Basic Sweet Yeast Dough & Tomato Gazpacho

This dish was inspired by Billy's garden. An awesome bonus for driving out to Naperville last night was getting all this Veg:

I found a tomato gazpacho recipe online that I was excited to try using all of the wonderful tomatoes and cucumbers from his garden. To compliment this dish, I wanted to make homemade bread to go along with it. The Basic Sweet Yeast Dough recipe makes a two loaves of bread so my plan for the remaining dough... Spoiler Alert! Next blog is Cinnamon Rolls!

Our reaction to the gazpacho: it will now be a stable in our meals. It was easy and delicious. You just need 2 or more hours for it to sit in the fridge for all the flavors to marry. 


What can I say about the bread? Now, I'm not a bread fan typically. This bread was A-MAZING. Mike said it was a "Fantastic dinner". We split a second piece of bread! Now I feel like I may explode, but it was worth it. What's funny is that with some of these dishes I don't know what their going to taste like but I end up being thrown into my childhood every time. The sweet bread is the best. It's the only dough for me! Enjoy!

Recipe for the dough:


Ingredients:


2 pkgs dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
2 cups flour
2 cups milk scalded & cooled (Don't know what scalding means? Me either... explanation.)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp salt
5 cups flour (about... I used 6 cups.)


Directions:

• Dissolve yeast in water.
• Sprinkle 1 tsp sugar on top. 
• Beat 2 cups of flour into milk until smooth.
• Add yeast mixture.
• Let stand for about an hour, until light and bubbly. 
• After an hour, cream butter & sugar together with electric mixer. 
• Add unbeaten eggs and salt. Blend well.
• Combine that mixture into the yeast mixture. 
• Work in more flour, enough to make soft dough. 
• Knead until smooth and elastic on a very lightly floured pastry cloth. 
• Place dough in a greased bowl; cover & let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. 
• Re-shape the dough and let rise again until it has doubled in size. 
• Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. 

Knowing when bread is very tricky and people have their methods of knowing but if you're unsure (like me), I looked it up. This blog states that once the bread reaches 200 degrees, it's done. Use a kitchen thermometer.

Recipe for the Tomato Gazpacho


Ingredients:


5 Large Roma tomatoes, diced
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 stalk celery, diced
1 cucumber - peeled, seeded, and diced
2 green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped sweet onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 yellow red pepper, diced
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (46 oz) can tomato juice
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 pinch dried tarragon
freshly ground pepper to taste
dash of sriracha


Directions:

• In a large glass bowl, mix the tomatoes, garbanzo beans, celery, cucumber, green onions, sweet onion, parsley, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, lemon juice, and garlic. Pour in the tomato juice. Season with curry powder, tarragon, pepper, and sriracha.
• Chill in the refrigerator at least 2 hours before serving.