Making bread!

Don't judge the state of my kitchen, we are in the middle of remodeling the house.  :)  This is actually an improved state!

I found some recipes this week from The Farm Girl and Joy in My Kitchen:

Homemade white bread

Cinnamon bread (along with the cinnamon honey butter)

Whole wheat bread

I decided to try it because my husband loves bread!! He would eat fresh bread rather than a chocolate cupcake! (I know, blasphemy!)

I was nervous because I had never made any bread and have always heard how hard it was to get it right. Actually, it wasn't that hard! Hopefully, I just didn't have beginners luck!  hehe

The homemade white bread went really well and was good.  I have enjoyed trying them right out of the oven in all their steamy yumminess!  :)  It made two normal loaves of bread.

The cinnamon bread is in the middle of the two white loaves.

Next up was the cinnamon bread and honey butter.  It turned out really well too.  It actually made one long loaf of bread.  I have one loaf pan from Ikea that is longer than a "normal" loaf pan and I used it with the cinnamon bread.  I next made the cinnamon honey butter to go with it!! A must for sure!  This is when I  started texting pictures to my MIL because she loves cinnamon.  So I will be making this again in the near future when they visit!!!

The cinnamon honey butter is from Tidy Mom but I saw it another site and can't remember which one. I am sorry! They referenced Tidy Mom and had halved her recipe which is how I made it.

Yesterday, I tried the wheat bread.  I do not have a food mill so I bought whole wheat flour to use in it.  I also bought wheat gluten because another recipe from (Jamie Cooks it Up!) I found used it as well as dough enhancer.  The reipe linked above from Farm Girl only uses dough enhancer.  Well, good luck finding dough enhancer!!  Maybe it is where we live, but I have been to Ingles, Wal-Mart and Publix and still can't find it.  For some reason, my bread-loving husband doesn't want me to order it online. 

SO, I made the wheat bread with a wheat gluten (with ascorbic acid added) instead of dough enhancer and it turned out pretty good!!  I was excited. The recipe would probably make 3 normal loaves but I used one normal pan and my extra long Ikea pan.  :)

Also, I want to caution you if you  make this, this dough locked down my Kitchen Aid stand mixer!  It mixed everything together and proceeded to knead the dough for about 4 minutes and it slowly wound to a halt.  It is an older one with a 375 watt motor. So next time, I will let the mixer mix it and then take it out and knead it by hand.  One day (when our budget allows) I want to get a Bosch mixer like this:

This thing has an 800 watt motor!!

But unil then, me and the Kitchen Aid will work it out!!!

Love and much butter this week! :)

Lee Ann