whole wheat oatmeal bread

Hello, friends. Today I want to introduce to you a very humble-looking, but magical-tasting loaf of sandwich bread.

I grew up on every kind of sandwich bread in the bread aisle - from the whitest to the wheatiest, to the sweetest cinnamon raisin to the grainiest of toasts. Instead of school lunch, I always had two slices of toast with "something" in between, with that "something" really depending on what we had in the house.

When my father packed lunches, it was usually some predictable formula of Lunch Meat + Condiment, whereas my mother, who liked to experiment, once had me eat blueberry yogurt with avocados on toast. It was...interesting - and quite mushy, if I recall. The worst was 2 weeks of mayonnaise and cucumbers, though. (I. hate. mayo. With a passion.) But, I suppose, who's to complain when you're being served food?

Me and my sister (and my suitemates this past year) consumed bread at egregious rates. I've always wondered if it was cheaper to make your own sandwich bread than it was spill a few dollars every week for a new bag. After all: bread is cheap! It seems hardly worth the time and effort to save a few pennies to make your own bread than to buy it. But after making this whole wheat oatmeal bread, I realized that the difference here is not so much monetary as it is in taste.

Because... yo, storebought bread, I'm really happy for you. Imma let you finish. But homemade sandwich bread is some of the best breads of all time! Some of the best breads of all time!

I'm serious. It's so good that my father ate it for breakfast and for dinner, too. It's so good that I woke up the next morning anticipating eating it, only to find an empty container with crumbs at the bottom. Thanks, dad! I ate those crumbs! And I enjoyed every particle left of it! True story.

Breakfast is served.

If you ever need a trusty bread recipe, I highly recommend heading to the King Arthur Flour website. And hey, I highly recommend this adapted recipe, too. I based it off of their Vermont whole wheat oatmeal bread recipe, but subbed oil for butter and added molasses. This bread smells like cinnamon and molasses, like a candle shop in the fall, but in a more fragrant and less obnoxious way, so you'd actually want to eat it. It's fluffy and sweet with hardly any trace of whole wheat bitterness, although I'll confess it's only about 25% whole wheat (wait, that's still healthy enough, right?). Regardless, it's delicioso, and everyone deserves a slice of homemade sandwich bread. It could change your life.

P.S. According to my crude calculations based on awkward conversions and Walmart's online pricing, sandwich bread is just barely cheaper to make at home (roughly $1.22) than it is to buy in the store (roughly $2.00). Only if you ignore the labor, utility and opportunity costs, that is.

whole wheat oatmeal bread (slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour)
227g hot water [$0]
50g oatmeal [$0.15]
10g honey [$0.09]
10g unsulfured blackstrap molasses [$0.08]
50g brown sugar [$0.14]
25g canola oil [$0.05]
1/2 Tbs salt [$0]
1/2 tsp cinnamon [$0.05]
1/2 Tbs yeast [$0.25]
85g white whole wheat flour [0.15]
240g all purpose flour [$0.26]

Yield 1 loaf, about 13-15 slices

1. In a bowl, mix the hot water, oatmeal, honey, molasses, brown sugar, oil, salt, cinnamon. Let the mixture sit for 10-15 minutes, or until it's warm and not hot.
2. Once the mixture is ready, mix in the yeast and the flours. Knead until smooth dough forms.
3. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with cloth or plastic wrap and let is rise for 1 hour.
4. Knead the dough into a loaf shape and place in the greased loaf pan. Let it rise for 1-1.5 hours, or until the dough is approx. 1 inch above the lip of the pan. (see photo below for reference)

5. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, place a foil tent over the dough to protect it from burning. Continue baking at 350 F for another 15-20 minutes.
6. Let the bread cool thoroughly before slicing. Enjoy!

apple crumble cake

apple crumble cake (adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction )
crumble topping
1/3 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted (I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour

cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white granulated sugar (or more, if you'd like ^_^)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, softened (I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter)
1/4 cup oil (I used canola)
1/3 cup milk (I used coconut)
2 eggs
1/2 cup low fat plain greek yogurt
3 medium granny smith apples, peeled and cut into small chunks

to make the crumble topping
1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. In a bowl, combine all the crumble topping ingredients. It might initially be difficult to incorporate the flour, but keep mixing until you have moist clumps.
to make the cake
2. In a separate bowl, beat the softened butter with the sugar until incorporated. Then, beat in the eggs and the vanilla extract. Then, mix in the yogurt, milk and oil.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients - flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in the apple chunks.
to assemble the cake
5. Pour batter into a greased 9x9 dish.
6. Pinch or spoon clumps of the crumble topping all over the batter's surface, covering the top of the cake.
7. Bake at 425 F for 10 minutes. Then, turn the oven down to 350 F and continue to bake for approx. 35 minutes, or until the crumble topping is golden.

Let cool for 30 minutes to an hour. Refrigerate for 10 minutes if you can. Enjoy!!

hasselback potatoes photo diary

recipe here

coconut magic bars

 

One of the most tiresome, but necessary tasks after final exams are over is packing up all your belongings to move back home. Alas, if only it were as easy as throwing all your junk in one trunk and calling it a day.

Kind of like these coconut magic bars.

My theory is that the "magic" about magic bars is how you can take all your leftover bits, throw them in a dish and bake them into something delicious. Kind of like the midnight breakfast cookies. But come to think of it, how can you possibly go wrong with a combination of chocolate chips, coconut flakes and pretzels?

The most challenging part of this recipe is slowly boiling and coaxing the coconut milk into having a similar viscosity to condensed milk, You want to aim for about a little more than a cup of condensed coconut milk.

overnight coconut magic bars
crust
1 1/2 graham cracker crumbs
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/3 cup oil (I used corn)
coconut icing
1 13.5 oz. can full fat coconut milk
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
toppings 
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Optional: pretzels, butterscotch chips, marshmallows, nuts like pecans and peanuts

to make the crust
1. In a food processor, combine graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon, egg and oil. Blitz until the texture is moist and clumpy.
2. Press the crumbs into the pan to form a crust.
3. Bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes, or until crust is set.
to make the icing
1. Heat the coconut milk and sugar in a pot over Medium heat. Stir for 20-30 minutes, until the coconut milk reduces to approx. 1 cup of liquid and is thickened in texture. You're not looking to get caramel here, but you do want something similar to sweetened condensed milk.
2. When desired texture is reached,
to assemble the layers
1. Sprinkle on a layer of chocolate chips.Then, layer on the pretzels (and other toppings of your choosing.
2. Sprinkle coconut flakes as the top layer.
3. Pour the coconut icing over the entire bar, creating a layer that will "set" all the other toppings.
4. Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes. Let cool to room temperature. At this point, the bars will still be pretty soft, especially because they are coconut based. Refrigerate them for a few hours or overnight to allow them to firm up, until the coconut icing has set.