Ciabatta Rolls

When I set out to do these, I really had set the bar kind of low. Expecting this to be a whole day invested into a mediocre attempt at something a little too far out of reach. Boy was I surprised when these turned out AMAZING! No lie. And I'm not even going to attempt to reiterate the details of the recipe, but rather point you in the direction of The Kitchn. Yup, that's where I found this. See last week, well, it was sandwich week over here. I already post a burger(okay, not exactly a sandwich, but go with it)that sat between a sliced ciabatta roll. And I've got at least one more post in the making. We went through these crazy fast. I ended up making about a dozen rolls and then one larger loaf for slicing. The loaf got wrapped up in tinfoil, froze, and about a week after I made these, pulled out and sliced for some pb & banana toast-to see if the bread was good after freezing. Ahem, it is. So here's a photo of how mine turned out and here is where to go for how to have them for yourself. There are step by step photos and its all explained really well. Happy Baking!

W. W. Bread

I think in the past year I've made dozens and dozens of loaves of bread. I rarely buy bread at the grocery store anymore. Except for a good marble rye, which happens every now and again. After tweaking this and that recipe I've come up with a mighty fine loaf of bread. It functions for us as a decent sandwich bread, toasted or not. And I always enjoy when its fresh out of the oven and I just can't wait and I cut off a chunk and smother some butter on it and it melts right before my eyes. That might be why I keep doing this. Ha!! Don't judge.

The W. W. doesn't exactly stand for whole wheat. Its a combo wheat white bread. I've found that while I enjoy both extremes of the bread world (a nice hearty whole grain and a classic white) this is a nice middle ground. All things considered I enjoy its simplicity as well. One would think that after making so much bread I would a. have a bread machine or b. have bread flour. Yeah...about that. I don't. Have either. I think part of it is having just one more thing in my already lacking space kitchen. Not to mention I know I (almost) always have all-purpose flour on hand. I've dabbled in straight wheat bread, but theres more happening there. This is simple, has only a few ingredients, and doesn't require that much kneading.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup warm water
2 tbls sugar
1 tbls dry active yeast
1 teas salt
3 tbls vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
cooking spray

*Dissolve the sugar into the water, then stir in the yeast. After about 10 minutes, once the yeast is creamy, add the rest of the ingredients.
*Once a ball forms, knead on a floured surface until smooth. Put into a boil sprayed with cooking spray. Roll around so all sides are oiled. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for an hour in a warm area. (Note: if you're avoiding huge heating costs like I, and your house is a bit chilly, just preheat your oven to like 100 and then turn it off and you place the dough in...cuts down the time it takes to rise by a good amount)
*Punch down dough and knead into a ball, form into loaf pan, coated with cooking spray, you're using. Let that rise again until about an 1" above the pan.
*Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
*Enjoy for the next few days!!