Shortcut Wheat Bread With Rosemary

Here is a recipe for wheat bread that is a bit of a cheat - the dough is made in the bread machine, but then you take it out, work it a bit, and bake it in the oven. I love my bread machine for pizza dough, but anytime I've ever tried to make bread in it, it has come out small, hard, and disappointing. This bread, it was an experiment and I'm pretty happy with how the experiment turned out. It makes some very tasty toast, too. I love toast.

Shortcut Wheat Bread With Rosemary

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/3 cups warm water

1 package yeast

2 TB olive oil

2 tsp coarse salt

1 tsp fresh Rosemary, chopped

Preheat oven to 425 F

Add the ingredients into your machine in the order the manufacturer suggests. Mine goes like this - water, oil, salt, rosemary, flours, then make a little well in the top and add the yeast into the well. Set the machine to the "dough" setting, which runs for 9o minutes.

At the end of 90 minutes, pull the dough out and place it on a floured surface. Sprinkle additional flour on top and work it into the dough. You want a smooth, non-sticky dough.

Shape into a loaf and place on either an oiled cookie sheet or use some parchment paper (I prefer the parchment). Let rise until it's about doubled in size. Slash the top of the loaf 3 or 4 times, about a 1/2 inch deep.

Sprinkle the top of the loaf with water, then place in the oven. During the first 9 minutes, periodically open the oven door and mist or sprinkle more water on top of the bread dough.

At the end of 9 minutes, sprinkle with a light dusting of flour, reduce heat to 375F, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. At the end of the 10 minutes, tent with foil and then bake for 10 more minutes.

Bread is done when you can knock on it and hear a "hollow" sound. Place on a rack to cool. Cover, after cooling, to keep fresh.

Some notes.........

Sprinkling the dough with water, in the beginning, gives it a nice crust.

You may have noticed that in the picture my bread does not have the knife marks. Oops, please pretend that you did not notice that part. I forgot to do that step. ;D

Make sure that your bread is fully cooled before covering, you don't want a soggy bottom crust.

Saturday Morning - French Toast

I'm going to try to follow a sort of loose schedule with this blog. On Saturday mornings, I enjoy making something fun for my kids and occasionally my boyfriend, when he is in town. Actually, when he's here for a visit, I try to get him to cook for me. He's awesome in the kitchen.

This morning I decided to make French Toast. Years ago, when I was pregnant with my oldest child, Max, who is now almost 18, I had the opportunity to enjoy some really good brunch buffets. I lived, at the time, with my now ex-husband, Todd, in Spokane, Washington. We didn't go out to dinner much - we were breakfast/brunch folks.

One morning we had this incredible French Toast. It was on smallish, thickish, pieces of French bread and it was coated with a layer of browned powdered sugar. I assume that they cooked the toast in some sort of deep-fryer, but I don't own a deep fryer. I've never been able to replicate it exactly at home, but I try and I have accomplished a pretty good version of it. Here's how I make it...........

French Toast

Ingredients:
8 slices of French bread, use thickness of your choice, I used sandwich style today
3 eggs
1 cup milk (I like nonfat)
1 tsp vanilla
powdered sugar
canola oil

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Take a cookie sheet, line with parchment paper (or spray with oil spray) and set aside. Pour canola oil into a pan, heat to medium. Sprinkle powdered sugar on a plate.

It's best to use day-old bread, but if all you have is fresh, lay it out to dry for a bit. This will make a firmer bread, which is easier to handle. Break the eggs into a bowl, add milk, and vanilla. Beat the mixture, lay a slice of bread on top of it, flip the bread over quickly, then place into the hot pan.
Brown briefly, then flip with a spatula. I don't brown the toast deeply, because I'm going to pop it in the oven soon and crisp it up there.
Pull the toast out, place over powdered sugar, flip and sugar other side. If it's not sticking, sort of pat the sugar into the toast. Place on the waiting cookie sheet, then start all over again with a new piece of toast. When you have all 8 pieces on the sheet, take a little screened strainer, and sift additional sugar over the top. Place the sheet into the oven and bake for 12 minutes. For an even crisper crust, turn on the broiler and broil for an additional minute or 2. Watch closely.

At this point, the toasts are ready to be served as is, or you can add butter and syrup, if you prefer.