Whole Wheat Seed Bread

I've discovered a new favorite bread to make!  This stuff is addicting and it works so well in many contexts.  We've had it the last couple of nights as garlic bread.  It went sooooooo well with the mussels I made on Friday night and made a nice accompaniment to our pork ribs tonight.

The recipe is adapted from the Cuisinart Bread Maker Cookbook where it's entitled "Nutty Whole Wheat Bread".  I've only put seeds in it so far, so I'm just going to call it seed bread.  I don't know if I'll try adding nuts to it, I think it might change the consistency or the character of the bread too much. 

Here are the ingredients if you want to have a go at it.  It makes a great sandwich loaf and also shapes nicely for baguettes or more rustic looking loaves.

Whole Wheat Seed Bread

1 1/4c buttermilk (80-90 degrees)
1tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp butter (at room temp)
1 1/2 tbsp honey
4c whole wheat flour
2 tbsp vital wheat gluten
2 1/4 tsp yeast
3/4c sunflower seeds
1/4c sesame seeds

1. Place all ingredients except the seeds in the breadmaker in the order listed. Select wheat bread if you're going to make a sandwich loaf in the breadmaker, or dough cycle if you want to shape your bread.

2.When the mix in tone sounds (or after the dough has been mixed and kneaded add in the seeds). 

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3.  If shaping your bread, when the dough is done rising take it out of the bread machine and separate it into two equal halves.  With lightly oiled hands on an oiled board shape the two loaves.  Let them rise for 30 minutes in a warm place covered with a kitchen towel.

4.  After rising, make three 1/4 inch deep diagonal slashes on top of the loaves.

5.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Make sure the loaves sound hollow when tapped.

Light Rye Caraway Rolls

At first I was thinking about making a batch of bagels this afternoon, but I thought some rolls might be a bit more versatile, so I went with that idea instead.  Most of the time when I make rolls I usually end up making herb rolls, but since I was thinking breakfast and lunch food for the kids I thought I'd leave room for peanut butter and jelly compatibility too, hence the switch to rye rolls. 

I've never actually made these before, it was an experiment!  I'm really happy with the way they turned out though.  Once again I used the breadmaker, but if you've read a few bread type posts on this blog (like this one or this one) you'll know what to do if you don't have one. 

I think the first time I came to appreciate rye bread was while I was spending time discerning at St. Walburga's in Colorado.  The bread they put out for breakfast was rye and they always had honey on the table that I ended up spreading on it (instead of jam).  I became somewhat addicted to the really good bread with a touch of butter and a smear of honey.  When I have rye in the mornings now I'll usually add a dash of cinnamon too.  Hmm....I wonder if I can tweak this into a honey-cinnamon roll recipe sometime.  That might be fun. 

I do something a little different with my rolls.  I boil them before I bake them.  I think I saw bagels being boiled on a food show one time and thought it was interesting and I thought I'd try it.  I wanted to give them the sort of texture that bagels have so I boiled them and I really liked the result. 

Anyways, here's the roll recipe in case you feel a carb craving coming on like I did.

Oh and by "light" I don't mean low fat necessarily, I mean light rye instead of dark rye.

Light Rye Caraway Rolls
(my own experiment)

Ingredients
1 1/4c warm water
2 tsp salt
3tbsp honey
2tbsp butter
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
2 c all purpose flour
1/2c rye flour
1tbsp caraway seeds
1tbsp vital wheat gluten
2 1/4 tsp yeast

quart or more of water
1tbsp sugar


Method
1.  Add the first 10 ingredients in the order listed into your bread maker pan on dough setting.

2.  Take out the dough after the cycle has completed and divide into 12 equal pieces.  Shape into balls. 

3.  Boil a quart (or maybe more) of water in a small pot with 1tbsp of sugar.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

4.  Drop each ball of dough into the boiling water for 30seconds-1 minute then pull out with a slotted spoon and put it on the cookie/baking sheet you'll be baking it on.

5.  Once all the dough balls have been boiled score a cross on top of each one 1/4 inch deep (this will help them keep their shape and not explode on the bottom).

6.  Bake in the 400 degree oven for about 12 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Enjoy with honey and cinnamon in the morning or some cheese and salami in the afternoon or with dinner! 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear God,
thank you for the smell of fresh bread.  Thank you for coming to us humbly as bread so that we might be able to be as close to you as food and drink.  Amen.

Rosemary Honey Lamb and Herbed Foccacia Bread

Oh I've got a good one for you tonight.

Top foods had a sale on all natural grass fed lamb (and beef too!), so lamb was on the menu tonight. 

I got a couple of lamb shoulder cuts because those looked like the most economical.  You know, more meat, less bone, cheapest.  Gotta go with economical when you're buying grass fed meat.

A few days ago Jon and I were talking about food I should make that I could blog about and he enthusiastically blurted out, "You should do a post on foccacia bread!"  Jon doesn't usually get so enthused about food, but apparently (I found this out today) the foccacia bread is the best bread he's ever had.  Wow!  Ha ha!  Funny, how he doesn't really tell me these things the first time I make them.  Silly husband.

Tonight's lamb recipe comes from mom.  I don't really know where she got it, and again she doesn't really give me measurements, but hey, it all works out.  Let me just say that you can take some liberties with the quantities of ingredients in the lamb marinade. 

I ran out of dijon mustard, but I had some spicy brown mustard in the fridge so I went half and half with that.

Mom's Rosemary and Honey Lamb Chops
adapted from Mom

2 lamb shoulder chops

4 cloves of garlic minced
2tbsp of honey
2 tbsp oil (I used sunflower)
1tbsp dijon mustard
1tbsp spicy brown mustard
juice of 1 lemon
1tbsp rosemary

1.  Throw everything but the lamb into a ziplock bag and mix it around a bit until it's well combined.

2.  Put the lamb chops in the bag, get all the air out and seal it.

3.  Refrigerate the chops for at least 4 hours and up to 24.  I let them marinate for 5-6 hours today.

4.  About an hour before you're ready to bake them take them out of the fridge and let them come up to room temp.

5.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 

6.  Bake your chops for 20-25 minutes depending on size and desired doneness. 

This is a pic of the chops right before they went into the oven. Some people like to take all the marinade off, but I like the chunks of garlic and herbs on there. 

Unfortunately I wasn't so careful about how long I cooked my chops for and they came out slightly overdone after 25 minutes.  They weren't incredibly large and I should have probably only cooked them for 20 minutes. The flavor was still intense though and they weren't rock hard or anything. 

I let them rest for a few minutes after cooking while the foccacia bread was baking too.

Speaking of foccacia bread.  Here's the recipe.

It's adapted from my Cuisinart convection bread maker recipe book.  Just as the sandwich bread was made in the breadmaker, so was this dough.  I'll put some instructions on how to make the dough without a bread maker down at the bottom.

Herbed Foccacia Bread - 1lb foccacia round
Ingredients for bread
3/4c water (80-90 degrees)
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1tsp salt
3/4c whole wheat flour
1 1/3c all purpose flour
1tsp active dry yeast

Ingredients for topping

2 tbsp oil (I used sunflower because of the high heat, though I know that extra virgin gives a better flavor.  Darn carcinogens.  Bah.)

1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano
3 tbsp italian seasoning (or chopped fresh herbs - basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, parsley) - I used dried.

1.  Place all these ingredients in your bread maker in the order shown and set it on the dough cycle!

2.  When the cycle is done oil your fingers and take the dough out, punch it down, shape it into a round disc (about 1 inch thick), put it onto your baking sheet and cover with a tea towel and let it rise for 40 minutes.

3.  Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
(If you have a pizza stone feel free to use this, otherwise a regular cookie sheet works fine.  If you want the crust on the bottom to be crispy you can take the bread off the cookie sheet a few minutes before it's done and put it straight on an oven rack. )

4.  Make indentations in the dough with oiled fingertips all over.  Drizzle with oil.  Sprinkle with salt, cheese, and herbs and put your dough into the oven.

If you're wondering about my crazy cookie sheet it's specially designed for pizza baking.  It ensures a crispy bottom without a pizza stone.

 

5.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until crust is golden brown and cheese has darkened a bit.

(If you need to make this without a bread maker combine the yeast and warm water.  When the yeast/water mixture is frothy add the rest of the ingredients and mix well until a dough ball forms.   Knead it for a couple minutes.  Put the dough ball into a well oiled bowl and let it rise until doubled in bulk. Probably around 45 minutes.  Then just follow the rest of the instructions starting with #2.)

Enjoy!!

Oh, but you must enjoy it this way.  It's the best.  I got this idea from this fantastic restaurant called Griffins.  It's one of my family's favorite restaurants to go to for celebrations (birthdays, mother's day, father's day etc.)  It's at the bottom of the Hotel Vancouver in downtown.  You should go, the food is great.

In a bowl combine extra virgin olive oil, good quality balsamic (I say good quality because I've had some really sour horrible stuff before.  I got what I paid for.  Ick!), and 2 cloves of minced garlic!   Use this as your dipping sauce.  It's wonderful.  If you want to get super fancy you can add some minced sun dried tomatoes and italian herbs to this.  Tonight we went simpler with just the garlic.

Dinner must have been decent tonight because Jon ate in the wrong order.  He usually goes for his veggies first like a good health nut.  Then the meat, then the starch.  Yes, he eats everything in separate stages.  I still think it's odd.  Anyways, tonight he ate meat first, then bread, then broccoli.  Success in my book.  Hee hee!

Sometimes I just get lazy. So here's a bread recipe.

Well tonight I just couldn't bring myself to break out the halibut sitting in the freezer.  I didn't really know what to do with it and I just had this intense desire for sushi. 

Jon indulged me and we tried a restaurant around here that I think is relatively new called Sushi Spott.  It was decent.  The spider roll and california rolls I had were great, but it was kinda pricey.  But I'll be honest, any sushi down here seems ridiculously expensive to me in comparison to sushi prices in Vancouver (BC).  I think it's because sushi is like fast food in Vancouver.  I almost think there are more sushi places than McDonald's in Vancouver.   

Nonetheless, I didn't cook tonight.  But I did make a loaf of bread earlier in the week that I didn't blog about.  So if you're interested in making whole wheat bread that is great for sandwiches read on. 

Buttermilk Whole Wheat Bread (2lb loaf)

adapted from the Cuisinart convection bread maker recipe booklet

1 1/2 cups buttermilk (warm 80-90 degrees)
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp honey
4 cups whole wheat flour
2tsp vital wheat gluten
2 1/4tsp active dry yeast

If you're using a bread machine, you can just throw all of those ingredients into it in the order listed and set it to the whole wheat setting.  That's what I do.

If you're doing it by hand (or by mixer) I think you'd just have to mix together the yeast and buttermilk first and wait until it's frothy, then mix in the rest of the ingredients and knead it well.  Put it in a greased bowl, cover it with a dish towel and let it rise somewhere warm until it has doubled in bulk, then punch it down, knead it again and let it rise in a greased, covered bowl again.  Then punch down, knead and roll it into a loaf and tuck the ends under and let it rise in a loaf pan (again covered with a dish towel).  Then bake!
From checking other bread recipes I think 35-50 minutes at 350 degrees should do it.
After it's done baking try to get it out of the pan as soon as possible and onto a cooling rack so that it doesn't get a soggy bottom. 

I know that some other recipes only have you let the bread rise twice (the last rise being inside the loaf pan) but I haven't ever tried that since I always use the breadmaker.  I haven't mixed this type of bread without a bread maker since right after Jon and I got married.  Sourdough is another story. 

Unlike most recipes you'll find for whole wheat bread this bread recipe uses completely whole wheat flour. So more fiber!  I've had success with variations  like replacing 1/2cup of the wheat flour with rye flour and adding 1 tbsp caraway seeds for a light rye bread.  The only thing you should really be careful with is the size of the grains on your wheat flour.  I have tried 2 different types and one of my flours was just too heavy because you could still see chunks of wheat berries in there.  It makes for a nice grainy texture in some breads, but loaves don't rise very well with flour that heavy. 

So go ahead and try it!  You'll be making bread without high fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, msg and preservatives!  We love having fresh bread and this is the stuff Jon makes his work lunch with every day.....so it can't be that bad.  If nothing else, the smell of fresh bread in your house is enough motivation to try right?