Open Source Cook

These are really really good, i love them right out of the oven.

Ingredients:
3 cans of grand biscuits
2 pk cream cheese
1 pk sharp shredded cheese (16 oz)
1 pk of ham lunch meat - diced or sliced (if sliced, chop ham into bite size pieces)

Directions:
Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Combine cream cheese, shredded cheese and ham. Flatten grand biscuits and place into muffin pan. fill biscuit with cream cheese mixture. Bake in oven at 375 for 15-18 min (or according to pk directions)

Serves 24

I can’t remember where I found the recipe for Jamaican Coconut Bread, but I like it. It’s an easy bread recipe and I generally have all of the ingredients ready to go in my pantry. The only thing that could be iffy is the coconut, but who doesn’t have that on hand?  It’s sweet in a coconut way and it kind of reminds me of those coconut maroon cookies.

Jesse isn’t crazy about it, because it’s “too spongy”.  Although, I do have to give him that.  This is more of a sponge/pound cake than a bread.  The bread is good, but it’s not one I would make day after day.  But it’s definitely a treat when I do make it.

Ingredients:
2 cups Flour, bread
1-1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/3 cup Butter or Margarine
2/3 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Milk
1 cup Coconut
Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pour the flour, baking powder, and salt into the medium bowl. Mix well with the spoon and set aside.
3. Place the softened butter and the sugar in the mixing bowl and mix with the electric mixer on low to medium speed until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well. Then add the milk and mix again. Use the spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl between mixings. Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl. Mix on low speed until blended, then mix on medium speed until well blended, about a minute or so. Add the coconut and stir gently by hand with the spoon until the flakes are all mixed in.
4. Spray the loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour the batter into the pan, using the spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl. Put the pan in the oven and bake for about 55 to 65 minutes.
5. Check by inserting the blade of the dull knife into the center of the bread. If it comes out completely clean, the bread is done. If it is not completely clean, bake for about 5 to 10 minutes more, checking again after each 5 minutes of baking. Cool the bread in the pan about 5 minutes. Then place the bread on the wire rack to cool. Cut into slices and serve. This bread is sweet, so you won’t need to spread anything on it.

This one is a new recipe for me. Strawberry Walnut Bread is actually not too bad, but it does need some work.  For one thing, the directions say to thaw the frozen strawberries and then fold them into the batter.  Well, unless you can find some diced strawberries in the freezer section, you will need to chop them up.  I had actually cut them in half and used a electric mixer to add them to the batter, which blended a lot of them up, but not all of them, and it still turned out kind of wet.  The batter itself was great and passed the toothpick test, but the individual strawberries that survived the mixer ended up mushy.  I’m not a real fan of mushy strawberries (and neither is Jesse) so next time I’m thinking of blending them first and then adding them to the batter or maybe finding some other form of strawberry to add.  Maybe a organic strawberry jam or something.  I’ll have to think on it.

Overall, the bread wasn’t a complete bust, just need some changes here and there.

Ingredients:
3 cups Flour, all-purpose
2 cups Sugar
1 tbsp Cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Salt
4 large Eggs
1-1/4 cup Oil, vegetable
1-1/4 cup chopped Walnuts
1 (10oz) pkg frozen Strawberries sliced sweetened, thawed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9×5 inch loaf pans.
2. Combine flour, granulated sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and mix well.
3. Whisk eggs in a small bowl until blended. Add the eggs and oil to the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Fold in undrained strawberries and walnuts.
4. Spoon equal portions of the batter into the prepared loaf pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers of loaves comes out clean, about 70 minutes.
5. Cool loaves in pans for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

I originally found the recipe for Oatmeal Cinnamon Bread to be for a single loaf and found that it took a lot longer than 1 hour and by the time it was cooked through, it was starting to burn on top. So, I changed the recipe to 2 loaves, but I haven’t adjusted the time yet.

So I’m playing with the time today. First off, I should mention that I didn’t have any dark brown sugar, but instead had light brown. So, to make up for the difference in sweetness, I added an additional 1/2 cup of light brown sugar to the mixture.

Once you split the batter into two loaf pans, I think the time actually works out.  I baked the breads for 45 minutes, but I ended up leaving it in for a few extra minutes.  So, the time is good.

I remember what I really liked about this recipe…it smelled like fresh baked oatmeal cookies. Which makes sense since it is oatmeal, but it tastes like it as well.  It’s softer than cookies, but it still has that oatmeal cookie taste to it.

Ingredients:
1 cup Oats, quick cooking
1-1/2 cups Water
1-3/4 cups all-purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
8 tbsp (1 stick) softened Butter or Margarine
1 cup Sugar
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9×5 inch loaf pans.
2. Place oats in a small heatproof bowl. Place water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour boiling water over oats. Set aside.
3. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix well.
4. Place butter in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer set at high speed until creamy. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar gradually, beating constantly until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract.
5. Gradually add flour mixture to creamed mixture and beat until smooth. Stir in oats mixture. Spoon batter into prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour.
6. Cool in loaf pan for 10 minutes. Transfer bread to a wire rack to cool completely.

This bread was really good. Reminded me a lot of pumpkin pie (go figure). Overall, I am definitely making this bread again.

Word of caution, when we first made this, I have two quick settings on my machine and I chose the shortest amount of time (58 mins). This wasn’t a smart move. We ended up putting it in the oven for another 10-20 minutes and then it came out beautifully. If you have two settings, I would go with the longer time or go with the basic setting (although, I haven’t tried this on mine yet).

Ingredients
Sugar - 1 cup
Pumpkin - 1 cup canned
Vegetable oil - 1/3 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Egg product - 1/2 cup or 2 eggs
Flour - 1-1/2 to 2 cups (all-purpose or bread)
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 to 2 tsp
Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp (do not heap)
Cloves, ground - 1/8 tsp (do not heap)

Directions

1. Grease bread machine pan and kneading blade generously with shortening. Measure carefully, placing all ingredients in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Quick Bread (80 mins) cycle only. After 3 minutes into cycle, open lid and carefully scrape down sides of pan. Close lid to continue with cycle. Be sure to check your Quick Bread setting. My 58 min setting was too short and my 80 min setting was too long.
2. Cool baked bread 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack, or follow manufacturer’s recommendation.