rhienelleth | Entries tagged with bread machine

...on my vow to routinely read/post to LJ, post my layoff.

*clears throat*

Hi LJ! I've missed you. I've had several things I've thought about posting, from sprouted flour/bread, to the fantabulous birthday a friend had recently, wherein I got the treat of being spoiled right along with her (at a really real spa. A women's only spa. With scrubs, and massage, and moisturizing wraps, and these rooms that are heated and lined with things like charcoal, or salt, or jade. It was pretty much the most awesome thing ever.) I've thought about it, I've even opened a post window a few times, and something always pulls me away before I write it.

So, on the sprouted flour front - it's interesting stuff! I do think it has a slightly different flavor, all by itself, and it's expensive, so my recent breadmaking has been using 1 cup of sprouted flour to 3 cups of regular. This produces a loaf that looks, tastes, and feels like regular white bread, but 1/4th of it is this sprouted flour that has the chemical make up of a vegetable, not a starch. I think this is a compromise I can live with, health and expense-wise.

I have been working on the last of the edits for Nemesis lately. I'm so close to being done...and yet magically, it seems there is always another few chapters til the end.

I'm almost done w/S2 of Babylon 5. ( Does this really require a spoiler tag? )
Also, the husband and I have been working our way through S2 of Damages. We've decided it's like The Shield, except with lawyers, a little less sex, and a little less horror, but just as many twists, turns, excellent characters, gripping drama, and train wreckage, in its own way.

Don't get me wrong; The Shield is one of the best written, best acted, best done shows from pilot to series finale ever done. This is not a bad comparison. But I would never, ever, be tempted to re-watch it. Once was quite enough. It still has the most traumatizing finale to a season of television I have ever seen. I am watching Damages, and thinking "So, will S3 or 4 of this show be like that?" Because it feels like it totally could be.

It's an awesome show. If you like shows like...like Dexter, or Deadwood, you should pick up Damages.

I'll try to check in here more regularly. I miss all of you guys. I think about you, even when I'm not logging on, and I'm reading more often than I'm posting (which isn't hard, truthfully.)

Current Mood: contemplative

It was a fun and busy weekend. We had friends staying with us (yay!) who very graciously indulged my bread baking experiments (of course, they also got sent home with bread!) Friday night we pretty much just stayed up late talking.

Saturday, I woke up early to go and do my Dream Dinners thing. And now that I've done it once, I have more to report! ( All the hard stuff done for you! )

Our friends had not seen Avatar, and neither had another friend of ours, and Mark's parents wanted to see it in 3D, so Saturday afternoon I bought tickets, and that night we went with a group of seven. The theater was sold out. The theater was in fact SO packed, we had to park at the grocery store waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay across the way. This has NEVER happened to us before. Apparently, Avatar is still going strong! (It has grossed over $1 billion world wide! Another James Cameron "phenomenon"? I think so!) As with the first time we saw it, our theater broke out into spontaneous applause at the end.

Neytiri still rocks my socks. I think Zoe Saldana deserves an Oscar nod. But I'm afraid that even though her every facial expression and nuance of emotion comes across, the fact that she is a CGI alien for the entire movie will work against her for nominations. :(

Afterward, we again stayed up until 2:00 in the morning, talking.

Sunday was a lazy day. I made french toast out of some homemade bread (it was awesome, if I say so myself!) We had lunch at the brunch buffet a local Hungarian restaurant offers on Sundays, that is sooooooooo good. The guys played an amazing amount of xbox. I don't know how many hours, but a lot. I played some Dragon Age, while

kistha watched "for tips" as she she is also playing it at home. But even though this is my second time through, she actually ended up helping me with some stuff I missed the first time around. :) We both decided they REALLY need to make an RPG wherein a friend can come in to your campaign at any time and play one of your party NPCs. But we consulted her husband the game designer, and if I'm recalling correctly, such an endeavor would require a certain degree of difficulty on the part of game design...but I could be wrong. I was playing when she talked to him, and only heard about half the conversation from the other room.

There was supposed to be actual tabletop roleplay happening, but zombies kidnapped our husbands for several hours, and we never got around to it. Sad. (However, apparently Left 4 Dead 2 is an engrossing game. Just FYI.)

Either way, fun was had by all, and I shall be seeing them again this weekend, when I will be trekking up north to work on Norweson costuming. :D

I have, I think, achieved the perfect bread recipe for just about anything. Sandwich bread. Hot dog buns. Hoagie rolls. Cinnamon rolls that aren't too sweet. Until the sprouted flour comes in, this is what I'm currently doing:

~ 1 1/3 C lukewarm water
~ 2 C all-purpose unbleached flour
~ 2 C white whole wheat flour (KAF, carried at my local Safeway, FYI)
~ 3 T raw honey
~ 1 T vegetable oil
~ 2 T shortening
~ 2 tsp ground kosher salt
~ 2 1/4 tsp bread machine yeast (but I have some SAF on the way w/the sprouted flour)

In bread machine:

Water, honey, oil, shortening. On top of this add, flour, then salt, then make a little well in the flour and add yeast. Turn on and watch as it mixes. Add water or more flour as necessary, until all ingredients are a slightly tacky, but not sticky, and not dry ball moving around the pan. Close lid and walk away until done.

It rises like nobody's business, and produces soft, fluffy, excellent bread/rolls/what have you, that even my extremely picky husband can't complain about. It makes excellent sandwiches or french toast. It is about 10,000 times healthier and better than storebought bread, both for the whole wheat factor, and the lack of chemicals. No cane sugar, hfcs, or milk products for those sensitive. If you just do the dough cycle, you can take it out and make two regular sized (ie, my banana bread loaf pans) loaves for sandwiches and what have you. I sent one home w/friends, and kept the other.

Current Mood: awake

As promised, last night I made homemade hot dog buns.

I will seriously never buy hot dog buns at the store again, if I have a choice. These turned out a little too full, more like hoagie buns, but that's just the learning curve of shaping dough. The recipe was awesomesauce, and for the first time ever, the actual measurements made perfect dough, without me needing to add either flour or water to adjust. I used the dough cycle in my bread machine, and it rose so high, it touched the viewing window in my machine. When it was done, I punched it down, took it out, and shaped it into "buns". The advice I found online suggested rolls of dough about five inches long and two inches wide for standard hot dog buns. These ended up a little too wide for my tastes, as I said, but were the perfect length for the kosher dogs we buy. You can obviously customize as you see fit. I divided the dough into eight equal portions, but next time I'll probably make ten or so. I think that will lessen the amount of dough in each "bun" enough so that when I roll the pieces into five inch long cylinders, they don't poof out quite so far.

For those wondering how much actual time this process took, well. Maybe ten minutes when I first got home, to put all the ingredients in the machine, and let it mix, keeping an eye on it for how everything was shaping up, if I needed to adjust for water or flour. Then, it was close the lid and walk away for na hour and a half, while it did it's thing.

( Here is an action shot of the dough kneading in my machine! )
Then, after that hour and a half, it took me probably....fifteen minutes, tops, to punch down the dough, divide it, and shape it, placing each roll on my stoneware about an inch apart in all directions. I had to let the buns rise at that point, and that was another thirty minutes, but again, I just walked away. After they achieved "bun size" I put them in the oven for 15-20 min at 375 F, and lo, there were buns!

( Golden fresh rolls/buns! )

It was delicious! Took hot dogs, and made them a great tasting meal, instead of something just quick. I cannot WAIT to try hamburgers!

I think next time, I'll try the timer on my machine. Put all the ingredients in the morning, and then set it to start about an hour and a half before I get home. That means all I'll need to do is shape the dough, let it rise for the second time, and pop them in the oven. Less than an hour before they're done!

( Here is the recipe I used. )

I will always be replacing sugar in these recipes with honey. One, it's a more natural sweetener (not treated with chemicals, or whatever). Two, honey has all kinds of neat properties, including being a natural preservative, so perhaps it will help keep the bread from molding/going bad as quickly. And you literally cannot taste any difference, IMO. I've made bread both ways back to back. Tip: to make honey slide off your measuring spoon more easily, coat it with oil first.

I have also ordered some of that sprout whole wheat white flour from a farm, along with some natural dough enhancers that help make whole wheat have a consistancy closer to all-purpose bread. :D It should arrive sometime next week, and then I'll have so much more to report!

I used one of the leftover "buns" to make my sandwich today. Mmmmm. Hoagie rolls just might become my default sandwich bread, instead of the loaves. We'll see.

Current Mood: awake

This is totally going to be like that time I went looking to make home espresso, and ended up knowing way more than I ever bargained for about coffee, and how to make quality coffee, and now I do crazy stuff like roast my own beans.

Does anyone know anything about sprouted wheat? It's very interesting! See, first I got all intrigued by white whole wheat. I assumed it was just whole wheat flour treated to look white. Silly me! No, there are many varieties of wheat. The whole wheat flour we all see in the stores is merely one kind, and each kind offers different taste and baking properties.

Hard White Wheat is the newest type of wheat grown in the US. It offers the same nutritional content of Hard Red Spring Wheat (used mainly for breads), but is white, and has a milder, sweeter flavor than the red, meaning my husband will have no idea he's eating something good for him!

But then there's one step further - sprouted wheat. Sprouted wheat is wheat allowed to sprout, then washed and dried, before being ground into flour. This also comes in a white variety, and the very best part?? The sprouting changes its make up from a starch, into a vegetable! From what I'm reading, this is probably how people actually used wheat berries in the days of yore, when bread was a vital part of the food supply in most cultures. This excites me so much, not just for my health, but for my hypoglycemic husband. Maybe I won't use 100% sprouted flour, but can you imagine eating a bread that is essentially a vegetable?? But it still tastes and acts like bread? I have placed a phone call to one of the milling farms that produces this stuff. The downside - it is expensive. The upside - the health benefits are obvious and immediate.

HOWEVER, it can be pennies on the dollar if you make it yourself! I can see my husband's face now. "You're doing what? Making your own flour??"

It hasn't gotten to that point yet, but it just might. We have a coop in Corvallis. Perhaps I'll just go take a look and see if they carry White Wheat Berries.

Current Mood: intrigued

I need a new icon, clearly. "Cooking" is not quite the same as "baking".

I'm sure by now, most of you are familiar with my tendency toward obsessing over shiny! new! things!

Anyway, as promised, I made the KAF white sandwich bread recipe last night. It calls for a couple of different ingredients from most of the basic white bread recipes out there, namely, instant potato flakes and instant nonfat milk, neither of which have I ever used in baking before. But I followed the recipe exactly for this first attempt.

And lo, there was bread. I took pictures, but then I forgot my camera at home. So you'll have to be content with this hasty cell phone pic of my lunch: ( Cut for pic! )

Yes, I know seeing how I prefer my sandwiches (turkey with cheddar and stone ground mustard) is not nearly as exciting as seeing the actual loaf of bread. But at least in this shot, you can see how it looks like actual sandwich bread, all forming to the shape of the sandwich and with lots of little air holes everywhere. But don't be deceived! This bread, while soft and a little fluffy, is nothing like the stuff you buy in the store!

How it compares to yesterday's bread: this stuff didn't rise quite as much. I'm not sure if that's because I forgot to take out the kneading paddle, and had to do it about five or ten minutes into the third rise, though. Despite that, yesterday's bread was MUCH more dense, not sandwich-like at all. It still tasted good on my sandwich, but it had much less bendability than the KAF loaf does. I can almost imagine wrapping a slice of KAF around a hot dog...almost. Also, it cut much easier and smoother than yesterday's. I did not have to struggle to make the slices even!

I made my husband french toast with a slice this morning, so he could try it. I usually make him two - well, this stuff was so heavy compared the the Wonder bread he usually prefers, I made him one, and then he only ate half of it (not the fault of the bread - he has some bug or other, and is not eating as he normally does at the moment.) Curious, I followed up with a piece for me. (Mmmmmmm - delicious!) One slice, as thin as those you see in the photo, and I am FULL. Like, my stomach feels...like I won't be hungry for hours. If yesterday is any indication, I'll actually start to get hungry right on schedule at lunch time. My point is, this bread is not air, like the store bought stuff. Although not super dense, this particular loaf is still much, MUCH heavier than store bought, and when you eat it, you actually feel like you are eating something of substance!

I can actually understand why carbs are supposed to make up a healthy portion of our diet, while eating homemade bread. I have to admit, though, I am a little concerned that all of this experimenting to get what I want will lead to so much bread eating, my attempts at losing weight will be hampered. Is there a big difference between eating homemade and eating storebought in that regard? Or are all the health benefits of homemade simply the last of icky chemicals?

I don't know if this is going to be my "go to" sandwich bread recipe, or not. I'd prefer to find something that didn't require either the milk, or the potato flakes. I've read you can sub some oil for the dry milk, but as the recipe already calls for six tablespoons of butter(!!), I'm loathe to do that. I'm going to go looking again today, and see what comes up. If I get home early enough, I'd like to try making homemade hotdog buns tonight. Words cannot even describe how much that might change the simple hot dog dinner to a gourmet nirvana! (I only use kosher dogs, fyi. I grew up on a farm. When someone describes what goes into other hot dogs, I know far too much to banish the visual.)

So, my adventure continues!

Oh, and mysteriously, my pan lifted right out of the bread maker when I tried it immediately after the bread finished. Perhaps this is what is supposed to happen? IDK. I still want my pan to lift out easily whenever I need it to, ie, after a dough cycle, perhaps. I'll keep trying it for the rest of the week, and see how it goes. But I'll also keep my receipt in reserve.

Current Mood: accomplished

I am totally trying this white sandwich bread recipe from KAF tonight. KAF has never steered me wrong before!

I'm not entirely pleased with the amount of butter the recipe calls for, and it would be nice to have a milk-free version, as there are a couple of people in my life currently who can't have milk. But I'll try the recipe as is first, and make alterations as necessary from there. The good news is, the husband can totally have the recipe as written, and the real goal here is to find a replacement he'll accept for that icky white store bread he insists on eating.

Mr. Fast Metabolism won't be hurt by a couple T of butter. Heck, I can only imagine what he's putting in his body now, with the stuff from the store.

Current Mood: busy

So, with some of the gift money I got for Christmas, I purchased a bread machine last night. This one, in fact.

I was of two minds about it. One, I come from a family of bakers and chefs. My sister worked for several years as a bread baker, and my Mom is a pastry chef, and both are trained for full on chef-dom, or whatever. In my family, when one acquires some neat kitchen gadget supposedly designed very specifically for one thing to make [insert here] a little easier, the invariable response is "[insert here] isn't that hard- why do you need some bulky machine to do that? You have a mixer. You have an oven." And so on.

I work full time. I also write in my free time, sew, and make jewelry in my other free time. And grocery shop, clean house, cook, do laundry and all of the other little things one does on a semi-daily basis in life. I love cooking. I come by it naturally. :) But I don't love it when I'm tired, or don't have time. But give me a few days off in a row, and I'm making homemade ravioli, or planning some baked thing I've never made before.

I've been waffling about a bread machine, on and off, for years. Mostly off, though, largely due to all of the above. Is it really that much easier than making it yourself? I mean, the time consuming part of bread is waiting for the dough to rise twice. You have to do that, whether it's in a bowl on your counter, or a bread machine on your counter.

But in the last year or so, I've suddenly developed a huge interest in homemade staples. For instance, canning fruit and making my own jams. (Next year, I plan on getting into vegetables.) As I've become more conscious of what goes into my body, these things have appealed to me all the more. And as gas became more expensive these past few years, and then the economy has slid, the price of groceries has gone up...and up. $4 for a loaf of bread?? $3 for a loaf of crappy Wonder bread like my husband prefers?? Really?

The idea of a bread machine had started to become more "on" than "off". I've always made homemade rolls for family gatherings. The husband's family loves this, as they are not bakers. The first year I brought some to Thanksgiving sealed my fate. But the idea of baking bread every week is daunting, and so I decided to take the plunge. (Sadly, I did not think of this before Christmas, when it could have gone on my Christmas list.)

Fred Meyer had the Breadman TR 875 on sale for $79.99, and since it was one of the two machines I was considering from amazon, and on sale for less, I went ahead and bought it. I got it home, unpacked it, and put it through an initial cycle for cleaning, as the manual recommended. Then I tried a basic white bread recipe, subbing the sugar for honey.

( The results )

Current Mood: accomplished

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I have totally failed
Weekend!
Hot dogs and hoagie rolls!
*blinks from long hours spent reading on the internets*
Bread making, Day 2
Well, that loaf went fast - time for more!
Bread!

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Duchess of Evil

Entries tagged with bread machine

I have totally failed

Weekend!

Hot dogs and hoagie rolls!

blinks from long hours spent reading on the internets

Bread making, Day 2

Well, that loaf went fast - time for more!

Bread!