Baking Mode

Things I did today:

I got  up early and cleaned my kitchen, starting with 1) refrigerator, 2) cabinets, 3) pantry, 4) moping, 5) chimney.

I cleaned my chimney only to light it up again. 

We were out of bread so I thought a warm homemade loaf would be great in this cold weather.

If you own a bread machine I highly recommend this book!

The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger

It has over 300 recipes, it also has great tips on substituting ingredients, as well as a large selection of gluten-free recipes. Some of the recipes include Daily Breads, Earth Bounty (whole grains, and specialty flours), Traditional Loaves (country and sourdough breads), pizza dough, crescents, flatbreads, sweet loaves, no yeast breads, breads with jams, preserves, and chutney, to name a few. I've bought so many bread machine cookbooks and this was the one I fell in love with!

Honey Wheat Bread

the rrecipe is easy as 1, 2, 3. The following recipe comes from the book above and is for a 2-Pound Loaf.

Place all the ingredients in the pan according to the manufacturers instructions.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread (The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook)

Ingredients

1/2 cup water

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup honey

1 large egg

1-1/2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

2-2/3 cups bread flour

1-1/3 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoons gluten

2-1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon SAF (self-acting) yeast or

   1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon bread machine yeast

I set mine to a light crust (that's how we like it at home).

This is the bread maker I have, Cuisinart CBK-200. I bought this at William Sonoma for around $130.00. It is easy to use and has 16 different programmable options, I give it a 5 star!

The scent of homemade bread set me on a baking mode so I decided to bake some Oatmeal Raisin and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I made about 8 dozen cookies.

Oatmeal Raisin/Chocolate Chip Recipe 

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2  cup granulated sugar
2  egg
1  teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour
1  teaspoon baking soda
1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2  teaspoon salt (optional)
3  cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup raisins or 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; mix well. Add oats; mix well. Add raisins or chocolate chips; mix well. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 9 minutes for a chewy cookie or 10 to 11 minutes for a crisp cookie. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Variations

Oatmeal Raisin and Chocolate Chip Cookies; 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 chocolate chip.

Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies; 1/2 cup chocolate chip, 1/2 shredded coconut.

Oatmeal Walnut/Pecan/Almond Cookies; add pecans, walnuts, or almonds to taste to the recipe above.

Charlie The Owl

Professor Owl

I"ll be storing my cookies in my cookie jars, I don't think they'll last too long. I hope you enjoy both recipes, let me know how they turn out for you.

Until next time!