Sourdough Pizza Crust

Sourdough pizza crust, uncooked

My friends, this recipe has been months in the making. It’s been tested, revised, re-tested, and overhauled from scratch by yours truly. Because, let’s face it, pizza is a serious matter. Soon after I began to bake my own bread I started experimenting with pizza crust. I found a delicious and simple recipe for a thick crust using commerical yeast. I can appreciate a nice thick, bready pizza crust. But a true pizza master knows how to make pizza dough both thick and thin. I had a difficult time mastering the thin crust pizza dough.

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Molasses Oatmeal Bread

Sliced loaf of molasses oatmeal bread

Sometimes good breads come in small packages. This bread was not a high-riser, but it certainly packed a lot of flavor! I may have used pans that were too large for the amount of dough. But looks aren’t everything, and I’ll eat a good slice of bread no matter what shape or size it comes in.

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Maple Sweetened Corn Muffins

Maple Sweetened Corn Muffins

After all of the baking I did last week for the bake sale, I was ready to make some quick and easy muffins! I was all out of fresh fruit (oh, the horror!), and when I opened the cupboard it was the cornmeal that spoke to me. It was begging to be made into rich, buttery corn muffins with just the right amount of crumble.

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Vegan Raspberry Applesauce Muffins

Vegan Raspberry Applesauce Muffins

I’m learning to bake vegan. I really enjoy eating vegan goodies, so naturally the next step is to learn to make them myself. I baked a vegan cake last year (before I started blogging), and it was amazing! This time, I tried my hand at vegan muffins.

I don’t drink cow’s milk, but I do use buttermilk when it’s called for in a recipe. It helps keep muffins tender and lends a somewhat tangy flavor as well. So when I discovered that I could make vegan buttermilk with soy milk and a little apple cider vinegar, I decided to bake some muffins!

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Roasted Garlic Sourdough Bread

Roasted Garlic Sourdough Bread

I am so thrilled with this bread! You see, sourdough starter and I have had an on again-off again relationship for almost two years now. I cultivated a starter from scratch. It was bubbly and it smelled nice and sour. I used it to make pancakes and cake, with wonderful results.

But something always went wrong when I tried to make bread. I didn’t want to give up on my starter so I tried again and again. Nothing worked…until now. I started a brand new starter from scratch last week, and just look at this bread! I suspect that my old starter may have been the source of my troubles.

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Start Your Starter!

Sourdough Starter

When I learned that bread could be baked without commercial yeast, I had to give it a try. I love finding new ways to become self-sufficient, and making bread with a wild yeast culture definitely appealed to me. Plus, it sounded like a fun science experiment with the added result of delicious homemade bread.

To bake with wild yeast, the first step is to create a starter. This starter serves as a master culture of the organisms necessary to leaven a loaf of bread. A portion of the starter is used each time you bake, and the rest of the starter is refreshed for next time.

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Blueberry Strawberry Quick Bread

I miss fresh berries during the winter. Luckily, I found some strawberries in my freezer. My first instinct was to make strawberry muffins, but I decided to try a quick bread instead. Of course, I didn’t have enough strawberries, so I added some frozen blueberries as well.

This bread is quick and easy. It doesn’t get much simpler than this. Two mixing bowls, one loaf pan, and into the oven it goes. An hour later, you’ve got a healthy snack!

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Beer Cheese Bread


I am continually amazed by how many variations and adaptations of bread exist. You can add pretty much anything to bread and it will taste amazing. Pick your favorite fruit, vegetable, or beverage. I guarantee there’s a bread recipe out there for it.

Everything tastes better with cheese, and bread is no exception. Cheddar combines with chives and beer to create a wonderfully flavorful bread. The chives add a subtle onion flavor, and the beer complements the cheese.

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Banana Oatmeal Spice Muffins

Banana oatmeal muffins are my go to muffin.  I always have the ingredients on hand and it’s so easy to whip up a batch.  My basic recipe is very forgiving.  I can change it up in any number of ways and the muffins still come out delicious.

This time I’ve made them healthier and added a bit of spice.  Now I don’t feel so guilty when I reach for one to help me get through those last two hours of the workday!

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Cranberry Applesauce Muffins

Cranberry Applesauce Muffins

We finally put up our Christmas lights, 6 days before Christmas!  We went out to the street after dark to check them out, and realized that everyone else on our block had lights up.  It sure is colorful out there!

With all that Christmas spirit outside, it’s time to break out the cranberries.  Christmas snuck up on me this year.  I didn’t even notice the fresh cranberries at Trader Joe’s until yesterday.

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