Honey Whole Wheat and Flax Bread

With so much honey flowing into our kitchen, I've been experimenting more lately with replacing other sugars with honey, and trying to adapt favorite recipes along the way.



I've successfully adapted my recipe for bread to use honey rather than sugar. I've made it a few times, so I'm ready to share it.

In the summer it's always harder for me to work up the desire to turn my oven on--so I've been trying to bake a bunch of bread at once. (This picture shows four loaves of the honey whole wheat and flax seed bread, and the round loaf on the right is a leftover oatmeal bread loaf.)  

Honey Whole Wheat and Flax Seed Bread

1/2 cup honey
2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups warmed buttermilk*
2 Tbsp butter, melted, or oil
5 cups of whole wheat flour, divided
1/3 cup of ground flax seed meal**
1 Tbsp yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp honey***
2-3 cups unbleached AP or bread flour

In large mixer bowl, mix first 4 ingredients together. Add 3 cups of the whole wheat flour and 1/3 cup of ground flax seed meal to cooled mixture. Blend at low speed until moist; then beat at medium speed for three minutes to begin developing gluten. Mix yeast into water and honey and let proof.

Add last 2 cups of whole wheat flour to bowl, and add the yeast mixture--after it has started to rise. Mix all together well. Stir in 2-3 cups white flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough pulls cleanly away from the sides of the bowl. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, at least 7 minutes in mixer or 10-15 minutes by hand.

Place dough in greased bowl, flip the dough over so the oily side is on top, cover with a towel. Let rise in warm place until doubled--about an hour. Gently degas ("punch down") dough, divide into 2 loaves and form into loaf shapes. Place in greased bread pans and let rise again until dough is about 1 inch above pan edges.(About 30-45 minutes)

Slice 1/4 inch depth down the the center of each loaf.**** Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes--or until loaves sound hollow when lightly rapped.***** Remove from pans immediately. Cool and enjoy.

My personal notes:

*Sometimes I use buttermilk, sometimes I use milk with 1 Tbl lemon juice added, I've used reconstituted powdered milk with lemon juice added, and you could even use just water, but the bread would not be as rich.

**Fresh ground meal has more nutrients, but flax seeds are difficult to grind. I've tried unsuccessfully in a food processor, and my hand grain mill. What I do is store my flax seeds in the fridge, and when I need meal I mix it about half and half with the wheat berries (grains) and find that I can grind that pretty well through my hand grinder. You can try that if you want, realizing that it goes against the instructions of many grain mills, or you can use pre-ground meal, or simply replace it with more wheat flour.

***I measure out my 1/2 cup of honey into a 1 cup glass measuring cup. I pour it out into the mixing bowl and set aside. When it's time for my yeast, I take that measuring cup with the honey residue left in it, fill it with 1/2 cup of warm water and the yeast and mix them all up. I find there is enough honey left in the glass to get the yeast going nicely, and I don't have to stress about scraping every last bit of honey out back at the first step.

****It's my un-scientifically-proven beleif that splitting the top allows the dough to raise just a little bit more when being placed into the oven before the crust forms, allowing the bread to be just a little bit more airy, which for wheat bread is very appreciated.

*****Alternately I bake to an internal temperature of 190*F.

Orange Sheet Cake

I recently made sheet cake for my friends' baby shower.  The co-host made a delicious Texas sheet cake, and I made an orange sheet cake.  And we all ate a slice of each, because --you know-- sheet cake is pretty flat, only like half the thickness of a regular slice of cake.  So a slice of each is really only like having a whole slice of "regular" cake--right?

 I made this orange sheet cake with orange cream cheese Icing from Wilton, but made a few changes.

First, I left out the orange extract, because it's totally not necessary.  That is a typical standard American diet kind of ingredient.  There is fresh orange zest in the cake and frosting, as well as orange juice in the frosting.  That is plenty "orangey" enough.  If you add the extract I'll bet you wouldn't be able to make it through a whole slice because the flavor would become overbearing.  Subtlety is a virtue that a lot of food lacks these days.

Also, the recipe said to bake it in a 9x13 pan.  Obviously that would make a 9x13 cake, not a sheet cake.  Wilton is just trying to advertise one of their pans, but it's a completely wrong opportunity to do so.  I baked this recipe in a half sheet baking sheet.  That's the normal thick jelly roll-type pans that everyone got for wedding gifts from Cosco members. (That's not a dis, I love and use all three I got weekly, and particularly love the two with lids.)

Finally, the recipe for the delicious orange cream cheese frosting makes at least twice as much as you need for a sheet cake.  I can't imagine spreading that much frosting on the smaller 9x13 size cake they suggested baking--it would be half frosting. 

So here are the recipes, with my suggested changes:

Orange Sheet Cake Recipe:

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 2 tablespoons orange zest 
• 1 tablespoon baking powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 3/4 cup (1-1/2 stick) butter, softened 
• 1-3/4 cup granulated sugar 
• 3 eggs 
• 1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
•  1-1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease sheet pan.


In medium bowl, combine flour, orange zest, baking powder and salt. In large bowl, beat butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add sugar 1/4 cup at a time, scraping down sides of bowl as needed; when combined, beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; add vanilla extract. Add half of flour mixture; beat on low speed until nearly combined. Add buttermilk to moisten; add in remaining flour mixture, beating until just incorporated. Spread batter evenly in pan.

Bake 25-33 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan completely before icing.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe:

•  1/4cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened 
• 1 1/2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened 
• 1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice 
• 1 tablespoon orange zest 
•  2 to 2 1/2  cups confectioners' sugar

In large bowl, beat butter, cream cheese, juice and zest with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add confectioners' sugar one cup at a time, beating until icing is light and fluffy.

Thin Wheat Crackers

I am a snack-y type person. There are times I'm just in the mood to snack on something. Preferably something light and crunchy.

I've always been curious about making my own crackers. It was one of those things I just thought I had to rely on the grocery store for. And I thought that if you were going to make homemade crackers then the only thing that would make the effort worth it would be to make a ton at once (making it take a long time). I was pleasantly surprised to find it was fast and easy to whip up a batch of these homemade crackers. It sounds a little nuts--but I highly suggest giving cracker-making a try sometime.

This is another example of a recipe that is trying to closely mimic a store brand. These tasted right on. Now I'm curious to see if I can adapt the recipe to make the sundried tomato and basil version I've had from the store as well-yumm!

Homemade Thin Wheat Crackers Recipe:

In a medium bowl, whisk together:

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 T. brown sugar
2 T sesame seeds optional

Add these to the ingredients in your bowl:
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 T. oil or melted butter

Stir together to make a soft dough. It will be very soft and sticky. It should be stirred just until the flour is all absorbed, but not kneaded. Once it’s all incorporated, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for about 10 minutes. This lets the whole wheat flour absorb all the liquid.

Divide the dough in half. Grease the bottom side of two sheet pans or use a silicon liner. Plop half of the dough on one sheet pan. Place a piece of saran wrap over the dough and begin rolling with a rolling pin. Roll to cover the sheet pan entirely.

Use a pizza cutter to score the dough into cracker squares. Then sprinkle the dough with a generous sprinkling of salt, and if desired, sprinkle it with some sesame seeds or garlic salt, onion salt, etc.

Bake at 350 for 14-15 minutes or until golden brown and crisp.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Do you have any bottles of salad dressing in your fridge? How long have they been there? Can't remember?

In my personal food journey I set out to identify what the most processed and preservative-filled foods I ate were. We really eat well for the most part, but I decided salad dressings (along with other condiments) and crackers were probably the biggest offenders on my list. What exactly is salad dressing made of that allows it to sit in the fridge for 6 months without going bad?

Ranch is like the all-American salad dressing. Adults like it, kids love it. Its great on a chef salad--better on a taco salad. And my boys love dipping carrot sticks in it.

This recipe makes a thinner-than-store-bought dressing. That is a good thing. It coats your salad more evenly and means that you use less dressing to get your salad lightly coated.

Ranch Salad Dressing Recipe

1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes
1/4 tsp dried minced onion
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1 pinch dried dill weed
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk

In a bowl whisk all ingredients together. Add more buttermilk or milk to reach desired consistency. Pour into a dressing cruet. (Alternately--combine all ingredients in a salad dressing shaker. Shake to combine.) Refrigerate until serving. Makes one cup.

I love the little one on the left. $5 and preservative free.