Wheat Bread

This is another recipe from Michelle, but I also had it from my friend Jill. Michelle said the trick to good wheat bread is in the wheat--she uses white wheat, as it has the same nutritional value as red. The white wheat makes a lighter, fluffier bread than red wheat. Yea! I was so happy to get this recipe and knowledge from her. I had this at her house and it was delish!


Ingredients:
3 cups warm water
2 pkgs yeast (4 ½ tsp.)
1/3 cup honey
2 Tbsp. dough enhancer (optional)
¼ cup gluten (optional)
5 cups whole wheat flour
3 Tbsp. melted butter
1 Tbsp salt
1/3 cup honey
Whole wheat flour

Directions:
Mix together water, yeast, 1/3 cup honey, dough enhancer, gluten, and 5 cups flour. Cover and let rise for about half of an hour. Stir in melted butter, salt, and 1/3 cup honey. Add enough flour to make dough soft and still slightly sticky. Form into a ball and place in bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled. Divided dough into 3 balls. Shape and place in greased bread pans (9x5). Cover and let rise until the dough is about an inch higher than the pan. Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. (I always pull them out after 25 minutes). Brush tops with butter to keep crust soft. Remove from pans to let cool.

*The original recipe is yummy too, just not quite as good as grinding your own wheat. It calls for part whole wheat flour and part white--I tried it with red wheat flour from the store and it was still good. Here is the link on allrecipes HERE , although I had to change the serving size as my Kitchen Aid only makes 2 loafs, not 3. Hope that helps!

Picture found here.

Bread and Jam Loaf

Thanksgiving is Thursday and I don't have any great recipes for that, so here's one I do for Christmas. I did these a couple of years ago as gifts and so many people asked for the recipe. I originally got this recipe off of a recipe card from Rhodes Rolls but I changed it just a smidge. Sorry I couldn't find a picture of it, but it looks really pretty when sliced with the white bread and colorful jam. Here's their recipe and the slight change I did to it.

Ingredients:
-20 Rhodes Dinner rolls, thawed but still cold (less if you're making a smaller loaf)
-1/2 cup jam (your favorite flavor, you might need a little more, or a little less, just depends, I used homemade strawberry jam)
-2 TBS sliced almonds (optional)

Icing ingredients:
-1 TBS butter, melted
-1 cup powdered sugar
-1 or 2 TBS water
-1/4 tsp almond extract
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Flatten each roll into a 4-inch circle. Place a teaspoon of jam in the center of each roll. Pinch edges of dough together to enclose filling. Place filled rolls in a 9x5-inch sprayed loaf pan, (or what I did was get the little loaf pans and made smaller loaves for individual people. I put 5 or 6 rolls in each little pan) just fill the bottom of the pan and start stacking on top. Cover with sprayed plastic wrap. Let dough rise to the top of the pan. Do not let dough over rise. Remove wrap and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, or with the smaller loaves, you'll have to watch and check every few minutes after the first 15 minutes to make sure they don't burn. Cover with foil the last 10 minutes of baking. Remove from pan immediately and place on a cooling rack, right side up. Combine icing ingredients and mix well. Drizzle icing over cooled loaf.

It's very tasty!

Orange Knots

Ingredients:

12 Rhodes™ Dinner Rolls, thawed but still cold

1 medium orange rind, grated

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

Citrus Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon butter, melted

3 tablespoons orange juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Mix grated orange rind with sugar. Roll each roll into a 9-inch rope. Tie in a loose knot. Roll each knot in melted butter and then in rind/sugar mixture. Place on a large sprayed baking sheet. Cover with sprayed plastic wrap and let double in size. Remove wrap. Bake at 350°F 15-20 minutes. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack. Brush with citrus glaze while still warm.

Ham and Cheese Bisquits

We just had these as a side to our weekly "breakfast" dinner.






Ingredients:
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 c. milk
1/2 c. finely chopped ham
1/2 c. mayo
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Combine flour and baking soda in a large bowl. Combine remaining ingredients in separate bowl; pour into flour mixture until just moistened. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 425 degrees for 16-20 minutes. Makes 12 bisquits.

Banana Bread

This banana bread it super easy and so good, below is a picture of what I recommend the bananas to look like, you know what they say(the darker the berry the sweeter the juice)!

Ingredients:

2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 c. sugar
4 very ripe bananas (mashed)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, powder & salt. In a large bowl cream together eggs & sugar. Stir in mashed bananas, vanilla, oil & cinnamon. Stir in flour mixture a third at a time until just combined. Divide batter into 2 greased bread pans. Bake at 350 for 45 min or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cracked Wheat Bread

I make bread twice a week. I have tried many different recipes, but I always come back to this one because my family loves it so much. My grandma has been making this recipe for 20 years. You can buy cracked wheat at any health food store, or kitchen specialty store. (P.S. My bread is ugly...I can't seem to make a pretty loaf of bread :), but it sure does taste yummy!)

Mix in a mixing bowl for a minute:
½ cup shortening
1 cup powdered milk
3 cups very warm water

Add to mixing bowl:
8 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp salt
1 cup cracked wheat
5-6 cups bread flour (I do 2 cups whole wheat flour & 4 cups bread flour)

Stir in a separate bowl while above is mixing:
1 cup warm water
1 ½ Tbsp yeast
pinch of sugar

Directions:

Let the yeast grow for 5-10 minutes while the other bowl is mixing. Add yeast mixture to bowl. Mix for 2 minutes, then add more flour until ready (1-2 more cups). Let it knead with a dough hook for 15 minutes (or knead by hand, ugh.) Let it rise until double in size, around an hour. Cut into 3 loaves. Shape and place in loaf pans lined with Crisco. Let rise for about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 for 35 or so minutes. To check if it is done, knock on the underside of the crust – it should sound hollow.