Honey Wheat Bread

Photo courtesy of my friend Noelle, who is in my group. 

I love the smell of freshly baked bread. The aroma just makes my mouth water. Don't you feel that way when you walk into a bakery?

I know I do. That's why I started to get hungry once my group baked our honey wheat bread yesterday. Yes, we made bread in our food preparation (culinary) class. The bread was delicious! It tasted delicious with some honey cinnamon syrup and jam.

I'm making you guy's mouth water now, right? Well, don't worry. You can make this yourself. Our whole kitchen was filled with the smell of all types of bread, including cinnamon rolls! It's quite simple to make bread. Well, it is once you get used to the technique. Me and Noelle did most of the kneading, which is the fun part. It just gets your hands dirty. But, it is worth it. It has a few simple ingredients and you know what's it in it, unlike store bought bread. There are so many things you have to remember when making bread. Those tips will be at the end of this post. For right now, here's the recipe. Enjoy!

Ingedients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 package of active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1 1/4 cups warm water
• melted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease the bottom and sides of a bread loaf pan. Set aside. 
2. In a bowl, combine yeast and warm water. Stir in the dry milk, oil, sugar, salt and two cups of the flour. Beat vigorously with a spoon. Stir in an additional 1 cup of flour. Do this until it holds most of the flour and does not look to stick or moist. 
3. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Add in additional flour as needed to prevent the dough from being sticky. This should take about 10 minutes. 
4. Let it rise in a lightly oiled bowl, covered, until double in volume. 
5. Punch down the dough to redistribute ingredients and expel excess CO2. 
6. Remove dough from the bowl and shape the dough in a loaf to fit into the loaf pan. 
7. Brush the surface of the bread with melted butter. 
8. Bake in a preheated 400 F oven for 10-15 minutes. Then, lower the temperature to 350 F or the next 30 minutes. 
9. The bread is done when the finished loaf can be inverted out of its pan and sounds "hallow" when tapped on the underside. 
10. Enjoy your bread! 

Photo from my class/groupmate, Ka. Thanks for sharing our bread making skills. =)

What each ingredient does in bread making.

• Bread flour contains more gluten than all-purpose flour. The gluten gives the bread its structure. 
• Yeast produces CO2 and alcohol during fermentation. CO2 is what leavens the bread (making it grow). Alcohol is evaporated during baking .The temperature of the water should be between 100-115 F when you are re-hydrating the yeast. 
• Sugar is a sweetener and is a food source for the yeast. However, flour has natural sugars yeast feed on too.
• Salt controls the growth of the yeast. 
• Liquid is used for hydration and gluten development. If you are using dairy milk, scald the milk (heat it up). It will kill (denature) the enzymes/proteins that milk has, which can affect the development of gluten. 
• Fat tenderizes and affects flavor. 

Other fun facts:

• Kneading the dough allows for gluten formation to occur, giving bread its structure. 
• The optimal environment for proofing the dough is a humid one. Generally speaking, 80-85 F is best. However, 68-100 F is okay. Avoid over proofing or else the gluten strands will break, causing your dough to fall and lose its structure and volume. 
• Punching down the dough releases excess CO2 and redistributes the ingredients as well as temperature. You will notice that some places in the dough are warmer than others. 
• The "oven spring" method of baking is when the bread is baked at a high temperature for the first 10-15 minutes and then lowered 50 F for the remainder of the baking time. The high temperature allows for quick expansion of the bread from the gas (CO2) produced from the yeast before it dies. The lowering of the temperature allows the bread to cook without over baking the outside and under baking the inside. 

Well, I guess that's a quick culinary lesson for you guys! 

Do you guys love bread? 

• Bread is delicious.

What's your favorite type of bread? 

• My favorite type is either honey whole wheat bread or cinnamon rolls. I love cinnamon rolls. 

Fudgy Meringue Cookies

I love fudgy cookies. Don't you? I love the deep chocolate flavor.
Well, these fudgy meringue cookies are very fudgy and have a lot of chocolate flavor in them If you love chocolate, you will love these cookies. My group made it in class the other day and they were delicious but really rich. You can only eat so many of these. They were a bit dry, so we do suggest adding another egg white if you like them less dry.
These cookies are also low in fat due to no fat being used. The egg yolks are taken away from the egg whites, so, this is a fat free dessert (except for the chocolate chips).
I hope you guys enjoy these cookies. Be sure to have a glass of milk along with these!

 Ingredients:

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray 
• ½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips, divided 
• ¾ cup powdered sugar, divided 
• ¼ cup + 1 ½ tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1 teaspoons cornstarch 
• 1 large egg white, room temperature 
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 small pinch cream of tartar 

 Directions:

1.                   Preheat oven to 350°F.

2.                   Coat 1 large rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray.

3.                   Place ¼ cup chocolate chips in small microwave-safe bowl. Cook in 15-second intervals until chocolate softens; stir until melted and smooth.

4.                   Cool chocolate to lukewarm, about 10 minutes. Whisk ¼ cup sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch in small bowl to blend.

5.                   Using an electric mixer, beat room-temperature egg white, vanilla, 1 small pinch of salt and cream of tartar in a medium bowl until soft peaks form.

6.                   Add remaining ½ cup sugar in 4 additions, beating just to blend after each addition.

7.                   Continue to beat until the meringue is thick and glossy like marshmallow crème (about 2 minutes longer).

8.                   Beat in cocoa mixture. Fold in melted chocolate, then the remaining chocolate chips.

9.                   Drop batter by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet, spacing 3 inches apart.

10.                Bake cookies 12-13 minutes on center rack of oven.

11.                When cookies are done, they will appear dry-looking and cracked.

12.                Cool cookies on sheets 5 minutes.

13.                Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

14.                These are best consumed the same day they are made.

Do you like fudgy cookies?
What kind of cookies do you guys like?

P.S Be on the lookout for the honey wheat bread recipe!

Happy Halloween and Cheese Soufflé Recipe

Happy Halloween everyone!

I hope you guys enjoy your Halloween. If you're going trick-or-treating, be sure to stay safe! And remember, don't overindulge on candy (oh, and chocolate too!).

Anyway, on the topic of food, we made Cheese Soufflé in class the other day. I admit, I personally don't like soufflé but it looked delicious. There were people in my class that like this soufflé.

So, here's the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 tsp dry mustard 
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese 
• 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese 
• 5 egg yolks, slightly beaten 
• 5 egg whites 
• 2 Tbsp butter or margarine 
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar 
• 3 Tbsp flour 
• 1/8 tsp salt 
• 1 1/4 cup milk 
• Pinch of red cayenne pepper 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Prepare soufflé dish. Butter bottom and sides of a soufflé dish. Coat with a thorough dusting of flour or dry grated cheese (for example, parmesan cheese). 
3. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Blend in flour and salt; cook 1 minute to make a blonde roux. Add milk slowly whisking constantly to prevent lumps.  
4. Increase heat to medium high and whisk constantly until white sauce is thickened.  Add cheeses, cayenne pepper and dry mus­tard. Remove sauce from heat.
5.  Gradually add a small amount (3 tbsp) of hot cheese mixture to egg yolks (this is called “tempering”); stir well; add egg yolk mixture back to cheese sauce in pan. Cover and set aside.
6. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar to stiff peak stage. Gently fold 1/4 into cheese mixture. Add the cheese mixture gently into the bowl with the egg whites and gently fold to combine.
7. Pour into the prepared dish. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.  

I hope you guys enjoy this soufflé. 

Have a safe and happy Halloween! 

How do you celebrate Halloween (if you celebrate it)? 
What's your favorite candy?