To be truthfull, it's been sitting out on the porch for a couple weeks waiting for me to give it some loving care. With the expectation that everything I try for the first time will be difficult and time-consuming, I followed my usual form and procrastinated. It IS true that I wanted to try making bread again when I ground the first wheat berries so the time constraints on that endeavor (reading the manual, breaking in the mill, and attempting bread all in the same fell swoop) made me leary to start one hour before lunch and nap!
We dutifully read the manual, first Zack and then Clay (I wouldn't miss an opportunity to turn a project like this into school!)
Then we put the pieces together and ground our first two cups of wheat to clean out the mill. It sounded like we were in a rocket leaving earth!
Then we got serious and made bread. We used Auntie Hannah's tried, tested, and tweaked to perfection recipe. It is really amazing how few ingredients there are in it!
Auntie Hannah's Bread
4 Cups unmilled wheat (hard red) milled.
Combine:
2 Cups warm water
2 tsp. salt
1/4 honey (more or less)
sprinkle over top, 3 and 1/2 tsp yeast and stir.
Add a little flour at a time until too stiff to stir, then dump out on counter and knead in the rest of the flour. Knead in only enough flour to leave the finished lump of dough a tiny bit sticky.
Put a bit of oil on counter or in bowl, place lump of dough on it and then turn dough to lightly coat in oil.
Cover with towel and rise until double.
Once risen, cut in half and knead into two loaves.
Place each into a greased bread pan (small size: 4 x 8 1/2"?).
Score the top three times, and brush with egg white.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min.
We'll see about that, but since I do think practice is in order there's a good chance;-)
Will you all please post or comment your own favorite bread recipe's for me?
7 comments:
Yummy! Maybe we will have a chance before you leave to make bread together. I'd LOVE to see how that mill works! Awesome.
I love the faces your kids make. So expressive.
You may already know about this but I like this site for bread info. http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/breadbaking.htm
What cute kids you have!!! :-)
I don't remember my favorite wheat bread recipe since it has been so long since I made wheat bread! I mean I know which recipe it is but don't know wear it is...etc...
That bread looks delicious tho! :) I'm just full of exclamation points today aren't I!
Looks like you guys had a good time :)
Somehow last time i didn't scroll all the way down and see all the posts I missed...
Hurrah for a healthy baby! :-) With J my midwife requested I get an ultrasound at 34 wks( i looked full term, and he was only number 2). She said "i want to know if i'm delivering twins!" Nope, just one baby. Who the doctor said was perfectly normal size...I'd like to have seen his face if he had delivered that 10 lb 11 oz boy ;-)
Those egg rolls look delicious. I keep meaning to try making spring rolls with rice paper wrappers, but haven't found any locally so far. I hate to pay shipping on food (or anything for that matter)
What a sweet, sweet pic of little girl and rose. And Zac looks so proud of himself with his lizard. B loves catching lizards too. Although the day he got bit by one he was shaking from head to toe, poor kid ;-)
that looks so yummy.
Hello! That bread is certainly picture-worthy! Nice job!
I recently got a recipe from a Momma friend of mine. She has five wonderful children. You may have met her at my wedding? Lisa Mattila. Anyway, she has a fantastic bread recipe. It seems to have turned out well both times I made it (meaning it's not finicky). She makes it with spelt flour, but I'm sure wheat would work as well. Here ya go!
4 1/2 C warm water (115-120 degrees F)
2/3 C oil
2/3 C honey
4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. vitamin C. powder (this is supposed to break down the gluten, I believe...)
2 T. yeast
10-11 1/2 C flour
Put all ingredients in bowl in the order above, but only add half the flour first. Mix til combined, then slowly add the rest of the flour til the dough cleans the sides of the bowl. Mix 1 more minute or so. (Dough will still be a little sticky.) Divide into loaves, put in greased pans, and let rise in a warm oven for 45 min to an hour. Bake at 350 F for 35 minutes (cover with foil for the last 10 minutes. Makes 4 loaves.
To make the SAME dough into cinnamon rolls, roll out dough onto a floured counter. For each loaf sized piece of dough, spread about 1/2 C of butter, 3/4 C brown sugar & sprinkle cinnamon. Roll up dough and cut into 1" thick slices using dental floss. Put into 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
Disclaimer! The cinnamon roll part is in the words of Lisa's 13 year old daughter (who knew a TON about baking!), and I haven't tried that part yet. Make at your own risk. ;)
I like this recipe, because you only have to raise it once. :) The easier the better. Enjoy!
Yay for you!!! I use The Urban Homemaker's recipe for bread. It is really good and easy. Her recipe for French bread is also GREAT-- it is the recipe that I use for cinnamon rolls. My favorite grain to use is Golden 86 also called Prairie Gold. It makes a light golden loaf-- not too dense. I also add a tablespoon of soy lecithin to my recipe (2 loaves). It makes an incredibly soft loaf of bread. I know some people are opposed to the soy lecithin but it makes such a difference in our bread. Oh yeah-- one of my girls favorite things is pepperoni bread. Roll out your dough for one loaf into a rectangle, sprinkle with mozzarella and pepperoni (we use turkey). Roll it up to make a loaf, seal the seam really good. Bake and serve with marinara sauce--MMMMM!
Happy baking!
p.s-- I love your blog.
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