"Braided" Nutella Bread!

NUTELLA!  Yes, everyone's favorite hazelnut spread, right?  I'm sure you've pinned at least 4 or 5 pins that have something to do with Nutella.  If you haven't, this post may not be for you.

Maybe you've seen it and skipped over it because it looked difficult to make, or maybe it's sitting on your food board.  I know many of you have thought that this would be divine if you could figure out how to make it.  I was intimidated, I won't lie.  I haven't really used yeast before, so I enlisted the help of a couple family friends when I tested this recipe.  :)

The pin should take you to a website called Good Home Design, but there be careful.  There are a lot of pins for this particular recipe that are incorrectly linked!  Even though I tried fixing the link on the pin on my board, Pinterest won't allow you to go to the website.  :(  

Good Home Design is the correct originating website though. 

Here are the ingredients and instructions for the Braided Nutella Bread from the website:

• two and a half cups of all purpose flour;
• a half of teaspoon of yeast;
• a cup of water;
• a teaspoon of salt;
• a tablespoon of sugar;
• some Nutella;
• cornmeal;
• one egg;

Start by dissolving yeast with a quarter of a cup filled water, poured into a small bowl. Take another bowl, and while you let the yeast rest for 10 minutes, mix in – with the use of a stand mixer – the appropriate amount of flour, salt, and sugar. Add the yeast and mix at a low speed. Smoothly turn the speed to medium and keep turning for 7 minutes.

Get another bowl and lightly oil it and place the dough you recently made in there. Cover it with a plastic wrap and in about an hour of sitting in a warm place it will double in size.

Roll some of the dough in order to make a circle. Careful you leave enough because you’ll have to make another circle in a few minutes. Take the Nutella (be careful to take it out the fridge for a while so it would be easy to spread; you could also microwave it for 30 seconds to be sure) and pour an even layer on the surface, but leaving half an inch of margin of dough all around.

The next step is to place another roll off dough (Nutella free) on top. Afterward, place it on a parchment-lined or silicon-lined baking sheet. It’s advised you sprinkle the sheet beforehand with cornmeal. Use a knife to cut the dough down the middle, but keeping one end intact. Look at the image for guideline.

By turning the cut side toward the top, twist the ends of the dough overtop each other. Do this for every cut you made. For the next 20 minutes, let your future bread sit in a dry place, but make sure you cover it with plastic wrap. In the meantime, prepare the oven. Set it to 350°F. Before placing the dough in, brush it with some egg wash. Then, bake at this temperature for about 20 minutes. To get that lightly brown look and taste on top, raise to 425°F and bake for another 5-7 minutes. It’s done! Let it cool before serving.

If that doesn't sound intimidating to you, you're braver or more confident that I was when I first read the instructions!

Before we attempted to make the bread, we read through the comments.  I find that when I test recipes, I check to see if any readers, much like yourself, have tried the recipe and what they say about it.  One of the biggest issues we noticed was that the amount of yeast the recipe calls for is not enough.  We were definitely glad that we read the comments because 1/2 tsp of yeast is definitely not enough!!  So there, we give you change #1, use the entire packet of yeast.  We dissolved that in 1/4 cup of warm water, as stated in the directions.  When it came time to add the dissolved yeast to the flour mixture, we then added 3/4 cup water to the mixture (change #2).  When we placed it in another bowl to allow it to rise, we let about 2 hours to pass.  This is only because we forgot about it since we forgot to set a timer.  :p

When it is time to take the dough and roll it out, one thing they do not mention is that you will need more flour.  If you're as inexperienced as I am with dough, you will need to flour your space so that the dough will be manageable.  Change #3- flour your rolling surface!

Stephanie working with the dough

 

Jayson stepped in to roll out the dough and shape it.  Since we were experimenting, we didn't take the time to get a bowl to cut it out to be a circle.  

Stephanie spreading out the Nutella.  I don't know about you, but we do not 

refrigerate ours, especially since the container says not to!

 Jayson cutting out slices in the dough

Teamwork!

Stephanie twisting the dough.  This made us want to look for a pin that actually calls 

for braiding the bread so that it lives up to the name :)

 Stephanie applying the egg wash

The finished product!

The verdict: It was good, but definitely need to tweak it a bit more.  The dough wasn't as flaky as we wanted it and we thought it could be sweeter.  The husband described it as "pretzel dough with Nutella."  We're definitely going to experiment with this more and once we perfect it, I will definitely share it!  If you have any suggestions, please feel free to share!

Cheers!

Apple Enchiladas

 There's nothing quite like warm apple pie... is there?  This pinned recipe is pretty darn close.

I'm too intimidated to attempt apple pie from scratch, so when I found this pin, I was excited because it meant that I make a quick, easier version a bit similar to the popular pie.








Ingredients and directions:

Cherries or peaches can be substituted for apples.

1 (21 ounce) can apple pie filling

6 (8 inch) flour tortillas

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

• Spoon about one heaping quarter cup of pie filling evenly down the center of each tortilla.
• Sprinkle with cinnamon; roll up, tucking in edges; and place seam side down in prepared dish.
• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, white sugar, brown sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes.
• Pour sauce over enchiladas and let stand 45 minutes.
• Bake in preheated oven 20 minutes, or until golden.
• Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Combining the sugars, butter, and water smelled so nice while it warmed on the stove!

When you start to spoon the apple pie filling into each tortilla, you begin to realize that one can probably isn't enough to really fill the inside.

 I folded them up and placed them in a 9x13.  I know, I know, my enchiladas are inconsistent in size.  The first one is filled more when apple pis filling than the ones at the top.  The last ones I did aren't as full and I folded them loosely in attempts to make them similar to the other ones.

I plated the apple enchiladas with some vanilla bean ice cream and also some whipped cream.  I also drizzled some of the sauce over everything. :)

Verdict:A very tasty dessert!  The tortilla was still a bit soft, I think maybe it would've been a bit better if it was crispier.  Definitely will buy two cans of apple pie filling next time so that there's more to fill up. 

Oven Baked Corn on the Cob

Who doesn't like corn?  Such an easy food to prepare as a side dish for any meal.  I especially love eating corn straight from the cob.  It beats canned corn any day, in my opinion.

This pin was a screenshot of a Facebook post from someone's phone.  I thought it was interesting that it was pinned like this!  Someone must've seen this recipe on their Facebook feed, didn't want to forget it and decided to pin it right on their board so they wouldn't have to scroll through to look for it later!  Genius, if you ask me.  I know I've seen a few shared recipes on my feed that I wish I had saved but didn't. 

If you cannot read the instructions from the picture, this is what it says:

Never boil corn again!  Want to know the easiest way to cook corn on the cob? Throw it in the oven at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  That's it.  Leave the husk on, it will trap in the moisture, leaving you with juicy, tender corn.  The husk and silk will peel away easily once it's cooked.  Cut off the large end and it slides right out with no silk.  Bonus - keeps more of the nutrients in the corn (no boiling is best).  Who Knew!

The husband had picked up a few ears of corn from a local produce stand and I figured this was a perfect time to test this out!  After setting the oven to 350 degrees, we decided to spread some butter on the corn.  We had to pull back the husks for this, so we tried our best to keep them intact so that we could close them back up afterwards.  We just used a cookie sheet for the corn.
 

What is that? You're probably asking yourself, right?  It's a chili, salt, and lemon spice that is usually found in the Mexican section.  It has a bit of kick to it, so watch out!  The husband is a Texan and says he loves this on fruits and veggies (try sprinkling it on avocado).

Popped the corn in the oven for 25 minutes and that was it!  Done!  Seemed way too easy to really be good.

Verdict: JUICY, flavorful corn on the cob!  The husks came right off easily! We cut off the one end were the husks were still together and no silks remained.  Of course it helped that we peeled them back prior to baking it so they came off without any problems.  The kids exclaimed that it was the juiciest corn they ever had.  Good enough for me to keep this recipe!


Cheers!

Taco Pasta Bake

Oh my!  I've been MIA from this blog for over a month!  My apologies for those of you that actually read this blog!  March was so hectic with family events that it flew by so quickly for our family.  I'm back though, and have plenty of pins to test out and post.  :)


I bring you a pin that I've been curious about since I saw it last year; the Taco Pasta Bake.  The only time I've really tasted something like this was when the mister brought home a taco type Hamburger Helper meal home because it was on sale.  I don't remember if we liked it or not (it was so long ago and we usually avoid HH so that we cook more from scratch-nothing against it!), we only had it that once.  Yesterday while running errands, I browsed through my food board and cam across the pin and figured it was time to test it out.

The original pin had an incorrect link to "Cole World" blog, which doesn't have any recipes whatsoever!  I Google'd and corrected the link for the pin on my food pin board.  :)
 

You may have seen the pin with the entire recipe listed out in the description.  As you can tell in the photo, I just put the dish name and that it's already been tested by me ;)

Here is the recipe as found on Claudia's Recipes website:

Taco Pasta Bake

Ingredients:
1/2 - 3/4 of a bag of ziti
1lb of ground beef
1 envelope of taco seasoning
1C water
1/2 pkg of cream cheese
1 1/2C shredded cheese (Mexican style or Colby Jack)

Directions:
Boil pasta until just cooked, drain, rinse with cold water.

Brown ground beef, mix together taco season and  water, pour over cooked beef and let simmer for about 5 minutes until the liquid has reduced.

Add the cream cheese to the beef mixture, stir until melted and combined, remove from heat.

Add pasta to the casserole dish and mix in 1C of the shredded cheese.

Top pasta and cheese with beef mixture, gently mix until the pasta is coated, top with remaining shredded cheese.

Bake at 350 uncovered for approx 30 minutes.  


It is as simple as it reads.  There were only a few things I did differently compared to the original; I didn't use Ziti noodles, but Penne since we usually have a lot in stock in our pantry (I also used the entire box instead of 3/4),  and I used 1 cup total of shredded cheese.

I used a 7 x 11 dish when I made this pasta bake.  It was actually a perfect size IMO.  It was a bit tough mixing, but it all fit!  Here are the cooked noodles (only to al dente) and 1/2 cup shredded cheese, mixed in the pan.

 I melted in the cream cheese with the taco seasoned meat and then combined it with the pasta...

Added1/2 cup shredded cheese on top (we used a fiesta blend), and baked uncovered for 30 minutes.

 The finished Taco Pasta Bake, fresh from the oven!  Also a picture of a serving in a bowl, waiting to be devoured by our oldest kiddo!

 

Another pinterest recipe success!  A definite hit with the kiddos and the mister found it tasty as well!  He did mention that the next time we make it, he wants to experiment with adding another spice or something to it to bring more flavor to the dish.  Gotta love someone who loves to try and improve on things, right?

Hope y'all enjoy this dish!  Cheers!

Italian Bake

Italian bake.  The picture alone made me start to drool.  I'm a fan of Italian subs myself, so I thought I'd give this a try to see if it'd turn out.  Salami, ham, turkey and cheese?  What could go wrong with this dish??

The recipe comes from Mr. Food Test Kitchen.  Read on for ingredients and directions:

What You'll Need:

• 1 (8-ounce) container refrigerated crescent rolls
• 8 slices deli turkey (about 1/2 pound)
• 8 slices deli ham (about 1/2 pound)
• 12 slices deli hard salami (about 1/2 pound)
• 8 slices Swiss cheese (about 1/2 pound)
• 1 (12-ounce) jar roasted peppers, drained
• 4 eggs, beaten

What To Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Unroll crescent roll dough without separating triangles. Separate dough into 2 squares along center cut line.
    
2. Place 1 square of dough into an 8-inch square baking dish; using your fingertips, press dough to fit bottom of dish.
    
3. Layer with half the turkey, ham, salami, Swiss cheese, and roasted peppers. Pour half of beaten eggs over peppers and repeat with remaining meats, cheese, and peppers.
    
4. Place remaining square of dough over peppers. Pour remaining beaten eggs over dough and cover lightly with foil.
    
5. Bake 20 minutes, remove foil, and bake an additional 20 to 22 minutes, or until golden and heated through. Let cool 15 to 20 minutes then cut and serve.

 Seems easy enough, right?  Pretty much just layering everything in a pan, should be a cinch to prep.

First off, I don't have a square baking dish so I used one of my circular ones.  Note to self, remember to buy one!! :)  The circular pan still worked out, so don't feel like you can't make it if you don't have a square one.  I pieced together two "rectangles" from the crescent roll and did my best not to make the dough too thin as I tried to get it to cover as much as I could.  Note: I didn't beat all 4 eggs together because if you read the recipe, it wants you to use half the eggs per layer, so 2 eggs per layer.

I started the layering process: turkey, ham, salami, swiss, and roasted peppers.  If you're curious about the roasted peppers, my husband and I found them in the same aisle as the pickles!  I was going crazy at the store when I was trying to look for them! :)

These are the peppers we ended up using

After spreading the peppers on the first layer, I poured 2 beaten eggs over everything and started the layering process over.  When the second layer of meats, cheese, and peppers were complete and I finished pouring the remaining 2 beaten eggs over them, I pieced together the remaining two rectangles of the crescent roll and placed it on top.  Notice it didn't completely cover everything.

Then started the waiting game, baking in the oven.  Since the baking time is split up into 20 increments, it actually went by fairly quickly.  The finished product smelled simply divine!  I couldn't wait to slice into it and have a taste!


Ready for the verdict?  Flavor is good, but not great. With the amount of deli meat the recipe calls for, it made it salty.  We recommend cutting the recommended amount in half!  Instead of the entire container of deli meats, use only half.  Have leftovers?  Don't keep them.  When warmed up the next day, the dish tasted different, meaning this dish should be like a pot luck dish or for when you have company over so nothing is left. 

Hopefully the notes we took for y'all mean a better outcome for when you make it!


Cheers! 

A Two Timin' Pasta Bake!

Time for another pasta dish, and this one is pretty quick to make!  If your family enjoys penne alla vodka, this dish will be a hit!  On Pinterest you may find the pin labled "Two Timin' Pasta Bake".

The recipe calls for 5 ingredients and about 40 minutes of your time!  Seriously!  It comes from the blog Peals, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour!  Here are the ingredients and directions from the website (sans pictures):

1 box penne pasta

1 (15 oz.) jar Alfredo sauce

1 (24oz.) jar Marinara sauce

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to directions and drain.  Mix the sauces together in a large bowl.  Add the mozzarella and stir to combine.  Then toss in the penne and toss to coat.  Pour pasta into 9x13 baking dish and cook on 350 for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with shredded parmesan cheese and bake for another 5 minutes. 

Seems simple enough, right?  And if you make sure you're following the steps back to back, it literally took  about 40 minutes from start to finish!  Here's a picture of 3 of the 5 products we used:

I couldn't find an alfredo sauce that came in the same size as marinara, so don't freak out if you can't.  The flavor is just fine if you can't. ;)

 Remember when I mentioned that it would take about 40 minutes of your time?  It will as long as you start other steps while the pasta is cooking!  Penne cooks fast, about 7-10 minutes.  Since you'll be putting this dish in the oven, the pasta doesn't need to be completely done, but al dente.

Note: have you ever seen the pinterest tip about putting a wooden spoon over a boiling pot to prevent the contents from boiling over (as pictured on the left)?  It really does work!

Right after you put the pasta in the pot to start cooking, mix the mozzarella, alfredo sauce and marinara sauce together in a bowl.  Should only take you about a minute to complete!  If you haven't already, take out your 9x13 baking dish to get it ready.  You can also turn on your oven to start warming up to 350.  After that, you're just waiting on the pasta to finish cooking! ;)

Once the penne is done and you've drained it well, toss them straight into the bowl and start mixing it with the sauce to get them coated.  Pour the entire contents into your 9x13 baking dish.  Place in the oven and bake at 350 for 25 minutes (the time we went with).

When your time is up, open the oven and pull out the dish so you can sprinkle on the shredded parmesan cheese.  We didn't measure out 1 cup; pretty much sprinkled on as much as we liked (the husband is a parmesan cheese fan).  Place back in the oven for another 5 minutes so that the cheese can completely melt.

Voila!  The finished product!  It was a big hit with the kids!  My husband and I agree that while tasty, it is very, very close to a penne alla vodka flavor.  Let us know what your thoughts are on this dish!

Cheers!