So How Many Croutons . . .

 . . . does it take to make someone feel not-so-bad about baking three loaves of not-so-hot bread?   According to my numbers, 176.    Croutons, anyone?   And no, I didn’t count the breadcrumbs. 

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Bread Review

Now that I’ve had time away from the bread, I’ve gone back and retasted it.  This morning I had some of the oatmeal bread with breakfast, and I’m having some of the sunflower seed bread now.

In my opinion, the bread made in the bread machine tastes the best.  The flour for it is almost 2:1 whole wheat to white flour.  The consistency of the machine bread is lighter and the flavor not so heavy.  It’s good with just a little butter.  It is a bit crumbly so it has to be sliced thick for toasting.  My thin slices this morning kept trying to fold up in the toaster.  I can say for sure I will make this Oatmeal Wheat Bread recipe again.

The Sunflower Sesame Wheat Bread I’m still thinking about.  It pretty much just tastes like wheat flour.  I could play with the recipe and add more honey and molasses, I think it would be great to eat with some honey on top.  It’s good with just butter, the seeds are visible and chewy, the flour flavor is not off-putting.   The loaves are very heavy; the bread is very filling.  I think I’ll take two of the loaves and put them in the freezer in sections to take down occasionally.  And I think I’ll use half of the first loaf to make bread crumbs for salads and soup, or maybe croutons.  Then next week I can experiment with a couple more bread recipes.  Already I’m wanting to alter some recipes to experiment.  I think I can really end up with some good solid breads.   It’s fun to play!

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Busy Evening of Planning to Cook

AFTER SEARCHING ALL EVENING for bread recipes, I have 12 that look like they have ingredients I can handle.  Two are for the bread machine; the others are baked in the oven.   This week and next week, I will try to make one of each:  one for the oven and one for the bread machine.  Then slowly I will get around to the others in coming weeks.   I’m so pumped about finally baking some bread! 

Tomorrow will be the big day for baking — pics will be posted afterward, along with my review.   Right now I need some Zzzzzzs.  Night, all.

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What a Great Morning!

I ran out to Native Roots Market, our fantastic local health food market, for some locally made bread.  They had a loaf called “Wholly Granola” and holy, holy, holy . . . this stuff is amazing!   It’s a very dense bread made with multiple whole grains, including untreated wheat, barley, millet, rice, oats, guinoa, and then the yummy stuff — pecans, walnuts, raisins, raw honey.   MMMmmm-mmmm.

Since I’m not going to eat much bread, I’ve divided the loaf into individual freezer bags, 4 slices per bag, with 16 slices total for the freezer, and I’ve kept 4 more slices out for this week.  I had two little “heel” slices with my breakfast this morning, just plain and untoasted and with no butter or topping.    You can see in the pics how delish this bread looks, and it tastes just like you would imagine, with the surprise of a raisin ever so often, maybe 2 per slice. 

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