Baking recipes

Scroll through our posts below to try all sorts of delicious baking recipes from our instagram baking videos. New baking videos are posted the first week of each month on Instagram and Facebook.

To easily find one of our recipes type below:

Bread Recipes Deidre Lotecki Bread Recipes Deidre Lotecki

Bagels...the HOLE-iest bread in town!

Bagels…cream cheese…what better combo is out there!? It’s not very often you get to eat a bagel straight from the oven, at least not in my world, but boy are they delicious! Like most of my bread recipes, this is a whole day affair, but most of that is just waiting around. Perfect for quarantine! You can also start them the day before, then finish them the next day if you are on the ball! Imagine having your friends over for Sunday brunch, just showing off your new found bread skills with freshly made bagels! How impressive! Can’t wait until we can actually have brunch with friends again…one day!

Freshly made BAGELS!

Freshly made BAGELS!


Bagels

Yield: 6 regular sized bagels

Once you get to the boiling stage of the recipe, preheat that oven to 450*F

Sponge:

  • 1 cup room temperature water

  • 1 1/4 teaspoon Yeast (instant or whatever you got!)

  • 1 1/2 cups Flour

Dough:

  • 1 1/2 cups Flour

  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 1 Tablespoon Honey (or molasses if you got it!)

Boiling Mixture:

  • Approximately 2.5 Litres of water

  • 1/4 cup Brown Sugar (or Honey)

  • 1 teaspoon Baking Soda

Egg Wash:

  • 1 egg

  • pinch of sugar

  • pinch of salt

Toppings:

I used poppyseeds, but you can use anything! Sesame seeds, dried herbs, everything bagel spice blend!

  1. In the bowl of your mixer, combine the sponge ingredients - 1 cup of water, 1.5 cups of flour and 1 1/4 teaspoon yeast. Then cover this with saran wrap and let it sit for at least 3 hours. This is the “sponge” which is going to grow and build flavour similar to a sourdough bread while it sits.

  2. Your sponge mixture should now looks very bubbly and have a goopy texture, that is perfect! Now dump in the rest of the dough ingredients - 1.5 cups flour, 1.5 teaspoons salt and 1 Tablespoon honey. Mix using the dough hook of your mixer for about 6 minutes. This is a pretty thick dough, so if your mixer sounds strained just pop it out of the bowl and mix it by hand. The finished dough should be soft and not sticky to the touch.

  3. Place your dough ball into a large greased bowl and cover with a towel or saran wrap or a lid. Let it rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

  4. Remove your dough ball and cut it into 6 equal pieces.

  5. Take each piece and roll it into a ball, I like to cup it in my hand and roll it on the counter top to make a nice ball shape.

  6. Now poke your finger through the middle of your dough ball and stretch it out until you have a bagel shape with a hole in the middle that’s about 1.5” wide.

  7. Place the formed bagels onto a parchment lined baking tray that has been lightly dusted with flour.

  8. Once all 6 of your bagels have been formed, cover them with saran wrap and leave them to rest 20-30 minutes at room temperature. If you want the bake these the next day, you can pop these into the fridge overnight and continue with the rest of the recipe tomorrow, just let your bagels sit out at room temperature for about 30 minutes before you boil them so they aren’t super cold.

  9. While your bagels are resting, bring about 2.5 Litres of water to a boil and add 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

  10. You can also preheat your oven to 450*F at this time!

  11. Now boil your bagels in the water mixture for 20-30 seconds per side, I did mine 2 at a time so the water didn’t cool down too much.

  12. Once boiled place the bagels back onto the parchment lined tray, trying to make sure not to bring too much water onto the tray.

  13. Now the egg wash! Whisk together your egg with a pinch of sugar and salt, you can use a fork for this, just want to break up the egg so we can paint it onto our bagels.

  14. Using a pastry brush if you got it, otherwise your fingers will do, brush the tops and sides of your bagels with the egg wash, then sprinkle them with your toppings, I used poppyseeds but you can also just leave them plain.

  15. Once they are all egg washed pop them into your hot oven and bake until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped.

  16. Now devour them with cream cheese! Yay!

Bagels...the HOLE-iest bread in town!

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Bread Recipes Deidre Lotecki Bread Recipes Deidre Lotecki

Focaccia! *Imagine an Italian Nona saying that*

I have about 20 Italian vacations planned in my Pinterest. Unfortunately I never have time to go to Italy…and now that I have time, I am not supposed to leave my house…how rude! So to fake my dream vacation we are making focaccia and watching movies in Italy in hopes that if I drink enough vino I might almost think I am there…almost! This crispy bread takes a few hours to make but you don’t need to do that much work, basically just move it from one bowl to another every few hours, nothing too crazy! I mean we have time on our hands now, but we don’t want to be labouring away for 6 hours, I have netflix shows to watch!

Focaccia Bread!

Focaccia Bread!


Focaccia Bread

Yield: 1 skillet sized pan, or a 9” cake pan, or whatever you’ve got!

Once you get to the final rise you will need to Preheat your oven to 450*F

  • 1 cup Warm Water (needs to be warm to awaken our yeast)

  • 1 teaspoon honey, sugar, or maple syrup

  • 1 teaspoon yeast, I used instant yeast, but use what you got, we’re in quarantine!

  • 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

  • 1 teaspoon dried herbs (optional)

  • 2 1/2 cups Flour

Topping:

  • 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

  • 1/2 teaspoon Coarse Salt (if not just a sprinkle of regular salt should do the trick!)

  • Toppings such as: parmesan cheese, chopped garlic, sundried tomatoes, pepperoni, herbs, sliced onion, olives, pesto, really anything you want!

  1. In the bowl of your mixer pour your warm water and honey, stir to combine.

  2. Sprinkle your yeast on top of the warm water, then let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes or until foamy.

  3. Now add your olive oil, salt, dried herbs and flour and combine using the dough hook on the mixer.

  4. Using the mixer with dough hook continue to mix the dough for 10-15 minutes, or until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and sticks together around the hook in a ball. If you need to, you can finish kneading this by hand, but I didn’t because it came together in the bowl.

  5. Place the dough ball into a greased bowl and cover it with a lid, saran wrap, or a tea towel and let sit at room temperature until doubled in size, mine took 1.5 hours.

  6. Now grease your pan (I used a cast iron skillet) using about 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil, this is going to seem like a lot, but the olive oil is there to kind of fry the edges of your bread and make them crispy in the oven!

  7. Place your dough ball into the greased pan and using your fingers spread it out to fill the pan.

  8. Now cover your pan with a tea towel and let sit at room temperature for about 1 hour, until the dough rises up about 1/2"-1” (doubled). If you don’t want to eat this today, you can also pop your focaccia into the fridge instead of letting it rise and bake it off tomorrow or later in the day, just make sure you let it sit at room temperature until it’s risen after taking it out of the fridge.

  9. Preheat your oven to 450*F while the dough is resting in it’s pan.

  10. Using your fingers dimple the dough ALL over so it has lots of imprints, then drizzle it with olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, and any of the toppings you want. This isn’t a pizza, so you want to be able to see some of the dough peeking through, but a nice smattering of garlic or sundried tomatoes or olives is delicious! You can also bake this just with the olive oil and salt.

  11. Pop the pan into your hot oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown!

  12. Now pour yourself some vino, turn on “Under the Tuscan Sun” and eat your focaccia while pretending your on vacation. Heaven!

Crispy Italian bread baked in a skillet! Yummy!

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Bread Recipes, Cake Recipes Deidre Lotecki Bread Recipes, Cake Recipes Deidre Lotecki

Cinnamon Streusel Banana Bread because we all have ugly bananas in our freezer!

I love bananas! Not just as a fruit, but I think they are SO cute! I literally have a banana change purse, banana leaf wallpaper and my phone screen is bananas, they are happy, yellow and adorable! One might say I’m BANANAS for bananas! Anyways, last week was pi day, which meant making mucho banana cream pies but now I am left with lots of bananas that didn’t get used up, so what better use than banana bread! If you don’t have a pile of blackening bananas on your counter like me, you probably have a few in the freezer, where all bananas go to die, so lets use them up!

Cinnamon Streusel Banana Bread - a gift from the baking gods!

Cinnamon Streusel Banana Bread - a gift from the baking gods!


Cinnamon Streusel Banana Bread

Yield: 1 loaf pan 9”x4” or whatever pan you want to use!

Preheat your oven to 350*F

  • 4 Bananas (or 3 if they are big boys!) - ideally blackening ones or ones from the freezer as they are full of flavour!

  • 3/4 cup Sugar

  • 1/2 cup Brown Sugar

  • 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil - I used canola but anything light on flavour should be good

  • 2 Eggs

  • 1/2 cup Buttermilk (or sour cream or yogurt or 1/2 cup milk plus 1/2 teaspoon vinegar)

  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (optional)

  • 1 teaspoon Baking Soda

  • 1 teaspoon Salt

  • 1 teaspoon Cinnamon

  • 2 cups Flour

Streusel Topping:

  • 1/4 cup Butter, softened

  • 1 cup Brown Sugar

  • 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

  • 1/4 cup Oats

  1. in a large bowl smash your bananas until they are liquidy, I use a fork, but you can also use a potato masher if that’s easier for ya!

  2. To the bananas add both the regular and brown sugar, you can also add the cinnamon, salt, and baking soda at this point. Stir to combine.

  3. Now pour in your liquid ingredients, buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Stir to combine.

  4. Now add all your flour and stir together. Don’t overmix the batter here, it’s ok if there are a few lumpy bits.

  5. In a separate bowl place all the ingredients for your streusel topping - butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and oats.

  6. Using your hands smoosh together the streusel ingredients until the butter has been incorporated into the sugar.

  7. In a greased and lined loaf pan place about 1/3 of the batter and spread to cover the base of the pan, now grab a handful of the streusel topping and spread it over top, then repeat this two more times until you use up all the batter and streusel topping, making sure to have a nice layer of streusel topping to place on top of the loaf.

  8. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 45-60 minutes, or until a toothpick stabbed into it comes out clean. If your banana bread seems to be browning too quickly, turn the heat down to 325*F. If you don’t use a loaf pan be sure to adjust your baking time, the thinner your batter is, the less time it’s going to take.

  9. Let cool then you are ready to slice and eat! Yay!!!!

Banana bread and coffee cake had a baby and it's DELICIOUS!

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Bread Recipes Deidre Lotecki Bread Recipes Deidre Lotecki

Jalapeno Popper Scones...They're popping with FLAVOUR!

I never ate a jalapeño popper until about a year ago…I know what a missed opportunity! A jalapeño filled with cream cheese and then deep fried, yes please! These scones are a flaky bun filled with all that delicious jalapeño popper flavour!

Jalapeno Popper Scones

Jalapeno Popper Scones


Jalapeno Popper Scones

Yield: 6 scones

Preheat that oven to 350*F

  • 1.5 cups Flour

  • 1 Tablespoon Sugar

  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt

  • 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

  • 1 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder

  • pinch of Pepper

  • 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into cubes

  • 1-2 Tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeños (or fresh) - these are spicy, so be careful if you don’t like the heat

  • 1/2 cup grated Cheddar Cheese

  • 2 ounces cream cheese, cut into little cubes (you can dust these with a touch of flour if they stick together)

  • 2 Tablespoons chopped Ham or Bacon

  • 1/2 cup Buttermilk (or 1/2 cup regular milk plus 1/2 teaspoon vinegar)

  • 1 egg

  1. In a large bowl combine all your dry ingredients, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and pepper. Toss to combine.

  2. Dump all the cold butter into your flour mix and blend it into your flour by pinching and rubbing the butter. You want there to be some larger chunks of butter, and the rest of the flour mixture to look a bit like sand.

  3. Add all your flavourings in, your cream cheese, jalapeños, ham, and MOST of the cheddar cheese, you want to save a small handful of cheese for sprinkling on top of your scones. Toss these to combine with the flour mix.

  4. Pour your buttermilk and egg into the flour mix and stir to combine. You don’t want to mix this dough too much, it’s perfect when your liquid is mixed in, but there are still a few floury looking bits.

  5. Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and press into a circle shape about 1” thick. Then using a knife cut it into 6 triangles, like you are cutting a pie.

  6. Place the scones onto a parchment lined baking tray then brush the tops with buttermilk and sprinkle them with your remaining cheese.

  7. Bake in a 350*F oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and delicious!

  8. Eat while warm or dunk into something yummy like chili!

Buttery scones baked with that jalapeño popper flavour!

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Bread Recipes Deidre Lotecki Bread Recipes Deidre Lotecki

No Knead Bread you really NEED in your life!

Ever wanted to make bread but you are intimidated? Maybe you have tried making bread and it was a disaster… I have been there and I literally went to school to learn how. Bread can be tricky, but it can also be super simple! This no-knead bread recipe is perfect for when you are social distancing and need something to a)occupy your life and b)eat with your dinner…but tomorrow’s dinner because it takes about 20 hours of resting before you can bake it.


Golden Brown and Delicious!

Golden Brown and Delicious!

Cracked Black Pepper and Parmesan No-Knead Bread

Yield: 1 loaf

  • All-purpose Flour 3 cups

  • Instant or Active Dry Yeast 2 teaspoons

  • Salt 2 teaspoons

  • Black Pepper 1/2 teaspoon

  • Parmesan, grated 2 Tablespoons

  • Warm water 1.5 cups

  • Olive Oil 1 Tablespoon

  1. Mix together the flour, yeast, salt, black pepper and parmesan until combined in a large bowl. The yeast is going to GROW so you want there to be lots of room for your dough to expand overnight.

  2. Stir in water and olive oil until it forms a sticky ball, you can just use your arm and a spatula for this, you don’t need a mixer…it’s like magic!

  3. Put a lid on your bowl, or saran wrap it and let it sit for about 20 hours.

  4. Pre-heat oven to 450*F and place a large cast iron pot with a lid inside while it is preheating so it gets nice and hot. I have an enamelled cast iron dutch oven which works great, but something that holds heat and has a lid is what your looking for. You are basically making a bread oven inside of your regular oven.

  5. Once the oven is hot, you can plop your dough out onto a floured surface and roughly roll it into a ball.

  6. Next pull your pot out of the oven, you can give it a little spray of non-stick cooking oil aka PAM, and plop your bread ball into it. Then place the lid on top and put it back into the oven.

  7. Bake with the lid on for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for another 15 minutes or until golden brown!

  8. I like to take my bread out of the pot to cool on a wire rack so it doesn’t get steamy on the bottom, but voila! Fresh baked bread, easy peasy!

Easy AND delicious! Baking bread while in quarantine!

Our delicious black pepper Parmesan bread has sat overnight and now it's ready to bake...and EAT!

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