Porchetta

During the holiday season last year America's Test Kitchen had an episode titled "Home for the Holiday's" found here.  I watched that episode and was inspired by the porchetta recipe. When we lived in Queens we were invited to the Osorio's house in Astoria for a wonderful feast.  Chef Osorio works at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan, he's actually from Bogota Colombia and his wife Jen is from Queens.  I can't remember his name, anyway he is an amazing chef!  He prepared a traditional Porcehetta in a La Caja China, which is a wooden or metal box you grill a whole pig in basically.  His porchetta was a huge piece of pork rolled with fennel, and other traditional seasonings.  He had my husband Parley cut it into slices, Parley sliced it into one inch thick slices.  Which at the time I'm thinking these dinner plate inch thick pieces of porchetta are enormous!  It was the most delicious, flavorful, and moist pork I'd ever tasted.  I didn't think anything about trying to make it myself since I didn't have any way to cook something that big or even know where to find such a huge piece of pork.  Then I saw that Holiday special from America's Test Kitchen I mentioned earlier and the chef used a manageable easy to find pork butt roast and I knew then I could make porchetta in my home kitchen.  While at the store I saw pork butt steaks and decided why cut slits in the fat cap of a huge roast and try to flavor a huge butt roast when I could flavor each layer and use the steaks, that's my contribution to this recipe.   Funny enough I went to a local Italian market to get supplies for our second Christmas dinner we were having with our Serbian "daughter for the school year" and they had porchetta in the fridge section and they were huge one-inch dinner plate slices; so I apologize to my husband for dismissing his cutting skills.  Did I mention we have a "daughter for the school year" from Italy and Serbia right now?  Probably not, anyway they are loving the food and are great inspirations for our family trying new food from both Italy and Serbia.  Mina is our Serbian "daughter for the school year" and Camilla is our Italian "daughter for the school year."  I've been preparing our holiday meals according to some of the food they normally, like Christmas for example.  By way of a little known fact we have just learned, the Serbian Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar for holiday's so they celebrate Christmas on January 7th and Easter is also a week later than we traditionally celebrate it.  We'll be having two Easter Celebrations as we did for Christmas and highlight some Italian and Serbian holiday celebrations.  

Porchetta

Ingredients:

2-3 lbs Pork Butt Steaks

3 Tablespoons Fennel Seed

1/2 Cup Fresh Rosemary

1/4 Cup Fresh Thyme

12 Cloves Garlic

1 Tablespoon Black Pepper

2 Teaspoons Kosher Salt

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Process:  

Grind Together all the herbs, and spices in a blender or coffee grinder.  

If making in a blender you can add the olive oil and grind and mix together into a paste.  

Using a boning knife remove the t-bones from the steaks. 

Rub paste between each steak and stack the steaks together.

Using three lengths of butcher twine, tie the layers together, double the first part of the knot to make it easier to get a secure knot.

Put on a rack of a roasting pan in the fridge, allow it to dry for up 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place pork in the oven covered with aluminum foil for 2 hours, make sure the pork reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees.

Increase the oven temperature to 500 degrees, remove foil from meat and place in a lined pan with foil, add meat to pan with twine removed.  15-20 minutes, Cook meat until an internal temperature of 190 degrees. 

Rest 15 minutes, cut across the grain. 

Enjoy!

Chicken Antipasta Pizza

Pizza is such an easy recipe to change and suit your needs, toppings can be seasonal or colorful, vegetarian, or full of meat.  This pizza is a good combination of both.  Originally I made it using just the antipasta vegetables but decided it really needed something else.  At Costco they sell very yummy inexpensive rotisserie chicken that I've posted about previously and we had one in our fridge we hadn't used yet.  The pesto was also from Costco and bought two bottles when it was on sale so I used on right away and froze the second one.  We had just one bottle left in the freezer. I took out the frozen one and thawed in the refrigerator over night before adding to the chicken.  If you are looking to change up your Friday night pizza then this is the recipe for you, it's a good blend of flavors.  

I made a video of myself preparing the pizza and used that in place of the many photos I normally have in a post.  Let me know if you prefer the video or photographs for the recipe steps.

Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

7 cups Hi-Gluten Flour (Bread flour may be substituted)
2 3/4 cup Warm Water
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 1/2 Tbs Active Dry Yeast
1 1/2 Tbs Kosher Salt
1 Tbs Honey

Process:

Warm up water in microwave for 40 seconds.  Add yeast to water, salt, honey, and olive oil in a stand mixer mixing bowl.  Allow mixture to activate(rest) for 5 minutes.

Add flour and blend with dough hook on medium until a smooth ball forms.

Place dough in bow greased with olive oil.  Allow to rest in refrigerator overnight before using for pizza.

Chicken Antipasta Pizza

Ingredients:

1/4 of Prepared Pizza Dough

3/4 cup Shredded Rotisserie Chicken Breast

2 Tbs Pesto

1 cup Shredded Provolone & Mozzarella Cheese

1/4 cup Marinara Sauce

2 Tbs chopped Kalamata Olives

2 Tbs chopped Artichoke Hearts

2 Tbs chopped Sun Dried Tomatoes

Olive Oil

Parchment Paper

Process:

Mix pesto with shredded chicken in small bowl, refrigerate while dough rests on counter.

Preheat a pizza stone or baking steel in oven set to 525 F for at least 1 hour before baking pizza. 

Section off a ball of pizza dough and roll it in olive oil on a piece of parchment paper large enough for a 12 inch pizza.  Rest for two hours on counter.

Press the dough with fingers and use knuckles under dough to stretch the dough into a thin disk with a thicker outer edge.  

Ladle on sauce in a thin layer leaving the outer inch crust without marinara.

Sprinkle on shredded cheese then the other toppings, ie chicken, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, and sun dried tomatoes.

Using a pizza peel or inverted cookie sheet move the pizza to your stone or steel.  Bake for 5-8 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and under carriage of pizza has brown spots.  

Place pizza on a cooling rack for 3 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy!

Chili Macaroni & Cheese

We have been really busy, my family moved to another apartment here in Queens.  Moving is a huge undertaking here in NYC and add a baby and it becomes almost impossible without a lot of help.  I apologize for not posting sooner, but cooking is difficult when your kitchen is being packed or still being unpacked.  I made this recipe before we moved thankfully, but the pictures were on my external hardrive and so I had to get our computer set up and working before I could find them.  Did I mention my baby is super cute and likes to take 5 minute power naps?  Yes she isn't very helpful in my attempts to get anything done.  Without further ado, here is my recipe.

My dad makes something similar to hamburger helper without the box from the helper. He used a special blend of spices and herbs to flavor it (aka Lawry's Spaghetti Mix). My husband even liked it, I don't use dried flavor mixes very often, so I wanted to try to make my own version. This is a spicier version of my dad's hamburger helper, it even passes the husband and children test. This particular recipe does depend on a certain chorizo that is awesome. Yes my secret ingredient to this extremely simple recipe is chorizo. Sort of a chorizo flavored sausage, not really the typical dried chorizo.  You could make this recipe with ground beef and bypass the chorizo altogether, I wouldn't be offended I promise.

Cheese and just the right amount of spice and pasta, such a wonderful comfort food.

Ingredients:

3/4 lb. Elbow Macaroni
2 cups Crushed Tomatoes
1 lb. Chorizo Sausage (ground beef nay be substituted)
1/2 lb. Monterey Jack Cheese
Kosher Salt

The chorizo I use is a flavored sausage.  It isn't a dried chorizo.  This chorizo is the best!
Remove chorizo from the casing and brown in a large skillet. 

Beautiful browned chorizo, if you could smell this you would, well anyway, it is really yummy.

Pour the crushed tomatoes onto the chorizo and cook on medium heat until it boils.
 Reduce heat to low and simmer the sauce.

Bring a large stockpot full of water to boil over high heat and sprinkle with salt.  Start this
process just before cooking the chorizo.  Boil macaroni according to package instructions.
 I cooked the full pound of macaroni.  My sons are very picky eaters, who will only eat
buttered macaroni, so I separated the pasta accordingly after it was cooked.

Drain the macaroni.

Add macaroni and grated cheese to sauce.  Stir and cook over medium heat until cheese melts.

Serve in a big bowl, and 

Enjoy!

Chili Macaroni & Cheese

Ingredients:

3/4 lb. Elbow Macaroni
2 cups Crushed Tomatoes
1 lb. Chorizo Sausage (ground beef nay be substituted)
1/2 lb. Monterey Jack Cheese
Kosher Salt

Process:

Remove chorizo from the casing and brown in a large skillet. 

Pour the crushed tomatoes onto the chorizo and cook on medium heat until it boils.  Reduce heat to low and simmer the sauce.

Bring a large stockpot full of water to boil over high heat and sprinkle with salt.  Start this process just before cooking the chorizo.

Boil macaroni according to package instructions.

Drain the macaroni.

Add macaroni and grated cheese to sauce.  Stir and cook over medium heat until cheese melts.

Serve in a big bowl.

Enjoy!

Phở Gà (Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup)

Rememebr when I made Phở Bò (Beef Pho)? This is a chicken version, and I've made it as simple as possible.  We all like simple right?  This was our dinner shared with two bachelor friends. Our gentlemen guests were so excited to have a home cooked meal and were completely impressed.  It has been cloudy and cold, so soup was wonderful to come home to.  Plus when I went to pick up our friends, I was on the wrong side of the street.  Anywhere else this woudn't be a big deal, but next to the Queensboro Plaza Train Station, it meant a whole lot of lanes and barriers, dividers, and no way to cross.  I ended up turning too soon and going across the bridge to Manhattan and coming back to Queens.  Thankfully, we finally made it back to the apartment and a wonderful wafting smell from my pressure cooker where the broth was cooking.  I highly reccomend making broth of any kind in a pressure cooker.  The results are always fabulous and fast.

 This is a steaming hot bowl of flavor beyond any chicken soup you have ever experienced.

Ingredients:

4-5 pound Rotisserie Chicken (Costco really has the best price and sized chicken)
2 large bunch of Green Onions
7 large cloves of garlic
3 pieces of Dried Ginger
Roots and Stems of 1 bunch of Cilantro
2 whole star anise
12 cloves
2″x1″ piece of Cassia Bark (a.k.a. Saigon Cinnamon)
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
80g Light Brown Sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon Kosher Salt

1 Jalapeno

1 Lime

Water

Japanese Noodles or Rice Noodles

Remove chicken from bones.  Place chicken bones in pressure cooker pot with 1 whole bunch
 of green onions, 1/2 bunch of Cilantro, star anise, cloves, cassia bark, black pepper, sugar, fish
sauce, salt, and add water to the top of the fill line for your pressure cooker (mine is 16 cups).  

Set pressure cooker to high for one hour.

Strain broth through a fine mesh sieve into a large stock pot.

Bring to a boil.  We used Japanese noodles, but you can use traditional rice noodles if you want.  Cook noodles in broth according to package instrucitions.

Slice jalapeno thinly.  Slice remaining bunch of green onions.  Remove remaining cilantro
from stems.  Place all ingredients aside on a serving plate.  Cut chicken or shred chicken into bite
size pieces and serve next to the broth and plate of vegetables.

This is a build your own Phở Gà bowl.  Add ingredients then the noodles and broth over top.
We really had fun building our soup bowls and customizing how much of each ingredient.

Enjoy!

Phở Gà (Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup)

Printable recipe Found Here

Ingredients:

4-5 pound Rotisserie Chicken (Costco really has the best price and sized chicken)
2 large bunch of Green Onions
7 large cloves of Garlic
3 pieces of Dried Ginger
Roots and Stems of 1 bunch of Cilantro
2 whole Star Anise
12 Cloves
2″x1″ piece of Cassia Bark (a.k.a. Saigon Cinnamon)
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
80g Light Brown Sugar
2 tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 tablespoon Kosher Salt

1 Jalapeno

1 Lime

Water

Japanese Noodles or Rice Noodles

Process:

Remove chicken from bones.  Place chicken bones in pressure cooker pot with 1 whole bunch of green onions, 1/2 bunch of Cilantro, star anise, cloves, cassia bark, black pepper, sugar, fish sauce, salt, and add water to the top of the fill line for your pressure cooker (mine is 16 cups).  

Set pressure cooker to high for one hour.

Strain broth through a fine mesh sieve into a large stock pot.

Bring to a boil.  We used Japanese noodles, but you can use traditional rice noodles if you want. Cook noodles in broth according to package instrucitions.

Slice jalapeno thinly.  Slice remaining bunch of green onions.  Remove remaining cilantro from stems.  Place all ingredients aside on a serving plate.  Cut chicken or shred chicken into bite size pieces and serve next to the broth and plate of vegetables.

This is a build your own Phở Gà bowl.  Add ingredients then the noodles and broth over top.  

Enjoy!

Corn Pudding

A few weeks ago I bought a huge, gigantic bag of corn on the cob from a Long Island farm market. When I say gigantic I mean 55-60 ears of corn.  Yes, you read correctly.  This bag of corn was needing to be eaten, so I went on a recipe hunt for any main dish, side dish, dessert, anything to use this corn.  This recipe has my husband's approval, so I figure that is a seal of approval for posting here.  When I was looking at other corn pudding recipes, I determined it would be easy to condense and have a small ingredient list and still achieve the same end results.  

Do you like sweet corn?   This is the a great way to eat it.

Ingredients:

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 cup Water
1 stick of Butter
1/2 Maseca (Cornmeal can be substituted)
3 ears of Fresh Corn removed from Cob
1 tablespoon Kosher Salt

Preheat the oven to 425 Fahrenheit

Place oven proof dish in oven with 1/2 stick of butter, melt butter in dish.

Fill medium pan with water and bring to boil over high heat.  Add salt, stir and add corn.
Boil for 1 minute and drain in colander.

Place corn in oven proof dish with butter.

Mix milk, water, and Maseca. Pour over corn.

Thinly slice remaining butter on to top of the corn mixture.

Bake corn pudding for thirty minutes or until golden brown around the edge.

Enjoy!

Corn Pudding

Printable Recipe Found Here

Ingredients:

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 cup Water
1 stick of Butter
1/2 Maseca (Cornmeal can be substituted)
3 ears of Fresh Corn on the Cob
1 tablespoon Kosher Salt

Process:

Preheat the oven to 425 Fahrenheit

Place oven proof dish in oven with 1/2 stick of butter, melt butter in dish.

Fill medium pan with water and bring to boil over high heat.  Add salt, stir and add corn.  

Boil for 1 minute and drain in collander.

Place corn in oven proof dish with butter.

Mix milk, water, and Maseca.  Pour over corn.

Thinly slice remaining butter and place on top of the corn mixture.

Bake corn pudding for thirty minutes or until golden brown around the edge.

Enjoy!

Feijoada (Brazillian Black Bean Stew, or Chili)

Recently a friend from church had a baby.  I wanted to make a dinner for her and her husband that would be comforting and remind her of her home country of Brazil.  When I was looking up recipes from Brazil, I learned about a Brazilian Black Bean Stew, Feijoada.  Since I had all the ingredients to make the stew, it was a win win.  We had leftovers, so on another night the stew got an upgrade and the recipe below is the upgrade.  This stew was very delicious, so much so, that my husband requested I make it again for a church social.  I made it this afternoon, third times the charm for our church Halloween Party Chili Cook-off.  I added some pepper flakes to the recipe to make it more like chili.  I brought this "chili" and blew away the judges and won first prize.  I think they liked the three kinds of pork, not a traditional chili with beef.  This recipe can be made very easily, and cheaply, depending on your preferences.  At a nearby grocery store, we have blemished discount produce that isn't perfect enough to be sold with the other pretty produce.  On a wonderful whim, I looked at the discounted produce at my local grocery store and struck cheap produce heaven and found bell peppers to use for this recipe.

Look at all that pork, so very yummy.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Black Beans
Kosher Salt
Garlic Powder
3 Green Bell Peppers
2 Red Bell Peppers
2 Yellow Onions
1 lb. Chorizo
4 lb. Pork Shoulder
Left Over Ham Bone (with left over ham and fat)
3 Pints Canned Whole Tomatoes
5 slices Bacon
2 teaspoons Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Water

Soak black beans over night in water, 3 inches above beans and 2 tablespoons kosher salt.

Cut up the bacon into 1 inch pieces, add bacon, ham bone (remove meat and fat), soaked beans
to a pressure cooker pot or a stock pot on a stove.  If you do not have a ham bone, add more bacon.   Pour enough water to cover beans by 3 inches.  Cook beans in pressure cooker on high for
30 minutes or on the stove simmer covered for 1 hour or until beans are tender. 

Rub kosher salt and garlic powder all over the pork shoulder.  Place on spit of rotisserie or put

 on a rack set into a roasting pan. Roast for 20 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 325 degrees F. Continue to cook for 3 hours. 

My ham bone is leftover so it still has meat and fat on it.  I freeze leftover bones and use them
for other recipes.  Remove meat and fat from ham bone and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. If you do
not have a ham bone with leftover meat on it substitute a ham steak.

Place ham and fat in a stock pot over low heat. We are rendering the fat (melting the fat),
although fat is yummy, it is better melted than having to chew it.  Remove meat when slightly
fried, remove cooked fat when fried.  Leave the melted fat in the stock pot.

Dice the onions, and bell peppers.  Saute the onions and bell peppers in the melted pork fat left
in the large stock pot over medium low heat.

Remove chorizo from the skin.  Break apart with a wooden spoon and cook over medium
 heat in a large 12 inch skillet.

Cut roasted pork into 1/2 inch cubes.  Place ham, fried fat, and pork in the same pan as the chorizo. 

Add the pork to the stock pot with the sauteed vegetables, add drained beans, add whole tomatoes
and cut with a spoon.  Stir and add red pepper flakes.  Cook over medium heat until bubbling.

This is a Brazillian Black Bean Stew, if you omit the pepper flakes, and with the pepper flakes
 it is great as a chili.

Enjoy!

Feijoada (Brazillian Black Bean Stew, or Chili)

Printable Recipe Found Here

Ingredients:

1 lb. Black Beans

Kosher Salt

Garlic Powder

3 Green Bell Peppers

2 Red Bell Peppers

2 Yellow Onions

1 lb. Chorizo

4 lb. Pork Shoulder

Left Over Ham Bone (with left over ham and fat)

3 Pints Canned Whole Tomatoes

5 slices Bacon

2 teaspoons Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

Water

Process:

Soak black beans over night in water, 3 inches above beans and 2 tablespoons kosher salt.

Cut up the bacon into 1 inch pieces, add bacon, ham bone (remove meat and fat), soaked beans to a pressure cooker pot or a stock pot on a stove.  If you do not have a ham bone, add more bacon.  Pour enough water to cover beans by 3 inches.  Cook beans in pressure cooker on high for 30 minutes or on the stove simmer covered for 1 hour or until beans are tender.

Rub kosher salt and garlic powder all over the pork shoulder.  Place on spit of rotisserie or put

on a rack set into a roasting pan. Roast for 20 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 325 degrees F. Continue to cook for 3 hours. 

Remove meat and fat from ham bone and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. If you do not have a ham bone with leftover meat on it, substitute a ham steak.

Place ham and fat in a stock pot over low heat. We are rendering the fat (melting the fat), although fat is yummy, it is better melted than having to chew it.  Remove meat when slightly fried, remove cooked fat when fried.  Leave the melted fat in the stock pot.

Dice the onions, and bell peppers.  Saute the onions and bell peppers in the melted pork fat left in the large stock pot over medium low heat.

Remove chorizo from the skin, break apart with a wooden spoon and cook over medium heat in a large 12 inch skillet.

Cut roasted pork into 1/2 inch cubes. Place ham, fried fat, and pork in the same pan as the chorizo. 

Add the pork to the stock pot with the sauteed vegetables, add drained beans, add whole tomatoes and cut with a spoon.  Stir and add red pepper flakes.  Cook over medium heat until bubbling.

Enjoy!

Hummus

My friend Leah is known for her hummus. I haven't ever asked her secret recipe, but I did ask to borrow her food processor that she makes it in. When I made almond butter, I used her food processor as well. Thank you Leah for being the inspiration for this recipe. Guess what this recipe uses, a pressure cooker.  I know a couple of people who have one and have wondered what they could make in it.  This hummus is completely from raw ingredients, no canned beans were used. Although I suppose if you must, you may use canned beans. You may have noticed the recipe includes baking soda, the scientific explanation from Wiki will help: "Baking soda is not strictly necessary, but it can be beneficial. The molecules in baking soda attach themselves to gas-inducing sugars in the chickpeas known as oligosaccharides. By binding to these sugars, baking soda can break them down and partially remove that gut felt odorous, gas producer, from the structure of the chickpea."

I love eating cucumber sticks dipped in hummus.  This hummus is full of flavor.

Ingredients:

2 cups dried Chickpeas
2 lemons
5 cloves of Garlic
6 tablespoons Tahini
1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher Salt
1/2-1 cup Olive Oil
8 cups Water
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

Place chickpeas, water, baking soda, and two cloves of garlic into pressure cooker insert.
Place insert into pressure cooker, cover with lid.  Cook on high pressure for 40 minutes.

Allow pressure cooker to naturally release pressure.

Place chickpeas, salt, tahini, garlic, lemon juice from both lemons, and 1/4 cup of olive oil
in food processor.  Process until a smooth paste forms.

I placed the hummus in a sieve over a bowl and pushed through the sieve to remove the
pieces of skin, you don't have to do this step.  

 Place hummus in food processor and process while adding oil until desired thickness is reached.

 Place hummus in airtight container.

Enjoy!

Hummus

Printable Recipe Found Here

Ingredients:

2 cups dried Chickpeas
2 lemons
5 cloves of Garlic
6 tablespoons Tahini
1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher Salt
1/2-1 cup Olive Oil
8 cups Water
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

Process:

Place chickpeas, water, baking soda, and two cloves of garlic into pressure cooker insert.  Place insert into pressure cooker, cover with lid.  Cook on high pressure for 40 minutes.

Allow pressure cooker to naturally release pressure.

Spoon the hummus in a sieve over a bowl and push through the sieve to remove the pieces of skin. You don't have to do this step.  

Place hummus in food processor and process while adding oil until desired thickness is reached.

Place hummus in airtight container.

Enjoy!

Oat Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

This afternoon while at my friend Bridget's house, she ate some cinnamon raisin swirl toast.  I thought about that bread and decided I wanted to make it, but I wanted to include oats.  Oats, cinnamon, and raisins seems to go together I think, or maybe Quaker Oats Company taught me to believe that.  We ate instant Quaker oatmeal sometimes when I was a kid, and one of the flavors was cinnamon raisin. Truthfully I didn't like that flavor growing up.  I did like cinnamon raisin bread though, my mom would buy a bread from Costco, they were shaped like a hotdog bun and were as dense as a bagel and filled with cinnamon and walnuts and raisins.  I loved that bread toasted and spread with butter.  My point is, I wanted cinnamon swirl bread, but I didn't want to drive to Costco where Bridget bought her loaf, so I made it instead.  Last week I received a shipment of oat groats, so I was ready to make my own oat flour for my bread.  I looked for a recipe for the bread I wanted to make first.  I wanted an oat bread with cinnamon and raisins.  I wanted a swirl of cinnamon and raisins.  All the recipes I saw included the cinnamon and raisins mixed into all the dough instead of rolled into the dough like a cinnamon roll. Since I couldn't find a recipe.  I made one up, well mostly.  I used the recipe "American White Bread from "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes" as a starting point and re-worked it a lot for my own purposes.

The smell from this bread is heavenly.  You should make this bread.

Ingredients:

3 cups Oat Flour (I used my Whisper mill to grind oat groats)
3 cups All Purpose Flour
2 cups Lukewarm Water (Microwave water for 1 minute to get correct temperature)
1 1/4 cups Lukewarm Milk (Microwave 1 cup milk with the water)
1 1/2 tablespoons Active Dry Yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher Salt
1/4 cup Cane Sugar plus 1 tablespoon (white granulated sugar can be substituted)
1/2 cup Raisins
1/2 cup Golden Raisins
1 tablespoon softened Butter
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
3 teaspoons Nutmeg

Place yeast, kosher salt and 1/4 cup sugar into bowl.  Add water and milk, allow to activate and foam.

 Happy, happy, happy yeast!

 Add flours, mix with dough hook.

 Beat with dough hook for 5 minutes.

Spray the inside of a large lidded container, place dough in container.  Replace lid and put
in a warm place to rest for two hours.

 Place raisins in a bowl.   Add hot boiling water and allow to plump up.  After they have
plumped up for at least 5 minutes, drain them completely.

 It's alive! Time to make some bread.

If you happen to have super long 12 inch bread pans like I do, divide the dough in half.
If you do not, then divide the dough into 1 1/2 lb. dough balls to be baked in a 9 inch
loaf pan.  Roll the dough out on a floured surface into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle.  

This bread has a similar method to cinnamon rolls. 

Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on dough.  I gave measurements for the recipe but really
 you can eyeball it to see how much you want.  Sprinkle half the raisins on the dough.

Roll dough tightly to form a loaf shape.  Tuck the sides under themselves and squash if
 necessary to fit into a buttered loaf pan.

Brush with a mixture of 1/4 cup milk and 1 tablespoon cane sugar (white sugar also works).

Allow to rise until doubled, and brush again with milk mixture.

Preheat Oven to 350 Fahrenheit

Allow the dough to rise in a warm place until doubled.

Bake for 30 minutes on the middle shelf in preheated oven.

Remove bread from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Slice to your desired thickness and bring out the butter to spread.

Enjoy!

Oat Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread 

Printable Recipe Found Here

Ingredients:

3 cups Oat Flour (I used my Whisper mill to grind oat groats)

3 cups All Purpose Flour

2 cups Lukewarm Water (Microwave water for 1 minute to get correct temperature)

1 1/4 cups Lukewarm Milk (Microwave 1 cup milk with the water)

1 1/2 tablespoons Active Dry Yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher Salt

1/4 cup Cane Sugar plus 1 tablespoon (white granulated sugar can be substituted)

1/2 cup Raisins

1/2 cup Golden Raisins

1 tablespoon softened Butter 

1 tablespoon Cinnamon

3 teaspoons Nutmeg

Process:

Place yeast, kosher salt and 1/4 cup sugar into bowl.  Add water and milk, allow to activate and foam.

Add flours, mix with dough hook.

Beat with dough hook for 5 minutes.

Spray the inside of a large lidded container, place dough in container.  Replace lid and put in a warm place to rest for two hours.

Place raisins in bowl.  Add hot boiling water and allow to plump up.  After they have plumped up for at least 5 minutes, drain them completely.

If you happen to have super long 12 inch bread pans like I do, divide the dough in half.  If you do not, then divide the dough into 1 1/2 lb. dough balls to be baked in a 9 inch loaf pan.  

Roll dough out on a floured surface into 1/2 inch thick rectangle.  

This bread has a similar method to cinnamon rolls. 

Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on dough.  I gave measurements for the recipe but really you can eyeball it to see how much you want.  Sprinkle half the raisins on the dough.

Roll dough tightly to form a loaf shape.  Tuck the sides under themselves and squash if necessary to fit into a buttered loaf pan.

Brush with a mixture of 1/4 cup milk and 1 tablespoon cane sugar (white sugar also works).

Allow to rise until doubled, and brush again with milk mixture.

Preheat Oven to 350 Fahrenheit

Allow the dough to rise in a warm place until doubled.

Bake for 30 minutes on the middle shelf in preheated oven.

Remove bread from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!