Whole Wheat Bread

     I do believe we've found our favorite wheat bread recipe so far. Most of the wheat bread recipes we've found have resulted in breads that, while tasty, were dense enough to hammer nails. This particular recipe, with a couple changes (firstly we omitted the nuts. The Wife is not a fan of nuts in her bread), resulted in a beautiful loaf of soft, delicious bread with just a hint of sweetness. I used this for a salami and provolone sandwich with some red onion and spicy brown mustard and it was amazing. Truly this bread is fantastic and could easily supplant Shaker or Sally Lunn for our weekly loaf. The first loaf we made didn't even survive two days in our house! You need this bread. Even if you're gluten intolerant, it's worth the pain. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Whole Wheat Bread
(via Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals)

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (omitted)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 package (1/4 ounce) quick-rise yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup reduced-fat plain yogurt (no yogurt on hand, we used sour cream)
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup all-purpose flour and the rest of the dry ingredients (I used the bowl from my KitchenAid, since that's where I'd be doing the mixing/kneading).
2. In a saucepan, heat water, yogurt (sour cream) and butter to about 120-130F (I just heated until the butter melted in. Either way, let it cool to 110F or below before you move to the next step)
3. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients. Beat until smooth. Add enough remaining all-purpose flour to form a soft dough (we always wind up using all the flour). Turn out onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes (On the KitchenAid, I used the dough hook the entire time. I turned it on low, added the liquid, then slowly added the remaining flour and let it knead for about 2-3 minutes)
4. Shape dough into a ball and place on a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray (we used a lightly greased pizza stone). Cover and let rest in a warm place for 20 minutes. (I highly suggest lightly scoring an "X" into the top of the ball with a knife to prevent a mushroom shaped bread. Unless you're into that sort of thing, then do what feels natural)
5. Bake at 400F (200C, Gasmark 6) for 25-30 minutes, (we generally go about 27 minutes) or until golden brown. Turn out on a wire rack to cool.

Good times!

Spiced Gatehouse Tea Bread

If you've never read any of the Redwall books by Brian Jacques, you're really missing out. I even devoted a whole blog post to his dedication to describing food. Go read his books; you won't regret it. Lately, we've been dabbling with a few of the recipes from an actual cookbook that he released some time ago. I mention it in the post linked earlier. Check that out, too. The first one we tried was a tea bread. This is a fantastic breakfast bread. Toasted and slathered in butter and/or honey, you've got a real treat. It also is a very good looking bread, just loaded with fruit. Make it and sit around pretending you're a mouse and it's like you're living the book! As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Spiced Gatehouse Tea Bread
via Brian Jacques The Redwall Cookbook

Ingredients

• 3 cups mixed dried fruit, preferably 1 cup each raisins, currants and golden raisins (no currants on hand so we went with dried cranberries instead)
• 1-1/2 cup hot brewed tea (we used pomegranate tea)
• 4 packed teaspoons brown sugar
• 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice or 2 teaspoons each cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg 
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• butter, for greasing pan

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F (190C, Gasmark 5). Butter an 8-cup, preferably nonstick loaf pan (I suspect the book may have a typo. I've never seen an 8 cup loaf pan. That's huge. I am thinking they meant 8 inch loaf pan, because that's what I used and it was the perfect size. Go me.)
2. Place the dried fruit in a large bowl, Pour the hot tea over the fruit, stir in the brown sugar, and let the mixture cool for 5 minutes.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the flours, spices, baking powder and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the fruit mixture, then stir in the egg until well combined (I did the final mixing in the KitchenAid because I 'm lazy and didn't want to do it by hand)
4. Scrape the batter into the pan, level the surface and place it in the top third of the oven. Bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 
5. Let the loaf cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Good times!

Bacon Pecan Sweet Rolls

     It began one morning when I asked The Wife if she wanted bacon for breakfast. She replied that if we did that, we'd have a bunch left over and what would we do with it? The conversation quickly degenerated into a discussion of bacon-related ideas. This recipe is the culmination of those ideas. We never did have bacon for breakfast. I think I had a bagel and lox and she had grits and fried eggs. Anyways, I found a breakfast roll recipe in my trusty copy of Taste of Home: Everyday Light Meals and promptly cannibalized it. The result was well beyond our expectations. These rolls are phenomenally good and frighteningly large. We generally have to split one. Good luck not eating the whole pan. As always, any notes are in blue.

Bacon Pecan Sweet Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 package (.25 ounce) active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water (110-115F, 43-46C)
• 2 cups warm milk (110-115F, 43-46C)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 6 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup brown sugar, separated into one 1/2 cup and two 1/4 cup measures
• 1/2 cup maple syrup, separated into two 1/4 cup measures
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cup pecans
• 12 ounces applewood smoked bacon

For Icing

• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• 4 teaspoons milk
• 1 tablespoon of crumbled bacon and pecans (you'll see where they get crumbled down in the instructions. Remain calm)

Directions

1. Line two baking sheets with foil. Spray with nonstick cooking spray. 
2. On one sheet, lay out the bacon in strips. Sprinkle evenly with one of the 1/4 cups of brown sugar
3. On the other pan, spread the pecans in a single layer. Sprinkle evenly with the other 1/4 cup of brown sugar.
4. Put the pans in an oven preheated to 350F (180C, Gasmark 4). (things get a bit tricky here. You're going to want to make sure the bacon is getting crispy and the sugar caramelized, without burning the sugar or the nuts. You're going to just have to check in every 5 minutes or so. After 10 minutes, the nuts were as caramelized as they were going to get without burning.The bacon went another 5-10 minutes. If you smell smoke, you fucked up and burned everything. At that point, just stop and fix yourself a drink) When done, remove from oven and allow to cool.
5. Crumble the bacon and crush the nuts (You could do this by hand if you prefer large pieces. I put mine in a small blender and pulsed it until there were small pieces and the nuts were starting to turn to dust). Reserve 1 tablespoon of this mixture for later use.
6. In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in warm milk, salt, whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup maple syrup, vanilla extract and 3 cups of flour. Beat until smooth (I used the Kitchenaid with a dough hook for this step) Add in enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough (the syrup makes this dough super sticky. I added a full 3 extra cups of flour before the dough was workable) Knead dough 6-8 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1-1/4 hours.
7. Punch dough down. Turn onto a floured surface and knead a few more times. Roll into an 18 inch square. Spread bacon and pecan mixture to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Do the same with the remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Evenly pour the other 1/4 cup of maple syrup over the rest (why the hell not? At this point, you might as well just turn in your pancreas) Roll up jelly-roll style. Pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 pieces. Place in a 13"x9"x2" baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Cover and let rise, about 30 minutes (I suggest covering it loosely with some plastic wrap coated with nonstick cooking spray, then lay a towel over the whole thing. If you put the towel right on top, you're going to get the towel stuck to the rolls. Don't ask me how I know this)

   

   It took The Wife and I both to roll this thing up
   because the damned thing was sticking to the counter.

8. Bake at 350F (180C, Gasmark 4) for 30 minutes or until lightly browned (cooking times may vary.) Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.
9. For the glaze, combine confectioner's sugar, reserved bacon/pecan mix and 4 teaspoons of milk. Stir until sugar has dissolved (you may need to add more milk to keep this from being the consistency of Spackle) Pour evenly over the tops of the rolls. 

Good times!

Whole Wheat Bread

     Shockingly, I once again turn to my well-worn copy of Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals for a bread recipe. This time it's a simple whole wheat bread. The original recipe called for walnuts, but as you may know, The Wife isn't a big fan of nuts in her bread. I tend to agree with her. I think this bread is fine without the added texture. This makes for a rustic, crusty loaf that's great with soups, or toasted and covered in butter at breakfast. One warning, if the bread doesn't cook evenly, it will rise funny in the oven and end up looking like a mushroom cloud. It still will taste fine, it will just look goofy. A friend has told me that scoring an "X" about 1/2" deep in the top of the dough before baking will prevent that from happening. As always, any notes or changes are in blue.

Whole Wheat Bread
via Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1-1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (omitted)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 package (1/4 ounce) quick-rise yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup reduced-fat plain yogurt
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, nuts (if using), brown sugar, yeast and salt.
2. In a saucepan, heat the water, yogurt and butter to 120-130F. Add to dry ingredient; beat until smooth.
3. Stir in enough remaining all-purpose flour to form a soft dough (we wound up using the full amount of flour listed in the ingredients). Turn out onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes (I just ran it in the Kitchenaid with the dough hook), Do not let rise.
4. Shape dough into a ball; place on baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray. Cover and let rest in a warm place for 20 minutes (I know for sure that if I cover this dough and put it in a warm place, it's going to rise. They just told me not to let it rise. Is this some sort of test? What do I do if it starts to rise? Talk it down?) 
5. Bake at 400F (200C, Gasmark 6) for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown (we went close to 40 minutes. Baking times may vary). Remove from pan to cool on wire rack. 

Don't forget to cut an "X" about 1/2" deep in the top before baking
to prevent the loaf from looking like a nuclear bomb test.
Good times!

Raisin Pumpkin Walnut Bread

     As always, last Sunday was all about baking. As I am nothing, if not predictable, I pinched another recipe from Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals. This bread could not be more simple to prepare. I did think the recipe seemed to be missing something so I took it upon myself to chuck some raisins in there. In the end, we ended up with a nice rich bread that is suitable for dessert! It's also good in the morning with a schmear of cream cheese. As always, any changes or notes will be in blue.

Raisin Pumpkin Walnut Bread
via Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup egg substitute (we substituted 2 large eggs)
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup canola oil (we used corn oil)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup raisins

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. 
2. In another bowl, combine the pumpkin, egg substitute (or 2 large eggs), water and oil. Mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in walnuts. (I'll be honest here. I just loaded the first 8 ingredients into the Kitchenaid mixer bowl and gave them a quick stir. Then I just dumped everything else in and used the beater blade at power level 2 until it was all mixed up. I live on the edge.)
3. Spoon into a 9x5x3" baking dish coated with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 350F for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (ours took 65 minutes on the button). Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

Good times!

Golden Raisin Cranberry Whole Wheat Bread

     If you've been following this blog for any time at all, you know I like to make changes to existing recipes. Sunday was no exception. Sundays have pretty much become my baking day. I like to make a bread for us to eat on during the week. Why? The wife LOVES fresh bread. Any kind of fresh bread will do. Sunday I let her pick out what bread I was going to make. She sifted through the cookbooks and pointed out the Nutty Whole Wheat Bread recipe in Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals. There are just a ton of great bread recipes in there; I suggest you get a copy if at all possible.
     Anyways, the wife points out this recipe, then tells me she'd prefer it without the walnuts because she's not a fan of nutty bread. This was not a problem, as we did not have any walnuts in the house. We did, however, have golden raisins and dried cranberries. It worked out better than we could have imagined. The bread was sweet and soft inside, with a wonderful crust. This legitimately looked like something you would buy at a bakery! I will provide the original recipe with, as always, my notes and substitutions printed in blue.

Golden Raisin Cranberry Whole Wheat Bread
(originally Nutty Whole Wheat Bread)

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (I omitted the walnuts and substituted in 1/2 cup each of golden raisins and dried cranberries. I imagine just about any dried fruit could work here. If you try a different one, let me know how it works out)
• 1 package (1/4 ounce) quick-rise yeast
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup reduced-fat plain yogurt (we went with the plain, but the more I think about it, vanilla might have been really good in here)
• 2 tablespoons butter (we used margarine)

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, walnuts (or dried fruit), brown sugar, yeast and salt. Stir to combine ingredients.
2. In a saucepan, head the water, yogurt and butter to about 120-130F. Add to dry ingredients, beat until smooth (I used the Kitchenaid with a beater attachment). Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (I ended up using exactly the amount of flour called for in the recipe). Turn out onto floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes (I just left the dough in the mixer bowl and swapped in the dough hook to do the work).
3. Take dough and shape into a ball; place on a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray. Cover and let rest in a warm place for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 400F. 
4. Bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown (mine took 25 minutes to finish. Cooking times may vary a bit). Remove from pan to cool on a wire rack.

See? I told you it looks like it came from a bakery!
Sometimes I feel like I almost know what I'm doing!

Good times!

Sausage and Mozzarella Stuffed Whole-Wheat Ravioli

     Every now and then I completely lose my mind. Last Sunday was one of those times. I decided on a fairly large-scale Italian dinner. All from scratch. Monday I talked about the meatballs and sauce. Today we're going to look at the pasta end of the meal. I've always wanted to make whole-wheat pasta and I happened to have five pounds of whole-wheat flour in the pantry. I dug around in the manual for my Kitchenaid pasta sheet roller and found a recipe for the pasta. That was the base for my ravioli. The directions assume you have a Kitchenaid mixer. If not, you're going to be doing the mixing and kneading entirely by hand.

Sausage and Mozzarella Stuffed Whole-Wheat Ravioli

Ingredients
Pasta

• 4 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons water
• 3-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling

• 1 pound Italian sausage, casing removed
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

Filling

1. Cook sausage in pan until browned, drain excess grease
2. Reduce heat to low, add cheese and stir until cheese has melted throughout the meat. Set aside to cool.

Pasta

1. Place eggs, water, whole wheat flour and salt in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and flat beater Turn to speed 2 and mix 30 seconds.
2. Exchange beater for dough hook. Turn to speed 2 and knead for 2 minutes. Remove from bowl and hand knead for another 2 minutes. Divide dough into eight pieces before processing with sheet roller.
3. Attache the pasta sheet roller and start running the dough through. You're looking to work the dough to Roller setting 5. This is about 1/16" or so if by hand. (This dough will fight you in the sheet roller. The first couple of passes on the widest setting will still tend to shred the dough. You need to work it fairly thin before it will pass through without tearing. You're going to be doing a lot of folding and re-feeding. I hope you didn't have any other plans for the afternoon).

   

   You're going to end up with several sheets that hopefully look like this.

4. Lay out a sheet of rolled out pasta on a cutting board. Put a teaspoon of filling at regular intervals. You'll be able to get about 6 or so ready on a sheet. 

   

   This is what you should have in front of you.

5. Take a brush and dip it in some water. Paint water around the filling on the sheet. Lay another sheet over the top and press it into place. 

   

   Reference photos are proof that I care about you.

6. Get a ravioli cutter. The only reason I own one is that my wife's cousin gave me one when I mentioned I didn't own one. She's funny like that. If you don't have one, just cut it with a knife, then go around the very edge with the end of a fork to gently push the edges together and give it those fun little notches around the edge.

   

   Confession time. The wife is doing all the grunt work in these pictures. 

7. Get a big pot of water going at a rolling boil. Throw in some salt. It's pasta, don't be shy. In batches of six or so, toss the ravioli into the water. Cook them for 3-5 minutes depending on how done you want them. (We planned on finishing ours in our sauce, so we only cooked them for 3 minutes. They also freeze very well if taken out at this time.) Remove from water with slotted spoon and place in colander to drain off excess water. 

   

   Dramatic action shot.

8. At  this point, we took a cookie sheet and put down a layer of wax paper. We laid a single layer of ravioli, then another sheet of wax paper, another of ravioli...you get the idea. These wax paper sheets can then be loaded into freezer bags and put in the freezer for long term storage. You can heat them up in boiling water, cook them in sauce, or even microwave them to heat them up. This recipe will make about 60-70 ravioli. 

Good times!

Herbed Swirl Bread via Everyday Light Meals

     Who doesn't love bread! Obviously people with gluten intolerance, but you know what I mean. Every time I post a picture of bread on Facebook, people go nuts. Even just a picture of a ball of dough. People can't help but like it.

Oh boy! Bread!

     This was the case with the bread I baked today. Everybody responded in a very positive manner. This is a good thing since I don't think I could handle it if I got a tidal wave of comments about how awful that looked and how much it probably sucks. Anyways, I got the recipe out of the Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals cookbook, so if it's bad, blame them! As always, any changes or notes are made in blue.  With no further delay, I proudly present:

Herbed Swirl Bread
via Everyday Light Meals

Ingredients

• 3 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
• 2-1/2 cups warm water, divided
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2-3/4 to 3-1/2 cups white flour
• 6 green onions, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup minced fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions

1. In large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in 3/4 cup warm water. Add sugar, let stand for five minutes. Add whole wheat flour, salt, and remaining water. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough bread flour to form a soft, sticky dough. (I ended up using the minimum amount of white flour called for in the recipe, 2-3/4 cup)
2. Turn out onto floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes (I just chucked it all in the Kitchenaid and let the dough hook take care of it. My work ethic extends only so far.) Place in a bowl coated in non-stick spray, make sure to coat top (Of the bread, not YOUR top. Unless you're in to that sort of thing. I'm not here to judge.) Cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour.
3. In a nonstick skillet, saute onions, garlic, herbs and pepper in butter until tender. Set aside. (I only had fresh green onions. I substituted dried for everything else and doubled the amount of butter. Remember to use smaller amounts if you're switching to dry. You can find equivalents online. I also completely forgot to put in the pepper.)
4. Punch dough down onto floured surface. Cut into two pieces. Roll each piece out to about 14"x9". Brush with some egg, put the rest of the egg in the fridge for now. (Make sure the egg bowl is CLEAN before you put it in the fridge. I just tossed mine in there and apparently there was some drippage. The wife let me know about said dripping in a very loud and annoyed voice.) Spread herb mixture over dough to within 1/2" of the edges. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting on the short side. Pinch seams to seal and tuck ends under. Place seam-side down in two greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.
5. Brush with reserved egg. Bake at 375F for 40-50 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when tapped. (Mine took 46 minutes.) Remove from pans to wire racks. 

At 12 slices a loaf, you're looking at about 135 calories a slice.

Good times!