I'll be one of those people!

A breakfast I could get used to!  A homemade bagel, pre-toasting, pre-butter and pre-nutritional yeast

I've always swooned over the idea of baking bread, and have heard from many regular bread-bakers that it becomes a very meditative, mindful task when they get into the rhythm of doing it each week.  I want that.  I also want the yummy bread goodness in my belly.  I guess I've been missing out.  Never baked a simple crusty loaf.  I have however managed moist, chocolatey banana bread (once), and whipped up a few batches (maybe just two) of homemade hamburger buns when we were going gluten free for a while.  But the baking bug never caught. Now, I think I'm ready.  

My One Small Change for the month of May is to try cutting back on store-bought bread goods and, instead, make them at home from scratch.   I've psyched myself up to prepare one bread-y item that we would normally buy at a grocery store per week, hopefully making enough to freeze some.  My intention in doing this is to reduce packaging waste, but also to save a few dollars, and perhaps the thing that makes it really worth-while is the thought of connecting more with my food and providing even more delicious, made-with-love nourishment for my family.  Thus far in my bread challenge, I've tried my hand at making bagels and flatbread (Greek gyro style), with pleasing results.  

Bagel in the toaster oven.

Last week we had bagels:  The recipe I used came from this site and was easy to follow and execute.  It made about a dozen (I'm just eating the second to last of this batch for my breakfast, yum).  I used whole wheat bread flour, without any topping (well, not true, on a few I sprinkled some shredded cheddar I had leftover from another recipe...but it was very minimal).  It made dense, hearty-tasting bagels.  I realize now they may have been dense due to my yeast not activating enough.  Next time, we'll see if there's a difference, now that I know.  I mixed in a little bit of garlic powder and onion flakes to the flour while preparing the dough, but I couldn't taste them in the bagels.  No biggie.  My husband and I both liked them. Next time I think I'll add fresh garlic with some sautéed onion, perhaps with some poppy seeds as well.  Ooh, and my favorite type of bagel to buy from cafes or the store is cheddar jalapeño... I'm curious how a whole-wheat cheddar jalapeño bagel would taste!  We'll find out soon!       

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Here's a picture I snapped before promptly folding the thing up, shoving it in my mouth, and moaning with delight.  Not the best shot, but no other photos were taken.  The evidence has been destroyed.      

Last night I made flat-bread for gyros ("the best I've ever had," said my husband!).  I started with dough from this one recipe (the by-hand version, at the bottom) that called for baking the flat bread, but thought they might turn out too puffy and therefore incapable of easy folding, judging from the pictures.  So I looked at a few other recipes that required grilling instead of baking and decided that would be a better method of cooking.  Following the recipe up until step 2, I divided the dough into balls and let them rise 10 minutes more, then rolled them into rounds and immediately grilled them one by one on a pre-heated cast iron skillet at medium-high heat.  I set them on a plate covered with a clean dish towel to keep them warm while I finished the rest of the fixings.  Verdict:  Perfection!  They were very pliable and soft, just a little chewy, but still firm enough to hold a boat-load of fillings.  No complaints at all with this dough recipe!  I'll be making it again, most definitely.      

For the gyro filling, I spread a thin layer of tzatziki on the flat-bread, piled on sautéed mushrooms with onion and zucchini, veggie chikn' fingers cut into thin strips, chopped cucumber, shredded romaine, and then sprinkled a bit of feta and grated cheddar over the top.  I have to say that this meal was awesome!  We each finished off two gyros, which is kind of a lot...  we're pigs, yes.     

I found the tzatziki recipe here and it was super easy.  I substituted with soy yogurt because we're cutting back on dairy (ignore the fact that we found it acceptable to have two types of cheese in the gyros, but no cow's milk yogurt). And I cut corners by not draining the yogurt overnight - pure laziness, that's all I can say.  It wasn't too runny, as the recipe warned it would be.  I also used three cloves of garlic instead of one - the result was tremendously garlicky...perhaps too much so!  I woke up with garlic breath this morning, that's how garlicky it was.  I'd say two cloves would be plenty for my taste buds, and one clove sufficient, but you can adjust to your own liking, of course.   

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My next attempt may be at crackers.  I like crackers.  My husband likes crackers.  Together, we enjoy crackers.  Home-made crackers would rock.  

Oh!!! Or cinnamon swirl bread in the style of Dave's delicious creation!  Yeahhhh.  

Mmmmmmm.  Bread stuffs.