Bread and Spread

First off, I finally switched over my domain name, and all my instagram/twitter/pinterest accounts to Measure and Whisk!  Wahoo!  I am still working on getting the permanent header , navigation bar and social media pins designed, but I am thrilled to be moving forward with my new site and would love it if you would continue to follow along!

 If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this bread photo that I posted a few weeks ago.  This bread... yummmmm!  It was amazingly good. I make a lot of bread, so Adam and I eat a lot of bread, and we were floored by how good it was.  Soft and warm with a hint of cinnamon sweetness.  I can't take any credit for the bread other than it turned out fabulously when I followed the recipe, but I did try a few fun spreads with it (because it is a sweet bread, and thus shouldn't be used for BLT's and the like), and had a great time photographing, and then eating all the slices... I would have shared, but Adam wasn't home, and Fox can't eat bread because he doesn't have teeth.

Strawberry Freezer Jam, Nutella and Cream Cheese

My favorite was the strawberry freezer jam

 Later, Adam tried cream cheese and strawberry jam on a slice, and said it was delicious. 

Oatmeal Cinnamon Bread:
From Joy the Baker, by King Arthur Flour

2 cup boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs honey
1/4 cup butter
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbs instant yeast
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
4 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, combine water, oats, brown sugar, honey, butter salt and cinnamon.  Let ingredients sit for 10 minutes, or until the water has cooled to lukewarm.
Add yeast and flours and stir until a rough dough has formed.  Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Pick up the dough, spray the bowl with non-stick spray (or you can pour 1 Tbs of canola oil in the bowl and wipe it around the inside of the bowl with a paper towel), set the dough back in the bowl and then flip dough over so that the whole ball is covered with non-stick spray. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.  After it has risen, divide the dough into two pieces and shape each piece into a loaf.  Put loaves into 2 greased bread pans.  Cover the pans with plastic and allow them to rise until they rise about 1" above the rim of the pan (1 to 1 1/2 hours).  Preheat oven to 350 ° and cook loaves for 35 minutes, tenting aluminum foil over them after 25 minute of cooking.  Remove loaves when the tops are golden brown.
Try not to eat the entire loaf in one sitting.

Strawberry Freezer Jam:
By Ball Canning Instructions from the Pectin Box

2 cups hulled and crushed strawberries (about 2 lbs)
4 cups sugar
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 pouch liquid pectin

Combine crushed strawberries, and sugar in a large bowl, mix and let stand for 10 minutes.
Add pectin pour and lemon juice and stir for 3 minutes.
Ladle jam into clean freezer jars leaving 1/2 inch at the top of the jar.  Screw on caps and let the jam sit in the refrigerator until set, but no longer than 24 hours.  Serve immediately and refrigerate for 3 weeks or freeze up to 1 year.  *Note: We found some separation in the jam and had to mix it with a spoon when we took it out of the freezer.  Also, it is a pretty runny jam, so don't freak out when it runs off your knife.  That being said, it is incredibly delicious and worth making.