White Bread/Cinnamon Swirl Bread

So, here is another post for white bread, I know I know, the last white bread I did was really delicious. So, why would I need to go out looking for a different recipe? Well, I will tell you, I have actually had this recipe pinned for quite some time now, but for some reason I kept pinning more pins and I ended up hiding it in my never ending pinned recipes list. But, I have unearthed it! Don't you worry! :) This recipe comes from her grandma and is amazingly soft and delicious.

The other white bread from King Arthur Flour is delicious as well but in a different way. Comparing the two, the K.A. bread is more dense and not as sweet. This bread is soft and airy (exactly what white bread from the store feels like, well, maybe a little more dense than that. But you get the picture!)

Grandma's White Bread
 Yield: 2 Loaves

3 Cups    Warm water (to activate your yeast)
1/4 Cup    Sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp.    Yeast
1/3 Cup    Oil (I used vegetable oil)
1 Tbsp.    Salt
8 Cups    A.P. Flour

Place yeast and sugar in the warm water to activate. Let sit for at least 10 min. until nice and bubbly.

Add the oil and the dry ingredients making sure to put the salt in last. Mix all together, you can use a mixer, but lately I have been kneading bread dough with my hands. 

Dough should look pretty smooth, spray the bowl with non stick spray and place dough inside. (Spray the plastic wrap as well)

Let dough rise until double in size (I put mine under the stove light which is why it is a strange color)

Split dough in half, now I just shaped the dough into a log for the plain white bread, but for the cinnamon swirl roll out to desired thickness (the thinner you roll out the more of a swirl you get) make sure your small ends do not exceed the pan length, in this case it is 9".

Spread with melted butter, sprinkle brown sugar (I use dark) and cinnamon. You could add raisins if you wanted as well.

*I never measure the melted butter, brown sugar, or cinnamon. I just throw it on there :) *

Now, Instead of rolling from long end to long end (top to bottom), roll small end to small end (side to side).

Place into greased 9"x5" pans. (the loaf that looks all wrinkly is the cinnamon swirl).

Place greased plastic wrap over and let rise until the bread is 1"-2" above the top of the pan.

Bake (uncovered) at 375F for 25 Min, until golden brown. Take immediately out of the pans and put onto the cooling rack.

I brush the tops of mine with butter to give it a nice shiny glaze.

Wait until cool to cut (I find that it slices easier)

Cinnamon swirl

Now if you don't roll the dough very thin you get a swirl like mine. Next time I will roll thinner!

Enjoy!

Yellow Cupcakes

I have made a bunch of different flavors of cakes from scratch but I don't think I have ever made a yellow cake. So, I went out searching for a yellow cake that sounded delicious and this is what I found. This recipe came out of a McCalls Cookbook from 1910! I couldn't wait to try such an old recipe. It is a one bowl yellow cake, which is awesome since a lot of recipes I was finding were very time consuming, separating the eggs...etc... What I wanted was a quick, yummy, fluffy yellow cake and that is exactly what I got!

So, as you can see at the bottom of the page I did not frost mine. It is such a versatile recipe that's not too sweet that I...used it as a muffin for chili! I wanted to see if it would taste good together and it did, although I would probably omit the vanilla if I were going to use it for chili again, I might even add some corn to it to make it more of a corn bread.  I will make another post on my adventures in making this recipe a corn bread recipe. So, here I present to you a delicious (in my opinion) yellow cake, frost it with classic chocolate frosting, vanilla frosting, powder sugar, whipped cream....Or you can do like I did and eat it with some homemade chili!!

Yellow Cake:
Yield: 1 (8") Cake (or about 16 Cupcakes)

2 Cups    A.P. Flour
1 1/4 Cups    sugar
1 Tbsp.    Baking Powder
1 Tsp.    Salt (omit if you use salted butter)
1/2 Cup    Butter, soft but not melted
1 Cup    Milk
1 Tsp.    Vanilla Extract
2    Eggs

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt (if used)

Add in the butter, milk, and vanilla. 

*I used almond milk because I ran out of regular.*

Mix on medium speed for 3-4 min.

Add eggs, mix on medium speed for 3 min.

*I only made a half recipe so that is why you only see one egg here*

Batter should be pretty smooth.

Now you can either spoon 1/4 Cup into each cupcake tin like here, or you can grease and flour (2) 8" Cake pans and divide the batter evenly. I was only able to get 8 cupcakes out of a half recipe. Bake at 350F for 30-35 mins. Let cool in pan for 10 min then place onto a cooling rack. 

Enjoy!