HOMEMADE BREAD (PAN CASERO)

Homemade bread or Pan Casero as we call it in Costa Rica is very popular. It is a soft, fluffy bread with a touch of sweetness that allow to eat with butter and jelly, or in this case filled with cream cheese and guava jelly, and of course with a fresh brewed black coffee.

This bread has a very particular flavor of the yeast and the amount of sugar on it make a sweet bread that you can not stop eat it. It is a bread with a soft flavor that you can put on it butter, jelly, honey, cream cheese, even a slice of yellow american cheese, ham or mortadela. Make your own choice and enjoy...

Some days ago I was looking at Facebook's posts, and called my attention of photo of a brown, water mouth home bread (pan casero) that my cousin Edith posted that I couldn't resist to asked her for the recipe. 

 

PAN CASERO

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup of butter
2 cups of milk
1 1/2 cups of sugar
3 tablespoon of yeast
3 eggs
2.2 lb  (1 kg) of all purpose flour
3 ounces cream cheese
guava paste
1 tablespoon of butter
1 teaspoon of sugar

Directions

Melt the butter. Put aside.

Heat the milk and the sugar at the microwave until it reached a 120 temperature.
Pour the melt butter and mix.

Transfer the milk mixture to a big bowl, add the yeast and stir until is well combine.

In a small bowl, using a fork beat the eggs just to break the yolks and combine.

Add the eggs to the milk yeast mixture and stir until is well combine.

In one addition, add all the flour. With a wooden spoon, mix all the flour with the milk until you have a soft, sticky dough.

Cover with a clean towel and let to rise to double the size. Put the bowl in the off oven and turn on only the light to heat the oven enough the dough can rise. It can take a 1 1/2 or 2 hours.

 

When the dough has risen put it on a floured surface and cut 2 ounces pieces to make a ball. Flatten it and  fill with a little piece of the cream cheese and guava paste. Close to make a ball again and put seam down onto a grease baking sheet.

In a small bowl melt the butter at the microwave and add the sugar. With a pastry brush, paint the bread.

Turn your oven to 170 and put the baking sheet with the bread and let to rise again for 15 to 20 minutes until it double the size.

Without removing the bread from the oven, put the temperature to 350 and bake it for 25 minutes or until is golden brown.

CRANBERRY RICE PUDDING

For a cold day nothing better that a warm dessert, like a rice pudding with a special touch of orange zest and cranberries, perfect after a delicious dinner to warm the soul.

This is another recipe that I modified. Originally was with cherries, but I am a cranberry fan so I decided to change it. Looking at my pantry I found a bottle of Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract, that I bought in December, and I thought it will be a good flavor for the rice..
but also I made it with regular vanilla or a bean vanilla and the result is very good too.

Because I like the rice pudding white as possible I put the cloves and cinnamon in a Stainless Steal Tea Ball Infuser, or also you can use a coffee filter. You put the species into the coffee filter and tie it to hold the spices. When you rice is ready put away the filter and you have a white rice with the flavor of the spices.

CRANBERRY RICE PUDDING

 Ingredients

2 cups of milk
1 1/2 cups of water
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 tablespoon of sugar
5 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2/3 cup dried cranberries
3 tablespoons of heavy cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 orange zest
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
ground nutmeg, for garnish, optional

Directions

In a medium pot, put the rice, water, milk, and sugar. Bring to boiled on medium heat. Stir to prevent to stick to the bottom of the pot.

Cover and cook until the rice is tender.

In a bowl pour the condensed milk with a half of water to dilute it. Set aside.

Add to the rice the cranberries, heavy cream and cooked for a 10 minutes stirring frequently until the pudding thickens slightly.

Add the condensed milk mixture to the rice and stir until is well combined. Cook for a minute. If it is to thick you can add more milk, as desired.

Turn the heat off and add the vanilla. Serve into individual bowls and garnish with nutmeg.