Tired, Bored, and Antsy = Bread!

Do you ever have those days when you are bored and antsy, but nothing you can think of to do sounds good? I'm tired, so I don't want to work out. It's rainy and gray out, so I don't want to go for a walk. I don't feel like reading, nothing good is on TV, I'm between knitting projects, etc, etc, etc. And yet I'm not really in the mood to just veg out. What to do?

Well, I decided to bake something. Recently I have discovered our local Great Harvest Bread Company location. Oh, it is SO GOOD. They make their bread fresh every day, so if you go in early in the day it is still warm. They always have samples out and they let you try a big piece of whatever bread you are interested in. On Thursdays, our location has this bread called Breakfast Blast. It's wheat bread with dates and cinnamon chips in it and it is my new favorite thing. I bought some this week, but it was gone by yesterday morning (Yes, we did eat an entire loaf of bread in 2 days. No, we do not have a problem. We can stop anytime.) I was craving some, but the store is closed on Sunday and they only have that kind of bread on Thursdays anyway. So, I decided to see if I could make some on my own. I poked around in my cookbooks and found a recipe for this wheat quick bread that had raisins in it. I figured if I used chopped dates instead of the raisins and added some cinnamon, we might be in business. Sure enough, it came out really well! It's very similar to the Breakfast Blast bread, but a bit less sweet since I used ground cinnamon rather than cinnamon chips. That's fine by me since it made it more Michael-friendly anyway! I also substituted soymilk that I soured with vinegar (click the link and look toward the bottom in the section entitled "replacing buttermilk" for more info) for the buttermilk to make it Michael friendly as well. Enjoy!

Alison's Breakfast Blast-esque Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (I might try adding more next time)
1 beaten egg
1 cup buttermilk
3 tblsp honey
1 cup chopped dates
1 beaten egg white

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a baking sheet; set aside. In a large bowl combine whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda. Make a well in center of dry mixture; set aside.
2. In a small mixing bowl combine the egg, buttermilk, and honey. Add egg mixture all at once to dry mixture. Stir until just moistened. Stir in dates.
3. Turn dough out onto prepared baking sheet; pat with wet fingers into an 8-inch round (dough will be wet). Brush with egg white.
4. Bake in a 350 degree oven about 25 minutes or until golden brown and a wooden toothpick comes out clean. If necessary, cover with foil for last 5 minutes of baking to prevent overbrowning. Serve warm.