The Easiest Bread You'll Ever Make

I found this bread recipe in a cookbook I've had for ten years, and I have no idea why I never tried it before this summer. This is honestly the easiest bread recipe there is, and it is absolutely delicious. I've been making it regularly since I moved to Halifax in July, and now it is time to share it with you.

Lightly adapted from The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook

1 cup warm water
2 Tbsp unsulphured molasses
1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast
2 cups (8 oz) organic whole wheat flour
1 tsp sea salt

Stir together your warm (think bath temperature) water and molasses. Sprinkle your yeast over top and gently stir in.

Let sit for about five minutes in a warm area until it starts to bubble and expand. If this doesn't happen after 15 minutes, your yeast is probably dead, throw it out and get some new yeast.

Add your whole wheat flour and salt and stir vigourously for two minutes. This is not a thick dough, and the stirring is not difficult, but if you have weak arms or are feeling lazy, you could easily mix this whole thing in a Kitchenaid.

Scrape your dough into a well greased bread pan, and let rise in a warm area for 45 minutes.

Here's how easy this bread is: YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO PREHEAT! Which is awesome, because I always forget to preheat.

Put your bread into your cold oven, turn on to 400°F and bake for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350°F and bake for another 20 minutes. If you turn the loaf out and tap the bottom, it should sound hollow.

The finished loaf is rather on the small side, I like to double the recipe and make two loaves. One for Andy and I to scarf down with butter while it's still hot, and the second for sandwiches and grilled cheese. (Grilled cheese with old cheddar and apple butter or rhubarb chutney, oh man!)

Being made with molasses and whole wheat, this bread is so good for you! But it tastes like it should be very, very bad. It's dense and rich and oh so amazing when it's fresh from the oven. I can't get enough of this bread, and seriously, how easy was that?

Wedding Cake: Success!

So I survived the 52 hours of train travel and the wedding cake construction. I have to say I'm pretty satisfied with the whole thing. The train ride, while extremely long, was beautiful.

Just gorgeous. Those first two are somewhere in Quebec. Not sure about the last one.

There was one point on the trip there, around 2am, when I woke up with absolutely no feeling in my right arm. I had to pick it up with my left arm and shake vigorously for a good five minutes before any feeling returned. That was... unpleasant. But overall it was a nice trip.

The wedding cake was an extreme challenge, however it actually went a lot smoother than I had imagined it would. There was a slight moment of panic when somewhere in the middle a huge thunderstorm broke out, the power started to flicker and the living room flooded. Eep! It all worked out though.

 

I'm pretty sure Lynsey was happy with it, and that's the most important part. (Sorry the pictures aren't great quality, the lighting was awful!)

The cake in progress. The two standing tiers were styrofoam.

Aren't the toppers adorable?! (I didn't make them)

Lynsey and I are both total magpies. Ooh! Shiny!

Lynsey & Michael

The finished masterpiece! Crazy!

Is it perfect? No. I'm never 100% happy with anything I make. I think that's standard. If I made it again now I know I could improve things, and make it a lot easier on myself. But I'm a good 92% happy with it, and that's not bad.

Wedding Cakes and Amanda Palmer

In a few days I'm taking a 26 hour train ride back to Ontario to build an insane cake for my best friend's wedding. Then I'm taking another 26 hour train ride back home to Halifax (that sounds SO GOOD). I'm actually looking forward to all the train time. It will be time I am forced to sit, relax, and catch up on my reading/sleeping. Also the view should be gorgeous.

I am both excited and very nervous to make this cake. It will be an awesome challenge. Hopefully it will not end in tears...

 If you can decipher my diagram here, you might realize that yes, I AM crazy.

On a completely unrelated note, Amanda Palmer's new album is on it's way to me, along with an art book and lots of other little goodies (Kickstarter is awesome), and in the mean time I am listening to the four released singles on repeat and loving them like crazy. She, just this evening, released her newest music video for her newest single and I would love to share it with you! 

Fair warning: it's bloody. If you're squeamish you might want to look elsewhere.

My blog updating is still spotty, and probably will continue to be for a while. I'm still adjusting to my very physically demanding job (that I LOVE) and trying to get my life all set up here, and deal with wedding cake stuff, but I'm here (and there) and will try my best not to vanish again.

Four Months Later...

She lives!

Hello everyone! I have returned! And I now hail to you from the glorious city of HALIFAX!

That's right! We finally made the move, and we couldn't be happier about it. Just a quick catch up on how we ended up here, and where I've been all summer:

I left off a week before Urban Craft. It was not a rousing success. After dropping a ton of money and time into getting ready, it was an extremely slow day at the show and I only ended up with about $50 sold. It was disappointing, but I hadn't expected the first time out to be a home run. So I signed up for the next months show, and didn't end up making the cut. That was a huge downer for me. I know I made excellent product, everyone who tried my candies raved about them, and I'm proud of what I accomplished. I don't feel like I was given a fair shot, and I definitely have not given up, I just need to find my market.

Regardless, I was in a funk for most of May, and didn't feel much like blogging. Then came June. Our nine year anniversary was on the 6th, and we went clothes shopping and had an amazing dinner at Murray Street. In other words, we spent a lot of money. The very next day Andy got laid off. Yup. Nice, eh? That was another huge kick in the teeth from Ottawa. Also my job at Life of Pie, which I loved, didn't provide many hours in the summer.

So we hated the city we lived in, and between the two of us we only had about half a job.

The good news: when Andy's job laid him off, they gave him a very large severance check. Around the same time, we got another large check from Andy's Grandfather's will (he had died in January). So now we had a large chunk of cash and absolutely no reason to stay in the city. We debated and planned for about a week and decided we were moving to Halifax!

Two weeks later Andy was on a train to Halifax, where he stayed in a hostel downtown while he looked for a job and an apartment. I stayed behind and packed the house. In mid-July, Andy's mother and brother drove up to Ottawa, helped me load everything in to a U-Haul trailer and we drove 19 hours to Halifax with three howling, miserable kitties (poor old Peekaboo got really sick and died a few weeks before we moved). It was a really long day.

So it was a whole lot of rash decisions, and cutting things very close, but it (amazingly) worked out. We're settled in to our new apartment (which is bigger AND cheaper than our last one, and in a much nicer neighborhood), Andy has a good job supervising a cafe, and I am working as a baker in the best cafe/bakery in the city, (just ask Urbanspoon and The Coast) Two if by Sea. And I LOVE my job. The people I work with are incredible, and we make some damn delicious food. It's extremely physical labour, and can be quite exhausting (and sweaty!) but I'm building up my endurance and some mad muscles.

Now for a photo dump, what I've been up to lately:

Check out the view from my living room!

What it looks like from the ground.

Hanging out at the Harbour.

I want to live in that house.

We bought "new" furniture, as you can see the kitties are busy fuzzing it up.

They love it here.

Especially the breeze.

Canning up some local peaches.

There's amazing hiking just a ten minute walk from our apartment.

And foraging galore!

Galore, I say!

Our new favourite spot, a secluded rock on Withrod Lake.

Andy enjoying some hot chocolate after a morning of foraging.

We really, really love it here.

One Week Countdown

Hello everyone! Apologies to my regular readers for the slow updates lately, and welcome to guests who have found their way here from Urban Craft's website.

I am extremely busy getting ready for my first Urban Craft show. I have so many awesome recipes I can't wait to share! I seem to keep forgetting to take good photos of my candies, aside from a quick iPod shot for twitter (@OrganicHeretic), but I will be sure to take lots at Urban Craft to show off.

In addition to the show, I am also traveling to visit my best friend this weekend to go over details for her wedding cake, and in two weeks I am heading to Ottawa Comiccon where I will hopefully get to meet Sir Patrick Stewart, be still my beating heart!

All in all, there is a whole lot going on over here, all very exciting, and just a wee bit stressful. I have not forgotten my blog, it's just a little lower on the priority list for the next few weeks.

DIY Geek Bracelet

Inspired last week by the wonderful Amy Ratcliffe's (@amy_geek) blog about her geeky crafting party, I decided to try my hand at a Dr. Horrible decoupaged bangle bracelet.

Having never decoupaged anything in my life, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

It was fairly easy to make, if a bit time consuming, and VERY sticky.

To make your own, start by locating a plain bangle bracelet. I used wood, but plastic or metal should work fine. Make sure it fits! (If you have large man-hands like I do, this part is tricky...) Get a nice wide bangle, so you have plenty of space to work with. Avoid anything overly textured.

My starting bracelet, bought on sale for $3.00 at Ardene in the mall.

You'll also need a decoupage medium such as Mod Podge, comics to chop up (or other pretty papers), a small, flat paintbrush, and (optional but recommended) a sealer to make your finished product water-resistant. I used Beacon Decoupage Gloss Sealer, which I found next to the Mod Podge at my local art supply/craft store.

All these supplies, excluding the comic book, cost less than $20, and the Mod Podge and sealer will last me through many more projects. The comic was $10 (I already owned a copy, but bought a second just for chopping up), but you can get single issues of most comic books for $3-4 (I bought some Fables for my next bracelet).

Start by cutting out some of your favourite images from your comic book. You can obsessively trim the edges like me, or you can just cut large strips. Start picturing how you want to lay them out. Try not to make them too big or it will be harder to get them to lay flat.

I started by applying some background images, and then used character images and word bubbles over top. That way there weren't too many blank spots (for tiny blank spots, markers are your friend).

To apply the images, start with a thin layer of podge on the bracelet, stick your image on, then brush another layer over top. If you haven't worked with Mod Podge before, don't worry, it starts out looking white, but will dry clear unless you put a ton of layers on. If you have wrinkles, or your paper isn't lying flat, use your fingers, dabbed with a bit of podge so as to not stick, to press them down.

Continue pasting on your comics, being very careful with your fingers. If you hold them in one place too long, you might stick, and accidentally rip off some of the paper (oops, again, markers are your friend for little touch-ups).

After you have covered the outside, I recommend you let the bracelet dry for a couple of hours. Hold it by the inside for a few minutes until it dries enough on the edges that you can sit it down, then keep the pets away!

Mostly finished, drying.

If you want a finished look, use strips of paper measured to the width of the bracelet, to line the inside. This is much easier to do after the outside is dry. Let dry again, then spray the whole thing down with your sealer, dry one last time, and you're good to go!

Now go make geeks everywhere jealous!

Organic Heretic Meets Urban Craft!

I am very excited to announce that on May 5th I will be joining Urban Craft!

For those that don't know, Urban Craft is Ottawa's monthly craft market, giving independent crafters a place to showcase their products on a regular basis. It's a great opportunity for people like me to share what we love to do with the public, and for people who like to shop local and support small business to find new vendors.

I will be selling organic home-made candies at Urban Craft, Saturday, May 5th from 10am-2pm at The GCTC at the corner of Holland & Wellington in Ottawa.

Here are just a few of the goodies that will be available, all organic, all hand-made, all delicious.

Chocolate Covered Toffee

Peppermint Patties

Almond Butter Crunch Bark

 Fluffy Coconut Marshmallows

 Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Candied Citrus Zest

If you're in the Ottawa area I hope you will come check it out and say hello!