Honey Whole Wheat Bread

I got this delicious 100% whole wheat recipe from Lindsey O a few years ago. I adapted it to use powdered milk instead of canned milk.


4 Loaves:
5 cups hot water
1 c instant powdered milk
1 1/2 T salt
2/3 c oil
3/4-1 c honey
3 T instant yeast
10-11 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c vital wheat gluten

5 Loaves:
6 cups hot water
1 1/4 cups instant powdered milk
2 T salt
3/4 cup oil
1 cup honey
3 1/2 T instant yeast
13-14 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup vital wheat gluten

Add the first 6 ingredients, plus half the flour and mix well. 

Dump 3 more cups of flour on top of the mixture, and gently stir the vital wheat gluten into the loose flour. Mix again.

Add remaining flour 1 cup at a time, mixing between additions, until if you scoop a bit of dough on your finger it keeps its shape and doesn't gloop down. Knead in mixer (Bosch speed 2) for about 10 minutes or until stretchy and elastic.

Form into loaves and place in greased 9x5 pans. Let rise until the corners of the pan are filled in and the top of the loaf is about 2 inches above the top of the pan (30-45 minutes).

Bake at 350 until golden brown. 

(I like to let the loaves rise in the oven with light on. Then, leaving the loaves in the oven, I turn it on to 350 and set the time for 30 minutes, without waiting for it to preheat.)

Bowl-of-Oatmeal Banana Bread

Adapted from this recipe. I reduced the sugar because I don't like banana bread too sweet, and I changed the flour to oats ratio. This is my new favorite banana bread recipe!

• 3 very ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup quick oats 
• 1 cup flour (I usually use half all-purpose, half whole wheat)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Mash bananas with brown sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla (I use my immersion blender for this step). Pour oats and flour on top of wet mixture. Gently stir cinnamon, baking soda, and salt into the flour, then mix all ingredients together until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into a greased loaf pan. I like to sprinkle an extra handful of chocolate chips and some oatmeal on top, and some coconut for a special treat. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

Flourless PB Chococolate Chip Muffins

We gobbled these up! They are a great, healthy snack. (Or they would be if you didn't eat them with ice cream, like Andy did!)

• 1 medium ripe banana, peeled
• 1 large egg
• heaping 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 
• 3 T honey
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• pinch salt, optional and to taste
• heaping 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 F. Add all the ingredients except chocolate chips to a blender and blend until combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon by the heaping tablespoon into greased and floured mini-muffin tins. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until nicely domed and spring back when touched. A toothpick should come out with only a few crumbs and no dough. Let cool for 10 minutes for easy removal.

From http://www.averiecooks.com/ 

Pat in Pan Breadsticks

We love these quick and easy breadsticks. One reason is that since there isn't oil in the dough, I don't feel guilty drenching them in butter! :)

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 T yeast
3 T brown sugar
1 t salt
3 1/2-4 cups flour

1/4 cup butter, melted
Desired topping (Cinnamon sugar or Parmesan cheese & garlic salt)

(This is my favorite seasoning: https://ourbestbites.com/garlic-bread-seasoning/ )

Mix water, yeast, brown sugar, and salt. Stir in and then knead in the flour, one cup at  a time. Let dough rest for 5 minutes. Coat a jelly roll pan (large cookie sheet) with half of the melted butter. Place dough in the centre of the pan. Let rest for about 5 minutes, then spread the dough flat to cover the whole sheet (using your hands instead of a rolling pin. Just gently push with your fingers and fist. If it won't stay when you push it, let it rest a couple minutes more).

Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 3 strips lengthwise and about 12 strips the other way. Spread remaining butter on top of the breadsticks. Sprinkle with desired toppings. Place pan in 170 degree oven for about 7-10 minutes to let them rise, then increase heat to 350 and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.

(Picture from and method based on this recipe. She has great pictures if my instructions don't make sense! I accidentally cut my dough before adding toppings the last time I made them and liked how I didn't have to re-cut the sticks after baking, since the butter that dripped down made them not stick to each other as much. You can do it either way.)

Artisan-style Pizza Crust

This is really good, tastes-like-it's-from-a-restaurant pizza. Mmm! We don't have a stone, so we pre-bake the crust for 7-9 min prior to adding the toppings.

Recipe straight from my friend Rachael's blog

(makes 4 12-inch pizzas)
2 1/4 t. active dry yeast
2 c. warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
5 to 5 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1- 1 1/2 tsp salt
Extra-virgin olive oil, for greasing bowl

Dissolve yeast in warm water, let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in 3 c. flour and the salt, stirring until smooth. Stir in additional 2 c. flour, adding flour (up to 1/2 c.) 1 T. at a time, stirring until dough comes away from bowl but is still sticky (I use my KitchenAid stand mixer for all this).

Turn dough out of bowl and onto a lightly floured surface, kneading with floured hands. Fold the dough back over itself, repeating until it's easily to handle and less sticky, about ten times. Knead normally until dough is smooth, elastic, and soft, but still a little tacky, about 10 minutes.

Shape dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl; turn to coat. Cover with plastic, let rise in a warm place until it doubles in volume (2-3 hours; when pressed with finger the indent should remain).

Place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 500 for an hour. Scrape dough out of bowl onto floured surface, cut into 4 pieces, and shape into balls. Dust with flour, and cover with plastic. Let rest 20-30 minutes until dough relaxes and almost doubles. Turn over a baking sheet (we like jelly roll pans) and cover it liberally with cornmeal.

Holding top edge of 1 dough ball in both hands, let bottom edge touch work surface. Carefully move hands around edge to form a circle, as if turning a wheel. Hold dough on back of your hand, letting its weight stretch into a 12-inch round (Neil likes to toss it at this point, but I always ruin it, so if he's not home I just stretch it).

Transfer dough to inverted baking sheet (on cornmeal side). Arrange toppings, then carefully slide the dough off the baking sheet and onto the hot stone. We find that this generally requires two people with metal spatulas (see picture). Bake pizza for 12 minutes or until crust is crisp and golden brown; remove from oven with peel and serve hot!

Apple Cheddar Scones

2 cups flour (I used half whole wheat)
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/3 cup butter, cold
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup apple, chopped or shredded

Mix flour, sugar, baking power, soda, and salt. Cut in butter with your fingers or with criss-crossed knives. Add buttermilk and stir to combine. Fold in cheese and apples. Turn out onto floured board. Divide in half. Sprinkle more flour on top* and pat each portion into a circle and cut into 8 wedges . Transfer to greased cookie sheet and bake at 425 15-20 minutes, or until golden. Yum!

*The dough was pretty wet, but I didn't knead the extra flour in, just left it on top and bottom so I could handle the dough enough to pat it into the circles and use a spatula to transfer them.

Recipe adapted from Recipezaar

Pumpkin Spice Scones

I have been on the hunt to find a scone recipe that has the texture of the scones we used to get from Great Harvest. When I was working at Purdue, Andy and I would stop by every day on the way home to get samples. We miss having our friend working there! Anyways, I've finally found some to compare! This recipe was created by Nicole at Pinch My Salt. I'm excited to try her other scone recipes!

Ingredients:

Scones:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice (I didn't have any)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold
1/2 cup raisins (optional, I did not use)
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup heavy cream
6 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the butter into small pieces, put it in a small bowl and put it back in the refrigerator. In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt, and all spices. Whisk together well. Place bowl in freezer, or refrigerator if no freezer available.

In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk together well. Put this bowl in freezer (or refrigerator) and take the other bowl back out. Get the butter pieces out of the fridge and dump them into the bowl with the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs (dough will start to clump together). Stir in the raisins (if using).

Get the liquid mixture out of the freezer and pour into the flour mixture all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is just moistened. The dough will be very crumbly, this is the way it should be. Turn the mixture out onto the counter and push the pile together with your hands. It should stick together fairly well. Knead it just a couple of times until everything is together. Don’t knead it too much or the dough will get too sticky. (I had to add about 2 T extra pumpkin puree here, as it was too powdery still)

Pat the dough out into a rough circle, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Cut it like a pie into 8 pieces. Place pieces on the baking sheet so that they are not touching. Bake scones for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees. They should be light brown on the bottom, the tops will darken as they cool.

While scones are in the oven, mix together icing ingredients. When scones are right out of the oven, apply icing. Place scones on rack to cool, or enjoy when warm!

Icing: For ginger molasses icing, mix together 1 T molasses, 1-2 T milk, 1 C. powdered sugar, 1/4 – 1/2 t. ginger (to taste). Adjust amounts to change consistency. Icing can be brushed on or drizzled.