Grandma's Kitchen Table

Bread Alone: KAF's Italian Easter Cheese Bread

(Note: not the best photo, sorry about that...it was truly glorious in looks and taste!)

      On Wednesday this week, because we were all in a bread-making mood, Di found a nice recipe on the King Arthur Flour site for us to try:  Italian Easter Cheese Bread, here is the link for the recipe.  Margaret and I jumped right in on baking this one as it was, after all, cheese and bread all in one, and what is not to love about that? 

      Oh, my, is this a good bread.  The Parmigiano Reggiano cheese really stands out and is wonderful, so be sure to use the real stuff.  You can see bits of the cheese in the photo below.
      The recipe directions showed a round boule shape baked in a brioche pan (the one I chose to make) and another shape where the dough was braided and placed into a loaf pan (which I will make next time as that looks pretty as well).  I liked the edging on the bread in the brioche pan, sort of scallop-shaped, it was pretty and interesting, something different than just a standard loaf of bread. 

      We enjoyed the bread straight up, Mark took it as sandwich bread for his lunches this week, and I had a grilled cheese sandwich made with it (probably one of the best grilled cheese breads I have ever had).  This is definitely a repeat. 

Bread Alone: Jeffrey Hamelman's Soft Butter Rolls

      Bread baking is therapeutic for me, it just is.  There is something relaxing and settling about mixing up the dough, kneading it, letting it rise, and seeing where it all grows and goes.  I am always in awe of how many ways one can use the same ingredients and come out with such differing results and breads. 

      This week school was on spring break so I talked up bread baking with my Twitter pals and had some takers...I baked bread happily all week long. Nancy needed to make rolls for the homeless shelter in Atlanta on Monday, so she sent out a query asking if I would like to join in and which rolls should we make.  I searched my pin boards at Pinterest and came up with this recipe, Soft Butter Rolls from Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman, p. 258 that Di had made (Di always finds good bread recipes for us to try) and soon Nancy and I were making rolls, and Margaret joined right in as well. 

      The roll dough went together easily (there is a misprint in the book in regards to the yeast measurement, so if your copy of the recipe says 1 teaspoon of instant yeast., you need to change that to 2.75 teaspoons, a big difference). 

      I made cloverleaf-shaped rolls as Mark likes those...he can butter up each section like we all did when we were little kids.  Nancy and Margaret made basic dinner rolls from it.
      I think I could have taken them out pf the oven a couple of minutes earlier than the recipe says as they were quite colorful, but both the inside (so fluffy and nice) and outside (buttery from the extra butter the recipe says to apply after baking) were delicious, so maybe that's just how they are supposed to be...they were good and I would not hesitate to make this recipe again.

        Click here for the recipe and directions.

Sunday's Snippets

READING:  Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time re the dust bowl years of the 1930's in the Oklahoma Panhandle and surrounding areas.  (The same author who wrote The Big Burn that I finished a couple of weeks ago.)
SWIMMING NEWS:  The Indiana University Women's Swimming and Diving Team finished 13th in the NCAA Championships.  The Men's Swimming and Diving Team finished 10th in the NCAA Championships.  Very good, both...the ones finishing ahead of them were the huge swimming powers that be, so IU held their own and we are so proud of all of them.   You can read the Women's news here.  You can read the Men's news here.  Next up for Matt is the Grand Prix swim meet here in Indy this week.  He will swim the 50, 100, 200 Freestyles and the 100 Backstroke over the course of the meet.  Extra fun as it's a big-time meet with the Olympian swimmers participating.
Photo:  Steve, Ian, and Matt (otherwise known as The Three Amigos) during a weekend home -- Ian is Matt's roommate this year and in May the three of them will be renting a house together for the next three years at college as swimmers stay in Hooville for the summers to train. 
COOKING BYTES:  Way behind on blogging and posting food group blog-alongs.  Sigh.
FAV NEW FIND:  Spring showed up really really early this year and we are completely green here with blooming flowers.  It is so gorgeous and inspiring.  All the green right outside my windows just makes the day seem special and wonderful.  It's a joy just to drive to the store or the five miles up the road to work at GCHS.  Very nice.
FAV THIS PAST WEEK:  NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving and NCAA Basketball...definitely a favorite around our house.  We all love to watch the basketball games, March Madness is something we look forward to each year.  IU made it to the Sweet 16, a complete surprise to everyone, and a whole lot of fun along the way.  Win or lose, it was just great to be there!  Next year is going to be even better for the Hoos...there are "We are BACK!" signs everywhere!  You probably have to live here to understand...this is a team that can sell out their seats on years when they don't win anything.  Seriously.  On Saturday, GCHS won the State Boys' Basketball Championship for Class 3A!  Very very exciting for all of us...GCHS just 8 years old, and this is the first year they moved up from 2A to 3A, so they did a really great job.  On Friday we wished them all well and told them to "Bring home the trophy!" as they left...such fun that they did it!
Photo:  Guerin Catholic HIgh School Boys' Basketball Team 2012 State 3A Champions! 
WEEK IN REVIEW:  There has been a whole lot of basketball watching here the past couple of weeks, the usual round of activities, and a lot of working days...all making the time speed by.  Mark and I went to visit Matt at college yesterday and had a nice lunch and walk around in Nashville, IN.  It was a beautiful day and it was just really nice to be out enjoying it and catching up with all Matt's news. 
Photo:  Kiernan, Lauren, and Matt gracing my kitchen during a weekend home.
LOOKING FORWARD TO:   At the IMA:  Looking West exhibit, click here for information and inspiration to go see it. This is what's happening at the ISO this coming week:  Urbanski Conducts Smetana, click here.