This week, I'm trying out some new recipes in the grain family. - Apple Oatmeal Muffins, a mostly healthy snack and Whole Wheat Bread, a bread machine recipe.
We'll start with the success, the Apple Oatmeal Muffins.
These muffins were super simple to make. I only had one little hitch. I was all set to mix everything up and I noticed the recipe called for non-instant steel cut oatmeal. I looked down at my can of oatmeal and it said..."instant." Oops. But, at that point, I decided to go for it anyway. And, thankfully, the instant oats worked just fine. Just know, if you try this recipe out, you have to soak the oatmeal in milk for an hour, so plan ahead for that extra time needed.
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| Muffins - all ready to put in the oven |
These were a huge hit, even with the picky crowd. The kids didn't know they were healthy. They just gobbled them up as if they were candy. The recipe says these muffins are great to freeze and pop in the microwave for breakfast. I'm sure they are, but they didn't last long enough at our house to find out. We are definitely going to make these muffins again.
Now for the not-so-successful Pinterest story.
Recently I have been seeing tons of recipes in the blogging world for bread machines. Way back when we first got married we owned a bread machine. Why? Because it was cool to put lots of neat gadgets on my wedding registry and because people bought me those neat gadgets. I made bread a few times, but never really got a lot of use out of the machine. Several years ago, I heard someone mention how they were saving up to buy a bread machine. Since mine was just sitting in my cabinet and I figured they would get more use out of it then I would, I decided to give my bread machine away.
Fast forward to now.
I see bread machine recipes online...everywhere...I want a bread machine again. But I don't want to shell out a couple hundred bucks to get something that I've already had once and didn't use. Then, as if from God, I see a bread machine listed on our local Facebook yard sale site for $8. Yay! I'll take it!
OK, that's the back story. So last week I decided to make my very first loaf of bread in that machine. I got out my Pinterest recipe for Whole Wheat Bread, put the ingredients in the pan in the order specified, then let the machine do its thing. The manual for the bread maker specifically says to take the loaf out of the pan immediately. I tried. And this is what I got.
And it tasted even worse.
Frustrated, I tried to figure out what went wrong. The recipe online says it's for a sandwich loaf but it doesn't say how big of a loaf. My bread maker makes 1 lb and 1.5 lb loaves. So I thought maybe the Pinterest recipe was really for a 2 lb loaf and it couldn't rise in my 1.5 lb max machine.
So I tried again, this time using the recipe in the manual that came with the bread maker. I made sure to put everything in the machine in the order listed in the book. And this is what the second try got me.
Doesn't look much better. Although this time it tasted OK, it still wasn't great. It just seemed so dense, like it didn't rise enough and it definitely did not come out of the pan easily. The manual doesn't say anything about greasing the pan before use. I assumed it is a non-stick pan, but my "loaves" (if you can call them that) are certainly sticking.
So, the Whole Wheat Bread recipe was a fail for me...times two. I still haven't decided if it's the bread maker, or if it's just me.
What about you? Have you had any success with a bread machine? Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? What are your favorite Pinterest finds?
Want to see some hilarious Pinterest fails by other people? Check out this site.
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