Honey Oatmeal Bread

This bread has so far been my favorite homemade bread.  It has a great honey flavor and is moist.

I have been loving my wheat grinder and grinding extra flour to keep in my refrigerator to use in my pancakes, waffles, and any breads that I make!  I have even put a little in my cookies, cinnamon rolls, and pizza dough the other night!

A great recipe to use whole wheat in and one my whole family loves!

Honey Oatmeal Bread

(http://www.tastykitchen.com/)

• 4 1/2 tsp yeast
• 1/2 cup honey
• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1 egg

In a medium saucepan, melt your butter and honey together.  Remove from heat when butter melted and add your water.  Make sure mixture is not too hot so you don't kill the yeast and then stir in your yeast.  Let this mixture sit for about 10 minutes or until your yeast is all bubbly.

In your mixer, using the dough hook, combine salt, yeast mixture, 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour.  Beat for about 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.  Gradually beat in your egg and 1 more cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour to make a thick batter.  Keep beating for about 2 minutes. 

Stir in your oats now and 1 more cup of wheat and 1 cup of white flour.  Knead with your mixer until the dough is smooth and elastic.  If you find it is really sticky, you might need to add more flour.  I have ended up adding almost 1 cup more of flour when making this bread.  Add your flour slowly so not to add too much.

Place your dough in a greased bowl and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour!  I always cover my dough with a clean kitchen towel.  I absolutely love my oven because it has a proofing cycle and it helps raise my bread so well!!

After it has doubled in size, punch your dough down and turn onto a floured surface.  Cover your dough with your bowl and let sit for about 15 minutes.

Shape into 2 loaves and place in your greased bread loaf pans.  Cover again and let rise for about 1 hour. 

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until the tops of your bread is golden brown.  Try not to eat it all warm, but soo yummy when it is warm with jam and butter, or forget the butter and just jam or even plain!!

Honey Jelly

Ever heard of Honey Jelly??? I hadn't until this week when we went to the Dentist and we were shared this jar!

It tastes just like honey but spreadable! I had it on toast and it was great! My boys had it on their peanut butter sandwiches and they didn't know any different!

I found this recipe on the internet and I am planning on trying it sometime soon!

Honey Jelly

(from www.ichef.com)

• 1 cup honey
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/8 cup liquid fruit pectin

Heat honey and water to boiling, stirring constantly. Add liquid fruit pectin and bring back to boil. Allow to cool in jely jars.

(from a Homemaking Booklet, Mormon Church, 1978)

Granola/Low-fat Granola

Our ward just recently did a honey order, so we also included in our activity night some granola recipes using honey. Edie brought these and they sound very good!

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Granola

• 14 cups oatmeal
• 2 cups coconut
• 2 cups wheat germ
• 2 cups chopped nuts
• 1 cup almonds
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup honey
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup oil (safflower oil)

Mix and spread out in deep pan. Toast in 200 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours. Stir occasionally. Cool. Add 2 cups raisins.

Low-Fat Granola

• 8 cups oatmeal
• 1 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup apple juice (concentrate)

Thaw a can of apple juice concentrate and add 1/2 cup (Do not dilute before adding). Mix all together. Bake for 60 minutes at 300 degrees. Stir occasionally. Remove sooner if you want it less crispy.

Spiced Honey Butter

We also served honey butter with our bread activity! Who can resist honey butter and these were 2 great recipes shared!

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Spiced Honey Butter

(published in Country Woman May/June 1995)

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tsp grated orange peel
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

You can beat the butter until light and fluffy, add the honey; then beat just until blended. Or just mix all ingredients well, cover, then refrigerate.

Honey Butter Spread (taste of home)

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup honey

In a small bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the honey; beat just until blended. Serve with bread, bagels or toast. Store in refrigerator.

Fabulous Brown Bread, Multi-Grain Bread and French Bread

We had a great activity last night and learned all about bread from Wendy! Here are a few recipes we tried that were fabulous!!!

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Fabulous Brown Bread

• 1 tbsp yeast
• 3 cup hot water (really really warm)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (or any type of oil)
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup wheat gluten
• 3/4 cup non-fat dried milk
• 1 tbsp salt
• 4 cups wheat flour
• 3-4 cups white flour

Mix all ingredients together in a mixer. Add just enough white flour to create dough (add your wheat first and then add the white by the cup full to see how much you need), but dough will remain sticky! Let rise until doubles.

Punch down dough and put into loaf pans (makes 2-3 loaves). Let rise one hour. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Multi-Grain Bread

• 1 tbsp yeast
• 3 cups hot water (not too hot!)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (or any type oil)
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup wheat gluten
• 1 cup 9 grain mix
• 3/4 cup non-fat dried milk
• 1 tbsp salt
• 4 cups wheat flour
• 3-4 cups white flour

Mix all ingredients together in mixer. Add just enough flour to create dough, but dough will remain sticky. Let rise until doubles.

Punch down dough and put in loaf pans. Let rise one hour. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes

Kitchen Aid Mixer French Bread

• 2 tbsp yeast
• 3 cup hot water (not too hot)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or any oil)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp salt
• 7 1/2 cups white flour

Mix all ingredients together in mixer on high. Let rest 10 minutes. Turn on high for 10 seconds. Repeat rest and punch down a total of 5 times (50 minutes).

Divide the dough in half and roll out into a long loaf. Put on a well greased cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal. Slash top of bread(just use a knife and cut into the bread a little) several times and let rise 20 minutes.

Beat up 1 egg white and 1 tsp water. Brush over loaves and sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes! Enjoy!!

Honey Butter

Where has honey butter been my whole life! I know I have had it before, but I have never made it at home! It was a restaurant treat! Now I know why!! Honey Butter is soooooo good and you end up finding yourself eating more bread just to eat the butter! You even put way more on than you would buttering a piece of toast with just butter!

I will definitely be making this again, but I will be practicing more self control and only eat it sparingly! I did half this recipe and it made quite a bit too!

Honey Butter

www.ourbestbites.com

• 2 cubes real butter--close to room temp., works best when slightly chilled still
• 2/3 cup honey
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar

(If your butter is too soft, you'll end up with a gooey mess, so she just left it out on the counter for about 20 minutes or so before beating and it turns out nice and fluffy)

Just place everything in your electric mixer bowl and beat for about 30 seconds. I actually had to beat it longer. Serve at room temp. with anything your heart desires!!!

I placed mine in the refrigerator over night and set it on the counter in the morning and it was soft and spreadable after only about 5 minutes! Super good, make some today!!!!

Honey

Two years ago, our ward collected jars and brought them to our local honey factory (aren't we lucky) and had them filled with honey. We are doing this again! Here is some info I found about the benefits of honey!

Thought I would share what I found, you might want to add it to yours too (or add more)!!

(from http://www.beprepared.com/)

• Honey doesn't undergo the processing that sugar does, therefore it contains more nutrients. Mineral content is higher in darker honey. Digestion of honey is also easier than digestion of refined sugars. Honey provides a boost to your immune system that refined sugars won't. The boost comes from the antioxidants that are found naturally in honey. Other health benefits of using honey include fatigue prevention and increased energy, and enhanced physical performance.
  
• Honey can be used whenever you have a recipe that calls for sugar. Since honey is more concentrated than sugar use approximately 3/4 cup honey for every cup of sugar called for in any recipe. You may substitute up to half of the sugar called for without needing to make any other adjustments to the recipe. If substituting more than half of the sugar with honey, reduce the amount of liquid called for by 1/4. Using honey also gives a sweeter taste to the foods you are eating.


• Storing honey is simple. It can be stored in almost any container from glass and plastic jars to larger 5 gallon food grade buckets. Around 75 degrees is the ideal storage temp., but any crystallization that occurs at cooler temps can be reversed. Simply place your container of honey in a pan of warm water or in a sunny spot in your home. This will liquefy your honey. Be sure not to boil honey as this can ruin the taste.


• Rotating honey is simple when substituting if for sugar but it can still be stored for a lengthy amount of time.