bread | Eat at Home

How to Make Whole Wheat Bread by Hand

January 26, 2012 by Tiffany

When I make homemade bread, I like to make quite a few loaves at once. I don’t have time to make bread more than once a week (and I don’t even make it that often) so I like to have a lot to show for the effort.

This recipe will make 4 loaves. But it’s too much dough for my stand mixer to handle so I make it by hand. I enjoy the process of starting with flour and yeast, then kneading the dough to form loaves. It feels rustic and wholesome and slow. Such a contrast to the rest of modern life.

Of course, nothing compares to pulling hot loaves from the oven and slathering butter over thick slices.

Homemade bread is easy to make, but it does take some time and a little bit of muscle too, if you’re doing it by hand. I’m going to take you through the whole process, so there are a lot more photos in this post than most of my posts.

Tomorrow, I’ll share how to make Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls with part of the dough. [Read more...]

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Filed under: Baked Goods, bread Tagged with bread baking, homemade bread recipe, how to bake bread, whole wheat flour8 Comments

Ingredient Spotlight: Quick Breads

November 30, 2011 by Tiffany

I know, I know. Quick breads are not ingredients. But I needed your help and this was the best way I could think of to get it.

You see, I only have 3 recipes for quick breads on my blog and I love quick breads! That’s where you come in. I can’t wait to see the recipes you have for me.

I’m not even going to link to my recipes this week. I want to see what you’ve got!

Share your recipes! Link up your quick bread recipes (breads that use no yeast). Feel free to link as many as you like. Be sure to link back to Eat at Home in your blog post. You can use the button below, if you like. I’ve added the html for you.

Filed under: Baked Goods, bread, ingredient spotlight Tagged with quick breads10 Comments

Hoe Cakes

June 24, 2010 by Tiffany

Dick stole the hoe cake

Ran through the meadow with it

Hid it in a brush pile

And swore he never meddled with it

From Granny Will Your Dog Bite and Other Mountain Rhymes

Hoe cakes are just another way to fix your cornbread, a good variation on a mealtime staple. When I was growing up, we ate them just like cornbread but you can also have them with syrup if you like.

[Read more...]

Filed under: bread, Side Dish Tagged with baking powder, cornmeal, egg, flour, milk, salt20 Comments

Pineapple Carrot Bread

January 16, 2010 by Tiffany

My mom used to bake this bread when I was little. I remember eating it for an afternoon snack and sometimes for breakfast. It’s a flavorful, moist loaf. A nice change from banana bread.

Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]

Filed under: Baked Goods, bread Tagged with carrots, cinnamon, eggs, flour, pineapple, sugar5 Comments

Garlic Herb Rolls

January 15, 2010 by Tiffany

This is a quick and easy way to dress up frozen roll dough. I use Rhodes brand, but there are others. Check in the freezer section of your grocery.

The ingredients are simple and you can alter the seasonings to complement your meal. Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]

Filed under: bread Tagged with butter, frozen roll dough, garlic, herbs2 Comments

Yeast Cornbread

December 5, 2009 by Tiffany

yeast cornbread done

Next time, I’m going to double this recipe. This bread is good stuff. I made it on Thanksgiving Day to go with our soup. My mom gave me the recipe, but I think it originally comes from Taste of Home Magazine. Don’t be afraid of the yeast in this recipe. It’s very easy to make. [Read more...]

Filed under: bread Tagged with cornmeal, flour, yeast6 Comments

Olive Oil with Garlic and Italian Seasonings for Bread Dipping

May 9, 2009 by Tiffany

olive-oil-for-dipping-done1

I like to go to restaurants that serve warm bread and olive oil for dipping. It’s easy to do the same thing at home to dress up dinner or tide everyone over until it’s ready.

[Read more...]

Filed under: bread, Snacks Tagged with appetizer, bread, garlic, Italian, oil12 Comments

Depression Era Homemade Bread

March 15, 2009 by Tiffany

Have you seen Clara of Depression Coooking with Clara on the news lately? She is 93 years old and has her own blog and several videos on youtube. With the downturn of the economy, people are very interested in being frugal. Clara shares recipes and stories from her own life during the Great Depression.

I watched her youtube video on making bread. I’ve altered it a bit, but not much. Clara says she uses 5 lbs of flour, 2 oz. of cake yeast and water.

Here’s what I used:

5 lbs. of flour – yes, the whole bag

yeast – I used 7 Tbs, but I think I could have gotten by with less. Maybe 4-5 Tbs.

salt – I used 8 tsp., thinking I would need about 1 tsp. per loaf. This was a bit too much salt. Next time I’ll go for about 6 tsp. Clara doesn’t mention salt, but I think the loaves would taste flat without it.

warm water – About 6 or so cups, but you need to go by what the dough needs.

I followed Clara’s direction to dump the flour in a large bowl. I then mixed in the salt. Make a well in the flour and put the yeast in. Start pouring warm water into the well. Mix the yeast and water with your fingers to dissolve. Start mixing in more flour with your hands, adding water as needed. You will eventually end up with a great big bowl of dough.

After I got all the flour mixed in and I kneaded it in the bowl for a bit, I dumped the dough on the counter and washed out the bowl.

I sprayed the bowl with cooking spray and put the dough back in, turning it to bring up the oiled side. I’m not sure how Clara handles this step, but it’s the way I like to do it. If I knew the dough wouldn’t stick to the bowl, I would have just left it in the bowl to rise without washing and oiling it.

Let the dough rise in a warm place. Cover it loosely with a clean towel while it rises to keep the dough from drying out. After it’s risen, punch it down and divide it up for loaves. I was thinking that this amount of flour would make about 8 loaves. Some of the loaves seemed a bit small though, so next time I may go with 6 instead. Also, I only have 7 bread pans. I liked how the loaf on the cookie sheet turned out though.

Cover the loaves with a clean towel again and let them rise a while longer. Place them in an oven at 350 degrees. I have speed bake (convection oven) and I baked mine for about 30 minutes.

I’ll try this again. Like I said, I need to cut back on the salt a little bit. I think that also might help the loaves rise a bit higher. The taste is good. We polished off 2 loaves in less than 24 hours! The rest went into the freezer for later.

As for cost:

$1.97 – flour

$1.00 – $1.50 for yeast, depending on how much you use and the cost of the jar

So, less than $3.50 for 8 loaves of bread. That’s pretty cheap! And no additives or preservatives, so healthier than store-bought. If you try this, let me know how it turned out for you.

Update:

I sometimes turn this into “Recession Era Bread” by adding a melted stick of butter to the warm water.

Filed under: Baked Goods, bread Tagged with bread, yeast54 Comments

Cranberry Braid Bread

December 22, 2008 by Tiffany

I get frustrated when my pictures don’t show the food very well. This is one of those times. This bread is beautiful, golden brown braid with cranberry filling peeking out. Use your imagination, because my photography just isn’t going to help you see it.

Oh, and it tastes wonderful too! The recipe is from the Country Living: Country Morning cook book. It makes 2 loaves.

Gather up you ingredients:

Filling:
1 12oz package cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs. cornstarch
1/3 cup orange juice

Bread:
1 1/3 cup water
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
7 – 7 1/2 cups flour
2 packages rapid-rise yeast
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbs. finely grated orange rind
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs

Prepare the filling: Rinse the cranberries. In a 3-quart saucepan combine the sugar and cornstarch. Stir in the orange juice and cranberries. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly until the berries are crushed and the mixture thickens to the consistency of preserves, about 10-15 min. Remove from heat, cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours.

Prepare the dough: Heat the water and butter till melted together. In a mixer bowl combine 2 cups flour, yeast, sugar orange rind and salt. On low speed, gradually beat in the water-butter mixture. Beat for 2 min.

Separate 1 egg, reserving the white for later. Add the yolk to the dough mixture, then beat in the remaining 3 eggs and 2 cups of flour until if forms a soft dough. With a wooden spoon, stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.

Lightly oil a large bowl and set aside. Knead the dough, working in more flour if necessary until it is smooth and elastic, about 5 min. Shape it into a ball and put it in the oiled bowl, turning to bring up the oiled side. Cover it loosely and let it rise in a warm place for about an hour or 1 1/2 hours.

Grease 2 baking sheets (or use baking stones). Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut it in half. Shape each half into a ball and let them rest 5 minutes. Use a floured rolling pin to roll each ball into a 14 x 10 inch rectangle and place on the baking sheets. Lightly brush the top of each with the slightly beaten egg white.

Spread half of the cranberry mixture in a 3 inch wide strip lengthwise down the dough. Cut the dough crosswise on each side of the filling into 1 inch wide strips. Fold these over to braid. Cover and let them rise again for 20 min. Brush the braids with the egg white and bake at 350 degrees for 20 min. Brush again with the white and bake 10 more min.

You can see my dough was a bit too long for the baking stone.

Braiding is easy.

I ended up cutting off the ends to make it fit the stone. I have no perfectionist tendencies. Your bread will probably look prettier than mine. I also tried to make a round braid on my round stone, but there wasn’t enough dough to go all the way around. I’ll spare you the picture. It might not have looked good, but it sure tasted great!

Filed under: bread, Breakfast, Dessert Tagged with cranberries, flour, orange, sugar, yeast26 Comments

Cornbread

October 19, 2008 by Tiffany

corn bread done

Cornbread is a staple at our house. It comes together fast and goes with lots of meals. This version was passed down to me by my mom who learned it from her mom. The iron skillet is key, because it creates a crust better than a regular baking pan.

Here’s what you’ll need:

corn bread ingr

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Cornbread

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
3/4 cups flour
heaping TBS baking powder
salt
1 egg
enough milk to make a batter (about 1 cup)

Instructions

Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Put the skillet in the oven to heat (mine is 10 1/4 inches).
Stir together the dry ingredients.
Add the egg and milk and stir till well blended.
Pull the hot skillet from the oven and add oil or spray with cooking spray.
Pour in the batter and bake for 15-20 minutes.

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http://eatathomecooks.com/2008/10/cornbread.html

I’m showing this recipe off at Tasty Traditions hosted by Coupon Cookin’.