Bread Variations

Cinnamon Swirl
So some of you know that we do cinnamon swirl bread...I'm sure that name has been patented somewhere. Well anyway if you want to do it yourself here's what we do:
To make it eligible for the toaster and slicing friendly it means it has to be less gooey, but you can go more gooey if you want to.
After the third roll out I put about 1/4 c. to 1/3 c. packed brown sugar and spread it around. Then I sprinkle the cinnamon on. I don't measure the cinnamon, but I usually make sure I've covered it with a light dusting. If you are doing nuts or raisins this would be the time to add them. I find it tastes fabulous with pecans. Then I roll it up and put the seam side down in a greased pan. I'll also mark it with a nut or a sprinkle of cinnamon on top to be able to distinguish what it is for storage in the freezer.
When I worked at Great Harvest we would use butter and a lot more sugar. While this is closer to the cinnamon roll, it is a horrible mess to cut and insanely gooey. My recipe can be used as french toast much easier than the gooey can. It is really yummy toasted and buttered. If you are going to go gooey make sure you fold the sides over at least 2 inches so that when you roll it up the ooziness doesn't ooze out. When you de-pan it it will likely fall a bit too which is normal. Make sure that you cook it a little longer as well depending on how much butter and extra sugar you use.

Pizza Bread
So if you are going to make this you need to make a few changes to the basic bread recipe. I didn't measure the changes exactly, but here's my 'suggestions'. Decrease honey by at least 1-2 oz. Try some oregano or pizza seasonings in the dough...about a tablespoon. Try some tomato sauce and decrease your water a bit or fresh diced tomatoes without the skins. Whatever you decide to do to the basic dough it should at least start with the decreased sweetness factor. Then after you roll the dough out for the third time, spread your sauce. I found that about 1/2 c. to 3/4 c. works well (it depends on how thin you rolled it out). Leave about a 2 inches border without sauce. Put any ingredients you want then in it. If using pepperoni you will want to cook a little of the grease out first. I find that placing the pepperoni between napkins/paper towels and microwaving it for about 10-15 seconds works perfectly. Then when all 'toppings' are on you will need to fold the edges in about 2 inches and then roll tightly up. Try to really make a good seam seal at the end. You may need to leave 3 inches at the top without sauce on it to be able to accomplish this. Then place in a greased pan seam side down. It is really yummy, but honestly it doesn't store well so plan on eating this the same day it is made.

Please if you have more variations that you'd like to share please e-mail me and I'll post them on the page for you. I would love to get other's ideas, which is why I'm posting mine.

Bread Bags

The question of Bread Bags and where to find them:
I have now had a couple of people be able to find affordable bags that are narrow and long enough sold at Safeway and King Soopers so I would go there if you can. I believe that will be the most economical choice unless you live near "Kitchen Kneads" in Ogden or Logan, UT. Try reusing tortilla bags as well...I have found that they are just barely long enough.

Rolling up the dough: Roll with fingertips up. Do not curl your fingers into it--this creates air pockets.

Spray your pan with canola oil. Get the cheap pans by "Bakers Secret" that are 8 1/2x 4 1/2x 4. they are the perfect size for the toaster and sandwiches. They are also the cheapest around.

Start your oven when your bread is about 1/4 of an inch above and by the time your oven is ready they'll be up to an inch above like the picture. It is important you don't let them rise anymore because too many gas bubbles will form and your bread will become too weak.

The Recipe

By Weight:
Water 3 lb. 4 1/2 oz (warm)
Yeast 2 T.
Canola Oil 4 1/2 oz.
Honey 8 oz.
Gluten 3 1/2 oz.
Salt 1 T.
W.W. flour 4 lb. 1 oz.
flax seed 1/2 cup (optional) If you don't use flax seed you'll want to increase flour by about 1/2 c. I made all my weight measurements with the flax seed included.

By volume:
Water 6 1/2 c. (warm)
Yeast 2 T.
Canola Oil 2/3 c.
Honey 2/3 c.
Gluten 1/3 c.
Salt 1 T.
W.W. flour 13 cups

For two loaves in a Kitchen Aid (this is going to look like a joke, but it's not. It's the less complicated way of doing it):

2 1/2 c. warm water

1T yeast
1/3 c. canola oil

1/3 c. honey

1/3 c. gluten

1 3/4t. salt

5 1/3-6 cups whole wheat flour depending on how packed your flour is. At first put no more than 5 in and add little by little from then on. Let it mix in for a minute and then see if you need to add more. The kitchen aid is an inefficient bread mixer so it takes it a little longer to mix things in thoroughly.

You can tweek this recipe as much as you want. I often do a little less oil and it works out great. Just know that the wheat and the water should not be messed with too much. Do not use flour when rolling out the dough. Use Oil or a silicone mat. Whole wheat dough is stickier than white flour dough and so it takes a few times to get used to how it will feel when it is the right consistency. You can do without the wheat gluten, but it is not a good idea because your bread will hold together so much better with it. The difference between w.w. flour and w. flour is that you have more gluten in the bran in the wwflour, but it can't be developed in order for your bread to hold together and be soft like the white flour does. So the answer is to add the gluten. If you want to read more about what wheat gluten is go here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_gluten_(food)
It is very healthy and so worthwhile.
Mix the ingreadients on speed 2 for 8 min of the Bosch or med speed for 10 min. in a KitchenAid (half the recipe). Immediately split the dough into 5 piles for (8 1/2 x 4 1/2 pansize). Or two if doing the KitchenAid recipe. Weighing these blobs is about 1 lb 9 1/2 oz. I have a little left over or I take a little from the five and make a little loaf in a mini tin for the kids (they love it). Roll the dough out and fold into thirds, rotate, roll out and fold into thirds, rotate, roll out and then roll up and place in greased pan seam side down. (The pictures above show this step) Cover with plastic wrap or towel (I prefer plastic wrap because ww bread loses moisture fast). Let rise until the crest of the dough is 1 inch above edge of pan. For the Kitchen Aidd recipe you'll have a slightly heavier loaf mostly because you don't make a little loaf. When I weight that one it is roughly 1 lb. 10 1/2 oz to 1 lb. 11 oz.

Here in Denver (higher than average elevation) I cook the dough at 400 for 14 min. and then reduce the temp to 350 and cook for another 14 min. Stoves sometimes vary on their exact temp so if you find yours does not turn out cooked enough or too done play around with the temp first and then the time. If you are at a lower elevation you may need to cook it for a minute or two longer at each temp. When done let cool on racks completely before putting in bags. Do not butter the tops of the breads or the bags you use will not be able to be used again....butter goes rancid. I've learned this the hard way. You can only use your bags so many times anyway and by not buttering them then you can reuse them that much more.

Why make bread versus buying?

It's cheaper and can be healthier of course :)

If you eat through 5 loaves a week, which we almost do (more like every 10 days) then you are spending about $180-260 a year on your own bread and about 540-780 on $3/loaf bread bought from the store. So depending on how much you eat you'll save somewhere between 360 and 540 a year by making your own.

Prices being at their highest (but still being the cheapest around) and taking into account energy prices you're looking at just under $1/loaf if you make it yourself.
Honey, yeast and oil are cheapest at Costco, however the LDS Cannery sells their honey for the same price. It is good when you can get it less than $1.70/lb for honey and oil for under $9/5qts. Wheat is cheapest at the cannery by a considerable margin being of recent date about $6.75/25lbs for the HARD RED WHEAT. Hard White Wheat is a little more expensive. Wheat Gluten can be purchased at any store in the baking section by "Bob's Red Mill" ($5/lb) however it is cheapest when bought in bulk. Share a 25lb bag from Whole Foods and it will only cost you around $3.05/lb.

The equipment that I prefer to use is an investment and can be financially daunting at first. However if you do the math then you will see that it does pay off very quickly. I would reccomend:
Bosch Mixer for mixing the dough (you can use a KitchenAid, but it is harder on the motor and it can handle about half the dough that the Bosch can so you're making the bread more often)
Wheat Grinder for grinding your own wheat
Coffee Grinder for grinding your flax see or anything else you want to add to it
Kitchen Scale for weighing the ingredients because the weight of dough is much more accurate and in whole wheat flour the volume can really change depending on if it is freshly ground or ground a while ago.
The Bosch is $399.99 http://kodiakhealth.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/3939 is a great place to buy it, but as long as a site offers free shipping you'll be just fine.
Wheat Grinder can range from $150 on up. Many models are quite good it just depends on the level of noise and the amount of grain you want to grind at once without stopping.
Coffee Grinder can be found from $10-$15 for the basic kind, which is all you would need. I found a great cheap one from ACE.
Kitchen Scale must be able to handle at least 10 lbs. I've seen these from $30 on up. There are a lot of great brands, but I really like my 'Salter' scale.
You'll have to do the math based on how much bread you go through in your family, but for our family of 5 (4 eaters) we would have broken even within the second year. Although I have to admit I would have probably been more likely to buy the cheaper/cardboard bread sold in the stores then the tastier $3/loaf bread.