Chicken breasts are super popular, but my favorite cut is chicken thighs. They’re so flavorful, tender, and moist and are less expensive than chicken breasts. That’s why I was so excited when I found this recipe for Crispy Hawaiian Garlic Chicken. It uses my favorite cut of chicken, has tons of garlic, and it’s topped with slices of jalapeno pepper for a touch of heat. I can’t say I’ve ever had authentic Hawaiian food, so I’m also excited about that. You can always tempt me with new food!
Crispy Hawaiian Garlic Chicken made with a soy garlic sauce and fried jalapeño rings. This is a spicy version of your favorite island takeout!
Recipe Author: Sabrina Snyder at Dinner then Dessert Get the recipe
The Ingredients
As usual, rooted through my pantry and refrigerator before heading to the grocery store and found several ingredients. I had flour, ground ginger, sugar, cornstarch, salt, and pepper. I also had tamari (I use it in place of soy sauce) and vegetable oil, but not enough for this recipe.
My shopping trip went smoothly, and I found everything I needed at my usual grocery store. The chicken was the only sort of miss, but I was able to fix it in no time.
This recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken thighs which are usually easy to find. I grabbed a pack of 4 and didn’t read the label only to discover they were skinless but bone-in. Strange, but removing the bones was easy enough with a sharp boning knife.
Boneless skinless chicken thighs, cornstarch, ground ginger, sugar, jalapeno pepper, garlic, salt, black pepper, soy sauce, vegetable oil, and flour
The Process
Making my Crispy Hawaiian Garlic Chicken went pretty smoothly. I started by adding vegetable oil and a thermometer to a saucepan and heating it on the stove. I use an electric stove and I started on 5 out of 10 and had to move it up to 8.
As I was cooking I noticed the temperature fluctuated. I’m guessing that’s a stove thing and that a deep fryer would not have that problem. I don’t deep fry very often, so it’s not something I have. But everything worked out in the end despite the temperature fluctuation.
I also put on a pot of water for rice at the same time. It’s not listed as an ingredient, but the recipe’s photo shows the chicken served with it. I used jasmine rice, and I’m sure basmati or long-grain white rice would also work.
Prepping the chicken, breading, and jalapeno pepper
Deboning and chopping the chicken thighs and mixing up the ingredients for the breading was next. I dredged the chicken a few pieces at a time and shook off the excess.
The oil was still heating so I prepped the sauce ingredients and jalapeno pepper while I waited. I managed to get the sauce boiling before the oil had fully heated. Once it boiled, all I had to do was turn off the heat and let it sit on the stove to thicken until I needed it.
Now it was time to fry the chicken. Tip: The recipe doesn’t say how long to fry it, so I waited until it was golden brown—about 5 minutes per batch. I let each batch drain on paper towels and finished up by deep frying the jalapeno slices for 30 seconds.
Fried chicken chunks draining on paper towels
Finishing up was just a matter of tossing the chicken in the sauce. I simply added it to the pan I made the sauce in and mixed until the chicken was coated. A shallow but wide pasta bowl was perfect to serve my Crispy Hawaiian Garlic Chicken. It had plenty of room for the chicken and rice.
Timing
This recipe lists 15 minutes to prep, 25 minutes to cook, and 40 minutes total, and I came within 1 minute of that time:
19 minutes to prep:
12 minutes to prep
7 additional minutes waiting for the oil to reach 350℉
I found the cutest tricolor pasta on my last trip to HomeGoods, and I’ve been looking for the perfect recipe to use it with for a while. Well, I’ve finally found it with this Classic Pasta Salad! It’s chock full of many flavorful ingredients, but the part I liked the most was the homemade vinaigrette dressing. Many of the pasta salad recipes I looked at called for bottled Italian dressing. Now, that’s great for convenience, don’t get me wrong, but I really wanted something totally from scratch. So let’s find out if this recipe is worthy of that tricolor pasta!
Classic pasta salad is made with a tri-color rotini, filled with vegetables and cheeses, and coated in a homemade vinaigrette. The perfect recipe to feed a crowd!
Recipe Author: Heather at The Toasty Kitchen Get the recipe
The Ingredients
Obviously, pasta is the main ingredient here, and the recipe actually calls for tricolor rotini. I get it—rotini has all those nooks and crannies to really hold sauce and dressing, making it popular for pasta salad. My HomeGoods tricolor pasta find had several additional shapes with plenty of those dressing-holding nooks and crannies. I had to do some research to try to figure out the names, and I hope these are correct:
Creste de Gallo (literally “comb of the rooster”, ridged macaroni with a wavy spine)
Cuoricini (heart-shaped pasta)
Grape clusters (a specialty shape)
Girelle (smooth conical/corkscrew twists)
Penne Regate (thin tubular pasta with ridges)
Radiatori (literally translates to “radiators” 😳)
Rotini (a.k.a. fusilli, twists)
Ruote (a ridged tubular flower/wagon wheel shape)
Sendani Rigati (ridged tubes)
Tricolor pasta, red onion, green bell pepper, black olives, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, sliced pepperoni, olive oil, red wine vinegar, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, grape tomatoes, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes
I had several other ingredients in my pantry in addition to the pasta. Olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic powder, Italian seasoning blend, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. I even found a can of black olives (the type isn’t listed in the recipe but is in the blog post). I had to slice them for this salad, but it was easy to do and surprisingly quick.
That left me to shop for the produce, meat, and cheeses. I found them all at my regular grocery store, but most of the packages left me with extras. I was worried I would end up wasting them, but I managed to use them up in a puttanesca a few days later.
Lastly, you might have noticed a wedge of parmesan in the photo of the ingredients. I decided to grate it myself for some reason. I’m sure grated parmesan from the dairy case would have been fine. I just had to be extra.
The Process
First off, I need to mention this recipe makes 24 servings. That’s great for a crowd but too much for the 2 of us. I halved it and we made it into a few meals since it was hearty enough for light dinners by itself. My kitchen scale made weighing out the ingredients much easier than I thought it would be.
My Classic Pasta Salad kicked off with boiling some water for the pasta. I used a 4.5-quart saucepan to make sure it was large enough for the pasta. Once I weighed out 12 ounces of pasta (the package was 17.6 ounces) I began prepping the vegetables.
Chopped and sliced vegetables
I had the veggies done by the time the water was ready (about 10 minutes), so I salted it, added the pasta, and made sure to stir periodically while I finished up the other prep work. The package I bought didn’t have detailed instructions with a cooking time (so weird!) so I took a guess and boiled it for 9 minutes.
I wasn’t quite finished with prepping the cheeses and pepperoni by the time the pasta was done. Prepping the cheese wasn’t bad, but separating all the pepperoni took forever! Tip: It’s not listed in the recipes, but the photos show the pepperoni is halved.
Sliced pepperoni and prepped cheeses
When I drained the pasta I noticed a lot of breakage and realized it was on the verge of overcooking. So instead of simply leaving the pasta in the colander to cool per the recipe, I ran it under cold water to stop the cooking process. It ended up being a good thing since the pasta was fine and this method cut off a lot of prep time.
Once the pasta was saved I finished up the prep work and made the salad dressing. Assembling this recipe was just a matter of adding all the ingredients to a large bowl and mixing them together. The only “problem” I had was the pepperoni clumping together. It was cut very thinly, and I think that caused it. No amount of picking it apart really fixed the problem, so I recommend thicker slices like what you find on most pizzas.
I let my finished Classic Pasta Salad sit for an hour to meld the flavors, then we dug in. And good news—hubby said the clumped pepperoni was his favorite part!
Timing
This recipe lists 25 minutes to prep plus 1 hour of resting time, for a total of 1 hour and 25 minutes. My time was 1 hour and 33 minutes, and I think picking apart the thinly sliced pepperoni was what caused the slowdown.
Chicken? Red wine? Fresh basil and wild mushrooms? Yeah, I couldn’t pass up trying this Chicken Pinot Noir with Wild Mushrooms and Fresh Basil recipe. I know it’s intended to be a late summer meal and summer is just beginning, but I couldn’t wait. This roast chicken breast dinner sounds like a hearty and slightly indulgent kind of meal that I suddenly need to try. Let’s find out if it’s as delish as it sounds!
Chicken Pinot Noir with Wild Mushrooms and Fresh Basil is a dish with a European flair! A rich, yet light wine sauce with earthy wild mushrooms is perfect for transitioning from summer to fall!
Recipe Author: Carol at From a Chef’s Kitchen Get the recipe
The Ingredients
I had a few things that I needed for this recipe—basics like dried herbs, salt, pepper, olive oil, and flour. That left a good-sized shopping list, but I found it all at my regular grocery store.
The only bone-in skin-on chicken breasts were packaged 4 to a container. Since my refrigerator is half dead, I gave the extra 2 to my in-laws.
And I found 2 4-ounce packages of wild mushrooms. They were pricey at $3.99 each but worth it since they had all the mushrooms suggested in the recipe. They were a mix of shiitake, oyster, and cremini and were pre-sliced to boot. All I had to do was give them a quick rinse and pat them dry.
I decided to prep everything before I began cooking, and it made things so easy. I did a little chopping and had everything measured out in 10 minutes. Not bad. I also preheated the oven so it was ready to go when the chicken and sauce were prepped.
Browning the Chicken & Making the Sauce
I cooked up my Chicken Pinot Noir in a 5.5-quart cast iron Dutch oven. It’s enameled, so it was safe to make tomato sauce in it. Tip: Tomatoes are too acidic for non-enameled cast iron and will eat away the seasoning.
I let the Dutch oven and oil preheat for a few minutes at the end of my prep work, so it was ready to brown the chicken. The large size fit both breasts at the same time, and I let them brown for 5 minutes per side. A long pair of tongs allowed me to add, flip, and remove them without getting spattered with hot oil.
Browned bone-in skin-on chicken breasts
The sauce was the next thing to make, and the instructions made it a breeze. I added the ingredients as instructed, and they cooked up nicely. The sauce was ready before I knew it, so I added the chicken to the pot and let it roast in the oven for the next hour.
Finishing Up
The last steps were brown the mushrooms, thicken the sauce, and add the basil. I browned the mushrooms in a large saute pan for a few minutes before the chicken finished roasting. They took 7 minutes including time to preheat the pan and were ready when the chicken came out of the oven. I set them aside while I added the thickener.
A mixture of flour and butter was used to thicken the sauce (it was already thickening, and this step made it silky). It’s not in the instructions, but I melted the butter for a few seconds in the microwave. The melted butter and flour mixed up to a smooth paste and mixed into the sauce easily.
Finally, I added the browned mushrooms and chopped basil to the pan and gave it a stir. I intended to adjust the seasonings, but a quick sample of the sauce and I realized it didn’t need any more salt or pepper. My Chicken Pinot Noir with Wild Mushrooms and Fresh Basil was ready to serve up!
Browned wild mushrooms in a non-stick saute pan
Timing
This recipe lists 20 minutes of prep time, 1 hour and 15 minutes to cook, and a total time of 1 hour and 35 minutes. Here’s how my time broke down:
I don’t usually associate the words “healthy” and “muffins”, but I thought this recipe for Healthy Raspberry Muffins sounded good. Tasty and healthy are never a bad combo, right? The Vegan Roasted Aubergine and Chickpea Curry I just made was both tasty and healthy, so I guess it put me into that mindset. Plus I love raspberries, and I’m almost always in the mood for dessert. Okay, not almost—more like always. So let’s find out if this muffin recipe is a keeper!
These one bowl healthy raspberry muffins are hearty and packed with juicy raspberries. A perfect breakfast or snack for kids and adults, they’re made with tangy yogurt and heart-healthy olive oil, and are refined sugar-free.
A pre-shopping check revealed that I had a few ingredients for these muffins: salt, vanilla extract, rolled oats, baking soda, baking powder, maple syrup, all-purpose flour, and olive oil (not extra virgin—just plain olive oil).
That left a few perishable items to buy, but since my refrigerator is all but dead, I had to get those the day I planned to make my Healthy Raspberry Muffins. The bottom half of my side-by-side’s freezer seems to be refrigerating okay, but I’m not taking the chance. It’s okay to chill canned seltzer, but I’m not trusting it with meat or dairy.
Once I photographed all the ingredients it was time to bake. But that was really the easiest part of this whole post. Muffins are like that, and I need an easy recipe right now.
Like every other muffin recipe I have tried, this one started off with preheating the oven and greasing the muffin tin. I used some canned canola oil I found in my pantry.
The next step was mixing up the wet ingredients. I bought 2 single-serving containers of plain Greek yogurt and used nearly all of them for 3/4 cup. The thick yogurt meant I had to break out my balloon whisk to get a smooth texture when I mixed everything together. Plain yogurt probably would have mixed up more easily.
Mixing the wet ingredients
Next up was adding in the dry ingredients and mixing until just combined. I am always nervous about this part because overmixing is easy to do. But I was careful and mixed only until I didn’t see any more clumps of flour, being careful to scrape the bottom of the bowl.
The last step before pouring the batter into the muffin tin is folding in the raspberries. I used frozen, but they had pretty much thawed by the time I got to this point.
There were also a lot of tiny broken bits of raspberries in the bag. I was worried I wouldn’t get nice chunks of berries in the muffins, but I still did though the bits did turn the batter a little pink.
Mixing in the dry ingredients
Lastly, I divided the batter between the 12 spaces in my muffin tin and popped it into the preheated oven for 20 minutes. They didn’t pass the toothpick test, so I had to add another 5 minutes.
I let the muffins cool for about 15 minutes before removing them from the pan. Most slid right out, but a few needed a little help. Sliding a butter knife around the edges did the trick, and all the muffins came out whole.
Timing
This recipe lists 5 minutes to prep and 20 minutes to cook for a total of 25 minutes. Here’s how my time was spent:
10 minutes to prep
25 minutes to cook
35 minutes total
My prep work wasn’t quite as quick as the time listed, but it felt quick to me. The recipe doesn’t include cooling time, so I didn’t list it above. I let my muffins cool for 15 minutes, and including that would bring the total time to 50 minutes.
I had a craving for eggplant recently. I know, weird craving, but I’m that kind of girl 🤪 My only problem was deciding what eggplant recipe to make. My list of eggplant recipes has a lot of good ones both on and off my blog, so I had a big selection. But then I found this Vegan Roasted Aubergine and Chickpea Curry, and I knew I had to add it to the blog. I love aubergine (a.k.a. eggplant), chickpeas, and curry. How could I pass up this recipe? Obviously, I couldn’t so let’s give it a try!
Make this delicious vegan curry with roasted aubergine and chickpeas. Serve as a main alongside rice and poppadoms or as a side with a dhal. Topped with fresh coriander and a drizzle of vegan cream.
I wasn’t surprised to find this Vegan Roasted Aubergine and Chickpea Curry had a long-ish list of ingredients. It’s usually all the spices that make it seem long, but they’re really easy to prep so I wasn’t worried. My pre-grocery shopping check found all but 1 of the dried spices in my pantry plus the brown sugar.
That left a decent-sized shopping list, but most of the ingredients were easy to find at my usual grocery store. I found all the fresh produce locally and even found the vegan cream. They had a 1-pint container of Country Crock plant-based heavy whipping cream for about $5.
And while I searched for the smallest eggplant I could find, I bought 2 without weighing them. I did pop them onto my kitchen scale right before I began cooking and found they were 500 grams each. I had to use both even though it was double what the recipe calls for because my refrigerator has died for the 3rd time in about a month. The new one won’t be here for a couple of weeks, so I’m struggling with a freezer that barely cools to refrigerator temperatures. Ugh!
Aubergines (eggplant), red onions, garlic, ginger, red chili pepper, dried curry leaves, vegetable oil, fresh coriander (cilantro), cumin seeds, brown sugar, garam masala, turmeric, ground cumin, vegan cream, curry powder, diced tomatoes, and chickpeas
The only item I couldn’t find was the dried curry leaves. Amazon came to my rescue again. They had a good-sized bag of dried whole curry leaves for about $7, and it was here 2 days later.
A quick read-through of the recipe said I also needed cooking oil, so I used vegetable oil I had on hand. The photo shows the curry served over rice. I usually have basmati rice, but I was out. I used regular long-grain rice instead.
The Process
While this Vegan Roasted Aubergine and Chickpea Curry recipe wasn’t difficult to make, it was a little challenging. That was because I didn’t notice something very important when I initially read through the recipe. The important thing I missed was the ingredients list doesn’t note how the produce is prepped.
Prepping the Eggplant
I didn’t have any trouble with prepping the eggplant and getting it onto the oven to roast. Peeling wasn’t mentioned so I skipped it. I did cut it into 1-inch cubes, though, since I was using twice the amount called for. They all fit onto the sheet pan, but they still seemed a little big so I would go smaller next time.
By the way, I used my largest mixing bowl to toss them in vegetable oil, salt, and pepper. I find trying to toss things on a sheet pan to be messy and ineffective. A large mixing bowl lets me really get things mixed thoroughly.
Chopping the aubergines (eggplant) into cubes
The Rest of the Prep Work
Once the eggplant was roasting I finished the prep work. That included cooking a pot of rice to serve with the curry. The rice only took a few moments to get started, but the rest of the ingredients weren’t as quick.
Most recipes note how to prepare each item in the list of ingredients, but this recipe mostly did that in the instructions. I found I had to read through the instructions repeatedly so I could figure out how to handle each item. It slowed me down, and I got a little frustrated.
Seeded and chopped red chili pepper
I wasn’t quite sure how to handle the garlic and ginger. Both said “crushed”, and my mind immediately thought to mince them. My garlic press was perfect for the garlic (obvi) and I peeled the ginger with a spoon and minced it with my chef’s knife.
Looking back that might have literally meant crushing them with the flat side of my knife, but mincing seemed to work. Mincing also meant there were no large chunks of either ingredient to bite into later, so I might stick to that.
Minced garlic and ginger with sliced red onions
The last items to prep were the tomatoes and chickpeas. The recipe doesn’t note what to do to prep them. I drained both and rinsed the chickpeas, but I’m not sure that was the right move. Once I got further into cooking I found the curry was a little dry. The instructions said it should have a thick tomato sauce, so I added a 1/2 cup of water in Step 6.
Other than that, the cooking went smoothly. I mixed everything in as instructed and had a lovely curry a short time later. The chunks of eggplant were a bit bigger than in the recipe’s photo, but my 5-quart saute pan was just big enough to be able to mix everything together.
Timing
This recipe lists 10 minutes of prep time and 35 minutes of cooking time for 45 minutes total. I came in right at that:
22 minutes to prep (including roasting the eggplant and cooking the rice)
That Shrimp, Asparagus, and Avocado Salad I just tried was epic, and the lemon vinaigrette might have been my favorite part. I had a few lemons left over from that, so I had to find a way to use them. Now, I would have eventually found something since I use lemons all the time when I cook, but I wanted to try something special. I took a look through Pinterest and was torn between a dessert or a drink. I settled on this Lemon Drop Cream Soda since it sounded like a tasty summery way to use up those extra lemons. Let’s find out if it is!
When life gives you lemons, skip the lemonade and go straight for Lemon Drop Cream Soda. Add whipped cream vodka to make it a cocktail or leave it out for everyone to enjoy.
Recipe Author: Carla at Homemade in the Kitchen Get the recipe
The Ingredients
Looking through my kitchen as I made my shopping list, I discovered that I had most of the ingredients for this recipe. I had plenty of lemons left over from the pasta I just made. I also had regular whipping cream and heavy whipping cream left over from the chocolate mousse cake I made last week.
My pantry had a few ingredients too. There was plenty of granulated sugar, powdered sugar, and seltzer water. I had some vanilla extract, but not much. It ended up being the only ingredient on my shopping list.
The recipe lists whipped cream vodka as optional, so I skipped it. I did have some vanilla vodka on hand, though, and I used it in my second batch of Lemon Drop Cream Soda (more on that later). It was tasty and barely noticeable.
Seltzer water, heavy cream, granulated sugar, lemon juice and zest, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and heavy whipping cream
The Process
My Lemon Drop Cream Sodas started off with making lemon simple syrup. It wasn’t difficult at all, but I did change one thing. The instructions say to use a large saucepan, but I used a small 1-quart saucepan. The reason was there was so little lemon juice, and I didn’t think I would be able to stir it if it spread over the bottom of a large pan.
Otherwise, I followed the recipe and had the syrup made in just a few minutes. That includes all the zesting, juicing, and whisking. Then I set it aside in the pan, zest and all, to cool for 30 minutes.
Making the lemon syrup in a small saucepan
I made the whipped cream while the lemon syrup cooled. The recipe gives the option to use a hand mixer or a stand mixer. I opted for my 3.5-quart stand mixer.
At first, I intended to make 1 batch of whipped cream, but the whisk attachment didn’t quite reach the small amount of heavy whipping cream at the bottom of the bowl. I doubled the batch, and it raised the level just enough for the whisk to reach it.
After a quick strain of the cooled syrup, I was ready to make my Lemon Drop Cream Sodas. The process was simple: just add some lemon syrup and heavy cream, and pour in the seltzer.
I made my sodas in pint glasses the first time so there would be enough room for the foam. The glasses really were too big, so I had to add more of the ingredients—about 1.5 times the amounts listed. Then I spooned on the whipped cream and realized it was over-whipped. Yes, you can over-whip whipped cream. It was very thick and difficult to spoon onto the sodas.
The cream and soda will separate after a little while. Just give them a little stir to remix them, but not too much or they will foam up and overflow.
Lemon Drop Cream Soda, Take 2
I decided to make some Lemon Drop Cream Sodas a few days later. Making the lemon syrup was just as easy as the first time. However, I made sure I didn’t over-whip the whipped cream by using a lower speed. It really made a difference. This time it was easy to float on top of the sodas!
I also switched to smaller 10-ounce highball glasses and added some vanilla vodka. These glasses were a little too small to fit the full cup of seltzer, but it was close. The results were much better than the pint glasses.
Timing
There are 2 recipes happening here, the sodas and the whipped cream. The soda recipe lists 15 minutes to prep, 5 minutes to cook, and 20 minutes total time. The whipped cream is 5 minutes to prep, 5 minutes to whip, and 10 minutes total.
If made separately, that would be 25 minutes to prep and whip, 5 minutes to cook, and 30 minutes in total. I made the recipes together, so my time was spent like this:
7 minutes to prep, cook, and strain the lemon syrup
30 minutes to cool the lemon syrup
9 minutes total for the whipped cream (done while the syrup cooled)
3 minutes to assemble and garnish 2 sodas
40 minutes total
That’s a little over what I expected based on the times listed. However, I don’t think the cooling time was included in the soda recipe (that’s common). If I exclude that time I’m at 20 minutes total for the cooking and prep.
The days are getting hotter, which can only mean one thing: Summer is almost here. And with the arrival of summer comes salad cravings. Well, lighter food in general, but salads just scream “summer” to me. That’s why I couldn’t resist this Shrimp, Asparagus, and Avocado Salad recipe. It promises to be a light salad topped with shrimp and lemon vinaigrette. How perfect for warm weather!
This shrimp, asparagus and avocado salad is utterly delicious and perfect for spring. It’s a light, vibrant, creamy and healthy avocado salad.
Recipe Author: Lisa Bryan at Downshiftology Get the recipe
The Ingredients
This recipe is actually 2 separate recipes, 1 for salad and 1 for lemon vinaigrette. I made sure to download both before I did my pre-shopping kitchen check. It turns out I had several ingredients, so my shopping list wasn’t too long.
All I had to buy fresh produce (including lemons, I used 2) and shrimp. I opted for frozen because that was the only way I could find it peeled and deveined. I was pleasantly surprised to find the tails were removed too. All I had to do was run the shrimp under cool water for a few minutes to thaw them.
I also found a 6-ounce bag of baby spinach, and I used the whole thing—it was just over 4 cups. It was pre-washed, so that made things quicker and easier. And I opted for a Haas avocado since that’s my favorite type. They are small, though, so I could have added a second.
By the way, the bunch of asparagus I bought had 38 spears. Perhaps because they were on the thin side? I thought about using them all but didn’t want to overpower the other ingredients. I ended up counting out 20.
Shrimp, baby spinach, green onions, asparagus, garlic, Dijon mustard, olive oil, honey, avocado, pepper, salt, lemon juice, and parsley
The Process
I made the salad and dressing in parallel. First, I put a pot of water on to boil for the shrimp. While it heated, I whipped up the dressing in my mini-prep.
I moved on to prepping the greens while the water finished heating. That included setting up a large bowl of ice water and a large colander in my sink. I wanted them ready so the shrimp and asparagus didn’t overcook, and it worked perfectly.
Prepping the parsley, green onions, and avocado
I also put a large saute pan on to preheat while I prepped. The recipe doesn’t say to, but I added a touch of olive oil to the pan to be safe. Most of the prep work was done by the time I began cooking the shrimp and asparagus—all but slicing the avocado. I peeled and seeded it then placed the halves sliced side down on my cutting board so they wouldn’t turn brown as fast.
I gave the shrimp and asparagus my full attention so they didn’t overcook. That was mostly tossing the asparagus with tongs so they cooked on all sides. When they were done transferring them to the ice bath was easy.
Sauteed asparagus spears
I sliced the avocado while the asparagus and shrimp chilled for a minute or two in the ice water. Then it was time to assemble my creation. That also meant I had to address my biggest problem with salads: The heavy ingredients sinking to the bottom.
Fortunately, I solved that problem long ago. The recipe doesn’t say to, but I held back a few pieces of shrimp, asparagus, and avocado to top the salad. Then I used my largest mixing bowl (6 quarts/24 cups) so I could toss the ingredients together and thoroughly mix them. This part was a little messy and needed lots of room.
Lastly, I transferred the tossed salad to a large serving bowl (86 ounces) and topped it with the remaining ingredients. It gives you that pretty Martha Stewart look without any real work, and I’m all for that!
Timing
This recipe lists 15 minutes to prep, 5 minutes to cook, and 20 minutes total time. I came close to that:
Once I finished the tagliatelle pasta dish I just reviewed I really wasn’t sure how I could top it. It was so savory-delicious! But then I read the name of the recipe I’m reviewing today: Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse Cake. Yeah, that sounds like it could top that pasta. It’s a chocolate-hazelnut crust with a chocolate-Nutella mousse filling and it’s topped with dark chocolate ganache sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts. Once I read the recipe it was like What pasta? This is one I have to try!
A light, fluffy chocolate mousse is spread on a chocolate hazelnut shortbread crust, and topped with a simple bittersweet chocolate ganache.
So mouse cake has a lot of ingredients, but the good news is they are all likely to be in stock at a large grocery store. I had butter and chopped hazelnuts left over from the pasta I just reviewed. The rest of my pre-shopping check revealed granulated sugar, all-purpose flour, salt, unflavored gelatine, espresso powder, vanilla extract, and Dutch-process cocoa powder.
That left me to shop for several items, but nothing was difficult to find. The only thing I had trouble figuring out was what heavy cream was. I found heavy whipping cream, but nothing was labeled “heavy cream”. It turns out the store labeled it “regular whipping cream”.
I took a guess at how much to buy/use for several ingredients, but I ended up with plenty for this recipe with some leftovers. This is what I bought/used:
Bittersweet Chocolate – I used all of a 4-ounce bar
Gelatine – 1 teaspoon is less than 1 packet (out of a 1-ounce box of 4 packets)
Heavy Whipping Cream – 1 quart had leftovers
Heavy Cream/Regular Whipping Cream – 1 pint had leftovers
Mascarpone Cheese – I used almost all of an 8-ounce container
Nutella Hazelnut Spread – I used almost all of a 13-ounce container
Nutella Hazelnut Spread, heavy whipping cream, granulated sugar, all-purpose flour, Dutch-process cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream, mascarpone cheese, vanilla extract, unsalted butter, espresso powder, chopped hazelnuts, unflavored gelatin, and salt
The Process
This Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse Cake is a long recipe, but it’s broken down into 3 sections to make it manageable:
Shortbread crust
Mousse filling
Ganache topping
Making the Shortbread Crust
There wasn’t anything unusual about the crust itself, but the recipe had a great tip about the springform pan. The bottom of a springform pan has a lip on it that can make removing things tricky. This recipe had me turn the bottom upside down so the flat bottom was on the inside of the pan. It made it possible to slide the cake off after removing the sides. Genius!
The crust itself was blended in a food processor, so making it was extremely easy. Then I used my fingers to press the coarse crumbs into the bottom of the pan, pricked it with a fork, and let it bake for 18 minutes.
Once it was cooled I removed the sides of the pan so I could remove the parchment paper. That did result in some of the edges breaking, but just a little. Once I removed the paper and put the pan pack together I was able to press them back in.
The shortbread crust ingredients had a coarse texture after pulsing in my food processor
Making the Mousse
While the crust was baking (and later cooling) I made the chocolate-Nutella mousse. I began by soaking the gelatine in a saucepan for 5 minutes. The rest of the ingredients were easy to prep while the gelatine was soaking.
Then I turned the stove on to the lowest setting and melted the gelatine. It only took a minute or two, so be sure to watch it carefully. From there I whisked in the Nutella and espresso powder, poured the mixture into a mixing bowl, and whisked in the mascarpone cheese.
I set that aside and whisked the whipping cream, cocoa powder, and sugar in my stand mixer. It took about 2 minutes on high for it to form peaks. From there I folded it into the gelatine mixture until they were combined.
The final step in this part of the recipe was spooning the mousse into the cooled springform pan. I took a few minutes to smooth out the top, then I wrapped it up and put it into the refrigerator to chill. The recipe says to chill for at least 3 hours, but I let it chill overnight.
Making the chocolate-hazelnut mousse in my stand mixer with a whisk attachment
Making the Ganache and Assembling the Cake
The ganache was simple to make and apply. I simply chopped up the chocolate and then simmered it in a small saucepan with the heavy cream while stirring. Once it was smooth and creamy I set the pan to the side for 2 minutes while I toasted the hazelnuts in a small skillet.
To finish up the cake I slid a sharp knife around the edges of the pan before relating it. It slipped off without any issues. The cake slid off the bottom easily, and I put it onto a turntable to decorate.
The ganache was simply poured on and then smoothed with an offset spatula. I’m not sure how decorative my drips were, but I was happy with the result. The last touch was sprinkling on the toasted chopped hazelnuts, and voila! One Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse Cake, ready for the night’s dessert.
The top of the mousse layer wasn’t perfectly smooth, but the ganache leveled it
Timing
This recipe lists 30 minutes to prep, 20 minutes to cook, and 50 minutes total. The instructions also mention 3 hours to chill, but that was obviously not included in the times listed. This is how my time broke down:
10 minutes to prep the shortbread crust
18 minutes to cool the crust
5 minutes to prep the mousse
17 minutes to make the mousse, add to the pan, and cover
10 minutes to make the ganache and toast the hazelnuts
4 minutes to remove from pan and decorate the cake
64 minutes total
That was a bit over the recipe’s total, but I’m not sure where the slowdown happened. It could just be because I’m not the best baker. However, I think the 50-minute total is possible with a little practice.
I am a serial orderer. These days I instantly grab my phone whenever I need something. My Amazon and Instacart carts always have stuff in them. That’s why I’m a bit surprised that I didn’t have to order the pasta for this Tagliatelle with Mushrooms. I ventured out a few weeks ago and found myself in HomeGoods. I found tons of equipment and props, and I did something I have never done before—I bought food.
Their gourmet section had some great prices on hard-to-find shapes like tagliatelle. At that moment I didn’t have a plan for it, but I knew Rice & Pasta Pinterest board would have something for me. I settled on this Tagliatelle with Mushrooms, Sage Butter & Toasted Hazelnuts. I know, long name, but it looks and sounds delish and a bit posh. Let’s find out if it is!
This irresistible tagliatelle with mushrooms is made with wild mushrooms sautéed in sage butter and finished with chopped toasted hazelnuts.
I got very lucky when I found a bag of tagliatelle nests on my surprise shopping trip. It was $4.99 for a 17.6-ounce bag of Ciao Italia Egg Tagliatelle. That was a touch over the 1 pound (16 ounces) listed in this recipe, but not by much.
I’m still recovering from my refrigerator breakdown a few weeks ago, so I had to buy everything but the salt and pepper. My regular store had most everything I needed including sliced wild mushrooms (a mix of shiitake, oyster, and crimini mushrooms). Exactly what this recipe suggests!
The only thing I couldn’t find was hazelnuts. That was unusual, but Amazon saved me (again). I was able to add a bag of chopped hazelnuts to an order I was about to make. Whew! Buying them chopped and skinned saved me a bit of work.
I knew going in I would have to modify Step 1, toasting the hazelnuts. Since I bought skinned and chopped raw hazelnuts, I had to decide how to toast them. I could have done it in the oven, but why fire it up for such a small thing? I decided to toast them in a small skillet since I had to use the stove anyway. Otherwise, this would have been a one-pot recipe.
I toasted the chopped hazelnuts in a small skillet
While the hazelnuts toasted, I started boiling the water for the pasta in my 5.5-quart Dutch oven. It was just big enough to add all the tagliatelle nests, but just barely. That was a lot of pasta!
Once the pasta was cooked and drained, I moved on to frying the sage leaves. I have never done this before and wasn’t sure how to flip them. My trusty tongs came to my rescue, but it was a little awkward at times since the leaves were so small and thin. I have a feeling my sage ended up frying a little longer than 30 seconds per side, but it ended up nice and crispy.
This is how my fried sage leaves turned out. I tried getting a photo of them in the Dutch oven I fried them in, but the high sides made it too dark. I popped them into the skillet I used for the hazelnuts so you could see them.
The next component of this recipe was the wild mushrooms. They cooked up nicely in the sage-scented brown butter. Once they were seasoned it was time to assemble my tagliatelle with mushrooms.
I’m glad I used a big pot because it allowed me to really mix everything without making a huge mess. My tongs helped with this part too. I have found that they are excellent for mixing noodles.
Cooked and drained tagliatelle pasta
Despite my best efforts, I didn’t quite get a “silky” sauce. I didn’t think that extra 1.6 ounces of pasta would make much of a difference, but maybe it did. Or maybe the mushrooms absorbed all the butter? Adding some extra water and grated parmesan helped, but I still wouldn’t describe my sauce as silky. It was tasty though!
Timing
This recipe lists 20 minutes to prep, 10 minutes to cook, and 30 minutes total. I came in at the same total time:
15 minutes to prep and cook the pasta
15 minutes to cook, assemble, and garnish
30 minutes total
And I do want to mention that I did use the pasta cooking time (8 minutes) for prepping the remaining ingredients.
Tagliatelle with Mushrooms, Sage Butter & Toasted Hazelnuts in a serving bowl
So what would be a good dish to follow up the Greek Potato Salad I just made? How about another Greek salad? No, not potato salad again! This Maroulosalata a.k.a. Greek Lettuce Salad. If you’ve followed me for long, you might be wondering why I’m making another lettuce-based Greek salad. Well, I did post my mom’s Greek Salad recipe a while back, but this is a little different. Maroulosalata skips the black olives, tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, oregano, and garlic. You might be asking what’s left? Let me tell you all about it!
This traditional Greek green lettuce salad is simple to make and delicious to consume.
As I just mentioned, this Maroulosalata recipe uses romaine lettuce as the base much like the Americanized Greek salad I’m used to. Hearts of romaine to be exact. Since the large outer leaves are stripped away, I needed 2 hearts instead of 1 head of romaine. No problem—my usual grocery store sells them in a 3-pack for about $1 more.
The rest of the ingredients were also easy to find. They even had what I consider trued bunches of dill instead of the clamshell packages with only a few sprigs. They even had a sale going on some nice EVOO, so I grabbed a bottle since I was almost out of the generic stuff I usually buy.
The feta in brine wasn’t on sale, but I grabbed a package anyway. It’s so much softer and more flavorful than the dry pre-crumbled stuff. You only need 4 ounces for this recipe, but I have plenty of other recipes with feta cheese to help you use up the rest.
A bunch of scallions and a lemon wrapped up my shopping for this recipe since the only ingredient I had was salt. My refrigerator breakdown a couple of weeks ago still has me building up my cold ingredients ☹️
Hearts of romaine, fresh dill, scallions, salt, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, and feta cheese
The Process
One of the things that attracted me to this recipe was it only has 3 steps. I need an easy recipe right now! Plus I wanted a chance to use my new salad spinner. I found one on sale and couldn’t pass it up. I have always wanted one but never thought a salad spinner was a necessity. My lack of storage space probably fed into that.
Well, this recipe changed my mind. It began with rinsing the hearts of romaine and slicing them as thinly as I could. I made sure to sharpen my trusty Santoku knife right before I started so this part was so easy!
Thinly sliced romaine lettuce
Then I popped the freshly sliced but still very wet romaine into the basket, added the lid, and gave it a spin. I was really surprised at how much water came out! And at how green it was… But the lettuce came out much dryer than it went in. Not perfectly dry, but I let it drain a bit more while I prepped the rest of the ingredients and made the salad dressing.
Thinly sliced hearts of romaine after drying in a salad spinner
Salad Dressing & Finishing Up
Making the salad dressing was the easiest part of this recipe. I added the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and salt to my mini-prep and pulsed it a few times. It’s the best method I have found to emulsify oil-based dressings.
If you don’t have a mini-prep (or just don’t want to deal with the cleanup), you can always use a sealed container and shake it. I have heard of recycling water and soda bottles for this. I don’t normally have those, but I have used a small Snapware container for salad dressing many times. Whatever you use, the important part is no leaks while shaking LOL!
I used my mini-prep to blend the dressing
My Maroulosalata was almost done! Once the dressing was blended, I added the salad ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Then I poured over the salad dressing and began massaging the salad. I’m used to this with kale, but I never knew it worked with romaine too. Massaging also gave me a chance to break up any big chunks of feta cheese.
Timing
As I mentioned, I was looking for a quick and easy recipe, and Maroulosalata was exactly that. It lists 15 minutes total time, and I spent exactly that much time:
13 minutes to prep the salad and dressing
2 minutes to transfer to a serving bowl
15 minutes total
That extra 2 minutes included wiping down the sides of the serving bowl. Transferring it from the mixing bowl got a little messy, and I wanted it to look nice for photos.
I love potato salad, but this Greek Potato Salad is quite different from what I’m used to. This version adds fresh herbs, red onion, capers, and feta cheese to the potatoes and uses a lemon-olive oil dressing. And it’s the author’s mom’s recipe. That makes me think about my mom’s potato salad…
You see, my family used to grill all the time during the summer, and Mom’s potato salad was practically mandatory. It was a typical Southern-style recipe: peeled red potatoes, celery, pickles, and hard-boiled eggs in a dressing made of mustard and mayonnaise and a liberal sprinkle of paprika and a few other spices. Perfect to pair with Dad’s spicy grilled country ribs!
I’m going to pair this recipe with this Greek Marinated Flank Steak with Tzatziki Sauce recipe. It calls for grilling, I don’t have Dad’s prowess with the grill. Instead, I’m going to try it with the air broil setting on my Ninja Foodi.
Make my mum’s Greek Potato Salad once and it will become your go-to side dish for all picnics and barbecues. This healthy potato salad contains no mayonnaise, is gluten free, vegetarian and Slimming World friendly too!
Recipe Author: Lucy Parissi at Super Golden Bakes Get the recipe
The Ingredients
I needed almost everything in this recipe, and all the ingredients were easy to find at my regular grocery store. Both times.
Both times? you might ask. Well, according to the repairman my refrigerator (and freezer) decided to get stuck on the defrost setting and not return to cooling. I don’t think I noticed there was a problem until the ice in the icemaker disappeared. And we were eating improperly cooled food the whole time 😳
We were very, very lucky not to get food poisoning. Needless to say, we had to toss almost everything—hundreds of dollars of food. But it did give us a chance to deep clean the refrigerator (gotta find the bright side!).
Getting back to the ingredients, I want to add that I made sure to buy a block of feta in brine. I had to go to the deli section to find it, but it was worth a little extra—I bought the store brand. Tip: Feta in brine is so much better than the dry crumbled feta, and crumbling it yourself is ridiculously easy to do with your fingers.
Baby red potatoes, lemon juice, parsley, feta cheese, black pepper, salt, dried oregano, capers, dill, and red onion
The Process
When it came time to make this Greek Potato Salad recipe, I was ready to eat! I was ready for a home-cooked meal after having to eat takeaway for the past couple of days.
I started off by halving the potatoes and boiling them in a large saucepan. No peeling was needed, so it took me 9 minutes to prep the potatoes and get the water to a boil. I had fork-tender potatoes 20 minutes later.
Freshly chopped parsley and dill with lemon juice and capers
I prepped the remaining ingredients while the potatoes boiled. There are several, and I wanted them ready when I needed them. I juiced the lemon, chopped the herbs, and measured out the oregano, olive oil, and capers. I also crumbled the feta and used a mandoline to thinly slice the red onion.
My mandoline allowed me to slice the red onion paper thin
Once the potatoes finished, I drained them using a large colander and then spread them on a cutting board to cool for 10 minutes.
Once they were cooled enough I spread them onto a large platter and added the prepped ingredients on top. I followed the recipe except for the amount of onion. The red onion I used was very large, and I thought all of it would overpower the rest of the flavors. I did generously sprinkle it onto the potatoes, but I still had plenty left.
Also, the feta before the other toppings so they wouldn’t get lost underneath the cheese. I finished up with the olive oil and lemon juice. A few lemon wedges on the side, and my Greek Potato salad was ready to serve.
Timing
The recipe lists 5 minutes of prep time, 20 minutes to cook, and 25 minutes total. Here’s how my time was spent on it:
9 minutes to prep the potatoes
21 minutes to cook and drain the potatoes and prep the other ingredients
10 minutes to cool potatoes
4 minutes to assemble the salad
44 minutes total
That’s quite a difference, and it’s mainly in the prep time. I think the time difference is because I included time for the water to come to a rolling boil. That took a bit longer than having the potatoes.
The recipe doesn’t seem to include time to cool or assemble either, just time to cook. Not including cooling time isn’t unusual, so I am not counting it to rate the timing. That said, be prepared to spend a little more time on this than what is shown, but believe me when I tell you it’s worth it!
I love all things leopard, and I have been wanting to make this Leopard Milk Bread recipe ever since I found it. Now, I’m not a seasoned bread maker, and truth be told I have only tried two bread recipes: Dutch oven bread and baguettes. I have gotten the Dutch oven bread down, but my understanding is it’s among the easiest types of bread to make.
I have seen tons of pins for other types of bread that I want to make too, and Japanese milk bread is one of those. It got bumped to the top of my list when I found this recipe. Leopard bread is a thing??!! Shut up and take me to the kitchen!
Leopard Milk Bread Recipe made with bread flour, cocoa powder, and orange zest. Soft homemade bread recipe with fun leopard spots!
For something I imagined would be a complex recipe, there aren’t a lot of ingredients—10 in all. My pre-shopping check showed me I had several of them already: cornstarch, active dry yeast, granulated sugar, unsalted butter, vanilla extract, and kosher salt.
I also had cocoa powder but it was running really low. On an unrelated shopping trip to Fresh Market, I happened to find a box of high-quality Dutch process cocoa powder, so I didn’t have to order it like I did last time. I considered the generic stuff I normally buy, but I went with the good stuff since this is a special recipe.
When it was time to shop for my Leopard Milk bread a few weeks later I was able to find everything else at my regular grocery store. All I needed was bread flour, whole milk, and an orange for zest.
Bread flour, kosher salt, unsalted butter, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, active dry yeast, vanilla extract, milk, orange zest, and cornstarch
The Process
Most of the recipes I blog go according to the recipe the first time I try them. I don’t have many fails, mostly little hiccups I’m able to solve as I cook. That didn’t happen on my first attempt at Leopard Milk Bread. In fact, it was a complete failure.
As mad as I was, I wasn’t about to give up, though. I sent Mr. Pinner to pick up a couple of oranges and immediately tried this recipe a second time. That was a very long and very painful day thanks to my bad back, but I learned a lot and I’m going to share what not to do when making this recipe.
Making the Dough
How Much Sugar?
A question popped up just as I began measuring my ingredients. I measured my ingredients by volume on my first try and used 2/3 cup of sugar. I decided to weigh them on my second try, and the recipe lists 70 grams of sugar.
The problem I had happened when I scooped 1/3 cup of sugar onto my kitchen scale. It weighed 93 grams. That means 2/3 cup would weigh 186 grams, more than double the 70 grams listed.
I took a quick break to search for a few other Japanese milk bread recipes to compare the amount of sugar they used with this recipe. They listed much less than 2/3 cup, so I decided on using 70 grams of sugar.
FYI, the other weighed ingredients were close to the volumes listed. The sugar was the only one that was off.
Proofing the Yeast (Steps 1-2)
This recipe breaks the steps to make this bread into easy-to-understand steps. The first time I tried it, I think my mistakes began with proofing the yeast. On my first attempt at Leopard Milk Bread, I had to make the milk mixture twice.
For the first milk mixture, I warmed the milk in the microwave at 70% power for 30 seconds. I used my meat thermometer to make sure it wasn’t too hot, but I added all the sugar after mixing in the cornstarch.
No worries, I was just starting out and had enough ingredients to redo the milk mixture. This time I forgot to lower the microwave’s power and used it on high. I also didn’t check the temperature, and I’m sure it was too hot. Why? Because the yeast didn’t foam very much after sitting for 10 minutes.
By the time I re-made the bread, I had also re-read the blog post and noticed the milk should have been at 110℉. That’s not in the recipe or the notes. But it made a huge difference, and that time the yeast looked as foamy as a freshly poured beer.
Mixing the Dough in the Stand Mixer (Steps 3-9)
As I mentioned, I regularly make Dutch oven bread, and the dough for that is very shaggy. My first Leopard Milk Bread dough looked like Dutch oven bread dough. I didn’t think too much of it, but that’s not what was needed.
Make the Dough, Step 8: This is the dough from my 1st attempt. It’s way too shaggy for this recipe. I thought it was okay because it looks like the dough for the Dutch oven bread I often make.
The dough for my second attempt was very different. This time it came together and was far less sticky. It didn’t even stick to the stand mixer bowl. That helped so much when I had to roll it up later on. The first version of the dough required lots of extra flour on the work surface and my rolling pin. The second version didn’t need any at all.
Make the Dough, Step 8: This is the dough from my 2nd attempt. It came together unlike the first time.
I didn’t have any trouble following along until I got to step 9, the window pane test. Not being an experienced bread maker, I had no clue what a window pane test was. I had to google it, and the first result had a text and video explanation. It also showed how to properly knead the dough, which was helpful later on in the process.
Finishing up the Dough (Steps 10-22)
The rest of this section involves dividing the dough and coloring it with chocolate paste. This is where the article I just mentioned came in handy. Making the paste was very simple, but kneading it into the dough took some time and effort. I’d say 3-5 minutes of kneading for each. And kneading was more work than I thought it would be, but I ended up with the 3 colors of dough then wrapped them and refrigerated for an hour.
Make the Dough, Step 19: The dough divided and mixed with the chocolate pastes
Making the Loaf
Dividing the Dough (Steps 1-4)
Once the Leopard Milk Bread dough was ready, I had to use my kitchen scale to divide each color into 7 equal pieces. Tip: Using the grams setting makes this step much easier than pounds and ounces. I did that by adding pieces of dough to the scale until I got the weight I needed. Then I rolled them into a ball and moved on to the next one.
Make the Loaf, Step 2-3: I Added and removed pieces of dough until I got the weight I needed. Then I formed them into small balls and set them aside.
Rolling the Dough (Steps 5-18)
Once I had all 21 pieces, I was ready to roll them into mini “cigars”. The recipe breaks down how to do that in detail. My mistake on the first attempt was trying to get them to be as long as the loaf pan (8 inches). The dough didn’t cooperate, and that wasn’t necessary.
The secret here is to roll the dark brown dough into a cylinder and let that length be your guide for the other colors. It will be rather short, but you will roll out the completed cylinders to longer pieces later. Those still won’t be as long as the pan, but they will get longer when they rise.
Make the Loaf, Step 5-14: This was from my 1st attempt, and you can see the chocolate dough showing through the white dough because it was too thin.
Baking the Loaf
This section includes preparing the pan, adding the dough to it, letting it rise, baking, and cooling. It sounds like a lot, but it wasn’t bad because of the inactive time rising, baking, and cooling.
Once the pan was lined with parchment paper, all I had to do was stack the dough cylinders inside. They came up to the top of the pan before rising.
Bake the Loaf, Step 2: The rolled dough stacked into a parchment-lined 8″ x 4″ loaf pan
I keep my home air-conditioned, so I heated a mug of water in my microwave to create a warm environment. Then I moved the mug aside and let the covered dough rise in the microwave for an hour.
The dough rose an inch or two beyond the top of the pan on my 2nd try (it didn’t rise at all on my 1st try). In fact, the first batch of dough was very heavy when I lifted the pan. The second batch was much lighter after rising.
Bake the Loaf, Step 3: The rolled bread dough after rising for 1 hour
From there it was into the oven. I added my meat thermometer and let the bread bake. There was a gap at the side of the pan, so it was pretty easy to slip the probe into the bread without messing it up.
It took exactly 45 minutes to reach 190℉ in the center of the loaf. I have to confess I forgot to turn the heat down to 350℉ right away, which is probably why the outside is so dark. I didn’t notice it until about 30 minutes into baking, then I turned the heat down and placed a sheet on top of the bread to keep it from burning on top.
Bake the Loaf, Step 6-7: My 1st try after baking. The bread didn’t rise at all and was doughy in the center.
Timing
So this Leopard Mik Bread recipe is a long one. It lists 15 minutes to prep, 2 hours to rise, and 40 minutes to cook. The total time is listed at 55 minutes, but that doesn’t include rising time. The recipe also mentions cooling for 15 minutes, and I don’t think that’s included. The total time including rising and cooling time would be 3 hours and 10 minutes.
I took a bit longer and broke my time down as follows:
1 hour and 2 minutes to prep the dough
1 hour to chill the dough
36 minutes to make the loaf
1 hour to rise
45 minutes to bake
15 minutes to cool
4 hours and 38 minutes total
It looks like the slowdown was in prepping the dough and assembling the loaf. I took 1 hour 38 minutes but the time listed was 15 minutes. I’m not an experienced baker, but the time listed seems too short for something so involved.
