Sweet Hawaiian Bread

Sometimes I surprise myself. 

 I have never had any luck at all with bread. Honestly, I made a banana bread once that could have been used as a weapon--it was bad! However I seemed to have turned over a new leaf or should I say, loaf! 

Although I must admit, I owe it all to my KitchenAid stand mixer. Ever since I bit the bullet and jumped on the KitchenAid bandwagon, I've managed to produce loaf after loaf of super tasty bread. I'm also happy to report that after a few "mushroom clouds" I've finally managed to get my bread to actually look like bread! 

I really hope this is not just a fluke!

Here's a recipe I adapted from Allrecipes "Amish White Bread" but I'm calling it Sweet Hawaiian Bread because I think it tastes exactly like those sweet Hawaiian rolls we all know and love except in loaf form. 

Start with 2 cups of warm water, 

2/3 cup of sugar, 

and 2 packets of active dry yeast. 

Let those ingredients foam up in large KitchenAid bowl. 

Am I the only one who is totally weirded out by yeast? 

It's kinda creepy, am I right?

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt 

and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.

Attach the dough hook and mix at the lowest speed. 

Next Add 6 cups of bread flour, 

a half cup at a time. 

Alternate between speeds 1 & 2. 

This process seemed to take forever. 

But boy was it worth it! 

Now I'm certainly no expert but after adding all the flour, 

the dough seemed a little dry to me. 

So I added a splash of coconut milk. 

This may have been the secret ingredient!

Take out the dough, knead it by hand a bit,

and form a big dough ball.

Oil the bowl 

and roll the dough ball around in the oily bowl.

Then seal the bowl up with plastic wrap 

and drape a towel over it. 

Since it was a pretty cold day, 

I tried this trick I read in one of the reviews: 

Turn on the oven for about 30 seconds, 

just long enough to warm it up,

then turn it off and 

let dough rise in the oven for an hour. 

After the dough doubles in size, 

punch it down and 

knead it a bit more by hand. 

Divide it into two ovalish loaves 

and place in greased/floured loaf pans. 

Let those babies rise for 30 more minutes. 

Then bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Now eat your delicious sweet bread!

I served the bread with bbq chicken, mashed potatoes & corn 

and my family gobbled it all up!

Better than Subway's White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Cookies

Sure you can buy these at Subway 3 for $1, 

but don't count on them being very fresh after sitting out for who knows how long. 

OR...

For about $5 you can make a few dozen at home, 

then proceed to eat them ALL because they are so darn tasty! 

I took a batch of these beauties to a BBQ and they were GONE within the first hour. 

You may already have these basic ingredients on hand: 

1/2 cup Butter (aka one stick) 

2 Tbs. Shortening (Crisco) 

1/2 cup Brown sugar 

2 Eggs

3/4 cup of All-purpose flour

Now you're probably wondering why only 3/4 cup of flour? 

There's no way I can make 3 dozen cookies with that! 

You're absolutely right, that's why you're going to want to pick up 

the secret weapon: 

2 Boxes of "Jiffy" muffin mix

Don't forget the cream cheese (4 oz.) and the white chocolate chips (1 1/2 cups). 

And milk because, let's face it after scarfing down a dozen of these, you're going to need it.

Step One: Let your butter and cream cheese soften while you make dinner. 

Okay you don't have to make dinner. 

Yes, you can just have these cookies for dinner, I won't judge. 

Step Two: Beat together the cream cheese, butter & shortening.

This is the part where you hug your husband 

thanking him for buying a KitchenAid stand mixer, 

which literally takes ALL the work out of beating cream cheese! 

Thanks, you get the first cookie! 

Step Three: Add brown sugar and Beat some more. 

Step Four: Add an egg and Beat some more. 

Step Five: Repeat Step Four.

Step Six: Fold in flour along with the secret weapon.

Step Seven: Stir in white chocolate chips 

Go ahead, give a couple chocolate chips to the four-year-old 

who refuses to let go of your leg. 

Step Eight: Let the dough chill out in the fridge for a half hour. 

This is the hard part, 

you may need to go watch an episode of Mindy or something. 

I suppose if you're a glutton for punishment, 

you'll wash the dinner dishes. Booo!

Step Nine: Preheat the oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 

If you're paranoid like I am, 

spray that sucker with nonstick spray for good measure.

Step Ten: Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on cookie sheet.

Be sure to leave these guys some room because they're going to spread. 

Step Eleven: Bake for about 12 minutes until the edges turn golden brown. 

Step Twelve: Let them rest on the pan for a minute, 

then cool on a baking sheet until you just can't take it anymore. 

Then eat them, 

give some to family and friends, 

or just eat every last one and pretend nothing happened.

What cookies? I don't know what you're talking about! 

Adapted from Six Sisters Stuff, who adapted from Bakergirl