Under $10 Pretzel Bites

If you’re like me there’s nothing better than that 10:00 p.m. snack. So every Saturday until the end of August I’m going to be doing a summer snack series! Find us on our Facebook page, for a bearded baker swag bag giveaway! This affordable snack is mouthwatering, whether you use it for a snack or an appetizer when entertaining it’s so easy anyone can do it!

Okay so since I’ve done nothing but ramble let’s dive right in!

Let’s Get Cookin!

The Ingredients

1 Can of Pizza Dough
6 Cups of Water
1/3 Cup Baking Soda
1 Egg
6 TBSP of Butter
Kosher Salt

Prep Time

First things first, preheat that oven to 425°F
Put 6 cups of water on the stove to boil
Layout your pizza dough and long ways cut into 4 equal strips
Roll each strip into ropes
Cut ropes into 1 inch bites

Turn Up The Heat

You’re going to need 2 cookie sheets one lined with paper towels, the other greased or lined with parchment paper.

Now that we have prep done let’s make some snacks!!

Take 1/3 cup of baking powder and add to your boiling water (slowly it will fizz)
Take half your dough and drop into the baking soda bath for 45-60 seconds
Using a slotted spoon remove the dough bites and place them on your paper towel lined cookie sheet
Repeat steps 2&3 for the remainder of the dough
Gently by hand transfer dough bites to the greased or lined cookie sheet
Whisk 1 egg, and brush over dough bites
Cook the dough bites at 425°F for 15-16 minutes until browned (check at 13 minutes)
Melt 6 TBSP of butter
Brush cooked bites with butter
Sprinkle with kosher salt
ENJOY!

Hawaiian Pineapple Grilled Chicken & Sticky Rice

Featured

Now this is what I call a summer meal! I threw this together in about 45 minutes cause really who the heck wants to spend 3 hours in the kitchen with a summer breeze blowing outside. I’m a sucker for some soul food and grilled fruits and veggies, so for the holiday weekend I lit up the grill and went to town and made a mouth watering meal that will definitely be a summer staple on any table.

The Good Stuff

Supplies:

4-5 Chicken Breasts
Boil in the Bag Rice ( I used 2 bags)
1 Fresh Whole Pineapple
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Medium Purple Onion
Soy Sauce
Teriyaki Sauce
Brown Sugar
100% Pineapple Juice
Unsalted Butter
Little Bit of Bacon

The Chicken & Stuff

Grab you a casserole dish that can hold all of your chicken breasts, use about 1/4 cup (+/-) of soy sauce to cover the bottom of the dish.

Now don’t ask me why but I always rinse and dry my boneless skinless chicken breasts.

After you rinse and dry put all your breasts in the soy sauce. This will marinade them enough until it’s time to grill.

That Sweet Stuff

In the meantime we are going to make my pineapple teriyaki glaze.

Ingredients

1/4 cup (+/-) Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup of Pineapple Juice
2 TBSP (+/-) Teriyaki sauce

Put this stuff in a bowl and stir it up, you want a medium thick consistency, if it’s not thick add more brown sugar.

Set this aside to use as a glaze while you’re grilling.

Now that we have the glaze done let’s make our pineapples and veggies.

Core and slice your pineapple thinly, cut your bell peppers and onions like a fajita, in a bowl combine 1/4 of the pineapple and veggies. Splash with glaze until lightly coated, separate into 3 foil grill bags.

Now that grill prep is done let’s get to cookin.

That grill is on fire.

If you know how to grill then you know to CHECK YOUR CHICKEN. Uncooked chicken is from the devil and we don’t allow that evil up in here!

Throw your breasts on the grill and get to cookin’, after you flip them the first time take that glaze we made and spoon about 2 spoonfuls on that breast. Let it cook some more and repeat on the other side, continually flipping and glazing you’re chicken will create a juicy rich pineapple teriyaki flavor that is delectable. Cook your chicken until it’s completely done and still juicy.

While your chicken is cooking don’t forget to grill your foil bags of pineapple and veggies. Leave them on until the Chicken is done!

Let’s Get Sticky…. Rice.

Of course y’all gonna be dirty. Goodness this is a food blog.

So grab some boil in a bag rice ( we used 2 bags) and boil it up. Now comes the fun part

Ingredients

2 bags of rice (cooked)

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 TBSP teriyaki

2 TBSP Soy sauce

After your rice is cooked add the butter, pineapple juice, brown sugar, teriyaki sauce, and soy sauce. stir for a bit on the stove until sticky and boom you’re done.

Where’d That Bacon Come From?

Now that you’ve got everything made, before you pull your chicken and veggies off the grill fry up about 6 pieces of bacon, EXTRA CRISPY, cool and chop. You’ll put this on top of everything!

Combine it all.

Now throw a bed of rice down add some of your grilled pineapple and veggies, a chicken breast, more of the good stuff and some bacon on top and there ya have it folks a five star summer meal in your own house!

Get Creative!

This meal is an easy one to get creative with, would make an easy kabob or even Hawaiian stir fry!

So needless to say my desire for a light summer meal ended with a sweet spin on a grilled meal!

Peach Dumplings – With a Twist.

Time To Get Peachy

I’m a sucker for good mood food. I love me some carb packed buttery sweets on any day of the week to make me feel better. Good or bad mood.

I’m sure you’ve had your classic apple dumplings, if you’re used to some down home country cookin’. Well other than apples we are about to get peachy! We’re gonna follow a pretty basic recipe for the dumplings, but when we get down to the end be ready for a simple twist on a favorite!

The Recipe

First things first – Preheat that oven! 350° for this recipe!

Ingredients

2-3 medium sized fresh peaches
2 sticks of unsalted butter… (yes buy the real stuff)
1 1/2 cups of Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon of Nutmeg (optional but its my favorite)
1 Can of Mountain Dew (or similar)
2 cans of Crescent roll, or your favorite homemade crescent roll recipe!

Now that you’ve got your grocery list done let’s dive right into the work part!

Peel those peaches! Pro Tip: bring some water (enough to submerge the peaches) to a light boil, cut a criss cross slit at the bottom and top of your peaches. Submerge in the boiling water until the peel starts to remove itself where you cut it. Throw those peaches in a bowl of ice water and let soak for 3 minutes, the peel will slip right off.

Unroll those crescent rolls

Slice your peaches however you want them ( I prefer thin and many inside my dumplings ) and divide evenly amongst each crescent roll.

Place rolled, filled dumplings in a buttered 13*9 pan

In a bowl combine your butter(melted of course), cinnamon, brown sugar, nutmeg, and vanilla. A non lumpy liquid mixture is the consistency we are going for! Pour evenly over your rolls

Pour your can of soda between the rolls (don’t drown them, you don’t have to use the whole thing)

Bake for 35-45 minutes until golden brown! Ugh so basic!

Now that you’re waiting on those dumplings to bake let’s put a twist on it! Instead of serving them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, which is actually my weakness, let’s explore my other weakness and throw this on a no bake cheesecake mixture that sets off this entire recipe! I’m a cheesecake addict. Literally any style of cheesecake I’ll eat it!

From Peachy to a Little Cheesy

So to add this twist we’re going to make a quick cheesecake mixture!

The Ingredients

2 blocks of cream cheese
1/4 stick of unsalted butter (duh!)
1/2 cup of confectioners sugar.
2 teaspoons of vanilla (or more)

Prep Time

Throw all your ingredients in a bowl
Mix vigorously
Spoon out a decent amount of mixture onto a plate top with peach dumplings and dive right in!

Now More Words From The Bearded Baker

Often we find ourselves afraid to step out of our comfort zone making new things in the kitchen. Don’t be afraid to give your taste buds a test! Me, a person who rarely enjoys cauliflower, has recently fallen in love with cauliflower crust pizza. You’ll never know if you don’t try. You can apply that to just food, but I dare you to apply it to your life! The box you put yourself in will only allow you to grow within the walls of that box. Step outside into the world, experience new things, new foods, new people and you’ll be able to grow more. We are only as big as the environment we place ourselves in.

– with love and good taste,

The Bearded Baker.

Coming Soon

Coming soon on the Bearded Baker, I’m going to be posting my apple pie recipe, and showing you some tips and tricks on how to beautify your pie crust!

Baking is an art to me and designing artistic pie crusts, makes for a fun twist! Stepping outside the box in the kitchen might bring you a new discovery!

Classic Chocolate Pie

One of my favorite things to make is a classic southern chocolate pie, meringue and all! I always hear from people chocolate pie is so hard and I can’t make good chocolate pie. Well follows these steps and hopefully your pie will turn it just the way you want!

The Recipe

The Pie

1 9″ pie crust (baked)

Use your favorite recipe, or buy a frozen crust. The reality is it’s the filling that matters!

Dry Ingredients

5 Tablespoons of baking cocoa

4 Tablespoons of Flour

1 1/2 Cups of sugar

Wet Ingredients

4 egg yolks (save the whites for your meringue)

2 Teaspoons of vanilla flavoring

1 can of evaporated milk (12 oz.)

4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter

Let’s get cookin’ y’all!

In a large mixing bowl combine all of your ingredients, except the butter! Mix with a hand mixer or a whisk until its smooth and lumps are gone (for the most part).

Let’s head to the stove and get to cookin’. With your heat on medium high pour contents of mixing bowl into a medium to large sauce pan. With your whisk DO NOT stop stirring, this mixture burns quickly and cooks just as quick! Cut your 4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter and add to the pie filling, as you stir in the butter your mixture will thicken and start to boil. Turn off your heat and pour the mixture into your chilled pie crust. Throw that pie in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to chill!

The Meringue

A lot of people don’t really like meringue, that’s fine just leave it off. But if your like us the “Calf Slobber” as we like to call it makes the pie just perfect! A lot of the time people make their meringue too sweet, so here’s a recipe for the perfect meringue!

The Ingredients

4 egg whites (see I told you to save em’)

1 1/4 cup of sugar

Before we start prepping let’s preheat that oven to 350° F, I like my meringue to cook slow it warms back up that pie filling!

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, using a hand mixer in medium speed beat your egg whites until peaks form, this takes about 2-4 minutes. As soon as your peaks form slowly add the sugar a little at a time, continually beating the egg whites and sugar mixture for about 1 more minute. As soon as your sugar is added spoon the meringue mixture onto the cooked pie.

Stick that pie in the oven for about 11 minutes, or until the meringue browns.

Cut and serve this pie warm to your guests or run to the bedroom and eat it all yourself ( we won’t judge )

Honey Nut Chicken Strips

So I intend to post some recipes on this blog, yesterday I got the wild idea that I needed to make a chicken strip breaded in Honey Nut Cheerios. So I did. Not only in this post am I going to include that recipe, but some pairings that go great with this non-traditional twist on a kitchen classic.

Now before you read this. These chicken strips went so quickly that I didn’t even get a pic of them. So if you try this recipe snap a pic and send it to me.

The Recipe

Honey Nut Chicken Strips

Serves 4-6 people

Poultry:

4 chicken breasts cut into thirds

Breading:

Dry Ingredients:

1/2 family size bag of Honey Nut Cheerios

1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour

Italian seasoning

McCormicks Steak Seasoning

Salt

Pepper

Onion powder

Wet Ingredients:

5 eggs

Splash of milk

Preparation:

In a mixing bowl mix the crushed Cheerios with the flour, add a generous amount of onion powder, Italian seasoning, and steak seasoning, salt, and pepper.

Dip strips into wet ingredients and into the dry ingredients. Repeat this process 1 time.

Fry on medium heat until chicken is fully cooked.

Best served with BBQ Sauce

Served Best With…

Nothing says home cooked southern meal like some buttery corn on the cob. My grandmother has always said the trick to getting the best tasting corn is the way you boil it. So here’s what I did.

In the water I added a pretty big splash of milk, a whole stick of butter, sugar, and Italian seasoning. Added 6 small ears of frozen corn on the cob and let it cook for about 25 minutes on medium high heat. The trick is the milk. It softens your corn and adds a flavor that can’t be beat.

Pair your corn and chicken strips with your favorite lightly breaded fried okra recipe, make a quick garden salad, and some flakey buttery biscuits. And now you’re in business. Never be afraid to experiment with a different cereal. Or flavoring as needed. This recipe sure would pair nicely on some fried chicken legs and waffles.

Category: Recipes