Lauren's Pizza Dough

I got this recipe from one of my great friends, Lauren (thus the name). She uses it for both pizza and calzones.

Lauren's Pizza Dough

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 pkg)
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in remaining ingredients and knead until smooth. Let rest 5 minutes. Ready to go! Bake 15-20 minutes at 475 degrees F (or longer at lower temperature, like 30-35 minutes at 375 degrees F).

*******My notes: I usually use instant yeast, so I skip the dissolving the yeast part. This recipe will almost fill a jelly roll pan. Sometimes I add some garlic powder and italian seasonings to the dough to make it extra yummy.     

Birdseed Bread

My family found a birdseed bread that we really love. The only problem is that it is over $5 a loaf at the local farmer's market. I'm all about supporting local small businesses, but I knew that I could probably make bread similar to this for a fraction of the price. Here is what I came up with. It isn't exactly the same as the farmer's market bread, but we are happy with it. We'll just say that we have never eaten homemade bread as fast as the first batch of this was eaten.

Birdseed Bread
Adapted from here and here

2 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup oil
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
2 Tablespoons gluten flour (or vital wheat gluten)
2 Tablespoons instant yeast
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup unsalted raw sunflower seeds
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
2 Tablespoons cornmeal
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds
2 Tablespoons millet
2 Tablespoons amaranth
2 Tablespoons flax seeds
5 1/2 - 6 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1. Combine water, honey, oil, lemon juice, salt, and ginger in bowl of stand mixer. Add ground flaxseed, gluten, yeast, and rolled oats.
2. Add 3 cups flour and mix vigorously with paddle attachment until you can see a little bit of stretch. Add sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, cornmeal, sesame seeds, millet, amaranth, and flax seeds and mix until well incorporated. 
3. Switch to dough hook and add 2 more cups of flour and mix again. Add more flour as needed until dough comes together and clears sides of bowl. Knead about 10 minutes.
4. Transfer to an oiled bowl and cover; let rise until double in size.
5. Punch down and shape into three loaves. Cover with a towel and let rise until double.
6. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake 30-35 minutes; gently remove from pans and let cool on racks.

*****My notes: I haven't needed to use more than 5 cups of flour in this recipe. I'm not sure why, but I think it might be all of the added seeds and grains. If you don't have all of the different seeds and grains, use what you do have. This just happens to be what I have on hand and what I like in my bread. The original recipe for the bread base says to cook the bread in three 8" pans, but only have 9" pans. They worked fine, but the bread was just a little short (we could fit two pieces side by side in one toaster slot).

"Macaroni Grill" Rosemary Bread

My friend brought this bread to dinner at my house one night and I just had to get the recipe. It is supposedly the recipe for the bread you eat at Macaroni Grill. It is SO yummy! I made it to take to a friend's house on Sunday and made an extra loaf for us to keep at home.

Macaroni Grill Rosemary Bread
1 Tablespoon yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 cup hot water
1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups flour
2 Tablespoons rosemary
1 teaspoon salt

Mix first three ingredients and let sit to nice and foamy. Add the rest of the ingredients. Let dough rise in greased bowl til double the size. Roll dough into one large round loaf, or two smaller loaves. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes, or until top is golden brown. When out of the oven, melt butter all over the top and sprinkle with salt.

****Here are my edits. I used SAF yeast, so I didn't let it foam in the sugar water. Just added it to my dry ingredients and it was good to go. I only use half the amount of rosemary. I have made it with the full amount, but I think it is too much. I let my loaves rise again before I cook them. I think it makes them extra fluffy and yummy. The last time I made it I left the extra loaf on the pan to cool (I cooked it on a cookie sheet) and covered it with a towel. Later that night when I went to put it away, the bottom was a little soggy right in the middle. Next time I will leave it on a cooling rack.

This bread is perfect to eat with oil and vinegar, for dipping in chili or soup, or just plain. Enjoy!

100% Whole Wheat Bread

You are probably wondering why I am posting another bread recipe. This one is better than the last one I posted, so I thought I would share. It comes from the blog of a long-time friend, Mrs. Mordecai. This recipe is really easy and super yummy. It is definitely worth a try!

100% Whole Wheat Bread
from Be It Ever So Humble

1 2/3 cups very warm water
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup instant potato flakes
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/3 - 2 cups additional whole wheat flour

Combine first 3 ingredients, then slowly add oil, honey, salt, potato flakes, and lemon juice, mixing as you go. Add remaining flour a little at a time until the texture is right. Knead about 10 minutes (I use my KitchenAid). Shape into two loaves and place in two greased 8" loaf pan. Let rise until double, about 30 minutes. (I put them on top of the stove and preheated the oven at the same time.) In another blog post Mrs. M suggested letting the dough rise for about 30 minutes prior to the loaf shaping and rising step. I tried this (I put the dough in a greased bowl and covered it with a towel) and think it made the bread even softer, although I haven't tried it without the extra rising time so I can't say for sure. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes. Cool on rack. For a softer crust, cover the loaves with a towel as they cool.

Garlic Herb Pizza Dough

I love herb pizza dough. Every time I go to Trader Joe's I get at least one. TJ's pizza dough is so yummy! But since I don't get to TJ's very often I decided it was time to find a recipe to make my own herb dough. After looking at lots of websites that had the same recipe I found this one. It was so easy to make and turned out delicious. I used it for both pepperoni pizza and chicken Alfredo pizza for dinner tonight. We had a friend over for dinner and he seemed to like it, too. Wes couldn't get enough (which doesn't happen very often).

I changed this recipe a little bit because some of it was kind of confusing or didn't make sense, or just sounded weird.

Garlic Herb Pizza Dough
from Homemade Pizza Made Easy

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil (I used canola)
2/3 cup lukewarm water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon active dry yeast (I used SAF instant yeast)
1 Tablespoon fresh garlic cloves, chopped
1 Tablespoon Oregano, fresh, chopped (if using dried herbs, cut amounts in half)
1 Tablespoon Parsley, fresh, chopped
1 Tablespoon Basil, fresh, chopped
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
2 cups bread flour (I used wheat flour)

Dissolve yeast in water. Place flour in bowl of electric mixer. Add dissolved yeast, oil, water, salt, garlic, oregano, parsley, basil, onion powder and black pepper. Using dough hook, mix well at medium-low speed (or follow mixer instructions) until all ingredients are incorporated. Knead for a few more minutes. Dust or oil dough ball and place in a large bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm, draft free area for 1 to 3 hours.

This is where the recipe stops. I spread my dough onto large cookie sheets and covered with my desired toppings. The recipe didn't give cooking directions, so I cooked each of my pizzas at 400 degrees F for about 10-12 minutes. The pizzas turned out great, so I think this temperature was a good choice.

Note: If you are using instant yeast you do not need to dissolve the yeast in the water first. You can add it straight to the flour, mix, and then add the other ingredients as directed.

I doubled the batch and was able to make two nice-sized pizzas that almost filled my large cookie sheets.

Emilie's Whole Wheat Bread

I love homemade bread. I bought a KitchenAid mixer just over a year ago for that reason. I decided I was going to make homemade bread and not buy it from the store any more. That lasted for about 7 months until it got too hot to turn the oven on. I have been trying to get back into the groove since last fall, but the recipe I used (from the KitchenAid users guide) just wasn't what I really wanted. Sure, it was good for toast, but when it left a lot to be desired. Today I was reading a blog called "My Food Storage Deals" and found this recipe. The author of the blog got the recipe from her friend Emilie (thus the name) and posted it for all to enjoy. And I am spreading the joy. And a joy it is. It is the squishiest homemade bread I have ever eaten. I am hooked! Give it a try and see for yourself!


Emilie's Whole Wheat Bread
Makes 4 8x4 loaves

7 C. whole wheat flour (grind your own if you have a wheat grinder)
2/3 C. vital wheat gluten
2 1/2 Tbsp. instant yeast

5 C. steaming hot water (120-130 F)

2 Tbsp. salt
2/3 C. oil
2/3 C. honey or 1 C. sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp. bottled lemon juice

5 C. whole wheat flour

Mix together the first three ingredients in your mixer with a dough hook. Add water all at once and mix for 1 minute; cover and let rest for 10 minutes (this is called sponging). Add salt, oil, honey or sugar, and lemon juice and beat for 1 minute. Add last flour, 1 cup at a time, beating between each cup. Beat for about 6-10 minutes until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This makes very soft dough.

Pre-heat oven for 1 minute to lukewarm and turn off. Turn dough onto oiled counter top; divide, shape into loaves, place in oiled bread pans. Let rise in warm oven for 10-15 minutes until dough reaches top of pan. Do not remove bread from oven; turn oven to 350 F and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on racks. This recipe can be halved to make 2 loaves.

*Emilie only uses Bakers Secret 8x4 inch non stick pans (which can be found at Smith's grocery store).

**Another tip--when the dough is put into the bread pans, squish the dough softly into the corners of your bread loaf pans. This will make your bread cook more evenly and not have the large lump in the middle of your loaf.

Angie's notes:
*I halved the recipe and it turned out fine. My mixer can't handle that much flour at once.
*I used Pyrex 8.5x4.5 inch bread pans and the bread came out of the pan without any problem.
*I tried to squish the dough into the corners of my pans, but I think I squished too hard and one of my loaves has big dents in the top of it.