Oat & Wheat Sandwich Bread

Prep Time: Easy to medium (easier than most bread recipes, a little more involved than many I've shared on this blog)

Source: Smitten Kitchen (slightly adapted)

There are few things I love more than a loaf of fresh bread, especially smothered in butter and homemade jam. While I have a few trusty recipes I use as my go-to—namely this one and this one—I also love to experiment with new ones. Lately I've been making a new soft-crusted sandwich bread that I absolutely love—it's tender but still hearty, and I also think much more filling because the dough is enriched with milk and eggs. (Those are totally optional, but the texture is definitely different without them.) According to the Smitten Kitchen recipe this can also be a refrigerated dough, but I've not had success with that as the dough itself isn't moist enough and develops a spongy texture when I try to refrigerate it. If you left out some of the flour and allowed it to be a stickier dough that didn't hold its shape at all, then it would be great in the fridge. So far, I've just been making batches of this and then freezing extra loaves for super low-maintenance bread for days at a time.

This recipe yields two loaves, but I've also doubled it for four or 1 1/2'd it for three. When I did 1 1/2, I still just included two eggs.

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water

1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk

(My trick: mixing hot water and cold milk, then I don't have to warm the milk)

1 T instant yeast

1 egg

1/4 cup oil

3 T molasses or honey (I measure it after the oil in the same cup, and then it doesn't stick!)

1 T coarse salt (if using fine salt use a bit less)

2 cups rolled oats

5ish cups whole wheat flour

Combine all ingredients except oats and flour, and mix together with a spoon or stand mixer (using the dough hook attachment). Add oats and then flour and mix for a minute or two. The dough will be fairly sticky and wet and probably won't pull away from the bowl much. Let rest for five minutes and then mix for another two minutes, adding more flour if needed; I like to get mine to the point where it's just beginning to pull away from the sides of the bowl but not forming a firm dough ball. Turn dough onto a floured counter, spray or rub your bowl with oil, and knead the dough a few times, then form into a ball and put back into the greased bowl. (I usually lightly grease the top of the dough as well.) Let rise for at least an hour, longer if you like (it's hard to over-raise a relatively high-moisture dough like this—it's very, very flexible). Preheat oven to 350 and shape loaves (you can do this either by forming them into cylinders or by rolling them out on the counter and then folding them over until they're roughly the size of your bread pan) and put into greased bread pans. Bake 8- or 9-inch loaves (normal sized loaves) for 40-50 minutes and small loaves for 25-30 minutes. Remove the loaves from the pans and cool on cooling racks. Or slice up and eat with butter, warm and delicious. I won't tell. ;)

Protip: Don't let your toddler spit in the bread dough. I'll let you guess whether or not that happened here!

Healthy PB Chocolate Muffins

Lately these have been my go-to breakfast: I bake a bunch at once, freeze most of them, and every morning I pull out two and microwave them for thirty seconds. That, plus whatever fruit I have in the house, makes a really satisfying and filling breakfast that keeps me full until lunchtime - which is saying something where my metabolism is concerned! I actually put this recipe through a nutrition calculator and was excited to see that each muffin has 8 grams of protein. (That's more than an egg!) I'll include the full nutrition info at the bottom.

2 eggs
1/4 c canola oil
1/2 c honey
1/2 c kefir (or buttermilk, 1/2 milk and 1/2 yogurt, or milk soured with a little lemon juice)
1/2 c PB
1.5 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c oats
1 T baking powder
3/4 t salt
1/3 c cocoa

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a full-sized muffin tin. Add eggs, oil, honey, kefir, and peanut butter to a medium-sized bowl and mix thoroughly. Carefully scoop flour and oats onto the top of the wet ingredients without stirring them in. Add baking powder, salt, and cocoa, and use a fork or a whisk to sift them into the flour mixture before stirring the dry ingredients through the wet. Fill muffin cups and bake for 18 minutes. 

Banana Zucchini Bread {Refined Sugar Free}

I've gone off refined sugar this summer, but was dying to do something with the abundance of summer squashes that have appeared in my garden this week. A little tinkering in the kitchen with a nice ripe banana and some natural sweeteners produced a batch of muffins that knocked my socks WAY off—it's light, moist, sweet, and utterly delicious. And guess what? It's healthy, too! It's tweaked from my favorite-ever zucchini bread recipe that I got from my Aunt Jeannie several years ago. It's also fairly flexible depending on what you have on hand, although Mahon and I both agreed that the (real) maple syrup in it is the true secret ingredient that makes it lick-the-plate good. In the future, I'd like to try subbing some applesauce for some of the sweetener or oil, but I didn't have any today.

3 eggs

1 cup oil

1 T vanilla

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup real maple syrup (it doesn't have to be real, but if it's not, then it won't be free of white sugar...)

2 packed cups of zucchini

1 very ripe banana, thoroughly mashed

2 1/2 cups wheat flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 t baking soda

2 t baking powder

1 t salt

Preheat oven to 350, and grease either two dozen muffin cups or 2 loaf pans (or one muffin pan and one loaf pan, or—you get it!). In a large bowl, stir eggs, oil, vanilla, honey, and syrup until well blended. Add zucchini and banana and combine. Gently add the flour so that it sits on top of the liquid ingredients and then sift cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the flour before incorporating the dry ingredients into the wet ones. (See what I did there? You managed the whole wet-and-dry-ingredients thing in ONE BOWL!) Fold into prepared pans and bake for 19 minutes (muffins) or 40 minutes (loaves). Enjoy!

Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

3 cups flour (wheat works great!)

3 T baking powder

3/4 t baking soda

1 1/2 t salt 

8 T fat (butter, coconut oil, or a combination of the two)

1-1 1/2 cups plain kefir (my preference), buttermilk, soured milk, or 3/4 cup plain yogurt and 1/4-1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Cut in fat with pastry blender until dough is crumbly, with varying sizes of fat chunks (ie don't pulverize it - it only takes a little bit of cutting!). Add one cup of your liquid and use a fork to stir gently, just until liquid is incorporated and dough is moistened. If there's still a lot of dry flour at the bottom of the bowl, slowly add more liquid while stirring, until you have just enough to moisten it all. (It shouldn't be too sticky to touch.) How much liquid you use will depend on the weather, your altitude, whether there are fairies in your kitchen, the alignment of Jupiter, etc.

Take a spoon (or your hands) and drop rounded balls close together on your ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 14-15 minutes at 450.

Parmesan Drop Biscuits

Prep time: Easy

I've always really loved the crumble topping on this Chicken Pot Pie Crumble recipe, and recently I tweaked it just a little bit to make absolutely delicious savory drop biscuits. Now they're one of my favorite quick and easy snacks!

2 cups flour (I use, and highly recommend, whole wheat)

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

6 tblsp chilled and sliced butter

3/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

1 cup heavy cream OR 1/2-3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper together in a medium mixing bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture is crumbly. Stir in parmesan cheese. Add cream or milk slowly while stirring until dough just holds together (depending on the elements and cooking voodoo of my kitchen at any given moment, I have used more or less cream/milk). Gently shape dough into balls with your hands (mine are usually a little smaller than my palm, but I have small hands!) and drop onto an ungreased pan (I prefer a pan lined with parchment paper for these). Cook for 18-20 minutes. Depending on the size of your biscuit balls, you'll end up with 9-12 drop biscuits. They're delicious for a day or two after cooking, but my favorite way to eat them is right out of the oven!

Pao de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Rolls) (Gluten-Free)

Prep time: Very easy

Source: Adapted from Our Best Bites

Two or three years ago, I made this recipe as the original instructions indicated—using cheddar and parmesan cheese. Neither Mahon nor I were especially blown away by them, and I never made it again. Last summer, we went for the first time to Tucano's, a local restaurant chain that serves Brazilian churrascuro (grilled meats & veggies) and fell in love with their pao de queijo. In trying to figure out why we'd loved the Tucano's rolls so much more than the ones I'd made a few years before, I did a bunch of research and found that most of the recipes online call for only parmesan, rather than parmesan and cheddar. Although I was skeptical that parmesan could be the cheese in the Tucano's rolls, which are very mild-tasting, we decided to give it a try and adapted the recipe from Our Best Bites to use only parmesan. To our surprise and TOTAL delight, we had hit on exactly the right cheese! Our rolls were even better than the ones at Tucano's, since we ate them straight out of the oven and they were incredibly fresh and light. I'm embarrassed to say that between the two of us, we downed the whole batch in one night!

1 large egg

1/2 c milk

1/4 c canola oil

1 cup tapioca flour (also called tapioca starch)—don't substitute this! Every recipe I read agreed that the tapioca flour is what makes these rolls unique and authentic.

1/2 t kosher salt

1/2 cup grated (fresh) parmesan cheese
Any other desired spices for topping

Preheat oven to 400. Grease two mini muffin tins and set aside. In a blender, add all ingredients except cheese and blend until smooth. Add cheese and pulse 2-3 times. Immediately pour into your prepared muffin tins. (We found that filling them 1/2-2/3 of the way worked the best, though the batter is thin and tends to pour faster than you expect!) You can top with a sprinkle of extra cheese, a bit of kosher salt, or any other herb or spice you'd like! (Rosemary is also DELICIOUS.)

Bake 15-20 minutes or until the rolls have puffed up (they will puff quite a bit!) and are just barely golden on top. Ours took exactly 15 minutes. According to the original recipe, the yield varies depending on how full you fill your muffin cups; we ended up with about 20.

Serve immediately. These made a great companion to a meal of Black Bean Soup (also a Brazilian recipe originally from OBB!).

Crepes

Prep time: Medium

Source: Our Best Bites

I've really neglected this blog for the last year. Because there are a LOT of recipes we use and love that haven't made it up here, I'm resolving over the next little while to get this blog back up to date! I'm also going to try to be less of a slacker about taking pictures of stuff before we gobble it all up. We'll see how that goes!

We started using this crepe recipe a year or two ago and it is, hands-down, one of our favorite recipes. Our #1 favorite way to prepare them is layering several crepes together sandwiched with butter and maple syrup... it's to die for! We also love them with fruit and cream cheese or Greek yogurt, berry syrup, homemade whipped cream, and stewed apples (or any combination of the above—drizzling a little maple syrup over stewed apples with whipped cream is pretty divine!).

2 eggs

2 T canola oil

3 T sugar (or, if using wheat flour, honey; leave this out if you're making savory crepes)

1 C flour (it's equally great with white or whole-wheat)

About 1/8 tsp salt

About 1 1/3 cups milk

Combine eggs, oil, sugar/honey, and salt in blender and pulse to combine. Leave the blender running on low and alternate adding milk and flour. (If you're using a top-motor blender, like we now are, you'll have to add everything together and then open it up again to scrape the flour off the sides.) If any flour clings to the sides, scrape it down with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Like many recipes, the exact ratio of flour to milk can be a little fickle and depend on the weather/your ingredients/what your astrological sign happens to be doing at the moment. You're looking for a batter that is quite runny and easily pourable (not at all like pancake batter).

Pre-heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat on the stove and grease with butter (be sure to get part of the sides, as the crepes will often creep up the sides as they cook!). When pan is warm (you want the butter to sizzle, but not immediately turn brown), pour a small amount of batter into the pan. We use small omelet-sized pans to make ours, and pour only a silver-dollar sized amount of batter or less into the pan. (Experiment a little til you find the right amount!) Quickly use your wrist to swirl the batter in the pan until it has evenly and thinly coated the bottom (and bottom of the sides) of your pan. Cook until the crepe starts to brown around the edges and most of the center is no longer liquid (usually 30-60 seconds).

Although we've gotten pretty good at making crepes and can make them quickly and beautifully now, neither of us has ever been able to master either flipping them with the pan (HA) or using only one utensil to flip them. Instead, we take a heat-safe rubber spatula (the kind you use to get the last of the cake batter from your bowl) and gently work it around the edges of the crepe as soon as they begin to brown. Then, even more gently (thin crepes are pretty fragile—but totally worth it!), we take a regular flipping spatula and use that to flip the crepe to its other side.

Cook about 15-30 seconds on the second side and then gently flip finished crepe off onto a plate. Voila! You're now a master French chef! (Or something like that.)

Cindy's Favorite Pizza Sauce

I would have a picture of this... 

But I'm pregnant, so I just ate it all.

Prep Time: Very easy

Source: I had a few different inspirations for this sauce, but a lot of the basis came from Peter Reinhart's Crushed Tomato Pizza Sauce

If you know me at all, you probably know that I have always hated tomatoes and anything containing tomatoes—from ketchup on down. For most of my life, pizza sauce has been no exception, and I'm still not overly fond of most pizza sauces. Around high school, however, I started noticing that I actually enjoyed some kinds of pizza sauce, but not others. Over the last few years, every time I've had pizza I've tried to identify what elements about it I did or didn't like. Eventually, I had a pretty detailed list of things that I did or didn't like in a pizza sauce. (In case you wondered, it was: Savory, not sweet; fresh crushed tomatoes, not simmered-for-hours tomato sauce; simple and Neopolitan-style; and nothing that got its start in a jar of tomato sauce—turns out there's something in those basic tomato sauce cans I hate!) This summer, with fresh tomatoes from my garden, I decided to take what I learned and apply it to my own sauce recipe. This very simple sauce has since become our go-to recipe. Mahon and I can't get enough of it! It's also very easy to customize to your own taste preferences by adding sugar and other spices. We personally love the fresh-tomato taste, but if you prefer a stewed tomato sauce, feel free to simmer the sauce on low heat for an hour or two before using.

This recipe makes enough for a large pizza or two medium pizzas (unless you are like my husband and would like 1" of sauce on your pizza!), but it can easily be doubled as many times as you need. It can also be frozen and used later.

3 medium tomatoes*

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons balsamic vinaigrette

1 t salt

1/2 t oregano

1/8 t garlic powder

1/8 t black pepper

Parmesan or romano cheese, grated (optional)

If you'd like to remove the tomato skins—gently score a cross into the bottom of each tomato and blanch for about 60 seconds in boiling water. Skin and cut off the tomato tops. Toss in blender along with all other ingredients except cheese. Pulse on the lowest setting until tomatoes are crushed but not puréed. Pour sauce into a bowl. If desired, stir in about 1/8-1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan or romano cheese. (I'd never heard of cheese in pizza sauce before, but it turns out it's pretty common and really delicious!) Technically, you're supposed to allow the sauce to marinade for about an hour before using, but we've done it both ways without a hugely noticeable taste difference—the flavors steep together pretty well when cooking.

Although I initially tried this sauce recipe with a fancy, double-raised, all-afternoon pizza crust recipe, since then I've ended up going back to our tried-and-true favorite pizza crust recipe every time, made with 100% whole wheat flour. I always cook the pizzas for 12 minutes. This crust recipe pairs wonderfully with this sauce! (As evidenced by the fact that I just ate. My. Whole. Pizza. Granted, it was small!)

*Thus far, I've only used fresh garden tomatoes for this sauce. Once I run out, however, I plan to do some experimenting with canned tomatoes, which I'm sure will work just fine too.

Healthy Golden Cornbread

Prep Time: Easy

Source: Adapted from Martha White Golden Cornbread recipe

I adapted my favorite cornbread recipe so that it is 100% whole grain (cornmeal and wheat flour) and sweetened with honey instead of white sugar. We love to eat this cornbread with whipped honey butter.

2 eggs

1 cup milk or buttermilk (I use regular milk with about a teaspoon of lemon juice to sour it)

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup honey

1 1/2 cups corn meal

1 cup wheat flour

2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 400º F. Grease 8 or 9 inch square or round pan (I like to use my smallest springform pan; muffin cups can also be used). In large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour batter into greased pan. Bake for 20-25 min or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. For muffins, bake 15-20 minutes.

Last-Minute Wheat Bread

(Ok, so technically this is a picture of my 5-minute wheat bread—but we ate the
Last-Minute Loaf already!)

Prep Time: Easy

Do you ever find yourself needing a loaf of good bread, but without the time to let it rise? I came up with this recipe (based on several others) the other day when I was in just that situation. From start to finish it takes about an hour. This recipe yields one medium-sized loaf, but you could easily double or triple (or quintuple!) it for more. This recipe is so quick and easy you don't even need to make it in a mixer.

1 cup warm water

1 T yeast

1/2 T table salt

2 T canola oil

1 1/2 T honey

2 cups wheat flour

1/2-3/4 cups white flour

Egg white (beaten); any desired toppings

Mix all ingredients together in medium bowl (I just do it with my hands—the dough comes together quickly and easily). Knead dough a few times until it is elastic and holds together (should only take about 60 seconds). Grease medium loaf pan. Shape dough into loaf (my preferred method is to roll it out on the counter and then roll the sheet up into a loaf) and press into pan. Brush top with egg white and top with any desired seeds, oatmeal, etc. With serrated knife, make 3-4 slashes in top of loaf (a lot of the rising will happen quickly as the oven heats, so this helps your loaf keep a pleasing shape through that fast rising!). Allow to rest on warm countertop or in oven (turned off) for about 20 minutes. Without preheating the oven, place loaf into oven and set oven to 350. Cook for 45 minutes (this includes the preheat time). Cool on a wire rack.

Pumpkin Bread

Rating: 5 stars (I am seriously considering getting rid of the whole rating system on this blog... I mean hello, haven't we figured out that ANYTHING I consider blog-worthy is at least 4.5???)

Prep time: Easy

Source: Various blogs, adapted by me

I discovered pumpkin chocolate-chip bread my first semester in college and immediately fell head-over-heels in love! I have used a recipe given to me by the neighbor who first introduced me to the stuff ever since, but I think that this recipe will be my new go-to recipe. It's moist, delicious, and is just as good the second day! I actually already dialed down the sugar from the original recipe, and I think I could subtract a bit more and it would still be delicious.

This recipe makes two tall medium loaves of bread (probably two flatter large loaves), or 24 muffins.

2 ½ cups white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour
(I usually change the flour ratios and do 2 cups wheat, 1 1/2 cup white)

2 cups sugar (I cut this down to as little as 1 1/3 cup)

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

1 cup canola or vegetable oil

4 large eggs

2/3 cup water

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. I like to line my loaf pans with foil or parchment paper because they tend to slightly carmelize the outside crust of quickbreads like this, and I don't like that... but that's completely optional. Grease pan (or muffin tin). In large bowl, mix together water, eggs, oil, and pumpkin until smooth. Gently add dry ingredients on top of the wet ones (I do flour first, then sugar, then baking soda and spices) and sift together with a fork, then combine with wet ingredients. (This is my easy one-bowl solution to the wet mix/dry mix problem!) Fold in chocolate chips and pour batter into prepared receptacles. Bake for 20-30 minutes (regular-sized muffins) or 60-70 minutes (loaves), until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. This bread is delicious warm, and equally delicious after it cools! It also freezes REALLY well - just let it cool completely and then wrap it first in plastic wrap and then in tinfoil. When you're ready to eat it, let it thaw for a few hours at room temperature. This recipe is a definite all-around winner!

Soft Pretzels

Rating: 5 Delicious Stars

Prep Time: Easy-Medium

Source: Adapted from my friend Sacha

I LOVE soft pretzels. I mean, they are a combination of two of my favorite things: bread and salt. What could go wrong? I even have a favorite soft pretzel vendor... weird, huh! In high school, I used to make soft pretzels all the time, but I fell out of the habit after I went to college. The recipe I used required a long rising time, which isn't difficult, but I'm all about instant gratification—I want snacks that don't take a huge amount of foresight! So when I found a recipe that required NO rising time, I knew I had to try it. This recipe is for non-risen pretzels, but if you would prefer to let yours rise, simply allow to rise 2-2 1/2 hours after kneading dough. With this method, you can skip the boiling water bath and simply brush pretzels with warm water that has baking soda in it, then put them right in the oven.

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 T yeast

1/3 cup brown sugar

4 1/2-5 cups flour (to get a typical mall-type pretzel you will need to use all white, but you can substitute about half wheat if you prefer)

Baking soda

Egg white

Kosher or other coarse salt

Preheat oven to 475 (be sure to do this at the beginning, cause it takes awhile!). Grease cookie sheet. Fill a medium saucepan with at least 3 inches of water and add about 1 tsp. baking soda for each cup of water. (I usually just estimate). Put on stove to boil. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a normal bowl if you're feeling really buff), combine water, yeast, and sugar. Add flour (I usually put in about 4 cups, then let it mix for a minute, then add more if it needs it) and knead until you have a soft, elastic dough that isn't sticky to the touch (if you use half wheat flour, it will be slightly sticky, but not much). 

On a clean countertop, pull off small sections of dough (mine are usually about the size of a clementine or a bit smaller) and roll into long snakes—yep, just like you used to do with playdough. For best results, you want  your "snakes" to be about half an inch in diameter. Cross ends to form a traditional pretzel shape, and press dough together in the three places that it meets (this will keep it from all falling apart in the boiling water bath). To get that perfect pretzel shape, slip two fingers through the top loops of pretzel and carry it over to the water bath that way. Gently boil for about 30 seconds, then remove and place on cookie sheet. When all of your pretzels are done, brush with beaten egg white (if you don't have an egg you can use a cornstarch wash—1 T warm water to 1 T cornstarch—but it isn't quite as good for this) and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until pretzels are a deep golden brown and no longer doughy on the inside. Let cool a few minutes before trying to get them off the pan—in my experience, they come off better when they're cooler. Before eating, brush warm pretzel with butter (and if you're me, sprinkle MORE salt on it!). Enjoy! This recipe would also make great bagels (just shape your snakes into circles, boil them, and omit the salt on top).

For other pretzel flavors: I like my pretzels as salty as possible, but if you prefer other pretzel flavors, feel free to switch things up! For cinnamon sugar bagels, omit the salt, brush with butter when they're out of the oven, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. For parmesan pretzels, omit the salt and sprinkle with parmesan after doing the egg white wash. You can really do anything you like with these - use your imagination!

Cindy's Honey-Whole Wheat Bread

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Rating: 5 hefty stars!

Source: Me!

It's jam season. Do you know what that means? I want to eat jam. All. The. Time. And, though my awesome 5-minute boule is good for many things, it's not a fabulous bread to have with jam. I like to have a good whole wheat sandwich bread on hand for my jam sessions. The problem? Until this week, I didn't have the "perfect" whole wheat bread recipe—my basic Whole Wheat Sandwich bread took too long and wasn't amenable to storing (which means no fresh bread every morning!), and my 100% Whole Wheat sandwich bread had too many ingredients and wasn't quite what I was looking for anyway.

Enter my decision to try to make my OWN 5-minute bread stored dough recipe! I've spent enough time reading and making the recipes from "Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes A Day" that I figured I had a pretty good handle on what elements were essential to the stored dough process. Accordingly, I took my beloved Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread and tweaked it until I ended up with what is, in my opinion, the BEST jam-friendly bread EVER! So here, for your culinary pleasure, is my very own bread recipe.

Cindy's 5-Minute Honey-Whole Wheat Bread

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 T yeast

1 generous T salt

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup honey

4 cups whole wheat flour

2 1/4-2 1/2 cups white flour* (see note at bottom)

Cornstarch

Warm water

Oatmeal, seeds, any desired toppings

In a large bowl or stand mixer bowl, combine water, yeast, and salt. Add oil and honey and mix a little bit. Add in flour (holding back the last 1/4 cup to make sure your dough is not too dry) and mix ingredients together. Dough should NOT form a ball, and should still be fairly sticky, but you want it to be oozy, not runny! If needed, add more flour. Transfer into a 5-quart plastic container (or a metal bowl lined with wax paper/freezer paper/plastic wrap). Obviously, if you have a mixing bowl that is at least 5 quarts and plastic, you can do this all in one bowl! Cover with something that is not airtight (but DON'T use a towel, or the dough will stick to it... trust me!) and let rise for 2 hours on a draft-free countertop. At the end of the 2 hours, you can shape a loaf or store in the fridge. When you are ready to shape a loaf: Grease loaf pan. Sprinkle flour liberally on top of dough, and get plenty of flour on your hands. Remove a section of dough about the size of a canteloupe. Work into a loose ball (dough will not hold shape very well; that's okay). Set in bread pan. Turn oven to 375 degrees. While oven is heating, let dough rest for about 40 minutes if it has been refrigerated (if it hasn't been it doesn't really need any resting time at all). Just before baking, combine about 1 t. water with 1/2 t. cornstarch. Brush over top of loaf. Sprinkle with desired toppings (oatmeal, seeds, nuts, whatever you feel like—my favorite combination right now is flax & poppy seeds.) With serrated knife, slash loaf three times diagonally across the top. Place on top rack in oven and bake 40-50 minutes, until the top of the loaf is a deep brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool on a rack. Enjoy with butter and your homemade freezer jam! Now pardon me, I have to go eat the rest of the loaf clean my kitchen.

Yield: I like to use medium-sized loaf pans, which take a fair bit of dough. I estimate that this amount of dough will probably make 2 medium loaves and 1 small loaf, depending on how much dough you use. The recipe can easily be doubled if you have a big enough container (10 quarts or more).

*Extra healthy tip: I have also made this bread recipe using nearly all wheat flour (5 1/2 cups wheat, 1/2-1 cup white) and it works great, especially if I give the dough a little extra resting time before baking it. After much experimentation, I think my favorite flour combo is: 5 1/2 cups of wheat flour, 1/2 cup white flour, and 1/2 cup rolled oats. DELICIOUS!

5-Minute French Boulè

Prep time: So easy you won't believe you're making bread
Source: Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day, heavily revised by me

Not only is this the easiest bread recipe I've ever tried, but it is also THE MOST DELICIOUS. And the best part about this technique is that you can have fresh bread every single day! Also, don't be overwhelmed by the amount of text in this recipe. I've tried to include all of the tips and tricks I've learned in several years of making this recipe so that it's very easy to get a perfect batch of bread on your first try.

Basic Loaf (French Boule)

3 cups warm water
.5-1.5 T yeast

1 1/2 T kosher salt (a heaping tablespoon of table salt)

6 1/2 cups flour (I like to use 3 1/2 cups wheat, 3 cups white)

A note on yeast and flour in this recipe: The original Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes recipe calls for 1.5 T yeast per batch. However, after making this recipe for several years, I've started decreasing the yeast in most batches I make and increasing the rising time. Most similar high-moisture bread recipes I've seen use only half a tablespoon of yeast and allow the bread to rise overnight. In my opinion, less yeast and a longer rise time makes for a yummier, more sophisticated crumb, so I typically do .5-1 tablespoon yeast and allow it to rise longer (usually 4-6 hours for 1 tablespoon and overnight for half a tablespoon, though if my kitchen is really warm 6 or so hours is usually enough for the smaller amount too). If I'm in a hurry, I still use the higher amount of yeast and a 2-hour rising time.

The original recipe calls for all unbleached white flour. However, since we're big whole-wheat bread fans over here, over the years I've steadily increased the amount of wheat flour in my recipe. The amount of wheat flour that I can get away with without it resulting in a dense and heavy loaf varies greatly depending on the kind of flour used; if I use freshly-ground white wheat flour I can substitute all of the white flour for wheat, but if I use store-bought red wheat flour I can only get away with half to two-thirds. I try to make sure that my wheat flour batches have plenty of time to double in their initial rise, and I typically rest the refrigerated dough longer than white flour (40-60 minutes verses 20-40). Personally, Mahon and I have both come to prefer the taste and texture of this recipe with wheat flour, and it's still light and delicious with a perfectly crisp crust.

How to make the bread:

In a large (5 quart) container, mix together all ingredients with a wooden spoon. That's all you have to do: mix gently until all the ingredients are combined and evenly moist. It will be very "gooey" and moist and not at all like a typical bread dough. Then stick your spoon in the sink, cover your bowl with something breathable (I typically do plastic wrap or tin foil, and I punch holes in the top of the covering—I tried a towel at first but my dough rose so high it stuck to the towel and that was a pain to clean off!) and let sit in a draft-free place for 2+ hours (see rising note above), until it's doubled in bulk. 

After that time, you can work with the dough (although it's easier to shape if it's been refrigerated first). Pull or cut a section of dough that's 1-1.5 pounds (about the size of a large grapefruit to the size of a canteloupe). Gently fold the edges of the dough under until you have a ball. (If your dough is really wet, you won't be able to do this; you can either add more flour or just plop some dough onto your pan. It's still delicious, but not quite as pretty.) Allow your dough to rise for at least 30 minutes (it's impossible to over-raise this dough, so feel free to leave it out a few hours, though it will lose a lot of its shape). 20 minutes before you are ready to put it in the oven, turn your oven on to 450 degrees. Place a dish with a lid (it can be an enamel-coated cast iron pot like Le Creuset, an oven-safe nonstick pot, or a glass or ceramic dish with a lid—I have been using an oblong vintage Pyrex baking dish and it's worked great) on the top rack of the oven and allow to heat with the oven for 20 minutes (it's important to heat it this long, or your dough will stick). 

After this preheat is done, slash your loaf with a serrated knife (you can slash it with an X, a tic-tac-toe, or with diagonal lines running in one direction) and carefully lift loaf into your prepared pan. Cover with lid (you might be able to use a non-lidded dish and cover it with foil, but I haven't tried this yet) and cook for 20 minutes. Remove bread from dish (it should release very easily) and allow to cook for 15-20 more minutes, just sitting alone on the oven rack (it will be plenty done by this stage—now you just want to brown the crust). Remove from oven and allow to cool almost all the way before cutting. (I usually can't resist, and so I slice off one of the heels and eat it hot with butter, but you don't want to cut off more than that because the bread actually finishes cooking as it cools.)

If you don't have a lidded dish to use, that's okay! Cook it free-form on a regular baking sheet, and during the oven preheat time put a metal cake pan (empty) on the bottom rack of the oven. When you put the bread in, pour a cup of hot water into the cake pan and then close the oven door right away. Bake 35-40 minutes.

One other thing—you may be tempted to brush the top of the boule with egg white/oil/something else, like you do in many bread recipes to create a better crust. I did that for awhile, but once I stopped doing it I realized how utterly stupid that was. Trust this bread: it will make you the tastiest, chewiest, yummiest crust you've ever tasted, no help needed.

AN IMPORTANT TIP: I learned from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day that the proper way to store a crusty bread is NOT in a plastic bag. The best way to store crusty bread, it turns out, is to simply place it on the cutting board with the cut side down. I was a little skeptical of this idea at first, but it works GREAT. This bread is amazing the first day, pretty darn good the second day, edible the third day, and ready to be made into bread crumbs the fourth day—if it's still around at that point!

A quick note on larger loaves— I have only used the method above with loaves that are fairly small (about 1-2 pounds). For a much larger loaf, you will want to reduce the heat a bit (probably to 400 or 425) and up the cooking time, so that the center of the loaf has a chance to cook before the crust browns too much.

Old-Fashioned Whole Wheat Bread

Rating: 5 stars

Prep time: Not hard, but time-consuming

This is soft-crusted wheat sandwich bread like your mom/grandma/Relief Society president used to make. Although I've lately gone to using the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day method, I still have a soft spot in my heart for this recipe.

3 cups warm water

1 T yeast

1 T salt

Generous 1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup honey

Approximately 8 cups flour (I typically do about 6 wheat, 2 white—my store-bought wheat is too coarse to use 100% whole wheat and get a proper raise)

Sunflower seeds, rolled oats, flax seeds, poppy seeds or any combination of preferred grains & seeds (optional)

Egg white (if you use seeds)

Preheat oven to 350. In mixer with dough hook attachment, combine water and yeast. Add 3 cups wheat flour, salt, oil, and honey, and mix on low speed until combined. If desired, add a small handful of sunflower seeds to dough at this point. Slowly add in the rest of flour until your dough is no longer sticky and forms a ball on the dough hook, pulling away from the sides of the bowl. (A note on breadmaking: the flour measurement is NOT an exact science. Depending on the temperature, humidity, and other factors, you may need more or less flour. Once your dough ball is pulling away from the sides of the bowl and you can touch the dough without getting it all over your finger, then you have added enough flour.) Turn to a higher speed and let the mixer knead the dough for about 6-8 minutes. Remove dough from hook and form into a ball; spray with cooking oil (making sure to coat all sides) and let rest in bowl, covered, for about an hour or until doubled in size. Divide dough into 3 portions. Roll each portion flat with a rolling pin to remove air bubbles, then shape into a loaf (you do this by rolling your flat rectangle up into an oval and patting the ends together). Place loaf in sprayed loaf pan, cover, and allow to rise for another hour or until doubled in size. If desired, brush loaf with beaten egg white and sprinkle toppings over loaf—I use a mixture of ground rolled oats, ground flax seed, and poppy seeds. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 30 minutes, or until loaf is rich brown.

Six (or five!)-seed Soda Bread

Rating: 5 stars for heartiness and great for soup!

Prep time: Easy

Source: 101 Cookbooks

This, paired with Panera soup, was my lunch today. It's definitely denser and heartier than a yeast-risen bread, but oh my goodness, was it good!!! It was absolutely divine paired with the broccoli cheese soup. I might never be able to serve the two dishes apart again! Not to mention, it was so EASY and so GORGEOUS!

2 1/2 tablespoons each sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, poppy, and flax seeds (I actually had all of these on hand)

1 t. fennel seeds (I didn't have these, so I just left them out—you really can customize this seed list to be whatever you prefer, or have on hand, though I thought the 5 I used were perfect)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups spelt or wheat flour (for those of us who don't have spelt flour on hand!)

2 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 3/4 cup buttermilk, plus a little more for brushing (I didn't have buttermilk so I used a buttermilk substitute, 1 cup milk to 1 T lemon juice)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (really, let it preheat all the way before you start making the dough—the dough makes up very fast and you want your oven to be all the way hot when it goes in). Place a rack in the center of the oven. Mix all seeds together in a bowl; set aside.

In larger bowl, combine flours, baking soda, and salt. Mix in all but 2 tablespoons of seeds. Create a well in the center of flour mixture and pour in 1 3/4 cup buttermilk (or substitute). Mix until just combined (but not too sticky), then turn onto a lightly-floured surface and knead about one minute (add a little flour at this point if necessary) or until mixture makes a nice bread dough. You don't want to knead too long, as the bread should go into the oven ASAP. Lightly flour a cookie sheet OR line with parchment paper. Shape dough into a round loaf and place on cookie sheet; with serrated knife, mark deep X in top of loaf. Brush with remaining buttermilk and sprinkle with remaining seeds. (Next time, I'd mix some egg yolk in with the buttermilk as some of the seeds fell off after baking—although I'm actually pleasantly surprised by how well the buttermilk did hold them on.) Bake for 35-40 minutes or until bread is a rich golden brown. Enjoy! Yields one loaf.

Garlic-Herb Focaccia Bread

Rating: 5 stars

Prep time: Super easy

I love focaccia bread, and actually used to make it pretty frequently before I got married. The recipe I used then was an authentic Italian focaccia recipe, and it was yummy, but it took about 4 hours to make and dried out after about a day. A few months ago, I realized there was no reason I couldn't use my all-purpose dough to make a light and fluffy—and much faster to make—focaccia. The other night I put the idea to the test, and it was delicious—including the leftovers! I will definitely be repeating this. It's also a pretty healthy snack, since it's loaded with healthy oils and spices.

1 batch pizza/breadstick dough

1 clove garlic, finely minced

Olive oil

Rosemary, oregano, and basil

Grated parmesan

Coarse sea salt

Heat oven to 425. Grease cookie sheet. Make up one batch of pizza/breadstick dough according to recipe—you are aiming for a pretty soft dough here, so go easy on the flour. Knead minced garlic into bread dough. Coat dough with oil and let rise, covered, for about 15 minutes. Gently work dough onto greased cookie sheet, spreading evenly but not too thinly. Cover and let rise for another 20-30 minutes. Brush top of bread with olive oil; with fingers, press dimples into bread every 3-4 inches. Top with sea salt, rosemary, oregano, basil, and grated parmesan. Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. (Note: the second time I made this, I cooked it on the second oven rack instead of the highest rack out of necessity. It actually ended up making a FABULOUS crunchy artisan bottom crust... I think I will do it on that rack from now on!) Let cool for a few minutes; cut into squares and enjoy!

The Most Versatile Dough Ever (Breadsticks/Pizza Dough)

Rating: 5 stars
Prep Time: Minimal

This basic pizza dough recipe is adapted from the Betty Crocker cookbook. One batch, separated into two parts, makes two round pizzas. Or you can use all of the dough on a large rectangle pan to make delicious, fluffy breadsticks. The adaptability is endless—this recipe can be used for white pizza dough or wheat pizza dough, and the breadsticks are limited only by your imagination! Some of my favorite breadsticks: 1. All-white flour brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and fresh parmesan, baked till crispy and golden outside and white and fluffy inside (shown above.) 2. Half-wheat, half-white, brushed with butter and sprinkled with grated cheddar cheese (shown in the picture with the potato soup). You can also add your favorite combination of spices....something we do often!

Versatile Breadsticks/Pizza Dough

1 cup warm water
1 T yeast
1 t sugar

Combine these ingredients in medium-sized bowl. Let yeast sit for a minute to proof. Then add:

2 1/2 cups flour (sometimes it needs a little more, sometimes a little less)
1 t salt
2 T vegetable oil

Stir with one finger until flour is moistened and ingredients being to come together. Then use hands to knead dough into a smooth ball. Spray ball with vegetable oil spray, cover with a clean towel or napkin, and let stand at least 5 minutes. (Wheat dough takes longer to rise. Also, I usually raise the dough more for breadsticks than pizza, because I like thin pizza crust and fluffy breadsticks.)

For pizza: divide dough into 2 separate balls. Working dough gently with fingers, spread on 2 greased round pizza pans. Brush edges with olive oil. Top with desired toppings and bake at 425 for about 12 minutes.

For breadsticks: Working dough gently with fingers, spread dough on greased rectangular pan. Top as desired. Before baking, cut breadsticks in dough with pizza cutter. Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes.