It was my birthday. :)

On the 14th, yesterday, I turned 20...something. That's not important.

For dinner, Kyle took me to Texas Roadhouse, where we spent $30+. Ridiculous. That much for ONE dinner? Ugh. It ticked me off so bad, you don't even know. And please believe, I ate enough peanuts and rolls to make up for it. And made sure to drop my shells on the floor.

Anywho.

In a previous post, I talked about how badly I wanted to bake tons of bread. Well, I still don't have a deep freeze, so the mass quantities are on hold. But I baked some bread tonight, and I'm HAPPY. I baked Kyle a loaf of cinnamon roll bread, which is the cinnamon raisin bread I posted minus the raisins, and then baked some honey wheat bread.

This is going to go great with our dinner tonight.

And I justify this because wheat is better for you.

Also, the recipe is without a lot of the step-by-step pictures. Mainly because I was SUPER ticked off with the yeast. You don't even know how bad. I almost threw this dough out. But then a SUPER AWESOME BAKING FRIEND of mine, Cat (whose blog is seen here), gave me some tips.

Healthier Honey Wheat Bread

2 c. warm water, around 110 - 115 F, no higher

1 pkg. dry active yeast

3 c. whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. honey (you can use more or less, depending on how much you want the honey flavor)

1/3 c. vegetable oil

4 c. all purpose flour

Put your warm water into a cup, bowl, whatever. I used my glass measuring cup. Sprinkle your yeast over it. Give it a quick stir and let it stand for 10 minutes. The yeast should get foamy and bubbly.

Add your honey to this and mix well.

Mix in your whole wheat flour, vegetable oil, and salt.

Gradually add your all purpose flour.

Knead it for about 10-15 minutes. Once the dough is smooth and kinda stretchy, you're good.

*This is where the pictures disappear.*

Grease a bowl with some vegetable oil. Put your kneaded dough into the bowl and roll it around to coat it. Cover it with a wet washcloth and let it rise.

Here's where I had the issue. My house is usually 73-75 F, but I have a HARD time rising dough. So, my amazing friend Cat told me about using the oven. You can heat it around 90-100 and let the dough rise in there, but I'd definitely make sure you're using something heat safe, like glassware. Or you can turn the oven to 350 for 20-30 seconds, turn it off, and use it that way. I used the 90-100 method. And it WORKED!

Let the dough rise until it's about doubled in size.

Punch it down and divide it evenly. Shape each part into a loaf and put them each into a greased loaf pan.

Let the dough rise until it's about 1 or 1 1/2 inches higher than the pan.

Once it's done rising, set it aside and preheat the oven to 375. Bake for 25-30 minutes. When they're done, let them cool in their baking pans for a bit before removing and setting them on a cooling rack. 

And these are AMAZING. Let them cool completely before trying to cut them. 

You can use some honey with them, or butter, or plain. But you know what's AWESOME with these?

Mock Texas Roadhouse Cinnamon Butter!

2 sticks of butter, softened

1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk

1/2 tsp. corn syrup

cinnamon to taste

Using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer, use the whisk attachment (if you have it, if not, regular beaters will work) and mix it until it's all creamy and uniform. You may want to refrigerate this before using it, but pull it out a few minutes before needing it, or else it will be too hard to spread.

The rest of it can be refrigerated. I put it in an old, washed sour cream bucket. Any sort of storage thing should work, but this was the smallest thing I had.

It definitely got the Kyle seal of approval. Even though I made Kyle his own bread.

It's AMAZING what happens when your yeast works! Thanks again Cat!