[Soft] focus on olive bread?

This is a random loaf of olive bread from somewhat recently[ish] ago:

I suppose that the shot is somewhat glamour shot-ey, if glamour shots existed for bread.

The bread is turned on its side. The light and focus are a little soft. And you can imagine, if you so please, the bread holding its collar and gazing into the camera.

Anyway, the recipe for this olive loaf is pretty much this other recipe that I wrote about.

But I only used black olives.

And – this is probably the most important part – the bread machine use was limited to using the dough cycle to prepare the dough.

The bread was actually baked in a cast iron loaf pan in the oven.

I believe that the bread was in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or so at around 350 degrees – though, well, this was somewhat of a while ago.

The loaf came out of the oven when it was slightly brown on top and looking ready for glamour shot greatness.

And it tasted pretty good too.

A cinnamon bun – for one

I felt like making cinnamon buns, but I wanted to do something different.

So I made individual cinnamon buns that I baked in a muffin tray.

Here’s a shot of a cinnamon bun about to go into the oven:

I used pretty much the same recipe that I used here – minus the apple slices.

Once the dough was ready and rolled into a log shape, I used a serrated knife to cut individual pieces of dough about an inch and a half wide that I put into a muffin paper-lined muffin tray.

I used muffin papers. You don’t have to use muffin papers.

I baked the cinnamon buns in the oven at about 400 degrees. As I wasn’t sure how much time  would be needed to bake individual cinnamon buns, I peeked into the oven – it’s best to use the oven door window if your oven has one – to check on the buns frequently. I took the buns out of the oven after about 20 minutes, when they’d risen up nicely and had light brown, crispy-looking tops.

Cool on a wire rack – and enjoy.

Frosted cinnamon buns

Over the weekend, I made cinnamon buns.

And here’s a close-up:

I used pretty much the same recipe that I used to make the apple cinnamon buns that I baked and wrote about in a previous post.

The only modifications to my recipe? No apples. And I used about half a cup more sugar for the filling. I also added about two teaspoons of ground cloves along with the cinnamon. And, of course, there was the icing. Or frosting. Or whatever you want to call it. I explained my icing/frosting making process in a previous post. Click on that hyperlink – blue and underlined – text for more. I used plain, white icing flavoured with liquid vanilla extract.

When I was making the batter, I decided to – as an experiment – use water that had been used to boil sweet potatoes. This was my own modified version of the procedure used to make potato bread. I thought it’d be interesting to try. I chilled the sweet potato cooking water in the fridge before using it. I’m not sure if the sweet potato water really added any flavour to the bread. But the bread was delicious, so the experiment was definitely not a failure.

Cinnamon bun win.

And one more photo, just because:

Cinnamon buns – with apple

I was on vacation.

And it was great.

Of course, while I was gone, I didn’t blog. Or bake. Or do anything other than just enjoy the vacation.

One of the places I went is a place where people really know baking stuff with apples.

So, perhaps that may have inspired me to make cinnamon buns with apple slices. Or perhaps not. Here they are anyway:

And a bit closer up:

I used pretty much the exact same procedure as I used in this post to make the cinnamon rolls – just-into-the-oven – pictured. What I added was one peeled, cored, and thinly sliced apple. I used a honeycrisp apple, but you could use pretty much any large-size apple that you like.

After stretching out the dough, spreading margarine, and adding the cinnamon and sugar mixture, I evenly spread pieces of apple on the dough and, then, rolled and sliced it.

I let the dough rise again for a short time, and then baked at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes – keeping an eye on the oven window to watch for the buns to turn golden brown

I, of course, taste-tested one of these lovely cinnamon buns with apple. It was fabulous. And my place smelled fabulous as they were baking. I happened to have a bit of vanilla icing left over from another baking project – and I spread a bit of that icing over the warm apple cinnamon bun that I ate. Wonderful. And recommended.

I most definitely plan to make these again. I’d like to use more than one apple, but I may just stick with one as I think two apples might make things a little bit messy and prevent the dough from sticking together.

Olive bread

I saw some olive bread when I stopped to get groceries this morning. And I started thinking about how much I like olive bread and that I hadn’t had any in a while.

I considered buying a loaf of the grocery store olive bread.

But, then, instead of olive bread, I bought a can of green olives, a can of black olives, and some dried rosemary.

I decided to make my own olive bread. And this is the final product:

It was delicious. It smelled fabulous while it was baking. And I’m thinking I should experiment with bread more often.

I used a breadmaker to bake this bread. But you could also use a bowl to mix and knead the dough in and bake it in the oven. If you use the bowl method, you may want to try the basic bread-making instructions that I linked to in this post.

I started with the ingredients for basic 2-pound loaf of white bread, and baked the bread using the breadmaker’s basic bread cycle.

I used:

-1 1/2 cups water

-2 tablespoons sugar

-2 tablespoons canola oil

-1 teaspoon salt

-4 cups all-purpose flour

-2 1/4 teaspoons yeast – I used regular, not quick-rise or bread machine, bread yeast.

I added the ingredients to the breadmaker and started the cycle.

My breadmaker makes a beep after several minutes of kneading to indicate it’s time to add any extra ingredients that you want to add. I added:

-1 cup of mixed black and green olives

-1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

-2 teaspoons dried rosemary

For the olives, I used equal parts of green olives and black olives.

The black olives I bought were already chopped, but the green olives weren’t, so I chopped them with a knife.

This is an action shot of the dough kneading in the breadmaker a few moments after I added in the olives, garlic, and rosemary:

When the machine was done kneading, I sprinkled a bit of Celtic sea salt on top of the dough.

And now I want to do more work with bread.

Cinnamon buns – in bread form

I’ve been wanting to make cinnamon buns.

I’ve made cinnamon buns before – with rather satisfactory results. Here’s a recent batch, right after I put them into the oven:

But I wanted to try something different.

Yesterday afternoon, the idea came to me: I’d make cinnamon buns, but in bread form.

This is how the bread turned out:

And here’s how I made it:

First: the dough:

I used a modified version of a sweet dinner rolls recipe that I found online about six months ago. I also used the dough cycle of a bread maker to actually prepare the dough. But you can also use a bowl. The ingredients from the recipe listed below -but made with the yeast dough instructions outlined on this link – should also work. If you use the linked yeast dough instructions, you can ignore the part about the electric mixer if you don’t have one: a spoon should do the job.

The recipe:

-1/2 cup water

-1/4 cup sugar – I used regular white fine-grain sugar

-2 tablespoons canola oil

-1 teaspoon salt

-2 tablespoons cornstarch + 2 tablespoons water

-3 teaspoons yeast – I used regular/traditional yeast, bread machine or quick-rise yeast isn’t necessary

-1 teaspoon baking powder – if using a bread machine, add this at the same time you add the yeast. If using a bowl to mix the dough, add the baking powder along with the flour.

If you’re using a bread maker dough cycle, use the ingredients listed, but follow the dough cycle instructions in the owner’s manual. The dough will look like this when it’s ready:

Once the dough is ready to go, it’s time to make the cinnamon filling.

The filling had:

-1/2 cup of sugar – I used regular, white, fine-grind sugar.

-1/4 cup of margarine – I used Earth Balance, but any margarine would do.

-1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon – I would have liked to use a bit more, but, well, I hadn’t planned ahead and that was the last of my cinnamon.

-1 teaspoon nutmeg – optional. I like a bit of nutmeg flavour, so I added nutmeg: you don’t have to.

-1 tablespoon cocoa powder – optional. I thought cocoa powder would taste good in the mix – and it did.

If you’d prefer more filling, adjust quantities of the filling ingredients.

I mixed the filling ingredients together in a bowl until they looked like this:

Then, I took the dough and stretched it out on a clean counter. It helps to grease the dough or the surface – I used margarine – before stretching it out.

Stretch the dough out until it’s about 1/2 to 1 inch thick and about the size of an 8 1/2×14” piece of paper.

Once the dough is stretched, spoon the cinnamon filling onto the dough and spread it evenly with the spoon.

Then, roll the piece of dough together. Think jelly roll:

Carefully lift the rolled-up piece of dough and fit it into a bread loaf pan. You may have to squish or shape the piece a bit to make it fit into the pan, but, it’s all good: bread dough is flexible.

Use a spoon or spatula to spread a thin layer of margarine on top of the dough once it’s in the pan:

Leave the dough to rise for about 10 minutes.

Then, bake at 400 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes. Check on the bread frequently: it’s best to do this through the oven door window, if you have one, so as not to let too much heat out.

The bread is probably ready once it looks like it’s risen, and firm, and the top has started to turn golden brown.

Carefully remove the loaf tray from the oven, allow the bread to cool, and enjoy.

To make actual cinnamon buns, and not bread, use the same recipe, but:

-Stretch the dough into a bigger and longer piece before adding the topping. Try to picture two 8 1/2×14” pieces of paper lined up together on the narrow ends and aim for a piece of dough stretched to that size.

-Make a bit more filling.

-Roll the stretched, spread with filling, dough into a jelly roll shape along the long side.

-Use a serrated knife – you can use any knife, really, but I think a serrated knife like a bread knife would be easiest – to cut pieces of the roll off. I made the pieces about 2 inches long/tall each and immediately arranged them into an oven-safe dish. See the very first picture of this post for reference.

Another idea: I think that this bread – sliced thickly – would make excellent French toast.