Bear Loaf

It was my turn to bring a snack for our last MOPs meeting.  Since it was very close to Valentine’s Day I decided to make another bear loaf, made of whole wheat.  I made two and served them on red platters.  In the upper right corner is a heart shaped dished filled with Strawberry Butter.  All I did was soften the butter, added some powdered sugar, and strawberry jelly.  Yum.

The moms ate the legs first, then the arms.  Then no one would touch the rest of the bear.  I had to cut the head off,  so people would eat the rest.  LOL   There was one bear left and I gave it to a woman who took it to a local high school.  Their mascot is a bear.  I can’t wait to hear how they liked it. 😀

The requested recipe.

This is the recipe M.G made  at the Bake Class.  It is made for the Zojirushi Bread Machine, but she did it in the DLX mixer.  I did this same recipe in my DLX and it came out wonderfully.  I will be giving this bread another try today.  It only makes two small loaves or a nice number of rolls.  I prefer to make  five to six loaves at a time, so I am still working on my larger recipe.   OH!  I have to ask M.G. if I can post her recipe of Breakfast Bread.  Ooooo, that was yummy!!

Last year my bread machine died a slow and horrible death.  It is in the garage waiting on hubby to bring it back to life.  Some of you know Jesus works through him to resurrect things, but that is another story.  I decided my bread machine’s death was a blessing from the Lord.  It forced me to work more with my large mixer and I am able to do more.  🙂  PTL

 Source:  Breadbeckers

Place in order in the pan to the bread machine, making sure the paddles are in place:

1 ½ cups hot water
½ cup oil ( 1/3 cup if use egg)
¼ cup honey
4 ½ cups fresh milled flour
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. Lecithin
1 tsp. gluten (optional)
1 egg (optional)

Make a small well in the middle of the flour and place:

1 Tbs. Yeast

Bake on desired setting.

The Zojirushi Bread Machine has a “Homemade” setting which allows you to alter the settings to suit your taste.  I found the factory settings baked too long making the crust very dark and the bread dry.  My “Homemade” settings work beautifully and I get delicious bread every time.  The instructions for changing the settings are in the back of your owner’s manual.  Once set, this Homemade Cycle” sill have these settings unless you change it again.

Bread baking class.

A couple of weeks ago, I went with my P31 (Proverbs 31) friend,  to a bread baking class.  I wanted to go just to make sure my bread and my tortillas were coming out well.  I haven’t been able to compare them to anyone  else’s.  Who knows, mine could have been total flops and my family never knew it!   My P31 friend went because she got a new Bosch mixer and it is red.   She has been making breads very well, just not with a large mixer.  We often compare notes.  😀

Anyhoo, we get to the woman’s house.  She happens to be good friends with my P31 friend and our food co-op order queen.  Actually, she is also a P31 lady.  She has it so together.  She’s cute too.  Wait until you see pictures. 

We learn that the texture of the dough is the most important thing.  With breads you want the bowl of your mixer to come clean when kneading, but with tortillas you want the dough to be sticky.  My bread doughs have a mind of their own and come out however they want. 

Here is the first picture.  M.G. is showing us how the dough should be sticky for tortillas.  See how there is some dough stuck to the bowl?  That’s a good thing.  It is also a good thing that my tortillas have always come out like that.  😀

 

Isn’t she cute?  Told you she was and she is a very Godly woman.  She is like Queen P31 woman.

Here are all the little tortilla dough balls ready to be shaped. 

Here is M.G. demonstrating how to use the tortilla maker.  I have one just like it.  Very handy servant to have around.

My attempt at braided bread.

I have been trying for a good while to make a very nice braided loaf of bread.  You know the kind.  The one all family members ooo and ahhhh over and  tell all their friends what a wonderful baker you are.  I haven’t gotten to that part yet, but I keep trying. 

For the loaf above I used the Challah recipe found in the Breadbecker’s Cookbook and for the instructions on how to braid this lovely round loaf, I went to here.

Cinnamon Applesauce Blueberry Muffins

 My girls like the plain Cinnamon Applesauce Muffins, but refuse to eat the blueberry ones.  *sigh*

Original recipe from Trish F.

Mix well in large bowl:

• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/2 cup unbleaced all purpose flour
• 1 TB baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Mix and add to the dry ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup orange blossom honey
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup all natural unsweetened applesauce

Fold in:

• 1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 400.  Grease muffin tins. 

Mix just until the flour is incorporated.  Fold in blueberries and divide evenly into muffin tins.  Sprinkle top with a mixture of cinnamon and sucanat sugar.  Bake for 20 minutes.

*The muffins in the picture above were made with 2 cups of soft wheat and 1 cup of hard red wheat.  I like to vary the wheat used in muffins.  🙂

No Knead Bread

As I was reading the blog C’est la vie and found some yummy looking bread called No Knead Bread. I decided to give it a try.

I made the dough with just the three ingredients needed.

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
11/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups water

It looks a little watery to me, but since I had never done this before, I decided to go with it.

Here is the dough after letting it rise for 14 hours. 🙂

And here is the last photo of the loaf sliced. It didn’t rise as well as I hoped and it was a little over baked. I baked this loaf in a 6 qt cast iron dutch oven at 450 degrees.

The next time I make this bread, I will be using half whole wheat and half white unbleaced flour. I will use a different pan and possibly lower the temp. Anyhoo, it was a lot of fun to make.

Hmmm, I just read some other information on this bread and it looks like my dough was not “shaggy” enough. 😆