Whole Wheat Walnut and Raisin Sandwich Rolls

Our Avid Baker's Challenge ("ABC") group is back in full swing. For our January challenge, the chosen theme is "BREAD". This can be a quick bread or a yeast bread and you can use any recipe you like! I opted to make a yeast bread.

Whole Wheat Walnut and Golden Raisin Sandwich Rolls

World Bread Day 2018: Multi-Grain Multi-Seed Sandwich Bread

Homemade sandwich bread, full of grains and seeds!

Baking yeast breads is something I really enjoy doing. It took me a while and a lot of practice to get there though. My first breads were like doorknobs :) Since then, things have gotten a lot better, and I bake all of our bread; whether it's sandwich bread, hamburger buns, or cinnamon rolls. No more store-bought bread or rolls for us anymore!

Zorra from the blog Kochtopf organizes World Bread Day ever year. I just had to submit this simple, yet delicious and nutritious bread to her annual event :)

#wbd2018 #worldbreadday #worldbreadday2018 

This sandwich bread is really easy to make. The baked bread is light and airy. It's great as-is or toasted. I like to slice the bread after it has cooled completely and then freeze it. This way I can take out what I need. This dough can also be used to make dinner rolls or (hamburger) buns. I hope you give this recipe a try!

Light and fluffy bread!

TBB - 100% Whole Wheat Walnut Loaf

It's been a while since I baked along with Rose's Alpha Bakers, and right away there are two things wrong with the title of this post:

• I cheated and used some bread flour. So, it's really an 87% whole wheat loaf.
• Yes, I'm allergic to walnuts but I love my husband. So, I decided to make the dough without nuts, and add them later to his half of the dough. I made rolls with "my half".

I used my bread machine to make this bread which worked out perfectly.

Dinner rolls (nut-free) and sandwich bread

Light and soft

ABC - Cranberry-Pumpkin Rolls

I can't help but love Fall. The changing of the colors around us, brisk weather but not too cold (except for late last week where the temps dipped below freezing, brrr), and of course baking with apples, pumpkins and lots of spices. Last month's Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread was a big hit with the ABC bakers. This month we moved on to another Fall favorite: pumpkin. Although pumpkin played a big role in these dinner rolls, let's not underestimate the other side kicks: craisins (and for some of us, golden raisins too), and lots of warm spices like cinnamon, ginger and cloves. I'm talking about this month's Cranberry-Pumpkin Rolls. They're soooooo good! Thanks to a tip from my ABC buddy, Paula, I doubled the spices in the recipe, which transformed these dinner rolls into something even more fabulous.

They may look humble but these babies pack a big flavor punch!

This is making me feel a bit sentimental. All (well, most) King Arthur Flour recipes have been so good to us these past two years. But, as the song goes, "every new beginning comes from another beginning's end". I'm sure this won't be our last time baking KAF recipes in our kitchens. But for right now, I won't say goodbye yet. I'm very much looking forward to making next month's Chocolate Eclair recipe. Are you?

With that, I have an announcement to make. Starting in January 2015, we will be baking recipes from the wonderful blog, Scientifically Sweet, written by food scientist Christina Marsigliese. Her recipes are awesome, and I really dig her scientific approach to baking (yes, I'm a nerd, if you didn't know already).

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Scones

A few ABC-ers had asked if we could bake Scones for our June challenge. After browsing through several recipes for scones on the King Arthur Flour website, I settled on a "basic" scone recipe that allowed for choosing your own add-ins. I had it all figured out: coarsely chopped almonds, dried cranberries, and lots of orange zest. Then one day I was grating fresh ginger to cook with and I thought, "what would pair well with ginger in a scone?" Before too long, my mind wondered off to a land of plump raisins, the aroma of freshly grated orange zest, and beautiful specks of finely shredded carrots. Boom! That's how my Gingered Carrot Cake Scones were born :o)

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - English Digestives Biscuits

Growing up, I ate a lot of Digestives. They were cheap and readily available at any grocery store. When I came across the English Digestives Biscuits recipe on the King Arthur Flour website, I knew I had to give them a try. That's exactly how they landed on our ABC recipe list for this month.

English Digestives. Yum!

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - 100% Whole Wheat Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Cinnamon Swirl Bread? Love that stuff. 100% whole wheat? Even better! That's how this month's ABC recipe came about. Of course, the recipe is from the King Arthur Flour recipe database.

This recipe is made with a starter. I made my starter but didn't have time to bake the next day, I refrigerated it until the next day.

I made two small loaves.

The taste was great, however, I wasn't too fond of the texture. It was a bit heavy but that's my fault. I think I added too much water (about 3.5 oz total for the whole recipe).

Don't forget to check out the results of other ABC bakers. Their loaves turned out much better than mine. I will definitely redo this recipe in a few weeks.

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - English Muffins

I can't tell you how long I've been wanting to make English Muffins. So it should be no surprise that they "accidentally" landed on the recipe list for the Avid Baker's Challenge :o)

You don't have to be British to enjoy these! :o)

As you might know, we're baking King Arthur Flour recipes this year for ABC. It's always nice when a KAF recipe is accompanied by their blog post for extra tips and (step-by-step) pictures. Needless to say, these English Muffins were incredibly tasty and fairly easy to make. I doubt I'll be buying the store bought ones again.

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

Whole-Grain Maple Oat Bread

Those of you familiar with King Arthur Flour I'm sure are big fans, like I am. When I received their latest catalog in the mail a little while ago, I happily paged through it, and loved all the recipes that were included. One that I wanted to try right away was their Whole-Grain Maple-Walnut Oat Bread. I suggested it to my Bread BakeTogether (or BBT) buddy, Janis, and she was interested in making it as well. Yay! :o)

Whole-Grain Maple Oat Bread

Who says healthy has to taste yucky? :o)

Floating Sesame Loaf

A few weeks ago, Janis and I decided to bake the Floating Sesame Loaf for our 2nd Bread BakeTogether. She blogged about this bread a couple weeks ago. I'm a little late blogging about this bread but better late than never, right? Besides, you really need to know about the unique technique used for this bread. The recipe is from the book Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Maria Speck. The dough requires minimal kneading and is placed in a pot of cold water for its first rise. Yes, you read it right. You place the ball of dough into cold water, and you'll know when it's done when it floats to the top. I have to admit I was a little skeptic at first. I had never heard of this technique before and just couldn't wait to try it myself. I was giddy with excitement when I saw the dough float. I have proof too! Just keep on reading :o)

Floating "Flax Seed" Loaf :o)

Old-fashioned Raisin Bread

When I saw this bread on Phyl's blog, I knew I had to make it. The loaves looked so wonderful and the crumb so perfect. When I read that the recipe was a preview from Nick Malgieri's new book "Bread" (to be published in the fall 2012), I had one more reason to try it.

Baking bread is fun, but it's even more fun when you can do it with someone else and turn it into a mini (virtual) baking project. Fellow ABC-er and baking buddy, Janis of The Kitchen Is My Shrink, had mentioned that she'd like to get back into bread baking. The timing of the Old-fashioned Raisin Bread couldn't have been better. We both took the challenge and baked the bread in our respective kitchens. Do check out Janis' post. She did an awesome experiment where she made the recipe as-is and then again with natural enhancers such as Vital Wheat Gluten. Check out her side-by-side comparison here.

I love the three colors from the raisin, golden raisins and craisins in this bread!

Classic 100% Whole Wheat Bread

Obviously you can't see my face right now but I'm smiling from ear to ear. Pretty much since last night :o) Why? I made King Arthur Flour's "Classic 100% Whole Wheat" last night and it didn't turn into something rock hard that you could seriously injure somebody with. Not only that, the bread was moist and had a hearty wheat flavor, and a soft texture. Why is this news worthy? Well, if you read my previous post on Challah Bread, you'd know I have a yeast phobia. I figured the only way to get over that is to practice, practice, practice. All I can say is that the 100% whole wheat bread I made yesterday is a huge big confidence booster :o)

I love the caramel-colored interior of this bread

The recipe follows...