Back to Bread Baking

I'm back from my hiatus from regular bread baking.

I spent a couple of months as a longterm substitute teacher at The New School.

Then 14 members of our family made the Great Cross-Country Trip of 2013 together to a family reunion near Astoria, Oregon and to visit other family, friends, and sights along the way.

My Uncle Frosty, Aunt Betty, and cousin Thomasene. I got my roll recipe and cracked wheat bread recipe from Aunt Betty!

No sooner did we return from that, then 19 of us spent a fun week together at Sylvan Beach.

Pizza night! (Home-baked, of course.)

 A few days later, we spent a day at Water Safari in the Adirondacks.

 
These activities were fun, exciting, and challenging. But I'm happy to return to the fun, excitement, and challenge of baking bread.

On the right, three loaves of whole wheat bread hot out of the oven. On the left, two extra-large loaves baked yesterday. Not pictured, two loaves in the freezer, baked four days ago, and one loaf, um, gone!

Whole Grain Happiness Menu

Breads

*Whole-Wheat Bread

*White Whole-Wheat Bread

White Bread

*Whole-Wheat Cracked Wheat Bread

Cracked Wheat Bread

*Whole-Wheat Maple Oatmeal Bread

Maple Oatmeal Bread

Dinner Rolls

*Whole-Wheat Dinner Rolls

*White Whole-Wheat Dinner Rolls

White Dinner Rolls

Cracked Wheat Dinner Rolls

Sweet Breads & Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls with Raisins

*Chocolate Rolls

Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

Monkey Bread

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flours—freshly-ground

*hard red wheat

*hard white wheat

*soft white wheat

*Cracked Wheat—freshly-ground

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*100% whole-grain

If you would like to be included on my Baking Day email list, send me an email at 

ksimmonsd@gmail.com.

 

Flansburghs Favor Whole-Wheat Flavor!

Libby: "Grandma, may I have some bread?"
Me: "Sure!" I showed her the three kinds, left over from yesterday's baking.
Me: "Would you like maple oatmeal?"
Libby: "No, thanks."
Me: "Would you like white whole-wheat?"
Libby: "No, thanks."
Me: "Would you like regular whole-wheat?"
Libby: "Yes! That one! May I have two pieces? With butter?"

Me to Zack: "Do you want some bread, too?"
Zack: "Yes!"
Me: "Do you want butter?"
Zack pointed to the butter and nodded.

P.S.--Ty was too concerned about waiting for his friend's arrival to eat!

What Is Whole Grain Happiness?

It's a cold, slippery, snowy February day, yet a little while ago I had a whirlwind of grandchildren whoosh through the house. They were here to pick up bread with their dad, but it was lunchtime and they were hungry.

Seeing the freshly-baked rolls cooling on the table, they each asked if they could have one ("with butter!"). They didn't ask any questions about the rolls. Whether the rolls were whole-grain or not, freshly-baked or not, weren't considerations for them. They took for granted that the rolls would taste good. Grandma baked them? Yeah, they would be good!

Yes, the rolls were freshly-baked. Yes, they were whole-grain, made with freshly-ground wheat. And yes, the kids ate them with pleasure.

That's whole grain happiness!

Chocolate Bread--Beta Testing Continues

One of my chocolate bread beta testers has been waiting quite impatiently for the next round of testing. I was finally able to make that happen today!

This time I only made the 100% whole-wheat (white wheat) version. And, since I knew there was a demand for it, I used all of the dough for chocolate bread.

I melted the chocolate and spread it on the dough before rolling it up. I like the way it looks lots better this time.

I recommend waiting to slice the bread until it is completely cool. It slices cleanly and it tastes better.

Speaking of taste, it was a hit with all testers. In fact, the 17 month old tester kept asking for bread all day long!

Chocolate Bread--Beta Testing

I decided to bake chocolate bread for Valentine's Day. I had never eaten chocolate bread, but I had eaten chocolate croissants, which are heavenly. Maybe next year I'll be ready to make chocolate croissants.

I envisioned chocolate bread as similar to cinnamon bread. Except chocolate, not cinnamon. I read many recipes and came up with this:

I used my roll dough and Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate chips. I made two half-batches. One was 1/4 soft white whole-wheat flour and 3/4 all-purpose flour. The other was 1/4 soft white whole-wheat flour and 3/4 hard white whole-wheat flour. With each, I made three little loaves of chocolate bread and one large loaf of cinnamon bread.

Pictured above: on the left is the 100% whole-wheat bread; on the right is the mostly-white bread.

All testers, ages 17 months to adult, loved both kinds. The adults agreed that there was (gasp!) too much chocolate. In my next attempt, I plan to melt the chocolate and spread it on the dough before rolling it up.

One of the beta testers took the whole-wheat cinnamon bread home.

Further testing of this batch will occur after dinner tonight!

First Love

Last night, for the first time in a long, long time, I made toast with my regular whole wheat bread and topped it with butter and honey. I loved it all over again!

That was how I first fell in love with whole wheat bread--the homemade kind, using freshly-ground whole wheat flour. That's what I tasted as a teenager when I visited my older sister. The rhythm of life in her home included grinding wheat, baking bread, and eating buttered whole wheat toast topped with honey.

It's just one of those perfect flavor combinations.

It's nice that this bread is nutritious. But that is beside the point.

This is whole grain happiness!

Whole-Wheat Maple-Walnut Oatmeal Bread, aka Delicious Bread

It's cold today! It's been in the single digits all day. I didn't ride with Pedal to Possibilities today because of the cold--I need better gloves and socks. But I do need to go grocery shopping. So I've been shoveling my walk and driveway and cleaning the snow off of my car bit-by-bit. I can only take about 10 minutes and then my fingers start freezing.

I just walked back in the house, greeted by the scent of baking bread! Maple-Walnut Oatmeal Bread, made with white whole-wheat flour. It smells very promising!

As soon as the bread came out of the oven, I had to run some errands. When I returned, it was completely cool--and ready to try!

There is a reason maple and walnut are paired together so often That pairing works quite deliciously here!

The recipe is the same as Maple Oatmeal Bread, except, like Whole Wheat Maple Oatmeal Bread, the flour is freshly-ground white wheat. And, of course, it contains walnuts.

Baking Brady Bread

Baking bread is fun.

Baking bread with other people is more fun.

Baking bread with the people at Brady Bread Bakery is very fun.

Under Bob's watchful eye, the sponge, dry ingredients, and oil are all mixing together in this awesome mixer. That's enough dough for 30 pounds of bread!

The dough from the mixer is divided into two tubs for rising. This is just after this tub of dough was punched down.

Bob starts to scale the dough and Marilyn gets the pans ready. I didn't get a picture of all of us forming the loaves, because everyone works as quickly as possible to minimize the time between the first and last loaves so the rising time is pretty much the same.

Tony covers the formed loaves--two sets of four pans linked together placed on a tray--and sets them in the proofer.

While waiting for the bread dough to rise, we have time to do such tasks as put labels on the plastic bread bags. There's always time to sit and chat as well!

Marilyn keeps a close eye on the oven thermometer to keep a steady temperature. This oven has several racks that rotate while baking. It can hold more than our batch of 30 loaves!

Marilyn and Andrew watch the bread closely during the last few minutes of baking to determine when it is ready to come out. There are two of those great ovens side-by-side! I wouldn't mind having one like them.

Thirty beautiful loaves of bread cool on the racks! Note all of the bread pans below.

After forming the 30 one-pound loaves, there's always a small amount of dough left--perfect for trying out something new. Tony is tasting Bob's creation. He filled the center of the dough with chopped fresh garlic and onion before baking it. It was sensational!

A successful morning of baking! Not only did we produce thirty loaves of beautiful and delicious bread, but we all had an enjoyable time.

The proceeds from the bread sales fund some important projects: Jail Ministry, Brady Faith Center, and Pedal to Possibilities.

I Don't Think So

It seemed like a good idea. So I tried it.

It looked good. It smelled wonderful. It tasted fine.

But I don't think so.

Whole-Wheat Maple Oatmeal Bread with cinnamon and raisins.

But the cinnamon and raisins overpower the maple and oatmeal. Especially the maple.

On the other hand, this encourages me to try making my "regular" Cinnamon-Raisin Bread with 100% white whole-wheat flour!

Brady Bread Bakery

Yesterday I baked bread with five other people at Brady Bread Bakery. The bread we baked was for people from local Catholic parishes and LeMoyne College who have bread subscriptions. The proceeds help support Jail Ministry, the Brady Faith Center and Pedal to Possibilities.

We baked 45 loaves of bread. See pictures here. It was a lot of fun. They bake on Tuesdays and Fridays. I will join them every Tuesday that I can.

This morning I joined the ride at Pedal to Possibilities. We rode a pleasant eight miles, starting and ending at the Brady Faith Center. Those of us who could stay for awhile shared some delicious, freshly-made split pea soup and Brady Bread bread. They ride Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at 8:45. I plan to join them every Monday or Wednesday that I can.

The immense good that has already happened through Pedal to Possibilities and Brady Bread is due to Andrew Lunetta, a pretty amazing 23 year old!

Home Baking

I'm all for it!

Awhile back I was in a conversation that turned to baking. My friend extolled my baking and deferred to my expertise because I bake "professionally." I reminded her of the absolutely delicious loaf of raisin-cinnamon bread that she baked and gave me at Christmastime, that she was indeed a baker.

I bake a lot and people do buy my baked goods. That doesn't necessarily make me a better baker than anyone else, just a more prolific one. And maybe a more interested one.

I think anyone who wants to can bake. And if they want to, I encourage them to do so. I think we need lots more home baking and home cooking and lots less processed, mass-produced food.

I write this blog in part to encourage others to bake--to share what I know and learn about baking, present ideas, and to give information about baking.

I encourage you to bake. Whether you bake once in a while or regularly, I think it enriches your health and your life.

When you bake something yourself, you know what's in it. You can make something that is (or should be) inherently healthful, like bread, more healthful. Even if you are baking white bread, you can use fresh, high-quality ingredients in appropriate proportions (lower on the salt, sugar, and fat) and no preservatives. And if you want to bake whole-grain bread, I'm your cheerleader! Even if you bake something that's not so healthful, like brownies, you can still use fresh, high-quality ingredients, no preservatives, and you may even find you prefer them with whole-grain flour. I do!

When you bake something yourself, it is fresh. You get to enjoy it at its peak of deliciousness. Not to mention you get to enjoy the lovely scent of whatever you're baking.

There is a sense of satisfaction, even accomplishment, when you bake something yourself. I don't know if baking skills will ever be necessary for your survival, but when you can bake, your world is a little better for it

My dinner: Buffalo-chicken pizza with broccoli, peppers and onions, on a whole-wheat tortilla crust.

The Quest: Whole-Grain Cracked Wheat Bread

Cracked Wheat Bread--the favorite bread of many.

It is good bread: soft and springy with the chewy nuttiness of the cracked wheat; salty, and sweet with molasses.

It contains whole grain: freshly-cracked wheat berries.

But the flour is white flour: high quality flour--King Arthur bread flour--unbleached and unbromated. But lacking the nutritious bran and wheat germ of whole-grain flour.

Could I use whole-grain flour and maintain the distinctive taste and texture?

Today I am using flour freshly-ground from hard white wheat. This flour is milder than "regular" red wheat flour.

It is good bread: soft and springy with the chewy nuttiness of the cracked wheat; salty, and sweet with molasses.

The whole-grain flour adds some welcome complexity to the flavor. And the nutrition of whole grain.

I prefer this version of cracked wheat bread.

What about you?

Aunt Betty's Cracked Wheat Bread

Pour 4 C boiling water over 2 C (8.5 oz.) cracked wheat and stir. Let stand until most of the water is soaked up, but not dry.

Add:

⅓ C molasses

½ C plus 2 Tbsp. canola oil

Stir together and add, mixing with the dough hook of an electric mixer if you have it:

1 lb. flour (about 3½-4 C)--white bread flour or hard white whole-wheat flour

½ C sugar

2 Tbsp. yeast

1 C instant powdered milk

2 Tbsp. salt

Add and mix:

2 eggs

1¼ lbs. flour (about 4-4½ C)--white bread flour or hard white whole-wheat flour

Pour the dough onto a floured counter and knead it, adding more flour as needed, 1-2 C, until dough is smooth and elastic.

Place dough in an oiled bowl; cover with waxed paper. Let rise once. Measure and shape into 4 or 5 loaves. Let rise and bake at 350°F for about 40 minutes.

Seasonal Sandwich

A friend gave me some tomatoes from his garden yesterday. The season for garden-ripened tomatoes is short and fast growing to a close. So I decided to make this seasonal sandwich for breakfast today:

Chop a clove of fresh garlic and spread it on a slice of home-made 100% whole-wheat bread. Add slices of mozzarella cheese. (I slice the cheese very thin and use only about 1 ounce in all. Today I used colby-jack cheese because I didn't have any mozzarella.) Add slices of fresh-from-the-garden tomato. Grind a little pepper on top. Add fresh basil leaves. Add a couple more slices of cheese. Top with another slice of home-made 100% whole-wheat bread. Toast in the Foreman grill (or equivalent) until cheese melts. Eat immediately!

Ready to grill!

Ready to eat!

I used bread that I had made with hard white whole wheat. In case you are unfamiliar with it, white whole wheats, both soft and hard, are newer wheat strains, but they are nutritionally similar to their red wheat counterparts. The main difference is the lighter bran has a milder flavor, so bread and other products using these white wheats have a milder flavor. I'm offering White Whole Wheat Bread made with 100% white whole wheat flour in this Friday's baking. So, if you are interested in ordering some, e-mail me at ksimmonsd@gmail.com and I will send you an order sheet.

I'm also baking Cracked Wheat Bread this Friday, using my Aunt Betty's famous recipe. Well, it's famous in our family and in Moses Lake, Washington, and surrounding communities!

Cracked Wheat Bread--Updated

Today I'm going to bake Cracked Wheat Bread using my Aunt Betty's recipe. Just thinking about it brings back a flood of happy memories from my childhood. She was--and is--a great cook, among her many other talents and abilities. I spent lots of time at her any my Uncle Frosty's farm while growing up, and it always involved home-made bread which was likely to be Cracked Wheat Bread.

My electric grain mill doesn't grind coarsely enough for cracked wheat, so I use my hand mill. It does a good job. I've made whole wheat bread using this mill to grind all of the flour. It's a little time-consuming and the flour is not quite as fine as the flour milled in my electric one, but it's fine enough. In fact, I have a friend who, when her husband was a medical resident, used this same model hand mill to grind all of her flour for baking bread. She did have a couple of boys who helped her.

My hand mill

Whole-grain wheat and cracked wheat

I'm baking Cracked Wheat Bread in this Friday's baking. So, if you are interested in ordering some, e-mail me at ksimmonsd@gmail.com and I will send you an order sheet.

I'm also baking White Whole Wheat Bread made with 100% white whole wheat flour this Friday.

I'll update this post after the bread is baked!

The Cracked Wheat Bread is baked, and it looks and taste great!

FRESH Bread

One of the reasons I bake bread is because I love fresh bread. I mean really fresh bread. Warm out of the oven fresh bread. First day it's baked fresh bread. I eat it plain--no butter or anything else on it.

There are no added preservatives in the bread I bake, so it only stays fresh for two or three days. If I am not going to use it all during that time, I can put it (or part of the loaf) in the freezer. It will taste fresh when it thaws. If I only want to use a few slices at a time, I slice the bread before I put it in the freezer and then just take out the slices as I need them. More often than not, though, I just put the extra loaves of bread from the batch in the freezer and leave out the loaf I've started.

That's because I happen to like slightly-stale bread for lots of things. I put bread that I haven't used within a few days in the refrigerator. Refrigeration does not slow the staling process--in fact, it speeds it up--but it delays the growth of mold, which I aim never to have on my bread, because then I have to put it in the compost.

Some foods that I think are actually better with stale bread: French toast, toast, bread pudding, and sandwiches in the Foreman grill. Other great uses for stale bread, depending on the type: croutons, bread crumbs, French onion soup, and fondue. Okay, I've never actually served fondue, but I have eaten it. I think it was in the '60s when it was really popular. Remember--I'm old.

Fresh out of the oven