Sammies and Buns

Have you ever wanted to make bread that's good enough to replace the sandwich bread you buy at the store?

I would love to be able to do that. To make something just as tasty yet so much better for you than that stuff.

It took me a couple of tries but this one is the closest I've gotten so far.

Now, it's no Roman Meal (Sir Sportsalot's favorite) but I think it's pretty darned good. And so do the girls. hmmm....I don't think the sports-man even tried it (his loss).

This is one of those infamous no-knead breads from the HBin5 bread braid club where we're baking our way through "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day". A fabulous cookbook!! I can't tell you how much I've learned in just a few short weeks.

To see what everyone else has going on, visit Michelle's blog at BigBlackDogs. She has a wonderful place with incredible recipes and mouth watering pictures. I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself. :)

So, I tried making sandwich bread, using the master recipe and thought I'd make the Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf.

I pulled off 2 lbs of dough and let it rise in the bread pan as instructed

Let it bake as instructed and it looked beautiful

Until you turned it around

I mean...I know I live in California but does EVERYthing have to have a fault?? Good lord!!

And then from the underneath...something just wasn't right

It was just soggy. And it was dense (kinda like Sir Sportsalot but different)

and it was too....i dunno....wheaty? I just can't do it. I can't do the intense whole wheat thing.

So I went on a mission. I searched for White Whole Wheat Flour. Sounds like an oxymoron (man...sir sportsalot is popping up everywhere isn't he?) You see, I read about this flour in the book. It's just as healthy only it's more mild in flavor and lighter in color.

MUST TRY!!!

My local market didn't have any so I made a special trip to a health food store and picked up a bag.

Aaaaaand....it just so happened that our HBin5 mission was to make a Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread. The differences between the two recipes (besides the flour) is the fact that the soft bread has eggs, honey and oil in it....and ooooooh man....lookie at the difference....

Even the fault was smaller (still haven't figured out why that happens. Any answers out there besides geographical location?)

And I'm totally loving the color!!

It even looks like a real loaf of bread! I was so pleased with it. The texture, the flavor....everything.

The sandwich at the top was the first thing I made with my new lovely loaf of healthy, yummy....good-for-you sandwich bread. I wanted the flavors to be pure so I could get a true measure of the flavor. It doesn't get any more simple than tomatoes and avocado. Especially since it insisted on having a (no matter how minor it was) "fault"....I stuck with a "California" theme.

Of course I had some more dough and there was more to our mission than just a loaf of sandwich bread. We also got to make hamburger buns or hot dog buns. Since my youngest doesn't like hot dogs, I stuck with the hamburger buns

These were even easier than the bread almost....just a little more fun

Form your dough into balls and flatten them a bit.

Cover and let rise for about 40 minutes.... then brush with an egg wash and bake for about 20 minutes

Let cool and then slice em and make your favorite burger. I decided to stick with "healthy" and make turkey burgers with homemade ranch dressing, cheese, avocado, tomatoes, onions and a baby spring lettuce variety. With a side of home baked potato wedges.

Oooooh....total hit!!

I have one more mission completed that I need to share with you....Apple Strudel. How did it turn out? Stay tuned and you'll find out. 

Same bat channel, same bat time....