Now theres something excellent about making your own bread, and if you've never done it I suggest you try at least once or twice. Baking bread is so relaxing, its a fabulous contrast to say, cooking dinner for 3. Dinner usually involves multiple skillets and 3 to 10 things happening at once - add the butter, sprinkle with salt, turn the heat down on that one, thats too think now, thin it out, the meats not cooked through, etc. - whereas baking bread is downright leisurely. This particular wheat bread involved scalding milk and then stirring in butter, honey, and salt in a saucepan, then waiting for it to cool. Mix the yeast with warm water and then wait a few minutes for it to activate. Add the yeast to the cooled milk mixture and then add milled flax and flour until the dough reaches the correct consistency and then knead for 10 minutes or so. Kneading in itself is very therapeutic, watching and feeling the dough become elastic and waiting until it just feels right. Then place in a buttered bowl, flip it over so its buttered on all sides, cover with a towel and let rise for an hour in a warm place. See what I mean by relaxing? Bread baking comes with a built in nap, this particular recipe even called for two - after it was risen punch it down and let it rise again.
I used my built in recipe break to take the doggies for a walk in the freshly washed world. Rushing water provided the soundtrack to our trek through the woods and the sun even graced us with its presence for a few glorious minutes. Too soon though our walk was over and it was time to punch down the bread dough. This has to be one of the all-time greatest bread-making moments - go ahead, bury your fist in a bowl of warm bread dough and watch it deflate and try not to smile. I wager that it cannot be done. Anyway next comes more rising, another hour; another built in break. I read The Mountain Ear, a local arts and culture magazine, and then attempted some sudoku during this one. Next you knead the dough some more and then separate it into loaves, and set it on an oiled pan for more rising, this time only about 30 to 45 minutes. When the loaves have almost doubled pop them in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes and thats it. You have bread. There is nothing frantic about that recipe, in fact you almost have to be utterly chill to get through it, because if you are in any hurry at all bread-making is the wrong activity choice. Just bake a batch of cookies, they are far more instant gratification, but way less gratifying. Here is my pride and joy, my wonderful, tasty, fabulous bread:
This is by far the best loaf I've made to date; I think it was all the happy thoughts I kneaded into it! Anyway after I finished the bread my Momma came home early and we had lunch and then did some shopping. When we got home that evening I started right in on dinner. Tonight was calzones. I made some whole wheat pizza crust from this recipe (subbing whole wheat flour for white) and while it rested a bit I chopped up a wide array of fixin's and then set up the dough into 3 little calzone shaped rounds on the pizza stone. Everyone made their own then we closed the dough around them, wrapped them loosely in tinfoil, and baked at 375 for 30 minutes, removing the tinfoil for the last 5. While they baked I warmed some dipping sauce and set the table. They were done just in time and heres the result:
Calzone fixin's: fresh mozz, basil, orange bell pepper, chicken, mushrooms, sharp cheddar, olives, shredded Italian 4 cheese mixture, and sundried tomatoes
Super easy, super delicious, and way wayyy healthier than take-out calzones.
After dinner I felt like I had maybe over indulged just a bit and the lump of calzone was sitting heavily in my belly so my Pops and I decided to take a walk down to the falls to check out the roaring Lamoille River after this mornings rain and warm temperatures. The walk was just what I needed at the end of a lovely and relaxing day. I love to feel just pleasantly tuckered out at the end of the day, especially when it is the result of baking bread and dog walking and not work. On that note I shall leave you with one final shot of the engorged Lamoille. Good night!
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