Homemade Bread, Etsy Purchases and Grandchildren

Hello my friends.  I'm sitting here on a bright, sunny afternoon, enjoying the freshness after our rainstorm on Tuesday.  When it rains, it can pour down here in southern California.  Our pool is filled to the top but luckily it didn't overflow.  I feel so sad for all those people who have lost life or home from the ravages of the floods due to the Thomas Fire (which is about 100 miles north of where I live).  Sometimes, we can take things for granted.  I'm so thankful every day.

Being thankful, I'm so thankful for the many blog friends I have met.  I get so many great ideas from all of you.  It can be books, fiber arts, recipes, gardening or just some great advice now and then.  The other day I was reading Morning's Minion's blog and she had shared her recipe for some wonderful homemade bread.  She's an expert bread baker! I used to bake bread regularly but for the past few years, my yeast baking has consisted of rolls.  Today, I made the bread pictured above.  You can find my recipe at the bottom of this post if you wish to try it.  (I think it didn't proof enough hence the crack in the loaf).

The title of this post today mentions Etsy purchases.  I've finished my latest  needlepoint and I found this much needed little thread catcher on Etsy.  Isn't this just an adorable little fabric bag?  And, it was like $5.00!

I think I shared with you that I joined The Handmade Sock Society and I'm anxiously awaiting for the first pattern release.  I wanted (but didn't need :)) a new sock project bag.  I found this adorable little project bag from this seller on Etsy.  It was a great buy, too!  I used to sew back in the old days.  But, my sewing skills are circa 1970's and it makes me nervous with clipping all those threads, etc.  Hence, my love of knitting/crochet/needlepoint.

 

For the past few months, my dear husband has been having some medical tests are still inconclusive.  On our way home from the doctor on Tuesday, during a torrential downpour, we stopped at Trader Joe's and I just had to buy this colorful cyclamen complete with the flower pot.  I'm wondering if this is a plant and I can keep and have it bloom again?

 

My little granddaughter is here for a couple of nights.  Here she is at her home helping her Mom set the table.  Her older brother (my first grandchild), will join her tomorrow for a fun time with Grandma and Grandpa.  The joys of being a grandparent!

I hope that the New Year is being good to you.  Lilly is doing well and wanted me to send her "meows" to everyone, too!  Until next time . . .

My best wishes,

Pat

Pat's Whole Wheat Bread

2 cups lukewarm water

1 package dry yeast

scant 1/3 cup honey/molasses mixture (you can use all honey if you wish or brown sugar)

2 Tablespoons oil

1/2 Tablespoon salt

3 cups Trader Joe's pastry whole wheat flour*

2 cups all purpose flour*

I used my Kitchenaid mixture to make/knead this dough.  I placed the water in the warmed bowl and added the yeast.  Let it sit about 5 minutes.  Add in honey/molasses mixture, oil, salt and 3 cups of the whole wheat flour.  Start mixer to begin combining the ingredients.  You can give it a good stir with a large wooden spoon.  Add in all purpose flour, gradually, until mixture becomes a ball.  Don't add too much as you want a soft dough.  Knead a few minutes in the machine and then remove beater and cover dough and let it rise for at least one hour.

Punch down dough and divide into four balls of equal size.  Let the balls rest for about 10 minutes.  Grease well two 9 x 5 bread pans.  Shape each ball into a nice ball and place two balls in each pan.  Let rise for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place bread pans in oven and bake for 30 minutes or until they sound "hollow".  Place a clean tea towel on the counter and put a cooling rack on top.  Remove bread from pans onto cooling rack.  Brush tops with butter.  Let cool and then slice or freeze them as you wish.

* I keep my whole wheat flour in the frig to prolong it's life.  But, when I looked at it today, it wasn't fresh so I used instead this Trader Joe's pastry flour.  It worked great as it's just a finer ground whole wheat flour.  In you use regular whole wheat flour, I would use two cups whole wheat to 3 cups of all purpose flour.  It's up to you whether you enjoy a fine textured bread versus a coarse textured bread.

 

  

Pat's Walnut Bread Recipe

Thank you everyone for your kind comments regarding Master Finley and Miss Fiona.  Like many of you, it has been busy around here.  I feel like I'm drowning in paperwork but I will share that scenario with you at another time...

It's been awhile since I posted any recipes.  When I lived in Gig Harbor, Washington, my husband and I used to love to cross over the Narrows Bridge and go to lunch at Metropolitan Market. It is such a unique grocery store with a wonderful deli, wine shop, fresh meats and a very unique bakery.  Every Wednesday they used to get in a fresh supply of Poilane bread flown in from Paris.  And, they also sold such a wonderful walnut bread.  This week I thought about that walnut bread and decided to try and make some myself.  Here's what I came up with...

Pat's Walnut Bread
1 package dry yeast (2 teaspoons)
2 cups lukewarm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup honey
2 1/2 teaspoons natural sea salt
1 cup walnuts (small pieces and roasted in oven for a few minutes)
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 + cups all purpose flour
(cornmeal for baking sheet)

In a large bowl (or mixer bowl) add water and sprinkle yeast on top.  Add the sugar and let sit a couple of minutes for the yeast to dissolve.  Add in oil, honey, salt and whole wheat flour.  Mix together with a spoon.  If you are using your mixer, use the kneading hook and start mixing.  Add in walnuts and gradually start adding the all purpose flour.  Knead (either by hand or with mixer) until mixture starts to hold together and the flour is incorporated.  I used about 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour; you may need to add a little more.  But, don't add too much as you want the dough to be soft.

Shape dough into a ball and put in large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let sit in a warm are for about 1 1/2 hours until doubled in size.

Punch down dough and shape into one large loaf or two small loaves.  Place on a parchment covered baking sheet.  Sprinkler some cornmeal on the parchment paper before placing  dough on tray. Cover lightly with a tea towel or plastic wrap and let rise about 1 hour. 

 Just before the hour is up, preheat oven to 450 degrees and put a small loaf pan on the bottom shelf of the oven.   Slash the loaf with a sharp knife across the top a few times.  Drop ice cubes in the loaf pan to make steam in the oven.  Place bread on oven rack and bake in a 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes and then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 25 minutes or until loaf (loaves) sound hollow when tapped.  Watch the bread during the baking process and if it becomes too brown, place a piece of foil paper over the loaf.  

Here's my bread just after it has risen and the top has been slashed... 

And, here it is hot out of the oven...

I let it cool a little while before slicing into it as I was excited to see how the texture turned out ...

 

I was really quite pleased with the texture of this bread.  I didn't add a whole cup of walnuts and next time I will be sure to do so (hence, you don't see that many walnuts).  It's great toasted  the next day, too.  I served it with with some Ukranian butter that was a gift from my son.  Delicious! 

I'll sign off with this photo of Lilly.  She was so cute last night - I think she was dreaming and was sleeping with her tongue sticking out.  Too bad I wasn't fast enough to take a picture of her.

There are so many things I want to share with you but I'm totally occupied with my "paperwork for my dreaded tax return"...it's that time of year again.  Soon, I will be freed of this burden.  Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.  And, as always, I love to hear from you my dear friends.

My best to you,

Pat

Linking to the following:

Amy's Five on Friday ... 

  

The Pin Junkie Pin Party ...

Rocking Your World Friday ... 

A Stitch in Time ... 

Norwegian Cardamon Rolls

Hello my dear friends....did you think you would see another "sock tutorial"?  Just kidding, thank goodness I have completed the sock tutorial.  Thank you to everyone who followed along and encouraged me along the way.  Today I'm going to share with you a fast, easy, recipe for rolls.

 

Last week I attended my monthly lodge meeting at Daughters of Norway.  It's always a potluck and since we meet early in the morning, I find it's easiest for me to make some type of yeast bread that I can prepare the day before, let rise in the frig and bake the morning before the meeting.  So, here's what I made....

Norwegian Cardamon Rolls
2 cups milk (scalded and cooled)
1/2 cup butter
1 package dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon cardamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
6 to 7 cups all purpose flour

Place milk in pan (or bowl) and heat (or microwave) until milk just boils.  Remove from heat and add in butter.  Let cool until room temperature.

In large bowl, add warm water and sprinkle yeast over water.  Add in 1 Tablespoon sugar.  Let sit for about 5 minutes or until bubbly.

Now add in cooled milk/butter mixture, beaten egg, salt and cardamon, sugar and 2 cups flour.  Stir to mix all ingredients and continue to add remainder of flour as needed until you have a soft dough.  Knead well (I make mine in my Kitchenaid mixer with dough attachment).

Shape dough in a ball and cover with plastic wrap and a towel.  Keep in a warm, draft free place for approximately 1 hour or until dough has doubled.

Punch down dough and shape into golf ball size balls.  Shape into balls and place on a parchment lined (or greased) baking sheet and brush with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 T milk).

Let rise until double and bake in a 375 degree oven for approximately 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

These can be frozen after baking or you can shape the rolls and place them on the baking sheet and put them in the frig overnight and bake the next day.

Serve with creamy butter. You may notice that the color of my dough is a bit darker - that's because I used half white all purpose flour and half Trader Joe's "100% white whole wheat flour"......
Enjoy!

If you are of Scandinavian descent, you might want to check out and see if there's a Daughters of Norway lodge near you.  It's a fun non-profit organization that preserves and promotes Norwegian culture.

It's been a busy month here at Lilly My Cat.  We spent a wonderful time with my dear son. And, my dear daughter and her husband are expecting their second baby!  So, I'm going to be a grandma for the second time.  I'm so excited as is the whole family.  It's going to be a little girl.  I've already ordered some pink yarn to make a sweater for the little one.  My little grandson, Oliver, is so excited to have a little sister.

And, that means Lilly will be an Aunt, again!  Doesn't she look like a real person sitting there? (she's sitting on my  Coast Ripple Blanket but she likes to "wrestle" with it...so I placed a towel on top)

I'm linking up to some great parties this week.  Here they are:
Wordless Wednesday
Oh My Heartsie Girl
Planet Penny

I'd love to hear what you've been up to.  Free free to comment and say "hello".  I will see you again soon.

bye for now,
Pat
   

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Rolls

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM MY HOUSE TO YOURS

I hope you have a wonderful holiday this Thanksgiving Day.  I discovered this great idea from Holly at Beyond Kimchee.  The recipe and directions for making these pumpkin rolls can be found here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pat

Daughters of Norway Lefse Making

I had such a lovely day making lefse with my Daughters of Norway lodge friends.  Lefse is Norway's traditional flatbread.  It is made from potatoes and flour and the dough is baked on a grill.

This is the lefse mix we used.  There's two packets in this box; the first package is instant potatoes.  You take water and shortening and bring it to a boil, remove from heat and add the first package.  Mix well and let it cool overnight in the frig. Then add the second packet (flour).  Mix well and divide into golf ball size pieces.

Here's the necessary equipment for rolling the dough.  It's a cloth covered pastry board and cloth covered rolling pin.  Make sure both surfaces are well dusted with flour.

To insure smooth edges, take the ball of dough and knead in your hand for a few seconds.  Make a small disc shape and lay it on the floured board.

Roll out until thin and desired diameter.  Be sure to roll evenly across the dough so that you don't have thin edges.

More special equipment; a long wooden handled spatula and a very special soft brush made of goat's hair.

Slip the wooden spatula under the dough and place it on the hot lefse grill.  Use the goat hair brush to dust off the excess flour.

Here's a picture of one of the lefse grills...

Bake lefse on grill until the dough starts to bubble.  Then take the wooden spatula and turn over.  Be careful that your grill is not too hot as you don't want it to burn.

Take wooden spatula and remove lefse from grill and place on tea towels and cover with tea towel until lefse is cooled.

Here's a picture of my friend Geri who was  packaging the lefse after it's cooled.

And here's a photo of Astrid and Ardis after a fun day of lefse making. 

 Our group of 9 ladies today made over 200 lefse!  We had a fun filled day.

If you are interested in Daughters of Norway, click  here to see if there's a lodge near you.  We are a very old organization with our roots in America going back over 100 years.

I hope you enjoyed this little insight into one of the rich customs of Norway.

Ha det bra (goodbye),
Pat 

Please stop by Handmade Harbour and meet some lovely crafters!

Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Rolls

Greetings!  I hope that everyone had a joyous 4th of July and if you traveled, you are home safe.   I thought I would have my latest crochet project completed and I could share it with you but that didn't happen.  So instead, here is a repost for my 10 grain roll recipe.  I hope you enjoy making them as much as I do.

In the meantime, I will continue to work on my project and have it ready to share with you next week.  Have a great week!

P.S.  Please remember to stop by Handmade Harbour and see some wonderful creative ideas!

*************************************************************************

Here's the recipe I came up with today.  I got the original inspiration from a recipe I found on the internet.  I tweeked it a bit and it turned out great.

Here is my Recipe for Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Rolls

In small bowl, mix 1 cup of the 10 grain hot cereal with 1 cup boiling water.  Let sit.

In  a large bowl add:

1 cup lukewarm green tea
1 pkg dry yeast
1 T. brown sugar

Mix and let sit for about 5 minutes.  Then add in:

soaked 10 grain cereal
3 T. olive oil
2 T. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
3 1/4 white flour (may need to add more as needed)

Mix well.  I used my mixer with the bread attachment to mix this dough.  It will be sticky.  So, if you are mixing by hand and kneading by hand, make sure the dough is not too stiff but remains sticky.  This is important so that the crumb of the rolls will be moist.

After mixing, cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 1 hour.  After 1 hour, punch down dough and divide into 18 pieces.  Shape each piece into a ball and place in a greased pan.  I used two round pans and  put 7 rolls into each round pan. (the other 3 rolls got baked by themselves!)  Let rise about 30 to 40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 365 degrees and place rolls in middle rack.  Let bake 20 to 25 minutes.  Remove pans from oven and remove rolls from pan and let cool on metal rack.

These are delicious spread with a little butter.  They would also make a nice addition to the Thanksgiving table.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.