Baking Bread...

 I love baking bread... This is a Honey Whole Wheat Recipe.  

 I milled a hard red wheat to make this particular one.

It makes for such a beautiful dark color when baked.

I am thinking this is part of a breakfast of toast and eggs this morning.  

YUM!

Broke fast a day early...

I know it is day 20 but I needed to let it go.  We have too many things this weekend where I am needing to bake and cook and eat with people from church and scouts so I have no regrets...  it was a very focused and productive time and I learned a great deal about things I need to change as I move forward, both physically and spiritually.  I went 19 full days and now the transition starts to a cleaner diet long term.  I am still tracking calories on SparkPeople.com.  Although it was not done for weight loss I did lose 6 pounds in the process and gained a greater understanding of things my body needs to be stronger and healthier.  I highly recommend SparkPeople for motivation and tools to help you watch what you put into your body.  I will be back with more juice recipes from the weekend on Monday.

In the meantime, I am working on this...

Hummingbird Cake from Martha at Dave Ramsey's site.  

I have made lots over the years and this is a nice one.

Also working on these from Joy of Baking (great site)...

Gluten Free Bread Mix...

I grabbed a bag of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Homemade Bread Mix at the store a few weeks ago.  I was baking regular whole wheat bread today so I thought I would try that out while I had the oven on the routine going.  Here are the results.... the full instructions are on the packaging for both making it by bread machine or by hand.

This is such a simple solution for people who need to make something for themselves.  It is SO much better tasting that the store bought gluten free bread.  It has that fresh bread taste and the only thing that was a little weird... which I seem to notice about most gluten free products both fresh and store bought is that it has a little bit of a slime taste... I think it is the xanthan gum or guar gum but it is not unsavory.  This really is a good alternative to the prefab gluten free products.

This was my first attempt and it worked pretty well... It sank down on one side a little but was still really tasty and a good texture.

Another shot...

 The "crumb" on this turned out very nicely.

I highly recommend Bob's Red Mill version... I have never been disappointed with his products and this one does not disappoint either.

Baking Day at work...

Gluten Free Vanilla Pound Cake

From this lovely little book!

See...  :)

Regular Pound Cake for Wednesday night's dinner at the church where I work.

Paco made the overnight dinner rolls... these are very easy and very delicious!!!  One of my faves!

I did a Carrot Herb bread that I had done while I was taking the Breads and Rolls class with Chef Lugo... again... one of my faves!  :)

Here is the crumb...

Also made a sour cream coffee cake recipe - the topping goes in the middle on this one as the filling instead.  YUM!!!

Not sure I love this recipe... these turned out more like brownies but they would be nice with a buttercream frosting and some pistachios sprinkled on top.  :)  I TOTALLY followed the recipe to the letter on this one, too.  I think I would use a different recipe next time for the chocolate pistachio muffins.  Live and learn....  ;)

Starters...

I got an Amish Bread starter a little over a month ago and have been really making some yummy stuff. My kitchen counter has "experiments" on it. LOL  I have two Amish starters and a sourdough starter going right now.  I started my sourdough with just water, flour and honey to make a "wild yeast" starter.  The idea behind this is that yeast from your kitchen environment gets incorporated into the starter over time.  I figured this would work since I bake bread a lot in my kitchen and I was right.  After about 3 weeks I have a great starter going now and made bread yesterday with some of it.  I stir it every day and about once a week I take some out and "feed" it some new "food"... I add a cup of flour and a cup of fresh water to feed it.  There is a site that I love to visit that has a page of starter information.  It is called TexasCooking.com and the page is Using Starters with Sourdough and Amish Friendship Bread.  The sourdough starter is actually part of the base of the Amish bread starter.

Here is my starter crockery... see the little yeasty bubbles?  That makes me SO HAPPY!!!  LOL 

My beautiful start... the first loaf from the starter.

Just so you know I don't always have perfect food I thought I would share my Sourdough Turkey with you!  LOL  It started well but went a bit nuts in the oven.

For the record... it tasted FANTASTIC!  :)

I have also been doing Amish Bread and here are a few of our favorites...

This one is made with banana cream pudding and chocolate chips.

I have also made one with vanilla pudding and pistachio pudding.  I think pistachio is my favorite so far...

 

  

The  next one I want to try is a chocolate chocolate chip.  I will get to in 8 more days!  :)

You can find more information and lots of variations here.

From my kitchen this week...

It has been a busy week back at school.  I worked my 13 hours of practicum and made a decision.  I won't be graduating in August due to some curriculum changes so I decided to slow down a bit.  I dropped my restaurant class so I could be home with my family a little more than I would have otherwise.  My first job is my family and I just needed to do that.  I am still working the 13 hour a week practicum and will be doing that until May sometime.  I have my ACF CC practical exam coming up in June so part of my class will be preparation for that test.  Once that is done I will have two more semesters of restaurant or practicum type work to finish and then if I finish the pastry I have 2 practicum classes, advanced pastry and laminated dough.  I could finish by next summer with all of it if the classes are offered over the year.

Outside of that I have been playing at home.  I have an Amish bread starter going on my counter on a regular basis now and I just started a sourdough starter a few days ago.  Both are working beautifully!  :)  Here are some pictures...

 

 Amish Bread made from recipe found here... it is a quick bread that has a world of variations you can do with it.

I love love LOVE TEXAS COOKING.COM!!!

 

Been making bread, too.  Here is my wheat mill.

 

This is a walnut, cranberry, honey whole wheat version.  YUM!!!

 

Made homemade mayonnaise this week...

I make mine in a blender with one egg, a pinch of salt, a pinch of dry mustard, about a tsp or lemon or vinegar and then about 2 cups canola oil.  It is SO simple to make your own!

 

After 48 hours it is full of yeast!  I put water, flour and honey together and covered it with a towel on the counter.  I am doing the "wild yeast" version and after baking bread next to the container all day yesterday it is FULL of yeast from the air.  It is wonderful!  I cannot wait to make sourdough bread next week.  I will let it sit out and stir it each day over the weekend and then it can be stored in the refrigerator in a crock or ceramic container.

So, that is what is happening in my kitchen lately.... what about your kitchen?    :-)

Muffin Mania...

My Mom bought me a book during the time I was with her. It is a muffin book. I have not had tons of experience with making muffins and cup cakes over the years but I thought it would be a great thing to become really good at so we picked the book up. This morning I made my own variation of this basic muffin mix recipe from the book... My version is not in the book so it is now 101 muffins in my library. ;)

Makes 12 standard or 48 mini muffins

* oil or melted butter for greasing (I used a canola no stick spray for mine and it worked fine)
* 10 ounces of plain white flour
* 3 tsp. baking powder
* 1/8 tsp salt
* 4 ounces fine sugar
* 2 medium eggs (I used large eggs)
* 9 fluid ounces milk
* 6 tbsp sunflower oil or 3 ounces butter, melted and cooled (I used canola oil)
* 1 tsp vanilla extract (or whatever flavor you are looking to have)

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

I basically sifted all the dry ingredients together and mixed the wet ingredients together and then put them together and mixed until just combined. I also added the following to mine...



* 1 cup mashed sweet potato without skins
* 1 cup mini chocolate chips (semisweet)


Here is what happened...



YUM!!!

Shaping Bread...

Here is video of my shaping bread today... with a few bread tips and such along the way. You can also go to my YouTube Channel for more food and family videos.

English Muffins...

This is the book that this recipe comes from.

If you do not have freshly ground flour you can easily substitute all-purpose or whole wheat from the store depending on whether you want a white or wheat muffin.

English Muffins

1 tbsp yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
1 cup milk
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups vegetable oil (I use canola but you can use any standard veggie oil)
1 egg
4 cups hard white wheat flour (or AP or whole wheat or bread flour)
2 cups corn meal

1. In a small bowl, mix the warm water with the yeast and let stand 10 minutes.
2. IN a medium sauce pan, scald milk and stir in sugar, the salt and oil. Pour mixture in a large bowl and let stand until tepid.
3. Pour the yeast mixture into the lukewarm milk mixture. Stir the mixture.
4. Add egg and 2 cups flour into the liquids and beat until smooth. Cover bowl and let rise until doubled and bubby, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
5. Stir the mixture and add 2 cups of flour. Turn the dough out on a floured surface. Knead, adding flour as needed.
6. Place the dough in bowl, cover and let rise again until doubled.
7. Sprinkle cornmeal on the kneading surface. Roll dough to about 2 inches thick. Sprinkle cornmeal on top. Cut the muffins with a glass or biscuit cutter into rounds. Leave on kneading surface. Cover and let rise again until the muffins double.
8. Place muffin dough in a lightly oiled large skillet, cover the pan and cook 5-10 minutes on each side on medium heat. Cool on a wire rack.

I store these in the freezer and take out what I need when I need them. I will serve them like toast or will make eggs to fill with. These are great for anytime of day and not just breakfast! YUM!!!

More bread...

We made another Pullman last night but in whole wheat and then we also made an onion/cheddar cheese bread. Just yum... that is all!!!

Bread Photos...

We made some whole wheat breads in different shapes on Tuesday
Then we made a Pullman Loaf...

What is a Pullman Loaf you might ask?

It is a loaf that is shaped like the above by using special pans for baking. It is made for sandwich making bread. You can read more here... Pullman Loaf cooking terms

This is the kind of pan we used...

Still baking TONS of bread...

We have been making some great breads at school. I can honestly say that I would rather use my pastry degree for baking bread much more than decorating cakes. I love baking all kinds of things but I don't enjoy the decorating of cakes nearly as much as making yummy baked goods like yeast and quick breads and cakes, teabreads, cookies. The whole frosting and decorating part is just not my thing as much as the baking part.

This past week I made a 9 grain bread and an olive loaf with my team. Our team is great and is starting to really work well together. I am getting to be a whiz at the baker's percentages, too. It is a bit confusing at first but is making great sense to me now. :)

Here are some more yummy photos...

This is the 9 grain.... it was AMAZING!!!

Breads and Rolls from school...

This is why I am not around so much. I am baking my brains out but it is all for school... lol
Ciabatta bread, Italian bread, Champagne bread, Focaccia Bread and a whole slew of other fun things!