Breadmaking 101

Hi!

I am going to document breadmaking for you. I’ve made bread for my family for seventeen years, and I keep learning. You can do it the old fashioned way, with your hands (especially great if you’re angry and want to work off a little steam) or if you have a mixer, you can whip up a batch in about 20 minutes. Most people’s eyes glaze over when I start talking about bread, then they snap to attention and start telling me how amazing I am. But the truth is, anyone can make bread. You just have to know a few things. Once you do, you can start bringing loaves to pot lucks or gatherings and everyone will think you are a domestic goddess. Small “g.”

So lets start. Here is my recipe:

2c. milk, see picture

2c water, cold

8-12 c. flour- mix & match. I am going to grind my own partially, I’ll show you how. But you can mix any kinds you like- wheat, rye, buckwheat, whatever.

1/2 c. oil – any kind, or butter if you like

2 1/2 TBSP yeast, see picture

1/2 c. honey – or brown sugar, or molasses. Any sweetener

1 heaping TBSP salt, see picture

Our favorite milk- non homogenized, yet pastuerized. Homogenization makes it harder for your body to digest milk.

Saf-Instant yeast. I love it because you don't have to let it react before using; just dump it in.

Kosher salt- because Alton says so.

I love this flour! It's white flour with the germ left in- so "gold 'n white" - healthier than stripped and bleached white flours.

 

These are just a few of my favorite ingredients. I try to stay as close to the earth, so to speak, as possible. The less something is stripped or bleached or colored or shaken, the better. Anything you have in your kitchen will work, but be sure to at least buy bread flour- white flours just don’t have enough gluten in them to rise successfully.  If you can’t buy bread flour, add a couple tablespoons of gluten to help it out.

Now we’re going to grind our grain. I buy my grain from my local food co-op. This is what it looks like before grinding:

Un-ground flour!

 

All I do is attach my Kitchenaid Grain Millto my mixer, place my bowl underneath, and turn the mixer on to high. Or follow the manufacturers directions for your mixer. Mine says to grind grain on high. This is my mixer and grain grinder:

My mixer with the grain grinder attachment

Here’s the grain mill all by itself:

Kitchen Aid Grain Mill Attachment

The mill holds 2 1/2-3c. grain- I don’t bother measuring, I just fill it up:

heaping full of grain

Then, turn it on to high and start grinding:

Grain being ground into flour

Another shot- fresh flour!

Let me say something about my mixer here. I had an old that we bought at an auction years ago, when it was like 20 years old already -! – and it ran and ran and ran for me. So naturally, when it finally died a slow death, I wanted another Kitchen Aid. I bought a Kitchenaid Artisanwhich is smaller than the one pictured here.

My Artisan lasted about a year. Thankfully, the warranty was for a year, so I called Kitchen Aid and they happily replaced it for me. I upgraded to a Kitchenaid Professional 600. It holds more flour and is supposed to be more of a workhorse. I ordered a Cayenne Red model. When it arrived, it was Cinnamon. I debated whether or not it really mattered, but my husband said I paid enough for it- I should send it back and get what I asked for. So I called again, and they were great. They said, “go ahead and use the Cinnamon one until your (backordered) Cayenne arrives. Then put the Cinnamon in the Cayenne box, and we will send Fed Ex to pick it up.” 

Easy. So I did that. But when I went to attach my Grain Mill, it wouldn’t go in the hole. I thought it did, and I turned it on and my mill tipped over and spilled grain all over my kitchen! So I just used the mixer itself and didn’t grind any flour. One day when I was making bread, my mixer started sounding stressed- groaning, sort of- and it quit. I thought, “Oh GREAT!! They just don’t make them like they used to.”

So I called Kitchen Aid again, and they said to try my mixer after an hour. It worked! Apparently it has a built in function to just stop if it’s being overworked. I had used too much flour.

Fabulous. So my Cayenne arrives. I switch boxes and start using it. Within a few weeks, it quits. I wait an hour, and nothing. It died.  In the meantime, I have a Cinnamon in the box that Fed Ex never came to get.

So I call again, and this time they don’t want to replace my machine because I have 2. I tell them, “you never sent Fed Ex to pick it up,” and they said they’d send a label so I could take it to my Fed Ex. So while I’m waiting for the label (the first one never came; I had to call again) I switch them out again. The Cayenne doens’t work at all; so I’m using the Cinnamon without the grain grinder ability.

Fed Ex label arrives, I ship the Cayenne back. Then I call again, and they lost it

Can you believe this?

It took a little assertiveness on my part, but they sent me a new Cayenne and picked up my 1/2 working Cinnamon. In the meantime, I had to listen to several pep talks on how to use my workhorse mixer. Don’t use too much flour. Don’t grind grain and then use your mixer right away. The thing is tempermental. They really don’t make them like they used to, but Kitchen Aid overall was extremely helpful and took care of me. I am happy with my current mixer- I am careful not to overwork it, and it does fine. The grain mill still doesn’t seem like it fits the hole very well, but it works.

So would I buy a Kitchen Aid again? I would research & find out. If you’re doing light work, yes. If you are a domestic diva and like to work the thing hard, maybe do some looking. I am really happy with mine now that I know it’s quirks. Plus it’s pretty.

Back to breadmaking. After your flour is ground, add your 2 c. hot milk and 2c. cold water. I just heat my milk until it almost boils, and then pour it over my flour. If you didn’t grind your flour, just start with 2 1/2 c. flour. Then add your water. Use your finger to check the temp- you don’t want it so hot you pull your hand back out- it shouldn’t be, but you never know. If it’s baby-bottle warm or a little warmer, it’s fine. Then add your honey, oil, yeast. Pour 5 more cups of bread flour (or the Gold ‘n White) on top. Then add your salt. Now you’re ready to mix.

You can mix by hand here if you like- use a spoon until you can’t anymore, then turn your dough out onto a floured surface and knead. Fold your dough, turn it, and push it. Fold, turn, push. Sometimes I use both fists and push one side, then the other, back and forth. Gets your heart rate up!

Or with your mixer: just turn it on to level 2. Make sure you’ve attached your bread hook. Once it starts, I set my oven timer to 5 minutes. With a mixer, you don’t need to mix for more than that- the instructions said it, I tried it, and it worked. One way to save your mixer.  So with grinding and mixing, you’re using your mixer for 10 minutes tops. I’ve done that twice when I made 2 batches, and it was fine. But I think that’s as far as I would push it!

Watch your dough as it mixes. If it starts looking sticky and sticks to the bottom of your bowl, add another 1/2 c. flour. Keep watching and doing that. Your dough should not stick to the bottom of your bowl, but you don’t want it so thick that your mixer starts groaning and slowing. If that happens, add 1/4 c. warm water. You adjust like this as you need to.

Here is a picture of what your dough should look like:

not too sticky

Once you do this a few times, you start getting a feel for what it should look like, and you can get it all done in 5 minutes of mixing time. Now, unattach your bowl, take off your breadhook, and cover with a clean towel. You’ll need to let it rise for about an hour.

rising

Once your hour is up, it should look sort of like this:

After rising for an hour

If your bread isn’t risen at all- either you have bad yeast, you forgot the yeast, or your liquid was too hot and you killed it. Don’t worry, it’s happened to me a hundred times. It’s frustrating, but it just happens sometimes. You can still use it- it makes ok pizza dough. Just roll it out, put it on a pizza pan, and top. If it isn’t to the top of the bowl, just give it another half hour.

Next, you want to spray three bread pans.I made two batches in 2 days. The first batch for some reason, rose, but didnt’ really rise in the pan very well. The bread still tasted great, but it didn’t look very pretty. I can tell when that happens because I go to split my dough into 3 parts and put it in pans and it sort of separates easy, like there is no elasticity. I’m not sure why that happens, but again, it just does sometimes. I have pictures of how those turned out:

Turned out kind of funny

They just look weird. But they taste great. Especially for French Toast.

So today I made another batch, and since it is our son’s birthday, I made 2 loaves of bread and one pan of cinnamon rolls. Let me finish telling you how to make the bread and then I’ll tell you about the rolls. Separate your dough into 3 pieces, and kind of roll it around a little to make a smooth, long loaf. I grab the ball with my thumbs facing up and pull dough around to the back, shaping and forming it. Then I place that loaf in a greased pan. This batch makes 3 loaves.

I place my pans in my oven and turn it on for 1 minute. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT!!!! Stand there for 1 minute, then turn your oven off. I do that to just make it barely warm in there- it helps the dough to rise. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away to just do something quick, and FORGOT my oven was on and BAKED my un-risen loaves!!! Arrrrghghgh!!

So don’t walk away. Just one minute, even 45 seconds, will warm your oven nice. Then turn oven off, and set your timer for 45 minutes. After that, your loaves should look like this:

After 45 minutes of rising in a warm oven

These don’t look so high, but this was my batch that didn’t turn out so great. Once my bread has risen, I leave it in the oven and turn my oven on to 350. I have a convection, so I use that. You don’t have to. As your oven is warming up, the bread gets one last blast of heat to rise a little more, then it starts cooking. I cook my loaves for 35 minutes. Then:

Perfect bread!

Now THAT is perfect. You’ll get it too.

Ok, so what if you want to use 1/3 or 2/3 or all of your dough for cinnamon rolls? Easy. Divide your dough into 3 parts, like before, but only make 2 loaves. For your other ball of dough, just roll it out onto a floured surface like this:

Rolling out dough for cinnamon rolls

It doesn’t have to be a perfect oval or circle. Just roll it out until it’s about 1/2″ thickness. I love my french rolling pinbecause it hands so easily on my wall and doesn’t have handles that get in my way. Here’s a pic:

My handy French Rolling Pin stationed on a kitchen wall

Then, spread it with soft butter:

Butter covered dough

You can go thick or thin, whatever you like. Then you sprinkle with brown sugar (I like to use pure cane- regular brown sugar is just white sugar coated with molasses) and cinnamon, like this:

Coated with brown sugar and cinnamon

Then, you roll it up into a long roll:

Rolling butter-sugar-cinnamon dough into a roll

All rolled up and ready to cut

Then you need to cut your roll into approx 2″ slices. You can use a knife, but I found a much easier way. Cut yourself a piece of thread about 15″ long. Hold one end in each hand, slide it under the roll, position at approx. 2″, then cross your hands, thus crossing the thread, and pull it through the roll. It will slice your roll smoothly and perfectly! Here’s a picture:

Slicing rolls with thread

I even have a little video I took of slicing the roll. If I can find it (!) I’ll post it.

Next, place rolls swirl side up in a greased 9×13 pan. You should get 11-12. Then dab with a little butter:

Ready to rise rolls with butter

My husband is always standing over my shoulder saying, “More butter. Are you gonna add sugar & cream, too?”  You can- but I think these taste great without all the extra. But go ahead- use butter and sugar and cream to make your pan carmelly if you like. You can throw in a few chopped pecans, too. Amazing.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. They’ll look like this:

Finished Rolls!

And they’ll smell heavenly! Pop them out onto a cooling racks-

Rolls popped out of pan onto cooling rack

and enjoy! OH, and don’t forget: there is always a little carmel in the pan:

a spoonful of carmel!

Yum! Now make yourself a fabulous cup of coffee and enjoy!

chicken talk

My friend Aaron talks to oatmeal and mechanical pencils, and then he writes about it. So I asked him to have a dialogue with our chickens. It went like this:

Me: Aaron, you need to have a conversation with my chickens. They dont’ lay eggs.

Aaron: Michelle, you need to have your own conversation with your chickens.

Me: But then I would be copying you.

Aaron: The concept of the argument is very, very old. You need not worry about that. Also, I would never step foot in your chicken coop.

Ok, so I’ll do it myself.

*     *      *     *

Me: Hello chickens. Wow, this coop really stinks.

Chickens: (they are eyeing me suspiciously, but say nothing.)

Me: What’s up?

Chickens: (still, nothing)

Me: oh, ok. I glance around to make sure the kids didn’t follow me out.  ”Baaaa raaaam U. Baaaa raaaaaam U. To our breed, our clan be true. Baaaaa raaaam U.”

Chickens: what are you talking about? What is she talking about?

Me: well, I saw it on tv and it worked for sheep, so

Chickens: So you think we’re sheep? You think we’re stupid like sheep? They’re flapping at me, raising chicken poop dust

Me: No, I didn’t say that – sneeze -

Chickens: She thinks we’re stupid. She thinks we don’t understand everything she and those other ducks have been saying.

Me: Ducks? (I say this with my shirt pulled up over my nose)

Chickens: Everything that isn’t a chicken is a duck. Everyone knows that. Gosh. Idiot.

Me: Ok, but I have a question for you guys. Gals. Sorry.  (more dust flies) How come you don’t lay any eggs? My eyes are starting to water.

Chickens: We do lay eggs. (indignant. There’s a word for you, Susie)

Me: Yeah, like two. And there are fifteen of you here, counting the guinea. (At this point, the guinea starts squwaking. I have to wait a bit for her to settle down. As much as I tried, I couldn’t understand a word she was saying.) -That’s a little more than two.

Chickens: We don’t really see how you have the right to demand anything of us. We know what you’re all about. We know where our precious lives will end. Duck soup.

Me: well…

Chickens: Soup, baby. We know it. We dont’ have to lay any eggs for you. Ever. Also, we don’t like the names you’ve given us.

Me: My head snaps up out of my shirt. What? Why? They’re beautiful names out of English literature. Mr. Bingley. The March Sisters. Miss Elinor and Miss Mary Anne. Jenny Wren. Respectful names. And you live in Cluckingham Palace, for pete’s sake. What do you mean?

Chickens: We hear the big male duck calling us names. Roast. Stir Fry. Grilled. Chickens see everything, hear everything. We don’t like it. You got to treat your chickens nice, see? And if you don’t, the only way we can protest is to withhold eggs. So there. Get used to it.

At this point I was feeling woefully inadequate to be able to report anything interesting in my chicken argument. Aaron’s arguments with oatmeal and a pencil were way more engaging. Well, I tried. Next time I’ll send the kids.

Chickens: 1  Me: 0

Cooking 101

Ok, y’all, you’ve been asking for the recipes from our first ever Cooking Night.  Here they are.  The thing is, I don’t really cook with teaspoons and cups. Sometimes I do, but a lot of times I just make stuff and add stuff and make notes and then next time I change stuff until I get a recipe I like. So don’t be afraid to write in your cookbooks (gasp!) because trust me, you’ll forget what you tried and what you didn’t, what is good and what stinks.  So with that in mind, here are the recipes.

Chicken Fried Rice

Cook 2-4 cups rice, depending on how many people you have. 1-2 cups rice will feed 1-4 people, or one person with lots of leftovers, depending on the person. Rule of thumb for rice:  Use double the water. So 2c. water for 1c. rice, etc. Bring it to a boil on the stove, then turn off stove, move pot off hot burner, cover rice, and set timer for 20 minutes – keep covered. Rice will be finished in 20 minutes. I blend brown rice with a white, 1/2 and 1/2, so my family doens’t squwak about all brown But brown is nuttier and more flavorful, so if you can get used to all brown, you’re doing your body good.

Ok, then get out your wok or large, deep frying pan, and heat to med-hi with a little olive oil. You can always add more olive oil, so start with a few tablespoons. Fry up your favorite onion, chopped into your favorite size pieces. Then scootch the onions to the sides and fry up 3 eggs (more or less, do what you like best). (Ok, note about eggs. Brown are just better. Sorry, it’s just the way it is. Organic are really good, too, white or brown, but they’re so danged expensive. I get mine from Sunrise Foods (by Mackenzie Place, across from Ace Hardware) or at (gasp) Wal Mart – they have brown eggs for less than 2$ a dozen. Unless my chickens are being good girls and laying. Then I get them from my coop. Or rather, my family gets them. I love watching chickens (they’re hilarious) and eating their eggs, but going into the coop is just not my thing) Then throw in your favorite meat – cooked chicken, ham, turkey, beef, venesen, whatever. Pork. If it’s raw, saute it up with the onions. Otherwise, just throw it in and heat it all up.  You can add whatever else you like – water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, broccoli, spinach, zucchini or summer squash, carrots, garlic, ginger.  Yum.

Now add your cooked rice. Splash the whole thing real good with Bragg’s Liquid Aminos – remember that stuff that we use instead of Soy Sauce – you can find it in the “hippie section” of the grocery store or the “hippie grocery store” downtown (Harmony Co-Op) (Note to any Harmony Co-Op lovers and friends: I LOVE this store, and I am a “hippie wanna be” so hence, the nickname.  I hope you take it as a compliment, because it surely is) Anyway, douse it real good with aminos. Like, 1/8-1/4 cup. Start with 1/8.  Douse it real good with white pepper. Maybe 1/4 teaspoon to start.  Mix it all up real well and then try it. Not spicy enough? More pepper. Not enough “oomph”?  More aminos.  And so it goes.

ooooh it’s making me hungry.

So there, you made fried rice. Way to go! Easy, huh? Let me know if you come up with any interesting combos.

 

On to Egg Rolls. This is a little more involved.  Here’s an ingredient list:

Hamburger or ground pork or sausage or chicken or venesen or turkey – about 1# to make one package of egg rolls

Onion, and one smallish cabbage (any color  to make one package of egg rolls

Five Spice Powder (buy it at co-op or make your own – recipe follows) and Aminos

Egg roll skins (found in produce section) & won ton skins if you want to make some cream cheese filled wontons while you’re at it, and then you’ll need cream cheese too

A veggie if you want: shredded carrot, broccoli, spinach, whatever. You can even cheat and buy the shredded cabbage/carrot that they use to make coleslaw. You’ll need a couple packages.

Fry up the meat, drain off the fat. Chop an onion and throw it in while frying the meat. If you like garlic or ginger, you can chop/crush that too and put it in. Once the meat is cooked, you can move it to another bowl and start frying up the chopped/shredded cabbage, and other veggies if you throw them in. Saute until cabbage is nice and wilted.  Mix meat and cabbage/veggies together, season with five spice powder and a little aminos.  Again, start with maybe a tablespoon of five spice and taste it. Add more if you like. Throw in about a tablespoon of aminos, see how you like it.

Then you simply wrap the filling in the skins and fry them up.  Remember to wet that one corner with water to get them to close nicely.  AND don’t forget – DO NOT fry with any oil except Palm (again, at the Co-op – sold as Organic Shortening, but read the label – it’s palm oil) or Coconut oil or a combo of both. Any other oil you fry with will not stay stable at high temperatures and you will be feeding yourself TRANS FATS which are the WORST thing you can do for your body. Sorry, it’s just the way it is.  Olive oil burns at too high heat, so it doesn’t really work for deep frying.

Another note: and this is my soapbox for the day : CUT ALL HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP OUT OF YOUR DIET. It’s the nastiest stuff ever, and it’s everywhere. So read your labels. Ok, off my box.

Make sure your frying oil is hot: test by throwing a few drops of water on it, if the water “skitters” – the oil is hot. Otherwise, you’ll soak up oil and your eggrolls will be nasty. One minute or less per side is all they need. Set them on a plate lined with paper towels to soak up extra oil.

Then, dip. Dip in whatever you like. (Like peanut butter, right, Susie?) Here’s my Sweet & Sour recipe:

1c. pineapple or cranberry or raspberry or orange juice – anthing but apple or grape would work, or combos       

1/4 c. apple cider vinegar  

1tbsp aminos (sorry I can’t get this thing to do single spacing)

1/3 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. ketchup

Mix 2T cornstarch and 1/4 c. juice together, then add to others in saucepan.  Heat until thick.

 

and here’s the recipe for homemade Five Spice Powder:

2T. whole black peppercorns

36 whole cloves

12 inches of stick cinnamon

2T. fennel seed

2T. anise seed

Zing it all in a coffe grinder, and presto, homemade five spice

Ok, this blog is long enough! Happy cooking! Post any questions and I’ll answer when we get home.

Now I gotta go figure out how to make fish. Not so good at fish!