Pretzel Bread and Pretzel Bread Grilled Cheese

Jo and I are splitting the blog today. 

I'm going to tell you how I made these delicious buns and bread and then Jo will take over and share how she made the ooey gooey grilled cheese. 

You will probably want to make sure you read through the entire post so you don't miss anything. Jo got this glazed over look in her eyes when I said I was going to make pretzel bread. 

"Oooooh pretzel grilled cheese would be amazing," she drooled. 

Things got pretty messy. 

Anyway...

Pretzel bread - it's an amazing, wonderful, crazy thing. 

You can make a giant loaf ......

Or you can make individual buns.....

Either way... angels will dance on your taste buds playing tiny little heavenly harps. 

And then... things get waaaaaaaaaay out of hand by adding 2 different kinds of cheeses and sooooo many caramelized onions. 

*Sigh*

It's really, really good. 

Pretzel Bread

(Slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour)

Ingredients

Dough

1 3/4 cup hot water

2 Tbsp butter, softened

1/2 tsp salt

4 - 5 cups flour

1/4 cup nonfat dry milk

2 tsp active dry yeast

Water Bath

8  cups water

1 Tbsp salt

1/4 cup baking soda

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Directions

Make dough - In a large bowl mix together all ingredients until soft dough forms. **Start with 4 cups of flour and add more as necessary to form a solid but soft dough.**

Place in a clean, lightly oiled bowl and let rise, covered, in a warm place for an hour. 

After an hour, punch down dough and either cut into 10 equal sized balls (for buns) or 2 large balls (for bread).  Cover with a tea towel and let rest 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, preheat oven to 400. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside. 

Prepare water bath - Bring water, salt, and baking soda to a boil in a large pot. 

Drop 5 buns at a time (or 1 loaf) into the boiling water. 

Let it boil 30 seconds then flip the buns (or bread) over and let boil another 30 seconds.

Use a slotted spoon to remove the dough and place on prepared cookie sheet. 

Using a serrated knife, cut an "X" into the top of each bun (or loaf). Sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt. 

Bake at 400 for about 20 - 25 minutes, until tops are golden brown. (The loaves will take longer - the bread will sound hollow when you tap on the bottom of it.)

Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.

These buns make delicious sandwich buns.

Okay, now I will let Jo take over and tell you all about her new favorite grilled cheese.

I know it's going to be difficult to not just gobble up that warm pretzel bread fresh out of the oven BUT, hear me out, you really do need to save a few slices to make this ridiculous sandwich. 

Just seeing these pictures has me drooling all over my keyboard again. 

This is one of the reasons I love Sue. 

She makes me tasty bread.

Pretzel Bread Grilled Cheese

Ingredients

2 tsp sesame oil

2 large onions, sliced 

8 slices of pretzel bread (recipe above)

8 tsps spicy mustard

4 slices of Swiss cheese

4 slices of Mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions

In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, cook and stir the sesame oil and the sliced onions until just starting to brown. Reduce heat to low and continue to cook and stir until the onions are browned and caramelized - about 10 - 15 minutes. 

While the onions are cooking, slice the pretzel bread into medium thickness slices.

Place a little mustard on each slice of bread. 

Then layer one slice with Swiss cheese and another with Mozzarella. 

Place a very generous amount of the caramelized onions onto one slice of the bread topped with cheese.

Top with the other slice of bread and cheese. Place sandwiches on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Lightly spread a tiny bit of butter on top of the bread. 

Turn oven to broil and place rack at the lowest rung of the oven. 

Place cookie sheet on lowest rack. 

Cook, on broil, until bread start to turn a light brown. (Keep an eye on it and don't be tempted to move the rack up - you want to give the cheese a chance to melt!)

When that side is browned, remove from oven and, using a flipper, carefully flip sandwich over. Brush the sides of bread  now facing up with a little bit of butter. 

Place back on bottom rack of oven. Continue to cook until that side is browned to your preferred level of doneness and cheese is gooey.

Cut in half and serve hot. (But be careful you don't burn yourself on that gooey cheese!)

Do you hear that?

That's the sound of all other grilled cheese sandwiches crying because they will never be as good as this one.

By the way, with the ingredients I've listed above I got 4 sandwiches.  

The combination of all that gooey cheese, caramelized onions, crunchy, salty, chewy pretzel bread and little bit of zip from the spicy mustard is absolutely ridiculous. 

Like....*boom*... brain-explosion-from-all-the-tastiness-ridiculous. 

Maaaaaaaaaaake these. 

Seriously. 

Be sure to visit Carole's Chatter for more foodie links! 

Pierogi Grilled Cheese

Apparently Sue and I missed National Grilled Cheese Day by a day. Who knew there was a National Grilled Cheese Day?

What food doesn't have its own day yet?

Is there a National Chocolate Cake Day? Because that is a day I do NOT want to miss celebrating.

Anyway... back to grilled cheese...

I was inspired to make this after seeing a pierogi inspired grilled cheese on BS' In The Kitchen. You should pop over and see their version - their photos look way more melty then mine do.

My first thought upon seeing this creation was - OMG that looks amazing!

Followed shortly thereafter with - OMG that has to be the most unhealthy thing in the history of ever!

Followed shortly thereafter with - *singing* I know what I am having for dinner tonight!

So...

yeah....

This isn't going to make any one's Top 10 list for healthy foods. In fact, I'm willing to wager a lot of money that it makes a lot of Top 10 lists for 'Food most likely to induce a heart attack".

That being said...

It's totally worth the risk!

If you need to do something to justify eating this then serve it with a green salad. I'm pretty sure the vegetables in the salad will cancel out the carbs and calories in the sandwich.

Pierogi Grilled Cheese

(Inspired by BS' In The Kitchen)

Ingredients

1 Tbsp butter, softened

1/2 clove garlic, minced

sprinkle garlic salt

1 soft bread bun, halved (I used Portuguese bread)

1/4 cup mashed potatoes, heated

1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp cheddar cheese, shredded & divided

1/4 of a small onion, diced

1 green onion, diced

1 slice bacon, diced

1 Tbsp sour cream

Directions

In a small dish, combine butter and garlic and garlic salt. Stir until well combined. Spread on both halves of bun.

In the same dish the butter was mixed in, mash together the potatoes and 1/4 cup of the cheese until cheese is melted. (If necessary you can microwave for a few seconds to assist melting.)

In a pan large enough to hold the sandwich, fry together the onion, green onion, and bacon until bacon is cooked.

On one half of the bun, spread the potato "pierogi" filling.

Top with the fried onion and bacon.

Top with remaining 2 Tbsp cheese.

Top with other half of bun.

Using pan that the onion was fried in, placed back over low heat, place sandwich in pan. Put a bit of weight on top of the sandwich to press it down - like another frying pan.

Cook over low heat until cheese starts to melt and bread is browned on the bottom. Then flip sandwich over and cook another few minutes to brown up the other half of the bun.

Remove from heat. Slice and serve with a little sour cream.

You can see my bread got a little over-browned. I had the heat too high, trying to rush it. If the heat is too high the bread will burn and your insides won't have a chance to get all hot and melty.

Don't rush it!!

This is like a giant crispy pierogi.

For realz.

Who wouldn't want a giant crispy pierogi?

Please don't answer that.

It was a rhetorical question. Clearly EVERYONE wants a giant crispy pierogi.

If there is, perchance, someone out there who doesn't want a giant pierogi...well...then...I feel really sad for them.

It must be terrible being crazy.

*cough* Sue *cough* 

Hop over to Ms. enPlace and Six Sister's Stuff and The Chicken Chick and Feeding Big and Chef In Training and Carole's Chatter for some great links!

Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped BBQ Burgers With Caramelized Onion Bacon Jam

 

 

I have a confession to make.

I've never cooked on a BBQ before.

Is that weird?

I feel like it is weird.

Maybe because I am in the kitchen baking or cooking nearly every single day I feel like it is something I should know how to do.

Well, tonight I solved that dilemma. I was trying to be patient and win a BBQ. Honestly - the last two years I have entered every contest I could find where a BBQ was involved as a prize. Of course, I never had any luck winning one. About 2 weeks ago I finally broke down and bought a BBQ at an end-of-the-season sale and tonight I finally broke it in. 

Can I just say I was pretty excited to use the BBQ. I had Sue and her hubby up for dinner so she was here in case I needed back up.

I actually did one of those little inner screams that leaks out as "eeeeeeeeeee" while doing a shake-your-booty happy dance.

Sue gave me a high five for how awesome my dance skills are. I'm pretty sure she was being sarcastic but I'm choosing to believe she was sincere.

I've got mad dance skillz.

Word.

 

 

Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped BBQ Burgers with

Caramelized Onion Bacon Jam

 

Ingredients

Caramelized Onion Bacon Jam

6 strips bacon, diced

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

 

Burgers

1 lb lean ground beef

1/2 cup onion, finely diced

1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

1 egg

salt & pepper

1 Tbsp prepared mustard

2 Tbsp BBQ sauce

 

4 slices cheese (I used Havarti)

8 slices bacon

 

Directions

In a medium fry pan, cook bacon until it is crispy. Remove from pan onto paper towel to drain excess grease. Reserve 2 Tbsp of the bacon grease but drain the rest.

Return the 2 Tbsp of bacon grease to your pan and place over medium-low heat. Place coarsely chopped onion in pan. Cook onions over medium-low heat until onions are reduced and brown, stirring every couple of minutes. You want to do this very slowly to caramelize them. This takes about 15 - 20 minutes. During the last 5 minutes, add the cooked bacon back into the onions and stir well. Remove from heat and serve warm. (You can also place this in the fridge and serve it chilled.) (See photo below for finished results)

 

 

To make burgers: Combine the 7 ingredients listed above for the burgers in a bowl. Mix with your hands until well combined. Make into 8 even sized patties. Cut out cheese from the cheese slices to fit inside the patty. (See below)

 

 

You can use a cookie cutter or glass to cut out cheese.

 

Place cheese on top of one patty and top with another. Seal well. (I used the ring from my English muffin set as a shaper so the patties would all be uniform. You can use a sealer ring from a canning jar for this purpose as well.)  You will end up with 4 burger patties in total.

When you are done forming the patties with the cheese inside you want to wrap them with 2 slices of bacon per patty.

 

 

Put your patties in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to chill before proceeding to the BBQ. Your patties can be made up several hours before hand and chilled until you are ready to cook them.

When you are ready to go, preheat your grill for about 5 - 6 minutes on high heat.

Place the patties on the grill and turn the heat down to low.

 

 

Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, until bacon is nicely browned on the bottom side. Flip burgers over and cook for another 10 minutes, until burgers are cooked through.

 

 

Make sure you have your condiments and toppings ready to go....

 

 

Do you know what the best thing about BBQing is?

The smell that fills the entire neighbourhood. I used to be so jealous when that smell came wafting through our window when the neighbours were BBQing.

I'm not going to lie...I felt pretty cool being the one responsible for creating it tonight.

Not to mention the burgers were craaaaaaazy delicious.

I think my first time with the BBQ went pretty well. I can't wait to try chicken next. I am working my way up to trying homemade pizza on the grill. I hear it is the best way to eat pizza.

Hmmm...pretty bold statement...we'll have to see if it is true!

 

Be sure to visit Ms. enPlace and Carol's Chatter for some great links!

My Turn (for us) also has some fun food and craft links!

Pumpkin Pie French Toast - Single Serving

 

Sometimes you just have to make a recipe to truly understand how tasty it is. This is one of those recipes. Sure, it still looks good and everything, but its appearance just does NOT do it justice.

Maybe it is because I am such a freak for French toast.

Maybe it is because I am a pumpkin addict.

Or, maybe it is because I love being able to put butter and syrup on things.

Whatever it is....this recipe is now my favorite. Well, until my next new favorite comes along.

Yeah, I'm fickle with my favorites...what can I say?

 

Pumpkin Pie French Toast - Single Serving

 

Ingredients

1 egg

1/4 cup milk (I use 1%)

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3 Tbsp canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

1 tsp brown sugar

2 slices whole wheat bread

butter & syrup

 

Directions

In a medium size bowl, whisk together egg, milk, pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin, and brown sugar until well mixed. Mixture will be quite thick.

 

 

Carefully dip bread, one slice at a time, into mixture - turning to coat. Let each slice soak for 1 - 2 minutes. Be very careful turning, as the bread absorbs the liquid it will start to fall apart if handled roughly.

 

 

In a pan large enought to hold the two slices of bread, heat over medium-low heat. Spray pan with cooking spray. Place bread in pan.

 

 

Cook, over medium-low heat until bottom side is a dark, golden brown. Using a spatula, carefully flip bread over. Continue cooking until both sides are dark, golden brown and outside of toast is a bit crisp.

Serve hot with butter and syrup.

A couple of things about this delectable little number -

I had a bit of the egg/pumpkin mixture left over after soaking the bread. I evenly poured it over the bread once it was in the pan. You don't have to do this but I recommend it. You want every lick of that pumpkin tastiness.

You want to cook this over a lower heat because it takes a while to cook through and get a bit crisp. If you use a high heat you will burn the outside and the inside will be squishy. You don't want that. It's yucky.

I used the nice, big, plump, Dempster's bread and for the entire recipe it is only 343 calories, 8.7 fat, 46.7 carbs, and 20 protein (without extra butter and syrup). Not too shabby for breakfast. Or dinner....I like breakfast for dinner....

 

 

Mine was starting to get a little dark because I decided to wash the dishes while it was cooking and left it a little long. Remembered it just in the nick of time.

So.

Unbelievably.

Tasty.

Like French toast but..NEW and IMPROVED French toast. Who new that was even possible?

 

Head over to Six Sister's Stuff for some great food & crafting links.

Don't forget Ms. enPlace for even more fantastic links!

And The Rustic Pig for even more!!!

THE BEST Tomato Soup and THE BEST Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that tomato soup and grilled cheese should be in the top 5 for best meals ever. I don’t know if they make number one spot (that’s got to be pierogies and Ukrainian sausage in my books) but they are pretty close.  There is something about eating the middle out of a gooey grilled cheese sandwich and then dunking the crusts in the tomato soup that just makes me feel good. (Life is about enjoying the small things.)

You can use regular store bought tomato soup and spice it up with some added onions and bacon but to truly experience THE BEST Tomato Soup and THE BEST Grilled Cheese Sandwiches you have to make the soup from scratch.
Sue discovered the best tomato soup recipe a few years ago via her mother-in-law. Now every year she and dad spend a day (or two) making several batches for the family.  It’s a little messy and time consuming but once you have tasted it you will never go back to store bought.
.

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Concentrated Tomato Soup

Ingredients

12.5 lbs tomatoes, skin removed (2.5 ice cream buckets full)

6 onions, quartered

1 bunch parsley (a good handful)

1 head celery (leaves and all), roughly chopped

2 bay leaves

8 whole cloves

Roux
¾ cup flour

½ cup sugar
½ tsp cayenne

¼ cup salt

½ lb butter (1 cup)

 .

 Directions

Boil first 6 ingredients for 2 hours. (Bring to a boil then simmer on low to medium) Strain by pressing mixture through a sieve.  Remember to strain over a large pot so you keep the liquid. That’s the good stuff. Place this mixture back in a large pot over medium heat. 

Prepare the roux - Sift flour, sugar, cayenne, and salt together, set aside. In a separate medium pot, melt butter over medium heat. When butter is melted, stir in dry ingredients. Add a ladle full of strained liquid to the roux and stir until smooth. Add another 4 – 5 ladles full of liquid and stir until blended. Pour this mixture back into the remaining strained tomato liquid in the larger pot.

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until thick and smooth.
Pour hot liquid into sterilized jars. Seal with canning lids.
Process jars in hot water bath for 20 minutes.

When preparing the finished, canned soup – add equal parts milk or water to the amount of soup you are using. IE: Dump the jar of soup in a pot, fill up the empty soup jar with milk and dump that into the pot!
2 jars of soup? 2 jars of milk.

As for the grilled cheese, you can’t just slap two pieces of bread together with a piece of cheese in the middle. No..no..no. That just doesn’t work. You have to follow this recipe and you will be in grilled cheese heaven. (Okay, you don’t HAVE to...but you should)
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THE BEST Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients

2 slices of bread

(We prefer whole grain for the texture it adds, but you can use your favorite)

2 slices of processed cheese (Or, as I like to call it, plastic cheese)

(You can use whichever cheese you like but plastic cheese adds the best gooeyness)

1 Tbsp of garlic butter (Recipe below)

3 slices of pre-cooked bacon

1 thin slice of onion

Directions

Spread garlic butter on both slices of bread - inside and out. Put 1 piece of plastic cheese on a slice of bread, layer - bacon, onion, second piece of cheese, and second slice of bread.
Cook using your favorite method - in a toaster oven, regular oven, or in a frying pan. Use low heat so the cheese will melt but you don't burn the bread!

Garlic Butter

Ingredients

 1 cup of room temp butter

2 – 3 cloves of garlic, minced

¼ tsp garlic salt

Optional: ½ Tbsp Oh! So Garlic (From Sunset Gourmet Foods)

.

Directions

Stir all together until smooth. Spread on things that need garlic. Enjoy.

Remember - eat the middle of the grilled cheese and save the crusts for dunking in the soup. 

Definitely the best way to eat THE BEST tomato soup and THE BEST grilled cheese.