Wicked Simple Hearty Honey Oat Bread Recipe

 

  

So I confess….I sucked out on the 30 day post.  I made it 13 days somewhat consecutively.  Don’t judge!  I truly had good intentions.   Any hoo…I made this bread the other day and it was delicious and Maine Man really liked it too.  I will be so kind and share it with you because it is easy and it is a must to save in my archives.  Basically you mix up the ingredients, put it in a bread pan, let it rise for 1 hour and bake.  That’s it!  NO Kneading….SWEET!!
2 cups hot water
1/3 cup honey
2 teaspoons salt
2 ½ teaspoons yeast
¾ cup oats
2 cups white flour
2-2 ½ cups wheat flour
1. Place the oats in a large bowl and pour half of the water over them. Let stand about 5 minutes to soften the oats. Meanwhile, combine the rest of the water, honey, and salt, and yeast together in a small bowl, and let stand until the yeast is dissolved and beginning to bubble, 5 – 10 minutes.
2. Add the yeast mixture to the oats, then add the white flour, and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon for 2 to 3 minutes. Continue beating as you gradually add the whole-wheat flour. Add just enough whole wheat flour to make a stiff, heavy, sticky batter – it should not be thick enough to hold its shape outside the bowl.
3. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and smooth the top with wet fingers. Cover and let rise to the top of the pan, about 1 hour.
4. While the loaf is rising, preheat the oven to 400°F. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until browned on top and pulling away from the sides of the pan. Turn out of the pan and cool on a rack. Let cool 2 to 3 hours before slicing; cool completely before bagging.

This recipe comes from Maine Huts & Trails blog…..Enjoy!


 

Happy New Year - day 1

It is hard to believe another year has passed us by. When we are young the time doesn't seem to go fast enough and as we get older the years seem to fly right by, funny how that is. Not much for resolutions here...same old, loose a few pounds and such. Each year I like to pick a theme and stick with it. 2 years ago I proclaimed that it would be the year of the berry. We planted strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries that year. Last year the theme was bread and even though it took me until November to get a grip on it I did it. Found a recipe that was easy to make and now we have homemade bread readily available. This year I will be the Year of the BEE. Will see if my dreams come true....they usually do if I wish hard enough;) In addition to that I will be writing about my experiences with making gelato, yogurt, and feta cheese, and soap just as soon as I attempt it. Before you know it the greenhouse will be in full swing. We've already talked about starting some seedlings inside. Cheers to a New Year filled with new adventures.

The Accidental Foodie

It was never intentional, it just happened! When we first married dinner consisted of frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, take out, and if Maine Man was really lucky... Shephard's Pie. Fast forward 15 years later and food has become a HUGE part of my life, as it should be! What else do we do 3-6 times a day? .....EAT. What interests me most is cooking from scratch, eating organic, and local food. The BEST meal to me is a dinner that consists all of food we've grown, raised, hunted, and/or foraged for. We are fortunate to have quite a few of those kinds of meals. Don't get me wrong....I do not eat 100% organic, nor all local, I eat processed crap time and again, and I MUST confess I have a slight addiction to diet pepsi. I've quit the "swill" (as MM calls it) three times previously, they say fourth time is a charm, right? Change takes time........and will power. I'm getting there ;)

Any how the point I am slowly trying to make is about the bread recipe I posted back in November. It is the ONE I have been searching for for years. If you have always aspired to have a fresh loaf of bread in your bread box, you MUST give this a try! I can't even began to tell you how many loaves I have baked over the last month. It is EASY...just takes a little planning. CHEAP... literally cost pennies. Not sure about your neck the woods but at the farmer's market a loaf of bread like this goes for $5. And above all DELICIOUS....Flower Girl refuses to eat store bought bread...LOL.

In addition to bread I now set aside a batch once a week to make pizzas from. I prepare as I would for bread except I split the dough (blob) in half prior to rising. After rising I refrigerate if I am not going to use immediately. I will admit the dough is a little tricky to work with due to it's consistency, the shape is not always perfect but I assure you it is always super tasty.
Now if you take my advice before long you will be eliminating bread & pizza crust (frozen pizza) off your grocery list. Not sure about you but stuff like that EXCITES me. I love walking past the egg cooler, the meat section, baked goodies, pickles, produce etc when my cupboards, freezers, and pantry are right packed full of the real deal.

Just saying.....give it a try!

Easiest Bread I've Ever Made

For quite some time I have aspired to bake bread on a regular basis. I like my morning toast and in general my family LOVES bread. A quick peak at the ingredients on a loaf of store bought bread is enough scare you! Usually about 20 ingredients including high fructose corn syrup and stuff I've never heard of....datem, soy lecithin, azodicarbonamide. What the ......? (spell check doesn't even recognize them).
Any how I have found the SIMPLEST recipe ever and I plan to make it over, and over, again!
Here is the link I followed, definitely check it out if you plan to make because I will only write up a brief overview here.

About 20-24 hours before you want your bread mix together 3 cups of flour, 1/4 teaspoon of yeast, and 1 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Add 1 5/8 cup of water. Cover bowl with saran wrap. Let dough rest for 12-18 hours at room temperature.

The picture above is what the dough looks like after it has rested... bubbly.

Next I sprinkled my cutting board w/ flour and dumped the dough out folding it in on itself a couple times. Once again cover w/ saran wrap and let sit for 15 minutes.



Then I took a cotton towel and sprinkled it with cornmeal, formed the dough into a ball and covered it with another towel dusted with cornmeal. Then I let it rise for 2 hours.

1/2 hour before rising time is complete set oven and 450 degrees and place the pan in for 30 minutes. I used a cast iron dutch oven greased with a dash of olive oil.

I baked the bread for 30 minutes covered and a couple minutes uncovered even though the recipe called for much longer. It was a hit at our family gathering last night and it sure did make for some good toast this morning.

Can you guess what I'm making again tonight?

In creating, the only hard part is to begin.

After discussing my recent adventures of bread making (3 failed attempts : 1 good loaf) Maine Man thought he'd give it a try. He even went as far as bringing along my bread baking book ice fishing. So he studied up....

Said "it will be easy!"

and showed me up

He hadn't proved his point enough ;)

he proceeded right on to bagel making

and you know it

he was successful

He even took this picture. Impressed?....I was!

He has since made another batch of bagels. Nothing like it!

P.S. that is homemade butter in the bowl

Bread Making in the New Year

Last year I declared to be the year of fruit. We planted apples, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and grapes. This year I proclaim to be the year of bread. I initially planned to title this post "A Year In Bread" but then remembered coming across a blog with a similar title a while back. I googled the title and sure enough... I found the blog "A Year in Bread". 3 bakers initially to post recipes for 1 year but since decided to continue to share their adventures and recipes in bread making. A good resource for newbies like me!

So with a little help from my friends I have made a few things. These pictures are from a recent first time adventure in hamburg roll making. Last year I dabbled a bit with breads: white, oatmeal, wheat, and egg bread. Mostly with a some assistance from my bread machine. Mostly for the purpose of mixing, kneading and initial rise time. Then I'd baked the bread in the oven. This year I have vowed to do without the bread machine.

Instead of the bread machine mixing and kneading the dough I use my kitchen aide.

Maine Man called these "Jesus Rolls". He said something like... "these are like the bread they made back in his time". They tasted good warm but after they cooled they hard as a rock.

MM is my biggest critic. When he says it was "this is the best .....I've ever tasted " I know darn well to save the recipe.

Instead of using the bread machine for the initial rising phase I instead use the heat from the wood stove.

I made this bread yesterday. I learned about it at Homemakers that Work. It was quick, easy, tasty, and I love the look of braided bread.

Off to bake more bread before the kids get home!

My Favorite Time of Year

The change of seasons is always a pleasure but fall is my favorite. The smells, the cool air, apple picking, the leaves changing colors and the harvest.

The next few days we will be preparing a roadside set up to sell our cornstalks and pumpkins and we will be decorating around the farm with our bounty. We will also go apple picking. I can't wait! I always dreamed of having a big barn so we could have an annual Halloween Party but now I don't have it in me. In a few years when the kids are done with trick or treating I think we will make that a tradition her at Achorn Farm.

I have a love hate relationship with these guys. I love that I feed them and they will feed us. I love that they eat all of our leftovers. I love that they have rototilled and are in the process of fertilizing us one hell of a garden. I hate the way they squeal when I go out to feed them. I hate that Obama thought my finger was a carrot and nearly drew blood. I hate that they intimidate me.

A couple weeks ago John asked me to come out and help him with the pigs. His plan was to deworm them and take the metal tags out of our 2 auction pigs ears. It ended up being quite a scene! Kind of like a kid in the ER when you restrain them but worse. They squealed so loud my neighbors must of thought we were torturing them. John was the pig wrestler and I was suppose to be playing the Vet role. Luke sat on their shelter and watched, he repeatedly said "Mom lets take pictures for your blog". I think a video would have been more appropriate and we probably could have won "Home Funniest Videos". They would have had to do a lot of bleeping though, I was not impressed! Actually, I quit farming that day too. Like I said before, I am intimidated by the pigs. The tags were difficult to get out of their ears and I was scared to put my hands too close to their mouths. I managed to get 2 of the 4 tags out and get the wormer in ...I think we will summons our neighbor next time because I am all set with pig wrestling. You had to be there to really appreciate this situation.

Can you believe it? John bought me a kitchen aid mixer for my birthday last week. Any tips for bread making with this baby are welcomed!
Late is better then never, right? This was suppose to be posted Monday. The doing not thinking challenge is hosted by Two Frog Home. I am getting 2-3 workouts in a week in (I could step it up a notch), I have yet to return to the gym. I have been eating healthier and I quit diet pepsi last week. I went through caffeine withdrawals for 3 days. I have lost 4 lbs, my goal was to loose 5 by December.

Bread Making 101

Not the best of pictures but you get the idea. Growing up and up until recently bread as I knew it was sliced and bought in a store. So I decided it was time to make an attempt at bread making. I had made bread a few times in the past with my bread machine using a special bread machine mix, I was never impressed. So I tried two methods this time and only had sucess with the above loaf. I tried a traditional white bread and the above loaf which is Oatmeal Bread. It was delicious and the whole family enjoyed. The white bread I attempted to knead myself and let rise on a cool drizzly day. You know it, it didn't rise until the next day. The oatmeal bread I cheated a little and used my bread machine for a little assistance. I first put the milk and butter in the pan then the dry goods mixed except the yeast then I made a small area in the middle of that and added the yeast and I used the "dough" cycle on the machine. It mixed, kneaded and started the rising cycle. I took it out onto an oil counter, shaped it into a loaf and let it rise for 1 - 1 1/2 in the bread pan and then cooked it in a preheated oven 350 degress for approximately 35 minutes. Viola, my first successful loaf of bread!
Here is the recipe. It was found on the back of a package of King Arthur flour.

3 cups King Arthur Unbleached bread flour
1 cup rolled oats (old-fashioned oats)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons brown sugar or honey
2 teaspoons instant yeast OR 1 packet active dry yeast
(in case you decide to cheat a bit like me)
1 1/4 cups of lukewarm milk
3/4 cup raisins or currants (optional)

(If you use active dry yeast, dissolve in the milk before combining additional ingredients)