Bread Post

Hi Everyone! Happy Saturday! As promised...here is my bread post.

The beginnings of bread baking!

Breadmaking started for me when I was about 10 years old. At that time my days consisted of reading Little House on the Prairie and sitting around, I kid you not, and dreaming about how when I was grown up, I would ride in a horse drawn wagon and bake bread...so there you go. These were the things I loved at the time:

And, naturally, you can see why baking bread was a necessary part of my everyday life and something that I must be able to do well. :)

Anyways, I thought this might be enlightening to layout a little bit about why I bake bread. It's because secretly I want to be a pioneer. I really think this piece of trivia is rather important because, for me, it is the sheer enjoyment of fulfilling a tiny piece of this ridiculously never-going-to-happen fantasy that keeps me making bread year after year and even into my current adult years where I do NOT live on the prairie and I do NOT drive a horse drawn wagon. I do NOT stay at home and clean and sew clothes. I DO drive a gas guzzling jeep and live in the heart of downtown Tucson and work full time at a corporate job. But, making bread has always been a calming piece of my life that not only harkens back to when I was a kid and would steal away in my closet reading nook to live for hours in a world that wasn't mine (wouldn't I like to do that now. It's sort of like taking naps. I remember taking naps every week...) but also puts a delighted smile on my husband's face.

See, now I bake for 2...well, 4-6 actually, if you count all the people who might eat the bread. But, mostly it is important to me that Ricky be happy with the bread when it comes out and that is why I have tried several different recipes.

My standard recipe that I've used for the last 7 or 8 years is Neil's Harbor White Bread. I love this recipe. It is easy and impossible to mess up. Oh, and it tastes great. When I started working and got married and I realized that bread making took a back seat to, oh, everything else in life!, I began to search around for faster options. I ended up with this amazing book Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day. I really thought this was going to answer all my problems but quickly realized that you need a family that eats bread all the time, every day. Otherwise, you end up with large batches of dough that go bad before you have a chance to use it. The recipes in the cookbook, though, are killer and I would highly recommend owning it and using it if you have a true bread eating family where you will go through a loaf a day. The other thing about this particular bread is that the standard recipes get a bit sour doughesque toward the end of the second week so they won't taste like fresh baked white or wheat bread. They truly taste like artisan breads. Something you would get at a restaurant with dinner. Yummy and special and I will continue to make them when it makes sense for us.

This has brought me to my newest recipe...Honey Wheat Bread II.

A little background on getting to this point. As I said earlier, I have always just baked bread for the fun of it. I never gave much thought to its healthy aspects (white bread made with bleached flour is my specialty!), or of my ability to service my family's health by taking the time to make it. In the past several months, I have been introduced to the benefits of making whole wheat bread where the wheat is freshly ground or where the wheat is sprouted and in both these situations, whole wheat berries are used.

So, let's recap...bleached white flour=warm fuzzies and smiles, wheat berries=foreign and scary....

I am still doing my research on this as it would be a rather large change for me if I decide to embrace it as a normal practice. However, a few months ago, when I got the Artisan Bread book, I also got wheat flour. Baby steps, you know?

My mom likes to refer to white bleached flour as wheat feces and, slowly, I am beginning to realize how little it really does for people. This has led me to make my first ever wheat bread.

And this is what this blog is actually supposed to be about. How I made the bread...and how easy it was!

First, the recipe, found on http://www.allrecipes.com/:

Honey Wheat Bread II
SUBMITTED BY: Meghan Monahan
PREP TIME
30 Min
COOK TIME
30 Min
READY IN
2 Hrs
Original recipe yield 2 loaves
SERVINGS (Help)

Servings

US
METRIC
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup vegetable oil
5 cups all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour (if you use whole wheat flour, add 1/4 cup of water)

DIRECTIONS
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add honey, and stir well. Mix in whole wheat flour, salt, and vegetable oil. Work all-purpose flour in gradually. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for at least 10 to 15 minutes. When dough is smooth and elastic, place it in a well oiled bowl. Turn it several times in the bowl to coat the surface of the dough, and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
Punch down the dough. Shape into two loaves, and place into two well greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise until dough is 1 to 1 1/2 inches above pans.
Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes

And this is how I made it:

Start time and end time. This was the start of mixing materials to when I first put it in the bowl to rise!

these are all the ingredients it takes.

115 degree water (I checked this with the meat thermometer-all I had-and it's basically equivalent to turning your hot water tap on and letting it run until it feels hot and then pouring your water into the measuring cup. If you let it sit for a minute or two it cools down to around 115 and you can add your yeast)

This is the progression of what the yeast does. It gets all mushy in the water and then starts to dissolve. I usually pour it in and then leave it sitting for a minute or two. Then I stir it until it dissolves.

Add the honey...it gets a little when it's all mixed in.

Just a little note here about the flour. If you don't have a flour canister with a wide lid, it can be easier to pour your flour into a wide bowl and scoop from there into your mixing bowl.

I mixed in the flour two cups at a time until it was all mixed together. After 4 cups, I wasn't really able to mix it any more with the spoon so I started in by hand.

Continue to knead the dough like this. I mostly just fold it over and then push down with the palm of my hands until it starts to look and feel elastic-y. The recipe says to knead for at least 15 minutes. I only kneaded for about 5. I don't believe the time factor is nearly as important as the fact that the dough needs to look and feel elastic.

You can kind of see in these pictures how the dough springs back into place after being pushed in.

At this point, you should easily be able to roll the dough into a ball. I use vegetable oil to grease the bowl. I roll the dough around the bowl to cover it in all the extra oil, and then I cover with a damp cloth and place it infront of the open oven. Before I do this, I turn the oven on preheat for 3 minutes, then turn it off. This gives off a good amount of heat to help rise the dough quickly. For this recipe, I still had to let the dough rise almost an hour to get it to the height I wanted which was almost filling the whole bowl. (Of course, I forgot to get a picture of this because I got busy) But, suffice it to say that your dough should be double the size and the one thing you don't want to skimp on when you bake bread is the rising time. When in doubt, wait a few minutes longer.

After it has risen the first time, you will want to punch it down in the center (this is fun!!) and then knead it a few more times to get all the air bubbles out. After that you divide it in even parts and roll it into a dough that will fit in your bread pans. You can also braid it or just plop it on a pan and let it rise the second time. I put this into two well greased bread pan (one not greased enough) I used vegetable oil to grease both pans and though it worked splendidly on my stone, it caused the bread to stick to the regular metal pan. If you bake bread a lot, I would highly recommend a stone. So much easier!!

I cut the oven on and off one more time on Preheat for 3 minutes and put the dough out to rise again. This time, there is no time frame, just watch the dough until it has risen 1.5 inches above the pans. I call this pretty bread height because it makes pretty loaves of bread such that when you cut the bread it looks like the bread loaves you buy in the store.

Ok, so I took this picture because I was trying to carry the baby and move the bread pans off the stove at the same time after they had substaintially risen the second time and the metal pan loaf dropped. This is like when you're baking a cake and you're not supposed to slam the oven door because it might cause the cake to collapse in on itself. Yup...just like that. The only difference is that you just really can't screw bread up, so I left it on the counter for even longer (remember, when in doubt, let it rise longer) and it popped right back up!

Here is the finished product, I baked it on temperature for the exact amount of time indicated in the recipe, except I always add butter to the top of the loaf about 5 minutes to the end of baking. I just like it that way.

Finished product. I immediately cut up the loaf from the metal pan because it stuck and I ripped it apart trying to get it out. But, the other loaf I let fully cool and this morning was able to cut it into centimeter size slices for sandwiches. It really turned out awesome. I used 100% whole wheat flour and it is a very dense and hearty bread. The honey makes it just a bit sweet, which is nice.

As a side note, I also made this at the same time:

Bake a Tasty Cinnamon Swirl Cake by Élena Nazzaro in Art of Cooking

I think all links to this recipe are bad right now. I was able to pull it right up on Thursday. Now it's gone. But, it is really tasty so if you manage to be able to find the link, let me know and I'll post it up here.

shtuff

We've been busy again. It's just crazy how that happens. We have a few projects going on around here and Rob and I have been going to Alpha at our church on Wednesday nights. Ricky has class on Tuesdays so the week just flies by and before I know it, it's Thursday and the house is a mess and I haven't cooked dinner once but it's been fun.

Yesterday was Rob's birthday and he opted for Alpha instead of going out, which was fun, not only because it meant we got to go to Alpha together and hang out but because it means he likes Alpha. I had never heard of Alpha prior to my church sponsoring it and I've been a bit skeptical ever since it started because I didn't really know anything about it. But, I must say that, having been at a few classes now, I really do like the teaching. It's a three part approach to community, dinner, class, discussion. The dinner is always really good and they let me bring Clair which makes me happy. The class is very informative and biblically accurate. Also like this. The discussion is as good as your group. For me, I enjoy getting to know some folks in and out of the church in a way I would absolutely never do without the class. It's also kind of entertaining to watch our poor group leader struggle to get people to talk. We have kind of a quite bunch.

So, anyways, Rob's birthday. He got a memory foam bed topper and then later this week we will be going out to dinner to celebrate him turning 31. woohoo!

Still going to blog about bread making. I got a great recipe (stole it off of someone's blog who I will give credit to) and so I think I'll try my hand at wheat bread and this awesome looking coffee cake bread.mmmmmmmm.

My mom has been painting up in Clair's room so I need to make sure and take a quick picture before it's all done and I don't have a before and after shot. I really like the color. The boys...not so much. But, I figure it's a girl's room so I know, right? Right? Of course right!

raw milk

Ok, so, since I'm pregnant and I have really been indulging my ice cream craving lately, I thought I should supplement the not so healthy with a few healthy additions. *note-not alternatives*


So, yesterday morning, I went and got a membership at the coop downtown. I must say that their produce is fairly expensive but everything else is reasonable and the bulk food is awesome! Plus it gives me warm fuzzies to buy local but not have to drive 40 minutes to a farm to pick up. Clair and I just hop in the stroller (Clair in the stroller, me pushing the stroller with one hand, drinking coffee with the other) and walk the 10 minutes down to the coop to buy our groceries.


Anyways, thought I would promo some wares for you:


First, Raw Milk...Freaky? yes. However, for all of you, who, like me, have read about the health benefits of raw milk but the idea of trying it completely terrifies you, I would like to tell you that it...tastes like milk. There you go. Surprising, I know. It tastes like every other gallon of milk you would buy at the store, but still has its probiotics...woohoo! After drinking a glass, almost gagging, and then getting control of my mental toughness long enough to recognize that it both smells and tastes like regular pasteurized milk, I started to really be kind of excited that I have now branched out into this new thing that might bring me all kinds of good health. Potentially more thoughts on that later. $14.00


Second, Cod Liver Oil...I thought this was going to be like a cross between Peter Pan ("you're a cod fish, Captain Hook!") and Mary Poppins which is really code for Nanny McPhee when she feeds the kids that nasty black medicine. However, I read that Cod Liver oil is full of DHA, really good for baby brain development, and vitamin A (make sure you do you're reading on this...I'm just not too freaked out about over doing the vitamins) and vitamin D. And it tastes like...nothing! Yay! It looks like vegetable oil and I put it in a smoothie and couldn't taste a thing!

$9.99


Third, Acai Berry smoothy packs...The coop sells these in packs of 4 and you just run them under water and throw them in your blender. I mixed mine with 1/2 a cup of organic plain yogurt, some of my new raw milk, 1/4 banana, and about two tablespoons honey. Tastes like...a smoothie!! And it was really yummy. I think I will start drinking them in the morning. They are my new super food! On sale for $4.69 a pack.



It took me the rest of Saturday to clean our house and get breakfasts put together for Ricky to take to work. My mom helped me get brilliant about making these little biscuit/egg/sausage sandwiches for ricky. I make the eggs and biscuits then I put the little sandwiches together and freeze them individually wrapped for him to take in the morning. I also added baggies of oatmeal. I did 3/4 cup oatmeal, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and a handfullish amount of raisins. These he can just dump in a bowl with water and heat up when he gets to work. It is substantially less expensive than buying the little packets and I just throw the baggies in the freezer next to his little sandwhiches so they're convenient.

And that was my productive Saturday.

I have new holiday wreaths that my mom made that I will have to show off later, when I put some pictures on and I thought I would blog a bit about bread making this week since I totally love it and though I would never say that I think everyone should do it, I do think that no one should ever be afraid of it!!

Spiritual gifts

So I just took a spiritual gifts test and it said that, according to my answers, my top 3 spiritual gifts are faith, poverty, hospitality. What in the world do you do with the spiritual gift of Faith? And poverty! No wonder I can't figure out what to do in the church. The good news is, this explains why I constantly am trying to convince Ricky to sell our house or our cars. I think I will just start tempering that with the fact that big houses are nice for hosting and, evidently I have the gift of hospitality...who knew. Seriously, who knew...I will have to think more about these things.


--post from my iPhone

Weekend

We had a great weekend hanging out with family and friends!
We needed a fun weekend because last week started off with a massive plumbing leak at my folks house. Water was running out of the ac return vent all day. At first I thought it must be the ac unit leaking. I was, of course, thinking this because I would rather die then call out the plumber. We use progressive plumbing and Terry is practically our friend because he's done so much work for us but that doesn't mean I get excited about calling him. Needless to say, after hauling my pregnant self up on my parents roof in the hundred degree heat, while on a conference call for work ( I had phone in one hand and wrench in the other) and pulling off two ac panels I was able to conclusively decide...I would schlep back down the ladder and call Terry because it was definitely a broken pipe. He came out several hours later and spent 2 hours putting our poor ceiling leak back to rights and it didn't cost us nearly as much as I was afraid it might! We even got the special customer discount!





Our buckets. We filled up 13 of these bad rides.







This is the vent. If you look close you can see the water.

So the weekend began with a delightful surprise on Friday night. We ended up going to this little place I've driven be for years but never tried, Something Sweet Dessert Lounge at speedway and craycroft. They only sell desserts and coffee/lots of tea. We had dinner at Brooklyn pizza first and then brought our settlers of catan board out for a little cake and coffee! It was such a fun time and the food was really good. For 4 of us it cost about 30 dollars total and we were able to hang out for several hours playing our game.

Saturday Ricky went to TX with Davis to see Bellevue HS get their pride destroyed by Katy HS in Houston TX. Bellevue is Davis's alma mater in Seattle.






Cody went dove hunting with the Hooks and shot like 15 dove! Woohoo! It made for a nice dinner on sunday. We had dove wrapped in bacon with macaroni and cheese.
I cleaned the house and went to the u of a game with our friends the Christiansens












Clair napped in her new room and we took a walk down University for new UA duds.












Clair loves to touch and notice things that have contrasting colors. This is a big example but she is fascinated by shirt emblems and bleacher numbers as well.

Yesterday we just hung around the house and I took a few hours to work on a quilt I've been trying to finish then youth group and bed...whooo

--post from my iPhone

In the groove

Today was day 3 of getting up around 5. Now, I would really like to be getting up a little earlier but I can't get my body and mind to agree on that one yet. I am pleased I've been able to make it in to work mostly around the 6 o'clock hour. I've been droppig Clair off at my mom's before I head in and she is so happy and smiley it's been hard to leave her. Usually she sleeps till 7 or 8 so I wasn't sure how she would do getting woken up so early but she really has done great. We'll see if she sleeps in till her normal time tomorrow though since I don't have to take her to my mom.

Yesterday I was so tired I did nothing. Days like this make me feel guilty so I don't think I'll try to have any more for a while. Oh, but getting up early makes me sooo tired in the evenings. Clair and I just hung out and watched extreme home makeover and when a got bored we went and watched the thunderstorms. Oh, and we went to the park.

The last time I took her to grass she cried so I thought we'd give it a tentative go last night and she loved it! She just sat and played with little grass sticks until the storm ran us off. I ended up pushing her home in the freezing rain. But she didn't seem to mind.












--post from my iPhone

Labor day

On this Labor Day, I worked like crazy around the house. Ricky went to work and studied for hours. Cody went riding with some school friends. Clair hung out with me all day. We did all eat dinner together though which was very nice.






This is all the silver I polished. Actually this is only half the silver I polished. When I went to put it away I realized all the stored silver in my silver bag was tarnished too.












Ricky polishing his shoes so they are shiny for training tomorrow.






Clair checking out our groceries.






There is now a dickeys at Euclid and prince and everyone should go support them and figure out if you like their BBQ!
--post from my iPhone