3 great recipes

I love the following 3 recipes.

Let's start with the bread--I have made this bread 4-5 times so far and it has been brilliant--no added gluten is necessary I promise. It does make for a more perfect "store-like" bread, but you'll have delicious bread without it. I used added gluten the first two times and none the next two or three. This bread is sweetish and soft and I think it might freeze well. The loaf I stuck in the freezer only got to stay there one night and he thawed perfectly but I can't say from experience what an extended stay in there might do.

I use freshly ground whole wheat flour for this recipe. I am lucky enough to have a Wondermill. I also doubled the recipe once to do 6 loaves and it worked brilliantly. But a few tips if you go that huge--you need a REALLY big bowl--like that one I got at Ikea long ago. And if you want to cook all 6 loaves at once (which I did because I am that impatient), make sure you have an inch clearance around every loaf in the oven. My oven barely does, but it does and it works. So for 3 loaves (and pay attention to ingredients mentioned twice so you can add and figure out how much flour and honey TOTAL you will need)--

3 cups warm water

2 pkgs or 4 1/2 tsp. yeast (I use the kind in the jar)

1/3 cup honey

5 cups whole wheat flour

(1/4 cup gluten--optional)

3 Tablespoons melted butter

Another 1/3 cup honey

1 Tablespoon salt

about 4 more cups whole wheat flour

In a large bowl, mix together warm water, yeast and 1st honey. Add 1st flour (and gluten if using) and stir to combine. Let that sit for 30 minutes til big and bubbly or kinda big and kinda bubbly. Now mix in melted butter (I just microwave it), 2nd honey and salt. This will seem like an alien substance at this point--more like a science project. People might fuss about me adding butter heated in the microwave because it's hot and will kill the yeast and they might fuss because I am not telling you to stir in one direction only (something I see a lot in artsy-fartsy bread recipes) but who cares--if I've done this 4 times and it's worked every time I think you're good. I do have a little experience in bread making so I do kind of know what to look for but by now anyone who reads my blog ever knows that if I can do it, they surely can. Fool proof. No bigger fool than the one right here writing this. Now stir in the 2nd flour--mix, then knead it in until not real sticky but maybe slightly tacky. Various climates and altitudes require different amounts of flour so you really have to go by feel on this. I make all my bread by hand fully. No mixers and I actually own a Bosch which can do bread dough really well. I need to feel my bread--it's really the only way to go and boy do I make good bread when I'm seriously ticked off. :-) If the dough is just sticking to everything--add a bit more flour at a time. Okay, now you have your dough ball--which by the way, I also knead in the bowl--forget this dusting of the counter with flour and doing it there, that's just a waste of time. I can carry the bowl to the floor and knead it while playing with Isaac or to the kitchen table while helping someone with homework. Once everything in the bowl is incorporated into your dough ball--grease the ball and bowl (inside only). I used Pam, you can use butter, olive oil--whatever. I actually didn't use Pam. I used the generic equivalent. Did you know you can get dried egg off your car with Pam? Seriously, someone egged the boys car several months ago and I finally couldn't stand looking at it anymore so I sprayed Pam on it, waited 30 minutes and went back with some paper towels. A little elbow grease and boom--it was gone. Yea for Pam! Or the generic equivalent thereof...uhh..where was I? Okay, the dough ball is in the bowl and now cover it with a clean towel and place it somewhere likely to rise for an hour. Where is that? When I first started making breads I would put the dough in an oven (NOT turned on) with a pan of steaming hot water under it. Now I just throw the bowl on top of my freezer. It's a bit warm up there and here in the South anyway, the air is plenty moist. So it takes an hour to double. Don't freak out if it doesn't look exactly doubled--as long as there's a bit to punch down, you'll be okay. So punch it down good and then divide it into 3 loaves. Place in greased (PAM or butter--DO NOT use olive oil sprays for this--I speak from sad experience) loaf pans. Mine are 8x4 inch glass pans but larger (9x5s) is okay (at least I think so since that's what the recipe originally calls for--I bet the cooking time might be 5 minutes less though). Now cover them again--Pam'd plastic wrap is best but lazy me just reuses the towel. Allow to rise until dough is 1 inch above top of pan (45 minutes or so--it must get to that 1 inch height though). Then you finally get to bake them--350 degrees for 30 minutes. You can butter the tops right out of the oven if you want but I never do. I pop them out of the pans and cool on a wire rack. Hot bread goes fast around here. It cuts better if you wait but.... It really is a brilliant recipe.

Now for awesome recipe #2--this is from the Heavenly Homemakers website (actually these all might be I can't remember). This recipe is a great one to do with your kids because it is easy and there is only one rising and what kid doesn't like to shape pretzels or hearts or whatever and feel like they are a real baker?

So...
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons yeast
2 teaspoons honey
2 1/2 cups milk (I've used store bought, powdered and even coconut milk--they all worked)
1 stick butter
1/2 cup honey
4 teaspoons salt
8 cups whole wheat flour
butter and salt to top with at end if wanted
In a large bowl, mix 1 cup very warm water, yeast and honey. Stire and let sit while melting together butter, honey, salt and milk. (I usually just microwave the butter and throw it all in together). Pour milk mixture into yeast mixture and stir. Stir in 8 cups flour, 2 cups at a time. It eventually gets too hard to stir so you start kneading--5--10 minutes. Grease ball and bowl (hopefully you know what I mean), cover and let rise 1 1/2 hours (in your rising spot). That's 90 minutes. Pull out, knead a few times and then pull off fist-size pieces and roll into long snakes, cross ends and pull up to make pretzel shape. Look online if that made no sense. I was worried when I first tried these that we weren't rolling them thin enough, or too thin but I couldn't stop the kids from helping and what do you know? They all turned out great. I threw them on my airbake cookie sheet about an inch apart and baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. You can butter and salt them if you want--I don't like extra salt on them--whole wheat flour just doesn't go with extra salt to me--but if you added some garlic to the butter I bet they'd be awesome. I cooked a batch on a regular cookie sheet and they got way browner than on the air-bake but still perfectly yummy.

And now for this family's all time new favorite recipe--Chewy Granola Bars.
We needed something to replace the granola bars I kept buying but now I want them to be healthier--they are still a treat but so much better for the kids! They are a bit like no-bakes so if you hate those, these aren't for you. A love of peanut butter is necessary.
For 1 13x9 inch pan--
On medium heat in a pot on the stove, melt together 1 cup peanut butter (I use Smucker's all natural), 1/2 cup coconut oil, and 2/3 cups honey. There is no boiling, just simply melting--once you can't see the coconut oil--you are done! Then stir in 3 cups oats (whole, quick, who cares), and 2 cups of extras--I've used a combination of raisins and sunflower seeds (raw, not salted), also flaxseeds with the raisins. I used chocolate chips once and they melted right in. Those were pretty good but seriously--the plain ones rock. So once you have it all stirred up, just spread it in a 13x9 pan and chill for 2 hours. Once it's good and cold, it will be firm enough to cut up into bars and then individually wrap those in plastic wrap but keep them refrigerated! I'm planning on trying some with cocoa powder but the regular ones are awfully addicting.

I have also starting experimenting a little with yeast. I got frustrated last week when I was trapped by my own bread. Everyone wanted to go to the park, but I had to stay home and deal with 1st and 2nd risings and baking. They all left me in the dust. After a bit of reading, I realized you can use less yeast and just increase your rising times. In fact in one recipe I tried, a recipe for two loaves of bread only required 1 tsp. of yeast and the first rising was 4 hours and the second was 2 hours. So even if you work all day, you might be able to make homemade bread with a little planning. The yeastie beasties will do all the work for you and this is a great way to save yeast too. Patience. Who knew?