Another Morning Baking tip

My voice is sloooowly returning from it's sabbatical (probably from someplace warm with sun and sand). I have a sinus infection.

Thanks for all of your comments about my tip. I have another today. I'm making another loaf of bread. I grew up with my Mom kneading and baking bread all the time. When I was a teenager, she switched over to a bread machine. Somewhere along the line Mom decided to let the bread maching do all the kneading and raising, then she would shape the dough and put it in a bread pan and into the oven.

When I moved into my first place (a dumpy trailer), my aunt and uncle gifted me with my first bread machine. It served me many years. I used it so much, I finally wore out it's bearings. Mom bought me my second bread machine a couple years ago, a Zojirushi. Now the Zojirushi will bake up a fine loaf of bread, no meddling needed. But I still enjoy taking the dough out after it's done kneading and raising, and shaping it myself, putting it into the loaf pan of my choice. Wal-la! Fresh baked bread.

I created this recipe when I was sleepy once and added too much water. I caught the mistake before I started kneading, and added a few extra ingredients.

Lydee's Honey Wheat Bread:

Put in bread machine in the following order:

1 1/2 C of warm water
2 Tablespoons vegatable oil
2 Tablespoons of sugar
2 Tablespoons of Honey
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
4 Cups of Flour (I use 3 C of white and 1 C of wheat, but you can use any combination)
2 1/4 teaspoons of instant yeast, or 1 pkg of dry active

Allow bread machine to knead dough, check after 10 minutes to make sure it's mixing properly and to check flour/water proportions (if it's too sticky, all a little more flour. If it's too dry, add water by the Tablespoon)

Allow the bread to raise in the machine or in a greased and covered bowl. Raise for 1 hour, punch down, and raise for an additional 30 minutes.

Grease a bread pan to your liking (I like to spray oil in with my Misto and then sprinkle with cornmeal)

Remove dough from bowl onto floured surface. Knead a couple of times and shape the dough. I pat mine into a rectangle and roll up the dough, and or fold into thirds. Pinch the bottom and place bottom down into prepared bread pan. Allow to raise 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Heat oven to 375 degress (F). Slash top of dough 3 or 4 times with a sharp knife just before placing in the oven.

Bake for 35-45 minutes. Check bread after 20 minutes to see how brown the top is. If it's turning too brown, cover with foil for the remainder of the time in the oven.

Check to see if bread is done. I use an instant thermometer. When the temperature reads 190 degrees (F), it's done.

Remove bread from pan after 5 minutes, allow to cool before slicing. Enjoy!

Saturday Morning Useless tip

Today is a good day for baking bread. It's cold, and spitting snow. And, I'm hungry.

Now, useless tip: Nothing is better on fresh baked bread than real butter. But, I hate how real butter is cold and hard to spread. And leaving it out on the counter for a few days gives it that off rancid taste that I despise. So a few months ago I succomb to buying the Land O Lakes spreadable butter. Mmm, tastes just like regular butter. Easier to spread. It cost an arm and leg though.

I look at the ingredients, butter, canola oil. Well, I have canola oil, and I have a stick of butter...I soften the butter, add 2 T of canola oil, blend well with a fork until the lumps disappear, scrape into the leftover spreadable butter container, and presto! Spreadable butter, just like the stuff from Land O Lakes. And it tastes like real butter, no off tastes! That's all I use now for toast and fresh bread.

Second tip (two for the price of one!): I use real butter when I bake. However I bake in spurts, and will go ages before I bake again. So my butter will go unused in the fridge for awhile. A few years ago, I opened up one of those sticks that had been in the fridge for awhile and spread it on my toast. Ugh! Gross rancid butter. That is one of the worst tastes ever. I began to store my butter in the freezer instead of the fridge. (I store the sticks in the freezer, not the spreadable butter. That stays in my fridge.) I buy my butter cheap by the pound, either at Sam's Club (4 lbs, all in sticks) or Walmart. When I need to use it, I'll soften it on the counter or in the microwave. I have stored butter in the freezer (for a few months at a time) until needed and never had a rancid stick again.

Frozen butter is great also if you are making a pastry such as pie crust, or biscuits. Simply use a box grater and grate the amount needed into your flour mixture. No need to cut into the flour, just mix until it resembles lumpy sand. Add your liquids and you're good to go.