Whirlwind Weekend

We just arrived home after a 3 day trip to Maryland to see some friends and concerts. It was difficult to motivate myself to study during the car trip when I had this book beside me. It was recommended to me by my sister (who enjoys running much more than I do) and it's been difficult to set down! So it was nice to have a couple hours to just read uninterrupted. Typically I read before bed, which allows me to get through about 3 pages before I zonk out.

Reading this book also made me want to hike out into the wilderness for a few days. Things like this transparent kayak call to me. But alas, work and school pull me home. MW will be gone for a couple days this week, so perhaps I'll try to find an interesting recipe to try. Perhaps another vegetarian one? I'm still trying to add to my arsenal of veggie dishes so that I can try my hand at being a vegetarian for a month without surviving off hummus and pita alone.

Honey Wheat Bread

As promised, here is my Honey Wheat Bread recipe. You will love this bread and never want to go back to the store bought stuff again. Having a grilled cheese or BLT on this bread is pure food heaven.


What you'll need to get started:
3 cups warm water (about 110 degrees)
2 (.25 oz) packages of active dry yeast (or about 4 1/2 tsps bulk yeast)
1/3 cup honey
5 cups bread flour
3 tbs butter, melted
1/3 cup honey (again)
1 tbs salt
3.5 cups whole wheat flour
more butter (to spread on top)
9x5 in. pan

What to do:

1. First, activate your yeast. Plop all those tsps of yeast into the 3 cups of warm water and set aside for about 5-10 minutes.
2. Then mix 5 cups of bread flour with the yeast-y water combo and 1/3 cup honey and stir well. Set aside for about 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.

3. Mix in 3 tbs melted butter, another 1/3 cup honey, salt and about 2 cups wheat flour. Mix well.
4. Place this mix onto a floured surface and knead, adding more flour until it's only slightly sticky, but not stuck to the table/counter. Once it reaches this point, I like to knead it for a good 10 minutes to really get the gluten going.

5. Place the dough in a greased bowl. Plop it in and the turn it once over to coat it with grease. Cover with a towel and let rise until it has doubled.
6. Punch down (I give it a quick 3 jabs), shape, and cut into your loaves. Using a (greased) 9x5 pan it makes 3 loaves. I prefer to bake them all at once and then freeze the baked bread, but you can freeze the dough and use it later.
7. Let the dough in the pan rise again until the dough has topped the pan by about an inch. It will look like a nice loaf of sandwich bread!

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Then brush the tops with some melted butter and let cool.
9. Once cooled, I wrap mine in plastic wrap and then in foil, if I freeze them.

A few side notes:

This is not a hard recipe at all, but it does take several hours since the bread is left to rise 3 different times. I usually try to do it on a Sunday when I'm doing things around the house. 

The bread rises much quicker if your house is warm(er). So I usually don't have the A/C pumping when I make it. 

Something to brighten your day

Tonight I must study.
But tomorrow comes my bread recipe! I made my first loaf of the summer on Monday.

Until then, enjoy this beautifully shot and wonderfully whimsical video/ad: