Chocolate Braids

2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/3 cup honey -- divided
6 tablespoons butter -- softened
1 egg
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups bread flour -- to 3 cups
Cream Cheese Filling:
4 Ounces cream cheese -- softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Topping:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter -- cold
1/4 cup chopped nuts
Icing:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons milk

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add 2 teaspoons honey; let stand for 5 minutes.

Add the butter, egg, cocoa, salt, 1 1/2 cups bread flour, and remaining honey. Beat for 2 minutes, or until smooth. Stir in enough remaining bread flour to form a soft dough.

Turn out onto a floured surface knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.

Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down, divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll one portion into a 12x7 rectangle.

In a small mixing bowl, beat together the filling ingredients until smooth. Spread half of the filling over the dough to within 1-inch of the edges. Roll up jelly roll style, starting with the long side; pinch the seams to seal.

Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet. With a sharp knife, carefully cut roll in half lengthwise, not cutting all the way through one end. Carefully, turn cut sides up. Loosely twist strips around each other, keeping cut sides up. Pinch ends to seal.

Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

For the topping, combine the flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl; cut in butter until crumbly. Add nuts, and sprinkle over risen loaves.

Bake at 350ºF for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Combine icing ingredients and drizzle over loaves.

Source:
"Taste of Home"
Copyright:
"Feb/Mar 2008"
Yield:
"2 loaves"

Basic Pizza Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 package yeast
1 cup water

1. Combine sugar, water and yeast in a measuring cup or small bowl.
2. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the center.
3. Pour yeast mixure and oil in well and stir into dry ingredients until you have a soft dough.
4. If dough is too sticky, add a bit more flour.
5. Knead until smooth on a lightly floured surface.
6. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a towel and let rise until doubled.
7. Punch down and let rest for 10 minutes.
8. Makes 1- deep dish or 2- 12" pizza crusts.
9. To bake, top with your favorite sauce, cheese, etc.
10. Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes or until crispy and cheese is bubbling.

Cinnamon Loaf

from the Woman's Day Collector's Cook Book

1 package active dry yeast
2/3 cup mik, scalded
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1 teaspoon salt
Butter
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Sprinkle dry yeast into 2 tablespoons very warm water. Let stand a few minutes; then stir until dissolved.

Pour hot milk over 1/4 cup sugar, the salt, and four tablespoons butter; cool. Add eggs, yeast and half the flour. Beat with a rotary beater or electric beater until smooth. Beat in remaining flour with spoon. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch down and knead lightly. Roll out on floured pastry cloth or board to a rectangle 18" by 9". Spread with 2 tablespoons butter; sprinkle with 1/4 cup sugar mixed with cinnamon. Roll up tightly from the short end and put in greased 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan. Brush with 2 tablespoons melted butter and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake in a moderate oven (350ºF) about 30 minutes.

Herbed Focaccia/All-Purpose Pizza Dough

All-Purpose Pizza Dough (recipe to follow)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Cooking Spray
1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1. Roll prepared dough into a 12 x 8 rectangle on a floured surface. Sprinkle parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme over dough. fold dough into thirds. Knead lightly 1 minute or until herbs are blended into dough. Cover and let stand 10 minutes. Roll dough into a 14 x 12 inch rectangle. Place dough onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray and sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and let rise in a warm place 35 minutes or until doubled in size.

2. Preheat oven to 450ºF.

3. Uncover dough. Make indentations in top of dough using handle of a wooden spoon or your fingertips. Gently brush dough with oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake dough at 450ºF for 15 minutes or until browned. Yield: 8 Servings.


Cooking Light's All-Purpose Pizza Dough

1 package dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl, and let stand 5 minutes. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Add 1 cup flour and salt to yeast mixture and stir well. Add 2 cups flour, q cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. Turn dough out onto floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes), adding enough of remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel tacky).

2. Place dough into a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85ºF.) free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size. Punch dough down; cover and let rest 5 minutes. Shape dough according to recipe directions. Yield: Dough for 1 pizza or focaccia.

3. To make pizza, roll dough into a 15-inch circle on a floured surface. Place dough on a 15-inch round pizza pan sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover dough, and let rise in a warm place 20 minutes, or until puffy. Preheat oven to 450ºF, bake topped pizza for 15 minutes or until golden, makes 4 servings.

Beautiful Burger Buns

from King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion

1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon yeast
1 teaspoon onion powder (optional)
1/2 teaspoon dried minced onion (optional)

Combine all the ingredients and mix and knead them together- by hand or by mixer- until you've made a soft smooth dough. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover it,and let rise for 1 hour.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces and shape each piece into a flattened ball. Place the buns on greased baking sheets, cover, and let rise 30 to 40 minutes, until they're quite puffy.

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Bake the buns for 12 to 15 minutes, until they're golden brown. Remove them from the oven and cool them on a rack. Split and use for burgers or sandwiches. For burgers, butter the split sides and fry them, buttered side down, until they're golden brown and warmed through.

Sandwich Bread

adapted from Joy of Cooking

Makes 2 loaves of sandwich style bread

4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 cup milk
1 cup water
2 tablespoons shortening or butter
2 tablespoons sugar or honey
1 tablespoon salt
4 to 5 1/2 cups bread flour

Combine lukewarm water and yeast in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine milk, 1 cup water, shortening, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan. Stir and heat over medium low heat until sugar and salt has dissolved. Mixture should be lukewarm to the touch- but no warmer than 115ºF.

Pour warmed milk mixture into the yeast mixture, stir to combine. Add 3 cups of the bread flour and stir vigorously for 1 minute. Adding 1/2 cup of flour at a time, stir in flour with a wooden spoon until you can't anymore. Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and begin kneading with your hands- adding enough flour at a time to keep the dough from sticking. Depending on the humidity this can take a little or a lot more flour. Knead for a total of 10 minutes.

Set dough in a lightly greased large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 1/2 hours. Punch dough down, knead briefly, and allow to rise again for about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Divide dough in half and shape into two loaves. Place in two 9x5 loaf pans that have been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 45 minutes. While the dough is rising the final time, preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Place the bread pans in the oven for 10 minutes.

Without opening the door, turn the temperature down to 375ºF. Bake for another 30 minutes. The bread should be golden brown and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom. Remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

This bread slices very well for sandwiches and is very slow to stale. It also stores nicely well-wrapped in a freezer.

**To make a whole-wheat or other grain variety, increase the yeast to 4 1/4 teaspoons, and swap out 2 cups of the initial addition of bread flour for your choice of flour. Whole wheat, rye, and oat flour all work very nicely.

Buttermilk Oatmeal Bread

Buttermilk Oatmeal Bread

2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup buttermilk

• Stir together the flours, oats, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl; add the butter, buttermilk and yeast mixture and beat with an electric mixer until the ingredients are well blended.
• Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.
• Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl; cover with a tea towel and let the dough rise in a warm place until it is doubled in size, about 1 hour.
• Punch the dough down and let it rise again, covered with a tea towel, for 45 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350° and oil a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.
• Punch the dough down again and place it in the loaf pan; bake for 35-40 minutes or till the loaf pulls away from the side of the pan and loaf sounds hollow when you thump it.

Pita Bread

from King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion

makes 8 pitas

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons dough relaxer (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup (8 ounces) water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a large mixing bowl, or in the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all the ingredients, mixing to form a shaggy dough. Knead the dough by hand (10 minutes) or by machine (5 minutes) until it's smooth. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and let it rest for 1 hour. It will become quite puffy, though it may not double in bulk.

Turn the dough onto a lightly oiled work surface and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll two to four pieces into 6-inch circles (the number of pieces depends on how many rolled-out pieces at a time can fit on your baking sheet). Place the circles on a lightly greased baking sheet and let them rest, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 500ºF.(Keep the unrolled pieces of dough covered. Roll out the next batch while the first batch bakes.) Place the baking sheet on the lowest rack in the oven and bake the pitas for 5 minutes; they should puff up. (If they haven't puffed up, wait a minute or so longer. If they still haven't puffed, your oven isn't hot enough; raise the heat for the next batch.) Transfer the baking sheet to the oven's middle-to-top rack and bake for an additional 2 minutes, or until the pitas have browned. Remove the pitas from the oven, wrap them in a clean dish towel (this keeps them soft), and repeat with remaining dough. Store cooled pitas in an airtight container or plastic bag.

Bagels

Makes 8 Bagels.

Dough:

1 Tablespoon instant yeast

4 Cups unbleached bread flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 Tablespoon non-diastetic malt powder, brown sugar, or barley malt syrup

1 1/2 Cups lukewarm water

Water Bath:

2 Quarts (64 ounces) water

2 Tablespoons (1 ounce) non-diastetic malt powder, brown sugar, or barley malt syrup

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

Combine all the dough ingredients in a mixing bowl and knead vigorously, by hand for 10 to 15 minutes, or by machine on medium-low speed for about 10 minutes. Since you're using a high-protein bread flour, it takes a bit more effort and time to develop the gluten. The dough will be quite stiff; if you're using an electric mixer it will "thwap" the sides of the bowl and hold its shape (without spreading at all) when you stop the mixer. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and set it aside to rise until noticeably puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Transfer the dough to a work surface and divide it into 8 pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll it into a smooth, round ball. Cover the balls with plastic wrap and let them rest for 30 minutes. They'll puff up very slightly.

While the dough is resting, prepare the water bath by heating the water, malt powder, and sugar to a very gentle boil in a large wide-diameter pan. Preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Use a bagel cutter, or use your index finger to poke a hole into the center of each ball, then twirl the dough on your finger to stretch the hole until it's about 2 inches in diameter (the entire bagel will be about 4 inches across). Place each bagel on a lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining pieces of dough.

Transfer the bagels, four at a time if possible, to the simmering water. Increase the heat under the pan to bring the water back up to a gently simmering boil, if necessary. Cook the bagels for 2 minutes, gently flip them over, and cook 1 minute more. Using a skimmer or strainer, remove the bagels from the water and place them back on the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining bagels.

Bake the bagels for 20 to 25 minutes, until they're as deep brown as you like, turning them over after 15 minutes, which will help them remain tall and round. Remove the bagels from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.

Variations:

Sesame Seed Bagels: Brush each bagel, just before baking, with a glaze made of 1 egg white beaten until frothy with 1 tablespoon of water. Glaze each bagel and sprinkle heavily with seeds.

Onion Bagels: Bake bagels for 20 to 22 minutes (or until they're almost as brown as you'd like) and remove the pan from the oven, keeping the oven turned on. Working with one bagel at a time, glaze as instructed above and sprinkle with minced, dried onion. Return the bagels to the oven for no more than 2 minutes (the onions will burn if left in the oven longer than that).

Cinnamon-Raisin Bagels: Knead about 2/3 cup of raisins into the dough toward the end of the kneading process. Just before you're done kneading, sprinkle your work surface heavily with cinnamon-sugar and give the dough a few more turns; it will pick up the cinnamon-sugar in irregular swirls. Divide the dough into eight pieces, form each piece into a ball, and roll each ball in additional cinnamon-sugar. Let rest and shape as directed above.

Old Fashioned Cinnamon Rolls

630 g-700g all-purpose flour (4 3/4 to 5 1/4 cups)
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 whole eggs
3 tablespoons butter -- melted
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Glaze
1 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk or cream -- (1 to 2)

In a large mixing bowl combine 2-1/4 cups of the flour and the yeast. In a saucepan heat and stir milk, butter, granulated sugar, and salt just until warm (120 degree F to 130 degree F) and butter almost melts. Add milk mixture to dry mixture along with eggs. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on high speed 3 minutes. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3 to 5 minutes total). Shape into a ball. Place in a greased bowl, turning once. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double (about 1 hour).
Punch dough down. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half. Cover; let rest for 10 minutes. Lightly grease two 9x1-1/2-inch round baking pans. Roll each half of dough into a 12x8-inch rectangle. Brush rectangles with the melted butter. In a small bowl, combine the 2/3 cup sugar and the cinnamon; sprinkle over each dough rectangle evenly. Roll up each rectangle, jelly-roll style, starting from a long side. Seal seams. Slice each roll into 12 pieces. Place, cut sides down, in prepared pans. I find it easiest to cut with unflavored dental floss.
Cover dough loosely with clear plastic wrap, leaving room for rolls to rise. Refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours. Uncover; let stand at room temperature 30 minutes. (Or, to bake rolls right away, don't chill dough. Instead, cover loosely; let dough rise in warm place until nearly double, about 30 minutes.)Break any surface bubbles with a greased toothpick.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Bake rolls for 20 to 25 minutes or until light brown (if necessary, cover rolls loosely with foil for the last 5 to 10 minutes of baking to prevent overbrowning). Remove from oven. Cool slightly. Drizzle with Vanilla Glaze. Serve warm.