Soft Whole Wheat Burger Buns

Busy, busy today but I needed to make the last recipe in this HBinFive Braid. My last dough was used to make Hamburger buns. I've never made homemade hamburger buns before...this this turned out pretty easy. I think they look good, too.

Yes.. I know, I got two of them a bit smaller than the others. That's what I call the homemade look.

Since I have a trip to make, I suppose they will have to go in the freezer and wait for my return. However, I think this is something I will make again in the future.

They look pretty good if I say so myself.

Apple Strudel Loaf

I've been trying to a get a head start on the next Healthy Bread in Five bread braid coming up. Our challenge this time is to use the Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread recipe in the book this time in several ways.

I chose to make the Apple Strudel Loaf for my first with this recipe in hopes my husband who doesn't care for whole wheat would help eat this one up.

I made the Soft Whole Wheat recipe with a little change.... KA White Whole Wheat flour instead of plain Whole Wheat flour...oops, two changes, I accidentally bought KA bread flour last time instead of unbleached AP. SO this recipe has a little more gluten with the bread flour in it. That's okay with me as I have a little trouble with rise sometimes with my breads.

This recipe is SO lovely...think I'll keep the white whole wheat and the Bread flour. It, also, has honey and eggs....yum. It almost overflowed my big 6 liter bread container.

In this one picture you will see that one end looks a little like it is deflated...it is, some of the filling leaked out. Next time...a little less filling I think is in order to facilitate the rolling up of the dough.

In the version for the strudel loaf, I believe I could have used half the apples though as there was so much filling I could barely fold it over and plop it in the pan much less try to actually roll it up. It also made it a little messy to cut and serve. However, we persevered :>)

Hubby did like it and ate quite a bit........that helped me contain myself from eating too much.

Spicy Chili Whole Grain Snack Crackers

For the third recipe from the Master Dough January Bread Braid, I made the Spicy Chili Whole Grain Crackers.

I don't think I've  ever made crackers but one time in the past. Although they were good, they didn't bake quite as crispy as I would have liked.  (the before crackers, not these....)

Some of the other bread braid participants made theirs earlier and reported that they could just cut them out on parchment and there was no real need to separate them. I followed their example and it made it much easier to make on the parchment and then transfer the whole thing in one fell swoop onto the baking sheet to cook.

These are topped with a chili powder and kosher salt blend after being brushed with olive oil. Yum...but think I  could also top them with any other kind of spice and salt as well.

Too bad my husband thought the brown stuff was cinnamon sugar...he got a big surprise.  Hum...guess you could do that though for people with a sweet tooth.

I think these are good all by themselves or with cheese.

More HBin5 Master Dough

I decided that I would make some more of the Whole Wheat Master Dough yesterday.......only this time put it in a loaf pan and add some crunch.

I was going to roll it out like a cinnamon roll dough and put in walnuts but seems I had run out of walnuts, so I chopped some pecans. I rolled it all up, tucked in the ends and put it in a greased large loaf pan and set out to rise on "proof" in the oven.

When it rose sufficiently...... I baked it at 375 in the convection oven starting with 30 minutes. When that time came it needed about 10-13 minutes longer. This will depend on how large the loaf is... I had just cut off a hunk of the dough. Enough to fill the loaf pan about 2/3 to 3/4 full.  I took it out when it reached about 200 or so degrees with the instant read thermometer. That thing has really helped me as I had a lot of loaves that 'looked' done but were not. I have to make myself wait for it to cool about 15 minutes before turning it out of the pan onto a cooling rack to finish cooling. This first waiting really helps the bread not stick to the pan...........and the last cooling helps keep the bread from being gummy.

It turned out pretty good. This is NOT a sweet bread but seems like it if you drizzle a little honey on it.......or leave as is and serve any other way your imagination tells you might work for you.

Healthy Bread in Five Master Dough

I'm starting out 2010 with the google group HBin5. Our first braid challenge is making the basic Master dough from the book.

I made the full batch which makes 3-4 loaves of bread depending on what you do with it. This dough has a large amount of whole wheat flour. I added a lot of sesame seeds to the first loaf I made..some on the inside while shaping and a lot on the outside. Generally we don't care for some whole wheat breads (hubby more than me) so I hesitated to make it with this much whole wheat. BUT...decided to just go with it anyway.

So this morning I made the loaf and left it to cool while I went off to my studio to paint. I came back and saw an uneven hunk out of the end. I asked what/who and he said, "I needed to make a sandwich and couldn't find any bread". ha ha...this might be the way to introduce him to eating something good for him instead of the regular old white smushy stuff you buy at the store. Nah....said he didn't really like it but was hungry.  Here's the site for this bread.

So I decided to make me some bruschetta for dinner. Why not for dinner as I ate a lot instead of an appetizer portion and had a glass of Cabernet. Yum!

SO, the pictures, As explained I didn't get a pic until it was torn into by the kitchen marauder hubby but I did take another pic of the bruschetta I made with some tomatoes, olive oil, a few green onions, garlic, and some basil and other seasonings thrown in. Grated all that wonderful Pecorino on top and then toasted in the broiler again.