Just a Bread and Butter Post

Really.

It’s about bread. 

And butter.

And only slightly about pretzels. 

As hinted at a while back, I dug my bread machine out and have been baking up a storm throwing ingredients in it ever since. 

And, as promised a while back, here are our 3 favorite recipes {so far}:

* with all 3 recipes, follow your bread machine instructions…which will sound somewhat like this: liquids first, dry ingredients on top, with yeast right on top of that(especially if timing for an overnight bake as yeast should not be in contact with liquid until ready to bake)

Whole Wheat Honey Bread {our absolute fav!}

• 1 1/8 cups of water
• 1/3 cup of honey
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of shortening
• 3 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 tablespoon of dry milk powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast

Steakhouse Wheat Bread {an unexpected yummy concoction*}

:This loaf is quite small, so feel free to double it

• 3/4 cup of warm water
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 tablespoon of butter, softened
• 1 cup of bread flour
• 1 cup of whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 teaspoon of instant coffee granules*
• 1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder*
• 1 tablespoon of white sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast

“The Best Bread” {while less healthy than the others, definitely delish!}

• 1 cup of warm water
• 2 tablespoons of white sugar
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
• 3 cups of bread flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast

Hmm mmm…there’s nothing like waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread!

And, seeing we’re totally “butter” people around here {the thought of margarine makes me dry heave}, but also aim to make things as {realistically} healthy as possible…we make our butter “better”. 

Enter…Better Butter. 

All the flavor and yumminess of butter, only better. 

Simply whip up two sticks of butter {salted or unsalted, your call} with a cup of Safflower Oil, which is low in saturated fat and rich in omega-6 fatty acids.  So it’s equal parts: 1 cup to 1 cup.  Whip, pour into a little dish and store, covered, in the fridge.

You could use Olive Oil, or any other healthy oil for that matter {like flaxseed, canola or soybean}, if you enjoy the flavor, but we prefer Safflower.

And on the pretzel front?  This was a little experiment that will definitely be expanded on in the days to come!

We make homemade pizza about once a week {I buy frozen dough at SAMS club…it’s 20 balls of dough for around 16 bucks!!}.  So I trimmed off some of the excess, rolled the chunks into “snakes”, folded them into little pretzel shapes, sprayed ‘em lightly with cooking spray and sprinkled them with salt/garlic, or cinnamon/sugar. 

I’m thinking a little rosemary and sea salt will be in order for the next batch!

Delightful & delicious!

And with that, I’m off to cut into a loaf of fresh bread…over and out.