whole wheat sandwich bread

This is the yummiest whole wheat bread ever. EVER. I mean it. It slices well, is soft and chewy at the same time, and has a light nutty flavor, not overbearing. The only problem with it is that I can't leave it alone. Just one more slice . . .

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread


Mix in your KitchenAid Standmixer

• 1 1/3 - 1 1/2 C water
• 3 Tb butter, cut up
• 2 1/3 C whole wheat bread flour
• 2 C white flour
• 3 T gluten flour
• 3 T brown sugar
• 1 t salt
• 1 1/4 t breadmaker yeast

Turn oven on to lowest setting. Put ingredients into your stand mixer and run mixer on low for 4 minutes.

Turn oven off.  Set a dish cloth over the dough and set into oven. Let dough rise until double (about 1 hour).

Turn oven on to lowest setting. Knead dough for 4 minutes.  Turn oven off. Pop the bread back into the oven to rise until double (about 1 hour).


Turn oven on to lowest setting. Divide dough into two loaves.  Shape. Set into pans. Cover. Pop the bread back into the oven to rise until double (about 1 hour).  Take out of the oven.

Bake at 350 for 24 minutes.

borscht with a KitchenAid

This is a yummy, hearty, economical, nutritious, and beautiful soup.

Borscht

Use the Shredder Attachment of your wonderful KitchenAid Stand Mixer to shred:

6 cloves peeled garlic
2 large carrots
1 cored apple
1 small onion
6 small potatoes
1 small head red cabbage
1 small head white cabbage
3 cooked beets (save the cooking water)

Simmer for hours along with:
beet water
soup bone
1 can tomato paste
extra water as needed.

Add salt to taste, serve topped with sour cream and dill.

Especially nice with the rye bread.

recipe

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes with KitchenAid

First of all, I have to say that full credit for these awesome potatoes goes to the Pioneer Woman at Pioneer Woman Cooks! She posts a wonderful photo-illustrated tutorial on mashed potatoes. Why am I reposting it then? Because the wonderful photos take soooooo looonnnngggg to load and because I incorporated my KitchenAid Stand Mixer into the routine to save my feeble joints.

Mashed Potatoes

Peel and quarter:

• 5 lbs of potatoes ( I mix baby reds and Yukon Golds)

Boil them until they are fork tender (about 20-30 minutes).

Microwave to soften:

• 4 to 8 oz of cream cheese
• 1/2 C of butter

Attach the Food Grinder Attachment to your wonderful KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Think lovely thoughts towards the person who gave it to you. In fact, call them up and thank them yet again. Then use the small-hole disc to grind the potatoes. Collect them in the KitchenAid bowl.

(If you don't have a Food Grinder Attachment order one now and in the meantime, mash them by hand, heeding Pioneer Woman's advice about mashing them over heat to let the steam out.)

When about half the potatoes are all ground up, put the butter and cream cheese in, along with:

• 1/2 +/- half-n-half
• salt to taste
  

Continue grinding potatoes into the bowl.

When everything is in there, take the grinder off, and put the mixing blade (the one of the far left of the picture above) onto your KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Mix everything up and then put it all into a nice casserole dish.

I used the pink bowl visible in this shot (my husband made the bowl for me), but it works just as well in a big baking dish. I prefer dishes with a smaller footprint as my fridges get a bit overfull.



Before tucking it into the fridge, however, cut a cube of butter into small patties and dot the top with butter. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

I made these on Monday for Thursday Thanksgiving and they were marvelous. Just remember to take them out of the fridges hours before you want to reheat them. It took about 40 minutes in a 350 oven to bring them from room temperature to table ready.

YUMMMY.

recipe

rye bread: stand mixer & bread oven

This is one of my favorite recipes. It makes a big loaf which slices nicely into sandwich-size slices and also keeps for days before tasting a bit dry -- from then on it makes wonderful toast.

Rye Bread

1 1/3 - 1 1/2 C water
3 Tb butter, cut up
2 2/3 C bread flour
1 1/3 C rye flour
3 T gluten flour
3 T brown sugar
2 T caraway seeds
1 t salt
1 1/4 t breadmaker yeast

recipe heavily modified from Best Bread Machine Recipes

Put ingredients into your stand mixer and run mixer on low for 20 minutes. Pull the dough off the hook and out of bowl (I just balance it in one hand for a minute). Flour inside of bowl and return dough to bowl; leave bread hook in place.

Let dough rise until double (about 2 hours) and then pop the bread hook back into the bowl. Knead for 4 minutes.

Turn oven on to 400-425 and put the empty bread-oven into the oven to preheat.

Let dough rise until double (about 20-40 minutes) and then put the dough into the hot bread-oven.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when thumped.

honeyed walnut & flaxseed bread: stand mixer & bread oven

This bread is sweet and nutty and rather dense. It does not like being sliced too thin, but does keep for several days (in theory, that is, we always eat it right up).

Honeyed Walnut & Flaxseed Bread

1 1/4 C water
5 Tb honey
3 Tb walnut oil
4 C flour +/-
1 t salt
1 1/4 t breadmaker yeast
1 C chopped walnuts (toasted, or not, your call)
1/2 C flaxseed

recipe heavily modified from Best Bread Machine Recipes

Put ingredients into your stand mixer and run mixer on low for 20 minutes. Pull the dough off the hook and out of bowl (I just balance it in one hand for a minute). Flour inside of bowl and return dough to bowl; leave bread hook in place.

Let dough rise until double (about 2 hours) and then pop the bread hook back into the bowl. Knead for 4 minutes.

Turn oven on to 400-425 and put the empty bread-oven into the oven to preheat.

Let dough rise until double (about 20-40 minutes) and then put the dough into the hot bread-oven.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when thumped.

applesauce bread: stand-mixer & bread oven

This is a nice use for that wee bit of applesauce left in the bottom of the jar. The bread is slightly sweet and is a nice choice for a pbj.

Applesauce Bread

1 C water
2/3 C applesauce
4 t butter, cut up
1/2 C rolled oats
4 C flour +/- depending on how thick your applesauce is
2 t brown sugar
1 t salt
1 1/4 t breadmaker yeast

recipe heavily modified from Best Bread Machine Recipes

Put ingredients into your stand mixer and run mixer on low for 20 minutes. Pull the dough off the hook and out of bowl (I just balance it in one hand for a minute). Flour inside of bowl and return dough to bowl; leave bread hook in place.

Let dough rise until double (about 2 hours) and then pop the bread hook back into the bowl. Knead for 4 minutes.

Turn oven on to 400-425 and put the empty bread-oven into the oven to preheat.

Let dough rise until double (about 20-40 minutes) and then put the dough into the hot bread-oven.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when thumped.

oatmeal bread: stand-mixer & bread-oven

A nice loaf, great for breakfast toast.

Oatmeal Bread

1 1/3 C rolled oats (toasted, or not, your call)
1/2 C water
3/4 C + 2 Tb moo
2 Tb butter, cut up
3 1/3 C flour
1/4 C brown sugar
1 t salt
1 1/4 t breadmaker yeast
3 Tb flax seeds (optional)

recipe heavily modified from Best Bread Machine Recipes

Put ingredients into your stand mixer and run mixer on low for 20 minutes. Pull the dough off the hook and out of bowl (I just balance it in one hand for a minute). Flour inside of bowl and return dough to bowl; leave bread hook in place.

Let dough rise until double (about 2 hours) and then pop the bread hook back into the bowl. Knead for 4 minutes.

Turn oven on to 400-425 and put the empty bread-oven into the oven to preheat.

Let dough rise until double (about 20-40 minutes) and then put the dough into the hot bread-oven.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when thumped.

potato bread: stand-mixer & bread-oven

This made a dense moist loaf of bread that did not want to be sliced thin. It was a great companion to potroast.

Potato Bread

2/3 C water
1 C moo
1 egg
3 Tb butter, cut up
4 C flour
2/3 C instant mashed potato
4 t sugar
1 t salt
1 1/4 t breadmaker yeast

recipe modified from Best Bread Machine Recipes

Put ingredients into your stand mixer and run mixer on low for 20 minutes. Pull the dough off the hook and out of bowl (I just balance it in one hand for a minute). Flour inside of bowl and return dough to bowl; leave bread hook in place.

Let dough rise until double (about 2 hours) and then pop the bread hook back into the bowl. Knead for 4 minutes.

Turn oven on to 400-425 and put the empty bread-oven into the oven to preheat.

Let dough rise until double (about 20-40 minutes) and then put the dough into the hot bread-oven.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when thumped.

stand-mixer & bread-oven techniques

I've been fooling around with bread this week and have decided to retire my bread-making machine. I loved that it didn't require me to proof the yeast, but I was never happy with the way it baked and always ended up baking in the oven. Thanks to the no-knead bread recipe, I've learned about keeping and maintaining a cast-iron bread oven which yields a gorgeous crispy crust bread.

I have some bread cookbooks and they offer very involved recipes. Multiple work surfaces and stages and lots and lots of kneading and of course the dread "proof" stage. "What if," I thought "we used bread-machine recipes in the stand mixer and baked in the bread oven?"

So, I've been trying this. I made the egg bread and it was great. (I've updated that recipe, btw). Today I made Potato Bread.

My basic approach is:

• :: take a bread maker recipe
• :: put it in your stand mixer
• :: run mixer on low for 20 minutes
• :: pull dough off hook and out of bowl
• :: flour inside of bowl
• :: return dough to bowl
• :: leave bread hook in place
• :: let rise until double (about 2 hours)
• :: pop bread hook back in (see pic)
  
• :: knead for 4 minutes
• :: turn on oven to 400-425
• :: put empty bread-oven into oven to preheat
  
• :: let dough rise until double (about 20-40 minutes)
• :: put dough into hot bread-oven
• :: bake for 20-30 minutes or until it sounds hollow when thumped.

edited Friday afternoon to clarify the last few steps

egg bread: stand-mixer & bread-oven

One reason I don't like to make bread is that I don't like that 'proofing' stage. So fiddly. Then I don't like the kneading. So much like actual work.

We are making jam today, so I tried to make an egg bread in my bread-maker, but my bread-maker weenied out and we had to transition over to the KitchenAid/oven. Because I was making jam, I didn't want to get involved in anything complicated, so I made the bread all wrong and it turned out great!

easy egg bread

Throw into stand-mixer with bread hook attached:

3/4 C moo
1/3 C water
2 eggs
2 Tb butter
4 C flour
3 Tb sugar
1 tp salt
1 1/4 tp breadmaker yeast

Let mixer run for 20 minutes. Turn out into floured bowl. Let rise till double. Turn out onto floured surface. Knead about 20 turns (whew!). Put back in bowl. Let rise until double.

Put bread oven into oven. Preheat oven to 450.

Put dough into bread oven and put lid on. Bake for 20 minutes.

updated to say:
run mixer on low for 20 minutes;
pull dough off hook and out of bowl; flour inside of bowl; return dough to bowl; leave bread hook in place; let rise until double (about 2 hours)
pop bread hook back in; knead for 4 minutes;
turn on oven to 400-450; flour inside of bowl; put bread oven into oven; let dough rise until double (about 20-40 minutes);
put dough into bread oven; bake for 20 minutes or until it sounds hollow when thumped.

This makes a huge loaf and is perfect for sampling freshly made jam.