Kelly of
A Messy Kitchen is the Kitchen of the Month for July. She chose a fiber-rich bread with an unusual ingredient -- pureed white beans.
To be honest, if I were a baker on the Great British Baking Show, I would be sent home because of this bread. I baked it two separate times, and both times the loaves failed. Can't seem to bake a loaf of bread to save my life, it seems.
The first time around, the dough overproofed, even though I watched it carefully. When I slashed the first loaf, it deflated faster than a blink of an eye. I didn't slash the second one.
So, I decided that it was baker error and I needed to try again. This time, I watched the dough like a hawk. The final proof only took around 30 minutes. The unbaked loaves looked fine, but, when I removed them from the oven, both were flat.
There was no third time.
I'm getting a bit gun-shy with bread at the moment. For the time being, I will stick with cookies.
All the other Babes had perfect loaves. So, give it a try and see what happens. Send your efforts to
Kelly by the 29th of July to be included in the Buddy roundup.
From Kelly:
Velvety Bean Bread
Makes 2 small pan loaves
2 tsp (7 g) active dry yeast
1 cup (326.5 g) lukewarm water
2 cups drained cooked or canned navy beans, room temp (I soaked and cooked
mine)
1 cup (113 g) whole wheat flour (I used sprouted spelt)
1 tbsp (13.7 g) olive oil
1 tbsp (17 g) salt (I used less with my salt. Scant tsp or ¾ tsp)
2 tbsp (~6 g) chopped chives (optional)
~ 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour (I added 30 extra grams to each loaf, 60 g
total)
Dissolve yeast in water. Process beans until smooth, transfer to a large
bowl or stand mixer. Stir yeast mixture into beans. Add the whole
wheat flour and stir for one minute, in one direction, to develop the
dough. Add the oil, salt, and chives, if using and stir them in.
Add 1 cup of the AP flour and stir in. Add the remaining AP flour and
knead in with a dough hook, or work in and knead by hand for about 5 minutes,
until smooth.
Place dough in a bowl, cover, and let rise for 3 hours, until almost doubled in
volume. (There should be about 2.5 pounds of dough.)
Turn out dough and divide in half. Butter two 8x4" pans. Form
each portion of dough into a loaf and place seam side down in the pans. The
directions say to let rise for 2½ hours. That was WAY too long for my
kitchen. The above loaf was baked after 1 hour. You'll have to
watch the dough for proper rise. Check at 1 hour and continue to proof if
needed.
Preheat oven to 400ºF, have a spray bottle or small cup of water ready for
steam. Slash each loaf lengthwise , place in oven and bake for 5 minutes,
adding steam every couple minutes with the sprayer or cup. Bake for 15
minutes, then reduce heat to 375ºF and bake for 25 minutes until rich brown
with a matte finish. Turn the loaves out and check for doneness. Finish
cooling on a wire rack before slicing.
The Bread Baking Babes:
