Whole Wheat Cinnamon Bread

So I was in the mood for bread making this evening and the only bread flour I had on hand was my King Arthur Whole Wheat flour, so I felt like my options were limited. I went through some blogs and found a recipe I wanted to try from fake ginger and went ahead with my wheat flour. I decided on cinnamon wheat bread, hoping for the best but honestly expecting the worst.

You know what though? It was pretty fantastic. Like, more than fantastic, it was down right great. Here are the pictures I took right after removing it from the pan:Isn't that a beautiful loaf? I thought so. I was so impressed with it. Notice my awesome salt dish that is actually a small Halloween candy dish. I wanted to be like the food network people with their salt cups instead of using a shaker.


This. This was great. The bread was super moist and the cinnamon and sugar was melty and oh so good. I should have waited a few more minutes to cut the loaf, but you get the idea. It was good. We have already eaten about half the loaf.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Bread
1 packet active rise yeast
2tbs warm water
1/2 c warm milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tbs soften butter
2tbs sugar
2.5 c whole wheat flour plus 1 or 2 tbs more

Filling
2 tbs melted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar (packed)
1tbs cinnamon

Prep your yeast in the warm water. Mix all wet ingredients, the butter, then add the yeast, then in half cup increments add the flour. After 2.5 cups is added, add the salt. Knead the bread for 5 min with your mixer adding just enough flour, if needed, so the dough separates from the bowl. I imagine this process is a little longer if kneading by hand.

Once your dough is kneaded, remove from the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. It will be sticky until you sprinkle flour all over it. Roll it out until it's roughly the size of a piece of paper, then brush with the butter and cover with the brown sugar mixture. Roll it up tightly and pinch the ends slightly, then place seam side down in a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise an hour or so in a warm place so it doubles in size. I turn my oven on so it's warm. Once it's risen, put in 350 degree oven for 25 min. If it's not yet golden on top, the recipe calls for you to cover with aluminum foil for an additional 5-10min. Remove and cool on rack.

Then enjoy!

I'm back!

So, now that I'm still unemployed (hopefully not too much longer) and have internet, I have been cooking more. I made this pretty wonderful lemon pasta dish that I want to share and is taken from pioneer woman. I tweaked it only mildly.

1lb of thin spaghetti
2-3 lemons (one lemon zested)
parsley
2c sour cream (can use light)
4tbs margarine or butter
2tbs olive oil
4 garlic cloves
parmesan cheese

Boil and drain the pasta until you reach desired consistency. Run cool water over it until it's cold. In a skillet over LOW!!! heat, melt butter and add olive oil. Crush and dice garlic cloves and add to oil. Cook 1-2 min, add lemon juice of one lemon, turn heat off then add sour cream and mix well. Add salt to taste and the lemon zest and stir.

From here you could have a cold pasta by mixing the pasta, sour cream sauce then adding more lemon juice and parsley and put it in the fridge. What's nice for when it's cold is mix the pasta and sour cream, add half the bag of parmesan, cover with foil and bake for 15-20 min. Take it out, add the rest of the cheese, the lemon juice and chopped parsley , mix and serve.

It's so good. I ate it for dinner, lunch the next day, then snacked on it in between meals too. I highly, highly recommend.

ALSO NEWSFLASH: I fell back in love with bread making. I made whole wheat bread and it was oh so good. Once I find my stupid camera cord, I'll post pictures again.