English Muffins

I get a lot of pleasure by being able to make some of the things I used to buy regularly at the grocery store. One of those things is ... English Muffins. Now don't get me wrong. There is nothing seriously wrong with store bought muffins although admittedly I never actually examined their ingredient list, and of course there is something to be said for convenience ... BUT ... being able to recreate a good fresh home made English Muffin with melting butter oozing into every one of what should be numerous nooks and crannies is an experience everyone should have, at least once in their lifetime. I have tried several recipes with various levels of success and failure but the one listed below gave me the  best result for the type of muffin I was looking for ... lightly toasted on top and bottom with a dense somewhat spongy interior that toasted up nicely. These were also not your average bready muffins either, like some store bought pretenders are, but holey wonders with large and small pockets just waiting for you to fill with butter and/or your favorite spread. Luckily it's a LOT easier than you'd think as well! If you can make pancakes ... you can make English Muffins! Yum!

The only caveat I have is that you need at least one piece of special equipment ... an English Muffin *ring* or maybe several ... the good news is, an empty and clean tuna can with the top and bottom removed, will do just fine, as would a smooth round METAL cookie/biscuit cutter about 3" in diameter, although I did go to the effort to buy muffin rings at a kitchen specialty store ... cost about $5 for 4 rings.

On to the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup non fat powdered milk (do not substitute liquid milk for the water in this recipe, you must use powdered milk ... it's science, trust me, you want the goodness that you get in the powder without any added liquid and using milk volume for volume, in place of the water just doesn't work ... think of the dry milk as concentrated goodness and you need it concentrated for this recipe to work.)
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt (divided - see directions)
• 1 Tbsp shortening
• 1 cup HOT water
• 1 envelope (2.25 tsp) active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 2 cups all purpose flour, sifted ( or up to 50% whole grain whole wheat flour in place of the all purpose flour to make these a little healthier)
• Non stick vegetable spray (this is important I tried greasing with butter once and all I got was a mess)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl combine the dry milk powder with 1 Tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, and shortening. Pour in HOT water and stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved and shortening is melted. Set aside and let cool until just slightly warm. While this mixture is cooling you can proof your yeast.
2. In a small cup measure combine the dry yeast with a pinch (1/8 tsp) of sugar. Pour in 1/3 cup lukewarm water ... slightly warm to the touch will do you don't want it too hot or it will kill the yeast. Set aside to proof the yeast. In about 5-10 minutes you should start to see the mixture begin to froth. If it doesn't, your yeast is no good, get some fresh and try again ;)
3. Add the proofed yeast mixture to the cooled dry milk mixture. Add the sifted flour and beat thoroughly with a wooden spoon (why wooden? I have NO idea) The batter should be quite thick but still appear to be slightly *pourable* kind of like a really thick pancake batter.
4. Cover the bowl and set aside in a warm draft free spot for 30 minutes to rest. 
5. Meanwhile, preheat a griddle, or in my case a large FLAT non stick high sided pan with lid (my chicken frying pan works nicely but an electric frying pan would be perfect) to 300' F
6. After the half hour resting period add the remaining 1/2 tsp salt and beat thoroughly to combine.
7. Grease the insides of the metal ring(s) well with NON STICK VEGETABLE SPRAY ... (I tried butter and shortening once and both time the batter stuck to the rings like glue but for some reason PAM works perfectly and my muffins slid right off)
8. Place rings on the (dry ungreased) griddle and spoon 2 large spoonfuls of batter into each ring. Smudge the batter a bit to try and fill the ring but don't worry too much it will flatten out a bit as it cooks and odd shaped muffins are a conversation piece. A neat trick, if you have one, is to use an ice cream scoop ... the kind with a mechanical squeeze handle and a slider that helps eject the batter into the ring but like I said using a spoon with maybe a second one to tease the thick batter into the ring works just as well. The batter should be just below the top of the ring or about 1/2" thick, it will rise slightly as it cooks.
9. Cover with a pot lid or cookie sheet and cook for 5-6 minutes or until crisp and golden brown then flip and do the other side. When you flip the muffin, the ring might fall off. That's ok it's already done it's job, in fact I generally remove mine even before I flip, as I find it just gets in the way otherwise. It should just slide right off ... if you used Pam like I told you to ;)
10. Cover the pan again and cook until the second side is done (5-6 minutes) then remove from heat and let cool on a rack. ***SEE NOTE BELOW***
11. Split with a fork to serve or store in a tightly sealed plastic bag once completely cooled until needed. Freezes well. Makes 7-8 muffins.depending on how large you make them but mine tend to be big so I only get 7. 

NOTE: I generally use half whole wheat flour in my muffins (unlike the recipe listed above) to make them a little healthier and doing so, each muffin works out to about 175 calories each with about 2g of fiber, based on getting 7 muffins out of this recipe instead of 8 ... if you get 8 muffins they are about 153 calories per muffin.  If using all white flour I imagine the calories would be similar for each type but you would not get the added fiber that whole wheat gives you.


NOTE** Ok I am updating this recipe a bit. I am not sure what's up with my stove but it always seems to cook hot and these browned up much faster than they should have today. I have one of those solid element stoves that take forever to heat up OR cool down so I just cooked my last batch of muffins til they looked about the right colour (about 3 minutes per side) then put them on a rack placed on a cookie sheet to raise them up off the surface, and finished them for 15 minutes in a pre-heated oven set at 350'. Seemed to work, so if your muffins brown so quickly on the outside that you think the insides might not have had the chance to cooked all the way through, you can try doing what I did. Guess I don't have this recipe perfected completely but in the end it all worked out. I'd recommend storing these in the fridge until needed.

Perfect straight from the toaster with butter or maybe a dab of peanut butter ;)

My Grandmother's Bean Soup

This soup recipe is something my grandmother made at least once every couple weeks or so. It is rustic German/Hungarian fare, the kind of soup the wives would serve their farmer husbands after a long day's work in the field. If memory serves she would use any number of different hams in this depending on what she had on hand ... cottage roll, smoked ham , etc but I pretty much always make this with a simple old fashioned smoked ham, the kind you find cut in half and vacuum sealed in a heavy plastic wrap. This soup is hearty, VERY high in fiber and absolutely the best on a cool fall or winter day and it makes for a filling main course. 


I have seen many different ham and bean based soups online but never one quite like this and trust me, this recipe is worth trying even if you don't usually like a bean soup. I can pretty much guarantee it will be a new taste experience and in my opinion one well worth the experiment. My husband usually hates pea/bean soups primarily for their texture but also their taste, however he loves this soup in spite of his general bias. 


I have changed her original recipe somewhat both to modernize it, personalize it and to be more precise. Most of my grandmother's recipes were done more by *feel* than by exact measure so that last one was kind of important especially if you want to accurately track this for calorie counting purposes ;) So while this isn't "exactly" like her original recipe it faithfully recreates it so anyone can get the same results and I usually point out any changes I made to the original recipe, and why, in the description. I hope you enjoy it :)


Ingredients:

• 1 cup white navy beans
• 1/2 cup lentils, any color (optional but recommended, I use a blend of red and green lentils (no idea why, I just usually have them on hand) about 1/4 c each, lentils were not in the original recipe but I like their addition)
• 3 cups water
• 1 old fashioned half ham (they vary in weight but about 600-800g is good)
• 6 cups stock ( my grandmother would probably just have used all water but I think using stock takes this from just good to out of this world. In the past I would use a mix of chicken stock and water but these days I use all stock, whatever I have on hand, chicken, vegetable, ham ... I use my homemade stock but bought is fine as well ... about 2 cartons ... I'd recommend chicken or vegetable, you can top up with water as needed)
• 1 large (jumbo) or 2 medium onions
• garlic 3-4 cloves (to taste)
• 1 tsp salt (optional depending on whether you use sodium free stocks or not, plus bouillon is sometimes salty ... reserve salt to the end and taste soup before adding)
• 5 large carrots
• 3 Tbsp butter ( traditionally my grandmother would use lard or bacon fat for this and if I have it I do use bacon grease for superior results but any semi hard fat will do and in the absence of bacon fat butter is a good substitute)
• 3 Tbsp Flour ( I used to use 2 Tbsp each of butter and flour but my Tbsp were always heaping so when I modified the recipe to reflect exact measurements,  I just changed the amount from 2 to 3 Tbsp to reflect that, you can just eyeball the amounts, no need to exact measure if you aren't strict calorie counting  )
• 3 Tbsp Paprika (like above I believe the original recipe specified 2 Tbsp but 3 works well and is a major flavour component for this soup. I recommend Hungarian Paprika)
• 1 cup water (or as needed)
• 1 Tbsp Better Than Bouillon Paste (chicken, vegetable or ham flavor) as needed (optional to taste)
• 1 kg bag of broad or extra broad EGG noodles ... you want a noodle that can stand up in this soup and no egg or no yolk noodles just aren't strong enough to do the job ... this is hearty peasant fare and it requires a hearty noodle ... trust me, I tried a non egg noodle once and I regretted it ... they broke up into tiny bits in the soup and were basically just mush ... awful.

Directions:

1. Soak the beans and lentils overnight (or for several hours) in a large dutch oven style pot in 3 cups water. They can soak up a lot of water so you can add more as needed. Do not discard this water after the soaking is ended just add to it as directed below. If you forget to soak the beans overnight you can start early in the morning or just add some extra simmer time for the soup  ... the beans just take awhile to soften up ... and to lose their gassy properties ;)  Pre soaking just helps with that, it's not a biggie if you forget.
2. Add ham with juices to the beans and water
3. Add broth enough to cover the ham up to 6 cups ( I don't generally measure this, I just use a 1 liter jar (which is about 3 cups per jar) or two of my home made stock either chicken or ham) I just use enough to cover the ham and add more stock or water as needed to maintain the level while simmering.
4. Add onion (roughly chopped in quarters) and minced or pureed garlic (I use my own roasted/pureed garlic that I always have on hand in the fridge but you can buy handy tubes at the store as well)
5.  Simmer 3-4 hours ... I don't actually time this, I just simmer this until supper time but I usually start before lunch. I am not sure if a long simmer is even needed much beyond softening and degassing the beans I just do it because that's the way I've always done it ... and my soup always tastes delicious ... course it might taste delicious even with a shorter simmer time ... who knows ...
6. About an hour and a half before serving I like to remove the meat to a plate (reserve for later) and use my immersion blender to puree the beans and onions. This makes the soup rich and thick, if you don't want it quite as thick you can strain out a few of the beans (maybe half) if you do not have an immersion blender just smash some beans against the side of the pot to puree them a bit or you can strain them all out (this will yield a thinner but still delicious soup. I generally just blend the whole lot, it makes for a more flavourful rich hearty soup and makes this soup a VERY good source of fiber.
7. Add the sliced carrots at this point and cook until carrots are soft. If you like you can use 1 small bag of baby carrots instead of the 5 raw field carrots.
8. While the carrots are cooking prepare your roue. In a small saucepan melt butter (or other fat) over medium heat. Add flour and paprika and cook a minute or two to remove the 'raw' taste. It should look like a thick paste. Slowly (and carefully) add water, stirring constantly until you have a thick but pourable roue and slowly stir in to soup to thicken. Rinse all the roue into the pot with some extra rinses of the roue pot with water ;) 
9. Just before serving. Place the ham front side down on a cutting board and slicing down from the top following the contour of the ham, to remove the tough outside rind. Then slice and chop the remaining meat into small soup appropriate bite sized pieces and return the meat to the soup pot.
10. Taste and adjust seasoning with either salt or chicken/ham/vegetable "Better than Bouillon" paste.
11. In the meantime prepare 1 bag of extra broad or broad EGG noodles according to package directions. Strain noodles and add to soup.
12. Serve. 

This makes a LOT of soup maybe 16 bowls. We typically have at least 2 bowls when this is served as a main course however so this would easily feed 8 people but more might be stretching it unless you added an accompaniment like maybe a fresh loaf of bread and cheese on the side. Each bowl (1 cup) has roughly 215 calories (depending on how much meat you used of course but the amount given was roughly for an 800g ham) and over 5g of fiber plus the beans and lentils are a good source of iron :) It freezes fairly well, although perhaps better without the noodles added, so if you plan to freeze this perhaps pass the noodles on the side for individual diners to add to their bowls as their own preferences dictate then freeze the remaining soup noodle free for later. 


You may need to thin the soup after it thaws with a little chicken broth or water, as it tends to thicken up even more as it sits. I'd recommend re heating this slowly in either the microwave or on the stove before you add any extra stock/water though since heating does thin this a bit, especially if you have used home made stock as opposed to store bought, as the home made stock is sometimes a bit more gelatinous and thick when cold and the soup can appear deceivingly thick until heated through.


Like I said this is a staple soup around our house and it is perhaps the most requested soup as well. Definitely worth the effort. Nose runningly delicious on a cold winter day. Have some tissue handy ;)

Curried Honey Mustard Chicken

This is one of my basic "go to" quick recipes when I want something tasty and fast. It isn't gourmet or even fine dining but it IS packed with flavour, fairly low in calories and better yet my guys seem to like it. The thing is while the recipe below is the way I choose to make and serve this MOST of the time, I also switch things up from time to time making this with vegetables included as sort of a stir fry as well. I can see all sorts of potential variations on this recipe to make it much more complex flavourful and even fancy ( you could sautee an onion and maybe a little garlic first .... you could add a dash of cream or even coconut milk ...) and some day I'll even try them, but as written it's a pretty simple no fuss recipe that fills that sometime hard to fill hole when you don't feel like cooking and you don't feel like going out ... I almost feel silly posting this here, it's that simple ... but it is in my recipe file, so here goes ....

One note before I start. The original recipe called for 1/3 cup butter in the sauce. Since this is baked I could see no reason why so much butter would be needed so I reduce the amount dramatically to only 1 Tbsp added strictly as a flavour component and sometimes I even leave it out altogether.... As far as I can tell it was not missed.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp Butter, melted  (you can up this if you want but I don't bother)
• 1/3 cup Honey
• 1/4 cup Dijon Mustard
• 4 tsp curry powder (regular curry powder is fine but I also like Madras Curry powder)
• 1 pinch Cayenne pepper (to taste, you control the heat in this)
• 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375' F (190'C)
2. In a medium bowl mix the melted butter, honey, mustard, curry powder and cayenne.  Add chicken breasts a turn to coat thoroughly in the sauce. ( if you have time you can cover and marinate these for 4 hours or overnight but it isn't strictly necessary, I rarely have the time but sometimes I do like to like to prepare this ahead of time and marinating a dish like this can be a plus)
3. Put chicken in a lightly buttered oven safe casserole dish just large enough to hold the chicken breasts in a single layer and pour the sauce over.
4. Bake covered for 10 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 10 minutes or until done. and juices run clear. Baking time will depend on the thickness of your chicken breasts
5. Serve with rice

NOTE: I've been known to not bother with the whole cover/uncover part and cook this from start to finish uncovered ... not sure it impacts the recipe but that's the way the original recipe described the baking process ... Instead of baking this I've also lightly browned the chicken (unsauced) in a sautee pan and poured the sauce over as a finishing touch. Quite nice done that way as well .. this doesn't actually brown up much when in the oven and I miss that sometimes)

Cheers!

Ground Beef and the best hamburger recipe ever!

Ever since I started this *diet* or rather this new program of healthier eating. I've paid more attention to the ingredients I use in my cooking. One of the things I've always wondered about is the ground beef in the meat section of my grocery. Where exactly does it come from and what cuts of meat exactly are used in it. I had read a few horror stories and heard about something regularly found in store bought ground beef called "pink slime" .... lovely...

What IS "pink slime"? well it isn't pretty pink that's for sure ... here is the Wikipedia Definition ....

Pink slime is a colloquial term^[2] for ammoniated boneless lean beef trimmings or similar products, which are considered "unfit for human consumption" until ammonia has been added.^[3] The product is sold by a number of beef processing companies, including Cargill Meat Solutions and Beef Products, Inc.^[4] The lean beef sold by BPI has become known for increasing the pH of the beef trimmings by adding ammonium hydroxide to remove pathogens such as E. coli andSalmonella, while the Cargill product uses antimicrobial treatments that lower the pH.^[4] This beef product is USDA-approved and is a component (typically less than 25 percent) of a majority of ground beef in the United States.^[1]

Emphasis added ....

Ostensibly it is added so they can include inferior bits of meat unfit for human consumption and make the product safe for human consumption ... I guess ...

Ever since I read that I simply can't buy store bought ground beef anymore and I shudder every time I see someone else buy it ... which is sort of odd because when served ground beef in a restaurant or in someone else home where I don't know the source of the meat I have absolutely no qualms at all ... I guess ignorance is bliss after all.

The caveat here is that not all grocery store ground beef is bad ... some of it is REALLY good in fact .. just not the heavily processed stuff made my mega large corporations and sold in bulk ... for really cheap.

Ground beef is generally made from the beef trimmings ... the stuff that's left over after the butcher gets done making up all the steaks and roasts. That doesn't mean it's inferior meat however.  It COULD be filet mignon! It could be sirloin! It probably does include some of their trimmings at least. If such things as pink slime bother you I'd probably recommend getting your ground beef from a real butcher ... they grind their own from scratch ... as do some grocery stores but I confess I'd never buy ground beef in a big plastic tube ... no matter HOW cheap. Know your source.

These days I take it a step further ... I always do ... and grind my own. It's easy, fast, it can be just as cheap as store bought ground beef and I control the quality. When ever I go to the store I always check out the beef section for sales. These days I only buy antibiotic hormone free meats and I like to try and buy local as well but I am also an opportunist ... if it's a good sale I'll compromise. Generally though I go to a store a little ways out of town where I know they only sell local meats from small local farm producers proudly displaying their local  farm's sticker on the label ... the pork farmer I buy my meat from likes to claim his pigs really have only ONE bad day in their life ... they are pasture raised and humanely treated. You can tell ...  I have never had such mouth watering tender pork in my life. The first time I had locally raised pork it was like I had never actually HAD pork before there is simply no comparison to the hard leathery stuff I used to eat that they CALLED pork. I am considering paying their farm a visit ... apparently you can buy direct from them. Could be interesting. Anyway I digress again ...

To grind my own I usually buy a blade or chuck roast maybe even a cross rib roast. If the price is right and I only want enough beef for a couple hamburgers I'll even by a couple small blade steaks on sale instead of the roast ... whatever, as long as it's cheap. Blade/chuck is particularly nice because it has a nice meat/fat ratio but if I want a more lean grind I'll just throw in equal amounts of blade and sirloin. Once I even splurged for a special occasion and bought a couple (day old) rib eye steaks on sale and ground them up for burgers ... sublime :) When I'm feeling ambitious I buy in bulk and grind up several roasts ... portion the grind into ziplocs and freeze for later ...  BUT, to make the most divine hamburgers, I usually make sure I use FRESH ground beef (after freezing/thawing,  ground meat no longer holds together as well in burger form but freshly ground meat doesn't seem to have that problem, even if the roast used for the grind, had been previously frozen. There is probably some scientific reason for that but I didn't research it, just going on personal experience)

I cut my meat into 1" cubes and just throw them in my kitchen aid mixer's grinder attachment.  It adds about 5 minutes to my cook prep time which really isn't much but it is a little bit of extra effort ... luckily I don't mind and I have the time to invest ... not everyone is that lucky ... that's what butchers are for ;)

All my life I have had trouble making good home made hamburgers ... the flavour was always off ... the burgers were always crumbly and would often disintegrate on the grill no matter HOW careful I was or how much binder I used ... not anymore ... these day I weigh out 600-700 g of fresh ground beef into a large bowl add 1/2 tsp salt/onion powder/garlic powder/pepper and mix ... no bread crumbs and no egg to bind it  ... nothing beyond a few bare minimum spices ... you could go with ONLY 1/2 tsp salt if you like and it's still divine (Thanks Alton) If you want to fancy up your burgers ... do it with the toppings ;)

 I then portion out 150-175g meat per burger and form into patties .... that's it. The best hamburgers I have ever made and will ever make again and everyone agrees :)

Any remaining grind gets put in the freezer for spaghetti or meatloaf  or meatballs etc. Clean up is a snap in the dishwasher but I do take a little extra time to clean the actual inside of the grinder with a bottle brush just to make sure because of all it's odd angles.

Not everyone has the time or inclination to grind their own meat but if you do the results are definitely worth it ... and no "pink slime" .... guaranteed ... sorry about that ... hope I didn't put anyone off ... keep in mind they did say that 75% of the meat out there is slime free but it's hard to tell what is what  when at the store ...

Cheers!

NB: 100g of my 50/50 mix of chuck/sirloin has about 165 calories so a 150g burger tops out at about 250 calories per patty with roughly 11 g total fat and 4 g of saturated fat ... for those who are counting ...  If you go for the bigger burger 175g is about 290 calories with 13 g total fat and 5 g saturated fat. Bun and toppings are extra. Full details for a 50/50 mix of ground beef using chuck and sirloin can be found here

Spiced Pickled Beets

My mother used to make the most divine pickled beets. Heads and shoulders above store bought  but oh so simple to make. She used to can these to make them shelf stable but I am not into the whole canning thing ... yet .... so I just make up a smaller batch, throw them into a couple large mason jars with a screw top plastic lid and throw them in the fridge ... they never last long.

I get my beets from a lovely little health food grocery store we have in Courtenay. Among other things they sell locally grown produce and I have found them to be a consistent seller of beautiful tender small baby beets. The beets I've seen in the regular chain grocery store are usually giant woody monstrosities of dubious freshness. Beets are a cool weather plant they grow best when things are cool and dry. Too much moisture and the roots develop as tough fibrous woody horrors and no amount of cooking can save them.

Whenever I go there, I buy a large bag of small beets, the volume doesn't matter really I just make up whatever I buy and when I need more ... I buy more. I just eyeball it and buy what I think will fit into a 1 litre mason jar ... then I double it ;)

The recipe is simplicity itself and I see no good reason why I'd ever buy store bought pickled beets ever again. Beets are GOOD for you, filling and surprisingly low in calories. Most of the calories in this come from the syrup but you don't actually EAT/Drink the syrup so the calories come mostly from the vegetable itself. I've never found an accurate way to measure the calories for a recipe that using a syrup/marinade that is not consumed so I generally just  track this as just plain cooked beets. I figure the small amount of extra calories from the syrup infusion of the beet is minimal at best and not worth worrying about. When having an afternoon craving attack a couple small sweet/tart beets to snack on is often enough to satisfy me until dinner. Sweet succulent and packed with nutrients.

Ingredients:

• whole baby beets
• 2 cups Cider Vinegar (buy the cheap stuff no need to get fancy here)
• 2 cups Sugar, granulated
• 2 cups Water
• 1 tsp Allspice, Ground
• 2 Tbsp Cloves, Whole (although you probably could use ground as well, I'd reduce the volume A LOT if you do however ... not sure how much but maybe only use 1 tsp as well)

Select small young beets 1" -1 1/2" in diameter. Scrub lightly (just to clean you want the skin ON) and do not remove either the stem or the root. Those will be removed later. By leaving them on at this point it helps keep the beet juice where you want it during cooking .... in the beet.

Boil until tender. I do mine about an 45 minutes to an hour then I test them with a knife ... if they aren't tender yet I keep going until they are. I am not entirely sure if it's even possible to overcook beets but it is possible to UNDER COOK them. So test them with a knife to determine doneness. You may find one or two that never seem to get tender even though the rest are done ... yeah tough fibrous woody ... I toss those ones. I hate tough beets.

Once they are tender enough for your liking drain them and put in a cold water bath to cool them enough to handle.

At this point you can trim the stems and roots. To peel I usually take a clean cloth or better yet one of those green "scotch brand"  pot scrubbing pads and gently rub all surfaces. The thin tender skin will generally just slide right off leaving a smooth surface ... no paring knife required! If the beets are small I leave them whole but generally I cut most of them in half anyway to make nice bite sized pieces .. all about the same size. Set aside while you make the syrup.

A 6 quart basket will yield 12 cups of prepared beets according to the original recipe and the syrup amounts listed above should make enough syrup for that quantity, or so the recipe says ... I've never actually bought my beets that way so I can't vouch for that. I just make the syrup and use what I need. I save any unused syrup in my garage fridge for next time. 

To make the syrup combine all the remaining ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for at least 5 minutes.

Pack hot sterilized jars with prepared beets and pour hot syrup over to cover. Seal and store. 

NOTE: Like I said I don't bother with the sterilizing part and I don't store these at room temperature like my mother used to do I just pack a clean mason jar cover with the boiling syrup and use a plastic lid to seal. I just throw them in the fridge when done. I generally get about 2 mason jars worth with the amount of beets I buy but sometimes it's just one. It's enough. These are so easy to throw together I don't need to stock up but if beets are cheap when in season you might want to :)

Maple Seeded 50% Whole Wheat Bread

This has rapidly become my favorite bread recipe and I make a loaf every week and sometimes twice a week. I may have other loaves around from time to time but there is ALWAYS a loaf of this in my cupboard ;)

It has a hint (no more) of sweetness and a delightful slightly nutty taste. It is moist and soft with a good crust and makes delicious sandwiches. It also keeps REALLY well and I've sometimes had this last (and still be delicious) for over a week although it rarely lasts that long when my husband is around ;)

It's also really easy to make and all kneading is done with my electric Kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook attachment.  A kitchen scale is needed to make this the way I do, as I weigh my flour ... however in case you don't have one, I have included cup measures for both flours since they are quite different volumes per weight for the two different flours. Make sure you use the correct technique to measure your flour if you are not able to weigh it. Flour compacts very easily in a measure cup and can cause you to accidentally add too much to your recipe causing you bread to turn out more like a brick ;) Lightly spoon flour into the measuring cup until it is slightly heaping then level off to the top of the measure cup with a straight edge, don't shake the measure cup to level the flour  cause that's what can cause the compaction.

Night Before Ingredients

• 80g (2/3 cup) whole grain whole wheat flour
• 80g (1/2 cup) bread flour
• 2 Tbsp Vital Wheat Gluten
• 1 Tbsp Barley Malt (optional but it adds a nice flavor component)
• 1/2 tsp Instant Dry Yeast
• 1 cup lukewarm water

Day of Ingredients

·             1/3 cup Maple Syrup

·             2 Tbsp Scottish Oatmeal

·             2 Tbsp Wheat Germ

·             2 Tbsp Flax Meal

·             2 Tbsp Semolina Flour

·             2 Tbsp Hazelnut Meal (or Almond meal but I like Hazelnut better) 

·             1 Tbsp Poppy Seed (optional, I usually don't bother)

·             1 Tbsp Sesame Seed

·             1 Tbsp Sunflower Seed

·             1 Tbsp Flax Seed

·             1 Tbsp instant dry yeast

·             80g Whole Grain Whole Wheat flour

·             80 g Bread Flour

·             1 Tbsp Vital wheat gluten (optional but I use)

·             1.5 tsp salt

Combine the night before ingredients and stir until well combined. Cover and leave on the counter over night.

The next day add all of the “Day of Ingredients” to a large mixing bowl. Pour in the “Night Before” mixture and using the dough hook on the lowest setting of your mixer machine knead for 5 minutes to combine all ingredients. Stop the mixer and let rest for 10 minutes to allow flour to absorb all the moisture it can. After the 10 minute resting period is over, turn the mixer on again to the lowest setting and knead again for 5-8 minutes (for a total of 10-15 minutes altogether) The dough should pretty much completely clean the sides of the bowl and will likely be in a ball on the dough hook. That’s ok, as long as the dough is connecting with the sides of the bowl on each rotation it will be kneading well enough. You shouldn’t need to add any more flour but if the dough is still too sticky (sticking to the sides of the bowl) you can add a bit more a little at a time but be careful not to add too much flour or your bread will not rise properly and will end up a dense brick. Take the dough out and place on a work surface lightly dusted with flour. The dough should be tacky to the touch but should not stick to your hands or counter if kneaded by hand a few times, which I do, to check the consistency of the dough and to work it into a nice smooth ball before setting to rise.

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and turn a few times to grease the top of the dough as well. Cover with cling wrap or a damp towel and set aside in a warm draft free place to rise till double in bulk (about an hour) Pour out the risen dough to your work surface and lightly deflate. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to roughly the width of your loaf pan and about 15 -18 inches long. Then roll  the dough jelly roll fashion into a tube and pinch seams to seal. Gently shape into a loaf and place in prepared loaf pan (I like to lightly grease my pan with butter and put a piece of parchment paper cut to just fit the bottom of the pan which I also grease)  Put your loaf in the pan. At this point, you can if you like fancy this up with a seed coating. Just give the loaf a light egg white wash (egg white and 2 Tbsp water) and sprinkle some seeds over the top lightly pressing down to seal them in place. I like to use a blend of sunflower, poppy seed, sesame and/or flax seed. This makes for a really nice presentation but I only go to the bother for special occasions. Alternately you could brush the entire loaf with the egg wash, putting your seeds on a cookie sheet. Then roll the whole loaf in the seeds to get an all over coating before putting in loaf pan or on cookie sheet for a free form style loaf.  Cover lightly with saran and place in a warm draft free spot to proof until bread is about 1” or more above the rim of the pan, about  hour, maybe 2, be patient.

Bake @ 350’ in a pre heated oven for 30 minutes or to an internal temperature of 190’. In my oven I have found 33 minutes at 350’ is usually JUST right … at 30 minutes the internal temp isn’t quite 190’ but the extra 3 minutes is perfect .. if I go to 35 minutes it’s already too long. I always think the crust is getting too dark but I trust the internal temp and that is a pretty good guide.

This is the hard part ... once bread is removed from the oven immediately turn out onto a cooling rack and DO NOT TOUCH until fully cool before cutting. The bread MUST rest and cool before cutting as the inside will be quite moist and too tender to handle the knife until it has had a chance to firm up a bit with cooling. After that ... cut, slather with butter and enjoy!

UPDATE: An average slice of this bread (sandwich width) is about 50g and 144 calories. It is not a low calorie bread but it it stuffed with goodness. It has 2.4g of fiber per slice and almost 6 g of protein. Full nutritional detail can be seen here Maple Seed Bread Nutitional details