Happy New Year to all! I always talk about my favourite posts of the past year and food goals for this year during my blog-iversary in February, so instead I’ll tell you about the one major, life-changing resolution happening on Planet Byn.

For 2013, I have resolved to do all the dishes before I go to bed. *BOOM*

I know that for some people (ahem, MOM) this is just a given, and not a big deal at all, but I’ve just never been one of these “clean as you go” individuals. I tend to let things pile up in my sink and on the counter, and between regular dinner dishes and baking projects, it’s just a bad chain reaction of events.

So I started implementing my new mandate after Christmas, and it’s already a game-changer. It’s such a nice feeling to get up in the morning and everything is clean, and my counters are clear, just begging to be messed up again. I love it/we’ll see how long it lasts.

So with clear counters I dived into a yeast project this week, and I made BREAD! Even though I’ve been making some bread-products over the last few years (pizza dough, cinnamon rolls, soft pretzels) I’ve never actually baked a traditional loaf of bread. And I did it! And it worked perfectly! And it tasted so good!

Here’s to a 2013 full of successful baking projects coming out of my (clean) kitchen and yours!

Honey Wheat Bread

Source: Take a Megabite

Yield: two loaves

Ingredients

4 1/4 oz (1 cup) all-purpose flour + 10 5/8 oz (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour

10 oz (1 cup) whole wheat flour

1 tbsp salt

1 cup milk

1 cup water

3 tbsp butter

1/2 cup honey

1/2 oz active dry yeast

1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the first measurement of all-purpose flour (4 1/4 oz // 1 cup), the whole wheat flour and the salt.
2. In a small saucepan, heat the milk, water, butter and honey until the butter melts and the mixture is 110 degrees. Remove from the heat, add the yeast, and let sit 5 minutes until the yeast is foamy/bubbly.
3. Add the yeast mixture and the beaten egg to the flour mixture and stir until combined. Add the second measurement of all-purpose flour (10 5/8 oz // 2 1/2 cups) and stir again.
4. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth. You’ll need to add a bit more flour when the dough gets a little too sticky.
5. Spray a large clean bowl with cooking spray and add the dough and turn to coat on all sides. Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. (I preheat my oven to it’s lowest setting, then turn it off, and let my dough rise in there).
6. After an hour, punch down the dough, and then divide in half and add to two loaf pans sprayed with cooking spray. Let rise again for 40 minutes and preheat the oven to 375.
7. Bake loaves for 45 minutes until nice and golden brown.

*Just a quick note that fresh homemade bread has a far shorter shelf life than bread from the store because of the lack of preservatives. If you’re not going to eat it all in a few days, I would recommend slicing and freezing the rest to lock in the freshness*