Culinary School Update: Dinner Rolls, Whole Wheat Bread, & an Easy Weeknight Dinner

This week I was determined to be overly prepared for my baking class.  I did not indulge in one single drink before bed, and checked my alarm at least 3 times so as not to repeat last week's oversleeping incident.  FYI, 7:30 a.m. is very early for us Food & Bev kids. Plus, this campus is a solid 20 minutes away, so this is not like CofC where I could roll out of bed and stumble to class in my jammies.  Not that I ever did that...

The last thing I did before I went to bed last night was check my camera battery to make sure it was charged (which it was).  

At 5:30 this morning, I woke up anxiously and well before my alarm clock, deathly afraid of oversleeping.  Three cups of coffee and several hours later I found myself taking my first batch of yeast rolls out of the extra-industrial-sized classroom oven.  I rummaged around in my pocketbook for a fairly ridiculous amount of time before I finally accepted, with disbelief, that I left my camera at home.  Thankfully, again, this week's baking lesson produced results that were small enough to take home in a paper bag.  I need to get this routine figured out before we start getting into the larger, less portable goods.  Geez Dani, get it together and bring the camera, charged and ready, to class!  On time!

All griping aside, don't you especially like my double-knot technique on the white rolls? I was proud of myself. I've always been pretty intimidated by bread.  Can't really say I've ever made any kind of  yeast bread at all.

Side note - no cooking class this week because of MLK Jr. Day.  Remember, cooking class on Mondays, baking class on Wednesdays.  Once I actually start getting involved in cooking class I will start keeping you posted on it as well. 

~

I thought I would also include a random photo of a dinner Brandon and I enjoyed this week.  I was craving fish, so we stopped by Crosby's Seafood and picked up some really pretty local red snapper.  Diced and blanched some carrots and broccoli I had laying around.  Threw them in a saute pan with a chopped onion, thawed frozen peas, butter, mint, and parsley.  Cooked some wild rice with chicken stock.  And finally, seared the snapper, skin-on, and made a very easy parsley lemon butter sauce in the same pan.  

Easy, easy dinner, and all we paid for was the fish and a cheap white burgundy to go with it!

Cranberry Orange Bread

A cross-section

The restaurant apparently ordered wayyy too many bags of cranberries for Thanksgiving, because when I got back from my little vacation, they were practically forcing them on the rest of the staff.  So, I took some home, thinking I would make muffins or something. I got online, hoping to find something with cranberries and orange zest, because I think that combo goes rather nicely together.  I found this recipe for Cranberry Orange Loaf on allrecipes.com.  I changed it around a bit to satisfy my personal tastes, and added a simple orange glaze based on user suggestions.  I also doubled the recipe below to make two loaves instead of one.  So, here it is:

Cranberry Orange Bread

(the following recipe makes one loaf)

  

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1/2 cup sliced almonds (the original recipe called for pecans, but I thought the almonds would be a nice substitution) ( I love almonds)

1/4 cup margarine, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (I added this too)
3/4 cup orange juice 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and sugar a 9x5 inch loaf pan.  Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Stir in orange zest, cranberries, and almonds.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together margarine, sugar, egg, and almond extract until smooth.  Stir in orange juice.  Beat in flour mixture until just moistened.  

 Batter

Pour into prepared pan(s).  

Going into the oven

Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until the bread springs back when lightly touched.  Let stand 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks to cool.  

Drizzled with orange glaze

This is where I added the orange glaze. I just whisked some powdered sugar, OJ, and vanilla extract together and poured it over the warm bread.

 Went really well with mimosas for breakfast

This recipe was super easy.  The bread turned out nice and moist, and the overall flavor was tasty.  The cranberries were still pretty tart, but I think the light glaze helped balance it out.  Took the extra loaf in to work since they made me take the cranberries in the first place!