Filtering beeswax

How blessed I am to know someone who keeps bees and has given me the wax to work with! I was so excited to get this stuff, but needed to process it into a usable form. After some quick internet research, I learned I needed to perform a water extraction followed by filtering. Let's get to work! Start with your raw material, which is a mixture of wax, honey and other gunk.

Scoop onto a piece of cut unbleached muslin cloth or cheesecloth (I prefer muslin after trying both) and wrap into a tight bundle using rubberbands (I knew I saved those asparagus rubber bands for a reason!). After doing this a few times, I recommend forming a "sack" with the top of the bundle being tied together (like you would a garbage bag).

Boil the bundle/s in a large pot of water. Use a very large pot in case the liquid boils over if you aren't watching it closely, as the wax is flammable. I let it boil for an hour or so.

Remove the bundles using tongs, and squeeze out the liquid. The bundles reduce in size by quite a bit, so make sure your rubberbands are tighter than mine were. If you do your bundles in sacks, you won't have this problem.

If you are curious like me, take a peek at what you filtered out. It is mostly just brown "stuff".

The liquid in the pot will be a mixture of honey water and the wax will float to the top. Let it cool. This takes a very long time. Best to boil your wax in the evening, and let the liquid cool overnight. 

Remove your crudely filtered wax pancake from the top of the pot and let it dry on a cooling rack. Then break it apart into a glass measuring cup or some other heat resistant container with a pour spout. Melt in a double boiler, a pan/pot/crockpot filled with water, or microwave. 

Assemble a funnel/muslin filter above another glass measuring cup. I placed a metal tea diffuser/strainer inside of a wide mouth canning funnel, with  muslin cloth underneath the metal strainer. This forms a double strainer. Or simply place muslin at the bottom of a funnel. Once your wax is melted in the double boiler, you have to work fast. Pour it through your filter. Then take the filtered wax and pour into your mold.

The finished beeswax is a brilliant yellow color and has retained its fragrance. 

Cleanup is a tough job. Place your measuring cups in the freezer to cool the wax and make it easily removable from the glass. Use brillo pads and vegetable oil to remove wax from your metal pot and other utensils.

Best White Bread in a Bread Machine Recipe

Investing in a bread machine was one of the soundest financial decisions I've made. Found at a thrift store for 10 bucks, this gem was a steal. I highly recommend visiting your local thrift stores if you are thinking of purchasing a bread machine. Now that I look for them, I see them frequently and sometimes even cheaper than what I paid. Buying used is usually the best route anyway, but it also lets you try it out (bread machine bread-making) before splurging on a pricey machine you're not sure you'd use.

I found this recipe for "Best Bread Machine Bread" and wanted to try it. Only one other recipe was attempted before this one - not going back and no longer looking for a typical bread recipe. The first time I followed the recipe, the bread rose to the top of my machine and I spent a good amount of time scraping and cleaning bread gunk from the inside of the machine. I adjusted the recipe so it makes a smaller loaf. And......YES....you add the yeast/water/sugar FIRST. This goes against all directions and advice about using a bread machine but it works.

Best Bread

3/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar (recipe says white but I use turbinado)
1 3/4 tsp yeast

Combine in bread machine pan and let sit about 10 minutes, then add the rest:

3/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups bread flour (I substitute 1/4 cup flour for 1/4 cup wheat germ)
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Set it. Forget it. And you have delicious toasty bread in 3 to 4 hours.

This bread is similar to Spatz's white bread, made in Saginaw, MI. Makes great breakfast toast, garlic bread, sandwich bread and french toast. I haven't bought store bread since.