I Work for Chocolate

This rosebush is in my back yard.

I think of “Sleeping Beauty” when I look at it. You can't tell from the angle of this photo, but I've actually spent a few sessions hacking away at it. It's massive, tangled, and intertwined. It has thorns and it uses them. So I clip away bit by bit, clipping longer branches into shorter lengths that fit into my recycling bin, working in such a way that I avoid the thorns. When it's full, I dump it into the “branches” part of my compost pile. Today I looked at the rose bush to see what I've accomplished. It's hard to tell any difference.

But I don't mind working on it. I get to be outdoors with birds and butterflies. I even enjoy the slugs and spiders. And the plants are so prolific! So much of gardening in Syracuse is deciding what you don't want and removing it to make room for what you do want.

And I do want the rose bush. I just want it to be a lot smaller.

Just like the rose bush, the inside of my house suffers from neglect. The mess, while largely compartmentalized, is a massive, tangled, and intertwined Rubik's cube. Its thorns incite anxiety.

I don't like working on it. I have to be indoors. I have to face fears and make decisions. Most of the decisions are whether or not to keep something, and, if I keep it, where to put it. That doesn't sound difficult, but it is for me.

I decided today that I will give myself permission to resort to chocolate as a reward for working on my house mess. So I baked some brownies. For a certain number of tasks or a certain amount of time spent on-task, I could eat a brownie. It's sad that a grown woman has to resort to such extrinsic rewards. But I did start. I clipped away at some edges today. I made a difference. I reclaimed my dining room table. Even better, I found a button that I feared was gone forever. This button goes on a dress that I love but have been unable to wear for three years … because the button was missing.

I'm encouraged to hack away some more tomorrow. But I will still need chocolate.

Breakfast Sandwich

I made a delicious sandwich for breakfast this morning.

Start with delicious, healthful, whole-grain bread. I just happened to have some!

This works best with large bread slices, which is why I baked extra-large loaves of bread a couple of days ago.

Cut out the center of the slice of bread.

Put a small amount of butter or oil (no more than 1 teaspoon) in a heated skillet.

Put the outside part of the bread in the skillet. Crack an egg in the hole. Add (salt) and freshly-ground pepper.

Place a slice of lean ham on the egg.

Top that with sliced cheese. I used Jarlsberg, a type of Swiss cheese, today.

Top that with the piece of bread from the middle.

Turn it over 2 or 3 times while it cooks for a few minutes. I covered it with the lid, too.

Finally, you have a delicious Breakfast Sandwich! I served mine with some zucchini left over from yesterday.

I think it would be easy to make a lot of these assembly-line style on my big griddle.

I'll make a note of that for our family gathering in Sylvan Beach next summer!

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

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ksimmonsd@gmail.com.

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Oil, Updated 7/7/13

I have used my mother's recipe for baking chocolate chip cookies my whole life. They were always famous among family, friends, and acquaintances. I don't know where she got the recipe from, but I do know that many of her children and grandchildren have continued to bake these cookies.

Here is her recipe:

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1½ C white sugar

1½ C brown sugar

1½ C shortening

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

4½ C all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together sugar, brown sugar, shortening, eggs, and vanilla. Sift (or just stir) together flour, salt, and baking soda; and then add to creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake.

In recent years, shortening has come under fire because of its trans-fats. While shortening manufacturers have modified it so it contains less trans-fat, it's hydrogenated, so it will always have some trans-fat. Also, it doesn't add anything to the flavor.

Lots of people bake their chocolate chip cookies with butter, so I tried that. Many times. It makes good-tasting cookie dough! But the cookies themselves are quite altered: flat, more chewy or even crispy, and a markedly stronger flavor. These weren't necessarily bad characteristics. In fact, some people prefer them. They just aren't my mom's cookies.

Today I decided to try using coconut oil. The ambient temperature has to be quite warm before it changes from solid to liquid. We were just verging on that today in my house, so it was still solid but not hard. I just substituted (still solid) coconut oil for the shortening in Mom's recipe.

Like butter, coconut oil is high in saturated fat. In fact, it's even higher than butter. Unlike shortening, however, it does not contain any trans-fats.

My (admittedly small but very experienced) taste-testing crew agreed that this was the best-tasting cookie dough. (Note: Members of my family have been known to make chocolate chip cookie dough and not turn on the oven, so this is an important factor.)

Although the cookies spread out flat like the ones baked with butter, they remained soft like the ones made with shortening. Flavor? Better than the butter ones; at least as good as the shortening ones.

Next time I will add a bit more flour to see if that will prevent the cookies from flattening out.

Regardless, these are keepers!

Update 7/7/13: When I made these cookies today, I used 1/2 C more flour. I also chilled the dough for an hour before baking. In fact, it's such a warm day today that I chilled the coconut oil before I mixed the dough. The cookies turned out a little plumper. With these changes, I think coconut oil substitutes well for shortening, and tastes better. Here's the adapted recipe:

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies (with coconut oil)

1½ C white sugar

1½ C brown sugar

1½ C coconut oil (refrigerate before using if it is not solid)

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

5 C all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together sugar, brown sugar, and coconut oil. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Sift (or just stir) together flour, salt, and baking soda; and then add to creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips. Chill for an hour or more. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake.

Neglected Baguettes

I'm (mostly) taking a break from baking for a few weeks. Not that I've tired of baking--far from it! But because I'm teaching full time for a few weeks. I love the teaching, but it doesn't leave much time for much else.

My dream is to teach part time and bake part time. And spend lots of time with my grandchildren (and their parents).

Well, awhile back I started trying my hand at baking baguettes. When I hit pause on that project I had three baguettes that I needed to do something with. I decided to dry them out and crush them into bread crumbs. I successfully dried them out! I placed them on a pan under the broiler part of my oven:

Yes, that's the broiler door sitting under the pan the baguettes were on. Maybe someday I'll find someone who can fix it.

In fact, I left them there for weeks.

I wanted to use my broiler a couple of days ago, so I took the baguettes out, fearing that they would be covered with dust and need to be thrown away. They weren't (at least that I noticed!), so I broke one of the baguettes. it cracked beautifully! So I kept cracking. Then I tasted. Crunchy, slightly sourdough, slightly salty, and delicious!

As you can see, I stopped cracking. I haven't stopped tasting, though. They give the same satisfaction as potato chips or tortilla chips or pita bread chips. Only better-tasting. Unlike other chips, a small piece of this every once in a while makes a satisfying treat.

I will get around to crushing some of this into bread crumbs. Later.

Maple Goodness in Rolls!

There are people who love the Maple Oatmeal Bread--one version or the other--so much that they buy an extra loaf to eat on their way home.

And now I make it with local maple syrup. My friend in Jamesville has maple trees. She and her family work together to make the maple syrup, and it is delicious!

Today I baked Whole-Wheat Maple Oatmeal Rolls. My first attempt last week didn't work out so well. I just made rolls out of the bread dough. But they were doughy and heavy.

Today I made adjustments based on my tried and true dinner roll recipes. I increased the amount of oil and added instant potato flakes and instant dry milk. The aroma of maple syrup filled the kitchen as they finished baking. They came out of the oven a beautiful golden color.

They were light and tender, with full-flavored maple goodness.

I love living in maple syrup country!

Whole-Wheat Maple Oatmeal Rolls

2 1/2 cups boiling water

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup maple syrup

¼ C canola oil

1 T instant dry yeast

2 teaspoons salt

¼ C instant potato flakes

1 C instant nonfat dry milk

1¼ C (5.3 oz.) soft white-wheat flour

3¾ C (7.5 oz. + 8.5 oz.) hard white-wheat flour

Put the oats into a bowl. Pour the boiling water over the oats and set aside for an hour.

Mix the syrup and oil into the oats. Combine the yeast, salt, potato flakes, dry milk, soft white-wheat flour, and 1¾ C (7.5 oz.) hard white-wheat flour in a bowl and add to the oat mixture, mixing well. Cover the bowl and let rise for an hour.

Add more flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough is the correct consistency. Knead for 5 minutes; let sit covered for 5 minutes; knead for another 2-3 minutes. Let rise in an oiled bowl. Shape the dough into 24 rolls and place on greased baking pan. Cover and let rise another 45 minutes.

Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes.

A Good Start to the Day!

I'm just waiting for a pan of rolls in the oven!

Satisfaction!