Bread Archives | CaliGirl Cooking

September 21, 2018October 31, 2019

Cheddar and Chive Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pao de Queijo)

These tasty miniature Brazilian cheese breads are packed with cheddar and fresh chives with a wonderfully chewy texture. Pao de queijo is the perfect snack or accompaniment to any meal.

Cheese-lovers, this one’s for you.

I’ll be the first to admit that cheese is one of my favorite food groups, so I’ll take any excuse to come up with recipes that happen to be loaded with it. When I found myself with some extra tapioca flour on hand from last week’s No-Bake Honey Roasted Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars, I decided it was the perfect time to try out a recipe that had been on my mind for at least a couple of years – Brazilian cheese bread!

Believe it or not, I tasted my first pao de queijo in Hawaii at the ever-so-popular KCC Farmer’s Market on Oahu. It was piping hot, wonderfully chewy and oh-so-cheesy. When I learned that it was in fact made with only tapioca flour (making it entirely gluten-free) and still so flavorful, I knew I had to figure out how to make it on my own.

Fast forward a couple of years, with a huge bag of tapioca flour just begging to be put to use, I knew it was time. Brazilian cheese bread was happening. But of course I couldn’t make it your typical Brazilian cheese bread, I had to give it my own little twist with sharp aged cheddar cheese and fresh chives. I have to say, the end result was all that I had hoped for…and more. I think it’s safe to say there will be a lot of pao de queijo in my future.

After being so intimidated to even go to the store and buy tapioca flour, I was– as is often the case for me when exploring new recipes and techniques—extremely surprised by how EASY it was to make this cheesy deliciousness. I mean, we’re talking “throw everything in a blender and call it a day” easy.

The end result was these chewy, cheesy, popping bread rolls. They’re not unlike popovers in batter consistency and looks, but when you bite into them you’ll be surprised at the soft yet chewy texture that’s undeniably full of flavor.

Did I mention they take almost no time to make? The batter comes together in less than five minutes, and they’ll be hot out of the oven in less than 15. And you’ll want to eat these bad boys HOT if you want the ultimate cheesy- and chewy-ness.

In short, Cheddar and Chive Brazilian Cheese Bread is PROBABLY going to become your new go-to side for all of your homemade meals. Or maybe your favorite after-school snack? Or weekend brunch addition? Whenever you make them, you’re not going to be disappointed!

Cheddar and Chive Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pao de Queijo)

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

12 mins

Total Time

17 mins

These tasty miniature cheese breads are packed with cheddar and fresh chives with a wonderfully chewy texture. Pao de queijo is the perfect snack or accompaniment to any meal.

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Brazilian

Keyword: baking, bread, cheese, gluten-free, side dish

Servings: 24 rolls

Calories: 100 kcal

Author: CaliGirl Cooking

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup milk
1 cup grated white cheddar cheese
2 cups tapioca flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a two-dozen mini muffin tin (see notes for link.)
Combine all ingredients except chives in a blender and blend until smooth.
Stir in chives.
Pour or scoop batter into prepared muffin tins and bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the bread are a light golden brown.
Enjoy warm!

Recipe Notes

Shopping link for miniature muffin tin.

October 23, 2017January 14, 2020

Pumpkin Popovers

These fall-inspired pumpkin popovers are the perfect, easy side dish for all your holiday meals. They’re dense and pillowy and delicious hot out of the oven!

Who’s ready for a #virtualpumpkinparty?! It’s (one of) my most favorite times of the year because today we’re talking allllll things pumpkin and, specifically, these super dense and moist Pumpkin Popovers that are going to change your fall baking game forever.

This is now the second year in a row I’ve participated in the viral blogger phenomenon known as the #virtualpumpkinparty and I’m really not lying when I say it’s one of my favorite times of the year. Last year I made these sinful Pumpkin Praline Cinnamon Rolls with Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting, and this year I couldn’t be more excited about the Pumpkin Popovers that I’m sharing with you today. Maybe one year I’ll get around to sharing a savory dish, but I just can’t help myself with all the delicious pumpkin baked goods!

PLUS, not only do you get to hear all about my tasty pumpkin-inspired recipe today, but I’m also sharing the link to over 60 other bloggers’ recipes featuring the beloved fall ingredient so, if you are obsessed with all things pumpkin right now (don’t lie, I know you are) you’ve definitely come to the right place.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the recipe!

First off, if you’ve never explored the world of popovers before, you’ve really been missing out. They’re basically a quicker and much easier solution to making your own dinner rolls, with the added benefit of being fluffy and buttery and dense and moist all at the same time.

They tend to lean more towards the savory side of things as the recipe doesn’t call for any sugar but, let me tell you, that didn’t stop me from slathering them in pumpkin cream cheese and enjoying them for breakfast every now and then when we had my test batches lying around the kitchen.

Speaking of test batches, I based this recipe off of a basic popover one I had in my trusty little recipe card box (I have no idea where it originally came from) but was disappointed to discover that my first batch only yielded 5, MAYBE 6 really small popovers. It may have been because I was using an actual popover pan as opposed to a standard muffin tin (you can really use either) but, after tasting said Pumpkin Popovers, I knew that amount was just not going to cut it for me!

So I quickly decided to double the recipe and I’m proud to say that, although it still only yields a half-dozen, the resulting Pumpkin Popovers were MUCH larger and fluffier – just what I was looking for.

You could easily double the below recipe again if you’re serving a crowd over the holidays, but do keep in mind that popovers are best served warm and fresh. That being said, these ones are dense enough (thanks to the addition of good ol’ pumpkin puree) that they can also be frozen or even eaten over a few days if you don’t mind eating them as pillowy soft and warm as they are right out of the oven.

The other great thing about these Pumpkin Popovers is that it really takes no time at all to whip up a batch, so you can easily fit them into the cooking schedule for all your holiday entertaining needs. I don’t know about you, but I’m hoping to have a big hot basket of these on the table for Thanksgiving, Christmas and beyond.

To check out all the other blogger recipes for this year’s #virtualpumpkinparty, click here!

This post contains affiliate links.

5 from 2 votes

Pumpkin Popovers

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

35 mins

Total Time

45 mins

These fall-inspired popovers are the perfect, easy side dish for all your holiday meals. They're dense and pillowy and delicious hot out of the oven!

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: baking, bread, fall, popovers, pumpkin, side dish, snack

Servings: 6 servings

Calories: 208 kcal

Author: CaliGirl Cooking

Ingredients

2 eggs, beaten and at room temperature
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Place popover or muffin tin in preheated oven for about 5 minutes to warm it up while you’re making your batter.
To make the batter, combine eggs, pumpkin and almond milk in a medium bowl. Stir in the butter.
Stir in the flour and salt until everything is just mixed together.
Remove tin from the oven and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Fill each tin ¾ of the way full with the batter.
Bake 15 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake until golden, about 20 minutes more.
Cool for 5 minutes before popping out of the pan and serving.

June 28, 2017December 17, 2019

Chocolate Cherry Bread

This dense yeasted bread has a chocolate-molasses dough that’s studded with chocolate chips and dried sweet cherries. Chocolate Cherry Bread is delicious when toasted and served warm!

I don’t know what it is (maybe the fact that I finally realized how easy it is to actually pit cherries?) but this year I have been on such a cherry recipe kick. Isn’t it funny how that works sometimes? Some years, you become so absolutely obsessed with an ingredient that the ideas just keep flooding in. I suppose I have pregnancy to blame for my obsession with certain foodstuffs, and when those foodstuffs involve things like red, juicy cherries, I don’t mind one bit.

To be fair, this Chocolate Cherry Bread is a recipe I’ve had in my back pocket for ohhhhh, over six years? You see, when I lived in Honolulu, it was a weekly ritual for my friend Leslie and I to go for a Saturday morning run around the base of Diamond Head, and then hit up the Kapiolani Community College Farmer’s Market (one of THE best farmer’s markets around if you ask me) to stock up on yummy goods for the week (okay, and maybe enough samples to count as breakfast.)

Now, this farmer’s market is seriously no joke. Not only will you find a ginormous selection of local fruits and vegetables, you’ll also find rows and rows of prepared food (we’re talking fried green tomatoes, roasted Kahuku corn and the like) PLUS my favorite: baked goods!

One of my favorite stops was the Ba-Le stand, which is a French-Korean bakery/deli with stores throughout the island. I was still in the midst of my food obsession/eating qualms at the time, so heaven forbid I splurge and buy a whole loaf of their delicious bread to eat on my own, but what I loved about the Ba-Le stand was the SAMPLES. Man, oh man, the samples. They would cut up every single flavor of bread they made and have them all sitting out there for everyone to try. As you can imagine, after a long run (and as someone who had not been nourishing myself properly for these runs) I was alllll about the bread samples.

One of my very favorite flavors that Ba-Le had for sale (and to sample!) was the Chocolate Cherry Bread. I don’t know about you, but whenever I had imagined a Chocolate Cherry Bread, I would think of a quick bread, with a dense, pound cake-like texture. But this Chocolate Cherry Bread was different. It was a yeasted bread, which meant it had plenty of heft and was perfect for toasting and slathering butter or cream cheese on.

On one of my Dad’s many visits out to see me, I took him to the market and made him try this bread that I had so madly fell in love with. My Dad is my confidant when it comes to recreating recipes I try out in public at home. His palate is spot on and he knows exactly what it will take to make our own version of whatever we’ve fallen in love with. Needless to say, the next time I was home visiting my parents in Santa Cruz, we tackled the task of making our very own version of Chocolate Cherry Bread.

The result is this recipe I’m sharing today, which has finally made its way off of the piece of scratch paper I had scrawled it on and into my “official” recipe archives.

Our Chocolate Cherry Bread is a dense, chocolate- and molasses-flavored loaf studded with dried sweet cherries and semisweet chocolate chips. It’s just as irresistible fresh out of the oven as it is two days later, toasted and slathered with your favorite spread (butter, cream cheese and jam are all equally acceptable.)

Yeasted breads can often seem intimidating but, with a little planning, I promise they’re not. In fact, they’re probably one of the easier baked goods to tackle, simply for the fact that much of the prep time involves just letting the dough rest and rise. The actual dough-making and baking process takes less than an hour.

Since I’ve been preggo, I’ve needed to eat something as soon as I wake up in the morning, and this Chocolate Cherry Bread has been just the answer. We (just the two of us) can go through a loaf in less than a week, but if you don’t consume carbs at the rapid pace that we do (or simply want to save your Chocolate Cherry Bread for a special occasion,) the loaf will freeze incredibly well.

I’m thinking this is another thing I’ll have to stock in our freezer for the weeks after baby comes?

Chocolate Cherry Bread

Prep Time

2 hrs 20 mins

Cook Time

40 mins

Total Time

3 hrs

This dense yeasted bread has a chocolate-molasses dough that's studded with chocolate chips and dried sweet cherries. It's delicious when toasted and served warm!

Course: Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: baking, bread, breakfast, brunch, cherry, chocolate, kid-friendly

Servings: 6 people

Author: CaliGirl Cooking

Ingredients

1 package Rapid Rise Yeast
1 cup warm water (between 100 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit)
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup molasses
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried sweet cherries
2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions

Add all ingredients (starting with just 2 ½ cups flour) to a food processor and process until they begin to come together to form a sticky dough. Add additional flour, ¼ cup at a time (processing in between,) until you are just able to pull out the dough without it sticking all over your hands. (It’s okay if the dough is still a little sticky. You don’t want to add too much flour or the dough will be tough.)
Turn the dough out of the food processor and into a medium mixing bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise in a warm place free from drafts for 30 minutes to 1 hour, or until dough has doubled in size.
Take dough out of bowl and knead a bit, either just between your hands or on a lightly floured surface, before placing dough in a greased 8-inch round cake pan. Let rise, uncovered, in a warm place for another hour.
Towards the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. When dough is finished rising, bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes, or until bread sounds a bit hollow when you tap on the top. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out on to a cooling rack to cool completely.

June 7, 2017November 25, 2019

Coconut Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This fun twist on banana bread adds two classic flavors – chocolate and coconut! Coconut Chocolate Chip Banana Bread is an incredibly easy recipe and makes enough to enjoy now AND later!

I’m a diehard banana bread lover, especially when it’s loaded with all of the same flavors you find in your favorite Girl Scout cookie (Samoas, I’m looking at you!) This Coconut Chocolate Chip Banana Bread just MAY be the best recipe adaptation I’ve ever made.

My passion for banana bread started when I was just a wee tyke (okay, maybe a preteen) getting interested in the world of cooking and baking. My mom had a Mrs. Fields I Love Chocolate Cookbook (thanks to my Dad’s obsession with ‘Vitamin C,” as we dubbed it in our household) and, upon leafing through it for inspiration, I settled on making the cookie goddess’ Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, if only because (a) it looked really easy and (b) it made two loaves!

Let’s just say this Chocolate Chip Banana Bread was a smashing success in our household, and became my go-to baked good whenever we wanted a little breakfast treat or dessert around to munch on.

It’s been a while since I busted out the ol’ recipe that I copied out of my mom’s cookbook by hand to bring with me to my “adult” home, if for no other reason than I’ve been busy baking everything else under the sun for this blog (like this Hummingbird Bread, this Harvey Wallbanger Cake and these Addicting S’mores Granola Clusters.)

But pregnancy tends to bring you back to your homegrown roots, and I found myself craving a sweetly satisfying breakfast bread that I could easily enjoy a piece of when I wake up at the crack of dawn and still have a couple of hours to wait before the hubs is awake and it’s time for our Power Protein Smoothie.

So, I decided to take what I already knew was a favorite of mine and really make it my own. This oh-so-delicious Coconut Chocolate Chip Banana Bread is the proud result! I used much of the original Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chip Banana Bread recipe, except I decided to add a tropical twist with some finely shredded unsweetened coconut. I also not only reduced the overall sugar content in the recipe, but decided to use brown sugar as a partial substitute to really give the bread some caramelly flavor which, if you saw my above note about Samoas, is obviously a great compliment to the chocolate and coconut flavors.

Don’t be scared off by the large quantities of some of the ingredients. Keep in mind that this recipe makes two loaves! And I would like to point out that they freeze REALLY well. I’m starting to think about what I’m going to want to load our freezer with before Baby D. comes, and if the second loaf of this last batch of Coconut Chocolate Chip Banana Bread happens to get consumed in the next four and a half months (which is very likely,) you can bet I’ll be making more. We need to be sure we’re well-equipped with delicious breakfast foods when we’re incredibly sleep-deprived and walking around the kitchen like zombies.

And the whole reason I came to enjoy making banana bread still stands true today – it is so easy! The hardest part might just be planning enough in advance so you can pull some butter out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature before making the batter.

Aside from that, you can have the batter mixed, poured out into the loaf pans and into the oven in less than 15 minutes. Then the only tricky part is waiting the hour it takes for the loaves to cook. It won’t be long before the smell of Coconut Chocolate Chip Banana Bread is wafting through your house!

This post contains affiliate links. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for continuing to support the brands that make CaliGirl Cooking possible!

Coconut Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

1 hr 5 mins

Total Time

1 hr 20 mins

This fun twist on banana bread adds two classic flavors - chocolate and coconut! It's an incredibly easy recipe and makes enough to enjoy now AND later!

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: baking, bananas, bread, breakfast, brunch, chocolate, freezer-friendly, make-ahead, snack

Servings: 12 people

Author: CaliGirl Cooking

Ingredients

3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3 cups mashed bananas (about 8 bananas)
4 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla bean extract or vanilla bean paste
3/4 cup flaked, unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray two 8.5-inch loaf pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper to prevent sticking. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both types of sugar until light and fluffy. Add the bananas and beaten eggs and mix until well incorporated. Add the vanilla.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix to combine. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and, using a spatula, fold in the coconut and chocolate chips.
Pour the batter evenly into your two prepared loaf pans, then place in the preheated oven for 65-70 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (a little bit of melted chocolate is okay.)
Let loaves cool, in pans, on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then turn out of pans to cool completely.

May 22, 2017December 5, 2019

Cheesy BBQ Garlic Bread

This Cheesy BBQ Garlic Bread is not your average garlic bread! This version is loaded with zesty BBQ sauce and smothered in melted cheese, the perfect BBQ side dish!

This cheesy goodness goes by no other name than (somewhat obvious): Cheesy BBQ Garlic Bread! I’ve been wanting to make this perfect cookout accompaniment for quite some time now, and I figured what better time to do so than for the holiday weekend that basically kicks off summer!

And I’m not stopping there. That’s right, this week I’ll be bringing you all kinds of fun BBQ-friendly dishes to get you loaded up with recipes before the hubs and I skip town and head up to Tahoe for a much needed getaway with a few of our close friends. My hubby’s birthday happens to be on Memorial Day this year so we thought, what better way to celebrate than at one of our favorite places with some of our favorite people? We’re keeping it fairly low-key, though, with a spa day penciled in and surely lots of time just relaxing around the house and catching up! I hear there may still even be snow there, which would be pretty cool.

Sorry, just a little digression, because what I’m really here to talk about is this Cheesy BBQ Garlic Bread. I’m very happy to report that it turned out just every bit as good as I had imagined. And it’s so easy! We’re talking about FIVE ingredients and FIVE minutes on a high heat grill (or under the broiler.) That’s it!

Of course, if you wanted to be really adventurous, you could whip up your own BBQ from scratch, but if your household is anything like ours, you probably have at least a bottle or two of your favorite premade stuff hanging around your pantry or refrigerator.

I was lucky to have some of the Sweet ‘n Spicy BBQ Sauce from Montana Mex on hand (thanks, Eduardo!) and decided to give it a spin for this recipe. If you haven’t heard of Montana Mex or Chef Eduardo Garcia, it’s about time you did. (Sorry, just another little digression and, no, this is not sponsored! I truly was just incredibly impressed by Eduardo’s story so I wanted to share it here.)

Every year, Chris and I are lucky enough to attend some of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s events through his company’s sponsorship connections. When we heard we’d be getting tickets to the opening film this year and what the film was about, I have to admit I was a LOT more excited than I had been for the films being screened in previous years.

Charged is a film about Chef Eduardo Garcia’s survival and inspiring recovery from being charged with 2400 volts of electricity while out hiking in the woods one afternoon. Although not for the faint of heart, the film is full of Eduardo’s unwavering positivity in the face of adversity and perseverance through some very challenging obstacles.

We were lucky enough to get to chat with him after the film, and I was honored when he offered to send me a box of his company’s products. Chef Eduardo founded Montana Mex after he became frustrated with so many of the Mexican food products available here in the United States that were laden with chemicals and preservatives. So he and his business partner set out to make a line of Mexican-inspired condiments without all of the gunky stuff. Which you know is right up my alley!

Charged won’t be released to the general public until September (at which time you most definitely need to go see it), but if you come across any film festivals that might be airing it before then, GO! If you like inspiring stories, survival and food, you will not be disappointed.

Eek, ok! Let’s get to this Cheesy BBQ Garlic Bread. Good thing it’s so easy to make because I have been rambling for far too long already and I’m sure we all have more important things to be doing on a Monday morning.

So here’s what we do: We start with a huge loaf of fresh, crusty bread. A pain rustique or ciabatta (something with lots of little air pockets in the dough) would be ideal here. We want lots of nooks and crannies for all of the butter, garlic and BBQ sauce to ooze into.

We slice the bread long-ways for maximum surface area, then start slathering on the good stuff – first butter, the BBQ sauce and garlic, then cheese. Because this BBQ garlic bread is CHEESY.

Throw the loaf halves onto the grill (if you have space to spare) or pop them under the broiler and you’ll have delicious Cheesy BBQ Garlic Bread in as little as five minutes. If that’s not the perfect cookout side dish, I don’t know what is!

Cheesy BBQ Garlic Bread

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

5 mins

Total Time

15 mins

Not your average garlic bread! This version is loaded with zesty BBQ sauce and smothered in melted cheese, the perfect BBQ side dish!

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: BBQ, bread, cheese, entertaining, kid-friendly, side dish, summer, weeknight

Servings: 6 servings

Author: CaliGirl Cooking

Ingredients

1 loaf fairly flat, crusty bread (such as ciabatta or pain rustique,) sliced in half lengthwise
4-6 tablespoons melted butter (depending on how large your loaf of bread is, mine was pretty big)
1/2 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
8 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 cups shredded Asiago cheese (or Parmesan, or your favorite cheesy bread cheese!)

Instructions

Place halves of bread cut side up on a large baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. If using the grill, turn it on high and let it begin warming up. If using the broiler, turn it on high to preheat.
Spread melted butter evenly onto loaf halves, then do the same with the BBQ sauce.
Sprinkle on the minced garlic and then cover the loaf halves evenly with the shredded cheese.
If using the grill, place the bread (topping side up) directly onto the grates. If using the broiler, keep the bread on the baking sheet and place in the oven. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbling and edges of bread are browned. Let cool slightly before slicing and serving.