Baking

This past weekend I had such a great time baking with some friends from church.

A couple at our church used to own a Great Harvest Bread Company.

I was raised on that bread, and when I learned that this couple used to own one, I knew I had to learn from them!

So a few of us girls from church met at their house and learned a ton!

And ate the best bread ever!

We started the afternoon by grinding our own wheat.

Yeah....never done that before.

One of the girls owns a wheat grinder and man, that made awesome flour!

We then made a Challah dough and a Whole Wheat dough.

We used a 'sponge' method for the dough, which was totally new to me.

Basically you mix the 'wet' ingredients together with part of the flour, let it sit and the yeast do its thing for 30-40 min, then add in the rest of the flour and salt. Then continue the regular process.

The Challah dough was very versatile.

And it doesn't need to be kneaded.

Even better.

They said the Challah dough makes perfect cinnamon rolls.

We made a 'savory roll' with fresh pesto and parmesan.

It was incredible.

Probably the two greatest things I learned from it was:

1. You don't need fat. No butter or oil is needed. That shocked me!

2. The ideal temperature for your dough is between 80 and 82 degrees. It was suggested to bump up your heat when making bread, and to take temps of all the ingredients. If your ingredients are running a little cool, make the water a bit warmer. If the ingredients are warm, make the water cooler. Genius.

At the end of the day, we all left with a loaf of Challah and a loaf of Whole Wheat.

For dinner we all dined on soup, salad, and our 'savory rolls'.

I wish I took more pictures, but my hands were covered in dough and flour for a good portion of the day.

We made them promise to do this again soon.

Especially when I learned that they have an awesome soft pretzel recipe....

This couple at church is not a couple I knew very well. They are around my parents age and it was amazing to learn from them and to hear their wisdom.

I strongly encourage you to get to know an older generation of people and learn from them.

I know as a wife I can learn so much about marriage, family and running a home from someone a few steps down the road!