Doughnut Muffins

These Doughnut Muffins are the perfect way to get muffins with a cake doughnut flavor without all of the fuss. 

The technique for these doughnut muffins involves creaming the butter and sugar, which helps create a cake-like texture. Once the dry and wet ingredients are combined, the tops of the muffins are brushed with melted butter, and then dipped in cinnamon sugar.

Vinegar Glazed Chicken | Wok Wednesdays

This vinegar glazed chicken is, according to Grace Young, a typical Hunan family style stir-fry. Grace simplifies the recipe by using crushed red pepper instead of dried chilies. 

One of the key ingredients in this Vinegar Glazed Chicken is Chinkiang vinegar, made from fermented rice. It's dark colored, and fairly mild and slightly sweet. If you can't find it, balsamic vinegar is a great substitute.

Soft Sandwich Bread

This soft sandwich bread is perfect for back to school lunch box sandwiches. 

It's "back to school" time, which means it's also time to plan for packing lunches for your kids. How cool would it be to make those sandwiches with homemade bread!

Salmon Burgers with Greek Yogurt Dill Sauce and Homemade Hamburger Buns

This salmon burger is so easy to make, and is pretty darned tasty. Amazingly, it is made from canned salmon. Naturally, I made homemade hamburger buns to go with these burgers. 

As I reported in this post about salmon noodle casserole, I easily succumbed to the lure of a large sleeve of canned salmon on a trip to Costco. I had a couple more cans left, so when my friend Heather of All Roads Lead to the Kitchen suggested the Fish Friday Foodies make burgers this month...

And because I'm a bread nutcase, I definitely had to make ridiculously soft and tasty homemade hamburger buns to go with these salmon burgers.

New Orleans Style Beignets

Beignets, fried yeasted dough treats, are most famous in the U.S. as served by Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. They are presented generously dusted with powdered sugar along with a cafe au lait.

Did you know that beignets are the official state doughnut of Louisiana?

This is my first attempt at frying dough and I had no idea how easy it was! The dough gets all puffy and crispy in the hot oil, and the whole process takes about two minutes. No such thing as delayed gratification when frying dough!

Apricot Pochettes

These Apricot Pochettes are reminiscent of little French pastry desserts. They are made with a cream cheese and butter pastry dough, and are filled with just a bit of apricot preserves.

These cookies are like mini hand pies. The pastry consists of eight ounces of butter and eight ounces of cream cheese mixed with just a little over eight ounces of flour. That's a pretty incredible ratio.

Sourdough Hokkaido Milk Bread with Tangzhong

This Sourdough Hokkaido Milk Bread with Tangzhong combines two of my favorite bread techniques, using sourdough starter to leaven bread, and using the Tangzhong method, which involves creating a roux of flour and water. This technique creates an incredibly soft bread. 

In addition, the use of sourdough, or levain, adds flavor to the bread. This is because the levain ferments over time, getting yeast from the environment. In a nutshell, the longer fermentation helps the dough develop a deeper flavor. The use of sourdough also lengthens the "life" of the bread.

Crushed Red Pepper Grissini

These Crushed Red Pepper Grissini are super spicy, skinny, and crunchy. They are the perfect bar snack, and excellent with a glass of wine or a beer. 

These grissini are loaded with Parmesan cheese, herbs, hot sauce, and just the right amount of crushed red pepper, at least for me.

You see, I'm a huge fan of crushed red pepper. Don't tell anyone, but I keep a shaker of it in my desk at work, just in case there's a crushed red pepper emergency. For example, what if a pizza party breaks out and the pizzeria didn't send along any? Total emergency.

Bread Box Round Up for August 2016

Welcome to the Bread Box Round Up for August 2016, a collection of wonderful loaves, rolls, and flatbreads. 

Each month, I am posting a round up of homemade and artisan breads from around the blogosphere.

If you would like to add your bread to the Bread Box, see the instructions at the end of this post. Send me your breads, flatbreads, pizzas, buns... anything with yeast or sourdough.