Time magically flies by, and I try so hard to plan accordingly, but no matter what i just can't eke on top of it. I'm really trying to invest in this "cooking" dinner theory. I've always done a lot of baking and not so much on the cooking. It always happened that by the time I was finally done cooking the food, I had been snacking on everything else that I was no longer hungry. IT ENDS NOW. I even just bought a new pasta cookbook to keep me motivated. Plus, eating leftovers is the best thing ever. Because you have yummy homemade food AND you just have to reheat it!
And there are those nights like tonight, where I planned on being home around 8 and then next thing I know it's 10 o'clock at night. . . This leads to the second reason leftovers are great because then it's late and you're starving, so you just reach into the fridge and have that food that was for emergency eating only. When you're on the go, emergency food is quite possibly the most important thing. Oh, but this only applies to those of us who are not rolling in the "dough" per-say.
So, let's see. . .this past weekend I made a Chai Spiced Bread. i found the recipe online and then tweaked it to my own liking. :)
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 by 5 loaf pan. I would consider dusting it with flour as well.
Bread:
3/4 C sugar
1/2 C butter at room temp
1/2 C prepared chai tea ( I used Celestial India Spice, I'm not fancy)
1/3 C milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Glaze:
1 C confectioner's Sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3-5 tsp milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
The last 5 ingredients for the bread I didn't even measure. I just eyed it, honestly. Plus the recipe called for cardamom, but I didn't have any and had to improvise. I would even add 1 TBSP of creme fraiche to make it softer. I'm thinking this weekend I shall experiment with that and some brown sugar as well and let you know.
Right, off track...
Using a stand mixer beat sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. On low speed, beat in tea, milk, the vanilla extract, and the eggs until the ingredients are just well combined (it looks gross and curdly). Stir in the bread ingredients, and then pour into pan. Bake 40-60 minutes. It really does depend on your oven. but I would do a check around 40/45 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes then loosen the loaf on the sides and let it cool on a wire rack completely.
For the glaze, I did the 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, but then I just made up the rest. I do that a lot. the original glaze recipe just called for cinnamon, which you can totally do, but I didn't want the cinnamon flavor to be overwhelming, so I threw in a bunch of stuff, and it was delicious. And don't put the glaze on until the bread is totally cool!
I made this bread again and this time I did 1/2 C white sugar and 1/4 C brown sugar. Also, I added 1 tablespoon of creme fraiche. Absolutely delicious and even better than the first. :P
