We've got a lot of bread in this week's roundup. Guess I've been in a bread mood, ha ha!

 

Coconut Chocolate Chip Brownies (modified Almond Joy Brownies recipe)

 

I wanted to use up some unsweetened coconut flakes we had without using a ton of butter (gotta conserve!!) This recipe popped up and sounded interested, but I didn't want to use almonds so instead of an Almond Joy brownie I made a Mounds version, ha ha! I simply left out the almond extract and almonds and followed the rest of the instructions. Since it was almost Valentine's Day I decided to use my heart shaped dutch oven instead of a square tray. 

Pain de Mie

 

I got a 13" Pullman Loaf Pan for Christmas and finally got around to trying a pain de mie - aka sandwhich bread - at the beginning of February. Unfortunately I think the house was a little too cold because the bread did NOT want to rise at all. I ended up leaving it out all night and then putting it by the oven when I made the above brownies to see if that would help it rise.  I think I may have to wait for warmer weather to attempt again, or crank our heat up real high. At least it still tasted good! I made it again a couple weeks later and it came out much better! I still need to let it rise a bit more before baking to really fill out the pan but we're getting there. I'm sure in the warmer months it will be much easier.

Blueberry Muffin Bread

I had some sour cream from HelloFresh meals to use (we don't like sour cream sauces so we leave them off) and some frozen blueberries in the freezer so I decided to whip up this bread. the recipe does say not to use frozen blueberries but I'm a rebel, ha ha! I added extra flour and baked it longer as the instructions said to do if you used frozen berries and it came out great. It took about 20 minutes longer than stated, so they really do make a difference (plus I used wild blueberries which are smaller than normal ones, a double whammy!)

Mini Loaf Pan Focaccia

 

I wanted to make some bread to go with our pasta for Valentine's Day dinner but didn't want to make something big so I searched around for small batch focaccia and found this recipe. It came out REALLY good. Might be one of my favorite focaccia recipes I've made because it's super easy and not a huge portion so we don't have to worry about waste.

Chocolate Lava Cake

For Valentine's Day dessert I changed up from our usual chocohotopots and made a chocolate lava cake for the first time! It was a lot less complicated than I thought it would be, none of that putting something in the middle to the the lava, its literally just the batter and you bake it hot and fast. I love a non-fussy recipe.

Garlic Naan

My brother got me Turkuaz Kitchen’s cookbook for Christmas and I told him to pick out something for us to make together. He chose chicken shish kebabs and garlic naan! I am now forever spoiled with fresh naan, might never be able to go back to the frozen kind! It was super easy to make too. I'm going to make a large batch at some point and freeze some to see how they store that way.