Adding Ground Flax to Bulk Your Bread!

About 6 months ago I attempted making healthy whole wheat bread by hand. My first try didn't go so well but after that I must have gotten the hang of it because ever since I feel like each new loaf is an improvement on the last! You can find my original recipe and bread endeavors HERE.  

One of the things that I find essential is adding honey. It gives the bread a little sweetness that goes perfectly with a sandwich or toast or anything! Lately I've also been adding a bunch of ground flax seeds.

The dough is brown because I always use whole wheat flour. If you look close you can see some of the ground flax. 

Here's a better view. I didn't add all that much the first time because I was afraid it would be too noticeable but it's not at all! 

My first loaves with added ground flax were so perfect and delicious! 

Baked to perfection! Golden brown in all the right places! These loaves don't look all that big but I think the flax actually makes them larger too!

Now I dump a lot of flax into the dough. Probably 1/2 a cup? Not sure. I just pour. 

If you make your own bread, I would recommend adding ground flax because it's so healthy for you but your family probably won't even notice it's there! Flax seeds are rich in fiber and omega-3 fatty acids and they're low in carbs! You can't go wrong adding them! You can find ground flax just about anywhere these days. I actually got mine from Big Lots believe it or not! It was Bob's Red Mill ground flax and it was about half of what it normally costs. What a score! Plus it was a huge bag that is lasting me forever! 

I have whole flax seeds as well but I feel like ground flax is easier to add into foods without people being like, "Eww what's this???" I like to be sneaky when I add in healthy foods. Hehe. What they don't know, helps them! I think next time I'll use ground flax and then a small handful of whole flax seeds as well. Ooh maybe I'll buy some oats and make my own honey oat nut bread! Mmm!

How do you use flax seeds? Do you prefer whole or ground? Also, did you catch my two accidental rhymes? I should be a poet! Not. 

Till next time,

Catherine

Bake: No Knead Whole Wheat Amish Cinnamon Bread

How's that for some mouth watering deliciousness??? 

That, my friends, is an amazing recipe I found on Redfly Creations for an alternative to the classic Amish cinnamon bread. You should definitely check out her blog because it's chock full of good stuff! Everything from this Amish Cinnamon Bread to pasta sauce to handy pre-made baking mixes and more! 

I altered her recipe by using whole wheat flour and less sugar but it was still really yummy!! Definitely a semi-healthy little "sweet treat" at night after dinner. Or...ya know...anytime. 

Ingredients (Makes two loaves):

Batter: 

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups raw unbleached sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk or 2 cups milk plus 2 Tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
• 4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda 

Also, you'll need: 

• 2/3 cup raw sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

This will be for the middle layer/topping. 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350º.

Mix your wet ingredients with the sugar till you get  a nice creamy mixture. 

Creamy!

Now add your flour and baking soda. 

Mix well. It will be more of a batter than a dough.

Distribute about 1/2-3/4 of the batter between the two pans. It may sound odd but you want to add the other 1/2-1/4 of the batter on top in a minute. 

Stir together your cinnamon and sugar mixture. 

Sprinkle about 1/2 of the mixture between the two pans.

Now spread the rest of the batter on top! Make sense now?

Now pour the rest of the cinnamon-sugar mixture on top of the batter in each pan.

Take a butter knife and stick it into the batter about an inch or so and swirl the batter around. This will help the top have more texture and the inside to be marbled. 

Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool, and enjoy!!

It was so hard to wait!

Baked to perfection! 

Slices of heaven.

Drool worthy indeed.

Eat it warm, cold, warm with butter, cold with butter, early morning, late night, any time, any way this is so good! 

We had a friend visiting for the weekend when I made this and it went so fast! Boy am I glad I tossed the other loaf in the freezer before it was gone too!

Next I want to try The Pioneer Woman's method! 

I've linked up over at Nourishing Treasures for Wellness Wednesday! Check it out HERE! 

What's your favorite way to make cinnamon bread? 

Till next time,

Catherine

Saturdays

I value Saturdays more than I think I ever have. When my husband isn't working out of town and we're not visiting Richmond, it's so nice to just have the day to do whatever we want.

Today we slept in (always nice) and then headed to the downtown Lynchburg Community Market for their Mistletoe Market where the focus is on Christmas. There was a trolly going around the city and two beautiful horse drawn carriages giving free rides around the block. There were lots of friendly people picking up locally grown and handmade goods. I even saw face painting and balloon animals for children and of course Santa and Mrs. Clause were sitting for pictures. It was just a lovely day. The weather was amazing as well, t-shirt weather in December!

As many tempting items as there are to see, we only bought a quart sized jar of honey. Yeah, I know, that is a LOT of honey! The last time I bought honey it was only 16oz and it got used up really fast since I made several loaves of honey wheat bread and so many of those delicious dinner rolls. around Thanksgiving. I was really tempted by the beautiful handmade live wreaths and really beautifully decorated topiaries. They're doing Mistletoe Market again next week so hopefully we'll check it out again.

After the market we just walked around downtown and checked out some local shops. Antique malls, furniture stores, camera shops...wherever we decided to step into. It was a really nice, relaxing afternoon.

This was in one really nice antique shop we went into. It's Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara!

We even found a newly opened natural food store!! I am beyond excited! It reminds me soo much of the one where I used to work. It's right on Main Street in downtown Lynchburg, called Hanna's Health.   They just opened in September but they've got a little bit of everything! We didn't buy anything today but I'll be back! I kept making mental notes of everything they had so I know for next time I need to go grocery shopping. They also had lots of bulk products as well. The owner even said she'd order my favorite Organic Fiji lotion for me! If you've been looking for a natural food store in Lynchburg, go check out Hanna's Health!

Once we left downtown, we had a few errands to run but it was still a fun time with my husband. We finished a little Christmas shopping and by the early evening we were getting hungry and we noticed a little place called The Spot. We decided to check it out and it was delicious! It appeared to be owned by a family and they were all so nice and friendly...it was a wonderful atmosphere. They have salads, sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, and even wings. I got a grilled chicken sandwich and my husband got a burger....both delicious! Our food was cooked right away and didn't take long at all. The owners always had smiles on their faces! We'll definitely be eating there again! If you're in Lynchburg, I highly recommend you check it out! They've only been open for about a month so go show 'em some love! You won't be disappointed, I promise!

We also stopped by a thrift store on the way home and got my husband some nice dress shirts for about $3 a piece...you know I love a good deal!

All in all it was a lovely day and now we're just relaxing at home. Ahh...it's the life :) Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend as I am.

What did you do for your weekend? Was it full of Christmas shopping or relaxing?

Till next time,
Catherine

Bake: Delicious Homemade Bread

So since attempting to make my own bread a couple of weeks ago, I have fallen in love with it! My first loaf did not go well! It was quite sad actually. It tasted good but it was so dense that it was very unappealing! As you can see...it was...flat. It was supposed to be a rosemary olive oil bread.

I was quite disappointed but I kept trying! My next loaf was just right! I was absolutely thrilled.

 Since then I have made about another 8 loaves. My husband and I are going back to Hanover (North of Richmond, VA) where our families live this weekend so I thought I'd bake them extra bread. So far I've made two honey wheat loaves, another two loaves worth of dough are rising for cinnamon wheat bread, and I will make one more whole wheat loaf when the next two are done.

Very quickly I will try and give you all the baking instructions for making your own bread! It's totally worth it and it's a zillion times healthier for you than store bought bread with God knows what in it!

The initial recipe I started with was from one of my favorite blogs, FabuLESSly Frugal. These gals have so much knowledge and are such a help! The recipe is found here. I didn't go by the recipe exactly, simply because I didn't have all of the ingredients! Here's what I did. If it worked for me, it should work for you!

Ingredients (for 1 loaf of bread):

• 1 1/4 cup of warm water
• 1 Tbsp (or 1 packet) of active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (they note that brown sugar freezes better than using honey)
• 2 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour 
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp butter

Ingredients (for 2 loaves of bread):

• 2 1/2 cups of warm water
• 2 Tbsp active dry yeast
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 5-51/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp butter

UPDATE: I also add about two big spoonfuls of honey and maybe 1/4-1/3 cup (I don't measure) of ground flax seeds. The honey adds a lovely hint of sweet and the ground flax adds a boost of fiber!)

What you'll need:

• Big mixing bowl
• Olive oil or baking spray
• Big spoon (I use a wooden spoon)
• Bread pan
• Measuring cups and spoons
• A clean dish towel or saran wrap
• A sheet of aluminum foil

Directions:

Mix the warm water, yeast, and brown sugar together in a large bowl and let it sit (proof) for 10 minutes. This is necessary for the yeast to activate. Make sure that your water is warm to the touch, but not hot.

After the 10 minutes are up, add in the flour, salt, and butter. Mix until a nice dough forms. Once it's all formed together, sprinkle flour onto your kneading surface and then place the dough on top. Knead the dough for about 10-15 minutes. It's a great arm work out! Continue to add flour as you feel necessary until the dough is not quite sticky anymore. Form into a ball and put into a greased bowl, covered with a towel or saran wrap for about 1-1 1/2 hours or until the dough has double in size.

After about an hour or so, it should look more like this. Sorry there's no before picture to show the previous size of the dough.

Once the dough has double, punch it down and roll it out into a rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick. Roll it up, and pinch/seal off the sides and place it into the bread pan. Cover again and let it rise to double, usually about 30 minutes. Once it's done rising, place it into the oven at 375 degrees and bake for about 20-30 minutes. On FabuLESSly Frugal they recommend placing a sheet of aluminum foil, shiny side out, on top of the loaf after about 10 minutes to keep the outside from browning too much. You may or may not have to do this step.

The picture is of a cinnamon sugar loaf that my husband had the grand idea for! For this one, just sprinkle cinnamon to cover the flattened dough, and then sugar. I used about 4-5 Tbs of raw sugar and it tasted great to me, but of course you can add your own to taste! I plan to try it with raisins next!

After you've followed all these steps (so simple!) then you should get a beautiful, delicious loaf of bread like these!

These two are honey wheat loaves. Yummm.

And this is what my cinnamon loaf turned out to be! It was heavenly, especially right out of the oven!!

This is a plain whole wheat loaf of bread, but I got "creative" and cut some slits in the dough before putting it in the oven. I think it looks so cool! Like it's fresh from a real bakery!

UPDATE: I've actually decided to always cut the slits in the dough when it's a honey wheat loaf so that I don't get it mixed up if I'm baking different kinds together.

As you can tell, I love baking bread! It's so much fun and I can't wait to try all sorts of new types of bread! What kinds of bread have you made? What's your favorite recipe? Send them my way and I'll try to bake them too!

Carb overload on it's way to my house? Eh, who cares! It's healthy and delicious!!

Do you prefer to bake your own bread or buy from the store? What's your favorite recipe or brand?

Till next time,
Catherine


I've linked up to Less Laundry, More Linking #4 with Life After Laundry and Sensational Creations!