12V REFRIGERATOR

Sounds weird, I know, but you cannot taste the beans at all. Best bread EVAH. The beans are mashed up in the bread, not whole, and they add a nice boost of protein. This bread is dense, but not what I'd call heavy. Makes awesome toast, and is yummy with jam, peanut butter, mild cheese or cream cheese. I eat it for breakfast almost every day when the weather is cold. Anyway, recipe:

Whole Wheat Black Bean Raisin Bread

Ingredients:

1 can low-sodium black beans (should be a scant 2 cups worth -- 14 oz can, I think)
2 cups milk
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons oil
4 teaspoons active dry yeast (that's 2 little packets)
1/4 cup warm water
5 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup raisins

Directions

Put the 1/4 cup warm water into a small bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Set aside and let it soften.

Put flour into a large bowl and set aside.

Put the milk, molasses, oil, salt, and beans into a blender and blend until it's thoroughly mixed. Add the yeast mixture, and blend for a few more seconds.

Pour the liquid into the bowl of flour. Add the raisins. Stir until you have one big sticky mess of dough. Sprinkle a healthy amount of flour on your counter or table (wherever you're going to knead the bread), dump the dough out, sprinkle more flour over the dough, and start to knead. And knead and knead and knead and knead. You need to knead for about 15 - 20 minutes (longer is better). Continue to sprinkle flour on the counter and the bread as needed, to keep it from sticking to the counter or to your hands.

When you're done kneading, shape the dough into a round, put it in a lightly greased large bowl, cover with a tea towel, and let it rise for about 45 minutes - 1 hour.

When it has risen, poke a finger into it - if it doesn't fill back in, you can punch it down, press it flat, and reshape back into a round, put in the bowl, cover and let rise. The second rise should only take about 20-25 minutes.

After the second rise, punch it down again, divide it and shape into two rounds. Let rest, covered, just until they get soft -- about 5 minutes.

After the 'rest' either form into round 'hearth' loaves, or put into regular loaf pains. Let rise about 30 minutes, then bake in a pre-heated 350 F oven for about 1 hour.

Remove from pans, let cool on a rack.

A couple of notes:

The original recipe is from The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, which I highly recommend if you like to bake bread. Over the years, I've tweaked the recipe here and there to suit my tastes as well as my convenience:

1. The original recipe calls for cooking the beans from scratch. Since I'm usually making soup the same day as I'm making bread, and since I only have one pot big enough to do the job, I just buy canned beans. Just make sure not to buy seasoned or flavored beans.
2. The original recipe calls for black strap molasses. I had to use regular molasses in a pinch once, and found I liked it better that way. Plus I don't have to trek to the health food store for regular molasses.
3. You're supposed to steam the raisins to make them plumper. I like them steamed or unsteamed equally, so I usually just skip that step. They also say to add the raisins when you're kneading. But I find myself herding a lot of raisins when I do that, so I just put 'em in when I'm mixing everything together.
4. This bread likes some warmth when it's rising - with plain white bread, I can let it rise just about anywhere, but put this bread somewhere warm. I usually just warm the oven up a little before I start and turn it off once it's warm (but not hot).
5. The photo is deceptive -- it looks like there aren't too many raisins. This is because I used a mix of golden and regular raisins. The goldens aren't showing up in the photo so well.

This bread is a good 'keeper', and it freezes well. I bake 2 loaves at a time, put one in the freezer, and the other in a plastic bin on my counter. By the last 2-3 slices, it's getting a little dry, so I usually toast those slices and have it with butter. But it's still tasty and not stale.

Yesterday morning, my son was picked up at 4am by a fisherman friend (..don't even go there, anybody - he's a sworn bachelor..) to go fishing on Lake Owasco. Sincy my son really enjoys fishing and I really enjoy eating fish, he said he would bring me back a trout as a mothers day gift.
Part 1: Thirteen hours later, they came back with a waleye and six lake trout!! The waleye was 24 inches long and weighed just short of 6 pounds! The smallest trout was 18 inches and 2 3/4 pounds. All our friend wanted was one meals worth, since he is heading back out on Monday.
Part 2: They cleaned them!!!
I now have enough fresh fish to last well into the autumn! :c d
Thank goodness for freezers!

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