Bread Baking Day #64: More proteins in your bread!

2014 begins with the addition of more protein to our baked bread, which is always a good thing and a healthy way to begin the year.   Our hostess this month is Ninive of Ninivepisces -- she wanted to get the year off to a nutritious start with Bread Baking Day #64. 

Once again I headed to one of my favorite cookbooks, Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François.  I chose Olive Spelt Bread as my challenge bread, because it uses spelt flour and yogurt.   

It only took me four tries to find the spelt flour.  Whole Foods came through this time, although I was surprised they only carried one brand.  But, that's all I needed.

The process is easy -- combine all the ingredients in a container, let the dough rise, refrigerate for a day, then pull off a hunk of dough, let it rest for 90 minutes, then bake in a high-temperature, steam-filled oven for 35 minutes.   The spelt gives the bread a nutty flavor and the yogurt adds moisture along with extra minerals and proteins.

Thanks to Ninive for suggesting this challenge and to Zorra for creating this event.  Be sure to check out all the submissions in a few days.

Olive Spelt Bread

2 cups spelt flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 tablespoon granulated yeast
1/2 tablespoon Kosher salt
1/8 cup vital wheat gluten
1 cup lukewarm water
1 cup plain whole milk yogurt
1/2 cup pitted green olives, chopped

Whisk together all the dry ingredients.  Combine the wet ingredients and stir them into the dry ingredients.  Cover dough and allow to rest at room temperature for about two hours, until it rises and collapses.  Refrigerate for at least 24 hours.  

On baking day, divide the dough in half, dust the surface with flour, and shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom, giving it a quarter turn each time.

Place the loaf on a piece of parchment and allow it to rest, loosely covered with plastic wrap, for about 90 minutes.  

Thirty minutes before baking time, place a baking stone in the middle of the oven and an empty metal pan under the rack and preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  

Just before baking, dust the top of the loaf with flour and slash the top.  Slide onto the hot stone and pour 1 cup of hot water into the metal pan.  Bake for 35 minutes or until brown and firm.  To brown the bottom, remove the parchment paper two-thirds of the way through the baking time.  Remove loaf from oven, place on wire rack, and let cool.  

Five-minute Chocolate Prune Bread (with nuts)

This month, the Bread Baking Babes, specifically Jamie of Life’s a Feast, challenged us to make a different kind of bread.  It called my name for three reasons.

It's bread.

It's chocolate.

It's from one of my favorite bread baking books, The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (revised & updated edition), by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François.  I must confess that I'm somewhat biased regarding this book -- I created the index.  (I also worked on their previous two publications.)   Try to imagine having a preview peek at dozens of delicious bread recipes!  For a long-time bread baker, that is just heaven.  

So, of course, I had to rise up to the challenge.  (ha ha, rise up. . . .)

Except that the dough didn't.   Rise, that is.   The first proofing took a long time, nearly three times as long as normal, but it did rise.  The next day, when I prepared to form the loaf, the dough just had a weird texture.  I basically pounded the pieces together.  The outlook was poor.

Next, I put the loaf into a proofing oven.  Two hours later, it hadn't budged a bit.  But, ever the trooper until the end, I decided to bake it anyway.  I was totally shocked that the bread actually turned out fine -- three cheers for oven spring!!  The finished bread smelled heavenly and tasted the same.

I'd highly recommend giving this bread a try, whether you stick with prunes (ha ha, stick . . .) or live dangerously by adding nuts or dried cherries.

For the recipe, buy the book (you won't regret it) or stop by one of the Babes blogs for details and commentary.  

(I really shouldn't write posts late at night.)

BDD #63 - Topfbrot/Bread in a Pot -- An Experiment

It's a puzzle whether this event is the last one of 2013 or the first one of 2014.  Perhaps it's a bit of both.

Sandra of From Snuggs Kitchen invited us to bake a bread in a pot for the 63rd Bread Baking Day challenge.   This was a challenge featuring technique.

So, this was how I spent my Christmas day.  

I decided to experiment with my dough, baking half of it in the slow cooker, and the remaining half in a very hot pot in the oven.  My dough was a basic whole wheat dough, prepared several days before Christmas and refrigerated.  The shaping, clearly, was simple.

The slow cooker bread took about 2 hours to bake, and it was a bit flatter.  I placed it under the broiler briefly to darken the crust.

The oven-baked bread looked more like a traditional boule, with a nice crust.  Total bake time after oven heating was only 35 minutes.  It definitely had more 'spring' to it.

Inner textures for both were ok, not too dense, but not open either.   Flavors were equal. If I were to choose this method again, I would opt for the very hot pot in the oven.  I can envision another bake-off between the "hot pot" method and the traditional baking method to see if the textures vary at all.

 Thanks to Sandra for this challenge, and to Zorra for such a fun event.  Keep an eye out for the Roundup in the next few days.

New Year wishes to everyone.

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World Bread Day 2013

There's been a dry spell around here of late, both in the baking department and the weather department.  But, finally, the kitchen has come to life, just in time for World Bread Day (today!).  

Once again, Zorra is our hostess for this year's event.  You'll be able to look at the roundup on her website in a few days.

Recently, I had run across a recipe that was calling my name -- soft pretzels.  So, that is what I decided to bake for this special day.   October and pretzels go well together, right?

Pretzels aren't difficult, but there are multiple steps, so organization is very important.  While the dough was rising, I prepared the baking sheets, the water bath, and the timer.  As a result, the whole process went smoothly, and I ended up with 12 delicious pretzels -- brown on the outside, soft on the inside.


Soft pretzels are a delicious way to celebrate World Bread Day in October.  (Especially with some mustard and a cold beer!)

(I've included the link to the recipe.  Just a cautionary note, though:  there are two negative reviews for this recipe.  Since I followed the recipe to the letter and had no issues, I can only conclude that the reviewers were not experienced bread bakers and/or suffered from user and equipment malfunctions.  Try this recipe for yourself, or, if you have a tried-and-true one already, use that one.) 



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BBD#61: Stuffed Breads

Once again it's time for my monthly post, and, of course, it's to celebrate Bread Baking Day, started by Zorra several years ago.  

Our hostess this month is Anusha of Tomato Blues.  She selected Stuffed Breads as the challenge for Bread Baking Day #61.

One of my projects this month was working on a new edition of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François.  (Due out in October -- preorders taken any time at Amazon).

I used one of the recipes from this cookbook:  Fougasse Stuffed with Roasted Red Peppers.  I chose the Light Whole Wheat dough and used jarred roasted red peppers from Trader Joes.  Easy to make and very delicious.

There is still dough leftover, so today I made a few pitas for dinner.  I'll probably use the remaining dough in the same way, because I love watching the pitas rise in the hot oven as they bake.

  Be sure and stop by Anusha's blog in a few days to see more stuffed breads.

BBD#60: Glazed Breads for BBD's Sixth Anniversary!!

To celebrate the sixth anniversary of Bread Baking Day, Zorra, the founder and June hostess, called for everyone to bake a glazed bread.

I searched all of my cookbooks and finally found just the right recipe -- Cinnamon-Orange Twists with an Orange Glaze, actually a combination of several recipes

Of course, I waited until the hottest day of the summer to make them.  I did start early in the morning, however, so the oven would be off during the worst of the heat in the afternoon.   

The dough, itself, was made in the bread machine, then removed, shaped, and baked.  While I made just a simple twist, you could stuff them with nuts, toasted coconut, cinnamon sugar, or some other mixture.

Finally, when they were slightly warm to the touch, I drizzled them with an Orange Glaze.

The twists are a nice treat for breakfast or snacks.

I'll be looking forward to the BBD challenges during the remaining six months of 2013.  In a few days, we'll also be able to see what the other bread bakers made to celebrated this special anniversay.




Orange Cinnamon Dough

(Adapted from BHG Best Bread Machine Recipes)

1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup water
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
3 cups bread flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons orange zest
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon active dry yeast

Mix all ingredients in the bread machine according to the manufacturer's directions.  Use the manual cycle.  Remove dough and shape as desired when ready.  Bake at 350 degrees F. for 15-18 minutes.

Orange Glaze

In a small bowl, combine 1 cup sifted powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and enough orange juice to make a glaze of drizzling consistency.

Glaze the twists when they are barely warm to the touch.

 

BBD#59: Bread for Company

To celebrate Mother's Day this month, I chose to use the challenge for May's Bread Baking Day.

Ninive, of Ninivepices - Music, Dreams, invited us to bake bread for company.  Moms can be company, right?

So, for a special Mother's Day breakfast, I made yeasted waffles with fresh blueberries from the garden.  The basic batter is made the night before, so it doesn't take much extra time to prepare the meal.

 In the morning, right before baking, add eggs, baking soda, and a splash of vanilla.

The waffles were a great success.  Delicious and easy to make.  I'll definitely make them again (as long as I remember to make the batter the night before!).

Thanks to Ninive for hosting challenge #59, and thanks to Zorra for creating such a fun bread event. 

Marion Cunningham’s Raised Waffles

½ cup warm water
1 package (2 ¼ tsp.) dry yeast
2 cups whole milk, warmed
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 tsp. table salt
1 tsp. sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
¼ tsp. baking soda


Pour the water into a large mixing bowl. (The batter will rise to double its volume, so keep that in mind when you choose the bowl.) Sprinkle the yeast over the water, and let stand to dissolve for 5 minutes.


Add the milk, butter, salt, sugar, and flour, and beat until well blended and smooth. (Electric beaters do a nice job of this.) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it stand overnight at room temperature.


Before cooking the waffles, preheat a waffle maker. Follow your waffle maker’s instruction manual for this.


Just before cooking the waffles, add the eggs and baking soda, and stir to mix well. (I also added ½ t. vanilla at this point.) The batter will be very thin. Pour an appropriate amount of batter into your hot waffle maker: this amount will vary from machine to machine, and you should plan to use your first waffle as a test specimen. Cook until golden and crisp.

Yield: depends on the size and configuration of your waffle iron