My Favourite Bread Machine Focaccia Bread

There are a few kitchen tools I absolutely adore: my mixture, my meat thermometer and my gorgeous tried and true trusty old bread machine maker. They were huge back in the 1990's and when I got one for my wedding, my hubby and I made fresh bread every day while on our honeymoon, at our cabin in Kelowna. I've made this focaccia so many times for luncheons at my house and it is positively divine. Seriously consider a bread maker if you don't already have one because it brings so much joy to life for so little work. Besides, the smell of fresh bread next to the smell of a little baby is God's way of reminding you how damn good life is!

For one pound of focaccia bread: 3/4 cup of milk, 1 tbsp. of olive oil, 2 cups of bread flour, 1 tsp. of dried oregano, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. of active dry yeast, non stick spray coating.
Additionally you will need more ingredients for the toppings: 2 tbsp. olive oil, 1 clove garlic, 1/3 cup of grated Parmesan, 3 tbsp. snipped parsley.

Add first six ingredients to machine according to manufacturer's directions. Select dough cycle. When cycle is complete, remove dough from machine then cover and let rest for 10 minutes....this is just so you can get your head around the fact that you're making bread! Spray a square cake pan with non-stick spray and press the dough into the pan. Then take a few of your fattest fingers and make "dimples" in the bread dough, in a row and evenly...say four dimples across and all the way to the bottom. If you don't have fat fingers, not to worry, too much focaccia will surely fix that. Then brush your bread with olive oil, and sprinkle the remaining ingredients over the dough and pop into a 300 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes or until bread is the colour brown that you like. Serve with balsamic and olive oil and a nice bowl of soup. Warning: You may have people dropping in more than usual with the hope that you are making bread.

Another Easy Yummy Bread I Love: Peanut Butter!

Here's another super easy loaf of bread to try today.

2 cups of flour, 4 tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp salt, ¼ cup of sugar, 1 ¼ cup sugar, 1 ¼ cup milk, 2/3 cup peanut butter. Mix dry ingredients first, then mix milk and peanut butter together, and combine all of the ingredients together. Bake in a greased loaf pan at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Best when one day old.

Tara's Beer Bread - Major Easy and a Real Friend Impresser!

Here’s a really delicious cool loaf of bread that you can make in just a few minutes. You’ll need to part with a can of beer, but wow - it has that amazing homemade yeasty taste and the top crust is nice and crunchy and the bread is amazingly homemade, but without all the hassle. I like to make it when I run out of bread at home.

3 cups of flour, 1 tbsp of baking powder, 3 tbsp of sugar, 1 tsp of salt, 1 bottle or can of beer, at room temp, ¼ cup of unsalted butter, melted.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Add the beer all at once, mixing as little as possible; the batter should be lumpy. Pour the batter into a greased 9X5x3 inch loaf pan and brush with the melted butter. Bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

Left over baguette?

Certainly this post isn't exciting, but my family sure loved it. Since baguette is only good the day it's bought and I generally either make bread crumbs with the leftovers, I thought I'd do a little something different (though hardly unique) since it was the weekend and I usually have a house load of kids over. Take day old baguette and make a nice slice down the length of it and fill it up with left over cheese. I had double cream Brie and cheddar (don't over fill). Then wrap the baguette in foil and bake in the oven at 350 until all the cheese has melted and serve. You can even wrap the left overs over and warm up in the micro later on. Serve with soup. Kids will love it!

You Will Be A Star Brie Brioche with Mango Chutney

Now listen up my dear fellow cooks - do not let this recipe daunt you.  Trust me.  It is simple to make and surprisingly unfussy.  My gorgeous Aunt had ordered the same brioche from a catering co. and paid a whopping $70....for the small wheel.  The brioche is a "slow" recipe that you can have done in about 1/2 hour.  I froze mine and used the dough for my Christmas Eve party.  It was a hit.  Not only is it a masterpiece to behold, it is truly delicious.  P.S.  I made the mango chutney in the microwave!

First up - the mango chutney.  For years I was searching for the micowave version, as I'd heard it on the Pia Shandell show years ago, and would you believe, I actually had the recipe in my old, "The New Basics" cookbook written by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins.  You may actually add anything you like over top the Brie Brioche, or if you so desire, keep it absolutely naked.

Mango Chutney:  1 mango peeled, 1/2 cup of sugar (yes it's true), 1/4 cup of finely chopped red onion, 2 tbsp. of vinegar, 2 tbsp. of finely chopped green bell pepper, 1 tbsp. of grated fresh ginger, 1/2 tsp of ground ginger, 1/8 tsp of ground tumeric, 1/8 tsp of ground cloves and finally freshly ground black pepper to taste....though white might be cool too!  Peel, halve, seed and cut manot and throw into casserole dish with all the other ingredients.  Stir and then micro on high for seven minutes.  Once done in the micro, take out and cook.  Stir and cool.  You can refrigerate for a week and it will last for about a week.

Brie in Brioche.  Well, you are suppose to use Camembert for this recipe, but I couldn't find a big wheel of it at the grocery store.  Instead I used Brie and you absolutely must freeze it in the freezer before you wrap it up in the brioche dough.  Brie is a softer cheese and will easily melt.  I would recommend that you actually use Camembert, but Brie was lovely.

5 cup all purpose flour


1 tbl yeast

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbl salt

2/3 cup hot water (120 degrees)

6 x eggs

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

9 x inch whole round of Camembert

1 x egg

1 tbl of milk

Tapenade (optional topping):

Get your mixer out!

Mix one cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt in heavy duty mixer.


Add hot water and beat at medium speed for two to three minutes until smooth.

Add eggs one at a time beating after each egg.

Gradually add two cups more flour.

When blended, add butter a few pieces at a time just until blended.

Gradually add the rest of the flour slowly for several minutes.

The dough will have a thick batter-like consistency.

Put into a greased bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at cool room temperature until doubled, approximately 2 hours.

Punch down dough, cover tightly and refrigerate overnight.

Cut dough in half. You may freeze half for another use for up to three weeks - I buttered my bags before freezing.

With a rolling pin roll out remaining dough large enough to wrap completely around whole 9 inch Camembert round (you may need additional flour to make dough easier to handle; add one tablespoon at a time).

(Tip: make sure the dough doesn't stick to the countertop or board before placing Camembert in center.

Use additional flour if necessary to prevent sticking - 1 tbsp at a time.

)(Toppings: You may add a topping but it isn't necessary.  This is where I added the mango chutney.  Just spread it over top of the Brie and then wrap the dough around frozen Brie.

Suggested toppings could be minced roasted red peppers, olive oil and garlic or olive tapenade and spread on top of Camembert.

)Place Camembert in center of brioche dough and wrap dough completely around the cheese.

Place on greased baking sheet.

Put an egg wash on Camembert (one whole egg and one tablespoon milk whisked together).

Bake in preheated oven 400 degrees until golden brown approximately 30 minutes.

Cool. Serve while still warm with extra crackers.

Homemade Brown Sugar and Pancakes Sans (without) Eggs

Twice this week I've been without ingredients and did a marvelous job of improvising. My son and I were making chocolate chip cookies and had no brown sugar. To that we combined: 1 cup of white sugar with 2 tbsp. of molasses. It works amazingly well.

The other day I was making pancakes for dinner and realized I had no eggs! Surely there had to be a recipe on the Internet that would solve this problem and of course there was! While I can't find the original recipe I used, this one looks pretty close:

Eggless Pancakes: 1 cups of flour, 2 tbsp. of sugar, 2 tbsp. of baking powder, 1/8 tsp. of salt, 1 cup of milk, 2 tbsp. of oil. Mix dry ingredients first, then mix all of the wet ingredients and add to the dry ingredients and stir until all the ingredients are blended and smooth. Pour 1/4 of batter onto an oily hot griddle. Turn the element or griddle down to a medium low heat and flip the pancake with bubbles form on the top of the pancake. Cook another minute or so or until nicely brown and the batter inside is fluffy and cooked. Serve with butter and maple syrup!

Low Calorie Shrimp Vegetable Stuffed French Crepes

I always love it when I can find uber delicious already prepared foods that make low calorie eating a sensuous experience. I found Frieda's French Style Crepes at the grocery store and was to be honest, sceptic that any already prepared crepe could taste divine. I was pleasantly...well more than pleasantly surprised. Now that I am on Weight Watchers, I was looking for still delicious pleasurable meals that would not only fill up my hunger, but my soul as well.

Roast 3-4 mushrooms and one small sliced red pepper in 1/4 cup of vegetable broth in a 350 degree oven until your desired doneness. I had mine in the oven for about 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and drain the broth to dry out the veggies BUT SAVE 2 TBSP. of broth for the sauce.

Then lay out 2 crepes and get ready for stuffing. I first layered, 1/2 slice of low calorie Swiss cheese down each centre - break it up a bit if you like to cover the whole length of the crepe. Then begin adding the roasted veggies, and 1/2 cup of shrimp to each crepe - then roll up. Bake in the oven again at the same temperature until the crepes are just a little bit brown.

Then for the sauce, add 1 tbsp. of 1/2 fat Hellman's mayo to a small bowl and mix in the two tbsp. of reserved vegetable broth and stir until a creamy like consistency. I then added perhaps 1/2 tsp. of low calorie Parmesan cheese to the sauce. When you take the crepes from the oven, put onto a pretty plate, pour the sauce evenly over each crepe and garnish with parsley. This whole two crepe breakfast is 6 points in total and absolutely delicious!