Mixing it up a bit

A while ago I did a post called “Sugar….ah Hone, Honey” because I didn’t understand why only sugar would work in Frankie and not Honey or Brown Sugar.  Well, Frankie has been recycled into a child’s toy by now so I’m hoping to reopen my original experiments in sugar since I’ve been using nothing but Honey in my wheat bread recipes since I got Charlie, as per the standard recipe for wheat bread.

Just to be clear as to what I do normally now is I measure the water, put in about a table-spoon of oil, hand measure the salt and then just dump in’ enough honey to cover the bottom of the bread pan.  Those of you who have actually measured honey would understand why, those of you who haven’t, trust me, this is easier than trying to clean off the sides of the tablespoon.  I’ve taken 1/4 of the wheat flour out to make the bread just a little lighter in the end and maybe a dash more of gluten.  The pies de resistance is the three shakes of nutmeg on the top (though this time it was into the water).  So, that’s my standard recipe for wheat bread.

Instead of doing the honey I put in six 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar.  I say it like that because I’m not totally sure I put in just six.  It might be seven.  It would have been three tablespoons except the tablespoon on my ring seems to have run away.  Maybe it ran away with the carving fork, I dunno.  What I realized is one mustn’t be chatting with people when one is trying to do a proper experiment in ones kitchen.  I packed in the sugar and then pried it out of the spoon and watched as it melted into the warm water below.

I set it for the standard setting for wheat bread (#3 on Charlie) and set the crust as medium (#b on Charlie).  And I waited the 3 hrs. and 45 minutes for the mix, rise, knead, rise, knead, rise, bake cycles to compete.  I pulled the bread out about five minutes after it finished because I saw the bread had raised to Charlie’s dome and the very top of the bread was very white.  However, the sides where the standard bread should rise to was a nice dark brown.  Darker than it is with honey.  Maybe because of the molasses in the brown sugar made it that way.

I cut off the very top as quickly as I could so I wouldn’t burn my fingers and tasted it, and honesty I didn’t seem much of a difference in taste.  As I put the nutmeg in the water it seems to have muted but it seemed just as sweet and pliable as it ever is.

My conclusion from this experiment? If you run out of honey (Or can’t afford the honey because bees don’t work for free, you know), brown sugar works just as well and you’ll get a browner yet still chew-able crust.

Have you had any fun experiences of mixing things up in your bread machine?  Let me know!

Toast of the Town

I was trolling around the internet trying to find wheat and bread recipes that I could pirate and use for my blog when I came across a recipe for “Toasted Wheat Berry Salad”.  That got my attention fast.  I’ve ground enough wheat to know that the little berries (I swear that’s what they’re called) aren’t soft enough to eat straight.  Not unless you *like* seeing the dentist on a weekly basis.  Me, not so much.  So, I read on.  Apparently, if you toast them long enough they get soft and you can use them as sprinkles on anything!  I had to try it.

So, I pulled a can of red and white wheat out of storage and pulled out one of my small baking sheets.  You want to start small so you can keep a handle on things, or so is my motto for experiments that deal with heat and could possibly hurt me.  Better a small burn than a big one.  So, you spread out a single row of wheat onto the pan, leaving a little room for rolling around.

Pre-Heat the oven (very important for timing purposes) to 325.

Slide in tray and wait for about 2.5-3 minutes.

Shake tray so the wheat gets the other side toasted as well.

Close the over and wait another 2.5-3 minutes.

You need to use your sense of smell and hearing to tell when it’s done.  For me, red wheat smells like chocolate-chip cookies with walnuts just before you start hearing it pop.  If you don’t mind that it might be popping into your oven, let it set for another 10-30 seconds.  The darker you can get the wheat the easier it is to eat and better it tastes.

White wheat, to me, smells like a cross between a beef-roast and long dried grass on a blistering hot summers day.  Not as pleasing as hot chocolate-chop cookies with walnuts, which might be why I only toast red wheat now.

Let it cool and try it.  It’s still hard, but it cracks easily when you eat it and it has a nutty flavor.

If you are intending on using it for your bread, wait for it to cool before you grind it.  Depending upon your tastes you will want to put 1/4 to 1/3 of your wheat ingredient as the toasted red wheat.  The bread comes out tasting a bit nuttier and, if you can quantify a feeling, comfier.  When you toast the bread and the white wheat gets a little toasted and the toasted red wheat is double toasted you have a breakfast worth celebrating.

In With The Read Out With The White (Originally Published 4 Aug 2009)

I baked with red wheat last night. It ground just fine, I was thinking it would be harder than the white but I’d say that it actually ground better than the white wheat.

The bread came out with a better texture, but I’m not entirely sure if it’s because of the red wheat or because I actually worked the instructions with the tools that the machine was provided with. It came with it’s own spoon but instead of using it I used the Large Spoon to mean Tbl. and the medium spoon to be Tsp. I was almost right. So, I now have the recipe correct, as well as the “cake” and family standard loaf. I thought it wise to be a little more methodical about my kitchen experiments by writing down the different varieties that I’ve concocted so far so I can refer back to them in time.

I was pecking around the different food sites last night and I found instructions on how to toast the wheat berries. I think the red wheat would do well with toasting, adding a nutty flavor to the bread. Another idea I had/saw was using a different kind of oil (I use vegetable oil) like walnut oil to give it a deeper taste. I’m wondering if I could use brown sugar, toasted wheat berries and walnut oil to make bread with, but I’m not sure if the yeast will be hindered by the molasses in the brown sugar of it is a non-discriminatory kind of fungus.

So, my recipes are:

“Cake” bread – 1 cup white wheat flour and 3 cups white flour
Standard Bread – 3 cup white wheat flour and 1 cup white flour
Red Wheat “Cake” Bread – 1 cup red wheat flour and 3 cups white flour with correct measurements for the bread machine.

This little experiment has ignited a desire to go further….like make jam and jelly too. We got in the Bithell Farms fruit today, with dark sweet cherries. I love cherry jam, so I’m thinking that if I can make some nice yummy jam out of the nice yummy dark cherries to go on the yummy “cake” bread……..then I read the instructions on how to make the yummy jam. I’m going to start checking to see if someone has come up with a home jam making machine….my prowess in the kitchen isn’t up to par for dealing with hot glass and sealing baths.