Cheesy Twisted Heart Bread - #BreadBakers

I have really missed the smell of freshly baked bread. It's a smell associated with many fond childhood memories, since I grew up near two bakeries. Both of them would bake at the same and the neighbourhood would be filled with those delicious smells. They no longer bake at the locations near me, so I only get that smell when I bake my own bread.

Since gluten betrayed me, I haven't made any yeast bread, so pulling this out of the oven made me so happy. Yes, it is chock full of gluten. No, I didn't eat any. I just stared grudgingly at my family eating it. HAHA. I started out with a gluten-free plan using coconut flour and almond flour. But that combination just wasn't hitting the spot. I found a site with amazing gluten-free yeast breads. But it requires a million ingredients that aren't easily accessible. I need to order most of the items from Amazon - psyllium husk, anyone? Until I figure it all out, I'll just whip up something gluten-filled for my friends and family to scratch my baking itch. I'm holding out hope that one day, I'll be able to eat gluten again without getting sick. One day.

So the theme for this month's Bread Bakers is "Loaves of Love" - a beautiful theme for the month of February. I'm excited to see how my fellow Bread Bakers interpreted this one. Scroll down to see a list of their recipes and be sure to visit them. Thanks for hosting, Wendy!

Cheesy Twisted Heart Bread 

Ingredients 

Dough

3 cups of flour 

1 teaspoon of instant yeast

1 teaspoon sugar 

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, whisked

3/4 cup milk 

1/4 cup oil

Filling

2 tablespoons melted butter 

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup shredded cheese (or more, based on your preferences)

Directions

Whisk flour, yeast, sugar, and salt together. Add the egg, milk, and oil. Mix together, then knead well. until it forms a tacky dough. Place the kneaded dough in an oiled bowl, cover it, and let it bulk ferment at room temperature until doubled in size. You can also leave it in the refrigerator overnight.  I prefer to bulk ferment in the fridge. 

Prepare a parchment-lined baking sheet. 

Divide the bulk fermented dough into two equal halves. Now, you have choices here when it comes to shaping. You can create a stencil to cut out your hearts, but doing that will waste dough. It's also hard to plan the perfect size based on the amount of dough you have. I decided to shape half my dough into a heart and use it as a stencil for the second half. It doesn't have to be perfect - have fun with it.  My heart ended up being a bit more than 11 inches across at its widest. 

Place your first heart on your baking sheet. Brush the dough with the melted butter, then sprinkle on the garlic and shredded cheese. Top with your second heart. 

Place a cookie cutter or similar in the centre of your heart. Then cut half-inch strips all around your heart up to the cookie cutter. Don't cut the very centre. Twist the strips on the right side to the right and the ones on the left side to the left.

Preheat the oven to 350 F while your heart rests at room temperature for about 20 minutes. It's not going to rise much at this point butit may look a little puffy.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden. 

Enjoy

• Food Lust People Love: Cheddar Marmite Rolls 
• Passion Kneaded: Cheesy Twisted Heart Bread 
• A Messy Kitchen: Cranberry Cinnamon Swirl Bread 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Double Chocolate Muffins 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Extra Gooey Sticky Buns 
• Sneha's Recipe: Heart Shaped Rolls 
• Zesty South Indian Kitchen: Rose Petal Pistachio Cardamom Sourdough Bread – A Love Infused Artisan Loaf

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Brazilian Cheese Bread #BreadBakers

Happy New Year!

The Bread Bakers are starting off the new year with the best bread to pair with your winter soup. Or if you're in Jamaica, it's your Saturday soup. Fun fact: When I was a child, soup was the standard meal in most households every Saturday. It's also a popular street food on weekends. It's always hot in Jamaica, so we can't wait for cool weather to drink soup. Even Google's AI knows the deal.

I initially planned on some breadsticks, but then I discovered some long-forgotten tapioca flour in my cupboard. On the back was a recipe for Brazilian Cheese Bread. Sounded perfect for soup, so that won out. I didn't use the recipe on the back of the bag and went instead with one from The Kitchn. 

It was my first time having Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pão de Queijo). It's a chewy, tasty little morsel. I would love to add a million flavours to it. But it's also perfect as is, paired with a stew or soup.  I also enjoyed them with my breakfast with a little garlic butter. 

Scroll down to see what other breads you need to make to go with your soup.

Brazilian Cheese Bread 

Ingredients 

1/2 cup milk 

1/4 cup oil 

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 oz tapioca flour

1 egg

1/2 cup cheese (I used a Mozarella mix, but I think a sharp cheddar would have been even better.)

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 F. Grease the wells of a mini muffin tin. You can also use a lined parchment sheet, but I wanted a little shape insurance.

Bring the milk, oil, and salt to a gentle boil. Remove from the heat and pour into the bowl of a mixer. Add the tapioca flour and stir with a wooden spoon until there are no more streaks of dry tapioca flour. 

Beat with a paddle attachment until the dough has cooled. Add the egg and mix until full incporated. Next, beat in the cheese. 

Use a 1 oz scoop to scoop the dough into the wells of the muffin tin. 

Lower the oven's heat to 350 F.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the pan, halfway through. The bread should have puffed, the outside should be dry, and it should be lightly browned. 

Enjoy!

 

• Artisan Bread Bowls from Food Lust People Love
• Brazilian Cheese Bread from Passion Kneaded
• How to Make a Crusty French Baguette from The Wimpy Vegetarian
• No Knead Bread from Making Miracles
• Pao de Milho from A Messy Kitchen
• Skillet Corn Bread from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Soft Bread Rolls for Soup from Sneha's Recipe
• Sourdough Breadsticks from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Whole Wheat Rolls for Soups and Sandwiches from Karen's Kitchen Stories

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Cassava Flour Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins - #MuffinMonday

This is a difficult post to write because this marks the last Muffin Monday (for now?). I barely baked this year due to a host of issues (oven, life, work, oven, gluten), but I am still extremely sad the monthly posts must end. Bundt Bakers, Bread Bakers, and Muffin Monday hold a very special place in my heart. I joined Bundt Bakers and later Bread Bakers and Muffin Monday at a very low point in my life. The groups gave me something to look forward to. I learned so much about baking thanks to them. 

In August, I realised that I was gluten and corn-sensitive. I don't live in a very "gluten-sensitivity-aware" area, so it has been quite an experience. "But it's whole wheat, whole wheat is healthy." Ah, no. Not how that works. I managed to find some Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour, but I haven't tested it yet. What I have been playing with, however, is cassava flour. Cassava is very popular in Jamaica. We typically boil it. There's also a flatbread called bammy that's made from the grated root. Bammy can be traced back to our indigenous people - Arawaks/Tainos - the times before wheat was introduced.

Using cassava flour, however, is very new. I was delighted to find out that it just might work as a great substitute in baking, and some very chocolatey muffins felt like the best way to test that.  

IT WORKED! 

The cassava flour worked so so well. I was extremely impressed. Just look at the crumb! You can't tell there's no wheat flour. The texture is a liiiiittle drier. But that's about the only difference.  

For any Jamaicans reading this, I used the Gold Seal brand, so I can only vouch for that. The recipe comes from A Saucy Kitchen, who adapted it from Sally's Baking Addiction. I can't wait to do my own experiments. 

Well, this is it. Time to close out this chapter of Muffin Monday. Thank you, Stacy, for hosting us all these years! It has been an amazing ride. Scroll down to see how the other bakers are closing out this chapter of Muffin Monday. 

Cassava Flour Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yield: 12 muffins 

Ingredients 

1 1/2 cup cassava flour (180g)

1 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)

1/2 cup cocoa powder 

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 

1 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions

Line muffin pan with liners or grease well. Preheat oven to 425 F.

Whisk cassava flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together. In another bowl, whisk eggs, yogurt, oil, milk, and vanilla. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir until just combined. Next, stir in the chocolate chips. Scoop into the muffin wells, filling each to the top. 

Bake for 5 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 F. Bake for another 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. 

• Banana Buttermilk Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Blueberry Streusel Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Caramelized Pear Gingerbread Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Cardamom Cinnamon Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cassava Flour Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Maple French Toast Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Wheaties Muffins from Palatable Pastime

 

 #MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page