Whole- wheat bread recipe

Are'nt they beautiful!  And they smell like heaven!  Here is good healthy wheat bread recipe you can try.

I got this recipe from Dana Thornocks recipe book. If anyone who does not know who she is, she wrote the book "Lean and free 2000 plus" An excellent book for anyone who wants to be fit and healthy the right way.  Sadly she passed away a few years ago, but left behind a wealth of information on healthy eating. I did tweak this recipe a little bit to add extra fiber. I posted the recipe how it originally was and just added notes of my changes on the side.

Nutrition:

1 slice of this bread has 88 calories, and has 1 fat gram, I don't know the fiber content, but it should be at least 3 grams ( And it should be more if you add the flax meal and oat bran meal)

Ingrediants:

10-12 cups whole wheat flour ( I replaced 2 1/2 cups of the flour with 1/2 cup flax meal and 2 cups oat bran meal)

2 tablespoons dry rapid rise yeast ( I used the SAF brand)

1/2 cup wheat gluten

4 cups warm water (120-130 degrees)

1/3 cup oil (I used canola oil)

1/3 cup honey ( A good tip I learned a few years ago is measure your honey in the same measuring cup you used for the oil. That way the honey slips right out of the cup and does not stick because there is still an oil residue)

1 tablespoon salt

Place 6 cups flour into mixer bowl with kneading arm. Add dry yeast and gluten; mix well. Add water and mix for 1 minute. Cover and let dough sit for 10 minutes. This makes the bread lighter. Add oil, honey, and salt. Turn on mixer and quickly add remaining flour one cup at a time until dough forms a ball and cleans the sides of the bowl . ( I added 2 cups oat bran and 1/2 cup flax meal in place of 2 1/2 cups flour.) knead 7- 10 minutes in mixer and 12 to 15 minutes if you are doing by hand. Dough should be smooth and elastic.

Preheat oven 150 degrees. Lightly oil hands. Divide dough into 3 or four equal portions. Shape and place in oiled or cooking sprayed bread pans. Place into warm oven for 15 - 20 minutes at let rise until about double in size. Then turn oven to 350 degrees and bake about 20- 25 minutes until golden brown. Turn out pans onto a cooling rack immediately. (I brushed the tops lightly with butter) When the loaves cool put bread in plastic bags. store in the freezer if you are not going to eat with in two days. ( my homemade bread is usually gone in two days so it does not usually make it to the freezer :-)

Flax seed wheat bread

      I was helping my Dad clean his house last week and I came across a newspaper clipping he had saved that had blue ribbon 2009 Utah Fair winners recipes.  He had saved it for a Spice cake recipe full of walnuts Yuck!  (Sorry I don't have an issue with spice cake I'm sure it is very good.  I just have a texture issue when there are hard things in soft things) Generally I don't like nuts in cookies and cakes except for some reason I can handle nuts on top like German Chocolate cake etc. Kind of weird I know, but anyway back to what caught my eye.
Because I have been trying to eat more healthy I have been looking for a good high fiber bread recipe.  I saw this Flax seed wheat bread reicipe from Sharlet E. Braman of West Jordon Ut.  I figured it must be good if it won a prize at the State Fair so I tried it :-)  And it did not disappoint!  The recipe makes about 5 loaves.  I made a batch on Friday  and my family has almost finished it off as you can see from this picture I took  this morning.  I guess I better make more!

I only made one change.  I put in honey instead of molasses.  Next time I may try to add some oatmeal too.  Try it!  You'll like it!  And It is way healthier than store bought!


FLAX SEED WHEAT BREAD
• 3 3/4 cup hot water

• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

• 1/4 cup molasses

• 3/4 cup butter

• 1 1/2 tablespoons salt

• 3 packages Fleischmann's RapidRise yeast

• 2 beaten eggs


• 2 tablespoons wheat gluten

• 2 tablespoons dough enhancer

• 1 cup ground flax seed

• 5 cups whole wheat flour

• 5-6 1/2 cups white flour

Heat water to almost boiling and pour into large bowl. Add sugar, molasses, salt and butter; stir to dissolve and melt. Add 3 cups wheat flour, eggs, dough enhancer, gluten, yeast and flax seed.



Beat well with mixer. Add the rest of the wheat flour while mixing dough with mixer. Add enough white flour until you have a soft dough.



Pour out dough onto a counter and knead in enough flour to make the dough smooth and elastic for 5-10 minutes. Place in a clean, greased bowl, cover and let rise until double in bulk (about 45 minutes). Punch down, shape into loaves and put into a greased bread pan. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. While bread dough is rising, pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.



Bake bread for 35 minutes. Remove from pans and rub tops of the loaves with butter. Cool on a rack and place in plastic bags.

Preparing for gardening this Spring!

I have been thinking about the upcoming gardening season and what I want to grow this year.  I planted 3 kiddie pool gardens last year and I was very pleased with my results!  I want to do that again this year and add a forth kiddie pool garden to plant  herbs.   While blogging this morning I saw this post from V and Co. She has started plant starts for her garden already.  I have decided that I want to do that too!  I have seeds I can use from past gardening attempts.  Last year I bought starts from Wal- Mart but I think it would be more rewarding to start my own this time around.

As for flowers I found a neat blog called Meadow brook farm. She has some great advice on how to mix your annuals with your perennials and lots of other great tips.  A warning though!  The pictures on her blog will give you a giant case of spring fever!  I don't where the rest of you live, but here in Utah the weather still thinks it is Winter in April! :-(

Easy kiddie pool garden

So I think a lot of people have had to make changes with the crazy economy right now. One of those changes being growing your own fruits and veggies. I have always wanted to have a garden. I tried one a few years back and I was too ambitious and planted a huge garden that had every plant you could think of. I got over whelmed and eventually it was over run by morning glory and other weeds that I could not keep up with and I gave up. A friend in my neighborhood had some beautiful raised container gardens that she said were much easier to take care of. So this year that was my plan. My biggest obstacle was if my husband would have time to build me some frames before the planting season. Then on one of my many trips to my local Wal-mart I saw the cheap plastic kiddie pools in the garden dept. And I was struck by a revelation that they could be my containers! But knowing if it was even possible I looked it up on the Internet when I got home and learned that others do it and you just have to make sure that you poke drain holes in the bottom so you don't get root rot. I planted only the veggies and fruit that I buy at the store, like zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, green and red bell peppers and watermelon and then I also planted pumpkins so we could have our own for Halloween. It has turned out great and I have not had to pull out one weed because I was able to control what I put in the pools. Steer manure, Miracle grow time release garden soil and peet moss. This is how I am going to plant a garden for now on!