APPLE BRAN MUFFINS

2 cups bran flakes cereal1 cup milk (skim is healthier)1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour2 tbsp sugar2 tsp baking powder1 tsp cinnamon1/4 tsp salt2 eggs, slightly beaten1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce3 tbsp salad oil1 tsp vanilla extract1/2 cup toasted almonds, chopped (walnuts also work well)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin pan cups and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the bran flakes and milk. Let mixture stand for 5 minutes. In another bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; set aside. To the bran flakes, add eggs, applesauce, oil, and vanilla; beat well. Stir in the dry ingredients and nuts just until moistened. Fill the muffin cups 3/4s full. Bake at 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned and tops spring back when touched. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

DUTCH APPLE BREAD

This recipe was clipped from an old rural electric co-op newsletter from Southern Indiana and found in my late mother’s old metal recipe file box.

1/2 cup butter, softened1 cup sugar2 eggs1 tsp vanilla extract2 cups flour1 tsp baking soda1/2 tsp salt1/3 cup buttermilk1 cup peeled chopped apples1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Topping:1/3 cup flour2 tbsps sugar2 tbsps brown sugar1/2 tsp ground cinnamon3 tbsps butter

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat eggs and vanilla into the creamed mixture. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Fold in the apples and nuts. Pour into a greased 9-inch by 5-inch by 3-inch loaf pan. For the topping, combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mix well. Cut in the butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes or until bread tests done. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

It’s the perfect bread to partner with soups such as chili, cioppino and clam chowder, as well as most seafood dishes. But the thing is, you could make your individual version of sourdough bread right inside your very own kitchen. It’s not as hard as it sounds. You’ll only need two ingredients, flour & water. Unbleached bread flour is recommended for starting bakers but you also try using flours made of whole-wheat & rye. You could also use organically grown flour if you want.

You’ll also be needing a clear glass jar big enough to hold in all the mixture. Here are the directions to creating your very own sourdough starter:

First Day: Cleanse jar thoroughly. Put 1 c of your choice flour & 1 c of water into your jar then stir the mixture. Use a plastic or wooden spoon for this. Don’t attempt using your metal spoon. Find any damp clean towel then use this to cover your jar. Store jar in any warm place. Ideal temperature is somewhere around 70 – 80 deg. Fahrenheit.

Second Day: All you need to do is to take care that your jar is still securely in its place. Bubbles may appear inside your jar, but don’t worry about this.

Third Day: Open your jar & observe that there might be a bit of a sour smell. Don’t be alarmed. This is normal. Now throw away 1/2 of your mixture. Add 1/2 c of lukewarm water and 1/2 c of the flour to your mixture then stir it well. Next, cover your container again then return it to its original location.

Fourth to Seventh Day: Do the third step in Days 4 to 7. Throw away 1/2 of your mixture and add fresh water and flour to your jar again.

By the seventh day, the container should be already filled with bubbles. The expansion in its volume indicates that your starter can now be used. You could now use this mixture for baking your very own sourdough bread, or store it for future use

To get you started, you need the following materials:

One big bowl that can fit 32 cups of mixture

One big airtight container w/ seal

Two pieces of freezer/Ziploc bags, in big gallon sizes

Food dehydrator

Food processor/blender

You’ll also need spices to create your very own crumbs.

Be sure to stock up on the following:

Garlic powder/salt

Basil Green onions (dried), chopped

Oregano Black pepper

Parsley Seasoned salt Dill Rosemary

You could actually add any spice you want. Some really good flavors you could make include lemon-sage crumbs, Parmesan-Oregano crumbs, Almond and Garam Masala crumbs and Coconut-Lime crumbs. Use your freezer/Ziploc bags to keep all the bread leftovers you can get. Fill them up and put them inside your refrigerator. After getting 2 bags full of leftover bread, then you can proceed to producing your crumbs. Take the bags out from the refrigerator and let them thaw in room temp. for about 2 hrs.

Then open the bags & put your leftovers inside the food dehydrator. Slice the big pcs. into small ones so you’ll not have trouble fitting them inside the dehydrator. Set unit at low temperature and let bread pieces become dry completely (6 to 8 hrs). To avoid waiting, you can do this step the night prior so that next morning after waking up the crumbs will already be dehydrated completely. Take the bread from out of the dehydrator then put them inside the food processor.

Blend or chop the bread pieces. Make sure that all bread pieces turn into very fine crumbs before turning off your food processor. Now add the herbs and spices to the processor. You can add 1 tbsp of each for just the right amount of seasoning. Cover food processor again and blend the mixture. Mix these for about 30 seconds. After that, store the fine crumbs inside an airtight container and keep them where it is cool and dry. Use these homemade crumbs as coatings for chicken, fish, meatballs and meatloaf.

Ingredients:

1 package of active dry yeast

2.5 – 3 c of flour (all-purpose)

1/4 c of water (warm)

1 tsp of salt

1/2 c of milk; warmed

2 tbsps of sugar

1/4 c of butter-flavored Shortening (Crisco brand)

1 egg

How to Cook:

1. Combine water and yeast inside a big bowl. Add in 1.5 c of flour, milk, salt, sugar, shortening and egg to this mixture. Beat using your electric mixer at low settings for about 3 mins. Stir in remainder of your flour for a softer dough.

2. Get a board and sprinkle it with enough flour. Put your dough on it and knead for about five minutes. Make sure that dough becomes smooth & elastic enough. While kneading your dough, continue adding flour onto your board from time to time so that it will make your kneading easier. Shape your dough into 1 big ball and put it inside a greased glass bowl. Turn your dough over and cover it using any clean towel. Let dough double in its size (1 hr.).

3. Take your dough from the bowl, punch it down then form in any shape you like. If you’re planning to prepare dinner rolls, then don’t knead your dough. If you’re just making your basic bread loaf: Shape your dough accordingly and place inside a greased loaf pan measuring 9X5X3. Cover the pan & let dough double in its size. Bake inside your oven at about 375 deg. F until it becomes light brown (30-45 mins).

This produces one loaf. If you’re making herbed cheese bread: On top of your ingredients for basic bread dough, you need to add one to two teaspoons of dill weed or basil (dried) & 1.5 cup of grated cheese (Cheddar). Mix these ingredients into your dough, knead & shape to a circular shape. Next, place dough inside a 1-qt. round, well-greased casserole deep dish. Then, turn your dough over and make an X mark at the very middle of your dough’s top portion using your knife. Cover dough then allow it to rise just until it doubles its size.

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees and bake the dough for 40 – 45 mins. If you’re making dinner rolls: Slice dough equally into 20 pieces then knead into small balls. Next, place dough pieces inside a greased 13X9X2 loaf pan and cover using any clean towel. When your dough is already double its size, bake inside your preheated oven, at around 400 deg. F. Put Crisco on top of your rolls before placing it inside the oven. Keep rolls inside your oven so as to keep them warm for about 7-10 mins before serving

Let me tell you that there is nothing like smelling the succulent aroma of good bread you actually baked yourself. Admittedly, it takes lots of practice before you’d be able to produce the perfect loaf of bread. On your first few baking ventures, you will end up with loaves so hard that you can’t eat them anymore. Trial & error is something that you would need to go through when trying to create your very own homemade bread. Also, you must also learn baking the traditional way, even if your kitchen is stocked with all the modern tools that you would need.

For instance, you should learn kneading your dough with your hands and not rely on electric mixers every time. If you really want to get into baking, you should know some basic stuff, like flour and yeast. There are lots of these flour types available in today’s market, but the very best one that you should use still is your basic bread flour. Its high gluten content produces great results when it comes to taste and texture. Use bread flour on your first few attempts when you’re baking. When you’re already getting the hang of it, that’s when you’re ready to experiment using other types of flour during baking, you could use whole-wheat flour for healthier variety of breads. Yeast is really a very fickle baking ingredient.

This organism likes sugar and warmed water. Water that is very cold or very hot will end up killing your yeast. So in order to control yeast, you’ll need to put in salt into your baking mixture. Without salt, your yeast will get out of control then eat up everything. Starters are very important for novice bakers. This is especially true if you want to make good sourdough breads. The taste and texture of sourdough bread relies heavily on yeast quality. This is why sourdough bread in San Francisco tastes better than those made in other places. The reason behind it is that the natural yeast present in San Francisco’s air is really ideal for making sourdough. Weather also plays a considerable part in producing quality bread. It basically dictates the amount of flour that you’ll need. Dry weather means that you should use lesser amounts of flour and humid conditions require additional flour

Wooden boxes are said to be better when maintaining the freshness of your bread products but there’s also a downside to using them. Wood can trap the moisture from the surrounding air, which can cause condensation inside your box in turn hastening the formation of mold inside your wooden box.

Putting bread inside your refrigerator or freezer is a very popular method, but there are also downsides to it as well. It’s true that refrigerating will delay the formation of molding on your bread, though you must be careful not to let even a small amount of moisture from getting trapped in your box. This can accelerate mold formation instead of delaying it. Another concern about keeping your breads freshness is when bread starts to get stale. You really cannot stop bread from going stale, no matter what storage method you use. Gluten proteins present in your bread knits back again after baking. This makes the composition of your bread a lot tougher. Breads can become stale even refrigerated because low temperatures can actually make bread become stale faster. When breads are kept in low temperatures, starch fraction of the wheat flour undergoes some changes, which involves retro gradation or crystallization.

The good thing is that the crystallization of starch will reverse by putting bread over gentle heat, which softens it. Another way of delaying the staling of breads is using additives on it. Examples of such additives include methylcellulose or glycerol monostearate. Using prop ionic acid or other types of antimicrobial additives can partly inhibit the molding process.

Here are some tips that you can follow if you want to make your bread’s freshness last long:

1. Do not wrap freshly-baked bread as soon as you get it out from your oven. You should let bread cool first before you store it. Trapped heat inside your wrapper can produce condensation, which can make your bread soggy.

2. Wrap bread with foil then place it inside any airtight Ziploc/plastic container bag before you store it inside your freezer.

When you are ready to eat it, thaw your bread at room temp. and heat it inside your oven for ten minutes.

In category of small businesses bakery plants are popular for their high demand products and good returns on the investment .Bread are of various types such as Sandwhich bread , white bread , whole wheat bread , brown bread ,kaboos , toast bread , roti ,naan etc . Bread s have very short shelf life of three to four days .In some country breads are major staple food for the populations .Bread plants are of 25000 loaves to 100000 loaves per day capacities .Manpower required for such plant varies from 8-16.Different shapes and sizes are available for breads .Different flavours are available in the market.

Bread Plants have following processes

Mixing- ingredients

Mixing-dough

Dough dividing

Rounding up

Prooving

Moulding

Final Prooving

Baking

Depanning

Packing

Raw material used in bread manufacturing are following

Flour ,Fat ,sugar ,salt ,yeast,gms powder ,sodium stearoyl lactilate,smp solution,bread improvers,ascorbic acid,potassium bromate,calcium propionate,acetic acid and other additives.

Plant and machinery required for bread plant

Spiral Mixers , silos , sifters , conveyors ,bowls,dividers,hander up , interproover , moulder , final proovers , baking ovens , depanners , cooling racks , cooling tunnels ,slicers and sealers and plastic trays .

Utilities like chilling plants , air compressors , boilers and cold storage rooms are required for different applications .

Bread process requires followings timings to complete the process

1. mixing- 5-10 minutes

2. travel from mixer to final proover- 15 min

3. final prooving – 75min

4.baking -30min

5.cooling – 60-90min

6. packing -15min

Bread once packed are stacked into plastic trays which are then loaded in vans for distribution in morning .These are then collected in evening and again loaded .

Defective breads are replaced with fresh ones

The truth is baking bread is not difficult. Even someone with little to no baking or cooking experience can make a scrumptious loaf of bread their family or dinner guests will gobble down. Making bread is fun, too â?? even therapeutic. The only real downside to homemade bread is that it disappears so quickly. Too, youâ??ll want to make sure you have a trusted, reliable bread recipe.

It does take a little bit of time to make bread â?? not so much actual work time, but waiting time (while the yeast makes the dough rise). So pick a day youâ??re planning to be at home, turn on some favorite music, and enjoy the process â?? and the smells! â?? of good, old fashioned bread. And if you have kids, theyâ??ll love to help, too.

Hereâ??s a favorite, easy recipe for warm, soft, homemade bread.

What youâ??ll need:

1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 ½ packages dry yeast 4 1/2 cups flour, divided (for best results, use white flour)

1 tablespoon salt 1/3 cup milk 1/3 cup oil 1 egg

How to do it:

In a small bowl, mix ½ cup warm water, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and the yeast; set aside. Good, active yeast will double in size by the time youâ??re ready to mix it into the dough. In a saucepan, mix 1 cup flour with 1 ½ cups water. Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly. The mixture will get lumpy and stick to the pan, but if you keep cooking and stirring, it will smooth out. Once the mixture is smooth, remove from the stove and add 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, salt, milk, oil, egg, and 1 cup flour. Mix well. Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture. Add 2 ½ cups flour. Mix well. Leave the dough in the pan, covering it with a clean dish towel and placing it in a reasonably warm, non-drafty place for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Sprinkle flour onto the kitchen counter or a cutting board and place the full lump of dough on it. (The dough should be shaped like a slightly flattened ball.) Sprinkle a small amount of flour on top of the dough. Knead* 2 to 3 minutes, or until smooth and elastic, using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.

Cover the dough again and let it sit for 15 minutes. Knead a few strokes, then cut into two equal parts. Cover and allow it to sit another 15 minutes. Shape each piece into a rounded rectangle. Place each rectangle onto a greased cookie sheet, cover with towel, and let rise until about double. Bake at 375 º for 30 to 35 minutes and enjoy!

* HOW TO KNEAD BREAD:

1. Cover your hands with a light dusting of flour.

2. Using the heel of your hands, press down and push the dough away from you. Then fold the dough back over itself, toward you.

3. Turn the dough one quarter- to half-way around and repeat step 2.

4. Follow the recipe directions to know how long to knead the dough. When the recipe doesnâ??t specify, knead until the dough is smooth and shiny. When you pinch a bit of well-kneaded dough in your fingers, it should feel a lot like pinching your earlobe.