Honey Oat Bread

In my daily eleven hour boredom until Molly gets home, I decided I wanted to try baking a new kind of bread.  I had to go with something that we had the ingredients for.  I knew we had honey and I knew we had oats.  After contemplating this information for hours, I had a brilliant idea:  HONEY OAT BREAD!!!  So, I set about on the internet; that wonderful invention of Henry van Statten or Al Gore, depending on whether you are a fan of Dr. Who or just plain gullible, respectively.  I found many recipes, but they all contained things that were just not in my lexicon:  like self-rising yeast.  I finally found a recipe on eatingwell.com.  As usual (well, if usual is, in fact, usual with this only being my second posting), the address for the original recipe is linked in the last statement.  Having now tried the bread, I find it to be a good recipe, and it was really simple to make. I mostly post recipes on here for my own convenience, as I hate to try to google it every time I want to make it.  However, I am going to break the recipe down a little more so it easier to follow.

Timing:

Preparation:  About 15 minutes

Cooking:      40-50 minutes (maybe a bit more or less depending on your oven.  I'm assuming yours is not 

                    schizophrenic like mine.)

Cooling:       About an hour is recommended.  (15 minutes in pan, then 45 minutes out of pan)

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup of old-fashioned rolled oats for the mixture.
2. About 2-4 tablespoons of old-fashioned rolled oats for pan and topping.
3. 1 and 1/3 cups of whole-wheat flour.
4. 1 cup of all-purpose flour.  (I used the bleached variety.)
5. 2 and 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder.
6. 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda.
7. 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of salt
8. 1 cup of plain yogurt
9. 1 large egg
10. 1/4 cup of oil (either vegetable or canola oil is fine)
11. 1/4 cup of honey
12. 3/4 cups of milk

Directions:

1. Put a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat it to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Sift the wheat flour and the all-purpose flour together into a large bowl.  I sifted two times.  This mixed the different flours together pretty well.  (Also, I read on the internet that sifting wheat flour more than once makes the final product less dense.  And we all know the internet knows everything.)
3. Add the baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the mixed flour.
4. Use a small to medium-sized rubber spatula to mix the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour together.  
5. Now, get out a medium-sized bowl.  ( I assume you already have the bowl out by this point, as most people would read through the recipe before attempting to make it.  Nevertheless, I added this step just in case the under-prepared, or maybe incredibly stoned tries using this recipe.)
6. In the medium-sized bowl, put the 1 cup of old-fashioned rolled oats.
7. Add the yogurt, egg, oil, and honey to the oats.  
8. Use a fork to stir/beat the oat/yogurt/egg/oil/honey mixture.
9. Now, add the milk to this mix, and stir a bit more with your fork.
10. Leave the two bowls alone for a minute and go to your loaf pan.  Use a cooking spray to grease the bottom and sides of the pan.  Take 1-2 tablespoons of the remaining oats, and sprinkle them on the bottom and sides of the pan.  You don't have to coat it all.  this is just to get some oats on the outside of the bread.
11. Go back to the bowls.
12. Pour half of the yogurt mixture from the medium bowl into the flour mixture in large bowl.
13. Use your spatula to mix this up a bit.
14. Pour the remaining yogurt mixture from the medium bowl into the flour mixture in the large bowl.
15. Use your spatula to mix this thoroughly.  Be careful not to over-mix, as this may toughen your bread.  The consistency will be more like a batter than a dough.  So, it will be looser than other breads.  Do not continue mixing thinking this will make it more dough-like.  (I don't know if most people would have this thought, but I did.  So, either "silly me" or "yay me for saving you from making a mistake")
16. Once you have finished mixing, pour the batter into the greased and oat-ed loaf pan.  
17. Even out the batter in the pan.  
18. Take the remaining 1-2 tablespoons of oats and sprinkle them over the batter.
19. Put the pan in the oven.  (If you've been following along, this pan will contain the batter you just spent all this time making.  If it doesn't, time to give up the baking (as in the process making food), or the BAKING (as in smoking the weed))
20. In 40 minutes, check your bread.  Do this by putting a toothpick or butter knife into the center.  If it comes out clean, it's done.  If not, put it in for 5 more minutes and repeat.
21. Once your knife comes out clean and you take the bread out of the oven, place the pan on a wire rack to cool, for 15 minutes.
22. After 15 minutes, take the bread out of the pan and continue to allow it to cool.  ( the bread, not the pan, though that will likely cool as well.)
23. Let the bread cool until it is just barely still warm.  This may take about 45 minutes.

And there you have it.  A good tasting and easy to make Honey Oat Bread.  I've taken the 3 steps from the original recipe and turned it into 23 steps.  Maybe that's excessive, but I like things spelled out for me when cooking.

--D. Mosier

Hummus!

I am in LOVE with chickpeas right now! Before December I had never had them in anything besides hummus.  But, then I tried some delicious Arabic food courtesy of my students and have been craving chickpeas ever since.  Tonight, I'm making a Chickpea and Lentil Stew, and will post the recipe a bit later, but last night I made hummus.  I have made hummus a few times before and each time it turns out a bit differently, but it is always good!  Below is a rough recipe for the garlic hummus I made last night.

1 15oz can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed well
1/4 cup tahini (I have found this in the peanut butter aisle and the organic food section)
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 tsp to 1 Tbs. of garlic powder (depends on your taste...we LOVE garlic so ours has a bit more than 1 Tbs.)
About 1/4 c. water to thin, and not kill your blender (you can add more, of course, depending on what consistency you like...mine is about a peanut butter consistency)

I threw all of this in a small bowl and used my immersion blender, but you can also make it in a regular blender or in a food processor.  Eat with veggies or my favorite, Tomato Basil Wheat Thins.

For a fun twist (that my husband would not approve of) blend some roasted red peppers into the hummus...or artichoke hearts.

Garlic and Cheese Beer Bread

In an effort to help some young friends raise money for their school fundraiser, Molly and I (Molly's husband and writer of this post) purchased a beer bread mix.  When we got around to making it, we found it utterly delicious!  Continuing to purchase this mix would have proved to be an expensive habit, however.  As such, we decided to make our own.  Well, I decided to make our own.  And let me say, it was extremely easy to do.  If it's easy for me, anyone can make it!  This recipe was adapted a bit from one found on food.com (the original website is linked.  See, no plagiarism from the English MA!).  

Prep time:  5 mins
Bake time:  50 mins - 1 hour
Eat time:  Depends on your will power.

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups flour
2. 3 teaspoons of baking powder
3. 1 teaspoon of salt
4. 1/4 cup of sugar
5. 1 can of beer (12 oz.) (I find dark beer to be the best, as it adds more flavor)
6. 1/4 cup butter
7. 1/2 cup of shredded cheese (this is optional, and we usually use Mexican cheese)*
8. 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of garlic powder (optional)*

                 *though these are optional, they will be included in the directions

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (that's Fahrenheit.  The rest of the world is Celsius, but we in the US like to be "unique.")
2. Sift the flour into a big bowl (yes, big bowl is a technical cooking term).
3. Add the baking powder, salt, sugar, and garlic powder to the flour.
4. Use a small to medium sized rubber spatula to mix the dry ingredients together.
5. Put the butter into the microwave to melt.  (I would put it in a plastic or glass container of some kind.  Otherwise you'll find yourself cleaning up a now useless mess.)  30 seconds should be sufficient.  (DO NOT mix the butter into the dough!)  
6. Once the dry ingredients are mixed, pour in the entire can of beer.  (When I say pour it in, I mean into the bowl.  If you want to pour it into your mouth, you'll need a second beer.)
7. Mix the ingredients in the bowl until all the liquid has been absorbed and there is no dry powder left.  Remember to scrape the excess off the side and back into the mix.
8. Mix the cheese into the dough.  Not all of it will mix in.  In fact, most of it will sit on top and help to form the crust.
9. Grease a loaf pan.
10. Pour the dough into the loaf pan.
11. Even out the dough.
12. Pour the melted butter over the top of the dough.
13. Put in oven to bake.  Depending on the oven, it will take between 50mins-1 hour.  
14. When finished, take it out of the oven, take it out of the loaf pan, and let cool for 15 mins.
15. Enjoy!!!  (Could have left this one out, but 15 seemed like a nice round number.)

When you take it out, the crust will be fairly hard.  Don't worry, you didn't over-bake it (well, maybe you did.  If it's all black, then you should probably have your oven checked out.)  The inside will still be soft and oh so delicious.

-Posted by D. Mosier