Vegan Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread (The Hitchhiker Finished! And . . . Kindle Book of The Month)

It is hard for me to believe that in less than forty-eight hours, we will be entering February. Is this time-passing-at-warp-speed the end product of my own clock running down? It's all happening so fast lately. (Less than two years away and I hit my half century mark. But who's counting.)

Maybe that explains my recent obsession with organizing, sprucing up and stocking my pantry. Labels. Check. Provisions. Check. Grocery list for replenishment. Check. Out of bread last night (oh NO!)--I was left with one of two options: run to Target to grab some more or bake my own. (What woman in her right mind turns down a justified trip to Target?) As it happened, my trip decided it for me. The shelves were nearly bare. I mean, literally, it looked like there had been a mad run on all things bread.  Like the bread production lines had stopped. Like someone had called in sick and not gotten around to the task of restocking. I sat there in the middle of the bread aisle comparing ingredient labels on all but the remaining few breads--fiber grams, protein grams, calories per slice, high fructose corn syrup (in ALL of them! grrrr. . .), I realized my only option then was to go home and bake my own gosh darn bread.

I have a rule now in the house since implementing my new order in the kitchen: ten pounds on hand at all times of the following: unbleached all-purpose, whole wheat and bread flour. Oh, and yeast. Must have yeast--the kind in the jar. If I could store more I would. Being rigid about what to have on hand has afforded me little luxuries like baking this wonderful bread on the spur of the moment yesterday afternoon.

If I am too lazy to put the KitchenAid dough hook to work, I put everything into my bread machine and push the "dough" option. LOVE the dough option. Such a life saver. An hour and a half later, viola, my dough is ready to be shaped, placed in its loaf pan for the second rise and then, finally baked. Could. Not. Be. Simpler. I have found nearly any bread recipe can be processed this way. Sometimes I just can't spend that five minutes on 'dissolve yeast in water', 'add this. . . add that', 'knead for eight minutes', etc. So I take a shortcut and use my bread machine. This is how this lovely bread came into being late (LATE) yesterday. By nine-thirty last night, I had this beautiful loaf of bread out of the oven, cooling and stored, ready for breakfast this morning. Yum.

I think this loaf is one of my best cinnamon raisin breads to date. Sublime.

And then there's my knitting exploits. I finally finished my Hitchhiker scarf (shawlette?) and simply LOVE it. Love. It. The waves of color throughout. It feels so warm and cozy and just makes me happy wearing it. (*Someone else loves it, too!) I knit most of this during TV time in the evenings. It is pretty mindless and easy. I was supposed to have 42 points (the answer to everything in the universe you know) but only ended up with 35 points. Oh well. Perhaps in MY universe the answer is 35. Anyway, the yarn I used made the journey that much better: Colinette, a hand dyed wool. Gorgeous.

Me and Hitchhiker. (Thank you, honey, for taking eight hundred pictures until we got just the right shot!)

And in my Kindle right now is. . . well, there is too much in that thing right now. Dr. Thyme gifted me an old android device for Christmas. It broke. So he insisted on getting me a replacement because I was just getting used to it--the whole reading a book on an e-reader thingy. Well, welcome to ADD central here. My god. Could they put any MORE on the internet to distract and occupy the human mind. At first I was like, whoa. Who needs ALL of this information/time stealer stuff? And then this: I realized I do, that's who. And we have been so engrossed in getting me up to speed on all things "droid" on my Kindle Fire and been such incredible geeks, time has simply been sucked into thin air. (Example: three hours of droid last night. And that was on ONE app! Stitcher. I heart Stitcher radio and podcast app!)

For reading, I am promising myself one book at a time on my device. So, I did a fairly thorough online search for lists of non-fiction books (because non-fiction is appealing more to me the older I get) by people I respect for my official first book. I was reading that new Stephen King thing on my old device, but honestly, I felt like he was spending entirely too much time on details I felt needed better editing. Seriously. Maybe a new editor. I don't think several pages on the main charachter's suitcase really added that much to the story line. IMHO.

So, I picked from the NPR book reviewer, Maureen Corrigan's "Best Of" lists, and decided I needed to read, Searching for Tamsen Donner by Gabrielle Burton about the matriarch of the Donner family.Yes, that Donner family. However, before you go all "Ew" and "Gross"--you might want to give this book a try. There's more to this family's drama than a simple snowstorm. And that is where the story of the author's own obsession over the history and facts of this family tragedy takes shape. It's a wonderful read so far. Burton takes time in the beginning of the book to really lay out for the reader the reason she has the passion and authority to delve further into this oft repeated and re-told tale. For me, the fact it is written by a woman scholar about a woman in history--plus gets the You Should Read This from Ms. Corrigan--well, I felt I needed no further convincing. And on the Kindle we go. 

Now for the bread! (*Little known fact--for each person in the Donner party, they packed 150 pounds of flour!)

Vegan Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Adapted from Light and Easy Baking by Beatrice Ojakangas 

1 1/2 cup warm water (105-110 degrees)

2 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups bread flour (you may need more--depending upon humidity levels)

3/4 cup oats (quick oats or old-fashioned rolled oats)

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons bran (I used wheat bran)

1/2 cup raisins

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

For swirl:

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

Place all ingredients for the bread in the bread machine according to the mfg. directions. (In my machine--the wet ingredients go in first, then the dry and last, the yeast on top.) Press "dough" cycle. After dough cycle, remove dough from machine and place on a lightly floured counter and pat or roll the dough out to a rectangle about 9-11 inches across. Spread the cinnamon and sugar over the dough. From the long end, roll the dough up as tightly as you can, pinch it together at the end, then fold the ends of the dough under the finished roll (because my dough was longer than my 9 x 5 inch loaf pan) and tuck them under, being sure to pinch all open seams closed. Place in loaf pan. Spray with nonstick cookspray. Cover with kitchen towel and let rise for 45 minutes to an hour (the dough should be double in size). About twenty minutes before the second rise is over, preheat oven to 375. Remove towel from top of loaf and with a serrated knife, cut three slashes across the loaf diagonally. Bake loaf for about 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.