Slice each half of loaf in half lengthwise. Spread cut side of bread with cheese mixture to within 1/2 inch of edges. If using olives, arrange olive slices over cheese mixture. Wrap each bread quarter in heavy-duty foil.

Place foil packets on gas grill over medium heat or on charcoal grill 4 to 6 inches from medium coals. Cook 10 to 15 minutes or until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted.

For the oven method:
Heat oven to 350ºF. Prepare bread as directed. Bake at 350ºF for 10 to 15 minutes or until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted.

Tip: I’m a believer in more is better. Not in this case. I’ve tried upping the amount of ingredients for one loaf of bread and it isn’t as good, in my humble opinion.

Pull the dough away from the sides and rub the bowl down with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours. Remove the plastic wrap and turn the mixer back on for 30 seconds.

Thoroughly oil a 9×13 or 11×15 rimmed baking dish. Press to dough to the edges, don’t be afraid to let your fingers puncture the dough—this will created the bumpy, rustic texture of traditional focaccia bread.

Once the dough is spread out, poke deep cavities in the dough and place an olive in each hole. Push the olives down far, otherwise they might pop out when the dough rises. Drizzle the top with more olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Cover the dough with a clean damp towel. Allow the dough to rise again for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the top is golden-brown. (If you used a 11×15 dish, it might be more like 30-35 minutes.)

You can leave the focaccia in the baking dish or turn it out for easy cutting.

Once all of the flour has been added and the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 6-8 minutes until it turns smooth and springy to the touch.

Wash out and butter the bowl you just used to mix the dough. Place the dough back inside it and cover with a piece of plastic wrap. Set it in a warm place and allow dough to rise until doubled in size. Depending on the warmth of your kitchen it will take between 1-2 hours to rise.

Once the dough is done rising, take it out of the bowl, punch it down and cut the dough into two equal halves. Preheat oven to 350 F.

Now it’s time to shape the loaves. I generally flatten the dough with a rolling pin till it’s relatively even and then fold the long edges into each other. Flip it over so the smooth side is on top.

Place the loaves on a baking sheet, slash the tops of the loaves with a knife several times and spray with a fine mist of water.

Place in a 350 F oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Pour the milk and butter into the bowl of standing mixer (fitted with a dough hook) and allow it to cool so it is no longer hot but also not cool (about 100-110 F). Once it has reached a warm but not hot temperature add the yeast and 1/4 cup of sugar and allow the mixture to sit and proof about 10 minutes.

Then add the pumpkin, salt, and 1 cup of flour. Stir until combined then add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time and knead for 6 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic and just slightly sticky. If the dough is too moist, add extra flour 1 tablespoon at a time.

Move dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean towel. Allow dough to rise in a warm place for 60-90 minutes or until doubled in size.

While dough is rising, brown another 2 tablespoons of butter using the same method as above. Once browned remove the pan from the heat and add the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix well. Make sure the sugar evenly absorbs the butter. Set aside.

Next, grease and flour a 9×5 loaf pan and set aside.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and flip out onto a clean floured surface and knead with your hands for 1-2 minutes. Roll dough into a 20×12 inch rectangle. Evenly sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon/sugar/nutmeg mixture and press into the dough with the palms of your hands. Cut the rectangle into 6 strips. Lay the 6 strips on top of each other and cut each strip into 6 even squares (cut in half then each half into thirds). Stack strips vertically into the loaf pan. Cover the pan with a clean towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes.

In the meantime preheat an oven to 350 F. After rising in the pan, bake bread for 30-40 minutes or until top is a very deep golden brown.

To prepare the glaze, heat the butter, milk, and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to boil then immediately remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla and powdered sugar.

*Please See blog post for notes.

Recipe adapted from joythebaker.com who also adapted it from HungryGirlPorVida.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the yeast mixture, as well as the milk.

Stir until the dough forms a sticky mixture, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for an additional 8-10 minutes, until the dough has become soft and elastic. Knead in the jalapeños and cheese during the last 2 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball and place in a large greased bowl, cover, and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough and knead for another 2-3 minutes. Cover and rest for an additional 30 minutes.

Dust a baking sheet with cornmeal and set it aside.

Divide the dough into 6-8 equal portions, depending on how large you want your English muffins to be. (I got 7.) Place each portion onto the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with more cornmeal. Cover with a dish towel and let the muffins rise for 30 minutes longer.

Heat a griddle or non-stick skillet over medium heat. Place muffins in the pan, working in batches to fit your skillet or griddle. Cook for 10-12 minutes, placing the baking sheet on top of the cooking muffins to keep them from rising up, until the underside is a nice golden brown. Flip and cook for another 10-12 minutes. You don’t have to use the baking sheet as a weight on the second side, but you can if you want to. Continue until all muffins are cooked.

Adapted from Pass The Sushi.

To make the dark rye:
In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together flours, salt and yeast. Add molasses, shortening, water and cocoa powder paste and stir to combine. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and elastic and tacky but not sticky, about 5-6 minutes (or knead with a dough hook in stand mixer until dough is smooth and elastic and tacky but not sticky, about 4-5 minutes). Shape dough into a ball and place in a large, lightly greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

When both doughs are risen, punch doughs down, remove from bowls and place on a lightly floured surface. Divide each piece equally into fourths; roll out each piece into a 10-inch log. Connect 4 strands of alternating colors (1 light, 1 dark, 1 light, 1 dark) at one end with the sealed end facing you. Number the strands — 4, 3, 2, 1 — then follow this pattern: 4 over 2, 1 over 3, 2 over 3, until you run out of dough. Pinch the other ends together and place the braid in a lightly greased 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Repeat with remaining dough to form 2 loaves.

Lightly mist tops of loaves with cooking spray and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. When loaves have doubled, brush lightly with egg wash and bake on center rack of oven until golden brown and baked through, about 45 minutes, rotating loaves 180 degrees halfway through baking. Remove loaves from oven and loaf pans and let cool completely on a cooling rack before slicing.

Recipe adapted from Peter Reinhart’s “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.”

Place the sesame seeds in a large bowl and pour about 1 Tablespoon of warm water over them just to dampen them. Mix them around with your fingers a bit and let them sit.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Rub your hands with a bit of olive oil and remove the dough, coating gently with the olive oil from your hands. Place the dough into the dampened seeds and turn to cover completely. Place the dough on the baking sheet and let it rest for 1 more hour.

Preheat your oven to 425°F. Using a knife, place a cut around the middle of the ball of dough and then 2 slits on the top of the dough. Bake this for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile whisk together the milk, egg, egg white, and salt and set aside.

Once the yeast is foamy stir in the milk mixture, and then mix in the raisins and 4 tablespoons of butter. NOTE: the butter is not melted, so it will appear sort of chunky. Don’t worry—the flour will take care of it!

Once all of those ingredients are mixed together, turn the mixer on low and add 3 cups of the flour. Once it’s almost combined continue adding the flour in 1/4-cup increments until you have a stiff dough that doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl.

Dump the dough out onto a floured board and knead for about 3-4 minutes until the dough is nice and smooth. Coat the same mixing bowl in a little oil and add the dough back into it, turning to coat the dough with the oil. Cover with a damp towel and let it rise in a warm place (I put mine on top of my dryer while it was running) for about 60-90 minutes until doubled in size.

Once the dough has risen, cut it in half and roll each half out into a 9×13-inch square. Brush each square with 1 tablespoon of melted butter and sprinkle each one with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. Roll them up very tightly; place each one in a well-greased 9×5 pan.

Cover with a damp towel and allow the loaves to rise for another 45-60 minutes until you have a nice rounded top. In the last few minutes of rising, preheat your oven to 350 F.

Bake at 350 F for 30-45 minutes or until done. The best tip I’ve ever heard for this is to knock on the side of the pan; if it sounds hollow then it’s done! When done, remove the bread from the oven. Immediately and carefully remove the loaves from pans and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. DEVOUR!

Add 3 3/4 cups flour and salt and, using dough hook attachment, stir to combine. Continue to mix dough on low speed until it comes together and is smooth and soft, about 5-7 minutes.

Remove dough from bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead by hand for 2-3 minutes, adding more of the remaining flour as needed just until the dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticky. Shape dough into a 1 1/2-inch thick rectangle, coat ever-so-lightly with flour and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in fridge 1 hour to chill.

Meanwhile, make the butter packet: Place sticks of butter together on a sheet of plastic wrap (or a clean towel). Top with another sheet of plastic wrap (or another clean towel) and, using a rolling pin and your hands, thwack, beat, roll out and press the butter into an even, flat, 8-by-5-inch rectangle (be as precise as possible). Wrap the butter up in the plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to chill.

Remove dough from fridge and from plastic wrap. Place on a lightly floured surface and, using your hands, press the dough into a 16-by-10-inch rectangle (be sure the edges and the corners are as well-shaped as possible). Remove butter packet from fridge and from plastic wrap and place in center of dough, short ends of butter packet parallel to long ends of dough. Fold top half of dough over butter packet, then fold bottom half of dough over, like a business letter. Rotate dough so the short end faces you.

With the short end facing you, flatten the dough evenly by pressing the rolling pin onto the surface (try not to roll it out right away). When the dough has flattened, roll it out to a precise 15-by-10-inch rectangle. Fold the dough again like a business letter, then wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.

Repeat the previous step (from previous paragraph) 3 more times, chilling the dough for 1 hour between each fold, for a total of 4 folds. After the fourth fold, cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge overnight, or 8-12 hours.

The next morning, unwrap the dough and place it on a floured surface. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle about 20-by-32-inches. Using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife, divide the dough into 20-32 triangles. Cut a small slit at the bottom of each triangle and roll up like a crescent roll. For chocolate croissants, place 1/2 to 1 ounce of dark chocolate in the bottom center of the triangle before rolling up.

Place croissants about 2 inches apart on parchment paper or silicone mat-lined baking sheets. Cover with tea towels and let rise until puffy, about 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 450ºF. Brush each croissant with egg wash and bake 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely on baking sheets before consuming.

Note: Croissants will keep fresh in a plastic bag or airtight container at room temperature for 3 days. For longer life, keep them in a plastic bag or airtight container in the fridge for 5 days, and in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Recipe adapted from How Sweet It Is blog.

Flour varies from place to place. The Diplomatickitchen version of this flatbread consistently uses 7 tablespoons of water. The signs that the dough is done are the same no matter what flour is used and are described in the instructions below.

A question of timing:

The dough for Moroccan Flatbread may be made and used after a 30 minute rest. Another method is to mix the dough the night before using it, cover it with plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature until the next day. Either timing makes a good flatbread. There are small differences in the results. The overnight version is slightly more pliable and tears less easily than the quicker one which is somewhat less elastic and resembles tortilla dough in its texture. Also, the overnight timing makes a slightly puffier flatbread. The question is rather which bread you prefer and which timing, than which is better. (Both types are pictured in the related link.)

You will also need:

1. Two small bowls, a large mixing bowl and, for the overnight method, a medium-sized bowl for resting the dough.
2. A sifter.
3. A standing mixer, preferably one with a paddle attachment, is optional and convenient for mixing the dough. But it may be done by hand instead.
4. A pastry board and rolling pin.
5. Two sheets of parchment paper, each about 24-inches long.
6. A stove-top griddle or grill with a flat side or a wide, heavy-bottomed pan.

For the dough:

1. In a small bowl, mix the yeast with 6 tablespoons of warm water and set it aside until it is creamy and smooth.
2. Sift the flour and salt into the bowl of the mixer (or any mixing bowl if mixing by hand). Using the paddle attachment, turn on the mixer and pour in the yeast and water.
3. After a few minutes of mixing, if there remain scraps and flakes of dryish dough at the bottom of the bowl that will not combine easily with the dough ball, add the reserved 1 tablespoon of water. Continue mixing. If you have added an additional tablespoon of water, the dough will now appear sticky and leave a liquid-ey flour paste on the sides of the bowl. But further mixing (not more flour) will change the dough’s texture. It is ready when the sides of the bowl are clean and the dough forms a compact, not very sticky ball. Leave it to rest, covered, for 30 minutes or place it in a dry bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature overnight.

Making the filling:

1. Finely chop the parsley and onion and combine them in a bowl.
2. Stir the softened butter, paprika and cumin together in a larger bowl.
3. Then mix in the chopped parsley and onion and the salt and set the bowl of filling aside.

Rolling out the dough:

1. Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll them into balls. Place them on a small plate next to the pastry board.
2. Spread out the two sheets of parchment paper next to the board. (The flattened circles of dough are placed on the paper.)
3. Pour a teaspoon of oil on the pastry board and spread it all over the board with your hands.
4. Place a ball of dough on the board and roll it out into a circle of about 10-inches (26cm) in diameter. Flip the circle once, as you roll it out, so that both sides of it are pressed against the oiled surface. The circle won’t be regular.
5. Transfer the circles, as you make them, to the sheets of parchment paper (2 circles per sheet).

Spreading on the filling:

When all 4 dough balls are flattened into thin circles, divide the filling among them and spread it out over their surfaces with your fingers. (Forming these flatbreads may lead you on the backroads of your memories to preschool days of fingerpainting and modeling clay.)

Forming the flatbreads:

1. The final step is to fold the dough circles several times so that the baked bread is multi-layered. Each circle will be folded into thirds. Imagine the circle divided horizontally into three parts. Pick up the third nearest you and fold it up over the second third.
2. Then, pick up these two-thirds together and fold them over the last third. The circles have now been transformed into long strips.
3. Turn the strips of dough so that a short end is nearest you. Again, imagine the strips divided horizontally into thirds. Flip the third nearest you up over the middle third.
4. Then flip the last third (the one furthest away from you)under the first two thirds that are folded one on top of the other. You’ll now have a square of folded dough. See the related blog link if you need a better visual.
5. On the top of each square, there will be a V-shaped space, revealing a bit of the filling. Pull the top fold of dough across to cover the filling.
6. The squares should be between 2 and 3-inches in size. Make them larger (to a size of between 3 and 4-inches) by placing each one in the palm of one hand and pressing and pushing out on it gently with the rounded part of the palm of your other hand. Ideally you do this without making any tears in the pastry. But … sometimes tears happen. Small ones may be pressed back together. If a little filling presses through the cracks, the finished bread will be colored by the paprika and more buttery on the surface than ones without tears. Either way, the bread will be good. (And if there are air bubbles beneath the surface, just leave them there. They are all to the good and help form the layers inside the bread.)

Griddle-baking or skillet-baking the bread:

1. Preheat the griddle or stove top grill (flat side up) or the skillet over medium heat. Brush it very lightly with oil.
2. Place a couple of flatbreads on the griddle (or in the skillet). Cook them for 2 minutes or until they are golden on one side.
3. Flip them and cook them 2 minutes more or until they are golden on the second side. Transfer them to a cutting board.
4. Cook the remaining flatbreads in the same way.
5. Cut each flatbread into 4 triangles and serve them hot.

A suggestion: R’ghayef is a nice bread to accompany soup. The small triangles are good, as well, placed around a Greek salad. The bread is equally fine all on its own, served as an hors d’oeuvre or snack. And, the bread also travels well for taking on picnics.

An acknowledgement: Moroccan Flatbread is adapted from a recipe for R’ghayef in Mediterranean Street Food (2002) by Anissa Helou.