Super Bowl burgers

That right there is a burger I could not fit into my mouth. And, it also is entirely homemade. Yep, even the bun. Well, okay, I didn't grow the tomatoes or lettuce, but you know what I mean.

We decided to go simple with our Super Bowl burgers, and that really just applied to the toppings. It is simply topped with mustard, red leaf lettuce and a few slices of Roma tomatoes.

The burger patty was made with ground sirloin, so we went a little fancy there. Seasoned with Montreal Steak seasoning, and topped with a good helping of cheddar cheese, the patties were delicious, very flavorful.

We would have grilled them up, but, if I remember right, the barbeque was out of gas.

The homemade buns were my brilliant idea. (Can you sense the sarcasm?)





I have been doing pretty well at baking bread, using the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day recipes. So, I thought to try my hand at baking buns. I had the right idea on the size. But, what makes a hamburger bun super is not only the subtle flavor, so as not to take away from the burger ingredients, but the softness which allows a good bite without having all the ingredients slide right out the back of the burger.

Um, yeah, that's what happened with these buns. They were really good as artisan loaves that you would rip apart and dip into olive oil and seasoning, or just slather with butter. They were *not* good for burger buns. They just weren't soft enough. On the outside! The inside was wonderfully soft. But, the crust was too hard for us to actually bite through with any ease. So, all my ingredients squeezed right out the back when I bit down into my delicious and yummy looking burger.

That top bun is huge! If I would have just cut off the top crust, it probably would have worked just fine.

So, I still need to find a good recipe for burger buns. But, I'm not too worried about it. We enjoyed the food, felt good about it since it was all homemade, no preservatives, and we enjoyed the game. We had no real interest in the outcome. We just wanted to see a good game. And, if I remember right, it was a pretty good game.

Super Bowl Sunday Food

What are you eating today?

We are going with burgers! It'll be homemade all the way, too: homemade buns from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, homemade all-beef burger patties, homemade guacamole and homemade bean dip.

The burgers will be simply topped with red leaf lettuce leaves and sliced Roma tomatoes and mustard and ketchup. And, of course, the guacamole and bean dip will be enjoyed with corn tortilla chips, which we are not making homemade, but which seem fresh-made from our grocery store. They are like the chips you get in a really good Mexican restaurant. Seriously yum.

A lot of people are cooking good food today. It's almost like Thanksgiving - cooking that special food you eat just once a year. And, a lot of people are going with traditional football fare in pizza and wings. Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with good pizza and wings. It is one of my all-time favorites, but I always pay for it later. Maybe that's why it's only once in a while that we go wild with junk food?

So, in honor of Super Bowl Sunday, may your preparations for the game go smoothly and stress-free and may the game be a nail-biter. Let's all hope for a good game! Enjoy!

Pound cake with strawberries

It must be strawberry season because they are on sale at the grocery store, and they actually look good! When I see strawberries, I immediately think of strawberry shortcake. I had everything on hand, including a recipe, for pound cake, not short cake, so pound cake is what I made. And, boy was it delicious!

The pound cake is thick and dense, yet subtle in the flavor. It gets a little extra something with the addition of a little nutmeg. And the strawberries are perfect - sweet and a little tart and very juicy. YUM!

The plate on the left is for my hubby, who chose to top his with a drizzle of agave nectar. The plate on the right is for me, and I chose to drizzle chocolate hazelnut spread on mine. Fabulous!!

I used the pound cake recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cook book, which follows. I looked on their website, and the recipe for Pound Cake and for Classic Pound Cake, is not the recipe for Pound Cake in the book I have, which is from 1989 of course.

1 cup butter
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Bring butter and eggs to room temperature. In one mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder, and, if desired, nutmeg. In another bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds.

Gradually add sugar to butter, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating on medium to high speed about 6 minutes total or till very light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition, scraping bowl often. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating on low to medium speed just till combined.

Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 55 to 65 minutes or till a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan. Cool thoroughly on a wire rack. Makes 12 servings.

This recipe was easy to throw together, took no time at all and turned out wonderful. The longest part was waiting for the butter and eggs to get to room temp! Enjoy!

Baking - Biscotti

Biscotti seemed so exotic and fancy to me. The first time I saw biscotti was at Starbuck's, wrapped in the pretty cellophane and ribbons, being sold for $2 a cookie. I never thought it was something that people could make at home, nor did I think it was something EASY that people could make at home. Nor did I think people would WANT to - when I had biscotti, it was always rock hard and difficult to eat. I always wanted to dunk it in my decaffeinated white chocolate mocha, but was never sure that was socially or gastronomically acceptable. (Still don't, but at this point in my life, I'm beyond caring. If I want to and it's yummy, I'm doing it!)

During Thanksgiving, my mother brought a new recipe to try - Biscotti! She saw the biscotti on the Food Network Channel, thought it would be something different for her Pinochle group, and found it was REALLY EASY. So, she decided to share with me. It was a lot of fun baking together, I must say. Baking is something relatively new for both my mother and I, and we are connecting on a whole new level with it. It's really great.

Her biscotti recipe is from Rocco DiSpirito - click here to get to it. It WAS really easy, but I am really glad my mom did it with me the first time. When we mixed the dough, the dough was really wet and sticky. If I had been by myself, I would have added more flour to make it less sticky, which would have likely been a huge mistake! So, be forewarned - it's supposed to be extremely moist dough. When we made it, we mixed it with our hands, and the dough - or batter really, because that is more what it was like - was all over our hands. We tried and tried to get it off our fingers, and it never seemed to come off or be any less!

I made it again, by myself, and used utensils (a plastic rice spoon and a rubber spatula) this time. It was much less frustrating and annoying, and the utensils wiped of the dough/batter much easier than my hands!

Here is a picture of the biscotti after the initial baking.

After it was cool enough to handle, I began slicing it for the cookies.

 

Back on the cookie sheet they go for toasting each side!

Here are the finished biscotti cookies!

They are really easy, and tasty, too. Anise is a strong scent, just like black licorice, but the anise flavoring is not strong at all in these cookies. The recipe does not require a lot. And, they are NOT rock hard! They are actually enjoyable to eat without wondering if I'll need a dentist! We have enjoyed the biscotti with our morning coffee or tea, and also at night, after dinner as a light dessert. Biscotti is no longer this exotic, fancy thing that I can find only in coffee shops! I can make it any time I want to, right in my very own home! How cool is that?!

Baking Bread - Pita (and Homemade Hummus)

Have I raved yet about the most excellent book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day? (Check out their blog site here.) I have used it for so many breads already, since receiving it as a Christmas gift. They make baking bread so easy, it's almost insane!

This is one of our new favorites to make at home, Pita bread and Hummus.


There is a post about their pita bread at their site, with great pictures and instructions, although the recipe for the dough is left out. That is probably because you can use any number of base doughs to make the pita bread. I used the main Boule dough recipe.

In their post about their pita bread, they call it the "fastest bread in the land", and they are NOT kidding. Five to ten minutes rolling it out, about five to seven minutes in a 500 degree oven, and we were eating. The hummus took longer! The pita bread not only is super easy, but it is delicious, too. Eaten by itself or topped with hummus, it was yummy!

Now, for the hummus. Simple ingredients combine for big flavor. I love garbanzo beans, or chickpeas, whatever you call them. I love them in salad, roasted with red pepper flakes, as hummus. If it's made with garbanzo beans, I'll probably love it, whatever it is. Here is our recipe.

1 cup of garbanzo beans, canned or reconstituted if dried
(We used dried beans, not canned, and keep in mind, they double in size after being boiled and soaked in water)
2 -4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped, depending on your liking
1/4 cup lemon juice
up to 1/2 cup of water
up to 1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup tahini, if desired

In a food processor, combine the garbanzo beans, garlic and lemon juice. Process and add water and olive oil until your desired consistency is reached. (That's why I say "up to" - I've had hummus that was really thin, or very chunky. We like ours a little thick, but smooth.)

Add the salt and tahini. Note the tahini will make the mixture thicker.

We had a hard time mixing everything when we added the tahini at the beginning, it was just so thick. That's why I add it now at the end, and it works much better. Everything mixes and gets pureed nicely, then I can add the tahini. Personally, I don't know that the tahini necessarily adds much to hummus, but it's an ingredient I found in all the hummus recipes I looked through. It probably makes it "authentic hummus" if it has tahini! :-)

I made the hummus and then put it aside to let the flavors meld together. Then, I worked on the pita bread. I really enjoyed this, and coupled with a nice spinach and tomato salad, it would make an awesome dinner for Meat Free Monday!

Baking Bread - Bialys

What is a Bialy? The definition in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary states a bialy is "a flat breakfast roll that has a depressed center and is usually covered with onion flakes", and originated in Bialystok, a city in Poland, in 1965. (For interesting info on Bialystok, Poland, click here. No mention of the origin of Bialys though. Perhaps it is not a claim to fame?)

The first time I heard of bialys was at Einstein's, on those runs to pick up bagels and coffee for the people in the office. I don't recall them being topped with only onions, I seem to recall they had all kinds of flavors! Curiously, I don't see bialys on the Einstein's menu anymore. Anyway, I remember asking my boss what a bialy was. His response? "They're just bagels without the hole."

I suppose for the most part, he was right. I found a recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for bialys that uses the bagel dough. (Click here for a picture of bialys from their site - to see what they are supposed to look like! - along with a cute story.) So, after my struggle with the bagels, I decided to try bialys. I still had plenty of bagel dough left, but I was NOT going to attempt them again. Like I said, I'll leave bagels to the experts, thank you!

The recipe for bialys is much simpler. There is no broiling and no boiling. Since we are not onion fans, I decided to skip that whole part, so my bialys were just plain. It was a lot like baking bread rolls, really. So, here they are - a picture for you to see my finished product.


Yeah, the ones on the right are not exactly round per se, they are more . . . oblong. That is because I had trouble removing them from my board and staying in the same shape. I'm supposed to have a pizza peel and just slide these babies off the peel onto the hot baking stone in the oven. But, I have not yet invested in a pizza peel or a baking stone. You know, priorities and money. So, I used my largest baking sheet as a baking stone and used my medium sized baking sheet as a pizza peel. I thought it would be a great substitute, but, . . . well, obviously, it didn't turn out so pretty!

But, yet again, they may not be pretty, but they certainly were DELICIOUS! My husband says he doesn't care what it looks like, he just cares what it tastes like. (Isn't he sweet? Told ya he's awesome!) He certainly is enjoying my baking attempts. He is reaping the reward for such a cool Christmas present.

I will definitely bake these again. They were easy, and tasty. I'll have to work on my form, but that takes practice. (haha) But, I will get more creative with toppings. Some parmesan cheese, maybe some spinach, mmmm . . . mushrooms perhaps . . . . olives . . . oooh, so excited!

Baking Bread - Bagels

Bagels were one of my four major food groups when I was in college: bagels, pizza, dessert and coffee. I ate bagels so often. Everyday, if I could. At every meal, even!

Then when Einstein Bros. opened up right next to Starbuck's, it was like a dream come true! I was working with several people that needed their daily caffeine fix, and were always hungry by 9am. Since I was low-man-on-the-totem-pole, I took everyone's orders and went to Einstein's and Starbuck's. I was in bagel heaven and thought, "This office is so cool!" That was almost a daily routine for the people in the office. It was great, my love for bagels was renewed.

After a while, and extra pounds (yikes!), I cut out trips to Starbuck's and Einstein's, and stopped eating bagels. But, I would buy them every once in a while as a treat, and still loved them.

Once I started looking through the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook at the bread recipes, I found bagels! Who knew you could make bagels yourself?! At home?! I had to try it. However, I was put off immediately upon reading the recipe for it. Did you know you have to broil them, then boil them, and then bake them? Really!! That sounded a little advanced for me right now. No wonder people don't give homemade bagels as gifts!

Then, I received the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day book, and it has a recipe for bagels that omits the broiling step. I thought, I can handle that now - boiling and then baking. Sure, I'll give it a try! Here is a picture of my bagels after the boiling step.

I think my holes are a little big!

And, here is a picture of my bagels after baking them.

(Sorry it's a little blurry.)

They don't look anything like bagels! OK, except for being round and having a hole in the middle. I don't know what I did wrong, but they did not plump up like bagels should. They were so thin, there really was no point in cutting them in half.

But they were tasty! Yes, we ate them anyway. We just smeared cream cheese on top of them like they were crackers and ate them anyway. And, they were good!

I still think I'll leave this one to the experts, and keep bagels as a treat to have every once in a while. The bakeries know what they are doing with this one, and I obviously do not!

We are not the Neelys, but . . .

We have discovered how much fun it is to cook together!

When I have watched the Neelys' Food Network show, Down Home with the Neelys, they work together in that kitchen like a well-oiled machine. And, they enjoy working together and helping one another. They also flirt an awful lot, but I find that cute, because, well, I'm married to the biggest flirt on the planet, and we do our fair share of flirting!

Our usual routine for cooking dinner was one person would cook and the other would clean. That seemed fair to us, and it worked out good for us, too. In the beginning of our marriage, I was not a cook. Like I said before, Hamburger Helper was my Go-To meal. But, I was an ace at washing dishes. And, he is an outstanding cook, so it worked out well.

But, now . . . I enjoy being in the kitchen and want to cook. And, I want to help. And, sometimes, I need his help. Still learning, you know, and well, math was never my strong subject and doubling or halving a recipe requires some math!

Recently, we had dinner at our house with some friends. Our dinner menu was Almond Crusted Chicken with a white sauce (a Rachael Ray recipe, minus the scallions for the non-onion eaters, and minus the wine for the momma-to-be), mashed red potatos, roasted carrots, and green beans. We decided to split up the cooking duties - I would make the chicken and the sauce, while he did the veggie side dishes. I also made a soy dessert, which I will post later, once I figure out what to call it. . . pudding? pie? pudding pie?

We were cooking, and drinking wine, talking, and singing along with the music, and generally having a blast, and that was before the company arrived! Once our friends did arrive, it was just like more people joined the party. The more, the merrier!

We enjoyed cooking with each other so much, we decided to do it again. And, we didn't even have company coming! We decided to make a dish called Shakshoukah, made with tomatos and eggs - I'll post this one, too, eventually - with polenta, and hummus and pita bread. He made the Shakshoukah and polenta on the stovetop, while I made the hummus in a blender and made the pita bread (from my new favorite book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day).

We didn't talk as much this time around, but I chalk that up to trying a new recipe. It was the first time for him making Shakshoukah, and it was my first time making pita bread (I will be posting about this later, too). However, I still enjoyed being with my husband, doing something together, and doing something new together. And, the food was delicious! Eating our creations was just as much fun as making them together!

Doing something simple and everyday can be refreshing and fun if done with someone you love!

Baking Bread - Rosemary and Olive Oil Focaccia

We rang in the New Year with family and lots of laughter, and of course, food!

We traveled to spend time with Grandpa Joe and Connie in Bullhead City, AZ. As a gift, we brought champagne, which, incidentally, we did not open at New Year's, and two loaves of bread, a sourdough loaf and the focaccia.

The focaccia recipe came from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day, by Jeff Hertzber and Zoe Francois, a book I received as a Christmas gift. Check out their blog (it's also one I follow). The recipe in the book calls for onions, which I omitted because we are not fans of onion and never have them in the house . . . except after Nana has visited.

Funny side story - after our daughter's graduation, Nana left one yellow onion, and after Nana's Thanksgiving visit, she left one red onion. The yellow onion sat on our counter for months, unused and ignored, until it started to sprout. The same happened with the red onion, except it was only about one month before it actually started to sprout. Both have now been planted in our backyard. That's how we like onions!

Anyways, back to the focaccia. I received the book as a Christmas gift (from my most awesome hubby - thank you, Love!), and absolutely could not wait to try something. We have rosemary in our garden, and I had all other ingredients on hand for this recipe, in addition to not having to buy special equipment, like a pizza peel or baking stone for the oven.

Their method is so easy, and almost foolproof. I say almost because, well, focaccia is a flatbread, so it's supposed to be flat, and as you can see, mine definitely were not flat. Maybe I am too critical; they were flatter than my other loaves. Everyone enjoyed the focaccia, even me! So, it could not have been bad that they were not flat.

I only made half a batch because I didn't think my bowls were big enough to handle the rise for the full recipe, and ended up baking two loaves with the entire dough batch. Had I thought about it more instead of being so ultra-excited to bake, I could have made the full recipe and split it into two containers. The dough would have aged in the refrigerator while we took our trip, and been even more yummy when we returned. Ah, the adventures of a beginning baker. Well, that is another lesson learned!

That night, we had one focaccia loaf with out Spicy Mac-n-Cheese dinner (the hubby's take on Macaroni Grill's Penne Rustica). It was so delicious - the dinner AND the bread! I was very excited to share this with Grandpa Joe and Connie. At Connie's, she served it with a spaghetti dinner the first night of the New Year. It was a nice addition to the meal.

What a way to ring in the New Year! Surrounded by family, sharing good food, wine and lots and lots of laughter, I felt optimistic about 2010. Happy New Year, everyone!

Baking Bread - Sourdough

Moldy starter is not good.

I opened my jar of sourdough starter to prepare it for baking, and there was mold at the top of the jar! I contacted Linda at SourdoughBreads.com and she is so wonderful, she sent me another packet of starter right away. Thanks, Linda! You are great!

I tried to figure out why it got moldy, and I think it got "infected" by my doggie biscuits for Maggie. (That recipe and story coming soon.) The biscuits were on the counter, in a canister. I had baked them and let them cool overnight before putting them in the canister. I even had the canister left open slightly so if there was any moisture, they could dry out.

It did not work. They ended up getting moldy at the bottom. I set the jar of starter on the same counter, unknowingly putting it right next to floating mold spores! I would not be surprised if some mold spores floated right into my jar of starter. And, thus, INFECTION!

But, now I have activated my new sourdough starter. I have also thrown out the bad biscuits and cleaned everything! Hopefully I got it all and won't have another infection.

Have a fabulous shopping weekend - if you are shopping!

Baking Bread - Sourdough #2

I made sourdough - official San Francisco sourdough - previously. Although my first attempt was unsuccessful, my second attempt was not bad. But, my second attempt was using the same starter and baking method that came with the sourdough starter I purchased from SourdoughBreads.com and was baked the very next day. I consider it a "do-over".

The next time I baked sourdough bread was before Thanksgiving. I don't really know why. I think I wanted to have some bread on hand in case anyone wanted some with the meal. We ended up not having any at all with the Thanksgiving dinner!

I did a major no-no by the real sourdough standards and added commercial yeast. (Gasp!) I followed the recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook for sourdough bread. (There is also a recipe for creating the sourdough starter, but I just used my purchased starter.) I also was getting a little creative, and wanted to make some pretty rolls with the bread dough.

I would say this method of adding some commercial yeast made my impatient side very happy. The bread was made in one day rather than two, and there were only a few hours between rises, as opposed to 4 or more. But, it wasn't very sour. Perhaps I should have left the starter at room temp to ferment overnight? Or was it adding the commercial yeast? Hmmm. . . I will have to try it again with fermenting overnight to see if it ends up more sour. Another experiment!

Another thing regarding the crust of the sourdough - we like the crust soft. Before the loaf or rolls went into the oven, I coated them with melted margarine. Halfway through the baking time, I took them out and coated them again. I have noticed that the back of my oven cooks hotter than the front of my oven. So, in order to have an even browning, halfway through the baking time, I turn whatever I'm baking 180 degrees. This turns out to be a convenient time to cover the loaf or rolls with the melted margarine. Then, at the end of baking, I coated them a final time with the melted margarine.

I divided the dough in half and made a loaf with one half and Cloverleaf rolls with the other half.


The rolls looked homemade, lopsided and different sized. The sourdough loaf was gorgeous by my previous standards!


And, like I stated before, they were not sour really, but they sure were good! Happily, they were devoured.

My next attempt (Sourdough #3) at baking sourdough bread will be to use the Kneadlessly Simple recipe, which also calls for adding commercial yeast. Check out the author, Nancy Baggett, and her book at her blog site.

Baking Bread - English Muffin Loaves

After checking out Nancy Baggett's Kneadlessly Simple book, I decided my first loaf EVER should come from the section Easiest Ever Yeast Breads. I like English Muffins, and it did sound really simple.

And, it was! I baked the loaves over a weekend, and enjoyed them all week. They were yummy and yeasty, and extremely good toasted with butter and jam, just like English muffins. The interesting thing for me was the texture on the inside of the loaf. It was more dense than English muffins and store-bought bread. But, for my first loaf EVER, I thought they turned out pretty good. (Sorry there are no pictures. This was baked before I began blogging, and I didn't think to take pictures.)

Now, I am more aware of what dough looks like as it is rising, what it feels like, and smells like. All those things I had no experience with before, so I had no idea what to expect, really. If you haven't checked out her book and the Kneadlessly Simple method, I highly recommend it, especially for beginning bakers like me. It is extremely educational, helpful and fun because she makes it so easy.

One thing I made a mistake on was the greasing of the loaf pans. I poured vegetable oil in the pans and tipped them around to try and coat the sides. I ended up with a lot of oil in the bottom of the pan. The oil was definitely too much, and kind of soaked the corners of my loaves. It was okay - the corners just ended up more crunchy. The next time I baked a loaf in the loaf pan (see Easy Oat Loaves), I just poured about a teaspoon of oil into the pan and used a paper towel to spread the oil in the pan and around the sides. That worked much better for me!

Baking Bread - Sourdough #1

My husband and I love sourdough bread. In my quest to learn how to bake bread, of course, this was one we both wanted. It is much more involved than other breads. I won't say difficult, but, involved is accurate. Not one I would recommend for a first loaf ever baked. So, naturally, it was my second loaf ever.

This was the result of my first attempt to bake sourdough bread.

The inside was rubbery. It did not rise at all. I could still see the layers from the kneading and the rounding. It was not pretty! And, I would say, not edible! (Sorry the picture is not great, it was taken at around 11pm with the camera on my phone. I was sending it as a picture message to my husband, who wrote back to say, "It looks like the loaf exploded!")

I can understand why baking bread is intimidating or time-consuming. I was just way too impatient. I never thought I would learn patience from baking. But, it is a necessary skill, trait, virtue. . . whatever you want to call it, you need it, especially for baking sourdough.

So, I learned that real San Francisco sourdough is made from a particular type of wild yeast and lactobacillus that are naturally found in the San Francisco area. If the sourdough is not made with this combination, it is not San Francisco sourdough. I purchased my San Francisco sourdough starter from Linda at SourdoughBreads.com. She has a very reasonable and competitive price, and offers free technical support, which has been awesome for me.

The starter was easy to activate. Feeding it flour and water for 3 days and watching it grow and bubble was cool, like a science experiment! But, I had trouble getting the active sponge right for my first loaf - obviously. I thought it was supposed to ferment overnight and be very active (bubbly) in the morning. It wasn't very bubbly in the morning, but I used it anyway. (Impatience!)

I was bummed with the result, but I felt like I knew what I did wrong - not using an active sponge and being very, very impatient. After watching the starter for 3 days, I had a vague idea of when it was active. So, I thought I would skip the fermenting overnight part and just use the starter when it was very active.

I put my plan into action, and the second loaves were much more successful. (Sorry, no pictures! We ate them too fast!) I still wasn't real happy with them. I thought they were kind of doughy and too dense. But, we gobbled them up so they must not have been that bad.

One thing about baking sourdough with this starter is in order to keep the starter from getting huge and possibly taking over your kitchen, it is recommended to pour all but 1/4 cup down the drain before feeding with the 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water.

It got to me after a while, just throwing this stuff down the drain. So, I poured the excess off into another bowl and thought I would figure out what to do with it later. I continued working with the 1/4 cup in the main bowl. When my husband saw the extra, he decided to make sourdough pancakes with it.

They were really fluffy! I guess the yeast made them rise a little when cooking. They were yummy, too. He made a bunch and we froze what we didn't eat that day. So, I think that's what we'll do when we bake sourdough bread now - make pancakes with the pour-off!

Sourdough #2 coming later . . .

Baking Bread - Easy Oat Loaves

Recipe from Kneadlessly Simple: fabulous, fuss-free, no-knead breads by Nancy Baggett

This recipe was very easy, and I had all the ingredients on hand in the pantry already. No need to buy special stuff! The mixing of the ingredients to make the dough for the first rise was simple. I did it in the early afternoon, and set it in the refrigerator for the 3-10 hours she recommends for the best flavor. Then, before turning in for the night (10pm), I took the bowl out of the fridge and put it in the coldest room in our house, for the 12-18 cool room rise. This room was about 66 degrees when we got up the next morning. The dough did not look as if it had risen very much though. I was beginning to get worried. But, I think the room may have just been too cool. As the day progressed and got warmer, the dough was rising noticeably. I remember thinking at one point, “It has risen more in the last hour than it did all night!”

After about 13 hours (around 11am), I prepared the dough for the second rise, the warm room rise. This was just a convenient time for me to do it. First, I prepared the 2 loaf pans by pouring just a little oil in the bottom and then using a folded paper towel to wipe the oil around the bottom and sides of the loaf pan. This method of coating and oiling the pans worked much better for me than pouring oil in the pan and tipping the pan around to spread the oil. When I did that, I ended up with way too much oil! The recipe calls for about a tablespoon of oats to be put in the pan and then spread around. But, I think a tablespoon was kind of light. And, I didn’t go all the way up the sides of the loaf pan either, but you could!

Then, I stirred the dough with a sturdy wooden spoon, but it didn’t really seem to stir. I think this step is really just to deflate the dough. But, it was a workout! That dough was stiff. Then, I cut the dough in half – or at least, I tried to cut the dough in half! I took a long serrated knife (used usually only for carving turkey in our house!), wiped oil on both sides (using the folded paper towel from oiling the pans), and cut the dough while still in the bowl. (I didn’t want to dirty the cutting board. Lazy or smart? I don’t know! Both perhaps.) Once the dough was cut into mostly equal portions, the portions went into the loaf pans. I prepped the tops of them and covered them with plastic and set them in the warmest spot in the house for the 2-3 hour warm room rise.

Our temps here have been super nice – right in the mid-70’s. Inside our house, it was slightly cooler, a few degrees or so. So, I went about my business, and checked on the loaves after 3 hours, and it seemed they had hardly risen. They did take a long time to rise. My husband joked they were “late risers”. HA! I set them there around 11:30am, and I think they were finally ready to bake at about 6pm. In the book, there is a troubleshooting section, and I checked it for “extremely slow rising”. The slow rising could be because the room was too cool, or my yeast could have been getting old. She recommended putting the yeast in an airtight container in the fridge after it was opened. I did not do that! (Oops!) But, I’ll do it now!

The loaves turned out beautifully though. Nice and browned on top, with a crunchy crust. The oats on top were pretty, and on the bottom, they were crunchy. The slash cut into the top of the loaf didn’t open up like I thought it would, but it made a nice indent. The inside of the loaf was soft and crumbly, more like a loaf you would get from the store, but still not quite the same. We cut a slice to try once they were out of the loaf pans. We couldn’t wait - they smelled so good – yeasty and fresh. We put some butter on the slice, and took a bite. It was a nice flavor, not as sweet as I had imagined with the honey being in there, but still very tasty. And, interestingly, I did not see any oats actually inside the loaf! I know they were mixed in there, but I didn’t see any.

All in all, definitely bread I will make again. The husband liked it a lot. And it really was super easy. Gonna give the second loaf to a friend as a Thank You for letting me borrow a Halloween costume! I’ll let you know what she thinks of it. She’s quite the baker herself. I could learn a thing or two from her probably!

‘Til the next adventure!