MADE SOME DOUGH ON SATURDAY

Literally!  My first bread ever...Ashley had made bread in college as well as pizza crust (learn something new every day).  This comes by way of Canada from a show called Chuck's Day Off.  It's from an episode where Chuck needs to make some food to recover from a hangover.  While we were not hungover, our eight hour baby class did warrant some tasty bread and butter.

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
3 cups warm, but not hot water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 to 3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon coarse or kosher salt
Steak spice blend, for sprinkling
Demerara or raw sugar, for sprinkling



Start with 3 cups of lukewarm water...into a bowl with a tablespoon of sugar and yeast....mix it up and wait for the bubbles.

Side bar:  this is what I came home to because

 I broke one of my biggest rules...MISE EN PLACE!

  I realized only after I added the sugar and yeast that

 we didn't have vinegar!  Always check your

 ingredients before starting...whew that was close!

After your yeast and sugar start doing their dance, add a tbs each of vinegar and vegetable oil.

Start adding your flour like this...one cup, then mix, two cups, then mix, three cups, mix some more and move on to your whole wheat flour.

Another nice learning opportunity, I added all two and a half cups of whole wheat flour at once along with the salt, although the recipe said to add the whole wheat flour in the same manner as the white flour...I guess it was just a long day or something...however, I just stirred the hell out of the dough and all seems to be good with the end product.

Turn your oven to 200 for five minutes and cut the heat...wet and rign out a clean kitchen towel and cover your bread bowl and into the oven for 40 minutes...the dough will double.

Take half the dough and put it into a well greased loaf pan.  Here's where chuck makes slits and adds raw sugar on one loaf and steak seasoning on the other.  we opted not to do either since this was the first time making this bread, we wanted to taste the actual bread first before we messed with putting things on top of it...sorry Chuck.

In a 375 degree oven for 50 minutes, until nice and golden.

Ok ok, so we did want to taste the bread without the sugar or steak seasoning, but NOT without some honey butter!  two sticks of butter out to room temperature and 1/4 cup of honey, mix it up and throw it into a ramekin

The bread turned out really great...very thick, nice crispy crust, and wonderful with some honey butter and wild berry preserves.