Fabulous Homemade Bread

I don't necessarily consider myself one of those strictly natural kind of gals.  I do, however, take the time to read the list of ingredients on items I put in my grocery cart.  What is "acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono and diglycerides" anyways?  And I've heard on more than one occasion: "you don't even want to know what a 'modified milk ingredient' is".  It's a little scary once you start really looking at what's in your food.  Especially since there was once a day that we made our food from scratch, we bought what was in season, and we were just fine without preservatives and prolonged 'freshness'.

Of course, I believe science and technology have allowed humankind to make great advances.  Food included.  I guess I'm just not fully convinced that my food has to have a list of ingredients as long as my arm and full of words I can't pronounce to be healthy or delicious.

I also believe that there's something to be said about a fresh loaf of bread.  Being at home with Grace has afforded me the opportunity to do things that I may not have done while working full-time.  Baking bread is one of those things.  I tried my hand at a few different recipes and wasn't exactly impressed with the mediocre, bland-tasting loafs they produced.  Then, I found a stellar concoction that I tweaked (of course, I do nothing 'by the book') and making bread weekly fast became a delicious habit.  Some people I talk to couldn't fathom baking their own bread either due to the time it takes, working with yeast, or not getting the results they want.  This recipe, however, will make you want to change your tune.

You need: 

1/4 cup warm water

1 1/2 packages of active dry yeast (*1 package of yeast is 2 1/4 teaspoons)

2 tablespoons bread flour

1 tablespoon brown sugar

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1 cup oats

1 cup flour

2 1/4 cups warm water

3/4 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon honey

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup oil (I prefer olive oil)

2.5-3 cups multigrain flour

2.5-3 cups bread flour

*a quick note on flour: I use a combination of Robin Hood Nutri Blend Flour and Best for Bread Blend, Multigrain

   

What you need to do: 

Stir the first four ingredients together in a warm mixing bowl.  Let sit for 5 minutes allowing yeast to activate.  Then add all remaining ingredients except the 5-6 cups of flour.  Mix for 2 minutes in your mixer fitted with the dough hook.  (You can, of course, do this by hand, but having the mixer cuts your physical investment in this bread down to a super-crazy-minimum).  Gradually add the flour until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl; dough will be a bit sticky.  Place dough in oiled bowl and let rise in a warm place free of drafts.  I often let is rise uncovered in the oven with a bowl of boiled water.  

Let rise until double in size, or about one hour.  

Divide dough into 3 pieces and roll out to form into loaves.  Place in greased pan and let rise again.

This recipe makes 3 loaves but as my husband loves little else more than cinnamon buns, I devote some of the dough to those (as pictured).  

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

A cinnamon loaf just so happens to be perfect for Sunday morning brunch; cinnamon 'bun' french toast anyone?

Seriously though, this bread is so very, very simple.  The 'hardest' part of baking bread is the rise time.  For the first time today, I used a bread machine.  Did I feel that it took away from the process?  No, not at all.  In fact, fresh bread has never been so easy.  So am I against them?  Absolutely not!  But do you need one?  Oh momma, no :)

Let's End this Damn Hiatus

It's been almost a year to the day since my last post and that's just bullsh*t no?  My bad.

During my 372 day hiatus, I have been blessed with a beautiful baby girl, Grace Emily Rose who is now a whopping six months old.  Where does the time go?  Sure, being a new mom is tiring, consuming, frustrating, and truly wonderful.

But is that much of an excuse not to be sharing all the fabulous new recipes I've been trying?  No.  No, it isn't.  For shame.  My deepest apologies.

Now on to the exciting new things I've been doing.  Maternity leave has left me with a great deal of time to try new recipes, scour the never-ending DIY and crafty tutorials, and try my hand at, well, pretty much anything.  I've started baking my own bread because it just plain tastes better.  So does handmade pasta if you were wondering.  I woke up one morning and decided I just had enough of that ugly, old chair so I recovered it.  Gracie needed some art for her room so I painted her a canvas.  I thought it would be a good idea to teach myself to sew.  And I just inherited a very impressive collection of knitting needles and crochet hooks.  If you didn't know better, you might think I was becoming one of those meth-mommies.  But no.  No, I have the time to be creative and I'm not going to let that go to waste!

So where should I begin?  Let's start with pasta.

Who doesn't love soft, luscious, silky noodles?  You don't find an ooey, gooey bowl of mac n' cheese comforting?  Liar.  Everyone enjoys a delicious plate of ravioli.  Now imagine all of those... but better.  Fresh pasta will, quite literally, revolutionize your life.  My fabulous husband, Tim, did his research and gave me the Imperia Pasta Maker (apparently the "Rolls Royce of pasta machines") for Christmas.  I have heard, and believe, that the KitchenAid pasta attachment is pretty swell.  But there's something romantic about kneading the dough, rolling it through the machine by hand, and hanging them to dry.  Even with a two month old daughter, it's worth making the time to whip some pasta together.  Yes, I said whip it together.  It really doesn't take that long.

You need:
2 cups of flour (preferably "00" flour, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't use all-purpouse flour and cake flour quite successfully)
3 eggs

What you need to do:

Pour flour onto a flat surface and make a well in the middle.  Crack your eggs into the well and whisk gently to incorporate the flour.  

My tried and true recipe is from Jamie's Italy cookbook.

Let your pasta rest for half an hour in the fridge.  Then, roll away.

Imperia offers great and simple rolling instructions.

We hung these pasta sheets as we were figuring out how to cut noodles.  As we've made our fair share of fresh pasta, we realize this isn't such a good idea since the rack really gets its job done and dries the pasta out quite quickly.  I recommend rolling the sheets flat, cutting them into your desired shape, and then hanging them to dry.

The final preparations are stupid easy.  If you can boil water, you can make pasta.  Make sure to liberally salt your water and reserve some pasta water to loosen your favorite sauce.  The noodles cook in mere minutes.  And I mean like 2-3 minutes, not 8-12 minutes.  Smother in a yummy sauce and enjoy!

Fresh tagliatelle carbonara... mmmmm bliss in a bowl

Tomorrow, I shall share my adventures in bread baking.  I promise.