Honey Wheat Bread--Nick's Favorite

Last June, Greg bought me a breadmaker for my birthday, and since then I have not bought one loaf of bread from the store. Instead, I make my own. Nick definitely approves--he especially prefers the crusts, which is great, because I especially do not prefer the crusts. When he smells the bread baking, he points towards the breadmaker and shouts "NO!" That's what he says when he really wants something.

I have promised several friends that I'd post the recipe for my perfected honey wheat bread, and I'm finally getting around to doing that today. I fooled around for months trying to figure out how to make bread that I liked consistently. Finally I realized that I didn't need to use the wheat bread setting. Since I'm using white whole wheat flour, the regular bread setting works perfectly.

Since my surgery in 2003 (Roux-en-Y Bariatric surgery), white bread has not agreed with my system. When I eat it, it shoots my blood sugar up, and then within a half hour, I'm having trouble with hypoglycemia. After meeting with doctors and nutritionists, and through years of trial and error, I've figured out that I have to have a balance of "good" carbs (whole wheat, high fiber and protein content) and protein foods. That's why I've added the flaxseed, wheat germ, and oatmeal. This recipe tends to keep my blood sugar steady, and it is delicious, especially right out of the breadmaker. I also love the fact that I know exactly what is in it.

Honey Wheat Bread


1 ¼ cups warm milk
3 T unsalted butter
3T honey
4T ground flaxseed
3T wheat germ
1T vital wheat gluten
1/3 cup oatmeal
2 and 2/3 cups white whole wheat flour
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ teaspoon yeast


I warm the milk in the microwave first, then pour it into the pan over the butter to soften it. Then I add the rest of the ingredients, in order, and make a little hole in the flour to put the yeast. Finally, I set my breadmaker on the regular setting, and three hours later I have a delicious loaf of bread. The key to this recipe is using white whole wheat flour.

My favorite way to have this bread, lately, is with a little bit of promise spread and pumpkin butter. Last year I started going to the farmer's markets, and I found this great company that makes jam and preserves and such. I order apple, pumpkin, honey, and cherry butter by the boxload from McCutcheon's, and it is worth the price. Nick sure loves the variety of spreads.  :)

Buttermilk Molasses Wheat Bread and a Gigantic Blueberry Mess

This afternoon, I was trembling with anticipation as I walked to the mailbox with Nick in my arms. I'd been waiting almost a week. Would it arrive today? It had been almost a week, and still no sign of the delivery. My heart was beating and my son was pulling my hair as I pulled open the mailbox. Yes! My prize was inside! I did a little happy dance right there, on the curb, as the neighbors looked on in surprise. Nicholas laughed uproariously at my joy, though he couldn't comprehend it.

No, I didn't order jewelry, or a handbag, or even gourmet chocolates (that was a few weeks ago). Last Thursday, the paddle for my breadmaker disappeared. Greg and I aren't sure what happened to it, although we looked everywhere for literally hours. He tends to blame himself, and apologized profusely. I, however, do not blame him, although I was really upset not to have a glorious loaf of French bready goodness on my plate that evening.

I blame the same mysterious force that results in the whole "socks without partners" phenomenon. My husband, bless his heart, is one of those men who, when he does his laundry, does not ever lose a single sock. No, Really. Not. Ever. Not even when he went to the laundromat. When I started doing laundry for him a few years back, he would become disturbed and agitated when he couldn't find the mate to a particular sock. Persistant to a fault, he would spend what seemed like an eternity searching for the errant hosiery until I'd finally cry out in defeat, "Just stop it! I'll buy you some new socks!" And I did. My trick was to buy six or seven pairs of identical socks, and thus the tragedy wasn't so great when a particular partner was lost.

I, on the other hand, have a pile of no less than thirty-three (I counted) mate-less socks sitting in my drawer, waiting to be reunited. The chances of this are incredibly slim, but I just shrug and sigh, knowing that as soon as I throw out a sock, its partner will miraculously reappear, just to taunt me. Even though I'm neither superstitous or particularly fanciful, I always figured there was a sock monster in the laundry room. How else can you explain the constant missing socks? The whole sock situation took on new, irritating dimensions once I had baby laundry to wash. Teeny tiny socks disappear even more frequently, and poor Nick has had to leave the house more than once in socks that don't exactly match. (Not that it matters, because he has now learned to tear them off.)

But I digress. I was talking about my excitement about getting the bread machine paddle in the mail. You see, last Thursday, as Greg was still searching valiantly for the missing piece, I quickly located and purchased one from Ebay. I figured that we'd only find the bread paddle once I'd actually paid for a new one. Because that's how Murphy's law works, you know. But we didn't ever find the darned thing. So no bread, until today, that is. I suppose I should show you what a bread paddle looks like, just in case you ever find mine.

I put my left hand in there for scale, and it wasn't until I was editing the picture that I noticed how bad my hands are starting to look. Before I had Nick, I got professional French manicures every two weeks or so. I even had the acrylic or gel nails, which prevented me from biting my nails and cuticles. But manicures and baby poop do not go hand in hand, so to speak. So now I have "mom hands," which are useful but not very attractive. Oh, and the band-aid? I cut my finger while I was slicing the bread. Again. Sigh.

Anyhow, back to the bread. Within five minutes of checking the mailbox, I had pulled out my latest recipe creation, tweaked it, loaded the machine, and pressed the "start" button on the bread machine. Before the unfortunate thing went missing, I had tried several times to perfect a buttermilk recipe that incorporated whole wheat flour, ground flax seed, and molasses. I think I have a pretty good compromise between fiber, taste, softness, and slice-ability. Here's the recipe:


Buttermilk Wheat Bread


Ingredients:
1 cup of buttermilk, warmed
1 large egg
1 ½ T of unsalted butter
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
4 t vital wheat gluten
2 T ground golden flax
¼ t salt
2 ½ T molasses
2 ¼ t active dry yeast


Directions:


1. Warm the buttermilk slightly and put it into the bread pan. Add the egg, molasses, and butter.
2. Put in everything but the yeast on top of the liquid ingredients.
3. Make a well in the flour and put in the yeast.
4. Carefully put the bread pan into the bread machine. Make sure the yeast doesn't mix with everything else.
5. Choose the wheat bread cycle, light crust.
6. As the machine works its magic, check on the dough to see if it needs a teaspoon of water (if it’s too dry) or a teaspoon of flour (if it looks too sticky). Mine was fine.
7. In about 4 hours you’ll have fresh bread. I like to slice it and put it into plastic bags, pushing out all of the air. It seems to last longer that way.


This bread turned out really soft, and the buttermilk makes it smell really good when it's warm. I might make some more tomorrow, because I'm having company. The smell of fresh bread is always nice when you have company. It makes your guests less likely to notice that there was no time to vacuum.

Tonight when I was feeding Nicholas his dinner, he kept wanting drinks of water. He was ravenous, and would've eaten more than 2 jars of baby food if I'd let him. Lately, whenever he sees me with a glass of water, he opens his mouth wide and leans towards the glass. (I've been working with him on the sign for "drink," but no luck so far.) He won't drink out of a sippy cup, but he loves taking big sips from my water glass. I try to tip the glass just so, making sure he doesn't get too much, but it doesn't always work. Nick pushes his head forward to get more water, which sometimes makes him cough.

Poor guy. Tonight he started coughing and up came his dinner. He'd had blueberries and bananas, unfortunately, and therefore needed a complete scrubdown. I sat him in the sink fully clothed and started using the sprayer on him. Nick thought this was hilarious, and it must've tickled, because he was giggling so hard. This was his second bath of the day, but he didn't seem to mind. He looked so adorable sitting there in the sink that I had to take his picture.

Delicious Wheat Bread and a Dip in the Pool with a Furry Friend

I think I've finally got it. . . the perfect breadmaker bread. I have been experimenting for several weeks, looking for a soft wheat bread that has flax seed, wheat germ, honey, and molasses. The nice part about trying out new bread recipes is that you get to eat your mistakes. Greg and I have eaten lots of mistakes lately, none of them too bad. But this bread is delicious!

Honey Molasses Wheat Bread

This bread makes about a 1.5 pound loaf. I made it exactly as you see below. For once, I actually measured accurately and wrote down every single ingredient. Really.

1 c. warm water
1/4 c. warm milk (I used skim)
2 T honey
1 and 1/2 T of molasses
2 T butter
2/3 c. all purpose flour
2 c. white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup oats
3 T golden ground flaxseed
2 T wheat germ
1 and 1/4 t. salt
1 and 1/4 t. active dry yeast
3 t. vital wheat gluten

Put in all of the liquid ingredients first. Then put on the solid ingredients, saving the yeast for last. It works best when you make a little well in the flour and add the yeast so that no yeast touches the water before you start the machine. I used the whole wheat setting on the light crust setting. mmmmmm

Here's what it looked like in the breadmaker. Since it's a smaller loaf, it doesn't fill the pan entirely. I always worry when I'm following a recipe that "Maybe it doesn't look right." Thus I've included the pictures, so you know if it looks right.

Then, here's what the loaf looks like when it comes out of the breadmaker. I like this size loaf, since it isn't as tall as the 2 lb. loaves. Perfect for sandwiches or toast. I have been having it with a little Promise Spread and these cherry preserves that a friend sent me last year. I've eaten the whole jar in just a few weeks, what with all of the bread we've been eating.It's funny how quickly my summertime days fill up. Every year I think about how nice it will be to have all that free time, and every year I end up being nearly as busy as I am during the school year. It is my own fault, I guess. Today I started out by leaving the house at 7 a.m. to tutor for two hours. Then Greg and I met in a Walgreens parking lot so that he could pass Nick on to me. I stopped for some iced tea, then went to the bank. Nick and I went home for about an hour, then left again to head up to meet my sister for lunch. We had a nice lunch (yummy potato soup) and then I had to leave to go to my doctor's appointment. Right after that I headed to my mom's house for dinner (and to give them some playtime with the baby). So poor Nicholas got shuffled in and out of his car seat probably 47 times. He was a really good sport, though. When I was in the Panera, he sat on the counter while I was waiting for my food, and all of the guys working behind the food prep area came to see him and talk to him. He was cooing at them and laughing and making them smile. He seems to like being busy. Good thing, too, since I seem to always be busy with something.

Nick and I went out to visit my mom and stepdad today. They have a little pool in their backyard for the dog, and Nick got to go swimming. Or wading. Well, he sat in the pool and splashed, anyway. His favorite part seemed to be when Tigger (their dog) came to visit him. Here Nicholas is giving Tigger a kiss. . . or perhaps it was the other way around. Anyhow, doggie spit was exchanged.

He really does seem to love the water. He made his muppet noise and splashed and played with whatever plastic kitchen thingies my mom was able to find for him. This next picture is me with Nick. He got me all wet because he thought it was hilarious to splash me by slapping both hands on the water simultaneously. I'm wearing Nick's favorite necklace. It was a birthday gift from my mother in law and sister in law, and Nick thinks it is his personal toy. I don't mind him messing with it, but I won't let him chew on it because I don't think it's child safe. So he gets upset when I wrestle it out of his little fist. You can also see part of my mom and stepdad's beautiful garden in the background. I had some more cute pics to post, but I didn't ask my mother or stepfather for permission to post pics of them, so I'll leave those for another time. I think I'm going to buy a baby pool for Nick this week--he loved it so much!