HUGE loaf of Wheat Bread

For the past two weeks I've struggled with making a tasty wheat bread. Twice in a row, I've made "wheat cake" which was not my intention. The yeast I have should work so I've come to the conclusion that I have either weak yeast or old flour.

I picked up a couple packets of Hodgen's Mill "Extra Rise" yeast and a new sac of Gold Medal whole wheat flour.

I have a favorite french bread recipe that I use. It makes two nice 12" x 3" baguettes:

2 1/4 c flour
1 cup water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt (optional... adds elasticity)
1 tbsp shortening (optional... adds flavor and denser texture)
1 1/4 tsp yeast

To integrate the new flour and make enough for a tall loaf, I multiplied the ingredients:

4 1/2 c flour
1 c wheat flour (new)
2 1/4 c water (I added some during the mix if it looked too dry after 10 mins)
2 1/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt (decided to go with it)
1 1/2 tbsp light peanut oil
3 tsp yeast (fast rise)

I had to make this in two batches (my dough pot isn't quite that large.

While the second batch was being made, I let the first half of the dough rise in a glass bowl gently warmed by a water bath. Once the second was done, I rolled the two together, shaped and put into my loaf pan (dark teflon pan, heavy, measuring 12" x 6" x 5"). Let rise for 30 mins before placing in a 375F oven. I put a pie pan 1/3 full of water in the oven as well to add some moisture. Before I put the loaf in the oven, I sliced it down the middle and sprayed with a little Pam (1/2" deep).

Baked for 10 mins. Sliced it down the middle again (1/2" deep)
Baked for 25 minutes. Removed the loaf from the pan and cooled on a wire rack.

This loaf is over 8 inches high in the middle. I just bought an electric knife, so I can get large thin slices out of this. The texture is very nice (lots of small pockets) and the taste is very good.

Next loaf I make will use more 50% wheat, 50% white and the same yeast as this one.

Presentation rules...

It's probably my favorite saying: "Content is king, but presentation rules."

What does it mean? In my mind, it says that in order to begin to understand, appreciate or become interested in anything you first must be attracted to it. People are very visual (well, mostly). If you can get past how something looks, sounds or smells you are then likely to dive deeper into it.

Food is an excellent example. If you can make garbage look pleasing, someone WILL try to eat it. However if you have a delicious appetizer that looks like it came out of the ... end of a large savanna-dwelling mammal ... your hungry audience may think twice about wanting it anywhere near them, let alone amidst their taste buds.

I was in the kitchen with my daughter and she was helping me make some breadcrumbs for dinner later tonight. We noticed it was after noon and she nor her brother had lunch yet. She decided to make some of what I call "dorm-room pizza".

Take a slice of white bread (cheap, bland.... bleh). Find some leftover tomato sauce and any kind of cheese. If you have pepperoni, left over salami, ham or even bologna - slice or chop some up. Put the sauce on the bread, cheese on the sauce and meat on the cheese. Pop it in a toaster oven at 400F for 12 minutes. Simple enough.

She made four of these in total and the toaster oven went "DING!". They looked great. I asked her, "since you cooked these... can I plate them?" She looked at me funny. I explained what I meant. Then I got to work.

The outcome was pretty chic, if I do say so myself.

Just like elementary school art class: basic shapes and colors. Slice the pizzas in half to form triangles and lay them in parallel. Sprinkle a line of grated romano cheese across the slices. Add a "zig" of tomato sauce on the bottom with another sprinkle of cheese. Dust the top and the slices with a little oregano.

This meal was as cheap as they come for something you can easily bake. And looked fantastic. There were a few "wow" remarks heard.  I didn't get a chance to try any (I had my greek yogurt instead), but both my son and daughter devoured them quickly.

Cheesecake... yes, you read that correctly

A near totally home-made cheesecake is coming soon.

(home-made crust and home-made cream cheese)

This is war

Over the past few months I've been watching, reading, investigating and exploring options to finally... FINALLY get myself back in shape for the long haul. There is so much sensationalist bullshit out there about what you should eat, how you should exercise and all that nonsense that it's hard to distill the pure simple facts about HOW to actually achieve this.

In my journey thus far I have figured this much out...

1. There is no such thing as a "proper" diet. Mr. X say this and Dr. Q says that. It's all crap. Your diet affects you and you alone need to figure it out.

2. All that wonderful scientific information that entered your left ear and immediately exited the right during high school actually has practical applications in figuring this out. Oh yeah, and reading too. Read your labels; understand the chemistry at work.

3. Your body is a COMPLEX SYSTEM and like all complex systems it is prone to its own whims. You need to figure out how it works. When you put XYZ into your stomach then ABC should happen. When you exert X amount of effort for Y amount of time then the result is Z. Take note of this. Not even your doctors, dieticians, celebrity health "specialist" or personal trainer will have the real answers. Find your own equation.


So, here is what I've done. I've declared all out war. Do or die. Victory or death. I have identified an approach that will (hopefully, we'll see) work for me to finally get my crap in order. After calculating the amount of calories that are burned at rest for my age, physical condition and level of activity I have constructed a 1000-calorie plan with all the vitamins, minerals and proteins I will need for my current situation.

If my math is correct, I will incur at least a 2000 calorie deficit each day. This amounts to a weekly deficit of 14,000 calories, equivalient to 4 pounds of fatty body mass.

The toughest part is to keep my daily level of activity where it needs to be and my NO MEANS stray from my course of action. Historically, I have the willpower of ... well, none whatsoever. The foods I have chosen are low-calorie, VERY FILLING and have sensible levels of sodium, fat, sugars, fibers and cholestorol.

I'm in day 4 right now and I have never... EVER felt this good physically or mentally. Everything I eat and do is noted and displayed prominently. I plan out my meals for the day instead of grabbing what looks good. I have not a doubt that this will be a sustainable plan for me until I reach a point where I can drive up my physical activity and increase my intake of healthy, more energeric foods to complement a more active life style.

I will get there. Failure is not an option.

It might be time to buy a scale...