Honey Wheat Bread

Freshly baked bread. It is possibly my favorite smell and taste. The aroma wafts throughout the whole house and envelopes you in an yummy hug. The taste is comforting and soothing, especially with a bit of butter melting from the heat of the oven. I actually rate restaurants based on their bread: the availability, the origin (did they make it in house, or did they buy it from an actual bakery, or did they buy it from the grocery store?), the freshness, the accompaniment, if it is hot, and of course the flavor. I am very picky about bread, and I honestly will not go back to a restaurant if I did not care for the bread. In my mind, if you did not like your meal, you can always order something different the next time. The bread, however, will always stay the same.

Sometimes...I wish I was Shafer...not a care in the world!

Now that I have confessed my obsession with bread, I must say that I have fallen into a bit of a rut with my bread variety at home. I have already shared my Honey White Bread, my favorite bread recipe and one that I make about once a week so that we can use it for all sorts of different meals. As I said in an earlier post, Bunker and I are branching out a bit as far as our eating habits go, and this includes adding more whole wheat. What better way to do this, and break out of my honey white bread rut, then with a tasty new wheat bread recipe?  I hope you enjoy this richer version of my favorite everyday bread, Honey Wheat Bread.

 Cort at her look-out post at our house in North Carolina. 

Cort with her cousins, George and Henry, at their look-out post at Jeanie and Andy's!

Shafer at her look-out post in Dallas. Overseeing her kingdom...the backyard!

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Ingredients:
2 cups of warm water
2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon of active dry yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
1/3 of a cup of honey
1/3 of a cup of olive oil
3 1/2 to 4 cups of all purpose flour

Steps:
1. Gather all of your ingredients. Here is a hint: measure out your olive oil in the measuring cup before you measure out the honey. The olive oil will keep the honey from sticking!

2. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

3. Add the honey to the yeast and water and stir to combine.

4. Add the whole wheat flour, the salt, and the olive oil to the yeast mixture. Stir to combine.

5. Gradually add the all purpose flour. Add until the dough is no longer sticky but not tough. I added almost 4 cups.

6. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. You want an smooth and elastic dough.

7. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm and draft free place for about an hour.

8. Remove the dough from the bowl and split into two pieces.

9. Place each piece in a lightly oiled loaf pans. Cover and let rise in a warm and draft free place for about an hour, or until almost doubled in size.

10. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes. You want the bread to have a hollow sound when you tap on the top.

Peach and Brie Quesadillas with Lime-Honey Sauce

Tonight was book club night with a group of wonderful girls. I love book clubs. Based on the book clubs that I have been a part of in my life, it seems that the main focus of a book club is about gathering together to chat, and the book is often way down on the list of topics brought to the table! Our book this evening was Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson. Although a page turner towards the end, we had a consensus that it was a bit too intense and heavy. Next month we plan for lighter book reading fare!

Hi Shafer!

The dinner was focused on light Mexican, and therefore, I thought it would be fun to offer a sweet play on the classic Quesadilla! This recipe is from Cooking Light, and I held rather true to the original recipe, but I doubled the amounts to accommodate for 10 diners.

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Ingredients for the Lime-Honey Sauce:
4 tablespoons of honey
4 teaspoons of fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons of grated lime rind

Ingredients for the Quesadillas:
2 cups of fresh peaches, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh chives
2 teaspoons of brown sugar
6 ounces of Brie cheese, thinly sliced
5 large flour tortillas
Olive oil for coating the pan

Steps for Sauce:
1. Combine the honey, lime juice and grated lime rind and whisk together.

2. Set aside.

Steps for Quesadillas:
1. Combine the sliced peaches, chives and brown sugar in a large bowl and toss gently to combine.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and allow the sprinkling of olive oil to flow across the pan.

3. Add one large tortilla to the pan.

4. Spread the sliced brie and peaches evenly across on half of the tortilla.

5. Fold over the other half of the tortilla onto the side with all the brie and peaches, like a sandwich on one piece of bread. It should look like a pita.

6. After about 30 seconds to 1 minutes, carefully flip over the quesadilla so that you can brown the other side. Be careful not to loose the peaches and brie as you flip!

7. Cook for another minute, until the tortilla is crisp and slightly browned.
8. Transfer to a board and slice into small pieces.

9. Serve with the sauce and enjoy with friends!

Super excited when I came home tonight!

Pompe a L'huile (Olive Oil Bread from France)

Bunker and I just enjoyed the most delicious and peaceful dinner on our back porch. Granted...we just finished eating and it is after 10 p.m. I am not what you would call gifted in the time management department when it comes to cooking. However, this dinner was more than worth the wait. Bunker grilled the chicken on the outdoor grill, and I made hand-made pasta with a fresh tomato sauce and this olive oil bread. I will post the pasta dish on Monday!

I found the recipe for this bread, which hearkens from Provence, in The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook. It is a golden round disk of slightly sweet and incredibly delicate bread, a true treat. Of course, I have made some changes, so below you will find exactly what I did rather than the original recipe.

Have you ever been to Provence? You really must go at some point. It is a breath of fresh air and a step back in time. The sun shines brighter, the food tastes fresher, time slows down, the wine shimmers and the air sparkles. Here are some pictures from my trip to Provence with my parents five summers ago!

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Ingredients:
3 to 4 cups of all-purpose flour (I increased the original 2 cups to about 4 cups due to my using honey rather than sugar...therefore I had a much moister dough than I would have if I had used the sugar)
1/4 cup of warm milk
1 1/4 ounce envelope of active dry yeast (mine was rapid rise...which shortens the waiting period)
5 tablespoons of Honey (the original recipe called for sugar)
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon of salt (the original recipe calls for only 1/2 teaspoon of salt)
1/2 cup of extra-virgin olive oil
(I omitted the 1 tablespoon of orange-flower water and the 2 tablespoons of grated orange zest....I just didn't have either and I honestly just don't care for orange flavors)

Steps:
1. Put 2 cups of flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center of the flour.

2. Pour the 1/4 cup of warm milk into the center of the flour well.

3. Sprinkle the yeast on top of the milk in the center of the flour well.

4. Set this aside for about 5 minutes so that the yeast can absorb some of the liquid.
5. Add a Tablespoon of the honey to the yeast and milk.

6. Sprinkle some of the flour from the bowl on top of the yeast, milk and honey until it is completely covered with a thin layer of flour.

7. Set this bowl aside for about 30 minutes to let the yeast begin to work.
8. While you wait for the yeast to develop, you can work on the rest of the components for the bread.

(This is what the flour an yeast should look like after 30 minutes, it will be slightly poofy in the well.)

9. In a separate bowl combine 2 eggs, 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt.

10. Beat this mixture until it becomes foamy. I used the old fashioned method, a fork and my own muscle power. It took about 10 minutes off and on.

11. After you achieve this foamy consistency, add in the 1/2 cup of olive oil (and the orange-flower water and orange zest if you choose to include these components) and beat for about 5 minutes.

12. Add the egg and olive oil mixture into the flour bowl.

13. Slowly integrate the flour from the edges of the bowl into the well and then begin to mix the dough with a wooden spoon and then with your hands.

14. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and add the remaining one cup to two cups of flour as you knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Kneading dough develops the gluten, essential for the dough to rise and for the texture of the bread to develop correctly. Also, kneading dough is an incredibly therapeutics process.

15. Grease a bowl with a tiny amount of olive oil and place the kneaded dough into the bowl.

16. Cover this bowl with a tea cloth and set aside in a warm place for about an hour.
17. After this hour, punch down the dough and place it in a lightly oiled round cake pan.

18. Cover the dough again and let it rise for another hour in a warm place.
19. The dough should be doubled in size. Using a very sharp knife cut a design of your choice into the top of the dough. Mine was boring, you can be more creative.

20. Beat the third egg together with a teaspoon of water.

21. Cover the dough in a thin layer of this beaten egg, you will only use about half of the egg.

22. Bake the dough in a 375 degree oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, mine took 25 minutes. It should be golden brown with a glossy sheen.

PS for the day...

Have you wondered what bowls I use for prep work and such? Probably not...but I will share with you what they are anyways!

So these were wedding gifts for my parents wedding in the 70s! I love them, not only because they are perfectly sized, or that they display my favorite color combination (blue and white), but mostly because they belonged to my mom and she gave them to me. Granted, she lives about 4 blocks away from me, but there is just something so comforting about using something of hers on a daily basis. Something to think about. Take a moment today and look around your house...is there something that you use everyday that seems to be meaningless? I bet you can find at least one thing that seems like just a thing, but really carries a lot of meaning due to its attachment or association with someone you love!

The pups say hi!