No Knead Whole Wheat Bread

It has been five years since I have written here.  So many things have changed and some are still the same.  We have started to build a house, we have animals.  But I am once again a housewife baking bread and using an ancient laptop with several broken keys.

 

Rising bread in a brotform

I hope to start up this blog again to share new recipes, progress on the house, as well as other events on our growing homestead.

Ready to go in the oven

To celebrate restarting this blog, I am sharing the bread recipe that I have been using, adapted from this recipe for no knead bread.

Smells so good!

No Knead Whole Wheat Bread

1 1/2 TBSP active yeast

3 cups plus 2 TBSP lukewarm water

1 1/2 TBSP salt

1 TBSP olive oil

2 cups whole wheat flour

4 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

Proof yeast in water.  Add in whole wheat flour and mix in mixer.  Add in salt  and oil and mix.  Add in white flour one cup at a time, mixing after each addition until flour is entirely incorporated.  Do not add in any additional flour.  Let rise for approximately 2 hours.  It will get very big!  After the first rise, punch down very carefully, it will be sticky.  Remove 1/3 of the dough, refrigerate the rest lightly covered for bread later on in the week.  Flour a brotform well.  Form the reserved dough into a ball and place into the brotform, it will be very sticky.  Cover and rise for  45 min to 1 hour if warm, 1 1/2 to 2 hours if cold.  Preheat oven to 400 F with a tin on the lowest shelf and heat up a kettle of water.  Invert bread carefully into a cake tin lined with parchment paper.  Cut top with pattern as desired.  Place in hot oven and at the same time pour hot water into the hot tin to create steam, closing the oven quickly.  Bake for 30-35 min until browned and hollow sounding when tapped.  Let cool on a rack.  The remaining refrigerated dough contains enough dough to make two more breads and should be used up within about a week.

Rendering lard

When we made the decision not to eat vegetable shortening/canola oil/vegetable oil products, I knew that I had to find an alternative immediately for pie crusts.  I tried butter crusts for a while, but they always seems to misbehave and some had the tendency to stick to the bottom of the pie plate.

But we love pie so much.  I make several at a time and freeze one for a day that we desperately need pie and I don't feel like moving.

(my crust abilities are steadily improving...really...)

The first few times that I used lard, I bought it from the store in the nice box all ready to go.  Then I found out about how that lard was made and decided that it was too processed.  Now I render my own lard.

 All rendered and ready to use!

Using a method similar to here (except I don't bother to grind the lard, just cut it into chunks), I put the lard into my small crock pot and leave it on low for a few hours.  Every now and then I stir it.  When the lard starts to cook down, I spoon out the liquid fat into a container.

Left is cooled down, right is newly poured.

Almost completely rendered lard.

Rendering lard, snacking on anadama bread.

I bought the lard from work at about 1.00 per pound, and three pounds will result in enough lard to fill one and half yogurt containers.  By the way, the best doughnuts we have ever had were fried in lard.

Lard should be used in moderation, but I believe that in combination with a healthy lifestyle and diet, it is a good food that can be enjoyed responsibly.  This article by the Washington Post reflects my opinion.

During the recent cold weather and subsequent snow day from work, I made baked beans, anadama bread, and roasted some of my sunflower seeds with sea salt.

I also started to knit this cabled scarf with handspun wool.  Very easy pattern.  I want to try entrelac knitting soon- my resolution this year is to try new knitting techniques and have more sales!

We are still selling yarn and fiber on ebay, and are now selling some used wood carving tools!  Check us out!

17th Century Spice Cake

17th Century Spice Cake

I found this recipe while looking at the Plimoth Plantation website and dreaming of going back in time...It is more of a sweet bread than a cake.  I didn't have aniseeds or mace, so I used ginger and nutmeg instead.  I also substituted chopped candied ginger instead of raisins.  Looks and smells lovely, can't wait until it cools enough to eat!

Jon's sweater!

I am almost done with Jon's sweater.  Aghh!!!!  I have been working on this project for over a year, on and off, and the moment finally came when the sleeves were ready to connect to the body.

So close!  So many cables!

I'm also working on a massive translation project.  And I'm planning on making Ginger Monkey Bread later, which is a favorite!

And I might as well throw in another day of food:

Breakfast:

Anadama bread with black and blueberry jam
Scottish breakfast tea with raw milk

Snack:

Cape Cod potato chips.

Lunch:

Anadama bread pb+j
Leftover home fries (organic potatoes from Co-op)

Dinner:
Whole wheat pizza with homemade mozzarella, tomato sauce, and organic sausage from the Co-op
Ginger Monkey Bread =)

Today's food isn't the most healthy, but I'm busy translating.  Which reminds, me I need to get that yeast proofing and get back to work!

Great Aunt Jeanette's Maple Oatmeal Bread

Today is the day that I'm making sticky buns AND bread.  Because I'm hungry.  And I'm on a sweet kick.

Right next to my cookbooks, I keep a large untidy stack of papers and magazine bits.  These are my favorite recipes.  Some my mother copied down, some are from my Grammie, and some I have printed or clipped out long ago.  This bread is amazing, especially with my uncle's maple syrup.  Slightly sweet, full of flavor, and when toasted with butter...better than any other bread I've tried!

Great Aunt Jeanette's Maple Oatmeal Bread

Yield: 2 loaves

Combine:

2 cups boiling water

1 cups oats

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 tsp salt (I used sea salt)

2 Tbsp butter

Stir, and cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve 1 package dry yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water and add to oat mixture.

Add flour* (maybe up to 5 cups) as needed.  <-- Here, I added flour a little at a time until the dough came       away from the sides of the bowl and 'felt right'.

Knead (or use electric mixer 5-7 minutes) until dough is stretchy and when you slap it, it feels taught.  It will be a little sticky.

Let rise until double (depending on kitchen temperature, 11/2 to 2 hours).

Punch down.  Shape into loaves, place in greased regular sized (9 by 5?) dough pans.  Rise again about 30 minutes, until dough starts to reach top of the pan.

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.

Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.

*All purpose flour works, but bread flour is really great!  <--My mother's side note.

(These loaves are very flat...because I had the sticky buns in the oven right before the bread and turned the oven off before putting the bread in...I didn't realize this until the timer went off 40 minutes later...still tastes good, though!)

Busy Summer

I can't remember the last time that I sat down to write here.  I have spent entire days out in the garden, catching up on what seemed to be an endless number of new weeds, things that needed harvesting, and managing pests.  Tomato horn worms are devastating my tomatoes.

(wikipedia image)

Despite those massive worms, most everything else is going very well, and coming very early.  The lettuce has bolted and the peas are done, the salad turnips and radishes are all gone, but I am picking beets, carrots, beans, cherry tomatoes, kohlrabi, spinach, Swiss chard, hot peppers, bell peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, onions, scallions, herbs and turnips.  Only three parsnips survived, and the eggplant is so chewed up by aphids, it probably won't produce (powdered mustard mixed in warm water sprayed on leaves helps, but only if you keep up with it!).  Rutabaga, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, pumpkins, leeks, and sunflowers might be ready as early as the end of next month!  I have no idea about the sugar beets or melons, they are so small still, but if we have a long season it might work!  I haven't checked the garden at my parents' in a few weeks...so those purple beans might be ready soon.  At least the dried beans that I planted there will be fine.  The good things about those is that you just leave them to dry on the vine, then pick the whole plant!  Super easy.

I have been running the dehydrator constantly, and it is still not enough.  We have more than we know what to do with.  Some things are very easy to store or leave in the ground until we want them, but others, like turnips, just keep growing, and we are sick of them.  I never want to see another turnip again.  If anyone out there wants turnips, please let me know!  Or anything else, for that matter...

Today, I am making oat bread, boiling some lamb bones for broth, dehydrating cilantro, and washing clothes in the tub, Russian style.  I am going to the market later to sell yarn, demonstrate spinning, and help Kelly Corner Farm sell their goods.  I LOVE the market.  There are so many good things to eat!  I sometimes get things at a discount, too, because I help as a vendor.  Every week I come home with massive cookies, fresh fish, and maybe some blueberry milk or day old muffins.  Some vendors are willing to trade goods, too.  I feel very fortunate to have access to all of these wonderful and nutritious foods!  I strongly recommend going to your local market, make friends, get to know people.  Sometimes they might have a deal or opportunity to get something at a discount or in bulk, too.  Buying local when you can is so good for the local economy, reducing the need for transporting food over long distances and picking it before it is ripe or letting it sit, the nutrients fading away the longer it takes to get to your table.  I think that conventional produce, grown with care and sustainable practices, is much better than organic produce from the big store shipped from the other side of the country.  I could go on about that topic for a while...

July is almost over, and I am so far behind.  I have jams to make, weeds to pull, veggies to blanch and dehydrate, cheese to make.  My cupboards look so bare right now.  I am thinking of the winter and what we will eat then.  But for now, I need to go put that bread in the oven and mix up some blueberry and blackberry gingerbread, and hang up some clothes to dry, before heading out for market.  It is such a beautiful day!

Sheep shearing and gardening

I finally have a quiet moment to gather my thoughts!  Fresh milk bread is rising (Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book).  I am experimenting with a new way to incubate yogurt that does not take up my oven and require me constantly checking the temperature:

(Heating pad on high covered with towel, mason jar with candy thermometer inside some water that was 110 F when I started, and then covered with towels)

After 1 hour, it is now at 106 F, which is decent.  If it doesn't go below 95 F after 4, this will be my new method!  The heating pad is also a cheap model that doesn't have a safety turn off.  I am not leaving the apartment while this is going on, and the counter is insulated with tiles.  So it should be safe.  Should be.  (After 1 1/2 hours, it is at 104.  I took out the towel between the heating pad and the jar to see if that helps.)

I have almost finished planting.  I have 4 rows left to do of beans and sugar beets, which I will do at my parents' once they have tilled the soil under for me.  The garden out back has three rows left open for transplants.  

 Four trays plus two six packs planted and some have just germinated.

Cucumber seedling and one summer squash getting some sun to harden them off before planting.

Tavie doesn't mind that part of his cage makes a nice table.  He is enjoying his recent shearing in this warm weather!

The garden looks really good right now.  I want the plants that have already come up to be a bit bigger before I go at the weeds.  Half of the garden was just planted and has not yet germinated.

 Lettuce mix

 Kale

 Beets

 Peas

 Green beans

 Sweet onions

 Eggplant, tomatoes, peppers

My beautiful garden space!

I have also been assisting with sheep shearing and fleece sorting and skirting at Kelly Corner Farm.  Jeff Jordan is the best shearer in the state and I learned a lot!

My day started at Walmart and will end with yogurt.

I know, I shouldn't go to Walmart, especially if it makes me mad.  But I did.  I wanted to look at a Virgin Mobile phone that I saw was highly recommended.  My experience in their electronics department made a very bad start to the day.  Let's just say it included not being able to actually look at the phone outside of a box clamped into the bottom shelf, an employee that told me that my research about their plans were wrong because 'some guy came in and told her', and I left after being handed a pamphlet and with no questions being answered. Then a lady came at me with her cart and I walked into a display sign, causing quite a bit of amusement for the young man behind me.

*face palm*

So I am at the point where I might give up cell phones entirely.  I'll see.

The rest of the day hasn't been much better.  The bunnies got sick from the spinach I gave them...for no reason than probably I gave it to them out of their usual eating schedule.  They are like piglets, and don't know when to stop.  As I cleaned them up, and my jeans and sweatshirt got covered in bunny sick-poo, they were NOT happy about what I was doing, so they scratched up my hands and wrists like kittens.  To the point of drawing blood.  I got them calmed down, we cuddled (after we all were clean again), and they are now happily bouncing around the cage.  I took pictures of the two does to sell on craigslist.

Pretty bunbuns!

Then my band aid came off.  I had sliced my finger and nail open with a carving tool, and a few days ago half of my nail fell off...so doing the dishes and making food is slightly painful right now (it needs to breathe anyways)...

I tried making yogurt in my mom's yogurt maker from the year I was born- 1987.

 I started as usual, and got everything ready to incubate.

But the machine didn't seem to be heating up.  The cover would NOT fit on properly, either.  After pinching my finger and getting a blood blister (*sigh*), I decided to scrap the machine entirely and just put the little jars into the oven with the pilot light on again.  They are doing well and are at the proper temperature.  Should be done around 9pm.  I also made some tomato sauce to keep in the freezer for future pasta.

Now I am making turtle bean soup with some ham thrown in to satisfy Jon.  I am exhausted.  The apartment building electrician is here, again, this time drilling the wall outside the kitchen.

But I am proud that I made it through Walmart without buying any chips.  Or blue cheese- even though I had it in my hand for a while.

___________________________

Earlier this week, I made the world's best bagels, substituting all of the flour for whole wheat and I added 1 Tbsp flax seed.

Before boiling.

*Love my Le Creuset pot!

Out of the oven...and one already eaten!

Really pretty with the flax seeds =)

The raisins also came out wonderfully!  They are tart, a little more chewy, and look a lot different than the store ones.  The fruit leather is AWESOME.  The best I've ever had, and Jon agrees with me, so there's none left to photograph.  Next time!

I give up for today.  I'm going to go hug some rabbits.