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!