Toasted Millet and Fruit Bread

I made a couple of slight changes to this recipe.  White whole wheat was used.  The optional nuts weren't added to the dough; they were rolled into the dough.

I used the letterfold technique, and it gave me nice long loaves.  I made a half batch of the recipe, enough for 2 pounds of dough.  In the center of one, I put almonds.  Walnuts were put in the center of the other loaf, which was going to be a thank you gift for a friend.

I put the corresponding nut on top of each loaf, so I could tell them apart:

My baking stone was used.  It's been in my warming tray for storage too long!  I baked it a bit differently, though, to save my tempermental oven.  The bread steams and forms a crust the first half of baking only.  Therefore, the loaves were baked at the higher temperature.  Halfway through, I changed to 325 degrees convection.  The convection baking moved the hot air around, while giving my oven a break.  The results were wonderful!:

I decided, however, to freeze our loaf for a week.  It was great after being frozen and reheated.  The loaf had a nice texture, but it wasn't crunchy from the millet.  Maybe the freezing softened the millet.  It was a really good bread.  By the time I realized that I hadn't taken a picture of the loaf's inside, this is all that was left:

Our friend loved her bread!  She said she ate half the loaf the first day, it was so wonderful.  She emailed my hubby that "your wife is awesome!"  Wow, what a wonderful complement!

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will leave a comment.  I look forward to what you will bake!

Judy

Breakfast Breads

I just made 2 HBin5 breads that would be great for breakfast--Bran Muffin Bread and Oatmeal Date Bread. My hubby and I felt that, although these would be great for breakfast, we wouldn't make a savory sandwich from them.

Here's the dough for the Bran Muffin Bread.  I didn't have enough maple syrup, so I used more molasses.  The dough was pretty thick, and it was probably because the molasses is thicker than maple syrup.

Bran Muffin Bread

We ate this bread up before I took a final picture!  However, I thought it was good enough to sell at the Farmer's Market.  Some loaves were sold, when it was sampled.  However, it's a pretty pricey recipe.  We think we will keep this bread for ourselves!

Next, I made the oatmeal date bread.  Here's a picture of it in the loaf pan.  After seeing a comment by our friend, Guff, at http://oldpopsblog.blogspot.com/ , I decided not to add the optional walnuts.  He said it made it a bit dry.

Oatmeal Date Bread

Here's the finished loaf, which was sprinkled with raw sugar.  We had this for dinner, and it was like eating cake!  The next day, however, the bread firmed up considerably.  We enjoyed it, but didn't "go crazy" for it as we did the night before.

Our group baking member, Nancy, was kind enough to give me her light wheat bread recipe.  A test was made, and we almost ate the whole loaf the first day!  I sold some loaves at the farmer's market. 

Nancy's Light Wheat Bread

The demand for sourdough bread has skyrocketed lately at the Farmer's Market.  I heard the Amish stopped bringing it to the Market.  I've been using sourdough starter in the AB5 Master dough.  Last week, I graduated to 2 larger jars! 

Still, I just about ran out this week!  "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble! "  Do you have any easy methods to share for sourdough?

Thanks so much for visiting.  I loved making these breads.  I hope to be baking our group recipes again soon.

Judy

Guff's Steel Cut Oatmeal Bread

Our co-baking buddy, Guff, developed a steel cut oatmeal bread.  I had mentioned that  I was looking for a new, lighter multigrain bread.  Recently, I purchased some oat groats at a really good price, and he gave me this recipe.  You can see his fun blog at Old Pop's Blog
Although it wasn't whole groats, it sounded like it would be a good thing to test out at the Farmer's Market.

Here are the mini loaves, after an overnight rise in the fridge.  I think they rose too much, and the edges had to be trimmed with a scissors.  Only a half batch was made the first time. 

One loaf was cut into samples, and the other two loaves sold to happy customers.

The next time, I made 3 small loaves and one larger ( 1 1/2 pound) loaf.  All the loaves sold. 

Here's a picture of the second batch of my smaller loaves baking--sourdough and Guff's Steel Cut Oatmeal bread:

You can tell them apart because of the oats in the dough.  I was really careful of this because of a mixup of 2 whole wheat recipes in the past.

Thanks for stoppping by.  I hope you will leave a comment and suggestions.  Come back soon!

Judy

Bran Muffin Bread

This week's assignment is Bran Muffin Bread.  I've been looking for a somewhat sweet bread to replace Anadama bread for my farmer's market menu.  Anadama bread is a hearty bread, probably enjoyed in the cooler months.  When it got hot, Anadama bread sales plummeted, and lighter breads began selling more.  I was considering a raisin bread, and this seemed to fit the bill.

A half recipe was made.  There wasn't enough maple syrup, so half maple syrup and half molasses was used.

Before rising

An oiled, 7" glass bowl was used as a couche.  The dough roller was used to make rectangles of the dough, which were folded in a letterfold fashion for the mini loaves.

Here are my breads, rising in the "warm" sunroom.

The round loaf was baked on my Silpat.  I placed my Silpat on top of the glass bowl, after rising,  The bowl was then flipped over to put the dough onto the Silpat. 

I like the idea of baking at 350 degrees, with steam.  My meter shows that higher temperatures really use a lot more energy.

The finished loaves.  This is a really good "breakfast bread."  I might use a larger bowl as a couche, for the round loaf.  You can't really tell that the round loaf is 5 ounces heavier!

This bread was sampled at the Farmer's Market yesterday, and people really liked it.  It's like a good raisin- cinnamon bread.  One small loaf was used for samples, the other two loaves sold.  I'm thinking of making a few muffins for use as samples, to save on dough.  The breads sold before half the loaf was sampled!

I'm going to make some changes in the recipe, since maple syrup can be really expensive.  I plan to experiment with combinations of honey, maple syrup, water and molasses.

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to leave a comment.  Hope to see you again soon.

Judy

Thanks for

Rye Raisin Pecan Bread

I adore the King Arthur Flour recipe for raisin, rye and pecan bread!  The raisins give the bread a wonderful sweetness.  The mixture of rye and white flours gives a more wholesome flavor.

I make some changes to the recipe:

• One kind of rye flour, the kind found in grocery stores, is used.  I don't want to buy several grinds of flour, like pumpernickel.
• Oil is substituted for the butter.
• The first loaf shown is made with all purpose flour.  The second loaf is made with bread flour.

This bread was made several times before, as a freestanding loaf, and in my cast iron pot.  When a fellow seller at the Farmer's Market gave me some of his rye flour to try, I just had to make it into this bread.

It takes 2 days to make this bread, because a starter is made the night before.  The starter contains only 1/8 of a teaspoon of yeast, all purpose flour, and a small amount of water.  The result is a stiff dough, which is placed in a small oiled bowl.  The bowl is covered and left on the counter overnight.

I had planned to take a picture of the starter, twice, but forgot.  Sorry.  You'll just have to try making this wonderful bread!

The next morning, I mixed together the ingredients, except the raisins and pecans.  The dough rose for about an hour.  It was a bit sticky and puffy.  It didn't double in size, which the recipe said was normal.  I used my mixer to add the nuts and raisins.  Some extra flour was added--the recipe called for kneading in the nuts and raisins on a floured surface.  Therefore, this was the time to add extra flour!

The first time, a freestanding loaf was made on my stone.  I wish that I had put the dough in a bowl to rise, so it wouldn't spread out so much:



The second time, the dough rose and baked in a 9" baking pan:

This made a nice round loaf.  However, I'd like a bit more rustic look.

The second bread was a gift for a friend, who did a favor for me.  It was hard to resist, as the aroma was wafting out of the oven. 

My friend just called and said the bread was fabulous--most of the bread never made it home (it was shared with a friend).

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will leave a comment, and post what you baked.

Judy

Honey Graham Bread

For this baking group assignment, I decided to make half a batch.  Then, I made smaller size breads, rather than a two pound loaf.  That way, I can freeze them and only take out a bit of bread at a time for toast.

Honey Graham Breads, Before Rising

 

Honey graham crackers are a favorite snack of mine, so I was looking forward to making this bread.  It's a good thing, though, that I took the picture above.  I was also making anadama bread for the Farmers Market.  I thought I kept track of which mini loaf was which, but they got mixed up in the overnight refrigeration.

Anadama Bread?  Graham Bread?

It took me awhile to figure out which was the honey graham bread and which was the Anadama bread, but I did it. Can you tell?  I was able to compare my Anadama breads (the two at the right forefront) to a muffaletta style bread loaf from the same dough.  The Anadama breads have cornmeal in them, so they have a more "coarse, rustic finish" on top.  The honey graham breads had a slight cinnamon flavor.

Muffaletta style Anadama Bread in back

The honey graham bread tasted good, but I might modify the recipe to make it sweeter next time.  It is a nice whole wheat bread to share with friends, when I make this size.

 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will leave a comment. Stop by again soon, I'll be baking again!

European Peasant Bread

European Peasant Bread Baked in a Dutch Oven

I'm just "lovin' bakin' in my dutch oven."  So, instead of the assigned HB5 breads, I thought I'd make another dutch oven bread this week.  I could make another Jim Lahey bread, but how about one of the "Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes" breads?  


There are still a number of  AB5 breads that I haven't tried.  This would be a good time to try the European Peasant Bread, with the twist of doing it in a covered casserole.

I made a half batch of the dough, with a few changes:

• Used white whole wheat flour
• Added 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten, due to all the rye and whole wheat flours used
• It rose in a small (Dollar Store) basket, to simulate a brotform.
• I sifted the dry ingredients.  Michelle introduced me to a  battery operated sifter, and it's great! 

Norpro Battery Operated Sifter

At first, I thought I'd do a one pound loaf.  However, since I wanted the bread to rise in a basket, I decided to use the two pounds of dough.  Not too small, not too big, just right!


The basket was sprayed and floured before adding the dough, to keep the dough from sticking.  I put the basket into a plastic bag and it was placed into the warmed microwave to rise.  I'm not sure how long I let the dough rise--just until the dough filled the basket nicely.  Meanwhile, the dutch oven heated in a 450 degree oven.


After the dutch oven heated for about 30 minutes, I removed it with my favorite Ove-Gloves mitts.  The dough plopped into the pot when I turned the basket of dough over.  Shaking the pot slightly helped shape the bread better in the pot.  I could see the straw basket pattern in the dough!  I was nervous about slashing the dough in such a hot pot, so that wasn't done.


Here's a picture of the bread, when I took the lid off.  The bread baked, uncovered, for about 20 minutes more.

Since I've had breads with damp centers in the past, I made sure to use my digital thermometer in the center of the bread. The first time, the temperature went up slowly to 205 degrees.  After ten more minutes in the oven, the temperature went up to 205 degrees rapidly.  My instincts told me that the bread was ready to come out of the oven.

This is a picture of the finished European Peasant Bread. You can see some of the pattern of the basket on the bread.

The texture of this bread was really good.  I know I baked it longer to make sure I didn't get a wet center, but I wonder if the sifting helped.  It might help, since the vital wheat gluten is mixed throughout. 
 

Yummy, yummy bread!   The center was not damp, either!  Glad I listened to my instincts.

It reminded us of the deli rye bread, but without the caraway seeds.  Next time, I might add the seeds. We ate the bread for dinner with orange chicken and millet pilaf on Friday night.  There was only a little left by the time Sunday rolled around (a sign of a good bread in my house), but it was just enough for salami sandwiches--a quick Sunday dinner.

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback.

Whole Grain Garlic Studded Baguette, Whole Grain Pizza on the Grille

Whole Grain Margherita Pizza

Garlic-Studded Baguettes

For my "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" baking group, I felt it was finally time to conquer my fears of making pizza on the grill.  Also, I decided to make my favorite baguettes with a different dough.

We had a choice of several whole grain doughs.  My choice was to try the Whole Wheat with Olive Oil dough again.  The first time I made this dough, it seemed to be a bit loose.  There's now a post-it note on my recipe that reads, "good for flatbreads."  Now that I have more experience, I've begun to adjust these recipes more.  Michelle, our host, is probably smiling about that!


White Whole Wheat flour was used, and slightly less water--about 1/4 cup less.  Using less water seemed to help this time.  The dough seemed firmer.  After the dough rose and was chilled overnight, it was time to bake!  Yaay!!!

Whole Grain Grilled Pizzas

It was time to brave the grill!  I've been  nervous about grilling pizzas.  There's the thought of the dough falling through the grates.  Also, it's my hubby who usually does the grilling, so I don't have much experience in this. He didn't want to do the pizzas.  Lastly, it's close to fire!  Need I say more?

For my first try, I used flour under the dough on the peel.  Lots of flour!  The pizza ended up with a "too much flour" taste.  Next time, I think I'll flour my peel by rubbing flour all over it--not dumping it on top. 

Getting the dough onto the grill was the toughest part.  We have a split grill.  It's great for small amounts of grilling.  You can fire up half the grill for two people, or use both sides for more people.  The problem for this type of grill is that the peel is too big for one side and there's not much "wiggle room."  

The pizza slid into a bunched up mass on the grill, with the side caught off the grill.  Quickly, I nervously straightened out the pizza.  Possibly I can find a smaller peel for the future.

The dough was turned over when it began to bubble up, and olive oil was added.  Then the tomatoes and cheese were added.  We used "Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet" cheese.  Closing the lid for a few minutes helped the cheese melt some.
 

The sliced basil was added just before removing the pizza.

A little Wiki research--This is very similar Pizza Margherita, which was made in honor of the Queen consort of Italy--Margherita of Savoy.  The pizza toppings are fresh sliced tomatoes (well, I used canned diced), fresh sliced Mozzarella, and fresh basil leaves. It represents the colors of the Italian flag. It is believed to be the first pizza to use cheese--the pizzas we all know and love today.

There was about 1 1/2 pounds of dough left.  That would be enough for two smaller pizzas.  We decided to give the grilled pizzas another try.  I decided to test out the suggestions of several people in our group.  

Debbie felt that cornmeal works better than flour for sliding the pizzas from the peel.  

Guff and Joanna both felt that flipping the pizza onto the grill worked well. Guff felt that putting the pizza on parchment paper, flipping it so that the paper was on top, and then peeling it off partway through the cooking worked well.

Gwen, from our HBin5 group, agreed that using parchment paper gives good results in grilling.

Joanna mentioned a youtube video of Alton Brown's "Good Eats" show, where he flips the pizza onto the grill.   I am including it here, because there are a lot of great tips--flouring the peel (not overflouring it!), cooking tomatoes, and rolling out the dough.




Also, in this video, Alton Brown shows how to grill a flatbread over a gas burner!  This is wonderful for people who live in an apartment building or otherwise can't do outdoor grilling! He said it would even work for people living in a 5th floor walkup apartment in New York, as long as they have a gas stove.


The experiment--using cornmeal to slid one pizza onto the grill, and putting trimmed parchment paper under the other pizza.  The fire was kept medium low.

The crust that had cornmeal under it on the peel had the same problems as the one with the flour.  I shook the pizza to try to move it to the grill, and it bunched up into a mass over the fire.  Quickly, I moved it back into a larger piece.  But it lost its round shape; it's the one on the plate.


The pizza on the grill is the one that had parchment under it.  It moved easily to the grill, kept its shape, and cooked nicely.  We watched the pizzas carefully.  However, I'll try Guff's method of flipping the pizza crust so that the parchment is on top next time.  That may enable us to use higher heat.

We ate the pizza cooked on the parchment paper that night.  It was wonderful, served with fast totellini soup.

 Baguettes

I've made the garlic-studded baguettes before, and love the garlic-infused flavor from this method. This time, I decided to try omitting the stone or steam.  What would happen?  

letterfold technique

Twelve ounces (a bit larger than recommended) were used.  The baguettes were shaped using the letterfold 
technique, before stretching into a longer baguette.  Whenever there was resistance, I let the dough rest for a few minutes (so the dough wouldn't be so cranky!). 

The baguettes were place on my Silpat, on top of a baking sheet.  They were baked after baking a different bread, and the temperature was about 375 degrees.   After approximately 15 minutes, the breads were taken off the baking sheet and put onto the oven racks to firm up the bottoms.

Soft Crust Garlic-Studded Baguettes

These baguettes were wonderful  with tortellini soup.  I might continue making them this way, and you might want to try it.  For me, baking without adding the hot water and stone is a bit simpler.  Also, it takes less time and energy to heat the oven to a cooler temperature.

Grissini

I had some gluten free olive oil dough in the freezer. It was in the freezer for awhile, but looked fine. I figured it was good for flatbread. What did I have to lose by trying grissini and flatbread with that?!
I rolled 1/2 pound of dough out on parchment on a baking sheet, cut it into a rectangle (re-using the scraps) and drizzled olive oil on top.  The toppings were kosher salt and some leftover spicy spice mix from baking crackers some months back.  Then I cut the dough into strips; I made several groups of strips.  Then it was time to put the grissini in the oven to bake. Halfway thru baking, I took the pan out, separated the strips, (easy) and finished baking them. Easy, and yummy! A lot easier than moving the strips onto a baking sheet.  Crisp, too.

Sorry there aren't any pictures of the spicy grissini, but they went really fast!  So did the 2 pieces of spicy gluten free flatbreads...




Wherever, you are, I hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall colors.  As a former Southern California gal, seeing leaves change colors is new to me.  We just took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway to see the beautiful bright red, orange, and yellow leaf colors on the trees.  We were able to see the leaf colors at their peak!  I thought you would enjoy seeing a few of the pictures:

Grandfather Mountain, NC, from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Yours Truly, enjoying the Fall Colors

Grandfather Mountain has a mile-high swinging/suspension bridge which gives breathtaking views. 

Blue Ridge Parkway, Central Section, Moses Cone Memorial Park 

Handwise tips:  If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe:  

• My tip for this post is for the pizzas. By cooking two pizzas, we were able to freeze one pizza and eat one for dinner (cook once, eat twice!). 

This bread is one of the breads from the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.
The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in this book.  To see what Guff, Debbie, Gwen, Joanne, Michelle, and my other HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out The 21st HBinfive Bread Braid

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback. 

Pear Tarte Tatin, Apple Strudel Bread and Cranberry Pecan Sweet Rolls

For this braid, our baking group was able to pick between 2 doughs--whole wheat brioche, and pumpkin pie brioche.  Since we made pumpkin pie brioche before, I tried the whole wheat brioche.  What a wonderful dough--so nice and silky!  A joy to use, and didn't have a strong whole wheat taste.

This dough was made in my Kitchenaid mixer.  The liquid ingredients were placed in the bowl first.  The yeast, salt and vital wheat gluten were then sifted into some of the flour with my new battery operated sifter*** (see Handwise tips).  Jeff and Zoe posted to me that it would be ok to sift these ingredients with part of the flour. That should keep the vital wheat gluten from getting gummy.  They said to just be sure to mix everything well afterwards.

 Pear Tarte Tatin

This recipe was made with my dinner guests in mind, who love ginger and cardamom.  My hubby experienced too much ginger in one of my recipes, and now won't touch it.  Bosc pears were used, one of my favorite fall fruits!

The dough was made the night before, so it was time to make cook the pears.  Peeling the pears with my Dazey Stripper didn't work.

Will someone start making these again???

That was unusual.  This gadget is great for peeling apples or potatoes.  Now I only see the peeler (without the necessary blades!) on ebay.  The pears just seemed a bit too soft. 


So, the pears were peeled, cored, and sliced with my trusty paring knife.  We don't have a cast iron pan, so the pears were sauteed in our 11" Kitchenaid pan. 

The dough was rolled out to about 12".  To make the transfer easier, a pie-making trick was used.  I folded the dough in half, then in half again.  The corner of the dough was placed onto the center of the pan.  It was then simple to unfold the dough onto the pears.  


Because I was using a larger pan, I made really sure to tuck the dough underneath the pears:   

After baking it for about 20 minutes, the pear tarte tatin looked like this:



Five minutes later, I placed a serving tray on top and flipped (in what a guest called "an act of faith) the tarte onto the serving tray.

The pears needed a bit of readjustment, but it was just great that the tarte came out in one piece onto the platter!!!

Apple Strudel Bread

Yummy, yummy, yummy!  This bread is one of my definite favorites.  Instead of making doughnuts, I thought I would make this bread again.  However, this bread was made after an eventful day of cooking and entertaining guests.  Baking that day was my therapy, and I wasn't up for challenges.  Although the taste was fabulous, you'll see that it wasn't the "desired" shape.

Two pounds of dough were rolled out.  The filling of apples, cinnamon, raw sugar and walnuts was added.  There was my note on the recipe, from last time, to decrease the amount of raisins and walnuts--which I did.  

However, I couldn't tell whether my note about the apples was to use 2 or 3 medium apples.  Therefore, I decided to use one medium and one large apple.  That may have been my downfall in this recipe....

Before rising!

After rolling the dough into a long log, it was really too big to place into my prepared 8 1/2" x  4 1/2" loaf pan.  I was just too tired to dig up a larger loaf pan, spray it with oil and wash my current pan.  That's when I decided to fold the log in half and put it into the current loaf pan:  

There were holes in the dough, after the transfer.  They were patched with dough scraps, just as if it were a pie.  Halfway through the baking, I checked on the progress:   

  

Uh Oh!!!!

The long log should have been baked on a baking sheet.  Not only did the loaf bake over the sides, the dough scraps were falling off  (they were yummy!).  Thankfully, I put a piece of foil underneath the loaf pan.  At least I was alert enough to think of that....

Top of Apple Strudel Bread

Bottom of Apple Strudel Bread

As mentioned before, the final loaf wasn't pretty, but it was really tasty.  I ate this quickly, and I'm not sure my hubby got to taste it!  YUM!!!

  Cranberry Pecan Sweet Rolls

The last assignment for this braid was the Honey Caramel Sticky Buns.  I had made this before, and have vivid memories of the oven fire--Honey Caramel Sticky Buns and a "kitchen adventure."


Therefore, I decided to make simple sweet rolls.  Craisins sounded good.  The dough was rolled out, and the craisins were sprinkled onto the rectangle of dough.  When the dough was almost rolled up into a log, I thought "what about some sugar?"  So the dough was unrolled slightly, and some sugar was sprinkled onto the rectangle.

"Baking by Inspiration"

The log was cut into 2" slices which were placed on their sides.  There were some chopped pecans in the cabinet, so those were sprinkled on top.  After the baked rolls were cooled, a simple icing was drizzled on top:

These were shared with our happy crew of gardeners, our great neighbor (across the street), and my yoga teacher.  My hubby snacked on these also.  Well, at least he ate one out of the three recipes!

Handwise tips:  If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe:  

• The Handwise tip for this recipe comes from our HBin5 host--Michelle, of Big Black Dogs.  There seem to be 2 kinds of sifters, usually.  One is the squeeze handle, which can be very tiring on hands.  The other is a turn handle, which can also be tiring.  Michelle told me about her Norpro battery operated sifter:       

Battery Operated Sifter

At first glance, it was dissappointing that the sifter could only hold 4 cups.  However, it's just wonderful that it does all the sifting by itself--no handles to squeeze or turn. 

I will mention two aspects about this sifter:

1. Make sure you put the handle in place properly, or it won't work well.  The flour will sift slowly.
2. This may not be a good sifter if your hands are sensitive to vibration.  However, the sifting only lasts a short time.

This bread is one of the breads from the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in this book.  To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out The 20th HBinfive Bread Braid

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback. 

Judy

IL BOLO, Italian bread with olive oil, anise, & honey and Apricot Noodle Pudding

IL BOLO

Our calendar for the HBin5 baking group said that this bread would be baked in a year.  Frankly, I don't always have that kind of patience!  Especially for a enriched bread having ingredients like this--honey, olive oil, vanilla, lemon zest, and anise seeds.  My curiosity was aroused!

I put together the dough one morning, and went to run some errands at 9:30 a.m. while the dough was rising.  I guess I really got into getting those errands done.  I didn't get home until 3:30, with the thought that the dough would be ok.  What could possibly happen?  



This is what I found when I came in the door:         

It was another one of my baking adventures, greeting me at the door!  I quickly scooped up the overflowing dough, and began shaping the loaves.  I told myself "any problems with the egg dough sitting on the counter over 2 hours will bake out at high temps..."  :)


The loaves were baked at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, not the 35 minutes stated in the recipe. They were done at that time.


This bread was fabulous!  I brought it to a large dinner get together, and people really loved it.  The bread was soft, had a beautiful crust and tasted sweet.  The caterer is a cooking buddy, who kept nibbling at it also.  


I've been doing a lot of cooking lately, for our harvest festival.  Noodle pudding (kugel) is popular this time of year, and I would like to share one of our favorites:

Apricot Noodle Pudding
12oz.         wide noodles (one bag)
1/2cup       margarine
6                eggs
8oz.            sour cream (light)
16oz.          lowfat cottage cheese
1/2cup        sugar
1/4cup        milk (could use lowfat)
1/2cup        golden raisins  (dark raisins ok, too)
8oz.            dried apricots, cut up

Topping:
1 cup          corn flakes, crushed
1 cup          brown sugar
4oz.            margarine, softened

Directions:
Cook noodles until tender.  Drain.  Place in large pot or bowl and add 1/2cup margarine; set aside (margarine will melt).

Beat eggs; add sour cream, cottage cheese, sugar and milk.  Mix.   Add dry fruit, combine with noodles.  Pour into 9" x 13" baking dish. 

Mix corn flakes, brown sugar and 4oz. softened margarine in medium bowl.  With spoon, sprinkle small blobs of topping over kugel batter.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Cut when cool.

Kugel can be eaten hot as part of the main course.  It's also good cold, and as dessert.  Kugel may be frozen and reheated.

Serves 10-12

Handwise tips:  If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe:  

• My tip for this post is for the noodle pudding.  If I know that I am going to make noodle pudding in the near future, I cook the recipe's amount of noodles the same night that we are having pasta for dinner.   We then use the same hot water to cook the wide noodles for recipes like this.  After draining the noodles, I put them in the refrigerator or freezer bags.  Since I measure out the amount of noodles to match the recipe beforehand, it's a simple recipe to assemble.  I just melt the 1/2 cup margarine for the noodles, and add in everything else.  Also, that's one less pot to wash later--always a helpful thing.

This bread is one of the breads from the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.
The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in this book.  To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out The 20th HBinfive Bread Braid

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback. 

Judy