Colossal Philly Cheesesteak

My boyfriend made this colossal sandwich from the new Whole Wheat Bread recipe I tried. It is topped with thinly sliced deli roast beef, provolone cheese, and pizza sauce. He put the open-faced sandwich under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese, and then turned on the oven to get it all good and hot. He then topped it with sauteed onions and red peppers. It was delicious!
Obviously, this is one gargantuan sandwich. We cut off slices of it for lunch. It was really filling, and there's still at least half of it left!
We were inspired to try this recipe by the sandwich episode of The Frugal Gourmet. We made a few minor changes, such as using homemade bread, deli roast beef, and sauteed red peppers, but we feel sure that Jeff Smith would have appreciated our culinary creativity. ;-)
Happy munching!

Bread in the In-Between

Okay, I made bread today, but I don't have a photo of it. I tried a new "Whole Wheat Bread" recipe from the Bread Winners cookbook by Mel London. I haven't even tasted it yet!
Here's the story: I started a sponge two days ago - on Sunday evening. I was going to add more to it on Monday morning, but overslept, and ended up having to leave it until evening. Needless to say, the sponge didn't look very happy to be left alone all that time. Anyway, I was exhausted after a long day at school yesterday, but it was relaxing to pour the rest of the ingredients into the sponge mixture, and stir it up: 2 Tbsp. honey, 1/4 cup millet, 1 tsp. salt, 1 Tbsp. oil, and a mixture of white and whole wheat flour. I wanted to make a lighter loaf this time for a special recipe I want to try for a broiled steak and provolone sandwich, with sauteed onions on top. Therefore, I used some white flour. The dough was taking it's time about rising in the bowl last night, so I put it back in the fridge with a plate over it, and took it over to my boyfriend's house in the morning. I asked him to put it on a greased cookie sheet, and let it rise. Four hours later, when I came back from school for a pause before my last class, it was ready to bake. It smelled really good, baking in the oven, while I typed my linguistics paper on Verner's Law.
I've decided, it's much nicer to have bread baking in the oven while you're doing your homework than just doing the homework without the aroma of baking bread, and the anticipation of tasting a nice, fresh-from-the-oven loaf of bread, (even though I haven't tasted this one yet).

Bread baking pans

Here is my small collection of bread baking pans. I bake all my breads in these pans, unless I'm baking a free-form loaf on a cookie sheet. The stainless-steel pans are from an antique shop, owned by the former milk man, who used to bring milk to my parents every day on his rounds. I bought a beautiful, antique kerosene lamp from him. When I saw these stainless-steel pans, I said I wanted them, too. He said, "Those come with the lamp!" Since then, I have made many loaves of bread in these trusty pans. The little can is just an emptied and washed fruit or vegetable tin that I use mainly for quick breads, but it also comes in handy for that odd bit of extra dough. The fluted pan is for rich brioche. It makes a decorous loaf of bread. The piece of green pottery is made by a couple in Albert Lea, Minnesota. They fire these bread-baking bowls at a really high temperature, so that they'll be safe for bread baking. It makes a lovely, crusty loaf of bread. The enameled pan in front is the pan my mother used to keep on the counter full of coupons and recipe clippings. This pan, too, makes a nice, crusty loaf.

Split-Top Cracked Wheat Bread

I had some whole wheat kernels to use up when I started this batch, so I put them in my spice grinder, and whirled away. The recipe calls for 31/2 cups water, 2 tsp. yeast,1/2 cup cracked wheat, 1/2 cup raw oatmeal, 1/2 cup wheat germ, 1 teaspoon sugar, 2 Tbsp. oil, 2 Tbsp. brown sugar, and 2 tsp yeast. I threw in 1 cup unbleached white flour just to help it rise, since it has a lot of grains in it. The rest is whole wheat flour. After making the sponge, and letting it rest, I kept kneading it, and adding whole wheat, until I had a soft, still-sticky dough. Then, I oiled my big bread bowl, and placed the dough in it to rise, flipping it once to oil the whole surface of the dough. I covered it with a plate, and let it rise for two hours. Then, I shaped it into three shapes, as you see from the photo, let it rise again, and let it bake for 45 minutes. The small one took less time.
I enjoy my set of bread baking pans. The large round loaf is made with a pottery bowl that was made just for bread. It makes a beautiful loaf with a nice crust all over. The oblong loaf is made with an antique, enameled pan that my mother had sitting on the counter for years with recipes and coupons in it. It used to have a wooden serving tray with it, but that disappeared several years back. This pan, too, makes a nice crust. The small, round loaf is made using an empty tin of some long-forgotten vegetable of fruit. I keep the largish tin around for leftover pieces of dough, or to make quick breads for gifts.

Spelt Bread

This is actually the second batch of bread I baked this week. It was that kind of a week. I've been buying store bread (It's been that kind of a semester.), and on Wednesday, I was so tired of stale-tasting bread that I started a sponge for Herb Bread before school, and then took it out of the fridge to knead, rise, and bake it after I arrived back home in the evening. Never mind that I was invited out to the visiting professor's farewell dinner in the evening. I told them I was going to be elbow-deep in dough, and, was delighted to have unwittingly created an excuse to stay home from an unexpected event, and relax after an exhausting day. The Herb Bread turned out sublime, so I froze one loaf for finals-week emergencies, and started another batch of bread on Friday - this time Spelt Bread, since Mom gave me an ice-cream bucket full of spelt flour at the end of Christmas vacation.
This bread has two teaspoons of yeast, two tablespoons of honey, and 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal flakes. There's no wheat flour in this bread, and although I've read that spelt does not have as much gluten as wheat flour, I've never had any trouble with it rising. It rises like a dream, and, although it has just a little more crumbly texture than my whole-wheat bread, it is quite tasty.

Sesame Bran Bread

Here is the result of the sponge from the last post. This is a really nummy loaf of bread! After I added the rest of the ingredients, I let the dough rise for two hours at room temperature, and then punched it down. I then shaped it into loaves, and placed the loaves in a slightly warm oven to rise. I baked the loaves at 375 for 45 minutes. Mmmm! Steaming, fresh-from-the-oven bread!

Sesame Bran Bread

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Here's one of my favorite bread recipes from Mel London's Bread Winners (1979). If you ever happen to find this cookbook, I highly recommend having your own copy. I have had endless fun experimenting with the recipes of London's Bread Winners. This one was submitted by a ballerina by the name of Noelle, but, of course, I made my changes to it.
This is a picture of the sponge I made after I took it out of the refrigerator. It has 1 cup water, 1 1/2 cups milk, 1/2 teaspoon yeast, and enough whole wheat flour to make a thick pea-soup-consistency.
I then added another 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast, two eggs, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup bran, about 1/2 cup sesame seeds, and enough whole wheat flour to make a very sticky dough. Then, I turned it out on the floured counter top, and poured on about another 3/4 cup of sesame seeds, and more flour, which I kneaded into the dough. I kneaded the dough until it was a heavy dough, but still quite sticky. Now, it's rising in the oven. I can hardly wait to have hot bread for supper!