Oatmeal Sandwich Bread Pt 2

Last May, I made my first yeast bread without the use of a bread machine. I semi-followed a recipe from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. I made a flour substitution and I don't think I used the right molasses. It tasted delicious, but would not slice we'll. It was great for snacking and making french toast, but was not good for sandwiches.  Last weekend I made the bread again for the first time in a while, following the recipe to the tee. It was oatmeal sandwich bread, and it was delicious. It cut fairly well, made good sandwiches, made good toast, and made good french toast.

With that success, I decided to get back on the wagon of baking all of my bread products again (at least for now). It may be time consuming, but it is always worth it. The weekend is the prime time to do this type of work. With rising and resting times it can seem like it will take forever, but it is a great activity for a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning. While my Sunday today wasn't that lazy, I still baked a loaf of bread. I found I went through the last loaf a little too quickly, so I decided to make the loaf smaller and make some other items with the dough. So, after the first rise I split the dough in half, baking the first half as a loaf, and the other half into 8 cute little buns.

 

After slicing the bread, I pop it in the freezer and it stays fresh for the week. I hope I can keep up this weekend 'ritual'. I would love to share the recipe for this bread, but there are a couple things holding me back. 1. I feel bad posting a recipe I have not altered one bit, which is found in print only, and 2. The written directions are far too long to type. One part moral, one part lazy.

Bread wasn't the only 'bread product' I made today. I'll give you a hint, it normally has a really long ingredient list, I have been wanting to make them forever, and I have even tried a chickpea flour variety. If you guessed wheat tortillas, you are right! They were amazing so stay tuned for the recipe!

Dutch Pancakes

Breakfast is my favourite meal, yet I tend not to include too many breakfast recipes around here. It is most likely because unless it is the weekend, I don't have time to try a new recipe or take pictures of the finished product. Last weekend I managed to make something new. When I say something new, I mean that I had never made these before, but I have eaten them once, quite a while ago.

Last year we had an exchange student spend 8 months at our school. His name was Bas, and he was dutch.  He always talked of these dutch pancakes. Finally he got the recipe from his family back home, and made them for my roommates one evening. It is a very basic pancake recipe which can be adorned with all type of toppings or fillings. I chose peanut butter of course.

They were dense and thinner than regular pancakes and I really enjoyed them. I asked for the recipe, and received this email from the Bas man:

Dutch Pancakes

--email quote begins--

- 500 gram (2,5 cups) of flour

- 750 ml Milk

- 4 eggs

- spoon of corn oil

Mix this together till the batter is smooth, and fry the pancakes in a frying pan with a little piece of butter (or you can use that stupid oil-spray if you like). Wait till the batter is allmost dried up, and than flip the pancake. Let the other side fry a little while and then the pancake is ready, keep it warm.

Pancake options:

- plain (serve syrup en powder sugar)

- apple (put slices of apple in the batter when it's wet)

- bacon ( cook slices of bacon and put them in the batter when it's wet)

- cheese (put them on 1 side of the pancake when the batter is almost dried up, then flip the other half over the cheese half)

- raisins/blueberries/other stuff like that

- spinach (only eaten by veggie-freaks. Highly unrecommended by Old Dutch Pancake Guru's, since it severely damages the taste of the pancake)

--email quote ends--

I know, the picture does nothing for those pancakes, but I hate leaving out a visual.

The last pancake option listed in the recipe was definitely a jab at my roommate Jenna's "veggie freakiness" where she added spinach to the cakes. Don't worry Bas, I would never add spinach to these.

However, I did add syrup on one, and peanut butter and banana on another. I think I would also try goat cheese next time.

While I have not posted much in the last month, I have actually come across some great recipes. I have been fairly busy, but I am hoping to be able to share them with you soon.

Is it too soon for me to say: 2 months until Christmas!