So how did last week’s recipes turn out? Overall, I’d give it a B. Some were really good (this one, for example). And my version of the daal and veggie stew were pretty good. The sweet potato pizza could have used a little more flavor, as could the empanadas. Oh and I kind of burned the granola–but it’ something I’ll definitely be trying again, with a wee bit less time in the oven. I was distracted by the marshmallows!

It was the bread, however, that earned rave ratings. My husband said “why do we buy store bought bread?…why don’t we just make this all the time?” Score!

I used King Arthur Flour’s recipe as my base–but modified in a few ways: I halved the recipe-2 of us really can’t eat 2 loaves before they go stale. And I didn’t have whole wheat in the house (empty flour bin)…so I used Rye instead. Sugar instead of maple sugar. Oh and olive oil instead of butter. This was done by mixer.

Equipment: stand mixer.

My Rye-Oatmeal Bread

Ingredients

• 1 Cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/4 cup sugar (was tempted to use agave but wasn’t sure of the substitution proportion–it’s sweeter)
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 T honey
• 2 t yeast (I kept the yeast the same). I used bread machine yeast
• 3/4 cup rye flour
• 2 cups bread flour
• 1/8 Cup olive oil
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t cinnamon

The Method

1. Boil water. Add the water, oat, sugar, honey, salt, oil, cinnamon to the mixer bowl. Let it sit for about 10 mins while it cools to lukewarm.
2. Add the yeast and the flours to the bowl.
3. Mix on speed 2-3 for 2-3 mins. Kick it up faster for maybe 30 secs to pull the dough away from the sides of the bowl. Pull it back down to 2 or 3 and let it knead for another 3-4 mins. You will know when it is done when the dough forms a shiny ball by itself. Or, when your mixer shuts off from overload (oops). If that does happen, unplug, wait a few mins, and plug back in. it should restart.
4. Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap. Cover with a towel and place in a bowl. Let it sit for at least an hour. I left it  for about 3 or 4 last weekend. I went out to do stuff and came back.
5. Line a loaf pan with parchment. Spray a little olive oil in it.
6. Unwrap your dough ball. Press it gently into the loaf pan.
7. Cover with the plastic wrap again.
8. Let the dough rise another hour or so–it will rise above the top of the pan rim.
9. Preheat oven to 360 and bake for 33 mins (that’s what the recipe says). The more important measure–the internal temp should be 190.  Mine got to 185, i let it sit a few more mins, turned off the oven and let it sit a little longer.

There’s lots of passive time…def requires some patience.

Next week, i’m pondering trying out a recipe for english muffins…