Sunflower seed bread

The smell alone of this bread baking is enough to make it worthwhile! Heavenly!

Ingredients

2/3 C warm milk or water (I used milk)
1 Tbsp honey
2 tsp sugar
1/2 Tbsp salt
1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp canola or vegetable oil
1 egg
1 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
1/3 C sunflower seeds, + more for sprinkling on top

Combine honey, milk, sugar, salt, yeast, oil, and egg in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Add in flour and sunflower seeds and mix just until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Pour dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let rise about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Shape risen dough into an oval (batard shape) and place in a lightly greased 8x4" loaf pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30-40 minutes. While bread is rising, preheat oven to 375 F.

Once bread has risen, brush top with a little vegetable oil and sprinkle top with sunflower seeds.

Bake the loaf for 35-45 minutes, then allow it to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing or serving.

YUM!

Before abandoning the holiday theme altogether...

...I had to share this photo of a friend's baby checking out Santa Claus. It made me smile and I wish the same for you!

Happy New Year!

Spicy Seasoned Pretzels

Ingredients

16 oz (1 lb) bag tiny twist pretzels
1 cup vegetable or canola oil *** See note below!
2 teaspoons garlic salt (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder and 1 teaspoon salt)
2 teaspoons lemon pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper ***

Instructions

Pour oil and spices into a gallon Ziploc bag. Seal and shake to evenly distribute oil with spices.
Add in pretzels, seal up Ziploc bag, and gently shake to combine.
There are two different ways you can finish the pretzels:

Option 1: you can leave them in the Ziploc bag and allow pretzels to soak up the seasoned oil for at least 6 hours, or ideally for 24 hours. Turn bag to shake up pretzels every few hours.
Option 2: Bake the oil soaked pretzels in a 200 degree oven for about 1 hour, stirring several times to ensure even baking.

Allow to cool before eating. Pretzels will keep in an airtight container for 3 weeks.

*** I reduced the amount of oil to 1/2 cup and used the cook-in-the-oven method. I found this works just fine, but if you wish to jack up your cholesterol... be my guest! I also upped the amount of cayenne pepper after the first time I made this to prevent me from gorging TOO much - these things are tasty and addictive!