The BEST Sandwich!

One of my favorite appliances in my kitchen is my bread machine. How often I use it varies wildly: I'll use it regularly for 2 weeks, then forget about it for a month and a half. For example: prior to last week, I hadn't used it since late February. However, last week I volunteered to bring in coffee-snack for the department (which we have every Monday and Thursday), and whenever I do this, I usually make some sort of snack (quiche on Monday, cheese cake squares on Thursday) and round it off with a loaf of fresh baked bread (peanut butter bread, pesto bread). This always works out well, because not only is home-made bread delicious, but most bread machines (including mine) have a delay bake setting, which allows you to program exactly WHEN your bread is going to finish. Which means I can bring in bread that is basically right out of the oven. Which is a treat for the gods. In addition to the two loaves I made last week, I made an additional loaf for myself this past Wednesday, and plan on making home-made pizza dough over the weekend! (Because home-made pizza is ALSO a delicious treat.)

I thought I'd include a couple of my favorite bread machine recipes here, for reference, since I'm particularly fond of the pesto bread and pizza dough recipes; and a good solid recipe for white (French) bread is very nice to have! These don't even require additional directions, since the nice thing about bread machines is you just dump all the ingredients in, press the proper setting and adjust the delay time if you want it, and press go. And then, X hours later, POOF! Delicious bread! (Or dough.) If you do not have a bread machine, I'd highly recommend getting one. They're generally not too hard to pick up cheaply, since they often show up in thrift shops: people get them, then don't use them and don't want them cluttering up their kitchens. Mine was from a yard sale, actually, and cost about $20. Worth it. While I don't make bread as regularly as I could, I feel I get good use out of mine. (Not as good as my aunt, though, who makes a loaf once or twice a week instead of buying bread!) I actually have a bread-machine cookbook, so I'm always trying new recipes for bread, but these are probably the recipes that I make the most. For the bread, I give both the proportions for a 1.5 lb loaf and a 2 lb loaf. Also note that I don't actually bother with bread flour, for the most part, though it is better to use it if you have it.

White French Bread (use regular or french setting)

Bacon-Toasted French Bread (see below)

1c.+2tbs  1+1/3      cups         Warm water
1              2             tbs           Vegetable Oil
1.5           2             tbs           Sugar
1              1.5          tsp           Salt
3+1/4       4            cups         Bread flour
1+1/4       1+1/4     tsp            Active dry yeast

Swiss Beer Bread (use regular setting)

1              1+1/4      cups         Beer 

                                               (room temperature)

1/2           2/3          cups         Shredded swiss 

                                              (or chedder!)

1.5           2             tbs           Vegetable Oil

1.5           2             tsp           Sugar

1.25         1.5          tsp           Salt

Swiss Beer Bread

3+1/3       3+3/4     cups         Bread flour

2+1/4       2+1/4     tsp            Active dry yeast

Pesto Bread (use regular setting)
1 cup       1cup+2tbs               Warm water
1/3           1/2          cups         Basil Pesto
1.5           2             tbs           Sugar
1              1.5          tsp           Salt
3+1/3       4            cups         Bread flour
2              2+1/4     tsp            Active dry yeast

(I just buy basil pesto, but you can make it yourself, of course!)

Garlic-Crust Pizza Dough (use dough setting) (found on all-recipes)

6 oz warm water

Nothing beats homemade pizza!

2 tbs olive oil       

3 cloves minced garlic

2 cups bread flour

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp yeast

In the case of the pizza dough, I do need to add a little more. Preheat the oven to 400F. After the dough is complete, remove it from the bread machine and lay it out flat on a cookie sheet (or other large flat bakeable surface) greased with olive oil, and let it rise for about 20 minutes more. After this, you can add tomato sauce, cheese, and whatever toppings and spices you so desire: in the case of the picture above, I added tomato sauce, basil, oregano, garlic salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, mozzerella, sliced garlic, and sausage! Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the crust is nice and browned.

While I'm generally happy to just eat bread and butter (or jam), bread is also a traditional component of that obscure and exotic food, the sandwich. So since I had decent bread around, I decided to make what is pretty much THE best sandwich in the world. I have expressed in several of my posts that Thomas Keller is a fantastic chef (or implied it by extolling his restaurants and cookbooks). So when I say this recipe comes from him, it should not be surprising that I am in love with this sandwich. It's actually just a variation of a simple BLT, with a couple additional elements - namely, it combines the BLT with a fried egg and grilled cheese. I add a slight variation of my own in the way I toast my bread. Keller recommends using a rustic, countrystyle bread for this sandwich, which I highly recommend. But since I had some home-made white bread, I figured that was a reasonable substitute.  I've also found that a nice sour-dough goes very well in this sandwich. The point is, you actually do want some GOOD bread for this sandwich, it's worth it.  Here are the links to the original recipe and a video of Keller making this sandwich. You cannot watch that without your mouth drooling, I swear.



The Best Sandwich EVER!
2 thick slices of good quality bread (today's bread is home-made French)
2 slices of Monterey Jack cheese
4 thick slices of bacon
4 tomato slices
1 tbs mayonnaise (I use/prefer Miracle Whip)
2 slices good lettuce
1 large egg
1 tbs butter (I use bacon fat, instead)
chives (optional, but tasty)
salt, pepper

Gooey cheese melted over toast!

First things first, cooking up the bacon is the time consuming step: cook the bacon until it's nice and crispy (some people prefer less cooked bacon, but in my opinion, crispy is the way to go). Transfer to a plate with some paper towels to drain. Now it is time to construct your sandwich, starting from the base. The original recipe just says to take toast, put mayo on it, then add the cheese on that. Now, what I like to do is to toast the bread in the pan itself, using the bacon grease that you just got from making up the bacon. This infuses your bread with a delicious bacon flavor. So what I do is take both pieces of toast, fry them up with the bacon grease, remove one from the pan and spread with the mayo, then take the other and top with the cheese, turning off the heat, covering the pan, and letting it sit in there until it gets all melty. Then set your cheesy, bacon-y toast aside (this will be the top of your sandwich). Place the bacon, tomato, and the lettuce on the bottom (mayo'ed) piece of toast (be sure to sprinkle a little salt on the tomatoes). Back to the skillet, melt some butter (or more bacon fat) in the pan, and fry your egg over moderate heat - you really really want the egg to still be runny, here! Slide the egg over onto the sandwich (sprinkling it with a bit of salt, pepper, and chives if you desire; then top the sandwich with the melty cheesy slice of toast). Now, when you cut the whole thing in half, you have a gooey, delicious, runny egg yolk all over your sandwich. Which is just AMAZING. Look at that thing, it's just gorgeous!

Beautiful!