Multi Grain Rye Bread for Autumn

Look at all that whole grain goodness, side by side with rich molasses and yummy sweet honey! Flaxseed meal, corn meal and whole oats were the start of what turned out to be a great bread for sandwiches as well as a great dunking bread for soup.

 The not so secret ingredient is rye flour, which rounds out the flavor in this dense but soft and filling bread.

I experimented by using coconut oil in place of canola oil. I always cut my oil measurement in half by adding applesauce, which has pectin that helps the dough rise and be soft and moist. This recipe will make two, and if you need to you can freeze one for later. 

Multi Grain Rye Bread

2 1/2 c. potato water, or tap water warmed up to about 100 degrees

2 T. yeast

1 c whole oats

1/4 c each corn meal, flaxseed meal and honey

3 T each coconut oil, applesauce, and molasses ( you can use 1/3 c oil in place of coconut oil and applesauce)

1 1/2 t. salt 

2 c rye flour

3 c each whole wheat and white flour

In a large bowl combine the warm water, yeast, oats, cornmeal, flaxseed meal, honey and molasses. Stir lightly and let sit for about 5 minutes, until the yeast starts to foam. 

Add the coconut oil, applesauce, molasses, salt and rye flour. Stir and then add 1 cup each of the whole wheat and white flour.  Stir again and then add the rest of the flour a half of a cup at a time, kneading as you go, until you get a nice smooth dough, about 10 minutes. Place back in the large bowl and then let rise until double in bulk. Punch down and form into two loaves. Place into large bread pans and let rise again until about an inch above the edge of the pans. Bake for 35 minutes at 375 degrees. Enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday - Butternut Squash Bread

So I get a little crazy sometimes, and got a wild hair to put some squash in my bread. I've not made bread for a bit because of family stuff going on. Anyhew, let's get to the recipe because it turned out so awesomely wonderful, and even Nature Guy loved it so much he was asking for more.

Butternut Squash Bread


1 cup butternut squash, cooked and mashed
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/4 cup honey
2 T. molasses
3 T. each applesauce, and oil
2 T. yeast
1 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 1/2 t. salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
4-5 cups white flour

In a large bowl combine the warm water, honey, molasses, yeast, oatmeal and flaxseed meal. Let sit until foamy, about 5-10 minutes. Add the oil, applesauce and salt. Then add the whole wheat flour plus 1 cup of white flour. Stir well, then start adding flour a half a cup at a time, and when the dough starts pulling away from the side of the bowl put on a well floured counter, and start kneading. Knead for about 10 minutes until dough is no longer sticky and it forms a nice bounce ball. Let rise for about an hour and a half or until doubled in size. Divide in half to make two large loaves or make two medium size loaves and one small one. I turned the small loaf into cinnamon raisin bread, which is sooooo yummy. Grease your pans and form your loaves. Let rise until dough reaches the top of the pans and even an inch above. Bake in a preheated oven for 35 minutes for smaller loaves and 40 for larger loaves. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

Warm fragrant bread, fresh from the oven, it's comfort food for the gods. I have a dear friend that shared her way of making whole wheat bread just a bit lighter on the fat without losing flavor and consistency. She uses all applesauce for her bread, which is great the first day or two, but if you don't eat it quickly it can dry out. So I use half applesauce and half oil. We now have the best of both worlds, bread that stays soft and yummy a bit longer, and if you use olive oil or canola oil, you get the benefits associated with them. We also save the potato water from boiling potatoes as it helps with the soft nature of the bread.
I'm participating in a weight loss challenge, to jump start my previous attempts. Right now I'm hanging out at 167, which is much better than I was, but I still have a ways to go. I thought I would share this recipe as it is a family and friends favorite.

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
2 1/2 c. very warm potato or regular water
1 cup rolled oats
2-4 T. flaxseed powder
2 scant T. yeast
1/3 c. honey
2 T. molasses
1 1/2 t. salt
3 T. applesauce
3 T. olive or canola oil
3-4 c. whole wheat flour, 3 c. white flour
Pour warm water into a mixing bowl and add yeast, oats, honey and molasses. Let sit for 5 minutes for yeast to start to work.  Add applesauce, salt and oil, plus all the whole wheat flour. Mix for 10 minutes to help get the gluten working in the flour. Start adding the white flour a half a cup at a time until you get a nice smooth dough. If you have a heavy duty mixer such as a Kitchenaide let it do the kneading for you, which takes about 5 minutes by mixer. If not, then as soon as the dough starts to pull away from the bowl, through a handful of flour on a counter top or table and start kneading your dough. Keep adding white flour until it no longer sticks to the counter and you have a nice smooth ball, about 10 minutes. Place the dough ball back in the bowl, and no, you don't have to oil it. Cover and let rise for about 30-45 minutes. It rises pretty fast. punch down and knead all the bubbles out. Divide in half, form loaves and place in oiled pans. Brush with a little oil and let rise until double or more in bulk. You don't need to cover the dough this time. Set your oven rack to one from the bottom and turn on to 375 degrees. When ready bake your bread for 35 minutes. Take out and immediately turn out onto cooling rack. This makes two nice large loaves.

Autumn Morning Breakfast - Apple Craisin Maple Rolls Plus

 With the cooler mornings my thoughts tend to turn to warm comfort foods for breakfast. I have a couple of bags of apples in the fridge waiting to be sauced so I decided to create a breakfast roll that would satisfy my craving for apples and maple, with a touch of cranberries.

 The beauty of this recipe is that I got 8 large rolls, and one loaf of bread out of the batch. I was also able to use some sour milk I had on hand. With just the two of us a gallon of milk doesn't always get used like it should so instead of water I used that.

These are sweet without being overly sugary and have just the right amount of fruit without being too much. Not your typical sweet roll recipe, I used my standard bread recipe with some modifications so here it is. I hope you give it a try!

Apple Craisin Maple Rolls Plus
 bread dough
2 1/2 cups warmed sour or regular milk
2 T. yeast
1/3 c. honey
2 T. molasses
1 1/2 c. old fashioned oats
3 heaping tablespoons flax seed powder
3 T. apple sauce
3 T. oil
2 t. salt
6 or more cups white flour, or you can add a bit of whole wheat if you like
filling
4 small apples cored, sliced and chopped
1 c. chopped Craisins
1/4 cup each brown and white sugar
1 T. lemon juice
1/4 t. each ground cloves, allspice and cardamom
1/2 t. nutmeg
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. chopped pecans or walnuts
1/4 c. flour
softened butter

Combine warmed milk, yeast, honey, molasses, oats, applesauce and flax seed powder in mixing bowl. Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add oil and salt along with 3 cups of flour. Turn mixer on low and combine. Add more flour, 1-2 cups and mix on stir. Dough should be forming a ball by this time, knead either by hand on a floured board, or using the mixer, adding 1/4 cup of flour at a time if still sticky. Knead by hand for 10 minutes, until nice smooth ball forms, or by mixer 5 minutes dusting with flour until dough no longer sticks to sides of bowl. Place dough in bowl and let rise for about 30 minutes. Turn oven on to 375 degrees.
While dough is rising combine filling ingredients in a medium bowl and oil a 9 x 13 pan as well as 1 large loaf pan. After dough has risen for 30 minutes divide in half. Form one half into a loaf and place in loaf pan. The other half roll out on floured board to make a 10 x 14 inch rectangle. With a pastry brush lightly brush dough with butter. Spread apple mixture over the dough out to the edges. Roll up the long side and slice into 8 rolls. Place in oiled cake pan and let both bread and rolls rise for 30 minutes or until the bread loaf  is 1 1/2 inches above the pan. Bake one level above the bottom rack level, rolls for 25 minutes and bread for 35. Immediately take bread out of pan and place on rack to cool. Combine 2 cups powdered sugar with 2 t. maple flavoring. Add just enough water to make a smooth and thick but pourable glaze. Drizzle glaze over rolls and serve. Enjoy!

Enjoying the fruits of the season

What could be better than fresh bread warm from the oven? A nice big pot of creamy soup to go with it!
It's cooled down a bit here, which inspires me to come up with some cool weather dishes. We had some dutch oven chicken left over from a dinner last week, but not enough to take care of the both of us. So I took a boneless, skinless chicken breast and threw it in a 2 qt. pot with some fresh Rosemary, Sage, and 1 1/2 quarts of water, along with 1 cup of wild rice mix. I let that simmer while I sauteed 1 chopped onion in 3 T. butter and 1 of oil in a large soup pot. I also took half each of one very large green, and one very large orange bell pepper and roasted them in the oven. After the onion was nice and caramelized, I added the mixture in the small pot, as well as 2 more quarts of water. I cut up one large carrot, and cut the kernels from one ear of fresh sweet corn. I added 2 chicken bullion cubes, and one small can of diced green chilies. I seasoned with 2 tsps of seasoning salt, and 1/2 t. garlic powder. Then I added 1/2 tsp thyme as well as 1 tsp course ground pepper. One bay leaf went in as well. This simmers until the rice was done. I turned down the burner and pulled out the chicken to cut up. I added the leftover dutch oven chicken from last week, and that gave the soup a nice creamy consistency. I also chopped up and added the roasted bell peppers at this point. For anyone who would like to try this or a variation, I would add a can of either cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup since you probably won't have dutch oven chicken sitting around. I would also use 2 chicken breasts, plus 2 carrots.

The bread was a variation on my Italian bread recipe. I'll make this easier to follow here. The one thing I noticed about this bread is that it is so soft and delicious. I think it may be because we used actual best for bread flour instead of unbleached flour. My husband raved about it.
Place in mixing bowl of mixer fitted with a dough hook:
1 1/2 c. warm water
2 T. yeast
1 t. sugar
Let sit in bowl to proof or get foamy. Add:
3 T. oil
1 t. salt
1/4 c. corn meal
1/2 c. oats
3 cups of Best for Bread flour
Mix well. Gradually add more flour, 1/4 of a cup at a time, until dough forms a nice smooth ball.
Place in well oiled baking dish or casserole. Let rise until doubled and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Let sit for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

This bread is not only great for soups, but makes a fabulous french toast for breakfast. As an added healthy topping for our french toast this morning I took about 1/2 cup of maple syrup and warmed it up in a small pot, added a small chopped, unpeeled, granny smith apple, and a handful of walnut pieces. This was so wonderful over the french toast, you should really give it a try!