Recipe: No-knead Bread (whole wheat loaf)

I love the concept of baking bread, but I don't own a bread machine, and I find bread baking rather intimidating.  I have tried a different recipes for no-knead bread, and I have enjoyed them all - but I found that the 24 hour planning some of the recipes required were a bit much - and that meant that I couldn't manage loaf of bread quickly on a whim.  I also had yet to experiment putting it in a loaf pan, and using it as a sandwich/toast bread. I found a recipe on foodnetwork.ca, for Chuck Hughes' No Knead Bread, which is a quick whole wheat recipe made in a bread pan, so I thought I would give it a shot. 
The bread was very delicious, and hearty - but mine didn't seem to rise enough - it was on the dense side(this seems to be a general theme with my bread baking.....I can never seem to get it to rise properly on baking - even when I follow the directions perfectly!). 
But even though I didn't get enough of a rise, it was still a tasty loaf, and so quick an easy to prepare that I thought I would share it.  I am going to keep playing with the recipe and see if I can get it to rise higher (since I never seem to get a good rise with any recipe, I think it is me, not the recipe - let me know how you fare!). I am publishing his original recipe, but I have made some changes in adding my own notes and comments.

Chuck Hughes' No-Knead Bread
Yield: 2 loaves

Ingredients

• 3 cups very warm but not hot water
• 1 tablespoon dry active yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 3 cups white flour
• 2 ½ cup – 3 cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt

Directions

1. Mix together in your large bread making bowl (I used my KitchenAid with the dough hook) and allow to bubble up and foam: The yeast, sugar and water. Wait a few minutes till yeast starts to work then add vinegar and oil
2. Add the white flour cup by cup stirring well after each addition. Then add the whole wheat flour mixing in the salt at one point, cup by cup stirring well after each addition. This dough will still be a little bit wet and spongy.

3. Cover with a damp tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 30 – 40 minutes or until it has doubled in size. (I put it in my oven, which I preheated to 175 degrees F, then turned off - when you open the oven to put the dough in, enough heat escapes to make it the perfect proofing temp)
4. Using a big spatula, spoon out into 2 well-greased loaf pans. Using your fingers if needed, press the sides down, helping to create the perfect loaf shape. (do not knead)
5. With a knife make 2 or 3 diagonal shallow incisions in the loaves.
6. Bake the loaves about 50 minutes @ 375 degrees F or until they are golden brown and crusty on top and sound hollow when tapped on the underside.
7. Let sit if you can wait, for at least 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving with butter.

If you have ever wanted to make your own bread, this is a great recipe - because it is so easy and really doesn't take that long - give it a try and please share your results (especially if you get yours to rise properly when you bake it!).

Recipe: Awesome Cheater Banana Ice Cream

I love ice-cream.  My kids love ice-cream.  My ever-expanding rear end does not like ice cream.  Over the last week or so, I saw the host of Food Network's 5 ingredient dinners make a peanut butter and  banana "ice-cream" and then I saw it on a blog posting at Kitchen Simplicity where they made a chunky monkey version with nuts and chocolate chips - and there were many other posts as well.  I had to try it!  The magic of this ice cream is that it's really not ice cream at all, but rather just pureed frozen bananas, with the promise of ice cream flavour (great if you have any lactose intolerant kids!).  If I could really get the mouth feel of ice cream, with the calorie count of a banana, then perhaps there is hope for me yet.  Not to mention, I would be a rock star at home, letting my kids have "ice-cream" every night.   But I must say, I was skeptical....  But  now that I have made it, I must declare - that it' really good - much better than I had expected!

Luckily, I had a bunch of bananas that were getting somewhat over-ripe (and I really didn't feel like making banana bread), so I sliced them onto a parchment lined baking sheet and shoved them into the freezer until they were good and frozen (2-3 hours).  Once they were good and frozen I dumped the whole batch into the food processor.  At first it it's rather frustrating - but keep at it, keep using a rubber scraper to push the banana mixture down, then keep processing.  (As a side note, I first tried using my blender and my Magic Bullet - they don't work, you need the food processor with the larger blade).  Eventually, when the mixture has thawed a bit from all the processing, you will get something with the consistency of ice cream.  I scooped it out into bowls and garnished with a few chocolate chips.  The rest went into a storage container and into the freezer to serve to guests coming the next day.*

I think I will play around with this recipe, perhaps add in some maple syrup for a little more sweetness....or some honey.....I wonder if it would keep the consistency if I threw in some berries.....let me know if you try it and come up with a great combination!

Now, as good as it is, it doesn't completely have the mouth feel of ice cream, but it is really close - better than some of those "light" ice creams out there.  So close, that it will satisfy an ice-cream craving and perhaps even reverse the butt-expansion process I have going on...... well, a girl can dream.

*When I served the ice cream the next day, it was still good, but it had lost a lot of it's creaminess, and had crystallized a bit - tasted more just like frozen banana.  In the future, I think I will process only what I need and keep extra frozen banana chunks in a freezer bag, ready to process whenever the urge strikes!

Go To Lunches: Beans on Toast

Beans on toast is one of my ultimate comfort foods - and what makes it a winner is it's absolute simplicity as a pantry meal.  I don't often eat canned food, but Heinz Beans in tomato sauce is an exception - and on a really cold day, or a day when I just don't want to think about cooking, it's a great lunch.  Sadly, my hubby still thinks that it's disgusting - but he's never bothered to try it, he just objects in principle.  Given that he has a British mother, I am surprised that he was never given this meal as a child because it was a staple in Leah's family home - where I spent a lot of my childhood.  In highschool, Leah and I would often end up at her house for lunch, and more often than not, we would have beans on toast.  No recipe here - just open a can of Heinz beans in tomato sauce (it's even better if you can get Marks and Spencer beans - but we don't have them in Canada anymore) and heat it up on the stove.  Meanwhile, toast a slice or two of bread and slather with butter.  Put beans on top of toast and sprinkle with some freshly ground  black pepper and enjoy with a large glass of milk.  YUM!  You'll need a knife and fork to eat it.  I encourage you to give this really simple go-to lunch a try.  Buy some beans (remember for an authentic experience, it's important that it's beans in tomato sauce, not browned beans) and keep them in your pantry - next time you have no idea what to have for lunch, give it a try!

So, I'll put it out there - is this disgusting?  Maybe I love it because it's so simple and brings back such happy memories......  Do you have any comforting foods like that?  Ones that make the rest of the world cringe, but make you smile?