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whole wheat bread

CrumbCrumb

 Whole Wheat RollsWhole Wheat Rolls

 I tried Kippercat's whole wheat roll recipe she posted a few days ago.  I LOVE IT!  The dough was lovely to work with and I even managed to shape the rolls so that they looked as good as they tasted.  I took the photos above, it was hard not to slice that loaf as soon as I could though!  But right after pictures, we cut it, LOL.

I didn't have instant yeast so I tried to add just a bit extra of active yeast.  I also added a little extra water to proof it (both times).  Also I let the biga and soaker sit for 4 hours on the counter while I went drove to town and shopped and took longer than I thought I would.  When I was making the main dough  and I added the yeast I forgot to add the extra though. I think it could have used it. 

I only had one small loaf pan so I weighed out a pound of dough for it and the rolls were 5 oz each (I got a dozen rolls).  The loaf was too small and the rolls were too big, LOL.  The rolls rose wonderfuly but I baked them after the loaf so they had a little longer to rise.  The loaf I should have let rise a little longer but I was still amazed at how light it was.  We ate half of it still warm with butter and honey.  I had some for toast this morning and as it is toasting you can smell the honey in the recipe. Yumm... my 7 year old dd loved it. My son ate it on a sandwich and had toast but he says he doesn't like it.  But he did eat it which is something he normally won't do if he doesn't like it.

I think this will be the recipe I use all the time now.   It will be interesting when the instant yeast gets here to see if and how the bread changes.  Next time I will make a bigger loaf and rolls about 3 oz in size.

Thanks KipperCat for posting the recipe.   

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okieinalaska

Whole Wheat RollsWhole Wheat Rolls

I am a magazine junkie.  The checkout stand is my downfall.  I love in particular cooking magazines, craft magazines and just anything creative.   

A couple of weeks ago I bought the Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Baking magazine. The pumpkin praline pie on the cover won me over instantly, but inside I found another treasure....some recipes from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.  Six different recipes with wonderful mouth watering photos of the end products.  I was determined to try them.

Right away I made the Cheddar Onion Fantan Rolls....I didn't care for them.  Personally I don't like onions in bread so I am not sure why I thought I would like these, LOL.   Sorry, no picture of those but I did try the wheat rolls today. 

I made a double recipe, let them rise, made the rolls and then let them sit in the fridge overnight. This morning I took them out and let them rise.  The end result, they were pretty good but I know I can do better.  Usually I make cloverleaf dinner rolls but I didn't have the time or the energy last night to do that so I tried to just roll them into balls and set them next to each in the pan (not touching).  Most turned out ok but I think they would have looked much nicer as cloverleaf rolls.  The double recipe made 31 rolls. 

We took them to our Church Thanksgiving Feast today (along with a huge amount of sweet potato casserole).  I had expected a lot of people but there was less than 30 of us.  I think everyone was just as surprised as I was as there were 4 very large turkeys and a ton of other food.  Even after dinner, 2nd's, 3rd's and taking home leftovers I have a little bit left of everything.  (which was fine with me, LOL)  Speaking of the sweet potato casserole, it had rave reviews and they loved it.  I will def. make it every year from now on.

 Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrated it today. : )

Amy

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okieinalaska

Aunt Bert's Cinnamon Roll's

Aunt Bert's Cinnamon Roll's

 Scald 1 Cup milk, add:

      5 Tbsp. Sugar

      1 TBsp. Salt

Mix - then set aside to cool.

Dissolve 2 ½ tsp. dry yeast and 1/8 tsp. ground ginger in 1 cup luke-warm to medium warm water. Yeast should start to bubble a little in about 15 minutes.

Put milk mixture in large bowl and let it cool before adding yeast mixture.

Add 3 cups of flour, (I always use Gold Medal All Purpose) beating good. Then add 6 Tbsp Wesson oil (or any kind of liquid shortening). Add rest of flour (about 3 Cups).

Raise once. Punch down dough, cover with bowl and let dough rest for 5-10 minutes.

Lightly dust your counter top with flour. Roll dough into rectangle and brush the top with melted butter,  add  the filling.  Roll the rectangle up and cut 1" slices. I don't usually measure the filling, I just go by feel but below is a low end estimate you should probably double it. 

  FILLING:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tbs ground cinnamon

 I take my huge 17x12x3 pan and spray it with Pam, then line it with parchment paper (the Pam helps keep the paper from curling up and also gets the spots the paper doesn't cover). Then I melt approx. 1/4 cup of butter (more or less) and pour it in the bottom of the pan.  Then I take cook and serve butterscotch pudding powder (DO NOT USE THE INSTANT KIND!) and sprinkly some very lightly over the butter.  (don't over do it, less is more) Place the cinnamon rolls in the pan approx. 1" apart; let rise again.  (typically this takes an hour for me) Bake at 350° until done in the middle. (30-45 minutes is how long it usually takes for me)

ICING:  Usually I take 1 pound box of powdered sugar and mix with 1/8 to 1/2 tsp of maple flavoring then add enough milk to make it runny enough to pour.  Sorry, again I don't measure usually.  Make it to the consistency you like.  After I take the rolls out of the oven, I let them cool 5 minutes then pour the icing over the top of all the rolls. I like to have them just barely iced, it keeps the tops soft and from feeling dry and adds a little kick with the maple.

This batch I accidently put  more icing on them than I usually do but they still taste dandy.  (and usually it's a little runnier too so it's more like a light glaze)  Some people like a cream cheese icing on them but not me. 

Makes approx. 20-24 rolls.  I have a huge 17x12x3 inch pan I always bake the entire batch in. It's by Chicago Metallic Professional.  These always come out perfectly done, not doughy.  I like that they have a little crunch to the crust.  You could make these of course in smaller pans and bake in several batches.  When I am giving these away I use those little square tinfoil pans and I think they held 5.  That was a nice size to give away to friends and neighbors.

I made these for a church potluck once before and I had people hunting me down to get the recipe.  I was asked to make these for the potluck tomorrow by several people after the last time I took a cheesecake and they still couldn't stop talking about the cinnamon rolls, LOL. 

Sorry I am not so good at writing directions.  I use this same basic dough recipe for cloverleaf rolls. I will be making some for THanksgiving and will post a pic then. : ) This recipe is supposed to be almost 100 years old (the dough recipe anyway) and is from my husband's Great Aunt Bert who they think got it from her Aunt or Mother. Don't know if it's true or not but it sounds good, LOL.

Amy in Alaska

 

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okieinalaska

Cheese SnailsCheese Snails

cheese snails 2cheese snails 2

Cheese Snails 3Cheese Snails 3

These are the marvelous cream cheese snails that have been made and posted many times here. I thought they looked delicious and decided to give them a try. I really like cream cheese so decided not to make the ones with raisins/cinnamon and did the entire batch this way. At first I thought they were too small but they did rise enough that they were just the perfect size for me.

I mentioned before that I am still fairly new to bread making but I think making the same exact recipe (my mother-in-law's dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls, yes, it's the same basic dough) over and over for the last year has helped a lot. I will always be greatful to her for teaching me. I wish she lived closer as we would have a great time in the kitchen together. All of our family is in Oklahoma and we are in Alaska though, so we don't get to see them very often.

The other thing I am greatful for is patience. And I have been reminded that bread making takes lots of that as well. It's great meditative work for me (as is snow shoveling but I don't enjoy a clear driveway near as much as I do the end results from baking). But I need to keep shoveling to work off the REAR end results from baking, LOL.

Hope you all have a great weekend! I will be making a batch of cinnamon rolls for the church potluck on Sunday and will be sure to post a photo. If I get really ambitious I might try to make chocolate sticky buns as well.

Amy

 

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okieinalaska

Just wanted to jump for joy and shout it out loud. I made the Rustic Loaf recipe from this post  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/rusticbread  and it turned out pretty good.  I have only made dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls before so I am very pleased.  I haven't cut the loaf yet so not sure how it looks on the inside (or how it's supposed to look actually) but I am still proud. Can't wait to taste it. I used a Sushi knife to cut the slashes, it's the only sharp knife in the house. I learned a lot already from this one loaf.  Can't wait to make more. : )

Here is a picture!Rustic Loaf by (Hope this works!)

Had to try uploading it to yahoo, hope you can see it now

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