I was worried that I would not be up early enough this morning to make a dessert for the, ahem, congregation. On Saturday night Howard and I and our friend Andy were going out to hear Jackie Jocko. And so I decided that when I got back that night, I would program the bread machine to make Coffee Spice Bread.
It is out of the Bread Machine Cookbook which I bought at Savers last week. It calls for one cup of brewed coffee which, I did not have leftover coffee, so I brewed a cup and sat it to rest while we went to hear Jocko.
When I came back I mixed up the bread. I was trying to push the buttons to have it ready by, say, 7:30 a.m., when I get up to go to Mass.
But oops, I did not push the buttons right. Because the thing starts kneading right there and then. And I could not figure out to correct it. Long story short, here it is 4 a.m., and the cat wakes us up, and I awaken to this aroma in the air. It was unbelievable. Like cookies only better. It was the Coffee Spice Bread!
I had to go downstairs and see what was the deal. I padded downstairs in my pajamas. The bread was done. How long it had been done, I had no idea. But I knocked it out of the bread machine pan. The cat came out of nowhere and sat there on his haunches watching me.
I set the bread to cool on a rack and went back upstairs and went back to sleep.
It was almost like a dream only in the morning there the bread was, cooled, done.
And very good if I may say so myself. And at the coffee hour after Palm Sunday Mass it was gone in 60 seconds, as they say.
This is the way to go, I am thinking now. The bread machine does the work, I have more time to work on the Pennario book. I am always trying to think of ways to make things work better and more smoothly.
So here we go. Coffee Spice Bread from "The Bread Machine Cookbook," by Donna Rathmell German.
Mix up, as your bread machine manufacturer intended (I do it in this order, because I own a Welbilt):
2 teaspoons yeast
3 1/2 cups bread flour (I used whole wheat flour from Price-Rite)
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I used one teaspoon because I am wild and crazy)
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3 tbs. vegetable oil
1 cup coffee
Set the machine to do its thing. Go to sleep.
Get up in the morning and go to church, or synagogue, as the case may be. Take the bread with you.
Eat up!
1 comment:
I almost think I will not go back to Facebook after Lent because time spent reading your blog is so much more enjoyable. I had a bread machine misadventure last week. Our oven broke and I had a prayer group coming over, zut alors (☺️). Tried a bread machine recipe that I usually make in the machine, but then roll out and bake in the oven so I can do a cinnamon roll type thing. Middle of the night, smoke alarm. Apparently this recipe is not for baking through in the machine. What a mess! I decided we were supposed to keep it simple for prayer group and just cut up some fruit and pulled some cookies out of the freezer. Ah, Lent!
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