bread and cherrios

this has to be the most beautiful loaf of bread I've ever made

so nicely shaped

so evenly browned

amazing given the total piece of junk that my oven is

the recipe for this is the Light Whole Wheat out of the cookbook my daughter gave me for Christmas

this is about the fourth batch of this particular recipe I've made (remember I said no store bought bread here!), but there has been a real learning curve in making bread without using a bread pan -- just a flat steel cookie sheet

the book recommends that you use a pizza stone, but in my feeble little oven it would take FOREVER to heat that up (the book says about 20 minutes, so we're talking about 45 here) and our electric bill can't stand the shock

but the steel cookie sheet with a good layer of cornmeal works really well

now that I've really gotten the hang of this recipe it's time to try another one

yesterday, when we went to get milk there was a huge display of these on an end cap

you remember Cherrios? the ever present healthy snack you carried around in little containers to occupy your kids in church

let me tell you, these are not your "church cherrios"

not only do they really taste like chocolate, they are faintly sweet and super crunchy

as a snack that is

I brought the box home, broke right into it and ate a little container full while I was working at my sewing machine (just being careful not to drop any to the dog!)

I think they'll be really good with milk on them too -- and raspberries --- mmmmm, chocolate and raspberries --- yum!

time for breakfast!!

Bubble Rolls

We've had a longstanding tradition of having some kind of homemade sweet rolls with bacon for Christmas morning.

This year, we were celebrating at our daughter's house, so we did a recipe that came from her husband's mom.

These are real tasty, and so easy you don't have to wait until Christmas to do them!



Ingredients:

24 ounces of frozen roll balls (about 18 rolls)
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 package butterscotch pudding (the small size, NOT INSTANT!)

How to:

The night before you want to eat these, put the frozen rolls in a bundt pan

Sprinkle the pudding mix over the frozen rolls

Melt sugar and butter together, pour over the rolls

Set the bundt pan on top of the refrigerator (or some other warm place) until morning

The next morning, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

Turn out onto serving tray as soon as they come out of the oven.

YUMMY!

The Bread Book

I got this book for Christmas from my daughter

in the past the bread making in this house has always been done by my husband, whose hands are much much stronger than mine to do kneading

but with this book, you don't knead

you mix up the dough

you let it rise -- and FALL! -- once

then you stick it in the refrigerator and use it in pieces for the next week or so

I was sceptical --yeast dough -- a whole week or more -- in the cold?

yup!

and it works -- you can go right ahead after that first rise and finish off a loaf, but it is actually BETTER if you stick in in the 'fridge

so far I've had 4 different kinds of bread out of this book, and I'm planning on making more

I'm seriously considering making pumpernickel, which I really like but has always seemed so incredibly difficult that I couldn't begin to do it at home

it's truly amazing what you can get from four little (and cheap!) ingredients --- flour, water, salt, yeast --- that's "bread on the hoof"

we haven't bought a loaf of store bread since I got the book -- a package of pita this week, but there's a recipe for those too, so I may not be buying those again either

I'll let you know how that pumpernickel comes out