Whole wheat bread in the bread machine

I've been making our bread for close to 3 years now, thanks to the bread machine my grandmother gave me for Christmas some 10+yrs ago. It sat on the shelf collecting dust for many years as the first few loaves I made were inedible. One day, I dug it out of storage & decided to give it a try again. I have a few favorites but this is our everyday bread recipe. I veganized it a while ago as I needed to accomodate A's vegan lifestyle.

2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon instant dry yeast
4 TBSP brown sugar or agave nectar
2 TSBP oil (I use Safflower or Coconut)
1.5 cups hot tap water

Combine the flours, salt & yeast in a medium bowl. Mix well to incorporate the yeast in the flours. Combine the sugar, oil & tap water in the bread machine pan. Slowly add the dry ingredients into bread pan. I like to use the bread machine on the dough setting, which is 1.5hrs on my machine, and then bake it in the oven on 350*F for 30 minutes in a ceramic bread pan.

Coconut Filled Sweet Rolls

These yummy, buttery delicious crescents get their start in the bread machine! You could do it the "traditional" way but why would you? Bread machines make life so easy. I made these for my family and they were gone in an instant. I'm not even kidding you. Pair with a fruit and they are perfect for breakfast. About 260 calories per roll. Makes 12 rolls and are delicious with a latte.

Dough

3/4 cup milk (I used 2% but will try unsweetened almond milk next time)

1 egg

3 TBSP butter, cut up

1 TBSP water

3 cups whole wheat flour (or whatever combo of white or whole wheat you like)

1/4 cup sugar (I'd like to try honey)

3/4 tsp sea salt

1 1/4 tsp bread machine yeast

Add all dough ingredients to your bread machine, set to “dough” and press start. When the cycle completes, roll out the dough into a 12” circle on a lightly floured surface. Spread with the filling.

Filling

1/4 cup sugar

2 TBSP margarine or butter, melted

2/3 cup coconut – I used flaked sweetened

Mix all together in a small bowl.

Cut the circle into 12 wedges. Starting at the wide end of the wedge, loosely roll toward the point. Place rolls points down in a greased 9x13x2 pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place (like in your oven with the light on and the door closed) for about 30 minutes or until nearly double. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in the pan or on a wire rack. Drizzle with Powdered Sugar Glaze. Serve warm.

Powdered Sugar Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 to 4 tsp milk

 

Stir all together and add enough milk to make a drizzling glaze.

Low-fat Vegan Carrot Zucchini Muffins

As a mama who's trying to prepare healthy, tasty treats for her family, I often find myself incorporating veggies as much as I can without the kids noticing. Zucchini is one of the veggies I'm constantly trying to sneak into their food as both monkadoos refuse to eat it when I cook it for dinner. I stumbled across a recipe on Sparkrecipes.com that looked good, so I decided to tinker with it & adapted it to our needs.

1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup shredded zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners or spray muffin tins with non-stick spray. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Make well in center of bowl and stir in applesauce & vanilla (mixture will be thick). Fold in carrots and zucchini. Spoon into muffin pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

Puffed Wheat Cake

I few days ago I was asking Twitter some questions about substituting honey for corn syrup in puffed wheat cake. The responses were astonishing. This one in particular.

"What is puffed wheat cake?" 

Seriously, Twitter? You don't know what puffed wheat cake is? It's a gloriously chocolaty and gooey (if it's made right) hunk of cake you eat with your hands that's made out of, well, puffed wheat! 

Puffed Wheat Cake

1/3 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup corn syrup*

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp. cocoa (Fry's is the only way to go but if you don't have it, that's ok)

1 tsp. vanilla

8 cups puffed wheat (this is in the cereal aisle - usually in a bag)

Melt butter in a medium saucepan.  Add syrup, sugar, cocoa and vanilla and stir. When the syrup begins to bubble, remove from heat and pour over puffed wheat in a large bowl (you need a lot of room for 8 cups of puffed wheat). Mix until it's completely covered in syrup.  

Press into a greased 9x13 pan with a spoon. Once it's cool, cut it into squares and serve!

*Because I'm open to experimenting in the kitchen, I tried a 1/4 cup of natural honey and 1/4 cup of corn syrup. It's fantastic. My next batch I'll try honey 100% and hope it works! Honey is a natural antibiotic and so good for you! Corn syrup is...well...corn syrup.

(Recipe courtesy of my buddy Crystal, mom to 4 and evil baker in the making)

Whole Wheat Waffles

If you don't gobble them all up, freeze them and throw a waffle or two in the toaster for a quick breakfast! So yummy with fresh whipped cream and sliced strawberries or raspberries.

Whole Wheat Waffles

Makes about 10 4" square waffles

1 3/4 c. whole wheat flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tbls. sugar

1/2 tsp. sea salt

3 beaten egg yolks

1 3/4 c. 2% milk (I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk)

1/2 c. oil (I've used olive or canola. You could also substitute with applesauce but it's just not the same in a waffle and I use applesauce in almost everything.)

3 stiffly beaten egg whites

Mix all dry ingredients. Combine yolks and milk. Stir into dry ingredients. Stir in oil and mix. GENTLY fold in beaten egg whites, do not over mix.

Pour about 1/2 cup at a time into a hot, greased waffle iron.

(adapted from "Best Waffles Ever" from Mr. Breakfast)

Pull up a chair and stay awhile!

Huge, massive thanks go out to Jude (http://generalimagineering.blogspot.com) for creating our wicked awesome evil baker!!

Jenni and I decided we needed a forum to share our recipes. We seem to be constantly posting recipes when we tweet about what's coming out of our kitchens and needed a place to put them. What you'll find here is a collection of recipes and experiments (like cooking buns on the grill #fail) that we would like to share with you!

I can't promise you that you will like them all. Jenni makes some WEIRD (to me) food for her family of vegan, vegetarian, herbivores. Most of them will be healthy or at least "healthier" then traditional kitchen fare. 90% of what Amber cooks is [picky] kid friendly and most has some kind of hidden vegetable or fruit (haha suckers!). I can promise you that you CAN bake/cook what we post. If we can do it, so can you! We are just a couple of moms with a couple of kids to feed.

Bon Appetite!