Homemade Wheat Bread

Several of my friends saw my post on FB about making bread and asked for the recipe. So here you are guys!  This is my go to recipe. I have tried several others but still go back to this.

Yummy Homemade Wheat Bread 

This recipe came from a Relief Society meeting on self reliance. I don't have the name of the lady and I don't remember the ward I was a guest speaker for. These are proportions for a Bosch mixer. If you have a Kitchenaid, just cut it in half and that will work.

Bake: 350
Yield: 4 large loaves
Time: about 2 hours including rise time

Ingredients
14-16 cups whole wheat flour
2 rounded Tbs yeast
1/2 cup high-gluten flour
1/4 cup dough enhancer (or 2Tbs lemon juice or 500 mg Vit C)
6 cups very warm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey or brown sugar (honey is best)
1 1/2 Tbs salt

Directions: Place 9 cups fresh flour into mixer with kneading arm. Add dry yeast and gluten. Pulse to mix. Add water and mix for 1 minute. Turn off mixer, cover, and let dough sponge for 10 minutes. This makes the bread have a lighter texture. Add oil, honey, lemon juice, and salt. Turn on mixer, and quickly add remaining flour, 1 cup at a time until dough forms a mass and clean the sides of the bowl. I generally use a mix of wheat and white flour. Turn mixer to high and knead for 8 minutes. If kneading by hand, knead at least 12 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.

Preheat oven to 150 during this time. Lightly oil hands and counter surface. Divide dough into equal portions. Shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans. Turn off oven. Place bread in oven, arranging pans with space to allow heat to circulate freely. Set kitchen timer and watch closely. Let rise until almost double in bulk, about 20-30 minutes. Leave bread in oven and turn heat to 350. Bread will continue to rise a little more. Bake for 30 minutes until light golden brown. Immediately remove from pans and let cool on wire rack. Beware of ravaging children. Use extreme caution if there is butter or jam nearby!
Enjoy all the Yumminess!

Hot Cocoa anyone?

We L.O.V.E. hot chocolate at our house. The boys have been known to, on occassion, ask for it in the summer after playing in the pool. Of course it is never HOT but rather more like luke warm. I just stocked up on marshmallows for Christmas treats and I am hoping to get them all made before the little ones raid the marshmallows. Of course I have Grandma to thanks for part of this. She loves to give them the seasonal marshmallows. I mean, what's better for little boys than chomping down on a green tree made of cushy mallow yumminess?!

Now just combine marshmallows and cocoa together and they are in near heaven! So imagine my delight when I found these coasters on Noodlehead. OH MY GOSH! I love them. Yep, I am definantely going to make these. In fact I will be pulling out the sewing machine this week so maybe I will have something to show you along these lines. (Of course that is on top of Christmas activities and family visits and work and school- oh boy, but I gotta have 'em!)

~Just so DANG CUTE!~

I have never made gingersnap cookies but thought I would try some this year and then comes along Jaimie with one of her well timed recipes. Guess we will have hot cocoa on new cute coasters with gingersnaps! Anyone wanna join us?

Gingersnaps

Here is another project from Sisterstuff- love their blog BTW! And I think I have all the stuff for this too!

Falling bread.....

My last several loaves of bread have fallen on me. I tried putting them on the counter rather than on the edge. I didn't try setting them on the floor to keep them from falling cuz Matthew would have way too much fun! LOL- no really it's been a problem. Well I went back to the basics. I had tried to make a few adjustments- just experimenting- so I pulled out the recipe and measured everything exactly. The results.....
Flat bread! UGH! Thankfully we have the internet and I can search an endless amount of topics. Turns out (I think) that I am letting it over rise. It's either that or my bread is too moist. Perhaps a bit of both. I am suppose to take bread to work tonight for potluck. With my 4th batch since last night just finishing I am not sure I want to make another.... We go through about 6 loaves a week and with taking a couple to work I guess it wouldn't hurt. The 2 loaves that just finished are better. I guess the lesson learned here is to watch the bread and not just the timer! Ahh, the dangers of multitasking! At least the boys are not picky eaters. They are just constant eaters. lol. So it's sandwiches for lunches this week. They may like that after all- no leftovers in their lunchbox. Ever had a repeating mishap from multitasking? Please let me know I'm not alone!

Ahh, the Holidays....

Rebekah gave me this recipe also, for homemade Oreos. YUMMY! Didn't I say today was a good day? Bread, muffins, cookies.... the boys were in heaven. Too bad the cookies were for work. They each got one but they will have to suffer with just muffins and fresh bread.

For dinner we had fresh bread and home canned stew. Quick, easy and good on a cold winter day. We canned lots of stew this fall. It's chock full of potatoes, carrots, pearled barley, celery onions, you know all the good stuff. Then when you are ready to eat it you add a can of tomatoe soup and, if you want, ground beef. Tonight we had left over taco meat which ended up added a bit of kick to the stew. There is never any leftovers of this. Keegan was hoping to take it in his thermos for lunch tomarrow. Oh well, he'll be having a sandwhich like Josh.
Last week I made these caramels with pecans. Oohey gooey delicious. I must say I was hoping to make my friend jealous after she shared her yummy truffles. (I think it worked ;-)) I made a double batch but they still don't last long.
(whoops, deleted the tree. I will have to add it tomarrow when I get home)
And last but not least, Our Christmas tree. It's a bit eclectic with all our childhood ornaments plus those since we've been a family. Each year we get an ornament from our vacation destination. Some are classic, some handmade, and others tell a story of the years events. We used to have colored lights but last year switched to white. I like both. The white tend to be more classic/elegant. Don't worry, if the flash was on you would see were Matthew added his own touch to the bottom of the tree. It is more like removing his touch.

We had empty boxes wrapped for decorations for the party last Friday but Matthew quickly unwrapped them. I guess it is a good thing I haven't wrapped anything this year yet. I think we will start with a few benign presents. You know the underware and socks types...... I'll let you know how that goes.....

Christmas morning in 10 days and counting. It is the BEST TIME OF THE YEAR!

A great day!

Nothing extra special happening, just a good day. Robin woke up not feeling well so he stayed in bed a bit longer. Josh asked for an egg for breakfast so I fixed egg sandwiches. It was a nice treat for Josh and Keegan. Matthew had scrambled eggs with the toast on the side. No more bread meant hot lunch, for which they were excited and mom was relieved to not have to fix lunches. Before they even left I had bread batch #1 going and the washer started. I 0got the big boys off to school and Matthew dressed. Tyler had decided to sleep in today too. Now it was my turn but dad had to get up first. I don't quite trust Matthew on his own while I shower ;P. I can't go without a shower for too long. It just starts the day right ya know.

A great morning just makes for a great day. The laundry is half done (love my new super washer!), boys are fed. I've made 4 loaves of bread, cranberry muffins, oreo cookies, cleaned the kitchen and worked on laundry. Now I get to unwind and take a nap. Yep, take a NAP! Don't get too jealous, I will be up all night working. I will think of you as sugar plums dance in your little heads at 2am!

I made muffins for the boys afterschool snack. I froze some for later too. It is yummy. I will have to post the recipe. I got it from Tina, Robin's sister, who got it from someone on Pinching your pennies. We went to Tina's for a birthday dinner last night and finally got her started blogging too. Click on her link to the side for amazing thrifty ideas. Remember all the tricks Grandma knew but you thought were lost forever- NOPE! Tina is my go to gal for those things. Anything from laundry tips, canning, freezer goodies, recipe adjustments you name it. In fact, I challenge you all to find a household problem she can't solve on a tightwads budget! Go ahead, check it out. Learn all the secrets of living on a 1950's budget in 2010!

Here is the bread I make. I use my kitchenaid. I am hoping for a Bosch one day but this No Knead Bread is yummy and doesn't overwork my Kitchenaid. Rebekah gave me this one....
Here is the recipe. Try it, you'll love it:
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 packages yeast
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar
6 cups flour divided

Heat your oven to 200 deg. with a bowl of water in it. When it gets to 200 shut it off. Disolve your yeast in the warm water. Mix in butter, salt, sugar and 3 cups flour. Mix for about 2 minutes until well blended. You may have to scrap the sided a couple of times. Then add the remaining 3 cups flour. Your dough will be sticky, more like muffing mix texture. Place in the warmed oven to rise. I like to rise my dough in the oven so my house doesn't have to be as warm and the cool breezes won't mess up the rising dough. Let it rise for about 30 minutes until double. Stir down, about 25 strokes. I just put my mixing bowl in the oven then turn the mixer back on for a minute. Pour dough into 2 loaf pans. It will still be sticky. Smooth evenly in pan. Place back in oven to rise a second time for 30-40 minutes until double. Then turn oven on to 350 deg and cook for 30-40 minutes. Remove bread from oven and cool on wire rack. YUMMY! We have been going through about 6 loaves a week with lunches and what not. The boys just love it!

We had the Cardiac Care Christmas party on Friday. It was a great success. I made thank you bags for the committee members who helped with all the arrangements. I got this idea from Little Birdie Secrets. They are Holiday Potpourri bags. I must say this is yummy. It is a subtle holiday scent with just the spice that I love. Robin thought it was great too. It makes you house smell great.Saturday afternoon we took the boys to the mall to see Santa. Josh decided he was too old to sit on Santa's lap, Keegan didn't want to either, Tyler was bubbling over with excitement just to talk to Santa and Matthew was in awe of the tree, lights, and hustle and bustle going on around us.
Call me crazy but one of the things I love about Christmas is the crazy shopping trips. I am usally done by Thanksgiving except homemade goodies so going to the mall is fun to just relax and browse. We usually shop a bit and get a few things but this year we could only go in, see Santa, and leave. I had to get ready for work and our budget was gone this week. Even so, you can't help but feel the spirit of Christmas when you are out 2 weeks before the big day.
Tyler was so excited to see Santa. He almost forgot to ask for something, rather he just did his usual jabber, jabber. You would have thought he was talking to his best friend. I love to see this. The twinkle in a childs eye is worth its weight in gold. I think Santa was getting tired. It was almost dinner time and we were near the end on the line. Poor Santa, never a moments rest at this time of year......Matthew wanted nothing to do with the man in red but perhaps next year.......

So, the other day Ty says, "Mom, Isaac says Santa's not real". UGH! I love that my kids believe in Santa. It is pure childhood. I think so many lessons, GOOD lessons, come from believing in Santa and all he represents. What do you say to this? Our friends leave it up to their kids to decide for themselves if Santa is real or not. They don't say either way except to say the have to pay Santa for the presents he brings.....I don't agree with this but ok. Well, when Ty ask me I had to think. I truely believe in the spirit of Santa. I love the book "I Believe in Santa". It talks about all the things Santa does and what he represents then likens that to Christ. SOOO, we read this story before I left for work. I told the boys that no matter what others might say, I believe in Santa. They seemed satisfied with this. I guess it was an opportunity for me to share my testimony of Christmas and the Spirit it brings with my boys too. Before too long they will be too big to believe, but I hope deep down they always keep the Spirit of Christmas with them. I believe in Santa, he comes in red, he comes at night, he loves little children and wants us to be good. I believe in Christ, he comes in red, he comes at night, he loves little children and KNOWS we can be good. I BELIEVE!