right temperature - in this recipe you'll notice several ingredients are marked a specific temperature (lukewarm, cooled, at room temperature...) - these notes are important, as temperature can affect the outcome of the rolls, how long they will take to rise, and how they will taste when done. I found the recipe for these delicious rolls over at Coconut & Lime - I made a few changes to the ingredients, which are reflected in my version of the recipe below.
Ingredients

• 1/4 cup lukewarm water
• 1 package active dry yeast (which measures in at 1/4 oz)
• 3/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature (I bought the smallest container of sour cream available and let it sit out while preparing other things)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 2 Tbsp dillweed (dried dill)
• 1/2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp salt
• 3 1/4 cups flour (I used unbleached bread flour)
• 2 eggs (1 for dough, 1 for brushing)
• butter for greasing the pan
  

Directions

1. Place water in the largest mixing bowl you have. Sprinkle the yeast in, mix, and let stand for 5-10 minutes.
2. Add sour cream, melted butter, dillweed, sugar, and salt. Mix well.
3. Add flour, about 1 cup at a time, mixing well as you go. (C&L recommends adding a splash of milk if the dough is too dry.) As you need to, transfer dough to table and continue kneading until all flour is incorporated and dough is barely sticky.
   
4. Grease the bowl with butter and return dough to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel and put bowl in a warm, dry spot to rise until dough doubles in size. (My dough took about 1.5 hours)
5. Grease a 13x9 pan with butter.
   
6. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Place each roll in the pan, cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel and allow rolls to double in size. (This took my dough another hour or so)
7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
   
8. Beat the other egg and brush it over each roll.
9. Bake rolls for 15-20 minutes, turning the pan 180 degrees in the oven after about 10 minutes.

Comments
Warm out of the oven, these rolls were delicious. However, it wasn't until we were eating the precious leftovers later as a snack that we were able to taste the flavors, specifically the dill. The true test of a good roll, according to my brothers, is if you are able to enjoy the roll free of any dressings, including butter or jam. These passed the test.