Honey-Wheat Bread

Having rediscovered the joy of homemade bread, I doubt we'll be going back anytime soon. It just takes time, and most of that time is hands-off waiting for it to rise while you do other things. You have to be mindful of the clock, but the only real requirement is you stick around to see the whole thing through. I'm hoping to be together enough to bake two loaves in the evening twice a week. One loaf can be fresh; the other can wait in the freezer. When supplies dwindle, it's time to bake two loaves again. Easy-peasy. And this bread is DELICIOUS! The recipe is "Basic Whole-Wheat Bread" from Feed Me I'm Yours by Vicki Lansky. She recommends adding a measure of soy flour, nonfat dry milk and wheat germ to each cup when using white flour. I went ahead and added what I had (no soy flour) to the whole wheat. We can always use the extra nutrients, and it certainly doesn't compromise the taste!

Homemade Honey-Wheat Bread

2 packages yeast
1 cup warm water (105-110F)
1 Tbsp honey
2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter, margarine or vegetable oil (butter!)
1/3 cup honey
1.5 Tbsp salt
5 cups whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ (optional)
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk (optional)
3 cups white flour (or as needed)

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in 1 Tablespoon of honey. Set aside for 10 minutes.
In a saucepan, combine milk, butter (or margarine or oil), honey and salt. Heat to lukewarm--do not scald.
Pour warm milk mixture and dissolved yeast into large mixing bowl. Add the whole-wheat flour, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Be sure to use all the whole-wheat flour. Add wheat germ and dry milk if desired. Add enough white flour to make a soft, yet manageable dough.
Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (approx 8-10 minutes). Place dough in a greased bowl, turning it to grease the top. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until the dough has doubled in bulk (40-60 minutes).
Punch down, divide in half, and knead each half for about 30 seconds. Shape into 2 loaves and place in greased loaf pans.
Cover and let rise again until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400F and bake 40 minutes or until done.
Turn out loaves onto rack and cool.
Slice, eat, enjoy, and wonder how you will ever eat store-bought bread again.

Free-form apple pie?

Recently, I made strawberry-rhubarb hand-pies again and (once again) ate them all in less than 24 hours. They are that good. And I have that little restraint. Following the same recipe for the crust and only slightly amended recipe for the filling, I made what angry chicken (recipe source) called "apple galette". My crust was extra generous, so I folded it completely over for an enclosed free-form pie. Oooooooo....De. Li. Cious! We already ate half. I'm sure the rest will be gone before dinnertime tomorrow. Sad, sad, sad...but oh so good!




p.s. (especially for gail) Inspired to reduce refined sugars by a certain healthy eater I know, I used super-fine raw sugar in this recipe, and it was perfect! I think any added honey-type flavor from the sugar only enhanced the recipe. Highly recommended! And try those handpies too. Uh. Maze. Ing!

Apple Oatmeal Bread

There is such goodness in homemade bread. Yes, it takes a bit of effort and planning, but it mostly takes time to rise all by itself. When it bakes, it fills the house with fabulous smells, and you can't beat the goodness of freshly baked bread! Since we moved from Europe, we have lost the good breads available daily in our local bakery. In their place, we have supermarket bread. In the words of Mimi, "Yuck! Ick! Pooey! We spit on that!" It just isn't the same! No flavor, no richness, no texture! We just can't handle it, so I'm going to have to buckle down and bake my own for the first time since Qatar (where we also had icky supermarket bread). My returning foray into homemade bread couldn't have gone any better! The recipe I tried was "Apple Oatmeal Bread" from the King Arthur's Flour website. They have an impressive list of bread recipes, by the way. Take some time to peruse if you are interested in bread-making. The Apple Oatmeal Bread smelled heavenly while baking, and ooooooo the goodness when it's done!

Apple Oatmeal Bread

2 packages (a scant 2 tablespoons) active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups warm milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups oat flakes or old-fashioned rolled oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 cups (approximately) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (I used whole wheat)
2 cups coarsely chopped tart apples (Granny Smith)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water, for glaze
additional oat flakes or rolled oats, for topping

In a large bowl, stir yeast into water to soften.
Add remaining ingredients through walnuts. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes.
Gradually add remaining flour, a little at a time, until you have a dough stiff enough to knead.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface.
Knead, adding flour as necessary, until you have a smooth, elastic dough.
Put the dough into an oiled bowl, turning once to coat the entire ball of dough with oil, and cover with a towel.
Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Grease two 9 x 5-inch or 10 x 5-inch loaf pans, and sprinkle with rolled oats.
Turn dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface.
Divide dough in half.
Shape dough into loaves and place in prepared pans.
Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.

Just before baking, brush tops of loaves with egg/water mixture. Sprinkle with additional rolled oats.

Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 30 minutes, or until internal temperature of loaves reaches 190°F.
Immediately remove bread from pans and cool on a rack, to prevent crust from becoming soggy.


This morning, we discovered this bread makes the MOST DELICIOUS FRENCH TOAST!
I grew up with (dreaded supermarket) white bread French toast, which I always hated for the soggy, eggy nothingness it was. Now, I have a whole new understanding of why people eat French toast! Yum yum yummers!

French Toast

slices of Apple Oatmeal Bread
2 eggs
1 cup milk (or less if you prefer an eggy toast)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
butter or oil to grease skillet/griddle/pan/what-have-you

Mix ingredients from eggs through salt.
Heat pan/griddle/what-have-you until water drops dance on the surface.
Melt butter or spray/spread oil.
Dip bread in mixture until both sides moist. (you can soak the bread rather than dip if that's your pleasure)
Place in skillet and cook (flipping when first side is done) until both sides are nicely browned.
We spread jam on ours and were over the moon. Enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Handpies

These are oh-so-delicious! Very simple and full of yummy goodness. The site where I found the recipe advocates eating them for breakfast with a hot cup of coffee...sounds like a brilliant idea! I just made them tonight because I am tired of not baking and I could make these without any appliances (though the dough is even easier if you just whip everything but the ice water in a food processor, adding the water in after you have your cornmeal textured dry stuffs).

Strawberry Rhubarb Handpies
discovered the joy on angrychicken

Dough:
1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1 stick butter
4 Tbsp ice water

Filling:
4 cups chopped rhubarb and strawberries
1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Roll out dough. Add filling. Fold over and crease.
Bake 15 minutes at 425F, then 25 minutes at 350F.

Black bean quesadillas or soft tacos or whatever

This is a great solution to dinner-on-the-run. It's delicious, nutritious and (sometimes, most importantly) FAST.

can of black beans
your favorite salsa
cheddar cheese, shredded
fresh spinach
corn or flour tortillas

Heat the beans in a pot or skillet on the stove. I usually let 'em boil gently in the cooking water that came in the can for about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, steam the spinach. The easy way to do this is rinse the leaves well, put them in a microwaveable bowl, cover and cook for 1 minute. When cool enough to handle, chop the steamed spinach.
Assembly is up to you. If you have big tortillas, pile in your ingredients, roll it up (you may have to heat the tortillas first to avoid breakage), and enjoy! If you have little tortillas, you might want to layer the ingredients on one tortilla, top it with the other tortilla, and bake or pan fry until the cheese is melted.

It's very easy to adapt these to include whatever you like. We often add in corn and brown rice if we have some on hand. Sometimes we toss in bite-sized cooked chicken too. It's up to you!

Really moist chicken

I was trying to come up with some way to cook chicken breasts that would make them yummy but neutral enough to use in lunch sandwiches in different combos. I came across this recipe, and it worked out great!

boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup natural plain yogurt
2 Tbsp country-style mustard
1 cup wheat germ, toasted
salt and pepper

Stir together yogurt and mustard.
Toast wheat germ and stir in seasoning.
Dredge chicken in yogurt mixture. Completely coat.
Now coat those in the wheat germ.
Place on ungreased baking sheet.
Cook at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

The yogurt keeps the chicken incredibly moist. The chicken is good as is (serve it with some brown rice and green veggies), but we sliced it up and used it in sandwiches too.

Veggie Toss

I've been happily frequenting the local farmer's market each Saturday, but there is a downside. I tend to get over-excited and completely carried away. I purchase everything that looks yummy, giving me WAY TOO MUCH fresh goodies to use in a timely manner. The other night, I looked at my produce mountain and realized I'd better do something quick. I'll call the result the "Veggie Toss", because that's literally what I did (tossed in different veggies that were laying around). There's no real recipe to relate here, but the results were so pleasing I had to share.

zucchini
corn on the cob
bell peppers (I had red, yellow and green)
fresh herbs

Roast the bell peppers. If you haven't done this before, you really should! What a flavor impact! Cut the bell peppers in half length-wise. Toss out the seeds and cut out the white ribs. Rub 'em with olive oil and place them cut-side down on a baking sheet. Roast on the top shelf of your oven at around 425 degrees or so. Yes, they will turn black. This is what you want! When the skin is all black and blistered, take them out of the oven and toss them in a paper bag, roll the top of the bag shut, and allow them to cool (can use aluminum foil if you don't have paper bags). When they are cool, peel that blistered skin off and voila! Roasted bell peppers, ready for your culinary pleasure!

Chop the zucchini into bite-sized bits. Saute in combination of butter and olive oil until softened, browned and yummy.
Cut corn off cobs. Toss into pan with zucchini. Saute for a few more minutes (enough to heat the corn but not brown it).
Chop herbs. Sprinkle over corn and zucchini and corn along with some sea salt and pepper if that's your thing.
Slice those lovely roasted bell peppers and stir those in too.
It's a hodgepodge mess, but oooooo did it taste good!