Baking and Making

With lots of my time on my hands, I've decided to stop lying in bed all day and do something. What resulted this past Friday was baking. I like having muffins or granola around to munch on but most of the stuff at the supermarket has either things I don't like in them or too many chemicals. I have also been trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup which is in EVERYTHING nowadays. So I figured I would make all that stuff myself. I also decided to do it all in one day.

What I ended up making was granola bars, oatmeal cookies, and bread.

Granola Bars.

These were really easy to make. Greg found an Alton Brown recipe and we used it as our model but added the nuts and dried fruit we liked. It consisted of sunflowers, oatmeal, almonds, wheat germ, hazel nuts, honey, vanilla extract, brown sugar, dried mango, and dried pineapple. First you toast the nuts and wheat germ, then melt the sugar, butter, and honey together, and finally mix everything together and bake for 25 minutes. Wait for them to cool and then cut them up into bars.



Now, we have a snack that we take take anywhere and is much better than store bought granola bars.



Oatmeal Cookies.

On a book spending spree in Barnes and Nobles, Greg and I bought a Test Kitchen cookbook. So far it has not failed us. Each recipe we've made has come out really well, from crispy fried chicken to muffins. The book is great because it also teaches you about the ingredients and rates the cooking supplies.(Yes, I think the Test Kitchen should pay me too!)

So this time, I used the oatmeal cookie recipe. There is a delicate balance with oatmeal cookies. Too many oats and they come out dry and crumbly and too little and they are technically not oatmeal cookies. So, this recipe provided the perfect balance of both. Plus, it called for adding nutmeg instead of cinnamon which was a good move. Fresh ground nutmeg is very fragrant and is a good match for oatmeal cookies.



Bread.

It is a wonder that something we eat every day can be so time consuming and fickle to make. For those reasons, this was the first time I have attempted to make bread. I also used the Test Kitchen book for the recipe. What it involved was a lot of just letting it rise. I used white flour, some whole wheat flour, and toasted wheat germ. Then there were two parts to letting it rise. After that, you bake it with a water filled pan next to it (this makes the outside crunchy), and then take it out and let it cool.



I was so tempted to cut it open right away, but resisted because it would have ruined the shape. In the end, it turned out beautifully. It wasn't too dense and was very tasty. I was impressed. So next time I am going to add some nuts to it and try it again. I am also going to find some rapid rise yeast because that is what the recipe recommends and I think it could make a big difference.



Now that the first bread hurtle has been passed, there are so many opportunities for more! :)

It was a good day of making stuff. I was really glad that everything turned out well. There is something to be said for following the directions exactly, having all the right ingredients, and even the right tools. Here's to bakin'!