A rising obsession..

I am falling in love with my bread maker all over again. I had forgotten how fulfilling it was. Don't get me wrong, we have had a stable relationship for some time, but we had been together for a long time and found we always did the same thing. We were in a rut, a tasty rut, no doubt, but a rut. We needed to invest more time and effort in our relationship, ring the changes, find new and exciting ways to connect. So, since the bread machine itself was making no effort to inject a bit of excitement into our union, I decided to take the initiative, and dusted off some old cookbooks and got googling. Two of this week's results are shown below. As you can see, our relationship feels new and fresh, and all thoughts of separation, or indeed nipping down to Safeway to buy a ready-made alternative are shelved.

Parmesan Garlic Rolls (from Food.com)
Makes about 28 mini rolls

1 cup water
3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 TBSP butter
3 TBSP sugar
2 TBSP non-fat dried milk powder
2 tsp yeast
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 TBSP parmesan cheese (I used more than this)

1. Place first 7 ingredients in breadmaker pan and select dough cycle.
2. When cycle is finished, turn dough onto a floured countertop and divide into 28 1" diameter balls.
3. Grease a 13" x 9" pan with oil spray.
4. Place dough balls into pan evenly spaced. There will be gaps between them at this point.
5. Mix melted butter and garlic and pour over rolls, using a pastry brush to ensure that the top of each gets a coating.
6. Sprinkle with parmesan
9. Cover with cling film and leave in a warm place to rise for 45 minutes-1 hour. By this point, the rolls should have doubled in size and may be touching each other. This is fine!
10. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and rolls should just pull apart. Serve warm if possible!

Olive and Pesto Focaccia
from Better Homes and Gardens' 'Best Bread Machine Recipes'

3/4 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cups bread flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp Italian seasoning
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup coarsely chopped green olives stuffed with pimentos
1/4 cup pesto

1. Add all ingredients except for pesto to breadmaker pan. Select dough cycle (for 1.5lb loaf)
2. When cycle is complete, remove dough from machine and place on a pizza pan, sprayed lightly with olive oil spray.
3. Use fingers to flatter dough into large circle about 1" deep, and dimple the surface lightly with finger tips.
4. Spread pesto over top of dough.
5. Leave in a warm place to rise for 45 minutes-1 hour, by which point, dough should have doubled in size.
6. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes until golden brown. Pesto will brown in the oven, but still taste delicious!

This loaf tastes very slightly of olives - just enough to give it a slight tang while not turning kids off! Mine didn't know there were olives in there, just another white lie of omission perpetrated by their mother!