Ahh I love breads baking

the aroma of baking bread is indeed sinfully delicious!

Nothing makes me hungry as quick as the aroma of fresh baking bread! (I think I may need to get out my bread maker!) I've got a great bread machine cookbook with all kinds of breads in it.

I just made an "bread in an hour" recipe, pretty good and I found a "ciabatta" bread recipe that I am going to try out soon! Love the smell of fresh baked bread!! I'll post some of my recipes that I have tried later today!

I dearly love baking breads and playing with yeast doughs. It's great therapy for me and when I get stressed-out by things, I usually find myself in the kitchen kneading dough. Here are some of my favorite recipes:

This is from Light & Tasty and the rolls are excellent. They are high in calories. One roll equals over 400 calories. But (and this is important, too), one roll is equal to only about 7 grams of fat....which I think is about 63 calories of fat. And that's not bad. They're not sticky buns or anything like that. But they are good.

Jumbo Pineapple Yeast Rolls

2 pkg (1/4 oz. each) active dry yeast
2 c. warm fat free milk (110-115 degrees), divided
1 c. sugar, divided
2 eggs
6 Tbsp. butter or stick margarine, softened
1 tsp. salt
7-8 c. flour

Filling:
1 Tbsp. butter or stick margarine
1 Tbsp. flour
1/2 c. orange juice
1 can (8 oz.) unsweetened crushed pineapple, drained
1/3 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. grated orange peel
1/4 tsp. salt
15 maraschino cherries

Glaze:
1-1/2 c. confectioners' sugar
2 Tbsp. fat free milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm milk. Stir in 1 tablespoon sugar; let stand for 5 minutes. Add eggs, butter, salt, and remaining milk and sugar. Beat in 4 cups flour until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

For Filling, melt butter in a small saucepan. Stir in flour until smooth. Add the orange juice, pineapple, sugar, orange peel and salt. Bring to a boil; cook and stir over medium heat for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat and cool.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out into a 24-inch x 12-inch rectangle. Spread filling to within 1/2-inch of edges. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with the long side. Pinch seam to seal. Cut into 15 slices. Place cut side down in a 13 x 9-inch pan coated with nonstick cooking spray. Top each roll with a cherry.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until golden. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over rolls. Yields 15 rolls.

This is one of the easiest (and most delicious) bread recipes I have made. You can add herbs to it if you like.

No-Knead Bread

Published: November 8, 2006 in the NY Times

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

I love the smell of bread baking also but having no self control I do not bake bread because I will eat it!!

When I was a kid a local restaurant had big puffy rolls that had a crispy top and were sort of light and stringy inside. They weren't popovers, but were rolls--just not really "bread-like" and dense inside like most rolls are. They were lighter and the outside was crispier. I LOVED them but have never been able to find a recipe that makes them like this.

Any ideas?

Yum. I can smell it now. I use the bread machine. I have made each of these & they are all yummy. Enjoy!!!

• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns or Dinner Rolls

1 c water

1 egg

2 c all-purpose flour

1 c whole wheat flour

3/4 t salt

4 T butter

1/4 c brown sugar or white sugar

1 pack yeast

Place egg & water in bread machine, add flour, salt & sugar.

Cut each tablespoon of butter into 4 pieces & put around the edges of bread pan with yeast in the center.

Start bread machine for dough cycle.

Form dough into balls for rolls & flatten balls for hamburger buns.

Place on greased cooked sheet.

Turn oven on warm setting/low for 2 mins. then turn it off. Place covered dough in oven to rise until doubled 10 – 15 mins.

Makes 18 - 20 rolls depending on size.

Makes 10 -12 hamburger buns depending on size.

Bake in 400° for about 10 mins. more or less depending on your oven until lightly browned. Brush tops with butter.

Sometimes I form smaller balls & put 2 in each cup in a muffin pan & make 4 hamburger buns. Or I can make 8 rolls on a cookie sheet & 6 hamburger buns.