Whole Wheat Bread 2

Another whole wheat bread recipe. This one uses canned milk, something that I came across when I was going through our food storage. We have (had) three cans of it, and the expiration date was October 2010. I don't have a problem with using things past their expiration dates in cases like this. I don't think it's going to poison me. The expiration date doesn't mean that on that day it's going to shrivel up and expire. It just means that the quality of flavor and nutrition is not guaranteed past that time. So I found this recipe, and, of course, included my own modifications: Namely, I added 1/4 cup more water and put 2 tablespoons of powdered eggs in with the flour in order to replace the 2 beaten eggs. I also used a heaping tablespoonful of yeast instead of 2 tablespoonfuls of yeast. Oh, and I didn't exactly measure out three tablespoons of honey. How do you measure three tablespoons of honey? Sticky stuff. No, I just used a knife to scrape three scoops of honey into my 1/3 measuring cup that I had used for the oil so that it was about half full and figured that it was close enough to three tablespoons of honey. Also, the flour doesn't specify whether to use all whole wheat or part white (other than the presumption of the title), so I'm using part bread flour. Because I know from past experience that most whole wheat breads taste best when you use part white flour.

With that introduction, here we go:

100% Whole Wheat Bread from Louise P. Eddy in the book Cookin' with Home Storage

1 1/2 cups warm water

1/3 cup oil

3 tablespoons honey

2 eggs beaten

1 can evaporated milk

2 tablespoons yeast

1 tablespoon salt

7 cups flour

Mix in order and raise in greased bowl, 35-45 minutes. Punch down, divide into 3 loaves. Raise for 20 minutes. Bake 350 degrees 45 minutes. This dough can be used for dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls.

My version:

In a mixer bowl combine:

1 3/4 cups very warm water

1 can evaporated milk

1/3 cup oil

3 tablespoons honey

1 heaping tablespoon yeast

Let that sit while you grind the wheat into flour, then add and mix well, scraping sides of bowl as needed:

4 cups whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons powdered eggs, sifted

Let it sit for 15 minutes. Then add:

2 cups bread flour

scant tablespoon salt

Mix together, scraping sides of bowl.

Add:

up to 1 cup more flour as needed to make a soft dough.

Knead in the Kitchen-Aid mixer for 10 minutes. Lower the bowl and let it sit for 40 minutes, then raise the bowl and turn on the mixer for a minute to punch it down. Divide into three greased loaf pans, cover with a cloth, and let raise for 20 to 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Turn out of pans onto cooling rack.

Stay tuned while I try this. Later I'll let you know how I like it.

Whole Wheat Bread

Last night I wanted to make bread, but was feeling lazy about it, so I just did a simple recipe. It looks and tastes like I made bread from the food storage; in other words, it's not the best bread I've ever made. But it's okay.

5 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon yeast

2 cups water

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 tablespoon salt

Place the yeast and the flour in the mixer bowl. Add the water, honey, oil and salt, and mix with a dough hook until it all comes together, stopping and scraping the sides of the bowl so it will come all together. Mix in another 1/2 cup or so of white bread flour, then let the mixer knead it for 10 minutes. Shape two loaves and put into greased loaf pans and let it raise for 30 minutes or so. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

I figure that with my experimenting with food storage recipes, I might as well experiment with different bread recipes. I got out the recipe book, but I still did my own thing. In this case, the book called for a Vitamin C tablet, and I used the lemon juice instead. Somewhere I read that a little citric acid in the bread dough acts as a dough enhancer. I'm not sure exactly what it does, but I've put a bit of lemon juice in my bread dough ever since. And these food storage recipe books that I checked out of the library call for the citric acid, so I guess I'm on the right track.

Cinnamon rolls

This morning I made these cinnamon rolls from Dana Thornock's Lean and Free 2000 Plus book. They are light and yummy, and I highly recommend trying them.

Ellen

Healthy Banana Bread

My mother-in-law makes the most delicious banana bread ever. My kids and I love it. She shared her recipe with me, and it involves a lot of sugar and some shortening. I'm getting a little stingy about putting that stuff in my food, especially when it's a substantial amount. So I did a search and found this healthy banana bread recipe that actually tastes pretty good. It has no oil and very little sugar. I actually didn't even add as much sugar as it called for and it still tasted fine. It definitely isn't as tasty as my mother-in-laws, but it's healthy so it's what we'll eat. And when we visit Grandma we can eat her's. Here's the link to the recipe: Healthy Banana Bread.

Fiber energy bars

Yes, I tried yet another fiber recipe. It also turned out good, which is why I'm posting about it, but my kids still don't really care for it. However, after trying all these things using all whole wheat, I think I can now start making bread using 100% whole wheat. At least my kids love my wheat bread, although I've never done it with all whole wheat before. I recently switched to hard white wheat instead of hard red, and we like it a whole lot better.

Anyway, the recipe for these bars I found here, but I think you could very well use your own basic bread recipe to do this. I never would have figured that you can just use a basic whole wheat bread recipe and turn it into fiber bars, but they have instructions for how to do just that, along with a bunch of other fun ideas, if you scroll down the page a ways. I'm not going to re post the recipe here because I followed it pretty much exactly except I had no wheat gluten or lecithin however I did use the optional egg which I believe has lecithin in the yolk? Oh, and I omitted the salt, but that's just because I was using salted peanuts. I even ground some flax seed in my blender and it actually worked! I've never dared do that before.

So Mom, you can try some when you get here, I have plenty! By themselves they are a little bland unless you bite into a raisin or something. Kind of like eating a plain piece of raisin bread. They aren't very sweet. They would be delicious with butter and honey on top. This morning I used two of them to make an egg sandwich for breakfast and it was delicious. This is a recipe I will definitely use again. I think it will grow on my kids. Oh speaking of my kids, for two of them I told them it was a bagel and spread cream cheese on it and they ate it.

Puff oven pitas

So, you take your regular old bread recipe, and for each loaf-size hunk of bread, you divide it into four pieces. Make a ball of each piece, and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Gently lay it on a piece of wax paper to rise for about 20 to 40 minutes, until lightly puffed. While it's rising, preheat your oven to 500 degrees F. Transfer the pita dough, gently and carefully, to an ungreased cookie sheet which has been lightly sprinkled with cornmeal or flour. You should be able to fit two pits on each sheet. Place in hot oven, turn on the light, and watch it slowly puff up. This should take about three to five minutes. When nicely puffed and rounded, open the oven door and use a spatula to flip it over. Let it cook for another minute or two, until lightly brown and set. Remove from oven and allow to cool. As it cools, it will flatten back down. When totally cool, cut each pita in half to form the pocket, fill with your favorite filling, and enjoy.

Worst looking, best tasting

This moring I made the ugliest most vile looking smoothie you ever saw. It was dark greenish brown and I tried to take a picture for you but my camera is acting up. But it tasted awesome! So I wanted to share the ingredients:

Frozen rasberries

a banana

big spoonful of orange juice concentrate

about 1 cup of water

tons of spinach

and some ice cubes

Oh yeah, and some soy protein powder

This is the first time I've been daring enough to make a smoothie with water instead of milk or yogurt, and I actually liked it even more!

Also, yesterday I made some 100% whole wheat pretzels. It's the first time I've made something with all whole wheat before and they turned out very yummy. To me anyway. My kids for some reason won't really touch them. I was hoping they would love them. So the search is still on for a high fiber snack they will love (besides apples). I used this recipe here. If I do happen to make these again, I will use water or almond milk in place of the milk, and olive oil inside them in place of the butter. They weren't exactly super healthy except for being packed with whole wheat.