Category Archives: breads

Easiest and most versatile whole wheat bread dough recipe

Posted on 06/14/2013 | Comments Off

We make this recipe as its easy and versatile. We can make loaves of bread, rolls, pizza dough, or bread sticks from this recipe. I don’t have a heavy duty mixer or bread machine, so this has been the easiest recipe I’ve ever made for minimal amount of work.

3 c hot water
6 T oil
2 T honey
1 1/2 T yeast
8 c white whole wheat flour
2 1/4 t salt

First use hot tap water and pour into your bowl. The water should be pretty hot, not scalding as it will kill your yeast but enough so that it activates it.

Sprinkle the yeast over the water

Add the honey to your yeast and water

Whisk it to combine the ingredients

Let sit for about 5 minutes until bubbly

Add your oil, we use coconut oil–have to melt it then add, but you can use canola oil as well

Next add your salt

Then add your flour, not all at once or you will have a mess

Just add a cup at a time, you can either whisk by hand

and continue to keep whisking until your whisker gets clogged

or you can use a hand mixer and do a cup at a time until your beaters get clogged. Beat for at least 3 minutes. The longer you beat, the better the elasticity of your dough.

Either way it will all turn out the same in the end. At the point where you have to start doing it by hand, I like to knead it directly in the bowl, to avoid making a mess on my counter tops. Knead for about 2-3 minutes. Don’t know how to knead bread dough? Check this out.

Then grease another bowl and put your dough into it, turning once and let sit till double in size. You can keep punching it down until you are ready to make something out of it.

Form it into pizza dough, bread, rolls, calzones, or bread sticks. Very easy and versatile.

Here is a picture tutorial to teach you how to form a loaf of bread.

Bake 350 for 30 min.

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Posted in breads, In my kitchen

Tagged bread, kitchen

Popover recipe a blast from the past

Posted on 06/13/2013 | 1 comment

Little Women has to be one of my all time favorite classic books. Besides the fact that I was named after two of the characters Amy and Jo, the nostalgia of the movie is something I seek after. I love seeing all the girls crowded around their Marmee, enjoying her telling them a story and seeing women dressed in the feminine ways that God intended for us. Its a time period that has been somehow lost in our society.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is where the girls come running down the stairs to a kitchen for their Christmas breakfast. The smells are tantalizing and the girls are longing after all the wonderful foods that they have gone so long without due to the war.

Amy speaks up and says “Oh Marmee, popovers, they are simply divine!” After that my children and I decided to look up popovers and how to make them. We have tried various recipes over the years and tweaked them a bit and have come up with the following easy recipe, which we love.

These taste amazing plain, with butter, or a dab of homemade strawberry jam. We don’t have an official popover pan but just use our muffin tins and they turn out fine every time. Make sure to grease your pans thoroughly so that it does not stick.

2 eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup of milk
2 T butter melted
2/3 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon of salt

This recipe makes 6 popovers, we usually quadruple this for 24 popovers.

Preheat oven 425 degrees

crack your room temperature eggs into a bowl

add your milk

then your flour–we use white whole wheat flour

and your salt

we don’t own a microwave–another post on that later, so our butter has been melting in the oven while adding the other ingredients, so that goes in last

mix on medium speed till well blended, will be real watery

make sure that you grease your tins very well, or these will not turn out, I just use cooking spray, but have used butter wiped on as well.

pour into the muffin tins, or you can get “real” popover pans in the store, but these work just fine

little messy, letting the younger children fill them:) They need to be about 3/4 full to ensure perfect puffiness

Bake 20-30 minutes, this is what they will look like

nice and puffy as soon as they are out of the oven, but they will start to relax soon afterwards and the tops will collapse inward.

Its best served right away, to ensure the most delectable flavor

They are great plain, you can put a dab of butter on top or some of my children love strawberry jam on them.

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Posted in breads, In my kitchen

Tagged breads, kitchen

Homemade cheese crackers

Posted on 06/11/2013 | 12 comments

My children love goldfish crackers. How tempting it is to have that as a staple in our pantry because it is so easy to just grab. Most mother’s probably don’t give a second glance to the ingredients, I know I never did. As my quest to eating simpler and healthier continues I try and find alternatives to those favorite processed items. This is a super easy and delicious alternative to cheesy snack crackers.