Showing posts with label Breads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breads. Show all posts
Ham and Cheese Braid. I am in love. Not only is this sandwich bread/ braid use only four ingredients, but it is also incredibly delicious!
Yes, you heard that correctly. ONLY FOUR INGREDIENTS. Four ingredients and about half an hour of your time, and you and your family can be enjoying this tasty hot sandwich too!
I had some leftover ham that needed using up and I had also bought some refrigerated crescent dough, which needed using.
I don't know why I do it, but, every time they put that stuff on offer at the grocery store, I end up bringing home one or two cans! Its inevitable.
I can't remember the last time I actually rolled it into crescent rolls. I most always use it for something else. It is actually a pretty handy store cupboard refrigerated ingredient to have on hand!
I use it for all sorts. I have filled them with just about everything under the sun. My Pumpkin Pie Rollups are really popular around here this time of year. So are my Reuben Roll Ups.
To be honest you can fill refrigerated crescent rolls with just about anything and come up trumps! Seriously!
These Cherry Croissants are a real favorite of mine. Cherry Pie filling stuffed into a crescent roll, baked in a muffin cup and then drizzled with an almond drizzle frosting.
I mean, what's not to LOVE about that!
Today I had a quantity of leftover cooked ham to use up. I went searching online and found this delicious recipe on Plain Chicken.
Not only did it look quick and easy to make, but it included a lot of my favorite things. Ham. Cheese. Honey Mustard. A triune of amazing flavors that go together really well.
I also just happened to have everything I needed in my refrigerator. So it was a go from the start!
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE HAM & CHEESE BRAID
Not a lot really.
- Refrigerated Crescent Roll Dough
- Cooked baked ham
- Grated cheese
- Honey mustard
Its simple really.
There are other things you could use rather than the crescent roll dough as well. Ready rolled all butter puff pastry would work very well as would your favorite baking powder biscuit recipe.
You can find mine here. It would work beautifully. Just roll it out into a rectangle and proceed as per the recipe states. It is the same with the puff pastry.
Its my mom's baking powder biscuit recipe, which does make rather a lot, so if you decide to use that, shape and cook half of the recipe as biscuits (which you can freeze to enjoy another time) and half as this tasty braid.
HOW DO YOU MAKE HAM & CHEESE BRAID
Its really simple to make these. As simple as one two three. I like to start by making the filling.
You begin with already cooked ham. You can either use leftovers from a ham dinner, or you can start with cooked ham you have bought in the shops. You need to cut it into small cubes or pieces.
If you are using leftover cooked ham, cut the ham into slices about 1/3 of an inch thick. Stack the slices and then cut through the stack into strips. Then cut the stacked strips into smaller pieces crosswise. (I hope that made sense.)
Pop this into a bowl and add the grated cheese and honey mustard, mixing it all together well. Start preheating your oven now.
Now you need to unroll your croissant dough. I do this right on a piece of baking paper on a baking sheet. You will note that there are already cut separations and perforations in the dough.
Press these closed with your finger tips until you have a solid sheet. (They may fall apart a bit anyways when baking, but not to the detriment of the bake.)
Eyeball the rectangle of dough and visually divide it into thirds lengthwise. Spoon the ham filling down the center third of the dough. It will look like a lot.
Personally I took the cue from Plain Chicken and reserved a bit of it to spoon on the top at the end. As you can see from the photos, it looks really scrumptious that way.
The other two thirds of the pastry rectangle is what will be used to braid over top of the filling. Snip the dough almost all the way to the filling on either side of it.
Make about ten strips on each side, ending about 1/2 inch away from the actual filling. You want each strip to be at least 1 inch in width. The next part is the fiddly part, but even that is fairly easy.
I say fiddly, but it really isn't and there is no right or wrong way to do it. Gently pull the strips up and over the filling to cover it, one at a time and criss crossing them with the strips on the other side.
Just as if you were doing a braid, or plait as it is called in the UK. Don't tug on them too hard as you don't want them to tear. The important thing is that you reasonably cover the filling so that it doesn't ooze out all over the place.
That's it. You have shaped it and now it is time to bake it. (Don't worry if you have reserved some for topping, you don't add that until just before the bake is finished.)
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the oven, adding the additional ham cheese mixture (if using) for the last five minutes of the bake.
Its done when the cheese has melted, the filling is hot and the pastry is flaky golden brown.
Oh my but this was some tasty. It would make a fabulous lunch served with hot cups of soup, or as a snack on game nights.
You could also add a bit bits to it if you were really keen, like chopped spring onions. But I can promise you it is pretty tasty just as it is.
I really hope that you will want to make this tasty bake. I can already see all sorts of applications for this idea. Tuna melt. Hot chicken salad. Roast beef and cheese, etc. As you can see my wheels are turning in overtime!
Delicious!
Ham & Cheese Braid
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 35 Min
Quick, easy to make and using only 4 ingredients. This is a great way to use up leftover ham. Its delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 can of refrigerated crescent rolls
- 1 1/2 cups (225g) cooked ham, chopped
- 2/3 cup (80g) shredded medium cheddar cheese
- 1/4 cup (60g) honey mustard
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375*F/190*C/gas mark 5. Have ready a baking sheet which you have lined with baking paper.
- Stir the ham, cheese and honey mustard together in a bowl. Set aside.
- Open your can of crescent rolls. Unroll the rolls lengthwise on the baking sheet. Do not separate into individual rolls. Leave whole.
- Press together any seams or perforations so that you have one solid sheet.
- Spoon the ham/cheese/mustard mixture down the center of the sheet of dough. (reserve some to spoon on the top if desired)
- Cut the sheet into strips down each side of the dough, leaving about 1/2 inch clear next to the filling.
- Pull each strip up and over the filling alternately to cover, creating a braided pattern.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. If you reserved some filling to spoon on top, remove from the oven at 20 minutes, spoon the filling over top and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes.
- It is done when the cheese has melted, everything is heated through and the pastry is golden brown.
Notes:
If you don't have crescent roll dough a sheet of all butter puff pastry works well. Also in the UK you can use Ready Rol refrigerated Croissant dough. Alternately you can use your favorite recipe for baking powder biscuits. Use one that makes 8 to 10 biscuits.
Prepare yourself to fall in love. This recipe I am about to share with you is destined to become a firm favorite in your kitchens and with your family.
I like to call them One, Two, Three, Buttermilk biscuits because they go together one, two, three, lickety split, and they require only three ingredients.
Yes, I said that right. ONLY THREE INGREDIENTS. Three ingredient biscuits.
When I got home from church today I was starving. Usually I have something ready that is quick and easy for me to eat.
I didn't today, so I decided to make these biscuits. I couldn't believe that I hadn't shared the recipe on here yet and so here I am sharing one of the best biscuit recipes ever for buttermilk biscuits with you!
Quick and easy, these homemade buttermilk biscuits go together in a flash, and pay attention if you are in the UK, I am not talking about cookies here.
These are a North American quick bread, which is meant to be eaten with sweet or savory things, and usually they are served warm.
They are delicious split, spread with cold butter and served warm with soups and stews. Or with jams and other spreads. With chunks of cold meat and cheese.
They are just plain delicious no matter what. And what's really special about this version is that they are so very quick and easy to make.
If these were any quicker to make they would be instant biscuits. Truly, however, they are not a lot of work, and with a bit of planning ahead of time you really can have them done in quicker than a jiffy.
1. have the flour all measured out in a bowl and ready to go.
2. have the butter, diced and waiting, chilling in the refrigerator, ready to go.
3. have the buttermilk, measured and waiting, chilling in the refrigerator, all ready to go.
That would make them pretty darn near instant, but failing that . . . this is all you need to know.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE ONE, TWO, THREE BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
Simple ingredients, put together in a genius way.
- self raising flour (you can easily make your own, just add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt for every cup of plain flour used. I make mine up five cups at a time.)
- cold butter
- cold buttermilk
Three ingredients, no more, no less.
HOW TO MAKE ONE, TWO, THREE, BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
Nothing could be easier, especially if you follow all my hints and tips along the way. You will be using cold butter and cold buttermilk, so you won't have to wait for anything to come to room temperature.
Using cold ingredients such as these in a biscuit recipe causes the biscuits to rise higher once they hit the hot oven. I am not sure of the chemistry behind it, but I can promise you it works a charm.
Start your oven to preheating before you even start putting the biscuits together. That way as soon as your biscuits are on the pan, you can bang them right into the oven.
Its a very high temperature. 450*F or 230*C.
Measure your flour into the bowl and drop in your bits of cold butter. You will need to quickly cut the butter into the flour. You can either do this with a pastry blender or two round bladed knives.
My grandmother never had anything as fancy as a pastry blender. She just used knives and they worked perfectly. You want to cut the cold butter in until resembles coarse meal, with some bits being larger than others.
Work quickly so that the butter doesn't melt into the flour.
Once you have done that, its as simple as stirring in the buttermilk and forming a dough.
I use a fork to stir in the buttermilk, which again should be very cold. I add half of it all at once, give it a stir and then add the rest in areas which need it, until its all been mixed in. It should be forming a dough by then.
Tip it out onto a lightly floured board and knead it gently once or twice to really bring things together and then pat it out into a 4-inch by 8-inch rectangle that is roughly 1 1/2 inch thick.
Don't overwork the dough. Overworking the dough is the number one cause of tough biscuits.
There is positively NO waste with these biscuits. You just shape them into the rectangle and then, using a very sharp knife and a straight up and down cutting motion (not sawing), cut the rectangle into 8 pieces.
One cut the long way and four cuts the short way gives you 8 perfect size biscuits. In other words, cut it into quarters and then cut each quarter in half again. (Does that make sense?)
Cutting them this way means that there is no waste at all. You use all of the dough and there is no need to recut and have tougher misshaped biscuits.
Just be sure to cut and not to tug. DON'T use a serrated knife. One sharp straight blade. If you stretch and tug on the dough when you are cutting it, you will get lopsided biscuits. Just a warning.
Transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet. Closer together if you want soft sided biscuits, further apart if you want crisp edges.
Here is my secret ingredient for those crisp and buttery tops. Add a paper thin sliver of butter to the top of each biscuit. Easy peasy if your butter is cold and your knife sharp.
That's it. Pop them into that hot, hot oven and bake. Ten minutes later you will be rewarded with 8 beautiful crisp edged, flaky, light and delicious buttermilk biscuits.
I was really naughty today and enjoyed a couple of them warm from the oven with lots of cheeky cold butter and some of my sister's strawberry jam on top. Oh my but they tasted some good.
One, Two, Three, Buttermilk Biscuits. Light, fluffy and crazy good in no time at all. How will you enjoy yours?
One Two Three Buttermilk Biscuits
Yield: 8 Biscuits
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 10 MinTotal time: 15 Min
I like to call these one, two, three buttermilk biscuits because there are only three ingredients needed and they go together lickety split. You can mix these up, bake and be enjoying these in less than fifteen minutes! Nothing could be easier.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280g) self rising flour
- 1/4 cup (60g) cold butter, (cut into bits) plus a bit extra
- 3/4 cup (180ml) cold buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450*F/ 230*C. Have ready a small baking tray.
- Measure the flour into a bowl. Drop the cold butter bits into the flour and cut in using two round bladed knives or a pastry blender. You want a mixture that resembles coarse meal with some large bits as well as small bits.
- Stir in the buttermilk with a fork to make a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead gently a couple of turns. Pat out into a rectangle roughly 4 inches by 8 inches in size, and 1 1/2 inches thick.
- Using a sharp knife cut into 8 portions. I do one down the long ways, and four across the short ways. Try not to tug the dough.
- Place, spaced apart, onto the baking sheet. Top each with a thin sliver of cold butter.
- Bake for 10 minutes until golden brown and risen. Serve warm or cold. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
Tahiti is not a place I have ever travelled to, although we have entertained many LDS Tahitian Missionaries in our home through the years. Tahiti is the largest of the French Polynesian Islands in the central part of the Pacific.
I have to say in all honesty, I haven't actually had any desire to visit any of the Pacific Islands, not even Hawaii. I am more of a European holiday fancier. I've never been interested in travelling any further East than Austria.
I do love food however, and enjoy foods from many cultures and nations. I do love Asian flavours of all kinds. Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Polynesian. Its all yum.
I am just not a fan of hot and humid. It must be because of my cold Canadian blood!
The recipe I am sharing with you today for these Tahitian Coconut Breakfast Rolls is a non-fried interpretation of the Tahitian donuts called Firi Firi!
Firi Firi are Tahitian Coconut Donuts shaped like figure eights, deep fried, rolled in sugar and traditionally eaten for breakfast. They do sound very yummy.
I adapted this recipe from one I found in a Taste of Home Magazine. It purports to be a healthier version of the deep fried donuts, and is a yeast roll, rather than a donut.
But they are filled with lots of coconut flavours, from the coconut milk in the sponge to the shredded coconut which is also used.
The dough itself was very easy to make. I used my Kitchen Aid mixer. My Kitchen Aid was a gift from Jen and I have to say it is really being well utilized these days!
I really love it. Its the star of my kitchen for sure! I have been making beautiful bread and rolls with it, and cakes too. Its an incredible piece of kit!
Last winter I bought the meat grinder attachment for it when my sister and I wanted to make ground pork for our Christmas Meat Pies. We could not find ground pork anywhere, so I said to her, lets make our own.
Since then I have also been grinding my own steak, etc. Nobody could have given me a nicer gift than my kitchen aid. It has been very much appreciated. Now back to the bread.
The most difficult part of making these rolls was shaping them into figure eights. I did not do so good at that as you can see.
The dough went onto my baking sheet looking like figure eights, but when it rose, any resemblance to a figure eight disappeared!
This is as close to a figure eight as I got! haha Not very eightish, but a rose by any other name and all that, they still taste fabulous!
The dough it made rich and sweet from the use of coconut milk. You will not need the full can, but you can freeze what you don't use today to use in another recipe in the future.
Every time I open a can of coconut milk, it is separated. I have coconut solids at the top and then clear liquid at the bottom. I just remove it all to a jug and whip it back together with a small wire whisk.
Easy peasy. I used full fat coconut milk.
You also need shredded sweetened coconut for these rolls. Not flaked, or long shred. Just shredded.
I dare say you could also use sweetened desiccated coconut. What you don't want is long shreds or flakes.
The appeal of these buns is the coconut flavors and their beautiful texture. Once baked you brush them with melted butter and roll them in a sweet spiced sugar.
Spiced with cinnamon, ginger and vanilla. You will need a vanilla bean for this. You just cut it in half and scrap out the seeds, mixing it together with the sugar and other spices.
The sugar itself sure smells nice. You will have a bit extra. Why not save it to use for cinnamon toast, or better yet, double the quantities and you have it to use whenever.
I love cinnamon toast. When we were children if we ran out of breakfast cereal, my mother would make us bread and butter with cinnamon on it, sometimes with some milk poured over top.
A favorite dessert was also jello with sugar and milk on it. Its a wonder we had any teeth left in our heads!
In any case these were lovely with a nice mug of hot chocolate and I think they would also go very well with a frothy cup of milky coffee or tea.
Served warm as is, or with some butter and jam. I don't think it could get much better than this!
Tahitian Coconut Breakfast Rolls
Yield: Makes 8 rolls
Prep time: 35 MinCook time: 15 Mininactive time: 2 HourTotal time: 2 H & 50 M
A popular Tahitian breakfast treat, normally fried, but baked in this healthier version. They are delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup (60ml)warm water
- 1/2 cup (120ml) full fat coconut milk, warmed
- 1/2 cup (35g) shredded sweetened coconut
- 1/3 cup (57g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 to 2 1/2 cups (280g to 400g) strong bread flour
Spiced sugar:
- 1/2 cup (95g) granulated sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 vanilla bean
- 1/4 cup (60g) butter, melted
Instructions
- Stir the yeast into the warm water. Leave to bubble for 5 to 7 minutes. Stir to dissolve. Add to the warm coconut milk.
- Combine the coconut, sugar, salt, yeast mixture and 1 cup (140g) of flour together in the bowl of your stand mixer. Stir on medium speed until smooth. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a stiff dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead a few times (dough will be sticky), and then pop into a buttered bowl, turning to grease the dough. Cover with plastic cling film and set aside in a warm place to rise until double, about 1 1/2 hours.
- Tip the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knock it back. Divide into 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a 12 inch long rope. Curl ends in opposite directions to make a figure 8. Tuck each end underneath and pinch together. Place onto a large baking sheet which you have lined with baking parchment.
- Repeat until you have shaped all the rolls. Cover lightly and set aside to rise for a further half an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5.
- Bake the rolls in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes until risen and light golden brown.
- While they are baking whisk the sugar, ginger, cinnamon and seeds from the vanilla pod together.
- Let the rolls cool for a few minutes. Then brush the tops of each roll (one at a time) and roll in the cinnamon sugar to coat. Let cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
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