Basic Bread

Basic Bread Recipe
This recipe is setup to be done in a Bosch. It can be done in a Kitchen-aid but the recipe must be cut into about 1/2, on the short side of half.


INGREDIENTS:

7 CUPS FRESH GROUND WHEAT (I like to use white wheat, it have a lighter wheat taste my family doesn't even know they are eating all wheat!)

1/2 CUP POTATO FLOUR

1/2 CUP NON-FAT MILK FLOUR/POWDER

5 TBSP. SAF INSTANT YEAST ( I like to use SAF yeast it is very forgiving, if the temp of your water is a little high or not quite high enough it will still rise)

5 TBSP DOUGH ENHANCER (I use Blue Chip brand)

mix the ingredients together for about 1 minute to keep powdered milk from forming lumps when liquid is added.

ADD to dry ingredients:

6 CUPS WARM WATER (temp of water should be about 115 degrees)

1 CUP CANOLA OIL

2/3 CUP HONEY (if you put honey in same measuring cup as oil together they will pour out beautifully)

Mix ingredients well, but do not over mix.

This is what it should look like.

Now let it "sponge"! Now if you have never made bread you just went "What?!@*&^?"

Okay now quit swearing, and put a lid on it, I mean on your mix, and let it sit. It should sit about 10 minutes. It should about double in size.

When it is done "sponging" it should look about like this.

ADD:

5 BEATEN EGGS

2 TBSP SEA SALT

As soon as you have added your eggs and salt start adding more fresh ground wheat flour until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the of the bowl ( depending on the moister in the air and stuff like that it usually take another 5-8 cups), but keep in mind that the dough should not totally pick up from the bottom of the bowl. Your dough should remain sticky at this point.

You "knead" to develop gluten at this point (knead ha ha do you get it), so let your machine do your kneading for you about 5-8 minutes.

With oiled hands you can grab a small piece and flatten it in your hands as you pull on it as it gets thinner if it doesn't tear that's when the gluten has developed.

To make rolls I just put some parchment paper on a cookie sheet, then I pinch small handful size balls and place them on the parchment paper. I cover them with a light cloth while they rise. Let them rise until they double in size.

Bake at 350 degree for about 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.

If you are making loafs they should be baked for about 30 minutes and the internal temp of the loaf needs to reach 200 degrees if at the end of 30 minutes the temp has not reached that it needs to be placed back in the oven and cooked for another 5 minute or more until it reaches the target temp.

Here is the end product, good luck and good eating. Enjoy!

Tools

I was going to share with you my bread recipe and as I was preparing it I realized that I use a lot of different tools and supplies that you might not find in every grocery store. So I thought I should tell you about those first and discuss them.


First I use a Bosch. If you are unfamiliar with what a bosch is or what it can do....stay tuned because I use it for so many things. It is so amazing I just love it. I had one years ago that I inherited from my sister-in-law and I really loved it, but when it quit working I really didn't understand how much difference there was between it and a kitchen-aid. So my wonderful husband bought me a new kitchen-aid and I used it a lot, but there were things about it that I didn't like. So after awhile I finally convinced my husband that I needed a new bosch. The following Christmas I got my new Bosch and a Nutrimill grinder, and have had no regrets since. I gave away my Kitchen-aid and haven't missed it one day.


















The mixing bowl on the left side is large enough to mix enough dough for 6 loaves of bread at once or whip as little as one egg white.



The Bosch has many attachments one of which is the blender. The blender can mix both wet and dry goods. I use it to make potato flour from potato buds, and milk flour from powders milk.












There is a specific reason I show you these. In my bread I use both potato flour and milk flour/powder. If you don't have a bosch, no worries you can buy these flours in a specialty cooking shop.


I did already mention that I also have a Nutimill. When I was growing up I loved white bread. I didn't know the first thing about white flour, wheat, wheat flour, the nutrition of or what it took to make any of it. I knew my mom made the most delious white roll I had ever tasted and I think I could eat a dozen of them straight out of the oven, well maybe not a quite a dozen but close! Well I know now that white flour has no nutritional value. Wheat flour starts to loose its nutritional value from the time it is ground, and the more heat that is generated when it is ground the faster it looses its nutrition. So that all being said that is why I own a Nutrimill. It uses air to blast the wheat instead of metal to grind, which in turn produces less heat. And it allows me to grind my wheat as I need it.














I have already given you a great recipe for spanish rice cooked in a Kuhn Ricon pressure cooker. I love pressure cooking. I don't have a lot of time so anytime I can cut my cooking time down to nearly nothing, in half, or make a good recipe great, I am all for it. Pressure cooking allows me to be able to do that. I have had a few different types of pressure cookers. When I got my first Kuhn Ricon, I have to admit, I got rid of my other pressure cookers. They are so easy to cook with, I just love them. I am including the link directly to the Kuhn Ricon website, but there are a lot of sites that you can go to that sell these great cookers. http://www.kuhnrikon.com/


The only other tools that I can really think of that are really important are the spices that I use and thoses I will discuss as I go through each recipe. I hope that this helps. Now don't go telling your spouces that you need to go buy all this new stuff, but it sure would make it a lot easier!

Spanish Rice

Spanish Rice

This is a Spanish rice recipe I have had around for quite a while. I didn't use it much because it called for a Mexican spice that I didn't like, vegetables, and tomato sauce instead of crushed tomatoes. There were a few other things about the recipe that I didn't like as well, you get the idea, okay well maybe I am a little picky! So, I modified the recipe until I got a recipe that I just love.

Ingredients:

5-6 TBSP Garlic Oil

2 Cups White or Brown Basmati Rice (I prefer brown, but you can choose)

1 Onion finely Chopped (If you know me, it is so finely chopped you almost don't know it's there)

3 Cups of Water

1/4 Cup Chicken Broth

-----Now about the Chicken Broth I use Frontier brand (it can be bought at many specialty cooking stores. I use this brand because it uses no meat products, no MSG, but tastes unbelievably like Chicken. I use it in so many recipes I would be lost with out it.)

4 TBSP Taco Seasoning- I like to use McCormick (it doesn't have any MGS and tastes great), but you can use any brand.

(Also if you don't have taco seasoning on hand you can use

3 TBSP Chili powder, 1 TBSP Paprika, & 1 TBSP Cumin)

1 can Muir Glen Crushed or stewed tomatoes

I took this picture so that you could see why I like Muir Glen tomatoes vs other brands, oh and yes...I know that my can is upside down, smartie! Anyway, Muir Glen lines it's cans so that the acid from the tomato's isn't left to just eat into the tin can. Who knows what happens to that tin once it's in the juice of the tomatoes?

To Cook: First I have to explain that I use pressure cookers whenever possible. The brand I use is Kuhn Rikon. They have several safety feature on them that make them extremely safe, not like the pressure cookers that your mothers used that left you cleaning food off the ceiling. You can fix this recipe without a pressure cooker, however, it will take you longer. My timing for the rice cooking is for a pressure cooker.

Okay lets cook!

In a 5 Liter waffle bottom pressure cooker (or a skillet) saute onions and rice in the garlic oil until the rice starts to brown.

In a large 4 cup (or larger) measuring cup. Mix your water and powder chicken broth, then pour it on your browned rice. Add your tomato's and seasoning to the rice and bring mixture to a boil.

Now if your doing it the quick method: once the mixture is boiling put the pressure lid on and let the pressure rise to the second ring (or if you are using another type of pressure cooker, whatever normal cooking pressure is, you will have to check the manufacture recommendations. keep in mind I am not an expert on all types of pressure cookers I only know the ones that I use). Once the pressure cooker comes up to pressure cook at the second ring for 6 minutes. After 6 minutes remove pressure, according to manufactures instructions, and open the pan, make sure to be careful there will be a lot of hot steam. If you are not careful it will burn you. Open so that the steam is faced away from you and make sure that your fingers are covered or protected. Trust me the steam is hot...It will burn! If you like your rice a little dryer simply put the rice back on the stove for another minute or two with the top off, but watch it close so that your rice doesn't burn.

Now if your going to simmer your rice. Bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat, simmer until water cooks down to the level of the rice. Reduce the heat to low cover continue to cook until water is gone.

Keep in mind that Brown rice takes long to cook and more water than White rice, but the nutritional rewards and the taste are worth it. If you haven't tried brown Basmati rice give it a try.

I think that covers this recipe. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Recipes

I have decided that I would like to share one of my favorite past times.....Cooking! Well maybe not the actual cooking, but the recipes that I like best and use often. I like to use recipes that are (mostly) easy, fairly quick, (mostly) healthy, and best of all taste great! At least I think so, well so does my family. I will share some of my tricks, my tools and how I change traditional recipes to make them easier, but make them taste like you slaved over them. I hope you'll love them. Let me know your thoughts as you try my recipes.

Can I tell you what really just bugs the heck out of me? Well it has really bugged the heck out of me all day. You know I had the first message of this blog all worked out, typed up, and thought I knew the direction I was going to take it right? Well, then I went to bed. Didn't sleep a dang bit! It bugged me all night. But since I didn't sleep, I had a new message all re-worked and ready to go for the blog, not that you all care because you don't know what the first one was! But that is not the part that is buggin me. What's buggin me is this: I had a new great second/first blog, but when I went to type it all in, I couldn't remember it! I could remember the jest of it, because it was something that is important to me, but I couldn't remember this great new first blog I had worked out. Doesn't that just bug ya ta death? Boy it does me, and ya know what? It happens to me all the time. At least it wasn't my keys that I missed placed, and can't find. That's a story for another time.

I was talking with one of my friends earlier today about teenagers and how much they seem to struggle as they are graduating from high school and not yet mature enough to find their way in the adult world. We talked about how important it is for us to help them not loose focus on the end goal, to find happiness, and harmony in their life. All while we try not to loose our freaking mind!

On my facebook page a have a quote by Mahandas Ganghi "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

I really love this quote because it is so true. If everyone could just stop trying to look good or important to everyone else, make everyone else happy, do what they think will make everyone else happy, or keep up with the "jones's", I truly believe the world would be a better place and we would all be happier.

Life

As I contemplated my blog last night and the direction that I wanted to take this blog a particular song kept coming to mind. The Climb sung by Miley Cyrus. It is a song that definitely is reflective of my life and challenges that I face in my life. I don't think I am alone, when I look at people that are important in my life, I think they also face many mountains and face them in similar ways. That is what this life is about. Facing challenges, learning from them, and facing the next one stronger and with even more determination.