Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread (For the Whole Week!)

So this is my new favorite whole wheat bread recipe. Each loaf turns out large and beautiful, it doesn't slice crumbly, it's soft, but sturdy, and I love the little flakes of added oatmeal. There is one tiny little problem with this bread, though, and if you can help me figure out how to solve it, let me know. It really, really sticks to the bottom of the pan. I spray my pans with Pam, but that doesn't seem to do the trick. I think next time I'll try greasing and flouring the pans, like you would with a cake.

This recipe originated at allrecipes.com HERE, but I changed it from part-wheat/part-white to all whole wheat and I subbed one of the cups of whole wheat with vital wheat gluten. This made a big difference in the crumbiness of the bread. I also sextupled the recipe so one batch would last me all week. However, this bread is so good, 6 loaves usually only last 3 to 4 days. Here, look how pretty the dough looked while it was rising...

But not for long. The twins' favorite job is to punch it down. They're really good at it. Look at the glee...

Here are the loaves right out of the oven, on cooling racks...

And here, freshly sliced....So, so lovely...

Okay, enough with the drooling. Here's the recipe. Oh, one more tip. If you are using a Bosch to do the mixing for you, place all the wet ingredients in the bowl, turn it on with the bread kneader in place, then add the dry ingredients as it's spinning. This will decease the flour that's thrown out of the bowl, since this recipe nearly takes up the bowl's capacity. Enjoy!

Ingredients

7-½ cups warm water
2 tablespoons and 1-½ teaspoons active dry yeast
¾ cup honey
¾ cup butter or margarine, softened
2 tablespoons and 1-½ teaspoons salt
¾ cup nonfat dry milk powder
15½ cups whole wheat flour
1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 cups quick-cooking oats

Directions

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees F. In very large bowl, combine warm water, yeast and honey. Let yeast dissolve for about 5 minutes.

2. Add remaining ingredients. Stir to combine, then knead on floured counter for about ten minutes, adding more flour if needed to form a soft ball that sticks to itself.

3. Place in a greased bowl, cover with moist towel and let rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour.

4. Punch down and knead for one minute, then form into six loaves and place in well-greased bread pans. Cover with a moist towel and let rise until doubled in bulk, 30 to 45 minutes.

5. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until bread is golden brown.

6. Take out of pans and let cook on racks.

Homemaker Monday: Honey Oat Quick Bread

Welcome to the 85th weekly edition of...

Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: Today's "YOURS" goes to Single Mormon Chic over at The Law of Chastity and the Modern Mormon Girl. Am I the Only One? ! She wrote a post on making frosting that is different from the norm. Here is what she says...

"i dont love making frosting,but i HATE the fake, gross and canned grocery store stuff, so i make it even though i think its a pain. its not that its difficult, but just....annoying. i know. weird, but thats my story and i am sticking to it. this recipe TOTALLY took the annoying aspect out of making yummy frosting. this is so easy, but the pay off is big."

With a preface like that, this has to be good. For Single Mormon Chic's recipe, click HERE. Thanks again, Single Mormon Chic, for linking up and we look forward to seeing what you have every week!

MINE: Today I am posting a quick bread recipe my mother found during a search for a healthy bread. She tried this recipe yesterday and it was absolutely fantastic. What I love most about it is that it's a quick bread, so even if you're afraid of yeast, you can still enjoy healthy, whole-wheat oat bread!

From start to finish...

...this bread just exudes healthiness.

Now, do you think it's a sin that I slathered butter all over my slice?

Even so, at least I ingested some oats and wheat along with it! For the recipe, please click HERE. Thanks for listening!

OURS: Okay, ya'll, your turn! Thanks so much for participating and visiting today and have a wonderful Homemaker Monday!





On 365 Days of TV-Free Toddler Time today:
It's Swing Time! Click the pic to see.



On life in mexico {and other places} a picture a day today:
{two square buildings}

Homemaker Monday: How to Make Pre-Bake and Freeze Bread Sticks or Rolls

Welcome to the 80th weekly edition of...

Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to Kristen over at "Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker"! She posted a wonderful recipe for homemade graham crackers. I love it when people come up with homemade versions of grocery store favorites. Rather than feeding her kids hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and a vast number of chemicals I can't even say, her recipe uses whole wheat flour, honey, and real butter...

These look so fun to make and I can't wait to try this recipe with the kids. Thank you so much, Kristen, for linking up with Homemaker Monday every week and we look forward to hearing much more from you! For Kristen's entire post, click HERE.

MINE: This week, I'd like to share how to make pre-bake and freeze rolls or bread sticks to have on hand and pop in the oven for a quick, homemade treat.

The first step is to make the dough for the rolls or bread sticks of your choice. Because this it probably my most popular recipe, let's use the super-quick and easy whole wheat bread sticks...

Rather than reposting the entire recipe here, I'll just give you the link to the original recipe. It's HERE.

Once you've rolled out the sticks and placed them on a greased cookie sheet, bake them as you would if you were to serve them immediately, except cut the baking time in half, in the case of these bread sticks, for about 6 minutes. Here's how they'll look...

See? They really don't look done, right? Because they're not.

Next, place the whole cookie sheet with the bread sticks into the freezer and flash freeze for 1 to 2 hours, then remove the bread sticks from the cookie sheet and place them into Ziploc bags to keep in the freezer.

When it comes time to bake the bread sticks for your next meal, preheat the oven as you would for the original recipe, in this case to 375 degrees F, and finish the baking process, which should be between 15 and 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

This trick is definitely useful to me right now as I prepare and freeze food in preparation for the birth of our baby boy. Hope you find it as useful as I have! Thanks for listening.

OURS: Okay, I'm so excited to see what great homemaking ideas you have for us today. Last week we experienced the largest participation yet in Homemaker Monday....25 links! Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy perusing all of the awesome tips today. Have a great Homemaker Monday!

I Fed My Kids Doughnuts For Dinner and I Don't Feel That Bad

They were 100% whole wheat orange glazed doughnuts, made with almost the same dough you would use to make 100% whole wheat bread. It was almost like they had cinnamon toast, but instead of butter, the vegetable oil in which they were fried and instead of cinnamon and sugar, a delectable orange glaze. Yes, I know, I'm rationalizing, but I had another one of those days, as per THIS POST. At least I didn't forget to feed them.

If you would like to make these doughnuts for breakfast or dessert, but not necessarily dinner, here is the recipe...

P.S. Please excuse my embarrassingly horrendous photography today. It was late, too dark and shadowy and there was not much I could do. Sorry so sloppy! :( )

100% Whole Wheat Orange Glazed Doughuts

Ingredients:

(For the doughnuts)

1 cup warm water
5 teaspoons yeast
5 teaspoons brown sugar
2 cups orange or pineapple juice
6 tablespoons oil
6 tablespoons honey or molasses
4 teaspoons salt
8 cups whole wheat flour
6 tablespoons vital wheat gluten (optional)

(For the glaze)

3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup orange or pineapple juice
1/4 teaspoon orange extract

Directions:

Step 1: In the bowl of a Kitchen-Aid or the like, or, if you don't have one, a large mixing bowl, mix water, yeast, and brown sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes, until it starts to foam like rootbeer, like this...



Step 2: Into bowl, add all remaining ingredients except one cup of whole wheat flour.

Step 3: Knead ingredients in Kitchen-Aid or by hand, for about 12 minutes, adding the extra cup of wheat flour if needed to made a soft, but not sticky dough.



Step 4: Roll dough out on a floured surface until about 3/8 inch thick, like so...



Step 5: Cut rectangles to about 3x4 inches, then cut slits down the middle of each rectangle, like so...



Step 6: To form doughnuts, pull open slit, like so...



...fold top corners over, like so...



...and push corners through hole, turning the top inside out...



...thus creating a product like so...



(We are doing this because this allows the rectangles to cook all the way through. Yes, we could just cut out circles and holes, but then we are left with so much leftover dough around each circle that we then have to roll out again and cut again, and it's just a pain. Plus, these look really cool. The wonderful woman who taught me how to make these says that some turn out pretty and some don't, but I think ALL of mine turned out pretty!)



(Okay, maybe not the one close to the bottom.)

Step 7: Fry in hot oil until golden brown...



...then place on paper towels, or if you care about your planet, cloth napkins, on a cookie sheet to drain...



Step 8: For the glaze, combine powdered sugar, juice and orange extract and beat with a mixer until smooth, adding more powdered sugar or juice as necessary to make an icing consistency.

Step 9: Glaze doughnuts with a pastry brush, and stack neatly on a plate for your family's dinner breakfast or dessert. And you can lay oranges by the plate if you want just to make it look prettier, but only if company is coming over. Otherwise, save yourself the trouble.



Hope you enjoy!

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Easiest Breadsticks Ever! Join us for the "Blog Hop"!

I posted this recipes a few months ago, but because it has been so popular, I decided to repost it for today's MckLinky's Blog Hop!

Here's a recipe that I think will make your life a little easier....

Quick and Easy Breadsticks

Ingredients :
2 1/2 cups warm water
6 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup oil
6 cups whole wheat flour
6 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
5 teaspoons yeast

Here are the easy directions...

Step 1: Mix the water, yeast and brown sugar in the mixing bowl of a mixer with a dough hook. Let it sit for about ten minutes, or until the mixture is foaming, like beer (not that I would know what that looks like, being a Mormon and all).

Step 2: Add the remaining ingredients and let the machine knead the dough for ten minutes. If the dough is too firm, add a little water during the mixing process. If it's too soft, add a little flour.

Step 3: Divide the dough in half, then in half four more times (You should have 32 pieces) and roll each piece into a stick about 9 to 10 inches long and 1/2 an inch in diameter. Place these on two greased cookie sheets. It's okay if they're close together.

Step 4: Let rise for about 20 minutes, or longer if you can.

Step 5: Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and salt, then bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 20 minutes.

Here's how they turn out...


Let me explain why I love these breadsticks so much. First of all, they are animal product free, which definitely works for me. Second, if you're like me and don't decide what's for dinner until 5:30 at night most nights, this works out really nicely as it can be started and finished in less than an hour. Third, these are fresh, homemade breadsticks and kids and husbands, especially husbands, really, really appreciate homemade bread for dinner! Fourth, there is no white flour, which means no empty calories, which means you are doing something that will make your family healthier. So yeah, these are the best!





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Zucchini Pineapple Bread

As I mentioned yesterday, we have lots of zucchini...

...and as if my dearest husband doesn't do enough, he found a great recipe at allrecipes.com for pineapple zucchini bread that is to die for. After some slight modifications, we both feel like this is the bread zucchini bread we have every had the privilege of tasting. Since we have a large family, one recipe of any particular food isn't ever enough, so I usually double it, but since John is super-efficient, he quadrupled it. Here is what a quadruple batch made...

Five full-size loaf pans...


...36 muffins...

...and 5 cakes-in-a-jar


Cakes in jar are so fun because guess what? They allegedly stay fresh for up to a year (at our house they've never lasted that long) so you can always have fresh cake when guests arrive! Here's how you do it... 

Step 1: Sterilize a number of wide-mouth jar lids and rings.

Step 2: Grease a number of wide-mouth pint jars...

Step 3: Mix up a batch of cake or sweet bread. (See recipe below.)

Step 4: Fill jars up half full with mixture...


Step 5: Bake at directed temperature, checking with a toothpick frequently, as cooking time could vary.

Step 6: Immediately upon removing from the oven, tightly screw on the lids and rings and leave out on the counter to seal. You should hear popping sounds as the lids seal, just as if you were bottling fruits or vegetables...


Step 7: When you are ready to use these cakes, just dump the cake out onto a plate. If the cake needs frosting, frost at this time. If not, slice and drizzle with icing if needed. Note: Sometimes you'll need to run a knife around the edge of the jar to get the cake out, but it should still look good on the plate.

Here's the recipe we used for the jar cakes. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Zucchini Pineapple Bread

Ingredients:
3 eggs, beaten (or , if you're a vegan, 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 9 tablespoons water)
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated zucchini
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup macadamia nuts
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained

Directions:
In a large bowl mix together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, oil and zucchini.
In a separate bowl mix together the flour, soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to the zucchini batter and mix well. Stir in raisins, nuts, and pineapple until just blended. Pour into 2-9x5x3 inch loaf pans.
Bake in a preheated 325 degree F (165 degrees C) for one hour, or until browned.

I am pleased to list this post at...
-Tip Junkie's "Talk to me Tuesday",
-5 Minutes for Mom's "Tackle It Tuesday",
-Tammy's Recipe's "Kitchen Tip Tuesday",
-Blessed With Grace's "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",
-Mary's "Tightwad Tuesday",
-Jen's "Tasty Tuesday" and
-The Lazy Organizer's "Talk About Tuesday".

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