Cheese and Bacon Pull Apart Loaf

When I was younger I lived within walking distance of a ‘Baker’s Delight’, my favourite thing to buy was their cheese and bacon pull apart loaf. Last weekend I decided to try and whip one up myself, I used the same method as my Cinnamon Pull Apart Loaf but tried a more savoury dough recipe.  I love the cheese and bacon combo but you could change it up with other savoury fillings or add something like chives if you have them on hand.

Ingredients:
Dough:
1½ teaspoons dry active yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons warm water
¼ cup warm milk
1 large egg, whisked
½ teaspoon salt
50g butter, soft cut into cubes
1½ -1¾ cups all-purpose flour

Filling:
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
250 grams crispy bacon, crumpled into small pieces
25 grams garlic butter, melted

Method:
In the bowl of your mixer stir together the water, yeast and sugar. Leave it for a few minutes until the yeast dissolves and starts to bubble. Then stir in the milk, egg and salt.
Then add the flour and softened butter and combine using your dough hook, this could be done by hand with a wooden spoon as this is quite a soft dough. Let the dough hook knead the dough or knead it vigorously with your hand for a few minutes in the bowl. If the dough is too sticky, knead in a bit more flour by the tablespoon. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside somewhere warm to rise for about 90 minutes, it will double in size.
Grease your loaf tin with butter and set aside. Lightly flour a clean work surface and roll out your dough, it should be roughly 20cmx40cm. Use a pastry brush to spread melted garlic butter across all of the dough. Sprinkle with the cheese and bacon.
Slice the dough vertically, into six equal-sized strips. Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again. You’ll have six stacks of six squares. Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan like a flip-book – you can check out pictures here.
At this stage you can cover your loaf with glad wrap and place it the fridge overnight, you can then remove it the next morning and set it aside for 30-45 minutes for a second rise while you pre-heat your oven to 180°C, or if you want to bake it the same day you can give it it’s second rise straight away and then place it in your preheated oven to bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden and it is cooked through.
After cooking set it aside for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edges and removing it to serve warm.

Earl Grey Tea Loaf

This is a great afternoon tea treat to sit down and enjoy with a cuppa. The zingy lemon glaze sets it off perfectly. If your Dad is an Earl Grey tea drinker like mine this might even be a great gift to whip up for Father’s Day this coming Sunday.

Ingredients:
150ml milk
10g Earl Grey tea, finely ground
225g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
zest of one lemon
1 1/4 flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Glaze
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons hot water
1 – 1½ cups icing sugar
3 – 4 tablespoons lemon juice

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line the bottom of a loaf pan and set aside.
Heat the milk in a heatproof bowl in the microwave. Do not boil. Add in tea grounds. Stir and set aside to infuse for about 10 minutes.
Beat the butter and sugar on a medium to high speed until light and fluffy.
Add in the eggs one by one, beat well after each addition.
With your last egg add the lemon zest.
Turn your mixer to a low speed, add the tea-infused milk and mix until just combined (as I only had loose tea leaves I only added about one third of my leaves, if I’d used the finer grounds from inside a tea bag I would have added all of them) .
In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients and mix well.
Still on a low speed, add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and beat until all ingredients are combined.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the top of your loaf is golden brown and you can insert a skewer and remove cleanly.
To make the glaze place butter, 2 tablespoons of hot water, 1 cup of icing sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl and stir to combine. To thicken your glaze add more icing sugar or to thin use a little more hot water.

Blueberry and Courgette Loaf

We made this loaf in the weekend and man it was yum!  I’ve been busy making some cushion covers for a buyer through my felt. shop and haven’t done any baking lately, but really wanted to try out this recipe because I couldn’t imagine what courgettes and blueberries would taste like together, it sounds disgusting.  However, the loaf was delicious – sweet and moist and eaten up pretty quickly!  And, I suppose it kinda counts towards your 5+ a day of fruit and veg - did you know the courgette is actually a fruit?  Personally I couldn’t really taste the courgette but you see flecks of green through the loaf which looked quite pretty with the purple blue colour of the blueberries.

3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups white sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 175°C.  Lightly grease 2 loaf pans.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar.  Fold in the zucchini.  Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Gently fold in the blueberries.  Transfer to the prepared loaf pans.
Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the centre of a loaf comes out clean.  Cool for 20 minutes in the pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Ginger Loaf With Lime Glaze

 
Being a stay at home Mum means the joys of early morning TV (not)!  However this week there was a recipe on Good Morning that caught my eye so I thought I’d give it a go.

125g butter
125g brown sugar
1 cup golden syrup
1 ½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon mixed spice
250mL milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup plain flour

Combine butter, sugar, syrup and spices in a saucepan on a medium heat element until melted together.
In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs.  Add milk and baking soda.  Add to saucepan and mix together.
In another bowl, place the flour.  Pour wet ingredients over and mix well.  The mixture will be very wet (basically liquid). Use a whisk to eliminate any lumps if you need. * THE MIXTURE IS A LIQUID MIX SO DO NOT BE ALARMED OR FEEL THE NEED TO ADD MORE FLOUR.
Spray your mini loaf pans/loaf pan with non-stick spray.  Fill each one with the mixture to ¾ full.
Bake at 170˚C for 35 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack, and ice when cool.

Lime Glaze:
Sift one cup of icing sugar into a bowl.  Add the juice of 1 lime and 1 tablespoon of hot water.  Stir together until you get a thick paste, adding more icing sugar if necessary.  Once gingerbread/s are cool, spread glaze over with a knife.

Now on the show and the TVNZ website where I got the recipe the mix was poured in mini loaf tins but it was clearly stated on the show that you could use the mix to make a single large loaf – which is what I did.  However, even though I cooked it for an extra 15-20 minutes, the loaf sprung back when touched and the skewer removed clean, I found that the loaf was starting to overcook on the outside but when cut into it is undercooked on the inside (just).  I think next time I will bake it for the same amount of time but at 180˚C.  The glaze by the way is delicious!

Lemon Loaf

This lemon loaf is easy.  Mix everything in a bowl, chuck it in a tin, then bake.  Done!

 

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
90g melted butter or margarine
2 eggs
Grated rind of 1-2 lemons (depending on how strong you want the lemon flavour of your loaf)
½ cup milk
1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
juice of 1–2  lemons
¼ cup white sugar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 160˚C.  Mix all ingredients except for the lemon juice and the ¼ cup of sugar, into a bowl until a smooth batter is formed.  Pour into a greased loaf tin (approx 22 x 11 cm) and bake for 45 minutes or until lightly golden brown.  Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
While the loaf is baking, place the lemon juice and ¼ cup of sugar into a pot.  Simmer over a low heat to melt the sugar and stir to combine with the lemon juice.  Remove from the oven and drizzle the lemon syrup over the top.  Leave to cool, then remove from the tin to slice and serve.

Banana Bread

So, I decided I wanted to try making bread.  I haven’t attempted it yet (I’m scared of using yeast and leaving the dough to do whatever it is that you leave it to do) however, Simon (the boyfriend) liked this idea so off we went and purchased a loaf tin.  I had bananas to use up, so I found this old recipe that I salvaged from a magazine years ago and we gave it a go.  Easy peasy too.

Makes 2 loaves.      Ready in 1 hour 10 minutes.

1 ½ cups flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
395g can sweetened condensed milk
50g butter, melted
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat the oven to 160˚C.  Line the bases of two 21cm x 11cm loaf tins.  Combine the flours, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Beat together the eggs, condensed milk, butter, golden syrup, vanilla essence and banana in a separate bowl.  Add to the flour mixture and mix gently until well combined.
Spoon into the loaf tins and bake for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centre come out clean.  Cool in the tin before turning out.

Now, apparently these loaves are great iced in tangy lemon icing.  We were too impatient to wait and make some!  Mix together 2 tablespoons butter (melted), the juice of a small lemon and 1-2 cups sifted icing sugar together until smooth.  Add more juice and sugar as needed.  Ice the loaves and leave for 30 minutes to set.

Simon has fallen in love with our new loaf tin and has made a fantastic looking lemon loaf without me :(  I will try and get him to make one again in the weekend because a) I love lemony things and want to try it, and b) so I can share it with you!

Oh, and thank you Simon for taking the photos for this post and of the cupcakes at The Cake Stall in the previous post :)