Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

GG and YoPapa have had a bumper crop of zucchinis this year and we have been searching for some new recipes to use them up.  Granny (Mom) found this one and tried it out today.  Super yummy plus a healthy dose of zucchini.  My kids ate them without any complaints or questions at all. . . well, except for the weirdo, Cash.

3 1/2 c white flour
1 c wheat flour
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 c oil
1 1/2 c milk
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 c shredded zucchini (this was about 2 medium to large zucchini - about the size of a typical cucumber)
1 1/2 c chocolate chips (semisweet)

Mix wet ingredients including sugar and zucchini.  Then in separate bowl mix all dry ingredients.  Add dry to wet and stir until just combined and then add chocolate chips.  Put in muffin liners filled almost full and bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes.  (Or 13-15 minutes for mini muffins.)

Yield:  about 40 standard muffins

These would also be good sprinkled with some sugar before baking but we forgot! 

Mom's Bread

Here's the recipe to Mom's bread.  There's not a full list of ingredients, it can be a little different each time.  I'm not sure this would work in a regular old KitchenAid mixer either.  You could try to halve the recipe and then knead it by hand and that might work.  But if you really want to make Mom's homemade bread then save your pennies and get thyself a Bosch mixer.  And a wheat grinder.  And some red and white wheat.  OK - save a LOT of pennies.  :)



Anyway, Brianne and I got a tutorial on the homemade bread making the other day (yippee!) so I wrote down the official recipe:

Grind an even mix of white and red wheat in the wheat grinder (I think it was about 2-3 cups of each.)  Put 4 c. water in microwave safe bowl and heat to very hot. Put 2 c. oats (old fashioned or Quick oats, either is fine) in bowl of mixer with beater attachment.  Add 1 c. packed brown sugar, 1/3 c. oil, 4 tsp salt (1 TB plus 1 tsp) and pour very hot water over them.  Mix and then add about 4 c. flour and mix.  Add 1 TB plus 1 tsp yeast and add 1 c. flour and mix again.  Change to dough hook.  Keep adding flour until dough begins to clean the sides of the bowl.  Dough should be sticky but not too sticky that you can't handle it.  Let it knead in mixer for about 8 minutes.  Leave the dough in the mixing bowl (with the dough hook and all) and cover it with a towel and place in an OFF oven with the light on to raise until double - about 30 min.

After it has risen, punch down the dough or just turn on the mixer and let it run for a minute.  Grease your pans (we used 4 medium sized pans) and form loaves.  Make sure and spank 'em good so they'll be pretty.  :)

Place the pans in the OFF oven again with the light on to let raise until doubled again.  Remove pans carefully and heat the oven to 375.  Bake for about 20 minutes.  Remove from pans immediately and let cool on a wire rack. After it's cooled place the bread in bags and freeze what you won't use immediately. But I'm sure you'll just want to eat it all right away.



I'm making this again right now to see if I can do it on my own.  We'll see. . . fingers crossed!

BBQ Chicken Braid

This is actually a very versatile recipe and you can fill it with just about anything.  I've made it with chicken, spaghetti sauce, green bell peppers, and mozzarella; shredded chicken mixed with cream cheese and stuffing; grocery store rotisserie chicken pieces and cheddar cheese with a little Ranch dressing - the possibilities are really endless.  Plus it looks fancy!  I've used Pillsbury French Bread Dough (the natural kind without any "extra" ingredients/preservatives) with this recipe before and it's great that way too.  Just follow the directions on the package for cooking time if you use that.  This dough recipe is great for pizzas too. 
Basic Pizza Dough                                                                                         
(I can get one bread braid out of this recipe or one 16-inch crust pizza)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 cup warm (105-115 degrees) water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1⁄4 teaspoon salt (I actually used 1 tsp of garlic salt because I thought it needed more seasoning)
3 to 4 cups all-purpose flour (I used 2 cups white flour and about 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour)
Mix the yeast and water in a small bowl, cover, and let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes.  Mix the oil, honey, salt, and yeast mixture in a large mixing bowl. Mix in 3 cups of flour.
If the dough seems too wet, mix in more flour, 1⁄4 cup at a time, until the dough is soft. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead in more flour, 1⁄4 cup at a time, until the dough is moderately stiff and somewhat firm to the touch, about 6 minutes.  (I just use my mixer.)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Roll out into a rectangle about as long as your cookie sheet.  Place dough on greased cookie sheet and assemble ingredients down the middle lengthwise.  You want to build the braid on the cookie sheet or it will be too heavy to move to your cookie sheet once you've built it.  Trust me - it ain't pretty.  :(
BBQ Chicken stuffing
BBQ’d chicken or cooked shredded chicken
BBQ sauce
Cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, cojack - whatever you've got on hand)
Purple onion, thinly sliced (I only used about 1/4-1/2 an onion)
Grated parmesan cheese
Garlic salt
Egg wash (one beaten egg mixed with about 1 TB water) or melted butter
Layer BBQ sauce, cooked chicken, sliced onions, more BBQ sauce, cheese and cilantro down the middle of the dough.  Using a pizza cutter make some cuts along the edges of the pizza up towards the center where all the ingredients are layered (I usually make about 9-11 fringe pieces on each side.)  Starting at one end pinch the first fringe, top or bottom, closed over the end so that all your ingredients don't spill out then alternate fringe pieces and pinch end over to the bottom of the opposite side's fringe piece. Sorry, it's really hard to explain but here's a picture of mine about halfway through.
It's really easy to do - just impossible to explain!  Once you get to the end just pinch one of the fringes closed again.  Once you're finished, brush the egg wash over the top of the braid and sprinkle a little garlic salt over the top and then a little parmesan cheese.
Bake in a 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until it looks done.  Here's the finished product!
 
Just slice it like you would bread and serve.  My kids LOVE it when I make this!

Fast Dinner Rolls

I love to make these rolls and they live up to their name - they're fast! I was a little hesitant to make them the first time because anything with yeast listed as an ingredient scares me - well, it used to anyway.  I was pleasantly surprised that these actually came out perfectly the very first time I tried them! I got the recipe from A Bear in the Kitchen and I've used a few of her other recipes as well.  


Fast Dinner Rolls

3/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup hot tap water
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups bread flour (give or take a 1/4 cup)
1 heaping tablespoon instant yeast

Pour milk into a microwave safe bowl or glass measuring cup. Cut butter into pieces and add to milk. Microwave for 1 1/2 minutes and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer add milk/butter mixture and hot tap water. Add sugar and salt and 2 cups of the flour. Mix for 1 minute. Add yeast and flour 1/2 a cup at a time until dough pulls away from the side of the mixer. Knead dough with dough hook for 5 minutes on medium speed. Place dough in a non-stick sprayed bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap to trap in heat. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

Grease a 9x13 baking dish. Remove dough from bowl to a non-stick sprayed surface and cut dough into 12 equal pieces. Spray your hands liberally with cooking oil spray and form each piece into a smooth ball and place into the greased 9x13. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until rolls have doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top and bottom. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter if desired.

TIPS:
*I don't cut my dough into 12 equal pieces.  That did NOT work out well for me the first time.  I bought a really inexpensive kitchen scale (like $4 or something) at Bed, Bath and Beyond and now I weigh each bit of dough before I form it into a roll to make sure that all my rolls are the same and everything cooks evenly. I almost always end up with 2 or 3 more rolls than will fit into one 9x13 pan. 
*Even though this recipe says it makes a dozen rolls the rolls are really big and hearty and one is almost too much for my kids.  They are great for little mini sandwiches! 
* I wouldn't double this recipe if you're using a small KitchenAid mixer.  It's just not powerful enough to knead that much dough for 5 minutes.  I thought mine was gonna die or catch on fire!  It'll do one batch pretty well though.