BREAD Challenge #17 - Vollkornbrot Bread

So I finally made some more bread for the HBin5 Challenge. The hard part about being behind is not the being behind part. It is the fact that we don't get to eat all this great bread because I am behind.

Anyway, I made the Vollkornbrot bread for the challenge and it was delicious. This is the type of bread I always imagined making when I thought of whole grain bread. It has actual whole grains in it. I must sound so ignorant but I have never bought a whole grain before. I have bought loads of whole wheat flour but never "whole wheat berries". They are so cute - are you allowed to call them cute? - and so nutritional - and so great in bread. I only let the bread dough wait 24 hours before baking. The grains were still a little stiff for my kids but my husband couldn't get enough of it. I think if I left the dough for another day it would be just right.

I also wanted to make Mesquite Bread too but I am having a bit of trouble finding mesquite flour. I found some at Whole Foods but it was $10 for a small bag. I wasn't up for that. I think there may be a better source at the Phoenix Farmers Market so I need to go visit the market soon.

I am hoping to make the Rosemary Baguette next!

Happy Baking and Eating!

Where has all the BREAD gone?

Well, the BREAD family has been busy traveling around for a few weeks. I think we drove over 2000 miles in 18 days, but had a great time visiting family and Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. The Marvel Cave at SDC is a must see - just amazing.

Bread making has also been on vacation until yesterday when I made a batch of banana bread from HBin5. This is the new family favorite. A nice subtle banana flavor without all the sugar - in fact it only has a little honey - and no white sugar - and still used up all the very soft bananas we had left - gotta love that!

I need to catch up on all the BREAD Challenges. I am going to try and make the broccoli and cheddar cheese bread; mesquite bread (I think I can get mesquite flour here in Arizona quite easily); a loaf of volkornbrot; and a loaf of rosemary flax baguette. (I am unfortunately not going to make the gluten free breads - sorry gluten-free friends)

I think I need to take a trip to Whole Foods to pick up a few specialty items. So keep checking back to see if I actually do it! The next challenge is due August 15th (good thing school started yesterday).

Happy Baking and Eating!

BREAD Challenge #14 - Mixed Berry Bread and Banana Bread

Time for another challenge with my HBin5 Bread group. Thanks again to Michelle of Big Black Dog for putting this challenge together. This time we were to make Mixed Berry Bread and Whole Wheat Banana Bread.

I have to confess that I jumped ahead a few weeks ago and made the Mixed Berry Bread. I was trying to think of way to make blueberry bagels for my son and tried this recipe. Instead of making bagels which I have not had much success at, I turned them into english muffins. My english muffin rings (from King Arthur) helped to make perfect muffins. The first time I made them though I forgot to defrost the blueberries (I only had frozen) so when I added them to the dough it was way to dry and way to cold. I was afraid I had destroyed the whole batch. So instead of throwing it out, I just left it in the fridge and when I went to look the next day, it had actually risen and I could make muffins out of it. These are a hit and I cannot make them fast enough. I have ended up making the entire batch and freezing the muffins so the kids can take them out and eat whenever they want.

I am also going to make the Banana Bread but haven't had time yet - although I do have the bananas rotting (softening) on the counter right now. I am hoping to add those pictures soon. I am anxious to try this recipe as it has no sugar (except honey) unlike regular banana bread which is loaded with cups of white sugar.

I did want to add one last thing. As anyone that has been reading this blog realizes, we are big into pizza at our house. Sometimes believe it or not I actually have dough leftover when pizza day comes around. You know that last chunk in the bottom that looks kind of gooey and not quite right. Well, instead of throwing it out (or using it which is still okay) I have been adding it to a new batch. I add the water for the new recipe into the old bucket and use my hand blender to mush it all up into a liquid and then I just add all the other ingredients as normal. Just remember that you can't do this with enriched doughs. I usually only do it with the Whole Wheat with Olive Oil dough.

This picture is after blending. Nice and ready for flour! And then pizza toppings.

To see the other blogs for this challenge just click here!

Happy Baking and Eating!

Bread Challenge #13 - Whole Wheat Bread with Olive Oil

I have been bad about blogging and making bread. It must be the hot weather that has started - over 105. I am just not that motivated to turn on the oven or to go outside and use the BBQ instead. I did make pizza last night for our weekly pizza night - it just wasn't anything that exciting to take a picture of.

A couple of months ago, I used the BBQ to make pizza and it was great. The high heat and thin crust makes for a nice crispy pizza. You have to be pretty organized though to make pizza on the grill as it cooks really fast. Yummy!

One last thought about HBin5 - I just have to say that the revolutionary thing about this method is really the bread dough storage. I know many others (including the HBin5 website) have stated this before but for some reason it finally dawned on me. I was having a really busy day on Friday and wasn't able to make any dough but I had dough left over from a week ago that was in the fridge. I just pulled it out and made pizza - just as delicious as if I had made the dough that day. Amazing!

Happy Baking and Eating! (and to looking forward to cooler weather some day...)

To see other blogs in our Bread Challenge just click here!

BREAD Challenge #11 - Garlic Knots, Pitas and Pizza

Time for another Bread Challenge. I think Michelle mentioned how nice it was to be making the Master recipe and I have to agree. It has been a long time since I just made the basic dough from HBin5. And after all the blogs about bread I have read, the ideas were spinning in my head as to what I could do with the basic recipe. To me that is one of the great things about this bread baking group - it has really inspired me to think differently about the bread I bake and be willing to try baking lots of different ways (even if there is no recipe).

But to start off with I made the HBin5 Master Recipe and followed the directions to make garlic knots. The garlic knots were delicious with our black bean soup.

Next up - pita bread. I have made pitas before and really love how easy and yummy these are to make. These were a little hard to open up. But after prying them open, I stuffed them with chorizo, eggs and goat cheese. Yum.

Then onto some more bread making. I used the dough to make pizza, flatbread and more english muffins.

Loved getting back to basics.

To get back to the other blogs in this challenge just click here.

Happy Baking and Eating!

Bread Challenge #10 - Milk and Honey Raison Bread

After a very long month (see previous post for the saga) I am happy to report that I am back to baking bread and blogging. Up this month for the Bread Challenge is Cinnamon Crescent Rolls and Milk and Honey Raison Bread. I didn't make the crescents although I am sure I will sometime in the next few weeks as my son is doing a report on France and has already requested croissants to go along with his presentation.

I did make the Milk and Honey Raison Bread although I substituted craisons for the raisons and added twice as many as the recipe called for. I baked the bread in my new oven and pushed the convection button without changing the baking time. This is the first convection oven I have ever had so I didn't realize that I should reduce the time. The bread came out a little overdone - although that didn't stop anyone from eating it.

I then made some of the dough into english muffins - I have posted previously about my english muffin rings that I just love. I put about 3.5 ounces of dough into each ring and let them rise. This is what they look like while they are rising in the rings.

After they rise, I have been either baking them in the oven or on a griddle. The griddle is great at getting both sides relatively flat and is easy to do. Use a fork to open and see the crannies.

I am glad to be back baking and blogging and seeing what everyone else will be baking this month!

To see what other people are baking with this challenge just click here.

Happy Baking and Eating!

Where has all the bread gone?

Not one post this entire month. And the only reason I am posting right now is to motivate myself to start again. It is not that I haven't been making bread - although not as much as usual - rather it has been a long month of sickness (my son, my daughter, my mom and myself), hospitalization (of my Dad who is getting better now) and one broken oven - not to mention the leaking garbage disposal. There have been good things this month too - my daughter got accepted into the school she wanted to go to next year, my son's soccer team won their first All-Star soccer tournament, I got to go to SeaWorld with my son's 6th grade class and my dear husband has stuck it out during this roller coaster of a month.

The only story worth replaying is the oven. Picture this - Easter - 15 people over to eat - oven preheating so I can bake the bread (HBin5 of course) and then the rest of the meal - and me saying, "Why isn't this oven heating up?" My mom sick so can't go to her house - next option - the BBQ. So we cooked the bread, baked the potatoes, asparagus and heated the ham all on the BBQ outside. I must say it turned out pretty well considering - only burned the bread slightly. I ended up having to bake everything in the BBQ for a couple weeks before I was able to buy an new oven. And I am loving my new oven.

So now as I am finally starting to feel better (got strep from my son) I am determined to start baking bread and blogging about it again.

So if you come over to have some of this delicious bread, be sure to knock because the doorbell doesn't work. If it's not one thing, it's another....it's always something.

Happy Baking and Eating!