Molasses Oatmeal Bread

I've conveniently forgotten about this blog for a long time!
At my school, everyone has to be on a meal plan for 3 years. But since I'm a senior, I'm off the meal plan. So hopefully, that means I 'll have more recipes to share on this blog!

Classes don't actually start until tomorrow, but I've been back for a week.  A couple days ago, I was pretty bored so instead of working on job applications (don't remind me...) I decided to make some bread. My mom used to make this at home sometimes, and it's one of my favorites! I actually don't have a bread pan, so I just formed it in an oval before letting it rise the second time.

Molasses Oatmeal Bread

2 pkgs dry yeast
1/2 c. warm water
2 c. rolled oats
2T shortening
2 c. boiling water
1/4 c. molasses
4 t. salt
5 1/2-6 c. flour

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 c. warm water, set aside.  In a large bowl place oats & shortening and pour in boiling water;stir.  When lukewarm, stir in dissolved yeast and molasses.  Stir in enough flour to make dough firm.  Knead on a floured surface 5-8 minutes.  Place in greased bowl turning to grease top.  Cover, let rise about 1 hour.

Punch down dough, divide into 2 parts. Shape into rectangles.  Place in greased 9x5 bread pans, cover.  Let rise in warm place about 1 hour.  Optional: brush tops with one eggwhite that has been mixed with 1 t. water.  Sprinkle with 2 T oats. Bake at 400 F for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from pans and cool.

It's really good with honey! But I also broiled some chipotle cheddar cheese on top of a slice, and that was good too. Enjoy!

St. Patty's Day

Sorry I've been MIA for a while! St. Patrick's Day seemed like a good day to get back to bloggin'.  While the rest of campus is pretending it's a weekend I'm in my room suffering from intense stomach pain and finishing homework. I know you want to hear about my personal discomforts!

Anyways, here's a sneak peek at what I did for Spring Break! I, of course, forgot my camera (ever since it broke in India I seem to have forgotten I even own a camera!), but my friend took is an awesome photographer.  I met some awesome people on this trip and it was definitely more fun and relaxing than the typical college spring break in Florida (or SC this year) that I've done with the track team the past 2 years - not that they aren't awesome too. And I didn't have to spend 24 hours on a bus! More pictures to come later

dogsledding!

I also made Irish soda bread on Tuesday for the co-op in honor of St. Patrick's Day. It turned out really well, even though I forgot to add salt (whoops!). It was also the first day it was warm enough for us to eat outside!  This is a recipe from my mom's collection:

6 c. flour
1 T baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
2 t. salt
4 t. sugar
2 1/2 c. buttermilk
2 T butter
1 1/2 c. raisins - I used a mix of golden and regular. And I made a small walnut loaf, since I knew some people didn't like raisins. I wasn't sure if the flavors would mix well, not the non-raisin-eaters said it was good!

Combine flour and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl.  Set aside.  Combine buttermilk, butter, and raisins; add to flour mixture, stirring until moistened (don't overstir).  Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead until smooth - about 5 minutes. Place on greased cookie sheet and press evenly into a 1 1/2 inch thick circle.  Bake at 325 for 1 hour or until bread sounds hollow when tapped.  Cool 5 minutes.  Cut into wedges.

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It was sooo good!

Basic whole wheat bread

I didn't do a post on the desert I made last week because it, um, didn't quite turn out.
But, I made up for it by making delicious bread today! I just decided to make a basic whole wheat bread. I didn't even make any substitutions! This recipe makes 1 loaf, so I doubled it and made 2.

Ingredients: 

1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees F)
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (see additional notes for a 100% whole wheat version)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons instant active dry yeast (active dry yeast will work also

Instructions: 

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a large mixing bowl; stir.

2. Add flours and yeast, and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10-15 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover with a clean towel and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes.

3. Punch dough down; knead for a few minutes until smooth and then form into a loaf. Place in greased loaf pan and cover. Let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. 

5. Remove bread from oven and allow to rest in pan for a few minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cover with a cloth. Slice and enjoy while still warm! Leftover bread can be stored in an airtight bag or frozen until needed.

I also made brownies today (yes, from a mix. The Ghirardelli double chocolate kind). It's my favorite from-a-mix brownie. Maybe even better than my homemade brownies - they're the one thing I seem to always have bad luck with. Anyways, I made them because I want to put them in random people's mailboxes. It's part of my whole random acts of kindness thing I decided to start just now. But I better give them away soon - I've already eaten 3! and I'm going to count this as day 28 of the photo challenge: a photo of what you ate today

mmmmmmm

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Rosemary Cheese Rolls

As usual, I'll post the original recipe and make notes where I changed it.  I doubled the recipe, and it made 32 small rolls. I'd say one recipe really only makes 8 servings.

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Prep Time 2 Hours Cook Time 40 Minutes

Servings 16

Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• FOR THE BATTER:
• 2-¼ teaspoons Active Dry Yeast (1 Packet)
• 1-¼ cup Sifted All-purpose Flour, Divided
• ¼ teaspoons Baking Soda
• 2 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Kosher Salt
• 2 Tablespoons Freshly Grated Onion - I used onion powder - I was too lazy to check if we had onions or to cut one up
• 1 Tablespoon Dried Dill Weed (OR Crushed/dried Rosemary, OR Dried Thyme) I used about 3T rosemary for 2 recipes
• ¼ cups Very Warm (120 Degrees F) Water
• 2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Softened
• 1 cup Cottage Cheese, At Room Temperature - we only had ricotta, so I used half that and half sharp cheddar
• 1 whole Egg, Lightly Beaten
• 1 cup 100% White Whole Wheat (like King Arthur)
• _____
• FOR THE TOPPING:
• 1 Tablespoon Unsalted Butter, melted
• 1 pinch Kosher Salt (a Hefty Pinch!)

Preparation Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix together yeast, 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, baking soda, sugar, salt, grated onion, and dill weed. Combine warm water and butter, then add to yeast mixture. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally.

2. Add lukewarm cottage cheese, beaten egg and 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes. Beat in remaining all-purpose flour (1/2 cup) and the white whole wheat flour until well incorporated. Batter will be stiff.

3. Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1-1 1/2 hours.

4. Stir down batter and transfer to a well-greased 2-quart round casserole dish. Since it seemed like so little dough, I made rolls instead of a loaf. It would also form into a loaf without a casserole dish. Cover with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

5. Brush melted butter on the batter, and sprinkle with a generous pinch of kosher salt.

6. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes.

7. Remove from oven to a wire rack. Cool bread completely in the casserole dish before removing to slice.

Bread Pudding

We had a lot of leftover bread that was just drying out in the co-op fridge, so I decided to make bread pudding with it for dessert. Even though it was a seedy whole wheat bread, it was still really good. We were also missing several ingredients, as usual, so I'll make notes on my substitutions. I don't think you can really go wrong with bread pudding!

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Ingredients:

- 2 cups whole milk or half and half (there was barely any milk so I used some sour cream and water-it was the only dairy we had!)
- 1/4 cup butter (we had a few tablespoons honey butter, so I used some oil, but it kind of floated to the top. I wouldn't recommend it)
- 2/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark, depending on taste preference)
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups bread, torn into small pieces (french bread works best)
- 1/2 cup raisins (optional) (I used dark and white chocolate chips instead)

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Directions:

1. In medium saucepan, over medium heat, heat milk (or half & half) just until film forms over top. Combine butter and milk, stirring until butter is melted. Cool to lukewarm.

2. Combine sugar, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed for 1 minute. Slowly add milk mixture.

3. Place bread in a lightly greased 1 1/2 quart casserole.

4. Sprinkle with raisins if desired. Pour batter on top of bread.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 to 50 minutes or until set. Serve warm.

The recipe also included a sauce you can pour on after, but since I was out of the main ingredients, butter and cream, I made a glaze of leftover powdered sugar and cinnamon from Mexican wedding cakes someone had made. The pudding turned out a little tough, but like I said, it was really dry! I could hardly tear some of it to begin.

original recipe

Seeduction Bread

It's Tuesday again! Today I made pretty much a basic whole wheat bread with nuts and seeds. It reminds me of a bread my local bakery makes. This was actually the name of the recipe! I had to tweak it a bit because of the ingredients we had, but the original recipe is here.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups warm water (105 degrees to 115 degrees)
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 (.25 ounce) envelope active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 2 tablespoons raw sesame seeds
• 4 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
• 1 egg white, beaten (we were out of eggs so I just used butter - it turned out fine!)
• 1 teaspoon oats, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, mixed

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Directions

1. Gently stir together the warm water, molasses, honey, and yeast in a large bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Pour oil into the yeast mixture.
2. In a separate bowl mix together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, salt, seeds and nuts. Stir the flour and seed mixture to the yeast mixture until it pulls together. Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 7 to 8 minutes, adding additional flour as needed. Place the dough in a large oiled bowl, cover and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Grease a 9x13 baking sheet. A bread pan works fine too.
3. Punch down the risen dough and turn out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Form into a round or oval loaf shape and place onto the prepared baking sheet. Cover the dough and allow to rise until doubled in size again, about 40 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) toward the end of this second rise. Slash the top of the loaf diagonally with a sharp razor blade or serrated knife, carefully brush with the beaten egg white, and sprinkle mixed oats, sunflower and sesame seeds over the top.
5. Bake in preheated oven until the bread sounds hollow when thumped on the side, 40 to 45 minutes.



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Squash Braid

This is the bread I made for the co-op on Tuesday! Everyone loved it - it was really good!  We get some produce from a winter CSA, so we get a lot of squash. This was a good way to use some!

Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons warm water (110 degrees F to 115 degrees F)
• 1 cup mashed, cooked butternut squash
• 1/3 cup warm milk (110 to 115 degrees F)
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• GLAZE:
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tablespoon water

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. In a mixing bowl, combine squash, milk, butter, egg, brown sugar and salt; mix well. Add yeast mixture and 1-1/2 cups flour; mix well. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Divide into thirds; roll each third into a 18-in. rope. Place on a greased baking sheet. Braid ropes together; pinch ends. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Combine glaze ingredients; brush over braid. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.