Beehive Honey in Wilmington

A huge thanks to Ed Beck, my favorite Beemaster for showing me around the stacks last summer!

It has been far too long since I started this post, and sadly the details have escaped me since then, but I found it in my drafts and wanted to share some of the mad knowledge that Ed dropped on me one fine day last summer in Coastal Carolina.

The Bees are dying... which is troubling considering that they pollinate... everything.

I found it distressing to learn from Ed that natural hives of bees are dying off of mysterious reasons... literally just falling out of the sky.

Ed told me about bee keepers needing to apply 3-5 antibiotics and other medicines to the hives just for the bees to survive through the season. This has only been true, apparently, for the last decade or two.

This is even more upsetting to learn of apple growers having to hire traveling bee-circus-hives around the country to pollenate their fields.

My final lesson from this crash course: It will be hard to keep cooking from scratch if ingredients keep disappearing.

Honey Whole Wheat: my first bread recipe!

I apologize for not having any pictures for this one, but i just couldn't wait to put it up. It was so good! I took it to my cousin's house for dinner, and it was a really lovely night... yay for having really nice distant relatives in a new city!

I just used the basic proportions I have learned from various recipes, the 'lots of milk and butter' from my grandmother's white bread, and the kneading style from baps and baguettes... it was really a good bread. slightly sweet, and just the right consistency.

***See Baking Tips!

1/2 c whole wheat flour

    (King Arthur's 100% whole wheat is great!)

3 1/4 tsp yeast 

   (about one and a half packets)

1/2 c warm water

2 c milk

3 T butter

1/4 c honey

1 1/2 c whole wheat

4 1/2 c all purpose flour

1 c bread flour 

  yeah, this is a huge recipe - three loaves - but i just kept needing to add things...

1/4 c sugar

2 tsp salt

some olive oil for kneading

The ingredients are arranged in order of use. Combine the first three ingredients, first dissolving the yeast in the water, and let this sit for 30 minutes, covered. 

Scald the milk (heat it on the stove, but more of a flash warming. Don't let it boil or get too hot). Melt the butter in the milk and stir in the honey. Make sure to let this cool to a warm or room temperature before adding it to the recipe!!!! otherwise it'll kill the yeast (which, remember, is alive) and you'll get a chunk of nothin. done it... I suggest doing this first and letting it sit along with the yeast mixture above for 30 minutes.

Sift and stir together the third set of ingredients (whole wheat, all purpose and bread flour, sugar and salt)

- this dry ingredient and wet ingredient mixture is very common in baking... it makes for a smooth blending

When the milk has cooled, and the yeast risen (it looks funny, you'll know) form a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour the two liquid ingredients in. Use a fork to start stirring the liquid mixture, slowly adding the flour from the sides as the amount you had gets mixed well. 

Once it is all mixed (it should be fairly sticky) sprinkle a little flour over top and turn it out (this the the word they use for 'pour' for batter since its not really liquid, so you cant really pour, but its the same concept) onto a clean countertop that has been rubbed with generous oil.

Knead the dough about 100 times, or until it feels like one consistent chunk. You'll know it.

Let it rest for ten minutes, and then knead for 10 seconds. Repeat this thrice... or whatever the proper grammar is.

After the third kneading, let it double (sit for about 45 minutes) and divide it into three equal loaves. Older recipes say to punch it down, getting a lot of the air out, but I usually find in dividing and shaping the loaves it gets punched down enough.

I use a large bread knife for this, not pushing down but letting the teeth of the knife do the work as it slides across the dough. It works well; you don't lose all the work it has done rising, and you can really see the consistency of the risen dough on the inside.

Shape the loaves and place them in three greased loaf pans (this is the time to cut the tops if you want patterns on them).  Let them double, covered, again. Yeah, i know it kind of takes a while.

Now, finally you can bake them! 375 degrees at 30 minutes. 

If you want them soft, cover them with a cloth as they cool. Here's a conundrum, though: if you want the bottom crust to not get gooey you've got to turn them upside down for a while. but this looses that pretty top of the loaf. Maybe I need a drying rack?

enjoy!