mmmmm Fondue!

So for the Oscars Jaxcie decided to host a fun and glamourous Fondue and Syrah tasting evening. The wines are another blog, but the cheese and chocolate was awesome! Everyone was assigned to bring things to dip and of course for me that meant BAKE! 

Two loafs of homemade bread for the cheese course.

These were okay. They were dry and a little... I donno.. gritty? They were weird and I don't recommend them, at all. But I said I would post successes and failures... so here ya go! 

Egg Bread

4 3/4 to 5 1/4 cup AP flour

1 package active dry yeast

1 1/3 cups milk

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

In a large mixing bowl stir together 2 cups of the flour and the yeast; set aside. 
In a medium saucepan heat and stir water, sugar, margarine, and salt just until warm (120 to 130 degrees) and margarine almost melts. Add water mixture to dry mixture along with the eggs. 
Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Okay so here i must interject that I used my stand mixer and maybe beat the crap out of my dough... maybe this lead to the gritty or mealy texture... I donno. 
Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.
Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Or maybe its that I am still wokring out my kneading vs. wedging issues.
Shape the dough into a ball.
Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of the dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 1 hour). Also would like to say this took forever and a day! not just 1 hour... so maybe my yeast is dead or something...
Punch dough down; turn dough on to a lightly floured surface and divide dough in half.
Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
Lightly grease baking sheet. S
hape each portion of dough into a loaf by patting and shaping with floured hands. 
Cover and let rise n a warm place until nearly doubled in size. (About 30 minutes). 
For the sesame seed loaf, I just beat an egg, brushed over loaf and sprinkled with the untoasted seeds.
Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when you tap the top. (Don't burn yourself).
Remove bread from sheet and cool on wire racks. 

It was weird... I don't know what happened. It was pretty... but not so tasty. Good thing it was chopped up and dipped in such yummy cheesey goodness! (Jaxcie, we may need to share that recipe on here too... its not baking, but it is relevant.)

And a Pound Cake for the chocolate course!

I have never made pound cake before.. this was my very first one and with the awesome assistance of Mr. Alton Brown, it was fantastic!!! This one I recommend completely and totally! TRY IT! Uber-easy and just as tasty! If you have never baked from an Alton recipe, he has this thing about measuring ingredients by weight, to be extra precise... I am not that anal... that may have something to do with my consistency issues with my cookies, but oh well! This is why I am no longer trying to sell them! Anyways, I will include his weights and my measures.


Pound Cake
8 oz. butter - 1 stick cubed and softened
8 oz. cake flour - 2 cups
8 oz sugar - 1 1/4 cup
4 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup whole buttermilk, room temperature

Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 375 degrees F.

Coat a  loaf pan with butter and dust with flour.

Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and cream for 6 minutes on medium speed, using the paddle attachment. Stop once to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. With the mixer running at lowest speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. Again stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla and salt and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds.

With the mixer on the lowest speed add the flour in 3 installments, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour, making sure each portion is fully incorporated before adding the next. After the final addition, beat the batter for 30 seconds on medium speed until almost smooth.

Scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40 minutes. The crust will be golden brown and spring back when pressed, but the crack around the center will appear moist. I like this visual explanation of how to tell when it is done rather than the time allotment, very nice for those of us with unreliable ovens. 

Remove the cake from the oven to a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool on the rack. Store the cake on the rack covered with a tea towel for up to 3 days. 

So moist and yummy it won't dry out... if it lasts that long. Don't put it in an airtight container or plastic wrap etc. it will get gummy and funky. 

Make it! It's easy and super good! 

The spread! yuuummmmmmmm

Now that I think about I also brought Jaxciedoodles along that night for dipping in the liquid chocolate goodness... but I will save those for a later post because the dipping lead to inspiration for a kind of homemade milano cookie that I sent off to NY as a baby welcoming gift. I will post those later! Promise!