White Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

That sounds like an awfully long name for such a simple muffin, doesn't it?

I am quite the fan of white whole wheat. It has a lower gluten content as compared to our United States whole wheat (made from red wheat) but almost the same nutrition content. In my baked goods, it acts more similarly to enriched white flour. Every thing just seems lighter compared to when it is baked with regular whole wheat. If you haven't given it a try, do so! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

White Whole Wheat Banana Muffins
adapted from Simply Recipes

4 bananas, mashed
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon strong coffee
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat
2 teaspoons baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (you may call them optional but I have no idea why you would!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place mashed bananas in a large bowl (or mash them in the bowl, as you prefer). Stir in canola oil along with the sugar, egg, vanilla and coffee.

2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

3. Mix your flour mixture into the banana mixture until just combined. Fold in chopped walnuts.

4. Scoop batter into a lined muffin tin (why would you not use cupcake liners? They make clean up sooooooo much easier!). Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cheddar Jalapeno Pretzels

They are a winner! Well "almost." :)

I haven't entered into many recipe contests lately. Life has just been busy with the kids and all their activities. But when I saw this contest come up again, The National Festival of Breads, that I actually was a finalist in 2009, I had to give it another shot. The Kansas Wheat Commission does a great job hosting this event and King Arthur Flour and Fleischmann's are wonderful sponsors.

So here is this year's entry. I am not a finalist this go around but really, if you can develop a good recipe that your family loves, then you already are a winner. I did find out when opening this weekend's mail, that my recipe was chosen for an Honorable Mention and thus I got sent a packet full of goodies from the Sponsors. Thanks!

Cheddar Jalapeño Pretzels

This recipe combines two of my favorite things: luscious, warm pretzels and Tex-Mex food. One day, while eating a hot, buttery pretzel from a mall shop, I was struck with the thought that it would be so great to have the spicy cheese flavor already baked inside the pretzel than to have to dip it into some less than healthy sauce. So, tinkering in my kitchen, this recipe was developed. It is fairly quick and easy. Your family will be asking you to make these again! Although they do include pickled jalapeños the flavor is not overtly spicy.

Ingredients:

4 Cups King Arthur Bread Flour

2 ¼ teaspoon Fleishmann’s Rapid Rise Yeast

1 teaspoon Salt

1 ½ Cups Water, 130° F

1 Tablespoon Honey

2 Tablespoons Pickled Jalapeños, finely chopped

1 Cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, finely grated

2 Cups Boiling Water

¼ Cup Baking Soda

3 Tablespoons Melted Butter

Kosher Salt for sprinkling

Method:

In a bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook, combine 2 cups flour, yeast and salt. Stir in the warm water until well combined with dry ingredients. With the mixer on low, add the honey, jalapeños and cheddar cheese. Continue to add up to two more cups of flour, until a soft dough is produced, kneading the dough in the mixer for about 8 minutes. Remove dough from the mixer and place in an oiled bowl and cover with damp towel and allow to raise for one hour, roughly doubling the dough.

Preheat oven to 450ºF. After dough is risen, push it in to deflate it. Divide into 12 equal sized portions. Boil 2 cups water. In a shallow bowl, measure out baking soda. Pour the boiling water over the baking soda and stir until the baking soda is completely dissolved. Set soda water aside.

Line two 10 x 15 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out dough portions into 2 ½ to 3 foot lengths (about a ¼ to ½ inch in diameter) and twist into pretzel shapes. Dip each pretzel into the baking soda water and place on a baking sheet. Allow to raise for 15 to 20 minutes and then place in oven. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Take pretzels out of the oven and transfer them to wire racks. Lightly brush with melted butter and sprinkle with salt. Best enjoyed warm but they are still great when completely cooled as well.

The Best French Toast EVER!

Mike, a few months ago, requested that I make a bread called Challah. It is a traditional Jewish bread that is well, very rich. I used this recipe, although please note that the recipe does not call for rapid rise yeast but you really must use rapid rise, a.ka. instant yeast, if you really want to make this in a hurry. I finally got around to it last week and it turned out pretty well. I'm more of a sourdough or French bread kinda girl myself but Mike and the kids loved it!

Then, the next morning, Mike made us French toast. One might say that using French bread is the only way to really make French toast. I DARE this person to try this recipe and not fall in love. It is that good. Yes, that good. Let me please also note, that Mike did use a good quality egg nog to replace the half and half - but he cut down on the egg and a little on the sugar too to make up for that. The one thing that made this recipe stand out is the use of orange zest - a new must for our French Toast.

Challah French Toast (by Ina Garten)

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 6 extra-large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half or milk
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon good honey
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 large loaf challah or brioche bread
• Unsalted butter
• Vegetable oil

To serve:

nocoupons

• Pure maple syrup
• Good raspberry preserves (optional)
• Sifted confectioners' sugar (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

In a large shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs, half-and-half, orange zest, vanilla, honey, and salt. Slice the challah in 3/4-inch thick slices. Soak as many slices in the egg mixture as possible for 5 minutes, turning once.

Heat 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil in a very large saute pan over medium heat. Add the soaked bread and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until nicely browned. Place the cooked French toast on a sheet pan and keep it warm in the oven. Fry the remaining soaked bread slices, adding butter and oil as needed, until it's all cooked. Serve hot with maple syrup, raspberry preserves, and/or confectioners' sugar.

A Multitude of Breads

I've been up to my ears in breads. MMMmmmmm. I do love bread. There is no way on earth that I could ever do an Atkins-type diet. No bread? How horrific!

As mentioned in an earlier post, I am working on a list of breads and spreads to be the taste samples for our wonderful church's Holiday Specialtea. Last week I really kicked it into high gear and made a large assortment of breads so I thought I'd share my findings with you. (The recipe titles are hyper-linked so go ahead and click to see the recipe).

Okay the first I made was Syrian Bread. It turned out pretty well. The first two did not puff up but the last six did. It really wasn't anything special. I think I would have preferred it to be a whole wheat pita. It was fun to use them for pita sandwiches with the kids. Over all, I give it a B- and think I'd look for another recipe for pita bread. So this one was taken off the list.

The second bread of the week was King Arthur's Asagio Ciabatta. This one is a two day process but relatively simple to make. The bread tasted great the first day - loved the chunks of oozy cheese. Sliced and used to make a turkey sandwich the next day, my husband said it was good enough to cater. I'm an even bigger fan of cheese than I am bread so putting the two of them together can't be wrong. This one goes on the list!

Next, I tried Lavash Cracker Bread. Very, very similar to the Syrian Bread in ingredients but totally different in texture. I felt it needed some visual "oomf" so I sprinkled with black sesame seeds while I rolled the subsequent rounds. They do need to be docked (pricked all over with a fork) before they were baked. I know the recipe author says you need to roll them very, very thin but I did and the first two still puffed up like pita bread. The docking took care of that problem. I paired this with a spread - Greek Feta and Olive spread. Oh my. OH MY! If you love Greek food (and I do!) then by all means, you must make this yummy spread. Delish!

Lastly, not to leave out our sweet breads, I made Coconut Pineapple Loaf Cake from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food PBS show. I know Martha Stewart has a reputation for using expensive, hard-to-find ingredients but Everyday Food is not like that at all. This quick bread/cake was a big hit at our small group bible study last night. Different and easy to make I call it a winner. The only change I would make would be to use pineapple tidbits (very well drained - maybe even pressed in a paper towel) and would be to increase the baking time by another 15 minutes.

So there you go! I'm sorry I don't have photos. I really should have snapped some but you know how life goes!

Sourdough Success!

Yesterday I baked my first loaf of sourdough bread from my own homemade starter! Sweet success! (or should I say "sour"?) I really couldn't believe that it worked but work it did.

My earlier post on this subject showed the original starter recipe. From that I fed the starter every day with 1/2 cup warm water and 1/2 cup flour. I used various types of flour that I have in the pantry (always wheat flour). I figured in the end that it wasn't going to work so I just ran warm tap water instead of the bottled water I began with. One day I decided to add a 1/4 teaspoon of cider vinegar. Another day I may have added 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. But I think it worked because as one article I read stated "people who didn't believe the Earth was round did this for millenia. Do check out the hyper-linked article above - the author really made this whole process seem doable instead of insurmountable like in this article. Both provide a wealth of information.

The best news of all is that both Mike and kids actually like the taste of the bread. Luke says it tastes "lemony" and Mike had extras at supper last night. So over all it is a hit and I have more starter in the fridge!

Sourdough Exploration...

So I have this friend who is doing all this reading on artisan breads. So I decided to do some reading too. :) An online search produced masses of recipes and information. From everyone I've talked to, making your own sourdough starter outside of using packaged yeast (i.e. capturing wild yeast), is a difficult and elusive thing to do. So I figured, let's give it a try! lol

I'm likening the process to a fermentation process. And right now, in my basement, I am currently fermenting the cabbage from my garden to make sauerkraut. So why not try it upstairs on the counter and make a sourdough starter? The cabbage is fermenting so I must have wild yeast beasties running a muck in my house, right? (notice how I keep seeking your affirmation as I'm typing this).

After reading a short on-line sourdough starter recipe, I cut it in half and mixed together in a toss-able plastic container:

1 cup King Arthur Whole Wheat flour
1 cup water (I used bottle spring - figured the chlorine would probably hinder the yeast growth)
1 Tbl Sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Then I sat it on the counter and covered it lightly with the container's lid. I thought, "I'm crazy" and walked away. Last night I saw that water had separated and was floating on top. I left it alone. This morning, their is no liquid floating on top but but there are bubbles in the mixture. Could this be the beginning of the fermentation? I think so! I'm pretty pumped over the whole thing and I'll (hopefully) keep you updated.

Cheese & Herb Biscuits

I love going to Red Lobster. We don't often go though. And I'm not really a HUGE seafood fan, although I do like it. But I do love those Cheddar Bay Biscuits. They do rock, don't they? And every once in a while I get a hankering to have some at home. This is my latest attempt. They probably are not as good as Red Lobster but a whole lot cheaper!

Here is my inspiration recipe. I took this and ran with it.

Cheese & Herb Biscuits

2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
1 Tbl chopped chives
1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
3/4 cup milk
1 Tbl red wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

In a food processor, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and the seasonings. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Throw the flour-butter mixture into a bowl and toss in cheese and chives. Stir in milk and vinegar until all is just moistened.

Knead the dough on a well floured surface for about a minute. Pat out until about an inch thick. Cut with a 2 inch round, or do as I do and use a kid's cup. Makes about 10 biscuits.

Pancakes....Healthy?

Yesterday morning I decided to make pancakes for breakfast. It is not a common thing that we have something like pancakes on a weekday morning. We usually save such meals for the weekend but with the cold weather, I thought something warm besides oatmeal was in order. I went to my favorite recipe website, allrecipes.com, and typed in pancakes. I remembered making these one day when my wonderful husband was not here. They were really good so I decided to make them again with just a few modifications to fit what is in my cupboard.

Wheat Germ Whole Wheat Pancakes

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 cups buttermilk (or substitute 2 cups milk with 2 Tbl. vinegar)
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour

Mix all the ingredients together and fry up the pancakes as usual, about a 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. Serve as you would any other pancake. Here in our house we like butter, maple syrup, whipped cream and sprinkles. :)

My dh said they were great. But he likes to make his pancakes a little bit healthier. "But they are healthy!" I said in reply. He thought I had used all white flour. That is because they are very light and fluffy for using the heavier whole wheat flour, not to mention wheat germ. So give them a try! Maybe your family will not notice the extra fiber in their diet. :)

Our Daily Bread Recipe

Yesterday, I made some bread. I bake bread about once a week - that equals two loaves of bread per week for our family of 5. I'm sure you've all been annoyed at the price of bread in the stores. I was! So much so that I've taken to making our own. Not a foreign idea to me since homemade bread was all I grew up with but still it was a change from what we had been doing - buying 2 loaves of bread for about 5 dollars at most stores- which is a very good price for the brand of bread we bought! A friend stopped by while I was kneading away and I told her I figured it cost me about 80 cents to bake the two loaves. Today, stricken with the possibility of having misrepresented the cost, I decided to figure out how much it indeed did cost in the way of materials (I did not figure in the cost of running the oven at 350 for 30 minutes) to be sure I was honest.

My Bread Recipe (adapted from many recipes)

1/4 cup Warm Water (~115 degrees F) - Free
1/2 teaspoon Sugar - I'm calling this one a gimme - Free
1 Tbl instant yeast - 6 cents (I buy yeast in 2 lb packages at Sam's - very cheap)
1 cup whole wheat flour - 16 cents
1/2 oatmeal - 5 cents
1/2 wheat germ - 4 cents (I buy it in the bulk bins - WAY cheaper)
2 cups warm water - Free
1/3 cup brown sugar - 9 cents
1/3 cup canola oil - 15 cents
3-4 cups all purpose flour - 30-40 cents (cheaper if I can get it less than 1.88 a 5 lb package)

Proof the yeast by mixing together the water, sugar and yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Allow to sit for 5 mintues. Dump in the whole wheat flour, wheat germ, oatmeal, 2 cups warm water, brown sugar, and oil and stir together using a dough hook on your mixer. Add all purpose flour 1 cup at a time until a loose ball forms. On a well floured surface, dump out the dough. Knead, adding extra flour, until just slightly sticky. Usually about 5 mintues. Divide dough in two pieces and shape into loaf looking pieces. Place in small loaf pans that have been prepared by spraying or brushing the sides with olive oil. Cover with a damp towel and allow to raise in a warm spot for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. The upper dough should be higher than the rim of the pan. Bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Now, if you use regular active dry yeast, then you have to add another step and let rise in an oiled bowl for an hour, then push down and divide and place into bread pans and allow to raise again. The instant yeast allows you to skip this step so I highly recommend it!

So the grand total? 87-97 cents for two loaves. So my rough estimate wasn't too far off. That's a saving of over 4 dollars every week. Take that times 52 weeks and you get 208 dollars a year. Now, one can always buy cheaper bread. But I would argue that my bread is probably healthier due mainly to the fact there is no high fructose corn syrup in it. Now, lately I've been adding a tablespoon of vital wheat gluten which has slightly improved the texture of the bread but it is not necessary. In case you are wondering though, I buy it at Walmart for 1.79 a box and I figure I get about 17 tablespoons out of it. It does add another 11 cents to the bill but again, still a huge savings in the long run.

Whole Wheat Bagel Recipe - First Attempt

I decided that it was time to make my own bagels. I can get these yummy whipped cream cheeses at Aldi at a great price so I wanted some whole wheat bagels to go with them. I tried the bagels from Aldi and I did NOT like them. So off to the internet to find a recipe. I found this one from RecipeSource.com and decided to give it a whirl. In addition, I added 1/2 cup wheat bran. I thought that would make them all over healthier without making them them too "grainy."

Whole Wheat Bagels

       2 pk Dry yeast
     2 c  Warm water (105-115 degrees)
     2 tb Honey
     2 c  Whole wheat flour
 1 1/2 ts Salt
     3 c  All-purpose flour, divided
 3 1/2 qt Water
     1 ts Salt
          Sesame seeds

 Recipe by: Southern Living
 Preparation Time: 0:45
 Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5
 minutes.  Add honey, stirring well.  Stir in 2 cups whole
 wheat flour and 1-1/2 teaspoons salt; mix well.  Gradually
 stir in enough all-purpose flour to make a soft dough. Turn
 dough out onto a heavily floured surface (dough will be
 sticky), and knead until smooth and elastic (8 to 10
 minutes). Place dough in a well-greased bowl, turning to
 grease top. Cover dough, and let rise in a warm place (85
 degrees), free from drafts, 1-1/2 hours or until doubled in
 bulk.

 Punch dough down, and divide dough into 12 equal pieces.
 Roll each into a smooth ball.  Cut with 1-inch cutter or
 punch a hole in the center of each ball with a floured
 finger.  Gently pull dough away from center to make a 1- to
 1-1/2-inch hole.  Place shaped bagels on lightly greased
 baking sheets.  Cover and let rise 15 minutes.  Broil
 bagels 5 inches from heat 2 minutes on each side or until
 lightly browned. Bring water and 1 teaspoon salt to a boil
 in a large Dutch oven.  Reduce heat, and simmer bagels 3
 minutes on each side. Place bagels on lightly greased
 baking sheets.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds; lightly press
 seeds into bagels.  Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25
 minutes or until golden brown.  Yield:  1 dozen.

Here you can see them ready to be formed into the classic "bagel" shape. To do this gently poke a finger through the middle and then add another finger and gently widen the whole until it is about 1-2 inches across.


Then there is one extra step between bagels and a regular bread recipe and that is the boiling. I was totally stoked to have a reason to use one of the newest tools in my kitchen - the spider. The spider is a Chinese tool that is usually used when frying in a wok. But it works incredibly well for any kind of deep frying or in this case "boiling" because it strains as you take it out of the hot liquid. Because the main part of it is made from metal but the handel is made from wood (or in the case of mine, bamboo), then you don't need to worry about anything melting or any heat being transfered up the handel.

The bagels looked pretty cool boiling away. I did 2 minutes on one side, then flipped them and did another two on the other.

And here was the final result. I liked them. My husband said they were a little too heavy for his taste but aren't bagels supposed to be "heavy"? The inside was chewy and the outside had that hard bite to it. Something to sink your teeth into - what's the word I'm looking for?.... I will make these again but I do think that I will mess with the recipe a little, maybe omitting the wheat bran I added...