Product Review: P28

I was recently sent some high protein bread and bagels review from P28. 

First, a little background on the company. P28 was started by 3 brothers in the bakery business who wanted to lose weight. After recruiting their personal trainer to help develop a recipe for healthy bread, the one thing they couldn't give up when making the switch to a healthy lifestyle, P28 was born. 

Each serving (two slices of bread or one bagel) has 28 grams of protein. Crazy, huh? 

Don't the bagels look yummy? P28 products are filled with so many wonderful things, like oats, flaxseed, sunflower seeds, millet, whole wheat, and whey protein isolate. They also contain Omega-3s, 8 essential amino acids, and lots of fiber. 

The first thing I noticed about them when they arrived on my doorstep was was soft everything was. I love soft bread! 

Alright, let's start with the perks. 

Soft

Full of healthy things

Tons of protein

HUGE slices/large portions

Low calorie for such large pieces of bread

You can see the grains and oats

Delicious when toasted

And of course, the negatives. 

Really, really chewy

That's really all I have. I guess it's not really a negative, either - but I'm not into super chewy bread. However, I solve this problem simply by toasting the bread before I use it. It has a really nice texture after you toast the bread! 

This bread is perfect for athletes and people who need to eat a large amount of protein. P28 products makes this super easy. Check them out if you are looking for a new bread to try!

Much love, 

Daring Bakers: Challah Bread

There is nothing like a good Challah bread.

Okay, so maybe this is the first time I have ever baked/tried challah before, but it was an extremely delicious experience. Thank you, Daring Bakers, for giving me the chance to try this! 

May's Daring Baker's challenge was pretty twisted - Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from "A Taste of Challah," by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads. 

The bread I chose to make a six strand, whole wheat challah. I even sprinkled some oats on top just to make it pretty. Did it work?

This bread was lightly sweet and makes delicious toast.

Before baking!

This was also surprisingly easy to make. It simply requires patience (it takes lots of rising time!)

Out of the oven it comes!

I highly encourage you to try making this bread. It's very hearty and I think it would make delicious sandwich bread!

Here's the recipe - straight from the Daring Baker's! Let me know what you think if you decide to try it for yourself!

Ruth’s “Go-To” Whole Wheat Challah

(adapted from D’s Whole Wheat Challah)
Servings: 12

Ingredients
2 (.25 oz.) packages (4½ teaspoons) (22½ ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) dry yeast
1 cup (240 ml) warm water (100°F/38°C)
½ cup (120 ml) (100 gm) (3½ oz) brown sugar, firmly packed
½ cup (one stick) (120 ml) (115 gm/4 oz) margarine or unsalted butter – room temperature
2 tsp. (10 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) salt
3 large eggs
2 cups (480 ml) (280 gm/10 oz) whole wheat flour
2 cups (480 ml) (280 gm/10 oz) all-purpose flour
½ cup (120 ml) (50 gm) (1¾ oz) rolled oats (Old Fashioned work just fine!)
Additional flour for kneading (½ to 1 cup) (120 to 240 ml) (70 to 140 gm) (2½ to 5 oz)
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water for glaze

Directions:

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, dissolve yeast in warm water. Allow to stand about 5 minutes until creamy/foamy.
2. With paddle attachment beat 3 eggs, sugar, margarine (or butter), whole wheat flour, all purpose flour and oats into the yeast mixture. Or, if mixing by hand (ok, spoon), combine eggs and margarine/butter with yeast mixture until well mixed. Add flours and oats and mix until it becomes difficult to mix.
3. Once combined, switch to the dough hook and knead for 5 to 10 minutes until smooth and elastic, adding flour as/if needed. If kneading by hand, this should take about 10-12 minutes.
4. Form dough into a round, compact ball. Turn in oiled bowl, cover with a kitchen/tea towel. Let rise in warm area (I put it in the oven with the light on) until doubled, approx. 2 hours.
5. Once dough has doubled, punch down. Recover with towel, allow to rise again for an hour, but even 30 minutes will be fine if you’re in a hurry.
6. Punch the dough down again, divide in two.
7. Shape each half as desired (3, 4 or 6 strand braid, rolls, etc.). Place shaped loaves onto parchment covered baking trays. Cover with the towel and allow to rise another hour.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
9. Brush loaves with egg wash. (Sprinkle with vanilla sugar/sesame seeds/poppy seeds/other topping here if desired)
10. Bake 30 to 40 min. until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
11. Transfer loaves to a wire rack to cool before serving.

Much love, 

Daring Bakers: Dutch Crunch Bread

Hey friends! I'm sorry it has been so incredibly long since I've posted - I apologize! I have been so swamped with homework it has been ridiculous! And I still am, actually. I have also bought into The Hunger Games craze - read the books, if you haven't. They are phenomenal! I literally cannot put them down.

And Josh Hutcherson + Liam Hemsworth? It's a beautiful thing.

If you've seen the movie, what do you think of it? And do you like Josh better with blonde hair (as Peeta in THG) or with his dark brown hair? I gotta say, I can't decide, although I think I'm leaning towards blonde!

Alright - I shall give you more updates on my life later. For now, check out the bread I made this month with The Daring Bakers!

Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses. Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread! 

There is my beautiful brown rice dutch crunch bread I made! Isn't it pretty? Although I did not take a picture of the sandwich we were required to make (oops), I highly recommend trying this on a tomato sandwich! Simply toast the bread, spread with some mayo, and add sliced tomatoes. Seriously, it's good! 

My bread was a little under-cooked. Oops. I think my loaf pan might have been a little smaller than what was specified, so I needed to cook the bread longer and didn't. Oh well. It was still tasty, although I can't say I absolutely loved this bread. I thought the topping was rather flavorless and the bread kind of...well..boring. I don't know. Wasn't a huge fan. Which is why I will not be posting the recipe. If you are interested, go look up the recipe for yourself!

Speaking of bread...

Hah. Okay. I'm done with Hunger Games references....for now :)

Much love,

Daring Bakers: Sourdough Bread

Sometimes, in baking....thing don't work out so well.

Exhibit A: my sourdough bread for this month's Daring Baker's challenge.

One thing I learned from this challenge: I shall never make sourdough bread again. Buying it is much easier! 

I'm not exactly sure what happened. It turned out VERY doughy and disastrous. I followed all the directions exactly... maybe I'm just not meant to make sourdough?

Another reason I will never make sourdough bread again: it STINKS. Literally. Making the wheat starter smells disgusting and definitely sour! 

Better luck to everyone else who made sourdough this month as well!

Much love,

Carrot Raisin Sandwich Bread

I love making bread.

I decided when I have my own house and I'm married, I will never buy bread from the store. I will make it from scratch at home! Bread is SO easy to make and really doesn't involve too much active time. I'll bet you usually have all you need to make bread in your pantry already. Why not try this one?

I was originally planning on brushing the top with some melted Earth Balance and sprinkling it with quick cooking oats before baking, but...I forgot. Do that if you want to and let me know how it goes. I think it would be a nice touch. Otherwise, this bread is slightly sweet and delicious. It reminds me of honey whole wheat bread, which I would often buy before becoming vegan. So good. It's a heavy bread, but delicious nonetheless.

I would like to try making gluten-free bread sometime. Has anyone ever made gluten-free bread? What did you think of it?

Carrot Raisin Sandwich Bread
Based on this recipe

Ingredients:
2 T. lemon juice
1 c. lukewarm water
2 1/2 t. instant yeast
3 T. evaporated cane juice
1/2 c. unsweetened plain yogurt (I used Whole Soy & Co.)
1/4 c. canola oil
1 t. salt
1 c. unbleached all purpose flour
3 c.  whole wheat flour, plus some for kneading
1 c. carrots
1/2 c. raisins
1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combine lemon juice, water, yeast, and evaporated cane juice. Stir to combine. It will look like your yeast is not activating, but do not worry! Your bread will rise just fine!
2. Add the yogurt, oil, salt, carrots, raisins, and spices to the bowl and stir to combine.
3. Add the flours and mix until it comes together to form a dough.
4. Turn dough out onto your counter top and knead until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. You may need to work in some extra flour here.
5. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a damp towel, and allow to rise for 1 hour.
6. Remove dough from bowl and place it into a greased loaf pan. If you wish, you can reserve 1/3 of the dough and braid it into a topping for the bread. Allow to rise for another hour.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake bread uncovered for 15-20 minutes until the top is golden brown, then cover with aluminum foil and bake for another 30-40 minutes or until the bread is cooked through (internal temperature should be 190 degrees). I'll be honest, my bread cooked for almost an extra hour, but I was worried about it being cooked through. Do what you think you need to do!
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

What is your favorite type of bread?
Much love,

Cake Bread!

Good morning everyone!!! I'd like to start off this post by sharing a conversation that happened around 3am last night.. so awesome.

Pat: Were those vegan? (talking about my cake pops)

Jake: Does that bother you a little bit?

Pat: yeah.

Jake: It bothers me a little too. 

Me: Why does it bother you that its vegan?

Pat: Because they're good!

Cake Bread!!

First of all, I would like to thank the few people who commented on deciding on a career path. Reading your comments were extremely helpful. I'm still having a hard time deciding, but at least I'm thinking about this now! I've also been told by multiple I should take some business classes in case I want to open a bakery in the future. Good idea? Should I stay the extra semester at Xavier and take some business classes? So many decisons!!!

ANYWHO. :) YAY FINALS. right? wrong. boring, but we have to do it, right? I am probably one of the best procrastinators I know, and I stayed up until 430am last night (note: my final was at 830am today) "studying" .... aka eating food and watching TV with my friends in their apartment. At least my final wasn't too ridiculously hard!!

Another way I procrastinated was by.. dun dun dun.. cooking! Of course! So, yesterday I had my friends Pat, Jake, and Anna over for dinner. I made spaghetti with marinara, gnocchi with wilted spinach and butter sauce, cake pops (my first attempt - recipe to be posted later) and....CAKE  BREAD!

Cake bread started out as cake, but I didn't want to use up all my Earth Balance, so I used oil instead. Honestly, I think it tasted like a sweet cornbread because of the pan it was cooked in.. I could it in a 9 x 11 pan, which made the cake really thin. A no no. Please use a smaller square pan if you want to make a nice fluffy cake :) (A similar thing happened to the cake I used for my cake pops). anywhooo... this was supposed to be a grapefruit cake and it ended up tasting like sweet cornbread.. you could eat it with icing or with a bowl of chili. very versatile. Try it out!

Cake Bread
1/2 c. canola oil
1/2 c. grapefruit juice
3/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. flour
3 Ener-g egg replacers (powder form)
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 c. milk substitute
1/4 t. salt

In a large bowl, combine oil, grapefruit juice, sugar, and milk substitute. Stir until well combined. Dump in all dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Spray a 9 x 11 baking pan with cooking spray and pour batter into pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, until the top is a dark golden brown. Enjoy!

Is it cake? Is it bread? That's for you to decide (I personally would classify it as a corn bread). Like I said, this was surprisingly good, so give it a try and let me know what you think!
Also, I've decided to post a question at the end of each post for you guys to comment on - I love hearing what you have to say! (Inspired by Chef Katelyn)

What is your favorite "kitchen mistake" - where you tried to make something, it didn't turn out, but it still tasted amazing?