Honey (Whole) Wheat Bread

Armed with the success of my first yeast product - the onion and cheddar pretzel, I wanted to find a easy whole wheat bread that I can make regularly for breakfast, etc. Allrecipes had a really positively reviewed recipe for a simple whole wheat bread that I decided to try out.

I made some small changes, make 1 loaf instead of 3 and all whole wheat flour, no bread flour and a little more honey. One glitch was that my yeast was not activated properly so it did not rise well, so I ended up with quite dense bread. Its a great with peanut or jam.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 teaspoons dry active yeast
  
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
  
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons olive oil or melted butter
  

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 2 tablespoons honey. Add 2 cups whole wheat flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.
2. Mix in 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 tablespoons honey, and salt. Stir in 1 cups whole wheat flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky - just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.
3. Punch down. Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch.
4. Bake at 180 degrees C for 25 to 30 minutes; do not overbake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with melted butter or olive oil when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely

Onion Cheddar Pretzel

Aparna from My Diverse Kitchen has this fantastic onion and cheddar pretzel recipe that I had to try. When I finally got some good yeast and decided to attempt my first fermented bread, this looked so appealing that I gave this a shot (plus I had medium cheddar cheese in my fridge courtesy of international visitors). Plus it was a chance to try out the kneading function on my food processor. Note: this makes bread making SOOO easy. I was considering getting a bread maker from abroad, but with the food processor, its easy enough that I can do without one.

I made some changes. As usual, I used more whole wheat than the recipe calls for. Instead of topping with sesame seeds, I used 1/4 cup less cheese in the dough and sprinkled it on top and I left out the black pepper, though I would use it next time. She strongly recommends using sharp cheddar cheese, I only had medium, but it still came out great.

I can definitely get used to the smell of fresh bread in my home. It lingered for hours and smelled oh so good. =)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 1/2 tsp olive oil
  
• 2 tsp dry active yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp dried Italian herbs, crushed
• 1/2 tsp
  

Directions

1. In a pan, sauté the onions in butter till soft but not brown. Keep aside to cool a bit.
2. Set aside 1/4 cup grated cheese.
   
3. Add the sugar and yeast to the warm water, stir and allow to prove. In a mixing bowl (or processor bowl), put the sautéed onion, 3/4 cup cheese, flours, Italian herbs and salt. Mix (or pulse) a couple of times and add the yeast mixture.
4. Knead very well, adding more water if necessary, till a moderately stiff dough which is smooth and elastic is obtained.
5. Shape into a ball and place in a greased bowl, coating the ball with oil by turning it round in the bowl. Cover and allow the dough to double in volume (about an hour or so).
6. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, letting it rest for 10 minutes. Roll the dough out into a 24" long smooth rope. Place it on a greased baking sheet and shape into a large pretzel shape. Moisten the ends of the pretzel and tuck them underneath to seal.
7. Cover and allow to rise till almost double (about half an hour). Sprinkle top with remaining cheddar cheese.
8. Bake at 190C for about 40 minutes till golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when tapped. If the bread is browning too much, cover it loosely with aluminium foil during the last 20 minutes in the oven. Cool completely on a rack.
   

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

A super easy recipe that is delicious and quite healthy. You can mix and match the fruit according to the season or use frozen fruits for a tasty treat that can be dessert or an appetizer. Works best with a mix of atleast 3 fruits

Ingredients

Note: Feel free to mix and match with whatever fruits you wish.

• 2 kiwis, peeled and diced
• handful of seedless grapes, cut in half
• 8 ounces strawberries (or any fresh or frozen berries, thaw before using)
• 100 g pineapple, diced
  
• 3 tablespoons fruit preserves, any flavor (cherry, orange or apricot jam or marmalade work well- try a different flavour from the fruits used)
• 8 ounces raspberries or peaches or blueberries (fresh or frozen, thaw before using) - optional
  
• 2 apples - peeled, cored and diced (optional)
• mangoes or any soft fruits (optional)
  

• 10 (10 inch) flour tortillasbutter flavored cooking spray or butter, melted
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
  

1. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix fruit and preserve. If using apples, add them last to minimize browning. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Coat both sidse of each flour tortilla with butter flavored cooking spray or brush with melted butter. Cut into wedges. Put the cinnamon mix into a large ziploc bag and add the tortilla wedges. Seal and shake to coat the buttered chips well. Remove and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet.
   
4. Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture.

Healthy Eggless Sugarfree Oatmeal Almond Peanut Butter Cookies

I had a bunch of oatmeal that needed to be used and peanut butter around. I had once made these oatmeal cookies with honey and olive oil, but could not find the recipe. I found this recipe, did a bunch of modifications and came up with this healthy oatmeal cookie that is sugarfree, eggfree and butterless. I also added almonds to it, but you can add raisins, peanuts, walnut, chocolate chips... whatever tickles your fancy.

Note: According to my dietician friend, honey is not good for very young children, so this would not be for them.

Warning: its quite the hearty cookie.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
• 3/4 teaspoon + a pinch baking soda
• 1/3 cup creamy natural peanut butter
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds (peanuts/raisins/chocolate chips)
• 1/2 cup
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Scatter oats on a large sheet pan and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until light golden brown; remove from sheet pan. Grease sheet.
   
3. In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour and baking soda.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine peanut butter, olive oil and honey, until creamy. Add vanilla and mix until well combined.
   
5. Beat in flour mixture until combined. Beat in toasted oats, peanuts until combined.
6. Shape the dough into balls, using about 1/4 cup of batter per ball; place on sheet pan and flatten slightly.
7. Bake at 190 degrees C, for 10-12 minutes, or until light golden brown. Cool 2 minutes on pan before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Homemade Jack Astor's Pan Garlic Bread

One of the things to eat when visiting Canada is Jack Astor's pan garlic bread. It is garlicy buttery bread greatness. But alas there is no Jack Astor's in Ahmedabad. When we on tour in Toronto, someone had made us delicious veg lasagna for dinner and I knew I had to get the garlic bread for everyone to try. You can imagine my disappointment when we opened the takeaway bag and found that they had given the bread and garlic sauce separately. You had to pour it over the bread yourself (but that meant that it didn't seep to the bottom). We poured it on top, but mainly ended up dipping the bread into the sauce. That is where I realized that there is a way to have that goodness at home.

This is the way I did it here. But after seeing this recipe for Rosemary Bread on Pioneer Woman, you could def like what I've suggested below to get something even closer to Jack Astor's pan bread.

All you need is melted butter and garlic paste. I added garlic paste to melted butter, warmed it up on the oven a bit to allow the garlic flavour to seep into the butter. Serve with with soft bread.

Fruit and Coconut Quick Bread

I found a recipe for pomegranate quick bread, didn't have all the ingredients, so I made some substitutions and came out with this - pineapple, apple, pomegranate coconut quick bread (aka fruit and coconut quickbread). It turned out great. A bit on the dense and moist side, but still delicious. I got to use my loaf pan for the first time =) The best part, it's def much healthy than the majority of the stuff I bake.

Fruit and Coconut Quick Bread

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sifted wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut
• 1/2 pomegranate arils
• 1/2 of cup unsweetened applesauce (I used freshly blended apples) + olive oil (I filled 3/4 of the 1/2 cup with applesauce then the rest with olive oil and ended up adding a little bit more applesauce and oil while mixing)

So the applesauce/oil portions are not exact. When mixing I thought there was not enough liquid, so added a bit more. When replacing oil with applesauce, you should keep some oil, which is what I was trying to do. Applesauce makes baked goods as does wheat flour (compared to all purpose), which would explain my denser quick bread. Also I think I might have added a bit too much applesauce/oil as my bread is a bit on the too moist side.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180*C. Grease loaf pan - I sprayed mine using my new PAM baking spray.

2. Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl; blend well.

3. Pour batter into loaf pan.

4. Bake for 45 minutes until top is firm and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. I baked mine for 53 min.

5. Allow loaf to cool before serving.

Great as a snack or for breakfast!