Live Every Week Like It's Cake Week

This is a weird thing to admit, especially for a 29 year old baker, but I…have never used yeast before. Seriously, I haven’t. I bake cookies and quickbreads and pies and cakes (obviously), but yeast breads? Not so much. I’m pretty sure it’s the instant gratification factor: I don’t have the patience for a good rise (though considering I now have a jar of yeast, I may attempt it more often).

This isn’t really a traditional yeast bread – it’s somewhere between yeast and quickbread, and takes instant yeast and baking powder. I’ve had the recipe since before Christmas, and have been wanting to make it since then, but as is often the case, my grocery store? Had no cinnamon chips. (Other things not findable in East Coast supermarkets: orange cinnamon rolls, German Chocolate cakemix and Heath Bar Crunch Bits. I’m confused too.) So it didn’t get made until this month, when my mother mailed me three pounds of cinnamon chips.

My mother is awesome.

This recipe comes from King Arthur Flour, producers of my go-to brownie recipe and purveyors of what is apparently really excellent flour that I’m too cheap to buy. Maybe someday, when I’m feeling flush. In the meantime, it’s Gold Medal, and I’ll continue trawling the KAF website for great recipes.

This recipe is apparently great for toasting; I wouldn’t know, since I just cut thick slices and ate the hell out of it. I also didn’t quite get the cinnamon chips mixed in properly, and it’s probably even better if they’re evenly distributed instead of…crowding the edge.

I’ll just consider it my own little twist on the recipe.

Easy Cinnamon Chip Bread

3 C AP flour

1/2 C sugar

2 t instant yeast

1 t salt

1 t cinnamon

1 C warm milk

1/4 C unsalted butter, melted

1 egg

1 t baking powder

1 C cinnamon chips

Cinnamon-sugar, for topping

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, yeast, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, butter, and egg. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, beating till smooth. Let the batter rest at room temperature for 1 hour, covered, then stir in the baking powder and cinnamon chips.

Spoon the batter into a greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan. Sprinkle the top with the cinnamon-sugar.

Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes, until it tests done. Remove the bread from the oven, let it rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer it from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Seriously good, perfect for breakfast or dessert. Or breakfast, dessert, and a mid-afternoon snack.

Oh my God. This soup is like a religious experience.

I’m primarily a baker, but given that I’m technically not supposed to eat cake for dinner – yeah, I don’t get it either – I cook other foods too, and this time of year, its often soup, because nothing’s better than soup when it’s so cold and windy out that the snow is falling sideways. I only wish I was joking, people. It was bad yesterday. It was definitively a Soup Day

I still had most of a 5 lb bag of russets, so I made it a Potato Soup day.

This is the kind of recipe that supports a lot of experimentation. The basics are very basic – potatoes, onion, garlic, and stock – and a lot of changes can be made to change up the taste. Mine is seasoned with mustard powder, nutmeg, salt and seasoned pepper, and gets a lot of its flavor from the bacon fat I sauteed the vegetables in. You can just as easily use butter or olive oil, and season with Italian herbs or with dill or celery seed for a different flavor entirely.

Personally, I’m not going to change this one up much more; I nearly moaned when I ate my first bite last night.

The Best Motherfucking Baked Potato Soup Ever

6 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 Spanish onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
5 slices of thick-cut bacon, chopped
4 C chicken stock
4 oz soft goat cheese or goat cream cheese
1/4 C half and half
1/4 C AP flour
1/2 t dried mustard
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t sea salt
1/4 t California Seasoned Pepper

Chop bacon into half-inch pieces using kitchen scissors and render in a large pot. Remove bacon when crisp, draining on a towel, and saute onion until tender but not brown in the bacon fat. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant.

Add flour and whisk until the flour is completely combined and the mixture is thick and bubbly. Add mustard and nutmeg and stir to combine.

Add diced potatoes and stir to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in chicken stock and cook, covered, until very tender. It took around twenty minutes for mine, with a fairly small dice, but may take longer with larger pieces of potato.

Mash potatoes with a potato masher until the soup is thick and there are no large pieces remaining. Add goat cheese/goat cream cheese and whisk until melted. Add half-and-half, and stir to combine.

Add reserved bacon and stir to combine. Serve hot.

It’s an easy recipe, but unbelievably delicious, and perfect for an easy supper on a cold night; given that it’s just as cold today, I suspect I’ll be eating it again.