Have you ever wished you had some little treat to offer a friend to go with that cup of tea or coffee you’re offering? No cookies or squares in the freezer? Here’s something that you can make ahead and freeze for any time. Now that I think about it, this would go well with beer or wine as well.
A bread machine helps but you can still mix, knead, and let the dough rise in the usual way. I’ve become lazy and use my bread machine all the time. This is a regular white bread recipe, but I’ve added about half a cup of 12-grain mix and eased off on the flour by a quarter cup. You can use any recipe you like – whole wheat if you prefer it.
My basic bread recipe is at the end of the post.
I’ve cut the dough into two portions to roll out with the rolling pin and put each one on a buttered cookie sheet.
Then I added a clove of crushed garlic to about a quarter cup of olive oil in a little bowl and mixed it around. I brushed the oil mixture onto the flattened bread dough, and then sprinkled some powdered cumin on it. I made the cumin powder by putting cumin seeds in an old coffee grinder to pulverize them.
You can use any kind of herbs or spices, whatever suits your palate. That flour you see in the cup was only for sprinkling on the dough as I used the rolling pin. Sometimes the dough is stickier than other times. I was lucky this time and hardly needed any.
I was experimenting here, so I wasn’t sure whether to cut the dough before or after baking, but as it turned out, cutting it before was the better way to do it. You don’t have to cut it all the way through. Just a quick score will do it.
Then let the dough sit in a warm place for half an hour to an hour – until it puffs up a bit.
Bake it in a hot 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes. Because of the scoring, the pieces break apart easily. You can then eat them as they are or cut them open and add your favourite toppings (or none). The piece with the Jalapeño Havarti cheese slice on it was SO good!
When the bread is cool, you can put the pieces into Ziploc bags and freeze them for using any time. Before serving, putting them into the microwave for a few seconds will make them taste as if they just came out of the oven.
Standard Bread Recipe
2 cups milk (heated 2 minutes in the microwave – that should make it just warm enough to melt the butter but not kill the yeast)
2 Tbsp. honey (or sugar)
2 Tbsp. butter (or oil)
2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup 12-grain mix (optional)
5 cups flour (or quarter cup less if adding the 12-grain mix)
2 tsp. fast-rising yeast
Enjoy!
September 14, 2020 at 2:16 pm
Now that’s interesting. I think I need to show Mary.
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September 14, 2020 at 2:20 pm
It’s very easy, and it goes with anything. You can change the spices or not put any at all. You can also use onion slices instead of garlic, putting the slices in a little bowl sprinkled generously with salt to pull the juice out of the onions first (and then I end up sprinkling the salty onion juice on the bread with flicks of the fingers). Anything goes.
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September 14, 2020 at 2:21 pm
The bread looks so delicious, Anneli! Yummy. 🥰
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September 14, 2020 at 2:36 pm
I even surprised myself, John! It really was good!
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September 14, 2020 at 2:39 pm
You had me at garlic…yum!
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September 14, 2020 at 5:51 pm
Good to hear. Some people do without it if they are the only one at the party eating it, but it really is worth it.
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September 14, 2020 at 3:17 pm
Oh wow. I need to dump my celiac husband. Can’t let him stand in the way of this bread and me!
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September 14, 2020 at 5:53 pm
Oh dear. I forgot about that. Well, just give him a stick of celery while you have some bread. Put something fancy on the celery so he won’t feel left out.
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September 14, 2020 at 11:37 pm
Lol. Good idea. I have an intolerance for celery so that’s perfect.
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September 15, 2020 at 8:28 am
So does that mean he’s a celiac and you’re a celeriac? 😉
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September 15, 2020 at 1:03 pm
You are BAD!!!
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September 15, 2020 at 2:01 pm
LOL. It’s more fun than being good.
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September 16, 2020 at 7:36 am
True that!
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September 14, 2020 at 3:21 pm
Another inspiring idea, perfect for this smokey weather we’re having. Productive in the kitchen. How bout garlic and onion… Cheers Anneli!
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September 14, 2020 at 5:54 pm
Sounds great, Marsha. And yes, perfect for spending a day in the house, escaping the smoke. Hope this rain clears up the smoke.
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September 14, 2020 at 3:57 pm
Looks delicious!
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September 14, 2020 at 5:47 pm
It is. I had to stop myself from overdoing it!
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September 14, 2020 at 4:57 pm
This looks like a wonderful recipe, Annelli, really yummy. Nice that you don’t have to keep tending to it, deflating the dough, etc.; just let it sit for a short time and then bake. Appreciate the descriptions and photos, too.
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September 14, 2020 at 5:50 pm
It’s a quick treat and can be made sweet or savoury and freezes beautifully. Hope you can try it out sometime.
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September 14, 2020 at 5:28 pm
Thanks for the recipe! Looks delicious and I like how versatile it is. 🙂
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September 14, 2020 at 5:49 pm
That’s what I like about it too. It’s like the little black dress of baking; you can dress it up or dress it down.
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September 14, 2020 at 6:25 pm
I’ll be right over. Well, ‘right over’ in the time of the pandemic could be several months!
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September 14, 2020 at 6:38 pm
Wouldn’t it be nice!? Oh well, just lick the monitor …. and pretend you can taste the snack.
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September 17, 2020 at 5:22 pm
Hehee
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September 14, 2020 at 7:07 pm
Looks so delicious! Did you mix everything together in one big bowl or did you let the yeast rise first. I am thinking you just threw it all together in one bowl.???
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September 14, 2020 at 8:56 pm
Because I used the bread machine, I put all the liquid things in the bottom of the pot and then added the flour and the yeast went on top (dry), but if I were doing it the traditional way, I’d do the yeast first in a tiny bit of warm water or milk, add my honey and then the warm liquid with the (probably melted) butter and salt, and then add the flour bit by bit as I kneaded it in. The 12-grain would probably benefit from a bit of soaking in the warmed milk first.
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September 14, 2020 at 8:35 pm
Yum, I love bread with all those spices.
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September 14, 2020 at 8:58 pm
Me too. My sister-in-law once brought me some curry flavoured naan bread that I just loved, so I thought why not sprinkle a bit of cumin on the bread. You could put any spices you want, really. Sure is more interesting than plain bread.
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September 15, 2020 at 12:27 am
Thanks for the recipe, sounds- and looks so good!
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September 15, 2020 at 8:28 am
I had some for breakfast and it hit the spot.
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September 15, 2020 at 4:26 pm
Sounds and looks delicious!
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September 15, 2020 at 7:56 pm
And EASY to make!
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September 16, 2020 at 3:56 pm
Looks and sounds delicious, You made me hungry!
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September 16, 2020 at 10:41 pm
I made another batch today because it was so easy and so good. I put more cumin on this time. Next time I’ll add some coarse salt on top (just a tiny bit).
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September 17, 2020 at 2:01 am
Lucky I just ate dinner, or you would have made me hungry again! I’m going to have to give this a go.
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September 17, 2020 at 9:05 am
Yay!!!!! Good luck. Very easy with a bread machine. I used oat flakes instead of the 12-grain last time. Anything goes. Experiment.
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