Monday, April 20, 2020

Let's BAKE!!!


It seemed like the perfect time to get out my old cookbooks and BAKE! I had to wait on flour first but it was worth it!


(would one of my 4 sons like to confess to coloring the cover of this cookbook with crayons? Email me, or TEXT! lol)


I use King Arthur flour and it's high quality...'wheat flour grown and milled in the United States'! YAY! If you can't find it in your stores, you can order it online. A link to their website is HERE!

They have all kinds of tips and recipes too! Tried and true recipes like the ones I use from my own collection.


When my boys were growing up in the '70s I baked all of our bread. And I baked with whole wheat flour. They had a friend say once that we ate everything whole wheat. We even had whole wheat water! hahaha! We still laugh about that! But we were an active family and stayed healthy!

Bread is not low calorie and homemade bread is even harder to resist so be balanced about it! Exercise to maintain your weight and be sensible with what (and how much) you eat. My weight stays the same now but my husband actually has the problem of being underweight and needs to gain weight. 

So when you bake, enjoy it fresh out of the oven but freeze some for later and share with others. 


The first recipe I made was French bread. It's just a basic French bread recipe that you can find online. (not many ingredients needed to make this bread)


My hubby cut some in cubes and made croutons for our salads. That was amazing!


Then I made Hamburger buns!


Yes my kids grew up eating home made whole wheat hamburger buns! 

'Burger Buns
 1 pkg yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 egg
2 tbsp soft shortening

After you mix ingredients together and knead, place in greased bowl. Cover and let rise for 1 hour. Punch dough down and let rest 10 minutes. Shape dough into 12 balls, place on greased baking sheet and flatten slightly.

Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.


(as you can see, I made a few changes to the recipe)


And oh my, they are delicious! 

Comfort food! What can I say! 
But when life gives you lemons....


(the very first mask I made, don't ask....!!!!
I've made several since this first disaster with success!)

BAKE BREAD!!!


And stay safe and healthy!

I'm joining Angie for Mosaic Monday HERE . 


37 comments:

Tom said...

...I understand that yeast is in short supply. Take care and stay well.

Kelly-Anne ♥ The Diary of a Country Girl said...

Oh, I just love homemade bread! Having a large family with lots of active little children means it is simply easier and more cost-effective to bake your own! {{smiles}} Sounds like you have been very busy in the kitchen...your home must smell heavenly!
Happy Monday...may the week ahead be a blessed one! ♥♥
~Kelly-Anne

Ella said...

I also bake my own bread!
My husband always orders the wheat flour directly from the miller! The bread is delicious without all the chemical stuff that they put in the wheat flour at the supermarket!
Have a great week ahead!

acorn hollow said...

I will have to try the burger buns. King Arthur flour is my favorite also but they have not had flour on their website for weeks. They are trying to get it into the stores first. Sadly no yeast either.
Cathy

Vee said...

Love the mask! It would definitely make a statement. 😷

I am making pizza dough for a pizza lunch.

eileeninmd said...

Hello Diane,

Your homemade bread and buns look delicious. I have to say I have never made bread, I should try the french bread, looks yummy. Thanks for sharing the recipes. Enjoy your day, wishing you a happy healthy new week!

Happy@Home said...

Your sons were blessed with a mom who made whole wheat bread for them. Just yesterday I made a loaf of whole wheat bread with my King Arthur flour. I fear that if I attempted to make a mask it would be a similar experience to your photo :). Glad it worked out in the end.

Creations By Cindy said...

I love using King Author's flour. I have a friend that will not use any other kind. It has never proven me wrong when baking pound cakes. I have been wanting to bake fresh bread. I used to bake it quite often and give as gifts. Thanks for the recipe on the buns too. Hugs and blessings, Cindy

MadSnapper said...

i only cook basic stuff, no baking unless it is frozen and i pop in oven. but if i lived with a baker like you i would weigh 400 pounds in no time.. if it has yeast in it i love it... never had home made burger buns, they look wonderful.. you have so many talents. and ha ha, so do your boys

The Feminine Energy said...

Oh, that bread looks deee-licious!! I ran out of white flour so now I'm digging into my wheat flour stash... and I've got dark red wheat berries to grind into flour too. I have some sprouted spelt flour, which is lighter than whole wheat, but it's hard to make bread from it. The gluten is just not there. I wish I was sitting down with you, for a bun... a hot cup of something or another... and a good long visit. Perhaps someday! :-) Thank you for these wonderful pictures.... especially the one of the colored cover. That is so precious!!!!! Love, Andrea xoxo

carol l mckenna said...

Oh ~great looking cookbook ~ I love the crayon coloring ~ Yea ~

Wow! You are baking delightful breads ~ way to go girl ~ enjoy ^_^

Be Well ~
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

Anne said...

Baking is so much fun and does pass the time away.. I can only imagine how delicious it smells and tastes. Enjoy and be safe.

Pamela M. Steiner said...

Oh, I would LOVE to come sit in your house and just smell the bread baking! I love smelling it almost as much as eating it. I have a bread machine, and I baked some bread a couple of weeks ago to use for our communion service here at home. I need to bake some more. I also use King Arthur flour and keep it in the freezer so it lasts a long time. Your mask looks like something I would do. I made one out of a sock, but I won't wear it...it looks pretty stupid. So I wear a paper surgical mask when I absolutely have to. Not going to say much more about that because I am not a mask fan. Anyway, I didn't know you had four sons! Wow! We have boys in common too...I had three sons. No little girls...is that why you have dolls? That's probably why I do. Since I had no little girls to play with, I decided I'd still like to have dolls to play with. I do hope we can get together one of these days when life is back to some kind of normal and compare notes! LOL. Have a blessed day, and enjoy that bread. Now I'm wanting to go bake some more. Those hamburger buns look wonderful...

Lorrie said...

How wonderful your home would smell after all that bread baking. Like you, I baked most of our bread when my children lived at home. I bake now, but a loaf lasts much, much longer, so I slice it, then freeze it and we take out what we need. Those croutons would be amazing! I could eat them like potato chips.

Estelle's said...

These breads look amazing and I'll bet your home smells heavenly....good for you..what a great inspiration this is!

Jeanie said...

This all looks fabulous! I can imagine your home smelled great. Yesterday (our British TV night) Rick brought over his dough and baked it here and oh, I loved that! (He's done burger rolls too and you never want another kind after that.) I ordered him 15 pounds of King Arthur flour and me five back on April 4 and they are so far behind it hasn't been sent yet. But you're right -- it's the bet flour -- they're just way behind.

Eating well at Diane's!

Anonymous said...

Diane, your bread looks amazing! I made bread years ago and I hope to start again soon. I have found it difficult to find yeast for sale. I did buy some from an Amazon seller that was twice what it used to sell for. There is none to buy online that I've seen other than this one. None in the stores here. I also decided to try to make my own sourdough starter. xo

Lea said...

I used to bake bread using a sourdough starter, but haven't baked any in a long time.
But I have got the urge to bake, so I am making fruit tarts. What we don't eat, I am giving to friends.
Have a wonderful week!

Debbie said...

awwwww, that looks like bobbin trouble, correct me if i am wrong??

i never made bread in the past but wanted to make focaccia bread back in february, before all of this started. i bought yeast (easy to find) and flour to make it, and it came out really good. your bread and hamburger rolls look really good...you were a good momma!!!

BeachGypsy said...

goodness gracious my girlfriend!!!---you can bake bread too?! Dang you are good at so many things. I have never made bread and I just know I would mess it up big time!! ha ha ha LOL And here you are making HOMEMADE buns and everything.....it sure looks good too. I bet it SMELLS AMAZING in your house when you bake breads/buns/etc. Hey, I can make CORNBREAD!!--DOES THAT COUNT? ha ha LOL. I bet I could make good old fashioned corn bread in a big heavy black iron skillet (they would lift the skillet in and out) by the time I was 7---because of my Ma-Maws! LOL We had it DAILY.....fresh and hot, with good homemade butter too. The good ole days.... I remember my grandparents eating corn bread with EVERY MEAL, even breakfast. My Grandpa had a big glass of it crumbled up at night as a before bed snack....with buttermilk on it. They lived long lives, long and healthy. They grew almost all their own food. It was a different era for sure. Hope you've had a very nice Monday my friend! Thanks for reminding me of my old cornbread memories. And your breads truly do look delicious.

HappyK said...

I love any kind of bread!!!
Yeast is one of the things that has disappeared off the shelves here by me!!

Sandy said...

Those burger buns look amazing! I can't bread at night or I will weight an extra 2 pounds in the morning. So... I eat my bread in the mornings when I eat it.
I had to laugh at that picture of the thread for the mask. I might have had an incident similar to that. I have made a ton since, but I offered to make a few for a friend and she was going to pick them up on her lunch hour. I should never ever have put a time limit on something like that. Every problem that could have gone wrong with my machine occurred that morning. I was ready to give and cry before I got them made. I have since done a few each day and have a stash to give away should I have a friend in need.
Now, I am thinking I need to try that burger bun recipe.

Little Wandering Wren said...

You have been busy - this Covid-19 virus seems to have brought out the inner baker in many of us! Loved your comment asking the boys who coloured in your cookbook. I'm so impressed they read your posts! I could spill all our family secrets on my blog and no-one from my family would know lol !!
Happy cooking.
Wren x

Angie said...

Diane - this is quite a change from your regular hiking posts, and I LOVED IT! What a Mom - whole wheat everything! I think you were before your time! I think the carb "dilemma" is interesting. I have never been overweight, and I eat A LOT of carbs. But I also exercise A LOT. My personal theory is that if you start with exercise and then eat carbs, it works. Thanks for linking to Mosaic Monday, my friend!

stardust said...

The vintage bread recipe book looks so nice, I like that less colorful touch. Your breads and buns look so delicious. I can imagine the aroma filling your home. Crouton salad is my favorite, especially with sliced chicken. I used to bake breads when my children were young. I remember placing dough in “katasu” (table with an electric heater attached to the underside of the table) to ferment yeast. My daughter likes to make pizza using bread dough. I’d like to see you wearing your handmade mask someday. Take care.

Yoko

David M. Gascoigne, said...

I do quite a bit of cooking, but my wife is the baker. I will pass this on to her. Yesterday she made banana bread. Seems to me we are doing a little too much baking during this period of confinement. Fortunately we still get out and walk quite a bit.

Suzy said...

I love bread! good homemade bread. If I had a choice between cake or bread...bread would win every time and yours looks deliciously amazing!

Barbara said...

Your bread looks wonderful and I know it tastes fantastic. My bread-baking days came to a halt 6 years ago when a gluten intolerance disrupted things for me. But every once in a while I'll have some.

You are one very talented lady!

Julie's Creative Lifestyle said...

It's seems to be all the rage right now with everyone baking bread. Your bread sounds so good!

Dawn said...

I used to bake a lot of bread when the boys were growing up. I agree that King Arthur is the best if you're going to make your own bread.
Dawn aka Spatulas On Parade

Carla from The River said...

I love croutons. What a great idea to make your own. How silly of me not to have thought to do that. Ha! Yum!

Su-sieee! Mac said...

I may have made my first successful sourdough starter. So far, so good. It smells like a tasty beer. I’ve made tortillas, pizza, and a small oaf of bread with it. At the moment even the online sources are out of organic flour. Try, try again. I do like the exercise of kneading. Cheers, Diane!

Inger said...

What different lives we live, thought I when I read this post. Four boys! You must have been so busy and had so much fun. Love the bread, I feel like I can smell it. And there's no better smell than fresh-baked bread! Lovely post, thank you my friend.

Handmade in Israel said...

Ooh, it all looks amazing! I can just imagine the smell! Your boys were lucky that you were ahead of the time using whole wheat for everything!

Edna B said...

Even I don't make it, I love home made bread. Those photos look so yummy! Enjoy your day, hugs, Edna B.

Danice G said...

I love yeast bread. Thanks for the recipe. 'Not surprised it is hard to find nowadays. Even loaf bead is scarce around here.

Red Rose Alley said...

You have really been baking away. So many bread goodies. The sourdough would taste delicious with a dab of butter. That's a great idea that your husband made croutons for salads. Those buns look good with your pasta dish. I haven't found flour at the stores in awhile. Isn't it strange how some things are limited right now? I wouldn't have thought flour would be one of them. How wonderful that you used to bake bread for your sons growing up. And your old cookbook is a treasure, especially because one of your sons colored on the cover of it. ; )

~Sheri