Helen's Stuffed Braided Pizza Bread

Have you met Helen at our bakery? Not only is she great with customers, we love that she's also always coming up with ideas for how to use our baking at home.

Last week she brought home some of our pizza dough and used it to make a stuffed braided pizza bread. She says it's easy to make and wanted to share her tips on how to do it.

Helen started with a ball of our white pizza dough. We sell it frozen, so just thaw it before you're ready to use it. Roll it into a thin rectangle and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Cut 1.5-2" wide strips along each edge. Here's a drawing showing where to cut:

Spread pizza sauce (you could even try some spreadable cream cheese) down the middle. Top with your favorite cheese and toppings. For the toppings, just be sure not to choose anything too juicy, since that will make the dough soggy. If you really want to use something juicy, like fresh zucchini, pan fry it first to get most of the moisture out. Helen's favorite toppings include bell peppers, onions, olives, ham, salami and cooked turkey.

Starting at the top, fold each of the cut strips over the middle and slightly angled towards the bottom, alternating strips from the right and left. If you know how to braid, this should be easy to do. Tuck in the ends. Bake at 350° F until golden brown. Helen has a convection oven and she suggests 18-20 minutes. For a traditional oven, you'll want to add a few minutes.

Do you have a favorite way to use our pizza dough? Let Helen know the next time you're at the bakery!

Cinnamon Pretzels

We had a snow day today...plenty of the white stuff! With school cancelled, we had the kiddos home, and they were looking for something fun to do. They pulled out their Rainy Day Play book (which we renamed the Snowy Day Play book just for the day). They found a fun idea for making soft pretzels. I remembered that I had a ball of frozen pizza dough from Grandin Bakery in our freezer. I put it in the fridge to thaw this morning and it was ready to go later in the afternoon.

I had brown pizza dough on hand, but we also make white dough at the bakery if you prefer. The kids made long "snakes" out of the dough and shaped them into letters, pretzels and other shapes (including Santa's sleigh, can you spot it in the last picture?) We put the shapes onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. My parchment is oven-safe to 425°F. If you don't have any that is safe at that temperature, just use a greased baking sheet. We then brushed the pretzels with melted (salted) butter, and sprinkled them with cinnamon and a generous amount of brown sugar.

The pretzels went into the oven, preheated to 425°F, for about 12 minutes. How long you bake them will depend on how thick they are. Ours were about as thick as my thumb.

When the pretzels came out of the oven, we let them cool on the pan for a couple minutes and then moved them to a wire rack to rest until they were cool enough to eat. The kids dipped them in maple syrup...mmm...just right!

Glad I had the dough in the freezer. Made this project quick and easy. One snow day down, how many to go?

Wedding Showers

It's wedding season!

Planning a shower for a friend? If you are, then we've got sweet goodies for you. Our decorators love to do custom cookies, cupcakes and cakes. Just let us know what the wedding colors are and we can come up with something special for your party.

Check out some of our favorites we've done this year:

Bride Cookie

Groom Cookie

Wedding Cake Cookie with Couple's Initials

Wedding Dress Cake made with Cupcakes

Roses Cake: Shades of Purple

 

If you find other ideas that you like online, let us know. We always love trying new things! Questions? Call our decorators at 780-459-6560.

Homemade Focaccia

Helen, who works at our bakery, often recommends using our pizza dough to make Focaccia bread. We thought we'd share her instructions with you all. Thanks, Helen!

HELEN'S FOCACCIA:

Take 2 balls of Grandin Bakery's pizza dough and combine into one large ball. Place dough in a lightly greased cookie sheet and flatten. Poke dough with finger tips to create indents.

Brush with olive oil (flavored or plain). Sprinkle spices on top. Choices are yours, but some good ones to try are garlic, oregano, and pepper flakes. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top (or your choice of cheese).

Bake until golden @ 350 degrees F.

** If you've never used our pizza dough, we keep it hidden in the freezer. White or brown. Just ask for it at the counter.

Baby Showers!

I remember when I first started going to baby showers (sometime back in the 90's) and the snack tables would be full of your typical party goodies: fruit & veggie trays, dips, cookies and squares. Nothing fancy, often a potluck.

Now, when I go to baby showers, the snack table is often the highlight of the party (after the baby, of course!). I'm always amazed when the hosts put so much creativity and thought into a beautiful display, arranging all kinds of treats on pretty plates. I've been to showers with candy bars, with hand-crafted banners on the tables, and with tiered platters of hand-decorated baking. That last one is where we come in.

At Grandin Bakery, we love to get in on the baby shower fun, too! Some of our favorite orders are the ones we make for baby showers. Here are a few photos of sweet cupcakes that we've done for some soon-to-be and new mamas:

And you can always add a small cake, or just do cake instead of cupcakes:

 

 Hand-decorated cookies are also becoming popular for baby showers, either for at the party, or as favours. Head to your local craft or party store for some bags and ribbon, and you can put together special take-home gifts to say thank you to the guests.

 

 

Best of all, our cupcakes, cakes and cookies are customizable. Just call Grandin Bakery at 780-459-6560 and we can help you choose colors and decorations to match the rest of your party. Happy celebrating!