My baking day is generally Thursday but this past week it landed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I wish I had pictures for you but I was so involved in the baking process and now the items are mostly gone from the home (I share with neighbors) and what is left is half eaten, so not so pretty anymore.

But WHAT did I make is what is important and do I have recipes or ate least links to recipes to share?!

Of course!

Well the first thing I made was some delicious Cinnamon Bread…

Now bear with me. Although the recipe looks long it’s really straight forward. I mix everything in my bread machine and then pop it out to rise. I replaced 1 cup of the flour with 1/2 cup of graham and 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour. I also added 2 tablespoons of gluten but that probably was not necessary. I did use King Arthur Flour, cause I always do.

Dough

* 1/4-ounce packet “highly active” active dry yeast; or 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast; or 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
* 7/8 to 1 1/8 cups lukewarm water*
* 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
* 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
* 3 tablespoons sugar
* 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
* 1/2 cup instant mashed potato flakes
* *Use the lesser amount in summer (or in a humid environment), the greater amount in winter (or in a dry climate), and somewhere in between the rest of the year, or if your house is climate controlled.

Filling

* 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 2 teaspoons King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
* 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, to brush on dough

Directions

1) If you’re using “highly active” or active dry yeast, dissolve it with a pinch of sugar in 2 tablespoons of the lukewarm water. Let the yeast and water sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, until the mixture has bubbled and expanded. If you’re using instant yeast, you can skip this step.

2) Combine the dissolved yeast (or instant yeast) with the remainder of the ingredients. Mix and knead everything together—by hand, mixer or bread machine set on the dough cycle—till you’ve made a smooth dough. Adjust the dough’s consistency with additional flour or water as needed; but remember, the more flour you add while you’re kneading, the heavier and drier your final loaf will be. If you’re kneading in a stand mixer, it should take about 7 minutes at second speed, and the dough should barely clean the sides of the bowl, perhaps sticking a bit at the bottom. In a bread machine (or by hand), it should form a smooth ball.

3) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise, at room temperature, until it’s nearly doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Rising may take longer, especially if you’ve kneaded by hand. Give it enough time to become quite puffy.

4) While the dough is rising, make the filling by stirring together the sugar, cinnamon, and flour.

5) Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and pat it into a 6″ x 20″ rectangle.

6) Brush the dough with the egg/water mixture, and sprinkle it evenly with the filling.

7) Starting with a short end, roll the dough into a log.

8 ) Pinch the ends to seal, and pinch the long seam closed.

9) Transfer the log, seam-side down, to a lightly greased 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan. Tent the pan loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap.

10) Allow the bread to rise till it’s crested about 1″ over the rim of the pan, about 1 hour. Again, it may rise more slowly for you; let it rise till it’s 1″ over the rim of the pan, even if that takes longer than an hour. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.

11) Bake the bread for 40 to 45 minutes, tenting it lightly with aluminum foil after the first 15 minutes. The bread’s crust will be golden brown, and the interior of the finished loaf should measure 190°F on an instant-read thermometer.

12) Remove the bread from the oven, and gently loosen the edges with a heatproof spatula or table knife. Turn it out of the pan, and brush the top surface with butter, if desired; this will give it a soft, satiny crust. Allow the bread to cool completely before slicing.

“Recipe courtesy of King Arthur Flour.”
Then I made some Amish Sugar Cookies. I’ve had this recipe for years but I did some altering to it this time. I swaped out 1/2 cup of the flour for graham flour, used  King Arthur’s Vanilla Bean paste and about 1/8 of a teaspoon of Fiori Di Sicilia. Then I rolled the cookie balls in sugar crystals before flattening (with a cat faced cookie presss) for baking. You can’t really see the cat face but here is the end result. Yummy!