Hubby Bakes Bread Too!

My Hubby has been so good to me while I have been recuperating from the torn meniscus in my left knee. I haven't mentioned it on this blog, but most of you probably saw it over at Stitches of Grace (link to right), my regular blog. Making bread takes a lot of standing, so I taught Hubby how. This batch we did together, but he is learning and doing quite well.

I took this picture and was going to crop all the "stuff" out of it. Then I decided that I would show you what type of space that I have (or don't have) to work in, because some people might be saying "I'd like to do this, but I don't have enough room!" People, this is all the counter I have!!! To the right is the sink and then I do have about 20" to the left of the sink, but that holds the convection oven, so is not accessible for use. That's it! It's very crowded with my DLX and Vitamix there, but we make do. We could put the Vitamix elsewhere but figured that we would use it much more if it was left out where we could see it.

Here is the finished product - 5 loaves and two large rolls. We forgot to brush olive oil on the top, which tenderizes the crust, but it was still good.

Spelt Hamburger Buns

Marci said my hamburger buns were getting stale - a thinly veiled hint that I should update this blog! So today I want to report that I made the spelt bread recipe from Sue Gregg's yeast breads cookbook. I made one small loaf (1# 6.6oz) and 12 hamburger buns. The hamburger buns were a hit. I never add any dough enhancers even though Vit C powder was recommended in this recipe. It's really not needed - the texture was marvelous and they have a neutral taste, which is what I was looking for in a hamburger bun. A lot of people use their regular bread recipe, but I like to have a variety of flavor, something different than the usual.

So, next I need to find a recipe for whole grain onion rolls because that is Hubby's favorite. Any suggestions?

Baking Bonanza

Today was a "baking bonanza" day. I made a double batch of the whole wheat bread from Beth Holland's Bread For Life cookbook that I have been making weekly for our sandwich bread. I have been using white hard wheat and a double batch generally gives me 2 - 2.25# loaves and 3 - 1.5# loaves (12" and 8" pans accordingly).

This time I did it a little differently. I made a dozen 4 oz hamburger buns, pictured above. Next time I may make them 3 oz. It seems like an awful lot of bread to be eating at once. I make make them the same diameter but not as thick next time. Any input?


Here they are in a 9x13 pan, ready to rise. I used 1.5#, the same for a medium loaf of bread, as the recipe did not say. For the filling, I used about 1 cup of Sucanat, 1/2 cup of Honey and 1 cup of Turbinado. I find mixing natural sugars works better in most recipes. Then I melted two sticks of butter (1 cup) and 2 t of cinnamon. Chopped pecans were added on the bottom of the pan. These were actually sticky buns, not cinnamon rolls. The recipe would work for either, but you wouldn't need as much butter and sugar.


I spread about a third of the mix on the dough that was rolled out and the other 2/3 was on the bottom of the pan. I rolled the dough tightly and cut 14 1/2 rolls out using dental floss, which works like a charm! This is what they look like coming out of the oven. You can see why the Germans call them Schnecken! (Snails)

And this is the yummy result. I ate it this afternoon... you know the cook has to try out the experiments before letting others eat, right?! LOL

In addition to hamburger buns and sticky buns, I still had dough for a 12" loaf and an 8" loaf. Then there was exactly enough fresh ground flour to make Hubby his newly favorite cookies.

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I posted. I'll have to update with my bagel experiments soon!

Catching Up, Bread, Rolls, Biscuits and Cookies

Well you would think that all we ever do is eat bread around here since that is all I have posted recently. It just happens to be the area that I am working hardest on at the moment. I have lots of ideas and things I want to discuss but am going to wait and do a quick catch up post tonight.

I know I have shown lots of pictures of the Beet/Wheat/Spelt bread on here but I got a different brand of beets at a local grocery store and look at the color of this dough! As my daughter J says, "It's Bee-utiful!" I am trying to convert my recipe to make a big batch in the mixer for 5-6 loaves. Spelt does not behave quite like wheat, so I have had some challenges. Today I adjusted the liquids as spelt does not need as much liquid as wheat and my loaves have risen but then get lumpy/bumpy when baked. It was disappointing to have another lousy batch today but I believe I have figured out the other problem... Spelt should not be mixed as much as wheat. Another mistake may have been using two rises + rising after made into a loaf. This is what works in the next recipe I will talk about. But perhaps it is not a good choice for the Beet/Wheat/Spelt bread. Back to the drawing board. My kids actually like this bread and requested it.

Here's a chuckle though... I have never liked beets and apparently there are not enough people liking beets to warrant selling them organically by the can. I have looked everywhere for them and even Whole Foods only sells conventional beets, not organic. What's up with that? Has anyone else ever seen organic beets by the can? Eventually when I can have a garden I will grow my own and can them.

After the bread mess today, it was kind of depressing to see these pictures of this BEAUTIFUL bread! This is NOT white bread. This is white whole wheat bread made from a Challah type recipe that I found in Bread For Life, volume I by Beth Holland. You can see it made four loaves + rolls. The rolls we used for Sloppy Joe's the next day!

This bread tastes as good as it looks...the dented one is because I dropped it on the stove knobs when getting it out of the pan. This bread recipe is proof that you can make 100% whole wheat bread with awesome texture and NOT use any dough enhancers or vital wheat gluten or instant yeast. It was light and fluffy with a fine crumb, but not squishy like the white fake stuff whose name starts with a W!

And the dinner rolls were light and fluffy and better than any in a restaurant or store that I have had. I believe even most picky eaters would at least try. For family reading, they remind me of Marilyn's a little bit, but a little bit lighter because of the white wheat instead of red.

And these are the delight of my husband! I altered the Urban Legend Cookie Recipe to use fresh ground hard white wheat flour, Sucanat/honey for the brown sugar and Turbinado for the white. They look a little dark because of the unrefined sugars but they are not overdone. They don't taste like your usual Toll House Chocolate Chip cookie, but once your brain gets beyond that, they are awesome. The recipe is huge and makes about 10 dozen small cookies, about 6 dozen large. I put the dough in freezer ziploc bags about 1"+ thick so that it thaws quickly. You can scoop them all out in portions, but to me that is extra work, so I put it in amounts that will roughly equal 12-24 cookies, which is enough for one time with this family of five. Your mileage may vary. I definitely recommend trying this one!

My Valentine Gift! (More Bread)

Yesterday the UPS man brought a box from Amazon. Today he came to the porch with my Electrolux Assistent DLX mixer and my Nutrimill grain mill. He is a new guy, regular on our route and said, "Wow, you're the shopping lady!" LOL So in spite of being sick, I did have fun playing today. First I made flour and then I made bread! I was pleased with how everything worked. The flour is definitely finer than what I can make in the Vita-Mix and I only used the medium setting for texture.


Naturally I had to christen my mixer with a batch of beet bread. I will have to write down the changes I made later. Lately there have been some frustrating batches and I realized it was likely because I switched from storebought Spelt flour to home ground, so the measurements were different. My digital scale came earlier this week (same UPS guy! lol) and so I got it out and learned how to use it. The recipe calls for 5.5 cups of flou for the first part, so I multiplied 150 grams (I read on one of my lists that that is the weight of a cup of storebought flour) by 5.5 and used that much flour by weight. Turned out to be 8 cups! WOW! Big difference. I have heard that Spelt is fluffier than other grains when ground. I measured my wheat the same and that seemed to work. This photo is my pink dough at the beginning before all ingredients were added.

The DLX does a great job of mixing, though it did walk and bounce a bit when it got off balance. It does not come with any instructions to speak of, but fortunately, a really kind lady lent me her video from Beth Holland of Bread For Life. Since I am visual when it comes to things like this, it did help to watch this before hand. While the way it works is quite different than a Kitchen Aid, it was really easy to pick up. I was told their might be a learning curve, but I don't think I had any difference in learning how to use it than I would have with any new to me product. The dough produced was noticably better as it was kneaded well. I was afraid that I would spend my Hubby's hard earned $$ and have it not be any better than the Kitchen Aid. Today it earned it's keep though! :o)

Here is the nice stainless steel 8 quart mixing bowl it comes with and the dough is rising. I decided to do a 3 rise bread after watching the video. Usually I do only 2 rises.

Again, I used the scale to see how much the dough weighed as I put it in. I found that my 4x8 pans (measurement may not be exact) take 2# of dough. I had been using 1.5# and getting tiny loaves with these three plus one other small loaf pan. The larger loaf pan, perhaps a 5x9?, took 2# 6.5 oz of dough. You can see they raised nicely.

And here they are out of the oven. These are the nicest looking loaves I have made to date.

I cut this loaf too soon, so this picture shows it mooshed together, but I just couldn't wait!!! It tasted nummy with butter and blackberry jam. This may not be my final recipe for sandwich bread, but at least I feel well on the way to getting what I was looking for and I can't wait to experiment more with my new toys!

More On Bread

This is starting out with the hard red wheat berries (in jar at right). The downfall to using the Vita-Mix for making flour is that you can only do 2 cups of grain at a time. On the other hand it's extremely fast so not really that inconvenient.

This picture was taken after counting to five, so you can see it happens fast.

This picture was taken after 35 seconds - Voila! Fresh ground flour!

Today I ground spelt berries to make flour. Spelt is a relative to wheat, but I find it makes a little lighter flour and has a natural sweetness to it. It seems to cut the slight bitterness that can sometimes occur with Whole Wheat. Yesterday I made a batch of my beet bread using some spelt flour I had. It wasn't really rancid, but wasn't fresh either. Then I realized that I had bought it at the farm where it was grown in Eastern Washington. I was last there in August 2006! So, this was 18 months old. That's old especially in our hot climate. I did have some spelt berries of unknown age, but younger than the flour! So today I ground fresh flour from them and that was the key! It truly is amazing, even when your flour is fresh from the store, the difference in taste between fresh ground and purchased flour.

This is the wheat flour along with the sprouted, ground flax I found at Costco. I'm hoping this is okay to use. I was going to fresh grind flax seed as well. (Initially this recipe called for whole flax seed) But, the reading I have been doing lately suggested that sprouted grains are healthier, so I thought we would try this. I don't know for sure whether it is any better or not!

This is the beet/water/oil/honey combo in the Vita-Mix. Isn't it pretty? I don't like beets, so the smell is pretty horrid to me.

This is halfway through the mixing. The first ingredients are put together, yeast is added and allowed to rest. Different brands of canned beats seem to differ in color. This one is average. Another brand I used (but can't remember) produced beautiful raspberry dough. I let it rest for 20 minutes at this point in time, then come back and add the rest of the ingredients and the salt. This is supposed to enhance the yeast performance.

After the dough is needed in my Kitchen Aid Pro5 mixer, I put it in this large stainless steel bowl and set it on my stovetop. We have a gas stove and the heat from the pilot is vented to the top as well as through the vents. It is warm enough to aid in the proofing process but not too warm to kill the yeast.

While the dough is proofing you can read a book, sing a song, do a dance or visit with your damsel (A has a pink damsel's hat on but her head is tipped so you don't see it) who is playing with Mater!

After proofing, shape into loaves and allow to double in size again. This part, I'm still quite amatuer at as you can see from the shapes of my loaves. I have not figured out yet what size and how many to do and I think I have been proofing them too long because they collapse a little on top. At first I thought it was too much moisture, but that was not the problem with the dough today and after reading I found too much proofing can do this. I think I might need to just go back to doing 3 loaves and not using the small one, but am not sure. I did eliminate my large pampered chef pans. :o( I have three glass pans - all three are different sizes!

Here they are, ready to bake. Just behind the brown pan (part of a baking set I bought in Germany in 1984 and it makes a "cutie little loaf" as my Grandma would say) is an oven thermometer. My oven seems to be running 25 degrees lower than what the knob reads. I still did not adjust the temp. 375* on my oven is really 350* and if you adjust 25* for glass, that would be right anyway. I take the smallest loaf out at 30-35 minutes and leave the rest in 5-10 minutes more. That works for these sizes. I used the full 50 minutes when using big loaves.

Here are all 3 loaves, a little lumpy but very yummy. My daughter J would not eat the bread when I made it with white flour, but will with the spelt added. I think it has to be the sweetness of the spelt covering the slight bitterness of whole grain. This recipe, when fine tuned might be the keeper. It's a miracle that all 3 of my kids AND Hubby like this bread!!!

Here is a closer picture showing the nice texture. My adjusted recipe is as follows:

Beet Wheat Spelt Bread

Set Aside: 1/2 cup warm water

1 t honey

2 T Instant Yeast

Blend: 1 - 15oz can beets

1/3 c honey

1/3 c light olive oil

2 1/2 c warm water

Mix: 5 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c ground sprouted flax or flax meal

2 t Lecithin granules

Yeast Mixture

Beet Mixture

Mix only until combined and let set 20 minutes.

Add: 3 1/2 c spelt flour

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1 T salt

Knead in mixer for 4-5 minutes. If dough seems too sticky, add more whole wheat flour a little at a time. I added an additional 1/3 cup whole wheat flour. Placed in oiled bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.

Divid dough into 3-4 loaf pans, depending on your size. Let them raise until double again.

Bake at 375* or 350* for glass, 30-50 minutes depending on loaf size. Remove from oven and release from pan. Brush olive oil on crust to keep tender.

Serve and Enjoy!

(Feel free to enjoy my recipe but please be kind and give credit where credit is due. This is shared to enjoy, not to be sold or copied without permission. Thank you!)

Instant Yeast - UGH!

UGH! I just read at What's Cooking America's yeast page that Instant and Rapid Rise yeast, which is often used in bread machines, is genetically engineered from different strains of yeast! You are supposed to use 3/4 of the amount when using them as you would regular dry yeast. No wonder my bread has a nice fluffy texture and raises easily! Also Instant yeast does not need double proofing, which I have been doing. I am going to go to the health food store today to get some lecithin and Ascorbic Acid powder to use as dough enhancers. It looks like I might need to get some regular yeast too. That's another thing, the SAF Instant yeast I was using has Ascorbic Acid in it as well, which could explain why my bread had nice texture. But it also has sorbitan monostearate - what's that? (see below)

This Bon Appetit article by Alton Brown, one of my favorite foodies/scientists, has some good general information about yeast. It does not mention genetic altering, just that the yeast is dried in such a manner that less yeast are killed, making more active and available. I have not found any info on genetic modification anywhere else by googling so I emailed the LeSaffre company who makes SAF Instant yeast and asked them directly. I'm not expecting an answer, but you never know. I also checked Cook's Illustrated (and had to sign up for a free trial membership). They had articles on using it and they evaluated it as the "cleanest" yeast to use in breads that don't have lots of milk and sugar to cover up the taste that comes from dead yeast which is found in active dry yeast (they die because of the drying process and this is normal).

Next I looked up Sorbitan Monostearate and Wikipedia does not paint a pretty picture. This site describes it as an emulsifier and it is found in a lot of things from cake mixes, puddings, imitation whipped cream etc to hemorrhoid cream! This PDF with FDA information says that it is used in yeast as a re-hydrating agent and cannot be more than 1% by volume of yeast. At least now I know why it is used, but I still don't know if it's "freaky but safe" or "best to avoid." Anything chemical sounds a little scary. The Center for Science in the Public Interest lists it as safe. They have an interesting list on that page, but I noticed they also list Splenda as thought to be safe. Further googling shows that it is considered safe for use in Canada, Ireland and Europe. Sometimes they ban things that we use here ( like GMO fruits and veggies and some additives).

I find this rather frustrating. The more you know, sometimes the less you want to know! :o)

Using Dough Enhancers

One of my commenters suggested using dough enhancers and I asked about that on my Wellness Wednesday post yesterday, hoping to hear from one of you who uses them for whole wheat bread. Deborah recommended soaking the flour in yogurt or Kefir over night as this helps the wheat protein to be more digestible. This is the recommended course of action in the Nourishing Traditions book. It does make a lot of sense and I want to try it too, I just have been battling a migraine for three weeks and haven't been up to a lot of experimenting - just sticking to the tried and true.

Today, curiosity got the best of me and I had to google. I found this Bread Machine site that had a lot of good information and gave me some ideas. I have been interested in using Lecithin as I have read that it also is what helps keep cholesterol from sticking in your arteries - that is why eggs are not the evil food that some make them out to be. They are high in cholesterol but they have Lecithin too. It's like God naturally designed the perfect package to take care of things. Recently I "met" Teresa (we connected through mutual home school blogger Amy) and she recommended Bread Becker's. They have a lot of information on their site, including free recipes and others which you can purchase. Teresa has been using their bread recipes with success after hearing them teach at a homeschool conference. (I wish we had speakers like that at our conference!) Our local natural food co-op carries Lecithin granules in the refrigerated section, but it does not say what their source is. I want to avoid soy as it is bad for Thyroid and for other health reasons with soy.

Back on topic! Lecithin is supposed to keep the bread fresher, longer, working as a mild perservative. It also works with the gluten and can be used 1 Tablespoon per cup of flour.

Ascorbic Acid works as a preservative, deters mold growth and makes a good environment for the yeast. It comes in a pure crystal form or you can use Fruit Fresh or a crushed Vitamin C tablet. It's about 1/8 teaspoon per loaf of bread.

I was surprised to see that Ginger can also be used and it is good for a number of other reasons. 1/4 teaspoon per loaf will not change the flavor of your bread and will act as a yeast booster, helping it keep working. Bread will stay fresher longer and it deters mold and bacterial growth.

1 Large Egg replaces about 1/4 cup of liquid in a recipe. Eggs have Lecithin in the yolks.

Buttermilk helps yeast grow quickly and vigorously while softening the texture. I have had success using this for my whole grain biscuits and I use it in my banana bread recipe, in which I also substitute 1/2 whole wheat flour without any recognizable difference. Buttermilk helps the bread stay fresher longer and deters mold and bacterial growth. If you do not want the slight tartness buttermilk brings, you can add 1/2-1 teaspoon of baking soda.

The website also had recipes for making dough enhancers, however they all used wheat gluten. Wheat gluten by itself is highly processed and if you are going to use wheat gluten you might as well just use some white flour!

Any input? I'm thinking of trying a combo of Lecithin and Ascorbic Acid as well as possibly adding some ginger. It might be trial and error, but it's important to me to get a good bread that my family will eat. It doesn't matter how health it is if it won't pass their lips! LOL Currently J will not eat the wheat bread. So, I give her some of my light rye wasa brod. Now, everyone will eat that but A. I feel like my Grandma used to say, "can't win for losing"!

Now can someone tell me about Instant Yeast??!!

Beet Bread Revisited

So that I don't have to post twice, please go visit Wellness Wednesday #9 on my main blog to learn about my latest adventures in breadmaking. I will post the recipe here though:

Beet Bread (adapted from A Good Cook...Ten Talents by Frank and Rosalie Hurd, published by The College Press, Collegedale, TN, 1968)

Into a blender:
1 can diced beets, including juice (abt 2 cups)
1/3 c honey
2 1/2 c warm water

In small bowl or measuring cup:
1/2 c warm water
1 t honey
2 1/2 T yeast
Dissolve and let set five minutes, while...

Put beet mix in bowl and add:
1/2 c oil (I used light olive oil)
1/2 c ground flax seed
5 1/2 c whole wheat flour (mine was fresh ground)
Yeast mixture

Mix at low speed (I used a Kitchen Aid Pro5 mixer). When thoroughly combined, allow to rest in mixing bowl for 20 minutes.

After resting, add:
5 c unbleached white flour (I used King Arthur bread flour)
1 T salt (it is important to add the salt last, AFTER the yeast has rested in the dough as described in the previous step)

Knead 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. It may take less time in the mixer. Place in oiled bowl in warm, draft free area. (I used a large stainless steel mixing bowl because it grew out of my glass mixing bowl last time) Let rise until doubled.

Oil bread pans. Shape into 3-5 loaves, depending on size of pans. (I got 3 loaves using 2 large Pampered Chef stoneware loaf pans and 1 medium glass loaf pan or 4 loaves using only one stoneware pan, two medium glass pans and one small metal pan) Allow to rise again until double.

Bake at 375* for 50 minutes until done. Time will vary depending on loaf size. The glass pan could have done with a little less time. The stoneware pans were just right at 50 minutes. Loaves are cooked through if they sound hollow when tapping the bottoms. (ADD: Lately I have been setting the timer at 35 minutes and take out the smallest one, then set another 5 mins and check the mediums and take them out and leave the large one another 5 minutes. This seemed to work well.)

Oil tops to keep soft. When thoroughly cooled , wrap and store.

My Grandma Hopkins' notes say that she used 13 1/2 c whole wheat flour and 3 1/2-4 c beets/juice. From this she made 2 medium loaves, 4 small loaves and 12 rolls.

Beet Bread

Look what I did today! This feels so good to have a bread success, especially when you don't know really what you are doing! I had been looking for a recipe for years, for beet bread, which my Grandma Hopkins always made. Then last year my Aunt found it in the Ten Talents Cookbook, which is a Seventh Day Adventist cookbook. This is my first chance to make it. I remember helping Grandma grind the wheat and put the dough into all kinds of containers...baskets, tin cans and occasionally real bread pans! :o) She was always inventive about things like that, the ultimate frugal queen!

She made batches and batches of this and always gave it away. It had the loveliest raspberry colored dough and I always liked it, though many others were afraid to try it when they heard what was in it. Grandma was always making "experiments" and some family members and friends were quite cautious when she offered her goods! LOL

I ground the wheat in my Vita-Mix, so had fresh flour. It called for 5 cups wheat and 5 cups white. I used King Arthur unbleached bread flour and followed the recipe except for the 1/2 cup of soy flour, because we don't use soy. As I suspected Grandma didn't follow the recipe! :o)

You can't tell by the pictures but this is a king size loaf. My bread knife was in the dishwasher and the dishwasher was running so it didn't cut well, but I ate two slices with a little butter and a little wild, raw honey! Hmmm...DELICIOUS! It is tender and moist with a texture that a storebought bread eater would tolerate. That must be the white flour. I believe my Grandma used more beets because hers was really raspberry colored and used all whole wheat flour. Hers was a fairly dense bread. I would like to work on using less or no white flour but still need a texture that my picky family will tolerate. Would it work to use some oat flour or barley flour to replace some of the white?

This is a blurry picture, but I feel blessed to have Grandma's original cookbook and she does have notes. I misread her notes...that's why I have two king size loaves instead of 3 or more normal ones. Still, overall this was a bread success. My goal is find a bread my family will enjoy eating on a regular basis so that we can quite buying store bread!