The Art of Breadmaking

Recently, life has been pretty stressful and I have been drawn to baking bread. It's funny, I've always thought that bread was just too difficult and my life was too busy to spend hours baking bread. But what I've come to realize is that the act of baking bread has been teaching me two things: the art of patience and the joy of completing a task from start to finish.

As the holiday season approaches, a time of peace and worship for many, we all seem to get to wrapped up in the jam-packed schedules, parties, travel, baking, shopping, etc. and since dealing with a very stressful situation over Thanksgiving, I have found that baking bread helps me slow down. In fact, that darn yeast makes me! You simply cannot rush yeast-it will rise when it wants to and it will sit still when the temperature of your kitchen doesn't satisfy itself. It also helps me bond with my three year-old who loves to help bake, but is more interested in dusting herself with flour.

But back to the bread. I have baked four loaves of bread this past week. All honey whole wheat and I'm not sure I will ever eat store-bought bread again. For about $10.00, I bought enough ingredients for 8 loaves of bread, and I know I will have some left over.

The proven, tried and true recipe that always works for me is the one on the back of the Whole Wheat Gold Medal Flour  bag. It takes a little over three hours, the house smells wonderful. There is such a wonderful feeling that comes from baking break, I hope you all will take some time this holiday season to slow down, and bake some bread.


Old-Fashioned Honey-Whole Wheat Bread   


Prep Time

35Minutes

Total Time  3 hours 10 min

Makes

2loaves

 

3

cups whole wheat flour                                        

1/3

cup honey

1/4

cup butter

3 teaspoons salt

2

packages regular or quick active dry yeast

2 1/4

cups very warm water (120°F to 130°F)

  3to 4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

Butter or margarine, melted, if desired

 

1. Mix whole wheat flour, honey, shortening, salt and yeast in large bowl. Add warm water. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough all-purpose flour, 1 cup at a time, to make dough easy to handle.
2. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl and turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place 40 to 60 minutes or until double. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.
3. Grease bottoms and sides of 2 loaf pans, 9x5x3 or 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2 inches.
4. Punch down dough and divide in half. Flatten each half with hands or rolling pin into rectangle, 18x9 inches, on lightly floured surface. Roll dough up tightly, beginning at 9-inch side, to form a loaf. Press with thumbs to seal after each turn. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal. Press each end with side of hand to seal. Fold ends under loaf. Place seam side down in pan. Brush loaves lightly with butter. Cover and let rise in warm place 35 to 50 minutes or until double.
5. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 375°F.
6. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until loaves are deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans to wire rack. Brush loaves with butter; cool.

Makes 2 loaves (16 slices each)

Bake Sale Season!

It's almost summer! The end of the school year is always a busy one for us moms and teachers. It always seems like there is somewhere to go, something to do or something to bake! Recently, our church held an end of the year bakesale and I thought I'd share some ideas. Moms, there is no doubt in my mind that there will be a bake sale in your future so here are some time-saving tips and creative ideas for you!

Idea #1-Buy the dough in bulk from your kids sport's team/scout group or whomever is selling the massive boxes of cookie dough! They are delicious and easy and you will always have something to whip up that tastes fantastic. Plus, they usually sell fancy dough like white chocolate macadamia.
If you don't have kids knocking you down to buy cookie dough or there isn't a fundraiser in your area, try
http://www.davidscookies.com/ -where you can buy the dough in tubs or preformed in cookies with many gourmet flavors that are bound to impress! ( I don't have any connection to this company only that I have used them in the past.)

Idea #2-Brownies or Chocolate cookie dough baked-like-brownies always cuts nicely and can be arranged in bags tied with festive bows. In my experience-since these are pretty traditional they tend to sell well.

Idea #3-Bake your own sugar cookies with shapes/colors for the season, holiday, or event. You could really go crazy with this idea. You could buy cookie cutter letters (I got mine at Michael's) and use the letters of the school, sport, etc. For my recent church bake sale, I went with a spring theme and dyed the dough the spring colors and used flower and butterfly cut-outs and tied with spring ribbon.

Below-you will find my sugar cookie recipe that I have revamped over the years. This recipe is flavorful and the cookies always poof up nicely-not too much and not too little. :) Enjoy!

Recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon zest

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in  flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least 2 hours (or overnight-THIS IS BEST).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Yield= 4 dozen. (approx. on size of cookie cutters-you can also just roll the dough and slice it, then bake. Bake @ 450 degrees then cool. Decorate as desired. To decorate quickly-you can brush the cut out cookie dough with an egg white wash and add sprinkles. (as I did in the pictures)

To finish them off, ensure they sell well and they are preserved well I put them in plastic sandwhich bags and tied with a ribbon. (You could use cellophane...but come on...we are busy mom's and we always have sandwich bags in the house, right?)

Happy Baking!
Jennifer

There are Fireflies in Texas

I am a newcomer to the Lone Star state. My husband and I relocated here because the job market was stronger than Southern California within the field of education. We drove for three days with our daughter, dog and all of our belongings to start a new life. After our long journey across the Southwest, we arrived to our new home in McKinney, Texas. It is here in Texas where my blog begins, although some of the lesson plans and activities I will  share have been used in sunny Southern California.

As a Southern California native, there are many differences that take getting used to in the state of Texas. The ever-changing weather, the vast, wide open plains, the use of the words "fixin" and "y'all" and perhaps the most pleasant of all are the light bugs. Yes, there are fireflies in Texas and on hot spring nights such as this one (where we are still pushing 80 degrees) I hardly have to have my window open to hear the soothing drumming of the crickets, the grass lightly crunching under the bunnies feet as they hop through my yard, and the little glimpses of light as they freckle the black night.

I keep looking at them; they come and go, like my thoughts in this blog perhaps. But it is in this web space that I hope you join me as I share my creative juices as they come and go, like fireflies. Feel free to use them or keep them moving along for someone else to enjoy.

Lights out!

Jennifer