Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Blueberry Bread

I love books.  I always have.  My mom is a librarian, so I think it's in my DNA.  My dad read to us every night when we were little, before we went to sleep.  When I was sick he would read to me, and three years ago I went home to have my tonsils removed and he read me one of our favorites: To Kill a Mockingbird. But one of my all-time favorite books is Blueberries for Sal.  Have you read this?  You must. Seriously. Go and order it right now.  I love the mischievous and hungry Sal, and I love that kids can make friends with anyone. And I love the memories that it has. And because of all these things, I love blueberries.

Blueberry and Sweet Potato an unlikely combo?  No way. It's delicious.  I adapted this recipe and it is the moistest (is that a word?) bread I have ever, ever had. Seriously.  It crumbles as you cut and then melts in your mouth.  All you need is a few cups of flour, sugar, maple syrup, and a can of butternut squash {ok probably more, just see below. I can't remember.}

And grab some blueberries.  If you are really fancy then you can make a blueberry sauce. It's easy.  A little blueberries, a little flour, a little sugar, and heat and bam you are done.  But if you are like me, you'll buy Blueberry Sauce that should be for ice cream sundaes at Trader Joes, and you will use that.

So I poured a lot of batter into the pan, and then I poured a layer of Blueberry Sauce right on top.  Then more batter.  See that small little line near the top?  It comes out swirly and adds a bit of color to the fall Monet of sweet potato, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Enjoy, and try to make it last more than a day.

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Blueberry Bread (adapted from Joy the Baker)

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup of packed dark brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

some cinnamon {I poured about 3 teaspoons}

some ground nutmeg {I poured about 2 teaspoons}

1 15 ounce can of Sweet Potato

1 cup of olive oil

1 or more teaspoons of maple syrup 

1/3 cup of water

Place all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and gently stir together.  Pour all other ingredients into medium bowl and stir carefully.  Add wet ingredients from the smaller bowl into the dry ingredients into the larger bowl.  Fold until batter is well combined.  Make sure to get all the flour off the of bottom of the bowl.  Grease two bread pans and pour batter equally into both pans.  Layer batter with blueberry sauce. Bake in preheated 350 degree F oven for 1 hour.  Enjoy!

Cranberry Cinnamon Rolls

We had a finance meeting this weekend, my husband and I.  Do normal people do that?  They must.  Well, must to my surprise (not at all) we were way over on groceries every month.  I usually purchase all the groceries because like every other food lover, the grocery store can make you feel organize, relaxed, and creative all in one trip.  So, oops, at times I let my creative juices flow (no pun intended) and I get a bit carried away, and then just like that we are over budget.  Time to scale back.  What does that mean?  Stop baking?  No way! Start making boxed mac and cheese?  I don't think so.  It means staring at your fridge until you see one or two ingredients that you don't want to go bad and so you make something out of it.  Enter cranberries.  Exit delicious Cranberry Cinnamon Rolls.

These are whole wheat, not tons of sugar, and seriously look at that red.  Perfect for the holidays.

They are pretty easy too.  The sauce is not hard, and you get to hear the cranberries "pop."  My mom says that this reminds her of her mom and when she was little she would wait to hear the cranberries pop. I digress. After you make the dough and let it rise, you spread the cranberry sauce on it like so, and then roll it up.

Let the rolls rise again, put 'em in the over and done! The oranges?  Oh yes, I added a bit of orange juice to the cream cheese frosting.  I have no pictures of that frosting though, because I will tell you that these were so good that a bit of honey and butter will do the trick.  But also, we had oranges lying around and since I'm all about staying on budget, Ill throw whatever I can into a recipe.

Do you have any other saving money tricks or random thrown together recipes?  Please share. As this is a new stage and I need all the help I can get.

Cranberry Cinnamon Rolls

4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour {I used Whole Wheat}
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup packed brown sugar

Mix 2 cups of flour and yeast, set aside.  In a sauce pan, heat and stir milk, granulated sugar, 1/3 cup butter, and the salt until just warm and butter almost melts.  Add to flour mixture along with the 2 eggs.  Beat on low for 30 seconds and then on high for 3 minutes.  Scrape the sides of the bowl frequently.  Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.

Place dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead in any remaining flour.  The dough should be moderately soft, and sort of elastic.  Shape dough into a ball, and place into a buttered bowl.  Turn dough over in bowl so the entire dough is touched with butter.  Cover and place in a warm place until dough is doubled in size. This will take about 1 hour, maybe 1.5 hours.

Once dough is double in size, punch the dough down and place on to a lightly floured surface.  Divide dough in half, cover and let rise for 10 minutes. Use this ten minutes to make your filling. (See below)

After ten minutes, roll each dough half into a 12x8 rectangle. {I just got it as close to a rectangle as possible. It took me some time}  Sprinkle filling over dough, leaving 1 inch along the sides of the dough.  Tightly roll up each rectangle long ways.  Once the dough is rolled up, pinch the ends, and cut into 12 equal pieces, or however big you want your rolls to be.  Place into greased  two 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 pans, cover, and let the dough rise another 30 minutes or until it is doubled in size.

Place in preheated 375 degree oven, and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Watch the tops for a golden brown color to test if they are cooked all the way.  Let cool for five minutes, put some butter and honey on top, and enjoy!

Cranberry Filling

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 cups cranberries
dash of cinnamon
dash of nutmeg

Heat and stir water and sugar into a medium saucepan until sugar dissolves.  Boil rapidly for 5 minutes.  Add cranberries and allow water to return to boiling, then reduce the heat.  Boil gently for about 3-4 minutes until cranberries "pop". {I love this part!} Stir occasionally.  Remove from heat. Done and done.

Sour Cream Bread

I can not begin to tell you how wonderfully moist this bread is.  I had a tub of sour cream and I did not know what to do with it.  I also got two great bread books for my birthday from my husband and sister, because the year of not purchasing bread and ice cream has begun.  So I flipped through and I found this recipe.  I was hesitant, but so glad I made it.  I love when random ingredients come together and make something delicious.

Before I get into the recipe, though, I must tell you about this book my husband got for me: The Bread Baker's Apprentice Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread. It's beautiful.  Like when I tell you that my food was so pretty I could barely eat it, that is how I feel about this book.  The pictures are wonderful, the writing is so descriptive and I love that it has all sorts of breads, recipes, and techniques.  I think it's important to really learn the technique behind cooking and baking, not just do it.  I would highly recommend this book for those who feel the same.  Good job, husband.

The second book I received for my birthday was from my sister.  It's Beard on Bread, and frankly, it's awesome.  This is where the recipe came from.  Oh, yeah.  The forward is written by Chuck Williams of Williams-Sonoma.  What is not to love about that?  Page turner.  I'm serious.  I'm aware it's just about bread.  Good find, sister.

So what do you do with sour cream bread?  I think this is my favorite part.  You can put butter and jam on it, make mini sandwiches or, do what I did and make mini appetizers for you and a friend.  Or just eat 97% of them and tell the other person that the rest are for them.  That's what I did too.  These little guys are simply fresh caught tuna steak, cooked in a peach salsa, cut up and mixed with a dab of mayo and mustard, and laid on a bed of spinach, which of course, was on toasted sour cream bread.  I'm telling you, this bread is so diverse, I. just. love. it.

Sour Cream Bread via Beard on Bread

1 package active dry yeast

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 cup warm water (100 to 115 degrees, approximately)

2 cups sour cream

1 tablespoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour

Combine the yeast, sugar, and water, and all to proof for five minutes.  (This means that you let it sit for a few minutes.  If the yeast it good, it should expand an form bubble on the top.  See?  You learn something new every day!) Put the sour cream, salt, and soda in a mixing bowl.  Add the yeast mixture. Then add 4 cups of the flour, cup by cup, to make a very wet, sticky dough, beating hard with a wooden spoon after each addition.  Scrape out onto a lightly floured board. Using a baker's scraper or spackling knife, lift the flour and the dough, and fold the dough over.Turn it clockwise slightly and repeat the lifting and folding process until the dough is less sticky and can be worked with your hands.  Add only flour to prevent sticking.   (This entire kneading should take about 10 minutes, possibly longer if you are inexperienced.) {Beard's words, not mine.} Shape the dough into a ball, place in a buttered bowl, and turn to coat it with the butter.  Cover with plastic and let sit in a warm spot until doubled in size.

     Punch the dough down. turn onto a lightly floured board and knead for a minute, then divide into two equal pieces.  Butter two 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf tins. Shape the dough into loaves and fit into the tins. Cover loosely and let rise again until doubled.   Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on top and bottom.  Cool thoroughly before slicing.  {I always skip this step.  Let cool?  Are you kidding me?  I want the butter to melt right before my eyes. Immediately.}