Bourbon Apple Bread

Can you believe that it is already November?  We know that sounds trite, but time has been flying for us.  We thought after we became empty nesters that things would slow down a bit.  We guess in our new-found freedom that we are taking advantage of doing all of those things that were put on the back burner for years?

We wanted to share a homey fall recipe with you this week, and what is more homey and comforting than home baked bread? We have brought you some yummy bread recipes in the past, such as, Angry Orchard Bread, Chocolate Banana Bread and Easy Pumpkin Beer Bread.  This week we are adding a touch of fall flavor with some juicy gala apples and a twist of bourbon flavor.

To make this easy bread recipe you will need a yellow cake mix, shredded fresh apples, canola oil, eggs, milk, bourbon, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pecans, brown sugar, and melted butter.

First mix the cake mix, oil, milk,  and spices together in a large mixing bowl.  Add the bourbon and hand-stir in the shredded apples.  Divide the batter between two loaf pans prepped with cooking spray.

Mix together the chopped pecans, brown sugar, melted butter and 1/4 ounce of bourbon.  Sprinkle on top of the bread batter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.  Cool. Slice. Enjoy!

This easy bread is perfect to bake as a hostess gift for a friend or pre-make for your next brunch.  We are going to enjoy ours on the patio this afternoon on this gorgeous autumn day.

What kind of fall adventures have you been on lately?  Make some bourbon apple bread and let us know your thoughts!

 

Bonus Post: You Knead It!

So… for our bonus post we had hoped that we would be sharing two fun cocktails to serve at your Super Bowl party.  Since the Chiefs and the Saints are going to be there next year instead of this year, we decided to keep that post for 2020. (wink)  Thus we bring you your January Bonus Post:  You Knead It!

There is nothing better than the smell of fresh baked bread.  The winter time is when fresh, steamy bread tastes best.  Is it because it is the ultimate comfort food?  We realized that we have a fondness for featuring good bread recipes on TBPBlog over the past couple of years.  This week we are going to take a look back and revisit some of our “kneadiest” recipes.

Zaya Banana Bread:  Yummy!  If you like banana bread, you need to try this recipe. It is so easy.  Make sure to save some bread for day 2 when the rum is released.  Oh yesssss!

Angry Orchard Bread:  This bread was an overnight success and quickly became a favorite both on the blog and in The Blind Pig household.  Did we mention that there are only 3 ingredients?

Easy Pumpkin Beer Bread:  Easy Pumpkin Beer Bread is the close cousin of Angry Orchard Bread.  You don’t have to wait for the leaves to start to fall to enjoy it.  Try it out today.

Christmas Morning Bread: Craig won’t stop talking about this bread!  This has been one of his most favorite recipes we have ever featured on The Blind Pig Blog.  It is the perfect breakfast bread for a brunch or morning meeting.  Serve it at home or take it to go.

Kerrygold Cinnamon Rolls:  No one makes cinnamon rolls like grandma.  This recipe is definitely worth the extra work.  The Kerrygold icing is a hit!

Kerrygold French Toast:  Looks difficult, but isn’t.  Serve this at your next brunch or family breakfast.  It will impress all who attend.

Whiskey Bread Pudding: This is the perfect warm winter dessert.  It is so filling and comforting with just a little zip of whiskey to warm you inside and out.

 

Seven delicious breads for breakfast, brunch or anytime.  Which one will you try this weekend?

  

 

 

Christmas Morning Bread

Christmas Morning Bread

One of the best things about Christmas is jumping out of bed early in the morning in anticipation of unwrapping presents under the tree.  Since our family usually has a big meal planned for Christmas, we don’t tend to eat a huge breakfast.  If you have guests staying with you, it’s nice to put your best foot forward at breakfast — especially on Christmas morning.  We are sharing an easy, tasty and fresh recipe with you that will delight all of the members of your family on that joyous holiday morning.  Your house guests will think that you went all out just for them.  You can smile graciously.  No need to tell them how easy this delectable breakfast was to make.

This recipe was a combination of a few recipes that we had found over the years.  One recipe was from Taste of Home December 2017 issue and the other was from Southern Living December 2009, and then we added in a little twist of our own. This great recipe can be prepped a day ahead and baked fresh in the morning or warmed in the oven.  To make Christmas Morning Bread you will need, sugar, cinnamon, frozen bread roll dough, Kerrygold butter, chopped pecans, brown sugar, Templeton Rye whiskey and semisweet baking chocolate bar.

First we started to thaw out our frozen rolls.  They were not completely thawed by the time we started to work with the dough, but we think it helped to have the dough slightly thawed.  You can make your bread from scratch like Grandma Ruth likes to do, but we opted for the frozen dough which was easier.

Next we combined the sugar and cinnamon.  We melted our Kerrygold butter in the microwave.  We sprinkled a few of our chopped pecans in the bottom of a sprayed bunt pan.  Next we made our whiskey caramel sauce.  We placed brown sugar, butter, and whiskey in a small saucepan; brought it to a boil;  cooked and stirred for 3 minutes. Then removed from heat to cool.

After about 5 minutes,  we poured about 1/3 of caramel in the bottom of the bundt pan with the pecans.  This gave the top of our bread a nice sweet glaze.

We prepped our area by having the rolls handy, along with the butter, sugar cinnamon mixture and bundt pan.  Next we took a roll.  Dipped it in the butter, and then rolled the top 1/2 of the roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture.  We placed the roll in the bottom of the pan.  We continued until we had a fairly even layer of rolls on the bottom of the pan.  We drizzled caramel mixture and pecans over the first layer of rolls.  Then we continued layering the rolls and adding pecans and caramel drizzle over each layer until we had 3-4 layers. Our package of rolls was 3 lbs.  We thought, “What the heck.  The more the merrier, right?”  Wrong.  It was too much dough and our rolls overflowed in the oven.  Stop at about 2 pounds of dough. (wink)

Next we covered with plastic wrap and placed in a warm toasty spot in our kitchen to rise for about 45 minutes.  If you want to bake these Christmas morning, you can cover and chill them in the fridge.  We would suggest taking them out and letting them rise slightly before placing in the oven.

When you are ready to bake, place them in an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees.  Make sure to place a baking sheet covered in foil on the bottom oven rack. (Believe us, you do not want to skip this part.  We saved ourselves from cleaning up a huge mess by doing this!) Bake bread for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, and then invert on a serving plate.

To make the chocolate whiskey glaze you will need to melt the chocolate in a small microwave safe bowl.  We melted ours in small bursts of 30 seconds, so we didn’t over cook.  When chocolate is melted, stir in 1/4 cup of whiskey and stir until smooth.  Drizzle the chocolate whiskey glaze over the top of the bread.

If you are viewing this post in your email, visit us at http://www.theblindpig.blog for a full printable recipe of Christmas Morning Bread.

When we made our bread in our test kitchen, it did not last long.  Blind Piglets #2 and #3 and their friends finished it off pretty quickly.  We had a few left overs for the next day, and we think it tasted better on day 2.

Are you going to treat your family Christmas morning?  Do you need to impress your mother-in-law?  Whether you are staying in or headed out, Christmas Morning Bread will be sure to become one of your family’s holiday favs.  Let us know if you try it out.  We love hearing what you think!

   

November Bonus Post: Oh Pumpkin!…Bread

easypumpkinbeerbread

Hey friends!  So glad you’re back.  We spent a super fun weekend with Blind Piglet #1 at Mizzou last weekend.  We were so happy to see her and had a blast.  However, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are thankful that we are no longer living the life of a college student.  (We were worn out.)

piglet1

For our November Bonus Post we are returning to our tried and true easy bread recipe to give you a little pumpkin spice twist.  We heard from many of you that tried our Apple Cider Bread recipe and thought that it was a huge hit.  Of course the pumpkin bread has a few more ingredients than its apple cider sister, but is just as easy and delicious.  We are sharing it with you in time to fix for the  Thanksgiving holiday.  Perhaps you need a little something extra to serve guests at breakfast the day of the turkey dinner?  Or  you want to bring a little something special to the hostess?  This is the recipe for you — easy, tasty, fresh!

easypumpkinbeerbread1

To get started you will need self-rising flour, sugar, beer, pumpkin, honey and pumpkin pie spice.   Beat together all of the ingredients.  Bake at 350 degrees in a bread pan for about 50-55 minutes.  Make sure to check the bread with a skewer before pulling from the oven.  Ours needed a little extra time to bake.

Because of the pumpkin, this bread is very moist and delicious.  It did not last long at our house.

easypumpkinbeerbread5

If you are viewing this post in an email, make sure to visit us at www.theblindpig.blog for the full printable recipe.

Be sure to look for our weekend post where we will be sharing a great Thanksgiving side recipe for your family meal!

    

The Easiest Bread You’ll Ever Make

angryorchardbread

The Blind Pig Apple Festival continues with one of the easiest recipes we have posted on TBP:  Angry Orchard Bread.  This bread recipe, which only requires 3 main ingredients,  will have you feeling guilty for the minimum effort and big reward to your taste buds.  Yes, we said three ingredients!!!

Rhonda had a beer bread recipe for years that was super easy.  One day when we were brainstorming ideas for the blog, we thought, “What if we substitute hard cider for beer in our recipe?”  We tried it and lo and behold a star was born.  You don’t need to take just our word for it.  Our harshest and most severe critic, Blind Piglet #2, loved this recipe, so we know we have a crowd pleaser.

angryorchardbread6

Here’s what you need.  Self-rising enriched flour, a bottle of your favorite hard cider (ours is Angry Orchard), and sugar.  We also enhanced the recipe with some chopped apples covered in cinnamon and sugar.

The most difficult part of the recipe is that your hard cider needs to be warm or room temperature.  Ours was nice and cold from sitting in the refrigerator, so we had to place it out in the sun for about an hour.  (Hopefully you won’t need to do that part.)

Place the flour and sugar in a bowl.  Add hard cider and stir.  Place in a bread pan.  Top with chopped apples covered in cinnamon and sugar.  Bake for 50-55 minutes at 350 degrees.  Out comes cinnamony, apple goodness!

If you are viewing this post in your email, visit our website www.theblindpig.blog to get the complete recipe.

Angry Orchard Bread: The Easiest Bread You'll Ever Make

Is your weekend as soggy and wet at ours is in Dallas, Texas?  If so, it is the perfect time for making a little something, something in the oven!  Are you ready to try out Angry Orchard Bread?  What are you waiting for?