The Bread Series: Basic Wholewheat Bread

We're fans of homemade bread around here. Our aim is to always bake our own bread. It's cheaper and what's better than fresh bread with a slab of butter? The answer is nothing. While I don't always have the time, I do love a good homemade bread. I've had a lot of requests for my various recipes so I thought I would share a few of our favorites. These are tried and true and feature regularly in this household. First up is a traditional wholewheat loaf that's simple to make. I'll also be sharing recipes for my mom's famous bread, Phil's artisan crusty bread, and my dad's french bread (which is a great quick bread that I like making for dinner guests).




This bread is the one I bake most often. It's simple to make and doesn't call for any fancy ingredients. I find that it needs to be kneaded fully and it needs to rise longer so that it gets nice and tall. I use a mixture of wholewheat and white flours but you can use whatever flour you like. This bread is a great basic bread, I've adapted it into sweet or savory breads with no problem. Simply add in more sugar for a sweet bread or add in flavors like garlic or tomato paste for a more savory bread.

Traditional Wholewheat Bread

3 cups flour (whatever kind you like)
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp yeast
bread improver (optional, I use 1 tsp)

Mix together in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add:

1 cup water
1 Tbsp olive oil

Mix ingredients then knead for 8-10 minutes. Set the dough in an oiled bowl and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Knock back, shape, leave to rise again until doubled and bake at 180C for 35-40 minutes.

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I knead all my breads with a stand mixer and bake in a preheated oven. Before I got a stand mixer we hand kneaded all our bread with the same results. No fancy equipment needed here!

Homemade Bagel Recipe

I posted this recipe for homemade bagels a few years ago with the promise that I would do it again soon and take better photos. Ahem. So here we are two years later!

Same easy recipe! Sans the cell phone pictures.

This recipe yields 8 large bagels with a soft interior and a thin crunchy outside. Like every good bagel should. TRY THIS RECIPE! My dad taught me how to make these and they are amazing.







Homemade Bagel Recipe

4 cups bread flour
1 Tbls sugar
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 Tlbs vegetable oil
2 tsps instant yeast
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups of warm water

Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl. The dough should feel stiff, but if you can't get all the flour incorporated add the extra bit of water.

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, or until uniform and smooth.

Cut the dough into 8 equal sized balls and rest for 10-20 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 425F or 220C.

Now, we roll the dough into bagel shape, and there are several ways to do this. My favorite is to roll the dough back into a ball and poke through the center. This opens the dough and you can tug the round of dough into the shape of a bagel.
OR
Roll the dough into a a little snake on the counter that is longer than the width of your two hands, then wrap it around your dominant rolling hand. Wrap the dough rope around your hand and squish the overlapping ends together.

Let the bagels-to-be rest on the counter for 20 minutes, grease a large baking tray, and bring a pot of water to boil.

After the bagels have rested they will begin to look puffy and are ready to be boiled. Boil the bagels for a minute on each side, then let them dry out for a minute or two before placing them on the baking tray. Repeat until all the bagels are boiled.

Bake the bagels for 10 minutes, flip the bagels over, and bake for another 10 minutes... and Wah-LAH! Perfection. (This last time I made them I didn't flip them over, just baked for 20 minutes and they were great!)

Let the bagels cool for at least 20 minutes before eating them.


I like them served warm when they're freshly baked or toasted the next day with butter and cream cheese, or with my new favorite, sun dried tomato pesto.

DIY Homemade Baby Wipes

My midwife and every nurse I've seen has asked about how to make our homemade wipes. It's so easy! So much cheaper than store-bought wipes. And so much better for Audrey's skin.

This is how we make ours.












You will need:

1 Roll of paper towels
1 Tablespoon baby shampoo
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 cup of warm water
A round sealable container (large enough to hold a 1/2 roll of paper towels)

This recipe is for one half roll at a time.

-Cut the paper towel roll in half using a sharp knife. I used a bread knife. Place the half roll into your container.
-Mix the olive oil and baby shampoo in the warm water. Stir it quickly to make sure it's nicely mixed.
-Pour the mixture over the paper towels in the container. Let the paper towels rest about 5 minutes to soak up all the liquid.
-When the paper towels have soaked up the liquid remove the cardboard center carefully from the roll. Pull out the paper towels from the center. Your wipes are now ready to use!

We really love these wipes! I really prefer them for Audrey's skin. I find that her skin reacts better to the homemade wipes and her little bum stays soft from the olive oil. I tend to add a little less baby shampoo and a little more olive oil.

I've also used them to remove makeup. They rule.

Enjoy!

xoxo
Talia Christine

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DIY Frozen Burritos

I love food. So with Baby vdW's due date a little less than 4 weeks away I've been making a few extra meals to freeze for after the baby arrives. I'm lucky to have a bit of extra time so why not, right? However, when I stumbled across a recipe for these homemade freezer burritos I knew I had to give it a try. They could not be simpler or quicker to make! Once I had all my ingredients it took less than half an hour to get everything assembled, wrapped up, and put away! Brilliant! Anyone can do these!

This is how I did it but you can customize them any way you like! You can add meat or just stick with a plan bean and cheese burrito. You can make them spicy or keep em mild, just how you like it! What a treat.










According to the original recipe, you can pop these straight in the microwave for a few minutes or heat them up in the oven for 40 minutes and you've instantly got a delicious meal ready to go! I made 12, but only 11 made it to the freezer. They are divine.

Pretty genius, right? Give them a try, you'll thank me later.

xo
Talia Christine

Pickled Jalapenos

Have you ever had a project you were super excited about but really really nervous to start? I felt like that with pickling some jalapenos peppers that grew in our garden this year.

Something you should know, I LOVE jalapenos! Always will. I try and eat them with almost everything.

We grew a bunch of them in our garden this year and I wanted to pickle my own but I had no idea where to start. So I didn't, not for awhile anyway... I let them sit on my counter and taunt me everyday until I built up enough courage to just go for it.

And I did.

And they came out great! At least I think so. They still need to sit and pickle awhile, but at least they aren't taunting me anymore.



Mission accomplished. Fears tackled. I'm feeling pretty proud.

Are there are projects you have planned that are intimidating you?


xoxo
Talia Christine

Because you asked so nicely

Yesterday I made some homemade bagels and got a few requests for the recipe! There is nothing quite like a fresh bagel still warm and toasty from the oven.



They were so so so SO good and really easy to make! I got the recipe from my Dad while I was visiting Texas last month. We had a "Bagel Date" and spent the evening making bagels. It was beautiful. And delicious.

It's a simple recipe to follow and you can do it too! Next time I make a batch, I promise to take step by step photos so you can follow along.

Homemade Bagel Recipe

4 cups bread flour
1 Tbls sugar
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 Tlbs vegetable oil
2 tsps instant yeast
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups of warm water

Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl. The dough should feel stiff, but if you can't get all the flour incorporated add the extra bit of water.

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, or until uniform and smooth.

Cut the dough into 8 equal sized balls and rest for 10-20 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Now, we roll the dough into bagel shape, and there are several ways to do this. My favorite is to roll the dough back into a ball and poke through the center. This opens the dough and you can tug the round of dough into the shape of a bagel.
OR
Roll the dough into a a little snake on the counter that is longer than the width of your two hands, then wrap it around your dominant rolling hand. Wrap the dough rope around your hand and squish the overlapping ends together.

Let the bagels-to-be rest on the counter for 20 minutes, grease a large baking tray, and bring a pot of water to boil.

After the bagels have rested they will begin to look puffy and are ready to be boiled. Boil the bagels for a minute on each side, then let them dry out for a minute or two before placing them on the baking tray. Repeat until all the bagels are boiled.

Bake the bagels for 10 minutes, flip the bagels over, and bake for another 10 minutes... and Wah-LAH! Perfection.

Let the bagels cool for at least 20 minutes before eating them.


...though admittedly, yesterday I only waited 10. I couldn't help myself.

xoxo
Talia Christine

A Busy Bee and Rotten Apples

This Saturday was rainy. Really really rainy. So we did what any sane people would do. We went out into the rain to pick mostly rotten apples from an orchard that is going to be torn down soon.

We put on our raincoats and gumboots and made our way into the orchard to find half decent apples to salvage. Literally, they were only half decent as they were mostly half frost bitten and rotting. The parts that were good though, are really reeaaaally good. Since they have been on the tree this whole time, they are wonderfully incredibly sweet.



We brought back pounds and pounds of apples. We have been chopping, and peeling, and cutting away, and salvaging apples since then.




Ta-Da! Clean apples!

We have preserved apples, stewed them, made apple sauce out of them, and plan to make apple jam. It's amazing! We have gained and made so much out of something that was left to rot and be thrown away! Oh and it was all free. That's incredible too.




Aside from dealing with literal small mountains of apples... we have been up to a number of other things! Me and the Mister made homemade whole wheat pasta for a lasagna. Oh man. Talk about yum.




Oh. And I'm knitting work socks for my Mr. van der Wel. I only have one done right now. I'll hopefully begin the second one today.




This busy bee seriously needs a nap.

xoxo
Talia Christine

On Making Kiwifruit Jam

Before you freak out, I have to get this off my chest:

I don't really care for kiwifruit.

It's too acidic. It hurts my tongue. For that matter, I don't really care for pineapple either, but what do I know? However, what I do love are jams and preserves. Mmmm! Nothing beats a warm piece of buttered toast with homemade jam. C'mon. Give me a break, that's soooo good!




A few days ago, Phil brought home an entire gigantic boxful of kiwifruit that he gathered from around the orchard. It's a big box. I can't lift it; but that's not saying much either. We all know it, I'm puny when it comes to lifting. Either way, it IS a ton of kiwifruit that we wouldn't be able to consume any time soon.

The way I see it, there's only one solution:
Homemade jam. Yummy, gooey, tart, and sweet... homemade jam.


I set off peeling a small mountain of kiwifruit armed with determination and a small, not-the-sharpest hand knife. As I stood there, peeling 3 lbs of kiwifruit, I learned a few things...

1. Not all kiwifruit are equal. Some are harder to peel than others. Some, in fact, were very very hard. Whether they were on the vine too long or not ripe enough, I'm not sure. I'm no kiwifruit expert, but I was certain I would lose a finger at some point.

Rest assured. I have all my digits intact.



2. Peeling 3 lbs of kiwifruit is not as fun or romantic as you might imagine. Sure it seemed like a genius idea at the time, but after awhile of tearing away at the kiwifruit mini-mountain and you see little progress you might begin to get disheartened. But, I prevailed with sheer determination (or madness) and made it through. It took ages, I won't lie.



3.Did I mention that kiwifruit are very acidic? Kiwifruit can work as a meat tenderizer. It also worked very well tenderizing my hands. I'm still not sure whether this was a good or bad thing.


Sure, there are easier ways of acquiring jam for your pantry, like the local grocery store for instance, but if you are willing to go the extra mile making your own cannot be beat!!



It turned out pretty good! Amazing in fact. I love this jam. I don't think this will stick around long, and after that I will just have to make some more. Believe me, it's worth it.

xoxo
Talia Christine