Greek Honey-Nut Bread & waffle success

I have lots of dehydrated orange peel, but no lemon peel, and several recipes that call for lemon peel. So I tried re-hydrating orange peel in lemon juice (from the $ store, love it!) instead of water. It worked pretty well.

Greek Honey-Nut Bread includes lemon peel, golden raisins, walnuts, and figs. When it comes out of the oven, you cover it in honey. Saturday was actually a perfect day for it, because it turned rainy. We ripped off hunks of this round loaf (slicing it didn't seem appropriate) and drizzled on even more honey.

Sarah and I considered it a make-again, but it has to be eaten straight out of the oven. It's not as good reheated. My other taste-testers said, "Very good and different from the sweet breads we normally have."

RECIPE FROM BETTER HOMES & GARDENS (R): HOMEMADE BREAD COOKBOOK (C) 1973. USED WITH PERMISSION FROM MEREDITH CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may not download or re-post this recipe to other websites or blogs. More recipes available at www.bhg.com/recipes.

GREEK HONEY-NUT BREAD

2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 cup light raisins
1/2 cup chopped figs
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup honey

In large mixer bowl combine 1 cup of the flour and the yeast. Heat milk, sugar, butter, and 1/2 teaspoon salt just till warm (115-120 degrees), stirring constantly to melt butter. Add to dry mixture; add egg and peel. Beat at low speed with electric mixer for 1/2 minute, scraping bowl. Beat 3 minutes at high speed. By hand, stir in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough. Knead on floured surface till smooth (5 to 10 minutes). Shape into a ball.

Place in greased bowl; turn once. Cover; let rise till double (1 to 1 1/2 hours). Knead in fruit and nuts. Let rest 10 minutes. Shape into round loaf; place in greased 9 x 1 1/2-inch round baking pan. Let rise till double (about 45 minutes). Bake at 375 degrees about 30 minutes. Remove from pan; brush with honey. Makes 1 loaf.



As for waffles, well let's just say it's been a successful night. I ate waffles often at my parents' house. In fact, they still make them when we visit. They give me a stomach-ache but they're so good covered in any kind of homemade jam or mashed canned fruit. We got a waffle maker as a wedding gift but despite it being non-stick, I've always had horrible stuck failures, so I gave up.

Sarah brought another waffle iron to our home, and tonight I decided I was going to conquer waffles. I poured in oil, seriously pre-heated the irons, found a recipe with a decent amount of oil, and tossed the first waffle. (All advice I found online to avoid sticking issues.)

I wanted a recipe with whole wheat flour and buttermilk and this one sounded good. I thought it was funny that the recipe is already an adaptation of an adaptation, and I altered it a bit myself. I guess that was the perfect recipe for me. I used all whole wheat flour (soft), cut the vanilla in half because I was almost out (I'd rather have 1/2 tsp left than be completely out, haha!), and accidentally put more soda than it said. That last part is what happens when you try to memorize half the recipe from the computer screen and run into the kitchen to finish cooking.

They turned out GREAT! They fell right out of the iron like they should and the flavor is decent. I actually made them to freeze but Sarah and I enjoyed a few for dinner. :-) I'm so happy that I can make waffles! (Now I just have to figure out where pancakes go wrong for me....)