Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns

Whole Wheat Buns

This recipe is terrific without adding the salt, it rises perfectly. This recipe is designed for 1.5 lb size, most machines can easily accommodate this amount of flour. 1 cup water 1 egg 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 3/4 tsp salt 1/4 cup shortening 1/4 cup sugar 3 tsp dry yeast 1 Place all ingredients into your bread maker as manufacture directs. 2 Set machine to dough, press start.  my finished dough from my bread maker 3 When dough is finished in the machine, gently roll out dough on a floured surface into a 12-inch rope. 4 Divide the dough into 8 pieces for hamburger buns, or 12 pieces for hot dog buns with a sharp knife. 5 Grease a baking sheet, or use parchment paper. Roll pieces of dough into balls for hamburger buns or 6 inch rolls for hot dog buns. Place them on your prepared baking sheet.  My dough ready for rising 6 Let rise in a warm oven for 10-15 minutes until almost doubled. (hint: To warm oven slightly, set oven to lowest setting for 2 minutes, then turn off.)  my hamburger buns risen waiting for preheated oven 7 Remove the buns for the oven and pre-heat your oven to 400*. Bake your buns for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven, and cool on racks.  my fresh baked hamburger buns 8 These freeze very well. Make a double batch! Servings: 12 Yield: 12 Hot Dog buns or 8 Hamburger buns I got this recipe from THIS site. I added the listed salt amount. I followed this recipe by the book. Nothing changing.

Homemade Wheat Bread

My husband is a bread fanatic... if you haven't figured that out by now. My other bread recipes that are not from scratch, kneaded by hand and all that, he does eat but doesn't LOVE it! This bread recipe is pretty much the same as the one he LOVES except I substituted about 6 cups of whole wheat flour for part of the unbleached flour. I am really trying to add whole grains where ever possible. Here's hoping he loves it just as much. If not, I'll be making more tomorrow.

Ingredients:

6 cups hot water
2 Tbsp yeast
1/2 cup LDS church dry milk or 1 cup regular dry milk
1 cup sugar
6-8 cups of unbleached flour - plus extra for kneading
2 Tbsp salt
3/4 cup oil
6 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:

Mix the first 4 ingredients together with a wire whisk. Then add 6 cups of unbleached flour and whisk until a paper mache' consistency. Then whip for another 100 strokes. Let set for approx. 1 hour

then add the salt and oil, stir with a fat plastic spatula (I got mine at IKEA). Then add the 6 cups of whole wheat flour. mixing as best you can, then turn onto a floured surface (use unbleached flour). Then start kneading the rest of the flour in to it. Once it isn't too sticky, then let set for 5 minutes.

Place dough into a large metal bowl (also from IKEA) let rise til double in size three times. Each time punching it down and turning it over. Then form into loaves, pizza dough, or rolls.  Let rise until double in size.

Bake 350F for 26 minutes for bread and 18 minutes for rolls. Pizza dough is 10 minutes to pre-bake, then another 10 minutes with toppings at 450F.

Honey Oat & Wheat Bread (Bread maker)

As I have a chicken and wild rice dish in the slow cooker. I decided that some fresh bread would go well with it. As I'm sick, I don't have the energy to make my homemade bread from scratch today. So, luckily, I have a bread maker. I decided to have it work for me. Therefore, I can have fresh bread tonight with dinner, from scratch, where I didn't have to "work" for it. That's working smarter not harder... right. I'm surprised that my brain is working enough for me to figure that out on my own. :)

I have been loving the oat breads that I've been making lately, but wanted something using wheat flour, as I have a TON and I need to use it up. So, I found this recipe online. And it sounded wonderful. She uses all organic. I don't. I removed the organic. I read through the comments and adjusted where I felt it needed adjusting. Here's hoping it turns out delicious. It sounds delicious to me. I plan on making two of these today.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 C warm water (NOT HOT) 1 Tbsp olive oil  1/3 C honey  1 tsp salt  1 C Rolled Oats  2 C Whole Wheat flour 1 C unbleached Bread Flour  1 tsp yeast

2 tsp vital wheat gluten

Directions:

Add ingredients to bread machine in order (Unless your bread maker calls for flour first)
Use white bread cycle - I go with Medium crust
for a softer crust wrap with plastic wrap right away - the steam softens the crust

12 - 1 slice servings (including ends)

Makes a great sandwich bread and really yummy toast! 

English Muffins

I found this awesome magazine at Costco the other day. It is called Homemade Bread. It has some amazing sounded breads to make from scratch. I'm going to try many of them, and then you can have the recipe and my review of it. This week I made English Muffins from this magazine's recipe. It was different than my other English Muffin recipe so I was intrigued to try it out. I however, needed to make a triple batch as the original recipe said it only made 18 English Muffins. I am prepping for a week long trip to California with my in-laws, and we are bringing our food for the trip. I know it's a lot of work, but it will save us a TON of money on food that way. So, feeding 7 people for 7 days (making sure they have enough choices and food) is the hard part. My family LOVES English Muffins with cream cheese. So instead of purchasing TONS of English Muffins, I decided to save money and make them. They are easy to make and way healthier for you. No preservatives which is really nice. My kids keep snitching these, which is a good sign. Meaning, make extra, your gonna want them. They also freeze well.  I will post the original batch, and then my tripled batch amounts. (my triple batch made 70 english muffins). The directions are the same no matter if you make the single or triple batches.

English Muffins
Ingredients (single batch-makes 18 english muffins)
1 2/3 cup milk, scalded (180 degrees F)
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp honey
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
Cornmeal for dusting

Ingredients (Triple batch-makes 70 English muffins)
4 2/3 cup milk, scalded (180 degrees F)
12 Tbsp unsalted butter
4 1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp honey
3 large eggs, lightly beaten (I used powdered eggs, as I was all out of eggs)
2 pkg yeast (4 1/2 tsp) yeast
12 cups all-purpose flour (I used Lehi rollermills unbleached flour, can use bread flour)
3 cups whole wheat flour
Cornmeal for dusting

Directions:
Pour scalded milk into a large mixing bowl. Stir in butter, salt and honey, and mix until the butter is melted. Let cool to 105 degree F. Stir in the egg and yeast. Stir in both flours, and mix to form a rough ball.

Turn dough out onto a floured board, and knead for five to eight minutes until smooth. Place dough into a large bowl, and cover with a clean cloth. Let the dough rise for one hour in a warm, draft-free area or until doubled in bulk.

Turn out the dough onto a floured board, and roll out to 1/2 inch thick. Use a 3-inch-round cookie cutter to cut dough into circles. place the circles on a baking sheet, and sprinkle lightly with corn meal on one side. Let the circles rest for 20 minutes.

Heat a griddle or cast-iron skillet over low heat. Gently place muffins in the skillet or griddle, cornmeal side down. Cook the muffins for six to eight minutes, then turn them over and cook for another six to eight minutes. Monitor them carefully to make sure they're browning and not burning. (turn heat down if starting to brown)

Slice the muffins lengthwise, and toast them. Serve with butter and jam or make a breakfast sandwich with eggs and bacon. My family likes cream cheese. Leftover muffins can be sliced and frozen. Place frozen muffin halves in the toaster to thaw.

**For a sweet change of pace, add 1 cup of raisins or dried fruit to the dough before kneading.

Creamy Pesto Shrimp and Spinach Whole Wheat Pasta

Tonight was Shrimp Pasta on the menu. I had some frozen shrimp to use. I wanted to use the shrimp and then looked up a few recipes online to see how other people would make shrimp pasta. I saw a lot of Alfredo and Linguini and a few pesto, even some with tomato stuff. So I had a lot of options to choose from if I was going to copy a recipe already online. However, I saw a recipe for creamy pesto, and I had a "lightbulb" moment. Don't you just love those... :) I sure do. So I read how they made it and then I realized I was missing a few items to make this and I had to go to Walmart to get a few uniform shirts for my son. So I picked up half and half and some parmesan cheese. That's all I needed for a delicious meal.

Long story short. I made up my own recipe. I have to say this is by far my favorite shrimp pasta I've made. What do you think?

Ingredients:

2-3 cups half and half

1 cup parmesan cheese

1/4 stick butter

4 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp garlic, minced

3 cups fresh spinach

1/5 orange bell pepper, minced

2 fresh basil leaves

1/2 tsp garlic, minced

1 pkg Knoll pesto mix

60-70 medium shrimp (deveined, peeled, tails off, raw)

1-1lb package dried pasta of choice

Directions:

In a large pot bring water to boil, add salt and pasta, stirring, then cook til al dente. Drain leaving about1 cup of pasta water in the pot and place back on the burner. While pasta is cooking mix the following:

In a small sauce pan over medium heat add the butter and garlic. When the butter is completely melted and bubbly, add the flour (making a rue). Then gradually add in the half and half. stirring constantly. once thickened add the parmesan cheese and the pesto mix. Stir well. This should be fairly thick, if too thick, add more half and half or 2%milk to thin out a little. (don't thin too much). Once this is thickened and mixed together. Turn off heat.

Cut up the bell pepper, garlic and basil in a small chopper. Then add to the finished pasta along with the cut, fresh spinach. Then stir. Once evenly distributed add the shrimp. Cook until shrimp turns pink. Once the shrimp is pink, add the creamy pesto sauce to the pasta/shrimp/spinach mixture. Stirring over medium heat until slightly thickened. Then turn off heat and let set for 5 min. The sauce with continue to thicken. Then serve.

Believe it or not, this meal only took me 30 minutes to prepare and make. This is so good and full of vitamins. You can substitute milk for the half and half. But the sauce was delicious. I got all of my kids to eat their whole plates, My oldest had two plates full. That's huge! I was full with one plate since it's such a filling dish. This will have enough for almost 7 people with a hearty appetite. I hope you really enjoy this dish, as much as we did :)

Once the pasta is finished and the sauce is finished.

Whole Wheat, Spelt, Millet Bread

I had someone suggest that I put more bread recipes on here, so here is a bread that I made today. It is as easy as bread can be. It takes a little while to make, but can be done in the morning. It took me 3 hrs from start to pulled out of the oven. I know it sounds like a long time, however, most of that time was rising and baking. So actual work on it, is only like 20 min or so. Not too bad to end up with some delicious bread.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 pkgs dry active yeast

3 1/2 cups warm water

2/3 cup brown sugar

6 tbsp butter, margarine or shortening

2 1/2 tsp salt

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups spelt flour

2 cups millet flour

1 cup corn meal

1/2 cup wheat flakes (optional)

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl stir together 2 cups of all purpose flour and the yeast. Set aside. In a medium sauce pan heat and stir water, brown sugar, butter/margarine/shortening, and salt just til warm (120 to 130F) and butter almost melts. Add butter mixture to dry mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 sec., scraping the sides of the bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the whole wheat flour and the other flours as much as you can. Turn dough out on to a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes). Shape dough into a ball. Place dough into a lightly greased bowl. Turning once to grease surface of the dough.

Cover and let rise in a warm place til double in size (1 - 1 1/2 hours).

Punch down dough, turn dough out onto lightly floured surface divide into 4 or 2 depending on the size of your loaf pan. Cover let rest 10 minutes, meanwhile, grease pan. Shape portions of dough into a loaf by patting or rolling.

Place shaped dough into prepared pan. cover and let rise in a warm oven till double in size (approx. 40- 60 min). DO NOT OPEN OVEN! Bake 375F for 40-45 min or till bread sounds hollow when you tap on the top with your finger. Take bread out of oven and cool on wire racks.

My yummy bread with butter :)