Baking bread in Lynne’s Kitchen

ingredients for baking bread
Getting all the ingredients together for baking bread!

Here’s a guilty admission of mine. I know – “thou shall not covet,” but covet I did!! I always wanted a KitchenAid mixer, as I love to bake. Every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas, I would dream about getting this high-speed equipment. So, I took the plunge, ordered it and viola! My long-awaited, much-anticipated mixer arrived yesterday! I spent the evening reading the manual (okay, you know I am excited when I read tech manuals!), washed it, and checked the bowl settings so I could use it today. A combo birthday/business investment, as I am wanting to write more about foods and baking, and compile a recipe book.

The performance expectation level I had was pretty high – especially for baking bread.

KitchenAid Mixer
New KitchenAid Mixer!

As long as I have wanted this mixer, I was a little hesitant to use it. I mean, I don’t want to get it all dirty. Haha! The performance expectation level was pretty high – especially for baking bread. Would it live up to all I imagined? Everyone I know who has this mixer loves it. I just had to try it out today! I wondered, “What should I make?” We still have way too many Christmas cookies to justify baking another batch. Plus, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on that dough hook!

So, I decided on baking bread.

A wise choice. I wish someone would develop a plug-in app, allowing the aroma of fresh-baked bread to drift through cyberspace, coming through every PC, laptop and device…That would drive my readership up! But I digress.

Mmm! Baking bread
Fresh from the oven!

Well, the KitchenAid Mixer worked like a dream! It was by far the easiest bread baking day I have ever had. I Googled a very simple bread recipe, “Basic Homemade Bread,” found on TasteofHome.com (recipe in the link and pasted below). Everything went into the big bowl, and clean-up was a breeze. I wanted to start out with something fairly easy until I got used to the mixer, but honestly, the learning curve time was not a concern.

So, with this under my belt, I can try other new and great things! Stay tuned! In the mean time, I have a photo-show of the bread-making process. If you have never tried it before, seriously, you must. Yeast breads sound very intimidating, but they aren’t. Just make sure you follow the directions and measure carefully. Whether you have a big, high-speed mixer or not, give it a shot, and tell me about your experience in the comment section!

Photo steps – recipe below!

Mixing it up
Mixing it up!

Mix water and yeast. Add sugar, salt, oil, and about half the flour. Blend well with dough hook. Shut off mixer to scrape sides of the bowl. Add the rest of the flour – about a cup at a time. Mix well.

blob of bread dough
Blob of dough

Turn dough onto floured surface. Kneed until smooth. If using the dough hook, you will only do this about a minute or two. If by hand, kneed longer (8-10 minutes).

bread dough
Smooth surface before first rise

The dough should look smooth like this.

bread dough
Ready to rise

Place into a greased bowl. Turn (so top is greased); cover and let rise until double.

Help dough raise faster
Neat trick! Add a bowl of hot water to help dough raise faster.

My trick: Place dough in oven (do not turn oven on!!!), turn on oven light and place a bowl of hot water in to help the dough rise.

Time to bake
Success! Time for bread baking!

It should double – like this!

punch down the dough
Punch down the dough

Dump dough out of bowl; “punch” down and let rest a minute.

almost ready for baking
Let rise in pan

 Divide dough; and place in greased baking pans. Let rise until double.

ready to bake
Ready to bake!

Like this! Bake in a preheated oven (375 degrees) for 30-40 minutes.

Baking bread - delicious!
Bread is done!

Remove from pans. Cool. Slice and enjoy!

Recipe:

Basic Homemade Bread Recipe

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 20 min. + rising Bake: 30 min. + cooling

 Ingredients

  • 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
  • 2-1/4 cups warm water (110° to 115°)
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 6-1/4 to 6-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, salt, oil and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
  2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours.
  3. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide dough in half. Shape each into a loaf. Place in two greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30-45 minutes.
  4. Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and bread sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Yield: 2 loaves (16 slices each).

httpsss://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/basic-homemade-bread

Originally published as Homemade Bread in The Taste of Home Cookbook 2006, p452

My super awesome granola

 

I am totally taking bragging rights on my granola.

Here’s the scoop. Last summer, I made my very first batch of the toasted-oat, yummy goodness. You may wonder why would I go through all that trouble when I could just walk to the store and buy a box? Well, I couldn’t justify the amount of money to pay for the commercial stuff, because, frankly, it isn’t all that good. And if you grab a box with raisins, yuck! I am not disrespecting the raisin, but let’s face it: the raisins found in a box of granola are so hard to chew, it feels like they are pulling the fillings right out of my teeth.

I glanced at a recipe that was on joyofbaking.com, which looked really simple, and I modified it to my liking.

The benefit of this basic recipe is that you can add what ever you like: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pecans, etc. It is great plain, with milk or on top of yogurt.

It is so easy you’ll wonder why you haven’t made it before…

Super Awesome Granola

3 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup of coconut
1 cup of sliced almonds
¼ cup of wheat germ
½ tablespoon of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of coconut oil (melted)
¼ cup of maple syrup
¼ cup of honey
1 cup of dried fruit (I usually use cherries or cranberries)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F). Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix together oats, coconut, almonds, wheat germ, cinnamon and salt.

In a small bowl, mix together oil, syrup and honey.

Pour the liquid over dry ingredients, and mix to coat. Spread into prepared pan, and bake 30-45 minutes or until golden brown. Stir every 10-15 minutes. The more it browns, the crunchier it will be. Cool on a wire rack. It will crisp up as it dries, so break up any large clumps while mixture is warm. Add dried fruit and mix well. Place in an air-tight container and store in the refrigerator.

Have you attempted to make granola before? If so, how did it turn out?

© 2012 – Lynne Cobb

Inspired to write by a chewy granola bar…

“Marge, it’s 3 a.m. Shouldn’t you be baking?” – Homer Simpson

I have a huge announcement to make that will come as no big surprise…some days I just can’t get it into gear.

Like today. I have a few writing projects I was working on, which seemed to be going nowhere – and fast. And when re-reading my work, both pieces sounded flat and boring and I was getting a wee bit agitated. Staring into space, with no direction, or organization and wondering what to do next, I witnessed the laundry pile growing higher – right before my very eyes. Lugging the ever-expanding basket down the steps, I threw a load in the machine. Turning around, I glanced at the pantry shelf.

Big mistake. I turned my head. I looked away. It didn’t work. Game over. The can of sweetened condensed milk won.

I had bought it a few weeks ago to try out a recipe I clipped at out of a magazine eleven months ago. (On a sorting binge, I found it again last week!) Thinking I have adult ADHD, I raced up the steps, can in hand, and stopped everything I was doing to make granola bars. Nevermind the cleanser drying to a hard finish in the tub, or the mounds of laundry sitting, in damp eagerness, waiting for my return to the basement. Forget the sticky notes and voicemails and 17 windows open all at once on the laptop. I stopped it all and baked. I was energized and motivated and multi-tasking and modifying and measuring and making an enormous mess.

Whew! Although it looked like a tornado blew through the kitchen, apparently, I needed a creative break to re-engage my brain. It all hit me as the cinnamony-aroma of the sweet smell of success enveloped the kitchen and wafted towards me. My a-ha moment revealed that I wasn’t multi-tasking at all! I was tackling a project that I knew I could finish. It took my mind off of all my other incomplete projects, giving me the chance to feel creatively complete. While the granola bars baked, I mixed up a batch of granola, switched laundry and finished a few other mundane chores.  Talk about a win-win: I benefitted from freeing my mind so that I could get back to writing; my family benefitted from a yummy snack, and you, you very lucky readers, you get to benefit from my modified recipe that turned out super scrumptious.

Let me know if you give these a try. I found the original recipe in the USA Weekend magazine. Eleven months ago.

Ooey, Gooey, Chewy Granola Bars

2 cups of rolled oats

1/4 cup of wheat germ

1/2 cup of chocolate chips

3/4 cup of dried cranberries (or dried fruit of your choice)

1 can (14 oz) of sweetened condensed milk

cinnamon sugar

(Note: 1 cup of almonds were part of the original recipe)

Adjust oven rack to a lower-middle position and pre-heat oven to 325. Grease a 9″ square pan (I used an 8″ pan and baked a little longer.) I then lined the pan with greased foil (so I could use foil to lift bars from pan) and set pan aside.

Mix all ingredients (except cinnamon sugar) and pat down into prepared, foil-lined pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake about 30 minutes (35-40 if using 8″ pan). Cool to room temperature, then place pan into freezer until firm.

To cut easier, I placed a piece of parchment paper on my wooden cutting board, removed foil and using a sharp knife, carefully cut into 8 bars. You can make them smaller, but I have teenagers and they don’t care much for “fun size” goodies 🙂

I wrapped them individually, but you can store them in an air-tight container. They should last a week without refrigeration or freezing, but I am betting my stash will be gone in three days.

Enjoy!

© 2012 – Lynne Cobb