In all the years of writing this blog, the most popular post ever has been the one I wrote about No-Knead Artisan Bread.  This method, popularized by Zoe Francois and Jeffrey Hertzberg, revolutionized homemade bread baking.  Instead of making up a batch of dough every time you want to bake bread, you make up a large batch of very wet dough and let it do a long, cold fermentation in the refrigerator - no kneading, no fuss. You can store the dough in the fridge for up to two weeks, tear a hunk of dough off and make bread whenever you feel like it. A variation of this method was also developed by Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery. Suddenly, it seemed, everyone was making homemade bread with these methods.  In the five years since I wrote that post, I've learned a few things and tweaked the recipe a little.  I thought it was time to do an update.  

Zoe and Jeffrey's approach is to make a very wet dough, let it rise and then let it sit overnight in the fridge. You then shape a piece of the dough, let it rise and then bake it on a pizza stone in the oven.  They liked to place a cup of water into a pan beneath the rack with the bread, creating a little steam for the crust.  In Jim Lahey's version, a smaller batch of wet dough is worked up and allowed to rise about 18 hours then wrapped in a towel to rise again and baked in a heavy cast iron or ceramic pot.  Both methods are terrific.  I like making up a larger batch of dough so I can keep it in the fridge and just make bread or rolls whenever I want.  I was baking my bread on a pizza stone but then tried Lahey's version of baking it in my Le Creuset pot. I really liked doing it this way and that's how I've been doing it for a while.

I discovered this recipe last year and made it for my youngest son who loves both challah bread and chocolate. This is a cross between a chocolate babka and challah bread and it's so good.  I love the combination of the chocolate and cinnamon together.  

 

I love making these kinds of breakfast breads, leaving them on the kitchen counter and letting everyone nibble on them for a couple of days.  These breads really are not hard to make - this kind of sweet dough is very easy to work with and you can make the fillings with lots of different things to suit your own taste. This version is with dried cranberries, walnuts and some orange zest. 

 

We just flew back last night from being out in Boston and watching our oldest son, Barry, run the Marathon. What a picture perfect day it was and it was so exciting to see him take part in such a great event. He worked hard to get there. I loved the atmosphere at the race, with everyone cheering total strangers on and people applauding the military and all the "Boston Strong" tee shirts.  I've never seen so many policemen in my life. And an American with an incredible background story won the men's race - how awesome was that?  Here's a picture of Barry after the finish line:

 

I had a neighbor many years ago who made these pretzels one day when our kids were in nursery school.  She made all the letters of the alphabet with them and the kids loved them.  They were so good and I couldn't believe you could make homemade pretzels like that. She gave me the recipe and I have been making them ever since. They're so easy and quick - you don't even have to let them rise.

Many years ago when I was a newlywed living in Chapel Hill, there was a bakery downtown that served pastries called Walkaways.  They cut off a slice and gave it to you in a napkin and . . . you walked away with it.   Anyway, we still call them that to this day.  They're fruit stuffed pastries with cream cheese that are heavenly.

I would make them myself back then with (cringe) Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough, canned pie filling and some slices of cream cheese.  That works, but this version is so much better.  I actually use the dough for my Cinnamon Bread for these now. That dough recipe makes two loaves of bread - it also make two walkaways (or one loaf of cinnamon bread and one walkaway!). This recipe is halved to make one walkaway. 

For those of you fortunate enough to have a lot of basil in your garden right now, this is a perfect summer bread.  I make fresh bread almost every day for my family using this super easy method but once in a while it's nice to stuff the bread with a savory filling.

When I make this, I don't really use a hard and fast recipe for the pesto, but I've written one up for you.  Pesto is so easy - a big handful of fresh basil, a garlic clove, a little scoop of pine nuts and some grated cheese and olive oil.  Make it into a paste by either chopping by hand (I like my mezzaluna) or whirling it all up in your food processor.  I do like doing it by hand sometimes because the texture has such a rustic feel to it.  The food processor, or course, is much faster.  No time to make pesto?  Use a store bought version and you'll still have a very tasty bread.  

When I first posted the recipe for Italian Easter Bread three years ago, I couldn't believe the response. Every year as Easter approaches, I still get many e-mails about this recipe, so I thought I would make it again in a little different way and this also gives me the chance to update the recipe a little.

This bread is a sweet, delicious bread and so kids love it.  When I've made it for my kids I've usually topped it with colored sprinkles and eggs dyed different colors.  This year, I made golden eggs and topped the breads with Swedish Pearl Sugar from Lars, which doesn't melt when you bake the bread and looks pretty. 

You're going to love this recipe.  This stuffed focaccia is so delicious and such a crowd pleaser. It begins with my old standby focaccia recipe, the one I've made for 15 years, from Carol Field.  I make this bread so much that I don't even need the recipe anymore.  I take the dough, divide it in half and put one piece in a spring form (cheesecake) pan. I make up a stuffing of turkey sausage and plenty of onions and fill the pan and then lay the rest of the dough on top. I make mine spicy with the addition of a habanero chili, but you can certainly leave that out. You can really stuff it with anything you like - swap out the meat for lots of vegetables, like roasted peppers or mushrooms, if you want a vegetarian version. 

This is what you want to make on a cold winter day and then enjoy the rest of the week.  This cinnamon bread recipe makes two loaves, so you can enjoy one now and freeze one for later.  The dough is a pleasure to work with and roll out.   The recipe calls for a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar on the inside, but you can add some nuts or raisins also, if you like.   Try a slice toasted, with lots of butter on top.  You could even make french toast with it.  Enjoy.

We sure bake a lot of bread in this house.  I used to make focaccia bread a couple of times a week, but lately this incredibly easy artisan bread has been on our dinner table most nights.  I wanted to get out of that rut and thought I'd make these easy herbed flatbreads for a change.  I hadn't made these in ages but they are easy and fun to make and can be also used as an appetizer.

This delicious bread is sort of a cross between a cracker and a bread.  It's a great excuse to break out your pasta rollers, if you have them.  The dough is divided into small pieces and passed through pasta rollers to make a nice flat bread.  If you don't have pasta rollers, just roll them out by hand but the pasta rollers make it so much easier and faster.  These little breads don't have to be a uniform size or shape - it's kind of rustic anyway if they are not.  

What if I told you that instead of buying bakery bread for four or five dollars a loaf, you could make delicious handmade bread whenever you wanted, at a fraction of the cost and it is so easy a kid could do it?  Well, read on because this method of making artisan bread at home will change your life.  

You can make incredible bread without having to do all the usual time consuming tasks of breadmaking :

• no need to make a new batch of dough every time you want bread
• no need to proof yeast
• no need to make starters or prefermented dough
• no kneading! 

It's World Nutella Day.  I'll bet some of you didn't even know that! It's a day created for Nutella lovers by Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso.  Bloggers from all around the world post recipes made with Nutella and Sara and Michelle will both have a roundup of all the recipes on February 8th.  if you head on over to World Nutella Day and click on "Nutella Recipes" you can see recipes from years past.

 

This bread is one of my favorite things to serve as an appetizer with some wine, cheese and olives.  It's a pull-apart bread that is scented with cinnamon and cardamom and is slightly sweet, made with a little milk and sugar. It's really delicious.  I got the recipe several years ago out of one of my favorite all time books, "Love by the Glass" by Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, the long time wine writers for the Wall Street Journal.  Their column, which ran for twelve years, was called "Tastings" and Brian and I religiously read it.  In addition to writing about wine, John and Dottie always snuck in little bits about their own life and children and if you were a long time reader, you got to feel like you knew them a little.  After I read their book, which is really a memoir of their life together, their love of wine and some favorite recipes, I really felt like I knew them.  I've read "Love by the Glass" three times over the last few years and it's more charming and funny every time I read it.  So we were stunned this past week when we read, at the bottom of their column, these words:

"This is our 579th—and last—"Tastings" column. The past 12 years—a full case!—have been a joy, not because of the wine but because we had an opportunity to meet so many of you, both in person and virtually. Thank you."

Huh?  We couldn't believe it.  No explanation, nothing.  I haven't been able to find any information on what happened or what they are going to do now.  Their Facebook page is just full of people expressing good wishes to them, but no word from them.  Hopefully, they will resurface on the web somewhere with their excellent writing.  Until then, I think I'll curl up with their book again and reread some of their fun stories.  This bread was their most requested recipe.

 

I love this cake because you can have it after dinner as a dessert or you can have it in the morning with coffee and it's great either way.  The traditional way to make this cake is very simple which is just mixing up the batter and pouring it into your pan.  But thanks to Andrew Carmellini of Locanda Verde in New York City, I use a different method.  He's a master at taking classic dishes and giving them a new twist and that is what he did with this cake.  In his terrific book, Urban Italian, he makes the usual batter but then he whips up a meringue and folds that into the batter. It makes for a wonderfully light cake.  He also adds lemon zest and juice to the cake, making it even more special.   He likes to slice this cake and makes an ice cream sandwich out of it, with chocolate ice cream!  Now there's an idea.  

 

I usually make this delicious cake/bread in a couple of 9x5 loaf pans.  It's a great breakfast/brunch bread. But I was supposed to bring dessert to an evening get together with some of my friends and I had some great blueberries from a local farm and way too many lemons in my fridge, so I immediately thought of this cake.  When you make it in the loaf pans, the slices are very pretty, really showing off the blueberries.  But I wanted to try something different, so I made it in my little individual bundt cakes pan.  They came out cute, but I think I still like it best just in the loaf pans.

There are many ways to make garlic bread and I certainly make it different ways.  But this way is by far my favorite.  In Italy, to celebrate the first olive oil of the season, they make this simple fettunta - or "greased slice".   It's simply grilled bread, rubbed with a garlic clove, drizzled with the best olive oil you have, and then sprinkled with coarse sea salt.  You won't believe how great it is.  There is a very unique taste you get if you use a raw garlic clove on a slice of fresh bread.  If you want, you can add a topping to make bruschetta, but this is my favorite way to make garlic bread to accompany dinner.  Many times I buy a whole grain or multi grain loaf to make this with and it's delicious.  As always, with simple recipes with few ingredients you need to use the best ingredients you can - a good, fruity extra virgin olive oil and some outstanding sea salt.*