You'll-A Want These Breadsticks

My sister had a college roommate and friend who made the best breadsticks!  We've since adapted the recipe and my older brother is the king of breadsticks--they always come out light and crispy and absolutely delicious!

Since today's food is breadsticks, what's better than a Bread song?  Here's "Baby I'm-A Want You" by Bread.  And trust me, you'll-a want these breadsticks.

BREADSTICKS

Breadsticks:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
5 tablespoons butter

Toppings:

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon dried oregano

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Combine water, yeast, and sugar.  Let sit for about 10 minutes.

Add salt and flour to yeast mixture.  Mix with an electric mixer until smooth.  Cover with a damp towel or waxed paper and let rise until dough doubles in size.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt butter in a large bowl.  Brush a cookie sheet with part of the butter until the sheet is covered.

Roll out dough to about a 1/4 of an inch.  Cut into 1-inch strips.  Pick up each strip, stretch, fold in half and twist.  Roll each strip in the butter and place on the cookie sheet.  Let rise for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet.

Sprinkle the breadsticks with garlic powder, oregano, and parmesan cheese.  Bake for 15 minutes or until breadsticks are golden brown on the bottom.

Serve immediately with marinara sauce.

Cracked Black Pepper Cheese...Bread!

Cracked Black Pepper Cheese Bread

I love cracked black pepper cheese bread!  Actually, I used to get it at a fresh bread store years ago and decided to make some since I have never found any in Utah!

While looking for something in the freezer, I discovered a chunk of parmesan that I had bought for a different recipe several weeks ago.  I also love spinach parmesan bread, but realized I didn't have any spinach so decided to find a recipe for cracked black pepper cheese bread instead!  I had some leftover asiago cheese leftover from making asiago bread and added that to the bread with the parmesan.  Now that I know I can make yeast bread without killing the yeast, I am fearless!

The recipe below is a combination of two recipes I found, and honestly, the more cheese the better!

So I thought today's song should take a detour from jazz to...Bread.  That's right, here's "Down on My Knees" by Bread.



Cracked Black Pepper Cheese Bread

•   3 cups flour

•   1/2 tsp active dry yeast

•   1 tsp Kosher salt

•   1 ½ cups warm water

•   2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

•   2 tbsp. freshly cracked black pepper

•   4 oz Asiago cheese, cut into quarter-inch cubes

•   4 oz Parmesan cheese, cut into quarter-inch cubes

Add yeast to warm water.  Stir and let sit for five minutes.  Put 2 cups flour, salt, and pepper in a bowl.  Stir together.  Put olive oil in center of flour mixture.  Add yeast mixture.  Stir with a fork until combined.

Stir into dough.  Add one-half cup of flour.  Stir then knead. 

Add cheeses and mixture together.

Add last one-half cup of flour.  Knead.  The dough should be slightly gooey.

Let rise for an hour or until double. 

Spray large cookie sheet with Pam.

Divide dough in half.  Shape each half into a 16-inch long log with a diameter less than 2 inches.

Cover with waxed paper and let rise for another hour.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-28 minutes.   

Let bread cool on rack.

FREE SONGS and Labor Day Adventures!

In honor of Labor Day I've put six--yes, SIX--of the songs from my latest album As American As Jazz: A Patriotic Celebration of the USA up for free download! All you have to do is like my Facebook page, click on the My Band tab, and share the music to download SIX FREE SONGS!

What else have I done for Labor Day? Actually, it's been a pretty relaxing day!

I got up and made wheat bread and rosemary focaccia breads with my sister and my mom. We already knew the focaccia would be amazing as we've made it many times before.

The wheat, also amazing, turned out well...even though Amy, my sister, had to mix the wheat dough by hand since we didn't have a bread hook attachment for our mixer!

These amazing recipes came from America's Test Kitchen, my new favorite cooking show! I even have the complete recipe book...an incredible buy!

I also played Ticket to Ride Europe with Amy, I think, a total of five times. As a family, we love Europa board games. They just have so many different elements. Definitely have lots of replay value!

Tomorrow school starts up again. It was nice to have a break...even though I've only been in school for five days. But sometimes that break is still nice when I am longing for the fun of summer!

Actually, the way I relax is to knit. So I also knit a Harry Potter-look-alike scarf!

As you close out your Labor Day, enjoy downloading any or all of the six songs available free to you!