If It's Raining, I'm Baking!

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain and immediately thought of blueberry streusel muffins and a hot cup of coffee and fresh baked bread with tomato basil soup.  But not just any bread.  I was craving some type of pretzel bread, braided, with lots of salt.  So I flipped through baking books and searched the internet until I found a recipe on allrecipes.com.  I tweaked it a bit to fit my plan. Then I got to work--or in my case to play!  Pretzel Bread and Blueberry Streusel Muffins coming up.

I began with the bread dough--mixed and kneaded--and then set it aside to rise. Both of these recipes are fairly easy to make.  In the hour it took for the dough to rise, I was able to make the muffin  mixture and streusel topping, bake them, and clean up my mess.  While they cooled, I formed and braided the dough and baked the bread.  Both were done during a rainy morning and were ready to enjoy that afternoon.  And the house smelled great!

Pretzel Bread
1.  Dissolve and let stand for 10 minutes:
               1 1/2 t active dry yeast
               3/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
2.  In large bowl combine and mix well:
                yeast mixture
                1/2 t sugar
                1/4 t salt
                1 cup bread flour 
2.  Add 1 more cup of bread flour gradually.  Work the dough until a stiff dough is formed.
3.  Form a smooth ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in size--about 1 hour.                                           

4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Lightly grease baking sheet or use parchment paper.

5.  Turn dough onto lightly floured surface.  Press and smooth dough into rectangle and divide into 4 pieces.
6.  Divide each of the four pieces into thirds.  Roll each of these into even lengths to braid.  This will make four loaves of braided pretzel bread.

(I pinch one end and braid; then pinch the other end and fold under.)

7. Place on baking sheet.  Brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle thoroughly with kosher salt.

8.  Bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

I've already posted this recipe.  Here's the link to my previous blog and the recipe:

http://bakingdazeinla.blogspot.com/2010/04/blueberry-streusel-muffins.html

It's one of my most requested items to bake!

Helpful hint.  If you don't have buttermilk, it's easy to make your own, which is what I did this morning.  Simply add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to 1 cup of milk.  Let it sit for 5- 10 minutes and you have "buttermilk."

I love these muffin parchment papers.  I got them at Surfas Restaurant Supply in Culver City.  Kake Kreations on Sherman Way in Canoga Park also has a great selection of similar items.

Muffins before the topping is sprinkled on.

Ready to eat!

Okay, so now that the baking is done, who feels like cooking? Certainly not me.  Thank God for Wolfgang Puck!  I particularly like his organic Classic Tomato Basil soup.

                                       

And it was delicious with my pretzel bread.  Just like I imagined this morning.