Cheddar-chunk and chive sandwich loaf

At this point, I've thrown a lot of things into loaves of bread, but there's always more experimenting that can be done. Some new twist. A different combination of ingredients.

This time, my unusual ingredient is mayonnaise. It might sound odd, but it really isn't. Mayonnaise is mostly egg yolks and oil, and both are common ingredients in bread. And not only bread. I've used mayonnaise in cake recipes, as well. It adds moistness and a little bit of tanginess.

And it makes perfect sense in sandwich bread, since mayonnaise is such common ingredient in sandwich assembly.

When you're adding cheese to bread, you have two options. You can shred it so that it's well-distributed into the bread. Depending on the cheese, shredded cheese can almost disappear into the loaf.

Or, you can leave the cheese in larger pieces so it forms melted pockets in the loaf. This time around, I opted for larger pieces.

You can use either white or yellow cheddar for this recipe, but yellow cheddar will be more visible in the loaf.

Cheddar-Chunk and Chive Sandwich Loaf
This makes a great sandwich loaf, and it's nice all by itself. Or along with breakfast. If you toast it, be careful because the cheese will melt and make a mess of your toaster. On the other hand, of you toast it in a skillet, that cheese will get nice and brown and crisp.

1 cup water
2 1/4 teaspoons Red Star active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
3 cup (13 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup regular mayonnaise
4 ounces cheddar cheese, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 tablespoon dry chives

Combine the water, yeast, sugar, flour, salt, and mayonnaise in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix slowly until the ingredients are combined, then raise the speed to medium and continue kneading until the dough is elastic.

You can also knead by hand, if you like.

Add the cheese and chives and continue mixing until both are well-distributed throughout the dough. If the cheese seems to be breaking up as you mix, you can do this by hand.

Cover the bowl and set aside until the dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour, 15 minutes.

When the dough has risen, flour your work surface lightly and spray a 9x5 loaf pan with oil or baking spray.

Turn out the dough and form it into a log about 8 inches long. Try to keep most of the chunks of cheese from poking through the dough. Place the log, seam-side down, in the prepared loaf pan. Cover the loaf pan with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until the dough rises slightly about the rim of the pan, about 40 minutes.

While the dough is rising, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the plastic wrap and bake the loaf until it's nicely browned, about 40 minutes.

Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing.

This makes a great sandwich loaf, and it's nice all by itself. Or along with breakfast. If you toast it, be careful because the cheese will melt and make a mess of your toaster.

On the other hand, of you toast it in a skillet, that cheese will get nice and brown and crisp.

This post is sponsored by Red Star Yeast, which is pretty easy for me since it's the yeast I use pretty much all the time. And I'm totally serious about that. I buy it in 1- or 2-pound bags, because that's how much of it I use.

Not only do I love their yeast products, but they've got tons of useful information for consumers. Need an example? Here's a post about how to check to see if your yeast is still viable. And if you want to ogle pretty food photos, be sure to check out their Pinterest boards. LOTS of awesome stuff!

You can find Red Star Yeast on:
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Creamy Carolina Grits from Inside the Test Kitchen by Tyler Florence

Not that long ago, I cooked some recipes from Tyler Florence's  Real Kitchen, so I was pretty excited to get my paws on his new book, Inside the Test Kitchen.

This new book is more than a book of recipes. It's like a mad scientist wandered into the kitchen and whispered in a few ears.

There are plenty of normal recipes, but there are also some totally wacky ones, like making burger buns by putting the batter into a soda siphon and spraying it into round molds on a griddle.

I want to give that a try, for sure, but I decided to make a more normal recipe first. Because not everyone's got a soda siphon. I wanted to make something that anyone at all could make.

On the short list for immediate cooking were crackers with cheddar and black pepper because I love making crackers; risotto, because I'm a huge fan of rice no matter how it's made, caramelized brussels sprouts with pancetta because it sounded so danged good; and a pretty crazy recipe for cornbread.

But then I saw the recipe for Creamy Carolina Grits. I adore grits.

I made one ingredient change to the recipe - it called for fresh herbs, but I try not to buy fresh herbs in the winter unless I know that I'm absolutely going to use them. Buying one of those little packages, particularly when I need just a little bit, irks me.

But that's fine. I have huge supply of dried herbs and I know how to use them. Ha!

And ... because there are only two of us, and one of us isn't the biggest fan of grits or polenta. I cut the recipe in half. I mean, I could eat this stuff until I burst, but I figured it made more sense to be just a little conservative.

The original amounts are listed below, though.

One thing I really liked about the book itself was the binding. I know that sounds a little weird, but while the book doesn't lie completely flat, it does stay open and mostly flat. Good enough to put it on the counter and cook from without pages flopping around

It's also got an elastic band that can be used as a bookmark, to keep the book closed if you're carrying it around, and to keep it on the right page when it's open.

These grits were super-creamy and rich (no doubt because of the heavy cream) and quite flavorful from the herbs and garlic. They're also not quite as yellow as typical grits made from yellow corn, again because of the addition of that cream.

I'd say that these are special occasion grits, and definitely for dinner instead of breakfast because of the herbs and garlic. Well, I guess if you like garlic for breakfast, go ahead. For me, it's more of a dinner thing.

Creamy Carolina Grits
Adapted from Inside the Test Kitchen by Tyler Florence

2 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 1/2 cups whole milk
2 garlic cloves, smashed
4 fresh thyme springs (I used 1 teaspoon dry)
4 fresh bay leaves (I used dry leaves)
1 cup yellow cornmeal or polenta (I used polenta)
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Put the cream, milk, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves in a heavy bottomed saucepan and heat on medium-low heat until it simmers. Cook for 10 minutes, then remove the herbs and garlic. Since I had used dry herbs, the easiest thing to do was strain it through a fine strainer, then return it to the pan. A few tiny thyme leaves made it through the strainer, but that was okay.

Crank the heat to medium and wait until it comes to a boil, then sprinkle the cornmeal in while whisking to keep the cornmeal from clumping. Once the grits have been added, keep stirring with the whisk or some other implement, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to make sure the cornmeal starch doesn't stick and burn. Since I used a pan with a nonstick interior, there wasn't really a lot of sticking.

Continue cooking until the grits are smooth, but they still have some texture. The longer you cook, the smoother they'll get, but they'll also get thicker, so if they get too thick, add more milk or some water to thin them out.

Because I live at high altitude and it's ridiculously dry now that the heat is on in the house, liquid evaporates very quickly. I ended up adding a full cup of water to these grits before they were done cooking.

Needless to say, that's going to vary a lot, so just go by what you see and remember that when they cool, they'll be thicker. So when they're bubbling hot on the stove, that's thinner than they'll be on the plate.

When they're done to your liking, add the butter and parmesan, then taste and add salt and pepper to taste. You can add a little of the salt sooner, but since the cheese is a little salty, use a light hand and adjust at the end.

Serve hot.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Mushoom Toasts (with red wine!)

Mushrooms and wine are a natural pair, so when Holland House sent me some of their cooking wines in order to do a couple of sponsored posts, I knew mushrooms would have to be involved.

This simple mushroom dish works well as a topping toasted bread with melted cheese, but it would also be great on top of a steak or burger, mixed with pasta, or served on top of some polenta. Or, if you're me, just pile them on my plate and eat them like a vegetable side dish.

This uses the red cooking wine from Holland House. If you're curious why cooking wine can be sold at a grocery store that can't sell liquor - and why it can be sold to minors - it's because the wine has enough salt added so that you wouldn't want to drink it. On the other hand, that level of salt it just fine when you're using the wine for cooking.

I like to think these tarts are both rustic and elegant. Maybe we need a new word - rustigant? Maybe the difference is the way you cut the bread, but in the end it's all about the taste. And these taste pretty darned good.

These would be a great appetizer for the holidays, whether it's a comfy-cozy casual family affair, or something a little more upscale. If you like, you can make the mushrooms ahead of time and reheat them on the bread while you're melting the cheese.

Mushroom Toasts

For the mushrooms:
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, diced
1 pound sliced mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon dry thyme
General grinds black pepper
1/2 cup Holland House red cooking wine

For serving:
Sliced toasted bread, rounds of French bread, or flatbreads
Cheese, as needed

To cook the mushrooms:
Melt the butter in a saute pan and add the onions. Cook, stirring for a minute or two until the onions start looking looking translucent, then add the mushrooms, pepper, thyme and wine.

Cook, stirring often, until all of the liquid is gone. You'll hear the sound of the cooking change from a simmering sound to a frying sound.

Cook for just a little longer, until some of the mushrooms get a little bit of browning. At this point, you don't want to stir often - you need to let the vegetables sit in one place long enough to brown a bit before stirring.

To make the toasts:
Choose a cheese that melts well - I chose a white colby cheese - and use as much as you like. I suggest a light touch, since the mushrooms are the star of the dish.

Top the breads with grated cheese and cook under a broiler just long enough to melt the cheese. Cut the bread into serving-sized pieces, then top each piece with some of the mushroom onion mixture. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Thank you to Holland House who supplied product for my use and compensation for recipe creation. All words and ideas in this post are mine.

Want to get friendlier with Holland House? Look for them on Facebook.