Pesto Bread - A Taste of Summer

After taking a break for the past two bread braids with the Healthy Bread in Five group, I jumped back on the wagon with Pesto Bread. Not having any pesto in the freezer, I went looking for a small jar at the grocery store. The bread was not as green as I imagined it would be, and I did not taste a difference in using the spelt flour (from King Arthur's catalog). I did not use the pine nuts in the recipe, because I didn't think they would go over well with the eaters in the house (myself included).

I mixed the half recipe up on Saturday, and baked the loaves on Monday. I am finding that I really like the tang and flavor that I get with a somewhat rested dough compared to a fresh batch. I served the bread with homemade spaghetti sauce Tuesday, and with local butter it was a definite hit! This will definitely be a keeper recipe, especially in the summer with fresh basil!

Apple Strudel, Hamburger Buns, and More!

The Healthy Bread in Five Group's next task was to make the 100% Whole Wheat Loaf and some variations. This was the very first recipe I made from the book when I got it in November, so I wanted to focus on the variations for this round. Knowing that my Pain de Mie pan uses 3/4 of a batch of dough, I planned on making the full recipe, but would make more hamburger buns to keep on hand in the freezer. I love "Everything Bagel" topping on hamburger buns to accompany a nice bowl of Black Bean Chili!
I was really impressed with the Apple Strudel Bread - knowing how hearty this loaf is, I didn't expect it to be like an Apple Strudel pastry. I used gala apples, raisins, and crystallized ginger chips. I would have liked to use nuts, but I was taking it into work and there are some serious nut allergies at my school. Even without the nuts, this was a great loaf! I loved the crunch of the demerara sugar on top. While I was chopping the apples, I only used two apples for the loaf, as it seemed like a lot of fruit to fill a pan. I loved the rise of the bread and didn't have any "wet spots" to contend with. No picture of the beautiful inside of this loaf - it was devoured at work!


Since I had also made the Hamburger Buns before, I wanted to try some new toppings. I used the "Everything Bagel" topping from King Arthur to great success.

HBinFive - Master Recipe

Over the holidays I tried to be ahead of the game - after all, the recipe isn't due until the 15th of January! However, between visits and holiday get togethers, I didn't get all three recipes completed - I only got the baguette and epi finished. I definitely will be trying the crackers at a later date, but time slipped away and it just never got done for this post! I enjoyed making the baguette, and enjoyed it with my lunch for a few days. My epi looked more like a bear claw, not so much a stalk of wheat, but it tasted great nonetheless! Instead of using white whole wheat, I used King Arthur Whole Wheat, and we enjoyed the taste - it wasn't too overpowering!

Challah With Dried Cranberries and Orange Zest

This is my first contribution to the Healthy Bread in Five Group, led by Michelle. I ran out of time in November to make the first Bread Braid. This braid seemed right up my alley - the dried cranberries and orange zest just seemed to sing out "holidays" to me! I mixed up half a batch of the dough, using King Arthur White Whole Wheat and King Arthur All Purpose flour. I did use the wheat germ (although mine was toasted), and I accidentally added the full amount of orange zest from the basic recipe. I allowed the dough to refrigerate for three days before heading back to my braid. I made two small braids from the batch, and sprinkled each loaf with raw sugar before baking. Since I was trying to save myself time, I baked both loaves in the oven, but it took a little longer to finish up the baking, so I baked them for about 40-45 minutes. Even with the added orange zest, I found that the flavor did not really come through (perhaps because I used dried zest reconstituted with orange juice...). The bread was delicious! I think the next time I make this, I will make it into mini-loaves for sharing with others, and I think it would also make a good sandwich bread for leftover turkey... :) Thanks Jeff for a great recipe! I can't wait to see what everyone made, and to start the book in January!

100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I have joined the Healthy Bread in 5 group, and this is my first post related to that! The group actually doesn't start baking from the book until January, but I have already made the basic boule recipe once and this recipe twice. I got myself a 13" Pullman pan (from King Arthur's catalog), because I wanted to make "sandwich" bread. My three year old wouldn't really eat sandwich bread if it wasn't shaped like a sandwich bread from those plastic bags! I followed the directions for the batch from the book, then after the first rise, took about 3/4 of the dough and placed it into the greased Pullman pan. I allowed it to rise again, then baked it for 45 minutes. As a note, when I did this two weeks ago, I was using cold dough from a 24 rest in the fridge - even with a 90 minute warm up time in my kitchen, it still took over an hour for the dough to cook to 190 degrees - I really didn't want a gummy loaf! I will definitely try this again with a cold dough, and maybe allow it more time to "warm up" - this is such a winner of a recipe that I haven't branched out to other recipes from the book!

Long time gone... THING #10

It's been a busy summer, and life got in the way of working on these 23 Things! Then school started, and now that I have my groove with that, I feel it's time to get cracking on the rest of this list! The image generator is a LOT of fun - I made a Monopoly card that said "Get out of paying overdue library fines" - like the Get out of jail Free cards you can pick up. Lots of fun! I can definitely see ideas like this to use in my library. Sometimes I don't have the time or the $$ to get things from Upstart, but I could certainly do it on my own with something like this!

Task #8 and #9 - RSS Feeds

I really like the idea of an RSS feed - I do not know why I haven't joined this sooner! I have been an avid blog reader for a number of years, and instead of checking bookmarks, I can simply go to my GoogleReader and just READ WHAT'S NEW!!! What a concept! I don't think I would like to do a feed for things that get updated every hour, but for general library/knitting/craft/cooking blogs, I am totally sold on this idea! I found a number of library review blogs at the end of the school year, which I added to my RSS Feed, and they have helped me with title selection for my 2 libraries. Just having some new titles to check out and read this summer has been wonderful!