What's Baking? April: Garlic

This month's What's Baking theme is garlic! Check out the round up, posted by Nicole at Seven Ate Nine.

I had trouble deciding what to make! I didn't want to make garlic bread or garlic rolls or anything with yeast, I just wasn't in the mood, and I wanted to do something different. I couldn't think of anything! Then it was Sunday, and I wanted to make a big dinner Sunday so we could have leftovers for a couple days after, and pork roasts were on sale. I got a couple 2lb pork roasts, and search for some garlicky inspiration. Success!

However, the garlic-rubbed pork I made is really more roasted than baked, so I worried it wasn't quite right... so I made garlicky baked onion rings, which, despite being our very favorite side, I don't think I've ever blogged that recipe!

Garlic-rubbed Pork Roast
recipe from Epicurious

5 cloves of garlic, pressed
2t dried rosemary (or 4t fresh rosemary), minced/crushed
1t salt
1/2t freshly ground pepper
a 2lb pork roast

Press the garlic and mix with the rosemary, salt and pepper. Rub all over a pork roast. Place fat-side down in a roasting pan and bake at 400F for 30 minutes, then remove from oven, flip over, and bake until the internal temp reaches 150F (30 more minutes for me and my 1.90lb pork roast). Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes, then pour juices in the pan over the pork, slice and serve.

This is so incredibly easy, but so flavorful! It's not too garlicky, and the rosemary and garlic is a great combination.

Garlicky Baked Onion Rings

3 Vidalia onions, cut in thick rings

The flour mixture:
2c flour
1t salt
1t Penzey's Granulated Roasted Garlic
1t Penzey's Northwoods Seasoning (or other tasty seasoning, Old Bay would be yummy)

The wet mixture:
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten

The breading mixture:
2c panko breadcrumbs
2T olive oil
1/2t granulated roasted garlic
1/2t Northwoods seasoning

Cut the onions in thick rings (I do 3-4 slices across the onion) and separate into individual rings. Mix the ingredients of the flour mixture in a ziptop bag, and throw the onion slices in, toss around to coat them.

Have a bowl of the wet mixture, and another bowl of the breading mixture. Take an onion ring from the flour bag, coat it in the wet mixture, let the excess egg/milk drip off and then coat in the breading mixture. Place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and repeat for all the onion slices. (This is incredibly tedious). Bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes.

Serve hot/warm, either just as onion rings, or with ketchup, BBQ sauce, honey mustard, etc to dip in.

This should serve 4. We eat 2 onions's worth of onion rings for just the 2 of us, so it's kind of hard to say! This is Clint's favoritest side dish.

And then.... I'd left the roasted garlic jar on the counter, kind of where the cinnamon sugar jar lives.... so this morning, while juggling making breakfast and entertaining a toddler, I went to put cinnamon sugar on my toast, only I made a serious error. :-/ It wasn't horrible, but definitely very weird on raisin bread! And garlic and coffee isn't the best combination ever.

What's Baking? February: Bread

This month's What's Baking? theme is bread! Heather of Hezzi D's Books and Cooks will have the round up, check out what everyone made!

I always try to choose a new, challenging recipe for What's Baking?. I like to learn new things! But this month, finding time to bake a loaf of bread was challenge enough. I decided on a recipe that I love and haven't made in a while, and one that I wanted to share with others. So hopefully I can inspire someone to challenge themselves with this recipe! (don't worry, it's pretty straightforward!) I also chose this recipe because my grandma loves it, so I made it to send to her (fortunately, it makes 2 loaves so one for her, one for me!).

Cardamom Braid
makes 2 loaves
recipe from the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook

4.5-5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup milk, warm
1T active dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1t ground cardamom
1t salt
6T softened butter

In your mixing bowl, combine the warm milk, yeast and 1 cup of flour. Whisk together and let the yeast wake up for about 20 minutes. Add the sugar, eggs, cardamom, salt and butter, Stir til mostly combined. Add in the remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough holds together but is still a little sticky. Knead for 10-15 minutes, then place in a loosely covered bowl and let rise for about 2 hours, til doubled.

After the dough has risen, punch it down and divide in half. Divide each half in thirds, and roll out the dough into long snakes. Braid 3 together: smoosh the ends of the snakes together and then braid them, smooshing the ends together when you finish. Repeat for the 2nd set of 3 to make 2 braided loaves. Cover the two loaves with a clean dish towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes. Set the oven to 350F and let the bread continue to rise as the oven heats. Brush with an egg or milk wash, sprinkle with sanding or pearl sugar (optional) and bake for 30 minutes.

That's it! This bread is delicious, it has a nice light texture and is just sweet enough. It's my favorite for toast in the morning!

What's Baking? Gingerbread Round-up!

I was the host for this month's What's Baking? Challenge! I chose gingerbread, for a somewhat selfish reason: our little gingerbread man celebrated his birthday in December and I wanted some gingerbread inspiration for his gingerbread birthday party! I got so many delicious submissions to inspire me that I'll probably be baking gingerbread until his 2nd birthday.

Jaida from Sweet Beginnings made gingerbread muffins with lemon glaze. I love this way to add gingerbread to my favorite meal of the day, breakfast!

Liz from Books N Cooks made these pretty soft gingerbread cookies. They look like something from a bakery!

Jenni from Dough See Dough made these decadent apple cinnamon gingerbread rolls. They're overnight cinnamon rolls, the best kind! The next wintry weekend we have, I'm making these to enjoy for breakfast.

Joanna from Kosher Kitchen made iced gingerbread snowflake cookies for her cookie swap, and shares a clever idea for measuring sticky ingredients like molasses. Thanks for the tip!

Nicole from Cookies on Friday made gingerbread sandwich cookies. The filling includes marshmallow fluff, 'nuff said. I can't wait to try these for my next cookie occasion.

Nicole from Seven Ate Nine made classic cut-out gingerbread cookies. Nothing beats the original gingerbread cookie!

Alison from Sparks from the Kitchen made classic cut-out gingerbread cookies, then invited everyone to decorate their own cookie as a party activity! I borrowed this idea for our gingerbread birthday party :)

Jessie from The Dinner Pages made gingerbread blossom cookies. I've made these too, and I can tell you, they are delicious! Also, hers are much prettier than mine. She also mentions pistachio blossom cookies and I'm really intrigued by those! Once we get out of gingerbread season, of course.

Eva of Eva Bakes made gingerbread cookie dough fudge. Oh my! I've never successfully made fudge (not that I've tried more than once, though) and I was recently thinking about trying again. Now I'm definitely going to try some fudge using this recipe.

Nichole from The Cookaholic Wife made classic gingerbread snowflakes. She decorated them so prettily, with icing and sparkly sanding sugar. This is a great addition to a cookie plate!

Ashley of Cheese Curd in Paradise made a gingerbread cake with bourbon frosting. The other day I took a poll on facebook, about what frosting to use with gingerbread birthday cake, and several people suggested bourbon frosting! I never thought of that combination, so I definitely need to try this recipe!

And I made these gingerbread blondies that I love. They're so decadent, and a fun twist on the classic gingerbread flavors if you want something different for a cookie swap (which is why I made these).

Thanks to all the bakers who participated! You all really helped me decide what to make for our gingerbread birthday party!