Maple Oatmeal Bread and "Tricky" recipes

My friend Kelly emailed me this recipe recently. I tried it last weekend and since it made two loaves, I shared with her and her family, and in turn they shared brownies with me, it worked out pretty good :) The recipe has real maple syrup and coffee in it! So yummy.
This is the oatmeal heated up with the syrup, butter, coffee, etc.
The bread turned out to be a little sweet. I made some honey butter that went really well on it! Here is the recipe:

5 3/4 or 6 1/4 c all purpose flour

2 pkgs yeast (5 1/2 tsp)

1 1/2 cups prepared coffee (the darker the better)

1 cup quick cooking oats

3/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/3 c butter

2 tsp salt

2 eggs

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour and the yeast. In a saucepan heat tje coffee, oats, maple syrup, butter and salt over medium low heat just until warm and butter is almost melted.

Add flour mixture along with eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl. Beat on high for 3 minutes

Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can. Turn dough out on to a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic about 3-5 minutes. Shape into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease. Cover; let rise until doubled, about an hour.

Punch dough down. Turn on to floured surface; divide in half. Cover, let rest 10 minutes. Lightly grease two loaf pans and set aside.

Shape dough into 2 loaves by patting and rolling. Place into prepared pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled. (30-45 minutes). Preheat oven to 375.

Bake for 30 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

I have had the cookbook, The Sneaky Chef for a few years now. I got it back when Lane never wanted to eat anything good for him. He has gotten much better but Reese was gone a few nights last week so I made some "tricky" dinners. The first one is Tricky Taco Soup. It was really good and I would have served it to Reese too, it doesn't taste like kid food. It has a sweet potato/carrot puree in it and a white bean puree too. The cookbook gives you a bunch of recipes for purees to sneak into your kids foods. The soup was really flavorful and Lane would never know that "stuff" was in there.
The next night I made pizza and decided to mix some of the sweet potato/carrot puree in with the pizza sauce. I also made a homemade whole wheat crust. It turned out really well. If anyone wants the soup recipe, just let me know. For now, here is my pizza crust recipe, I use it ALL the time.

Place ingredients in a bread machine in the following order:

1/2 cup warm water

1 T olive oil

1 1/2 cups flour (for wheat I do 1 cup all purpose and 1/2 cup wheat flour)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp yeast

Set your machine on 1 lbs loaf and dough setting. It is enough for one pizza. I roll mine out with some cornmeal on a pizza stone and let rise about 30 minutes before I put the toppings on and bake at 425 for about 15 minutes.

I'll try to take some pictures of Estelle this week and post them. Another busy week ahead. Lots of appointments. I am sick of dr appointments! Also, Estelle got her first cold last weekend and it's still hanging on. Poor baby, we've had a few rough nights and I am feeling quite sleep deprived. I've been feeling things getting on top of me lately and the lack of sleep can push me over the edge. Praying for sleep, healing (I haven't been too well lately either), and for peace.