A Recipe.....The first!

I might as well admit it right here and now..........although I view myself as a very decent cook. Love to cook and am good enough at it to put together some stellar dinners for friends.......I have a deep and profound FEAR OF YEAST!!! Unreasonable I know. I've tried many times to make some kind of passable yeast product......they either don't rise at all, or rise but not enough, or rise and taste terrible. So, it's fairly CRAZY that I've decided the first recipe I'll document for my new blog is a BREAD recipe, have I lost my mind???

Well, it seemed rather easy and ....the jury is still out, first rising is currently underway, but things smell nicely yeasty in there so we'll see. OK, here we go........

Whole Wheat Bulgur Bread

Here is what you'll need. I thought it was verrrryyyy interesting that the recipe called for Bulgur wheat. But I must confess, one of the main reasons I decided to make this is that I had a big bag of this stuff which I mainly use for only one thing....Tabbouleh and don't really make it that often, so. I felt the need to use some for something. So, now you know.

Here's what you'll need!

After you soak the bulgur in a little hot water...

You just stir it in with all the other ingredients, seems TOO easy, huh??? It will look a little lumpy and dry at this point

But after you stir in the ice water....I was surprised by this ingredient too... it will look like this, just coat the surface with a little oil, I used olive oil and it's ready for covering lightly with a kitchen towel and letting that scary yeast do it's THING.....for a very long time....12-18 hours

Here's what it looked like after about a 14 hour first rise. I made the dough about 5:00 pm and uncovered it the next morning about 7:30 am....letting the yeast stay up all night doing the real work!

Then, stir the whole thing vigorously to deflate it and prepare a loaf pan by generously coating it with oil and press the dough into the pan, cutting a slit down the length of the loaf.....and you are ready for the second, shorter rise.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees while you are prepping the pan (forgot to tell you that part), and pop the bread in, be sure your oven rack is in the middle position.


After about 55 minutes..........Here it is!

I MADE BREAD!! I can not believe it. It smells really good.....hmmm wonder if it will come out of the pan when it's cooled? That's another problem I've had in the past...we'll see.

WOW, it came out, and sliced nicely, taste test next......I'm amazed! I think there must be some first time blogger Karma going on here. LOVE IT!!

I had my first taste with a slather of peanut butter and a drizzle of honey, with a cup of coffee, nice breakfast. This is a rustic bread, with a grainy type texture, a little like that sprouted Ezekiel Bread, with a thick chewy crust. You can cover it after initial light browning to reduce the thickness of the crust, but I like a crusty bread. I could also see this lightly toasted with a slice of brie and juicy tomato for lunch.

I actually made bread that's edible!! and......YOU can too. I know, I know you are saying, who has time for this? Well, we all are racing around all the time "doing and doing", sometimes it can be very therapeutic, to slow down a bit and spend some time at a more relaxed pace, making something the OLD way......I'm feeling very satisfied with myself and hope you will too if you try this one. Recipe follows:

Whole Wheat Bulgur Bread

Ingredients
¼ Cup bulgur
1/3 Cup boiling water
2 ½ Cups whole wheat flour
1 ¾ Cup bread flour
1 ¾ Teaspoons salt
¾ Teaspoon instant dry yeast
1 ¾ Cup ice water
¼ Cup honey
3 Tablespoons canola oil

Stir the bulgur into the boiling water in a medium bowl. Combine whole wheat flour, bread flour salt and yeast in a large bowl.

Add the bulgur, oil, and honey. Then vigorously stir in the ice water. Continue to stir, or use your hands to thoroughly mix. If too dry add a little more ice water by spoonfulls, if too wet, add a little more bread flour by spoonfuls, until you have stiff moist dough.

Lightly cover the surface with oil and set aside covered with kitchen towel for the first rise (12-18 hours).

Dough should just about double in volume during the first rise. For the second rise, generously coat a 9” X 5” loaf pan with oil. Stir the dough or mix with hands to deflate. Press into the loaf pan with well oiled hands, cut a ½ inch slit the length of the loaf and coat the surface with small amount of oil and set aside to rise until dough extends about one inch above the rim of the pan (15-45 minutes, depending on temperature).

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees and bake bread on middle over rack for 55-65 minutes. Top may be covered mid way through baking for a softer crust. When done, skewer inserted in the center will come out with only a few crumbs. Cool in the pan till you can handle it, then remove bread and cool on a rack before slicing.

Recipe from Cooking Lite

Because nutritional content could vary some with the amount of oil used, etc. I won't post the details, but in general the loaf should yield about 18 slices and calorie content is about 188 per slice.