In my quest to find a recipe delicious enough to give away for Christmas food gifts, I came across this: a dark, slightly sweet, very tasty yeast bread that's studded with caraway seeds.
Yum. I do believe we have a winner.
The original recipe gave directions by hand, and yielded two loaves. I cut it in half so I could use my handy dandy little bread machine.
Pop all the ingredients into machine in order listed, press the "dough" setting, and start.
Check on the dough as it starts to knead; you want to make sure it is stiff. If it looks too wet, add more flour until it's the right consistency.
When the machine beeps, shape dough into a slightly flattened 6-inch ball and place on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled (maybe an hour?). Bake at 375 for 30 - 35 minutes, until browned and sounding kind of hollow when you tap it. (I took mine out at 28 minutes). Yields one loaf.
The recipe came from this book, which used to belong to my husband's grandma. My own grandma is the one who gave me my first bread machine. So it seems to me this loaf is truly a family effort.
Happy holiday baking. Any ideas for great Christmas food gifts coming out of your kitchen?
P.S. The lovely blogger, Bitterroot Mama, posted this review yesterday of Queen of the Castle. Thank you, Bitterroot Mama!
If you need a quick chocolate fix, here's a great recipe that stirs up in no time. You dump most of the ingredients in a bowl, microwave for three minutes, add the last couple ingredients, then plop onto a greased cookie sheet and pop in the freezer for 20 minutes.
You may want to use oven mitts as you take the bowl out of the microwave. And next time I'll grease my cookie sheet a little better, or even use parchment paper, so the tasty little morsels will slide off the pan more easily.
Also, I cut this recipe in half to get the amount shown here.
Because we all know that if cookies are just sitting on the counter, they are asking for it.
Go visit Sandra at Keeping it Simple to get the recipe.
How the heck do you get chocolate curls, not chocolate dust? Any secrets?
Big congratulations to Confessions of a Closet Hoarder, Meg at Little Bit of Life blog, and Barbara at candy di ricette barbare blog for winning the Goosberry Patch books. May you have many happy hours of pumpkin and apple baking. And thanks so much, everyone, for entering.