Baking in the New Year!

From Christmas, full of food, worship, family, cards in the mail, and fun!

To weddings...Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Lynch and to Mr. & Mrs. Kraft!

December was a busy month! I'm ready for another year full of joy. Happy New Year!

I'm starting off 2011 the right way. By baking! I love the way the house smells when you walk in after something was in the oven! Walter likes it so much he started fixing the light switch just so he could stick around longer during his lunch break.

We made a resolution for the new year: no trips to the emergency room. Let's pray we can keep this resolution!!

I tried a new bread recipe this morning called Universal Bread. I can't remember where I copied this from, but credit it due to that author. The recipe is really flexible, allowing the baker to make the bread savory, sweet, or more like your standard sandwich bread.

Garlic-Onion Wheat Bread
Yield: 1 loaf & 6 sandwich rolls


1 cup water
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup clover honey
1/4 cup sugar
1 T granulated sea salt

1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
4 tsp yeast
3 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ

Mix first 8 ingredients. Heat in microwave until warm, about 45 seconds. Add yeast, stir, and let set 5 minutes or until mixture starts to bubble. Add flour, mixing well. Knead on a flour dusted counter until smooth and elastic. Cover and rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. Shape as desired and place in greased pans. Cover and rise until slightly smaller than you want your finished product. Bake at 375. Rolls bake for 20-25 minutes, loaves for 30-35 minutes.

Of course, I couldn't stop with just bread! I found a great recipe for Doughnut Muffins at multiplydelicious.com and had to try them. The only change I made was to substitute coconut oil for the canola oil, which worked well.