September 19th, 2011
by Manasi
Bagels have been on my baking bucket list for a long time. Well, they would be on my bucket list if I had actually thought one up. I keep reading bagel recipes on different blogs, but they have weird things like malt syrup or other such things and I really didn’t feel like going out to get that kind of stuff. I finally found a recipe that wasn’t too fussy–you could use all purpose flour, honey, whatever!
I really love bagels. My favorite part of going to get bagels is that sometimes you get lucky and get the warm bagel! I really feel like I’ve won the lottery. I’m sure I could just ask them what time they usually put out bagels, but it’s so much more fun to try and guess. The other day we went and got bagels and someone actually toasted their warm bagel. Blasphemy! read more »
Bread, Breakfast | 
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June 1st, 2011
by Manasi
This is the second dish I made for my Mother’s Day Brunch. I can’t even begin to describe the awesomeness that is this bread. It’s of course from Joy the Baker. She’s up there with Ina Garten as someone who I wish I was friends with so that they would make me awesome things and I could go over and eat them. read more »
Bread, Breakfast | 2 Comments »
April 12th, 2011
by Manasi
I tried my hand at making a loaf of bread a while ago and failed miserably. It was dense and ugly and completely fell apart after I sliced it. I put it in the freezer to ‘save’ it and finally threw it away quietly months later when it was nearly unrecognizable. Since then, I’ve had much more success with yeast, but never attempted another loaf. Over time though I got much better at figuring out how to work with yeast and other bread doughs. I think it was around the time I made the pita bread that I felt like I could get the hang of it. I was kneading the dough and after the exact 8 minutes it came together and was suddenly this gorgeous, elastic ball. Often times when I try and make something new, I read the instructions, but at some point, I get it ‘right’ and suddenly everything seems to make sense. read more »
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March 22nd, 2011
by Manasi
Perhaps this recipe would have been better on St. Patrick’s Day. But as with most things in my life I’m always behind. I love soda bread, but usually it involves buttermilk, raisins and other such things that I don’t usually have on time and never feel like buying. This recipe, on the other hand, had many things that were already in my pantry and just looked so tasty. It was a random afternoon where I probably had many other things to do, but a slice of this bread slathered in butter just sounded like a way better idea. read more »
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January 1st, 2011
by Manasi
All around the internet, there are these wonderful New Year’s posts reflecting on the New Year and providing some gorgeous photos and recipes. I have hummus and pita for you. To be fair, I did make this for the small gathering I had last night, but neither of these are glamorous “ring in the New Year!” types of foods. On the other hand, I had successfully made pita bread earlier this week, so I went for round two last night. It tasted awesome, but I haven’t gotten to the point where the pita poofs up gorgeously and I can use it for sandwiches.
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September 17th, 2010
by Manasi
Have you ever made your own pizza dough? It’s a lot easier than you think and maybe excluding yeast, you probably have everything in your house right now! I had played around with a ton of different dough recipes and they all have their merits, but I finally found I liked on Annie’s Eats. I especially like this version because it makes 2 dough balls and I usually end up freezing one. This officially makes homemade pizza a fast midweek meal. Even without the freezing, making the dough is pretty easy. You need to set aside a bit of time, but most of that is spent rising–so you can finish whatever you need to get done and be eating fresh pizza within a few hours!
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Bread, Pizza | 1 Comment »
September 5th, 2010
by Manasi
I remember when I was in junior high there was a short-lived outlet mall in the middle of Worcester. It didn’t have that great stores, but there was an Espirit and occasionally I would get some clothes from there. Other times we would walk around and go to boring stores that my parents wanted to go to. My favorite part, besides the clothes of course, was the pretzel place. A lot of women love chocolate and while I won’t say no to that, I love savory things just as much. Put some french fries in front of me and you’d better be done with them. Another weakness of mine is soft pretzels. Those beautiful, buttery things that they sell at the mall will usually sing their siren song to me.
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July 19th, 2010
by Manasi
The other day I came home to find my bananas in the above state. I feel like sometimes it’s always a race to finish the bananas, but secretly, I love it when they start turning brown because then I have an excuse to make some type of banana baked good. Depending on my mood, I’ll go with banana muffins, or freeze some of the bananas for smoothies or desserts, but ultimately, I usually settle on the old standby: banana bread.
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March 28th, 2010
by Manasi
Some things are probably not worth making at home. Cheese comes to mind–they sell kits and such, but it just seems like a lot of work and I feel like there are a lot of farms that do it for a living and are quite good at that living. Other things are much better made at home. I think most things I’ve baked have been at least as good if not better homemade. I definitely like homemade ice cream better than store bought. I’ve always heard that homemade bread is way better than store bought. I tried my hand at bread a couple months ago. Let me tell you, it was a disaster! It tasted OK, but it fell apart every time I tried to use it. Bread that continually falls apart is really useless. I gave up on bread for a while until I found this recipe. It seemed pretty easy and having a free afternoon, I decided to give it a whirl.
It turned out that I was not disappointed. This recipe came together so quickly, it was a breeze. Though I have a KitchenAid mixer, for some reason, I am without a dough hook. Weird, I know. I usually end up mixing the ingredients together and then kneading by hand. I think eventually I will buy a dough hook, but honestly, it seems that most people can make bread with just their hands, so who am I to judge? I think I just need to get the kneading down better because the dough balls don’t tend to come together as pretty as those I see on the blog.
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