Judy's Bakery and Test Kitchen

Pletzlach, and Re-creating Memories

2011-12-14T17:37:00.002-05:00

Pletzlach!

The pletzlach are baking right now. The smell transports me to my childhood. If I close my eyes, I can imagine that I am a teenager again. I'm standing in the living room of our tract house in the Valley, the bedroom suburb just north of Los Angeles. The smell is wafting from our tiny kitchen. Mom's treat is almost ready!

The "onion and something's baking" smell is filling my living room and kitchen today. Tears well up in my eyes--I'm smelling memories of my mom's kitchen. It's a happy cry!

What are pletzlach, you ask? Joan Nathan, in her book, "Jewish Cooking in America," says:
"Pletzel, which rhymes with pretzel, is the foccacia of the Jewish food world. Also called pletzlach (like in our house), onion zemmel, onion pampalik, or onion board, it looks and tastes very much like the flat bread laden with onions and poppy seeds I recently ate in the marketplace of Izmir. After all, pizza began as pita, sprinkled with olive oil and za'atar (a combination of spices), a meal for a poor person. "

A friend of mine told me about this book on Thanksgiving. She said that the stories about the history of the foods and the old ads were lots of fun. I learned that it wasn't only the suffrage movement that changed women in the early 20th century. The manufacturing of foods like ketchup and frozen foods freed women up from making many foods from scratch. Foods like Crisco enabled some women to make foods not possible for them earlier.

The recipe, "Pletzlach with Onions," tugged at my heart strings. After seeing it, I found similar but different recipes from the New York Times online, and on various websites. Joan Nathan's recipe is an adaptation of a recipe from the 1947 Community Cook Book from Woonsocket Rhode Island--one of her favorite cookbooks.

Our HBin5 group did "historical recipes" last month. This month, we are doing "family traditions" recipes. I guess that this recipe fits both categories!

My recipe is an adaption of Joan Nathan's, as I am trying to figure out my mom's method (Mom didn't have recipes, she cooked by feel):

Pletzlach with Onions
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 TBSP vegetable oil (Mom wouldn't have used shortening here!)
1 cup plus 2 TBSP warm water
1 package instant yeast
4 cups all purpose flour (approx. Mom used Gold Medal or Pillsbury)

1 large egg, beaten

1-2 onions, finely chopped (optional, saute' in vegetable oil ahead of time)
1 TBSP poppy seeds
kosher salt

1. I lightly sauteed the onions in vegetable oil ahead of time. I don't remember if Mom did this or not, but I remember the onions had a sheen to them. Since the onions will be baked on the rolls, I don't want to brown the oinons. I did this the day before. The book says 4 cups of onions, and that was too much.

My dough really cleaned the bowl!

2. In the mixing bowl of your mixer, add the salt, sugar, oil, yeast, and warm water. Gradually add enough flour, mixing, until you have a dough that holds together. Usingn anything other than King Arthur flourn is a radical departure for me, but I'm trying to get Mom's bread texture). Change to the dough hook, and knead together about 10 minutes (3 minutes on a Kitchenaid--special mixing action), or until dough is smooth.

Before rising

After a 2 hour rise

Place dough in a greased bowl and allow to rise for 2 hours or until doubled in bulk.

3. Divide the dough into 10 parts, about 4 ounces each. Roll or pat out into a circle 1/8 inch thick, about 4 inches in diameter. Place on a greased baking sheet. Press down in the center, leaving an inch border. Sprinkle with the onions, poppy seeds, and kosher salt and allow to rise a half hour.

4. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 40 minutes or until golden. We enjoyed them almost right out of the oven, with butter melting all over!

The texture was just as I remembered it to be. The New York Times recipe contains eggs, but I just might stay with this one. I think I might cut back on the dough, and try a bit of oil on top.

I've been really enjoying these with butter over the past few days. They are great with soup!

Have you ever enjoyed pletzlach?

Pumpkin Rolls--knotted, roll, and bird rolls

2011-10-31T18:00:00.002-04:00

This recipe for Pumpkin Knotted Rolls was chosen by Phyl of the Artisan Bread Bakers Group. I did make a change to the recipe--I used water instead of milk.

"Dough gone wild!" I left the house to do something, and came back about an hour after I should have. This dough really rose:

Different shapes, different toppings:

Instead of just round or knotted rolls, I thought I'd try several shapes. This sheet has knotted rolls and bird rolls. The bird rolls are simply knotted rolls that don't have the ends turned under. I added currants for the eyes and pumpkin seeds for the beaks.

The next pan contains round rolls, shaped like a mini boule, and single braid rolls:

More bird rolls, so I can practice. Each roll is 3 ounces of dough.

The finished products:

I put cinnamon and sugar on top of the egg wash for the birds on the left. The rest had sesame seeds and/or pumpkin seeds. We will have quite a taste testing!

We had a roll that was topped with sesame and pumpkin seeds for dinner. It had a nice texture and crumb:

The rolls were slightly sweet, but still very good with our creamy mushroom-dill soup.
We can't wait to try the sweet bird rolls!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will leave a comment. What are your favorite fall rolls?

Judy

Raisin Challah

2011-10-13T12:45:00.000-04:00

I did 2 batches of raisin challah dough. I made turban breads, and turned some of the twists into pastry:

First, I made a long "snake" with a "head" at the end. Holding the snake in my left hand, I wrapped the snake around the head to make a turban.

I bought this Wilton extra large spatula to help me move my breads easier, but found my hands worked better.

Before rising, and on the Silpat:

After rising

Another method of making the turban. First, make a braid.

Then, wrap the braid into a round loaf.

Doesn't that braided loaf bake up beautifully?

With the rest of the raisin challah dough, I made "breakfast pastry." I put almond icing on top, and almonds. Really yummy, we ate one. Some have been given as gifts, and I still have some in case we need a gift. Good thing they are in the outside freezer, or they would be tough to resist.

Well, I've been really busy with the baking, but slow to blog. Thanks for everyone's help and encouragement!

Judy

Sourdough Breads

2011-10-13T12:32:00.000-04:00

I did some experimenting with several sourdough breads. Before starting this group, I was afraid of starters. My fears have subsided considerably. Starters can help bring out the flavor of the grain even better. The taste is more complex, and the taste of any yeast fades into the background.

"Clay's Multigrain Sourdough Sandwich Bread"

I started off with a King Arthur Recipe for a multigrain bread. You can find the recipe on their website.

I have a lot of gluten free flours from our group's trials with gluten free baking. I thought this would be great for using up some of the flours:

The dough was mixed in my mixer.

Those black spots are the poppy seeds. I realize now that I forgot to take a picture of the finished loaf. This made a nice 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf. I mixed up my own flour mix, so I don't know how their Harvest Grain mixture worked. I used poppy seed and sunflower seeds for that.

Soudough Rye Breads

Although I love our AB5 Deli Rye Bread, I wanted to give a NY Deli type starter rye bread a try. I have been looking a several recipes and finally gave one a try.

The picture shown had a cross-hatch design, so I tried that with my razor.

We just loved this bread! It was hearty. The taste seemed to improve over the next few days. My hubby kept asking for more bread to go with his soup or dinner. Although the loaves were large for 2 people, ours went quickly. The other one was given to a friend, who said she would enjoy with a group.

100% Rye Sourdough

A health-oriented customer asked me to make him a rye bread with rye starter. It didn't contain any yeast, just rye flour. This sounded like an interesting bread, without much extra work.

The starter took 3 days to form fully. It didn't need feeding.

It was dissappointing, however, to see how loose the dough was:

Therefore, instead of making free form loaves, I made breads in loaf pans.

Truly rustic!!! The customer liked them, although he said that it was a bit gummy in the center. I can't figure that out, because the bread measured 200 degrees when I took them out. Maybe I'll use some yeast next time, so they won't be so dense.

Thanks for all the help of the wonderful HBin5 group, especially Michelle. I have truly grown as a baker, and I thank all of you for your support!

Judy

Onion-Rye Dinner Rolls

2011-09-16T12:10:00.001-04:00

I'd been saving the recipe for onion-rye dinner rolls from the package of Hodgson Mill rye flour for a long time. I ran into it the other day, and decided it would be great for soup. Yesterday was a rainy day, so I whipped up a batch. Easy to do in my mixer (which I didn't own before I joined this baking group!).

Some substitutions were made, as I wanted it to be vegan:
Water used instead of milk
Margarine instead of butter

Here's a picture of the dough, right after it's mixed.

And after it rose (ok, I was out of the house awhile, and it rose longer)

Here's how the rolls look after I shaped them. They are formed by shaping the dough into a long log and cutting pieces off. I added the step of rolling them a bit.

The rolls, cooling. Egg wash was brushed on them before baking. They were baked on convection setting, so both sheets could be done at the same time.

These rolls were wonderful with soup last night!

Finally, I just can't end this post without sharing pix of one of the cute dogs at our local farmer's market. They really brighten my day! My computer's down so I hope to post more later:

This yorkie, Jazzie, will steal your heart! She loves riding around in the basket of her owner's motorized scooter. A vendor made her a collar with some bling!

Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to your comments and seeing what you have been baking.

Very Rustic Rye Bread

2011-09-16T11:47:00.000-04:00

One of my customers is of German descent and loves crusty rye bread. Recently, he requested a 100% rye bread from rye starter. He showed me the book, "Healing with Whole Foods: Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition" by Paul Pitchford. The chapter on breads describes the many benefits of rye. The contributing author, Jacques de Langre, states that rye has the capability of reducing and totally eliminating vessel and plaque calcification in the blood vessels.

Well, the recipe didn't look too difficult. Just 2 stages of starter--starter and then leaven. But that's where it's deceptively simple and tricky! The recipe can go wrong at not rise at any step.

The first stage is mixing freshly ground rye flour with water and letting it sit for 3 days in a warm place. I was able to get freshly milled rye flour from a vendor at our Farmers Market.

The starter was placed in the microwave or oven. The flour never did mix completely, and that made me a bit nervous. Therefore, I stirred it every now and then. On the third day, I did notice some bubbles. There was a slightly sour smell, which was good.

That starter is then mixed with more flour and water before leaving it out overnight. The next morning, there was a loose batter with bubbles. The batter is then mixed with more flour, water, and sea salt and left to sit for a few hours. I was hoping that it would thicken up, even though I added more flour:

The intructions say to put the dough into four 6" x 3" pans. There was much too much batter for that, so I made more loaves and tried a larger size. The pans were to rise in a moist environment, so they were placed in my warming oven on moist setting.

After a few hours, the loaves were baked. They did rise, and actually stuck to the plastic wrap I put on top. That's why there's a crust on the side. Next time, I'll leave the plastic wrap off or spray the plastic wrap better.

I don't know how the breads were yet, the instructions said to wait a few days before eating them. The wait helps the flavor develop. I am hopeful, though....

Have you tried making a bread like this?

Judy

Apples & Honey Whole Grain Challah

2011-09-12T10:35:00.004-04:00

Our HBin5 assignment was to make 1/2 batch (2 pounds of dough) of the Apples and Honey Whole Grain Challah.

Carefully, I wrote out the ounces of a full batch everything on one side of the ingredients in the recipe, and ounces for half batch on the other side.

I began making the dough, using white whole wheat flour instead of regular whole wheat. I even made sure to use 1 1/2 eggs (an egg and a white)! All was going well until I added the water. After I added 3 cups of water, I realized my goof--enough water for a full batch was used. Not the first time this has happened, so I started adding enough of everything else to make a full batch.

I'm glad I had enough apples in the house. You can see the chunks of apple in the dough.

Still, it was kind of hard to mix by hand, so I put it all into my mixer. It looked kinda thin in the mixer, and I kept adding flour... I don't know if the dough is any different when making the dough properly, but there's no way this dough could be braided. It's not quite a dough, thicker than a batter.

I put it all in my square dough bucket (that's the one I use for assignments and experimenting) and went out for about 1 1/2 hours. When I got back, this is what I saw:

It was like seeing something from one of the old "Blob" science fiction movies.

Quickly, I cleaned up it; part went into another dough bucket. Both buckets went into the refrigerator.

It was comical--the dough still kept growing over the square dough bucket. More dough was transferred:

Even after tossing the dough that got onto the counter, there was still a lot of dough left.

The next morning, the dough firmed up a bit. However, it wasn't firm enough to braid. I stuck with my original idea to use a loaf pan.

I used 1 1/2 pounds of dough in my 8 1/2" loaf pan, letting it rise 1 1/2 hours. Then an egg wash was applied. I used raw sugar on top instead of sesame seeds. The loaf seemed to need more sugar.

That gave the loaf a nice golden color.

I ended up having enough dough to make four 1 1/2 pound loaves. I was supposed to make only 2 pounds of dough, if I hadn't made the water mistake. It's ok. This was like a good, soft sandwich loaf with apple chunks. We only had a small piece after a few days.

I baked one loaf at a friend's house yesterday. This morning, she called and said it was really good. She said it's a nice sandwich bread, but you get a surprise of apples when you bite into it.

Would be great with peanut butter, I bet. Oh, that sounds like a good idea!

I hope your loaves came out nice. Even though this one wasn't braided, it came out tasty. Plus, I have 2 loaves in the freezer for gifts.

Judy

Brown Rice and Prune Bread

2011-09-05T17:45:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to Guff of Old Pops Blog and Elwood at Flour Today Bread Tomorrow who gave me the courage to try this recipe. Prunes? Dried Plums??? In a bread?

I took a tip from Guff, and floured the prunes before chopping them in my mini chopper. Still, some of the prunes became a paste.
The dough, after being mixed, looked like this:

After rising in the pan

Pumpkin seeds were added to one loaf. They were leftover from a previous recipe....

And the taste? I thought the bread started off when I first bit into it. Just before I began to swallow, I detected a bitter aftertaste.

My husband enjoys this bread, especially with cheese.

Thanks for stopping by,

Judy

All Purpose Flour Test--King Arthur and General Mills Unbleached

2011-09-02T08:11:00.001-04:00

As many of you know, I love King Arthur Flours. I guess I just resonate with this brand, my dough recipes respond to it.

However, if I could use a less expensive unbleached flour, it could save me money. Is there really a difference between King Arthur flour and less expensive Gold Medal unbleached flour? I decided to put them to the test. I made two batches of the AB5 challah dough:

I think the texture and color of the dough was slightly different after rising. The King Arthur dough definitely rose higher in my warm sunroom!

Here's a closeup for the doughs, after rising.

The champ is King Arthur!!!

I found some comments and other flour tests online. Here is a comment from one test:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2770/baguette-cross-sections-king-arthur-vs-gold-medal-flours

“Also I had tried GM AP a few years back. A friend brought it to me when I was teaching her my technique for cinnamon rolls. I almost curled up my nose. LOL. I went ahead and tried it again though, thinking well, it might be better. Wrong. KA is my favorite and what I tell my breadclasses to use.

One photograph is worth a thousand words. Well, here is a composite of 2 images. The baguette on the left was made with King Arthur flour. The baguette on the right was made with Gold Medal flour. My preference is for the baguette on the left made with King Arthur flour. It had a better chew to it. What's a baguette if it doesn't have some chew? I also liked the slightly better flavor - as opposed to very little flavor with the Gold Medal baguette. Then there is the gas bubble formation. Again I liked the larger holes in the KA baguette. Toast? Glad you asked. Again, the KA baguette was the winner.
Both baguettes were made with the same amount of dough."

I posted the last picture on the King Arthur flour Facebook page. They were very appreciative, and said it's a "great go-to photo."

By the way, I tried both General Mills' "Better for Bread" and Unbleached Flour. I actually preferred the Unbleached Flour to their "Better for Bread" flour.

The King triumphs over the General!! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Judy

Toasted Millet and Fruit Bread

2011-08-25T14:31:00.001-04:00

I made a couple of slight changes to this recipe. White whole wheat was used. The optional nuts weren't added to the dough; they were rolled into the dough.

I used the letterfold technique, and it gave me nice long loaves. I made a half batch of the recipe, enough for 2 pounds of dough. In the center of one, I put almonds. Walnuts were put in the center of the other loaf, which was going to be a thank you gift for a friend.

I put the corresponding nut on top of each loaf, so I could tell them apart:

My baking stone was used. It's been in my warming tray for storage too long! I baked it a bit differently, though, to save my tempermental oven. The bread steams and forms a crust the first half of baking only. Therefore, the loaves were baked at the higher temperature. Halfway through, I changed to 325 degrees convection. The convection baking moved the hot air around, while giving my oven a break. The results were wonderful!:

I decided, however, to freeze our loaf for a week. It was great after being frozen and reheated. The loaf had a nice texture, but it wasn't crunchy from the millet. Maybe the freezing softened the millet. It was a really good bread. By the time I realized that I hadn't taken a picture of the loaf's inside, this is all that was left:

Our friend loved her bread! She said she ate half the loaf the first day, it was so wonderful. She emailed my hubby that "your wife is awesome!" Wow, what a wonderful complement!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will leave a comment. I look forward to what you will bake!

Judy

Breakfast Breads

2011-08-18T16:05:00.003-04:00

I just made 2 HBin5 breads that would be great for breakfast--Bran Muffin Bread and Oatmeal Date Bread. My hubby and I felt that, although these would be great for breakfast, we wouldn't make a savory sandwich from them.

Here's the dough for the Bran Muffin Bread. I didn't have enough maple syrup, so I used more molasses. The dough was pretty thick, and it was probably because the molasses is thicker than maple syrup.

Bran Muffin Bread

We ate this bread up before I took a final picture! However, I thought it was good enough to sell at the Farmer's Market. Some loaves were sold, when it was sampled. However, it's a pretty pricey recipe. We think we will keep this bread for ourselves!

Next, I made the oatmeal date bread. Here's a picture of it in the loaf pan. After seeing a comment by our friend, Guff, at http://oldpopsblog.blogspot.com/ , I decided not to add the optional walnuts. He said it made it a bit dry.

Oatmeal Date Bread

Here's the finished loaf, which was sprinkled with raw sugar. We had this for dinner, and it was like eating cake! The next day, however, the bread firmed up considerably. We enjoyed it, but didn't "go crazy" for it as we did the night before.

Our group baking member, Nancy, was kind enough to give me her light wheat bread recipe. A test was made, and we almost ate the whole loaf the first day! I sold some loaves at the farmer's market.

Nancy's Light Wheat Bread

The demand for sourdough bread has skyrocketed lately at the Farmer's Market. I heard the Amish stopped bringing it to the Market. I've been using sourdough starter in the AB5 Master dough. Last week, I graduated to 2 larger jars!

Still, I just about ran out this week! "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble! " Do you have any easy methods to share for sourdough?

Thanks so much for visiting. I loved making these breads. I hope to be baking our group recipes again soon.

Judy

Guff's Steel Cut Oatmeal Bread

2011-08-04T15:37:00.015-04:00

Our co-baking buddy, Guff, developed a steel cut oatmeal bread. I had mentioned that I was looking for a new, lighter multigrain bread. Recently, I purchased some oat groats at a really good price, and he gave me this recipe. You can see his fun blog at Old Pop's Blog
Although it wasn't whole groats, it sounded like it would be a good thing to test out at the Farmer's Market.

Here are the mini loaves, after an overnight rise in the fridge. I think they rose too much, and the edges had to be trimmed with a scissors. Only a half batch was made the first time.

One loaf was cut into samples, and the other two loaves sold to happy customers.

The next time, I made 3 small loaves and one larger ( 1 1/2 pound) loaf. All the loaves sold.

Here's a picture of the second batch of my smaller loaves baking--sourdough and Guff's Steel Cut Oatmeal bread:

You can tell them apart because of the oats in the dough. I was really careful of this because of a mixup of 2 whole wheat recipes in the past.

Thanks for stoppping by. I hope you will leave a comment and suggestions. Come back soon!

Judy

Bran Muffin Bread

2011-08-04T15:11:00.000-04:00

This week's assignment is Bran Muffin Bread. I've been looking for a somewhat sweet bread to replace Anadama bread for my farmer's market menu. Anadama bread is a hearty bread, probably enjoyed in the cooler months. When it got hot, Anadama bread sales plummeted, and lighter breads began selling more. I was considering a raisin bread, and this seemed to fit the bill.

A half recipe was made. There wasn't enough maple syrup, so half maple syrup and half molasses was used.

Before rising

An oiled, 7" glass bowl was used as a couche. The dough roller was used to make rectangles of the dough, which were folded in a letterfold fashion for the mini loaves.

Here are my breads, rising in the "warm" sunroom.

The round loaf was baked on my Silpat. I placed my Silpat on top of the glass bowl, after rising, The bowl was then flipped over to put the dough onto the Silpat.

I like the idea of baking at 350 degrees, with steam. My meter shows that higher temperatures really use a lot more energy.

The finished loaves. This is a really good "breakfast bread." I might use a larger bowl as a couche, for the round loaf. You can't really tell that the round loaf is 5 ounces heavier!

This bread was sampled at the Farmer's Market yesterday, and people really liked it. It's like a good raisin- cinnamon bread. One small loaf was used for samples, the other two loaves sold. I'm thinking of making a few muffins for use as samples, to save on dough. The breads sold before half the loaf was sampled!

I'm going to make some changes in the recipe, since maple syrup can be really expensive. I plan to experiment with combinations of honey, maple syrup, water and molasses.

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to leave a comment. Hope to see you again soon.

Judy

Thanks for

Rye Raisin Pecan Bread

2011-07-15T17:49:00.001-04:00

I adore the King Arthur Flour recipe for raisin, rye and pecan bread! The raisins give the bread a wonderful sweetness. The mixture of rye and white flours gives a more wholesome flavor.

I make some changes to the recipe:

One kind of rye flour, the kind found in grocery stores, is used. I don't want to buy several grinds of flour, like pumpernickel.
Oil is substituted for the butter.
The first loaf shown is made with all purpose flour. The second loaf is made with bread flour.

This bread was made several times before, as a freestanding loaf, and in my cast iron pot. When a fellow seller at the Farmer's Market gave me some of his rye flour to try, I just had to make it into this bread.

It takes 2 days to make this bread, because a starter is made the night before. The starter contains only 1/8 of a teaspoon of yeast, all purpose flour, and a small amount of water. The result is a stiff dough, which is placed in a small oiled bowl. The bowl is covered and left on the counter overnight.

I had planned to take a picture of the starter, twice, but forgot. Sorry. You'll just have to try making this wonderful bread!

The next morning, I mixed together the ingredients, except the raisins and pecans. The dough rose for about an hour. It was a bit sticky and puffy. It didn't double in size, which the recipe said was normal. I used my mixer to add the nuts and raisins. Some extra flour was added--the recipe called for kneading in the nuts and raisins on a floured surface. Therefore, this was the time to add extra flour!

The first time, a freestanding loaf was made on my stone. I wish that I had put the dough in a bowl to rise, so it wouldn't spread out so much:

The second time, the dough rose and baked in a 9" baking pan:

This made a nice round loaf. However, I'd like a bit more rustic look.

The second bread was a gift for a friend, who did a favor for me. It was hard to resist, as the aroma was wafting out of the oven.

My friend just called and said the bread was fabulous--most of the bread never made it home (it was shared with a friend).

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will leave a comment, and post what you baked.

Judy

Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire

2011-07-13T14:33:00.000-04:00

For this baking project, I decided to try Peter Rheinhart's "Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire." The HB5 bread assignments this time just didn't interest me.

Peter, in his book, "The Bread Baker's Apprentice," said that people really liked this bread. Since I'd like to add a multigrain sandwich bread to my Farmer's Market menu, I thought I'd try this one.

The dough starts with a "soaker." I don't know the difference between a soaker and a starter; they are probably the same thing. This soaker is a combination of coarse cornmeal, wheat bran, rolled oats, and water. It's a good opportunity to use the freshly-ground cornmeal from the farmer's market the other day. The bowl is covered with plastic wrap, and left on the counter overnight so the enzymes can start working.

One recipe change was to use only water, instead of the suggested water and milk. Peter's recipe notes said that makes the loaf chewier, and no crust carmelization. The finished loaf was definitely chewy!

I didn't have a 9" x 5" loaf pan, so I used two 8.5" x 4.5" pans. I let them rise a bit longer, so that the loaves would bake taller.

Here are the finished loaves. They were baked for 20 minutes, and then the loaves were rotated 180 degrees. Then, they were baked an additional 20 minutes. They turned out golden brown!

I was hoping that the loaves would come out taller. I guess that's why a single two pound loaf was suggested in the recipe.

We really enjoyed this bread. Very tasty. Even though it's called a multigrain bread, however, it seemed to contain mostly bread flour. I might experiment with the recipe--to remove some of the white flour and add additional whole grain flours.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting! I look forward to hearing your comments and seeing your breads.

Judy

Gluten-Free Brioche and Coffeecake

2011-06-28T13:46:00.000-04:00

Time for our HBin5 baking group to venture into gluten free baking again. This time, we are trying gluten free brioche. The recipe is very similar to our challah and brioche recipes in "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day."

I'm glad for the assignment, because I still have plenty of gluten free flours from previous assignments. My version is made with a few changes. Soy milk was used instead of cows' milk; this actually gave it a much sweeter taste. Guar gum was used instead of xanathan gum; it's a bit less expensive.

My dough seems like a thick pancake batter. After seeing the gluten free boule video on the authors' website, I realized that my "dough" is much thinner than theirs. I found out that my measurements weren't correct for their method of measuring the flours.

First, a loaf was made. I've had problems with the gluten free dough sticking to the plastic wrap before. Therefore, I put an upside down glass bowl on top of it. That seemed to work just fine.

A few days later, I decided to make a coffeecake with the thin batter. Making the assigned cinnamon rolls just seemed too hard with this dough. It would take a lot of extra flours to thicken it up.

A tube pan was used. I started with a layer of dough, and smoothed it out.

Then I added the filling from the recipe, and added a top layer of dough.

The coffeecake seemed to need a streusel topping, so I added that.

The final baked coffeecake:

I tried turning the coffeecake onto a pizza pan, which is the largest flat pan that I own. I would love a cake pan, but don't want more "gadgets" taking up room in my cupboards.

It's a good thing I took a picture of the cake in the pan, because it didn't come out perfectly. But it did look better with the icing:

My hubby really liked the coffeecake, with the orange flavoring in the icing. I thought it was a bit too sweet, but that's probably due to the soymilk in the dough.

This is my makeshift cake pan! My largest storage bowl, upside down on my pizza pan. Hey, it works.

I think that I will try to use my gluten free flours in my regular baking with wheat flours. Baking is a learning process, and there's plenty to learn with wheat baking. I'll have this knowledge if I need to bake for a gluten free friend, though.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed making this recipe, and will leave a comment. Come by and visit again soon!

Judy

Honey Graham Bread

2011-06-16T13:39:00.000-04:00

For this baking group assignment, I decided to make half a batch. Then, I made smaller size breads, rather than a two pound loaf. That way, I can freeze them and only take out a bit of bread at a time for toast.

Honey Graham Breads, Before Rising

Honey graham crackers are a favorite snack of mine, so I was looking forward to making this bread. It's a good thing, though, that I took the picture above. I was also making anadama bread for the Farmers Market. I thought I kept track of which mini loaf was which, but they got mixed up in the overnight refrigeration.

Anadama Bread? Graham Bread?

It took me awhile to figure out which was the honey graham bread and which was the Anadama bread, but I did it. Can you tell? I was able to compare my Anadama breads (the two at the right forefront) to a muffaletta style bread loaf from the same dough. The Anadama breads have cornmeal in them, so they have a more "coarse, rustic finish" on top. The honey graham breads had a slight cinnamon flavor.

Muffaletta style Anadama Bread in back

The honey graham bread tasted good, but I might modify the recipe to make it sweeter next time. It is a nice whole wheat bread to share with friends, when I make this size.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will leave a comment. Stop by again soon, I'll be baking again!

Seeded Oat Bread, Gluten Free Loaves

2011-06-12T18:14:00.002-04:00

Seeded Oat Bread

Wow, what a great bread! I decided to make this loaf after seeing how wonderful it looked at the website of our co-baker, Guff at http://oldpopsblog.blogspot.com/ .

Also, this recipe isn't all whole wheat; I thought my husband would be ok with it. After over a year of whole wheat baking, he commented that he would like some non-whole wheat breads. It was a relief to learn that he really loved this bread!

Seeded Oat Bread Dough

This dough was really interesting--chock-full of nuts and seeds. I made sure to use raw sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds. I have made loaves with roasted seeds before, and they burned. It seemed like the baking was considered a second "roasting."

Resting on the Peel

Crunchy, munchy loaves!
That's my newly spiral-bound HBin5 book!

The "letterfold" method of folding helped me make really nice loaves. I wish, however, I had rolled the loaves on a counter with seeds sprinkled on it--as Guff did. I found myself patting the seeds onto it.

Although it seems risky for me to bake at higher temperatures in my Thermador oven (burns the oven element out), I just craved those crusty loaves. It was just thrilled to take these loaves out of the oven!!!

Not much left after dinner!

And now, a Gluten-Free recipe!:

I purchased quite a bit of gluten free flours through the course of this project. Well, I felt it's time to use those flours again.

I decided to make the Gluten-Free Crusty Boule recipe, but as a loaf.

The dry ingredients were mixed in the rising bucket, before added to liquids

This is dough?

After combining the ingredients, I mixed the ingredients at high speed for a few minutes. That technique was outlined in another gluten-free bread recipe. It gave the bread structure. It couldn't hurt, I figured.

Before the "dough" rises

The bowl was scraped down, and the dough mixed a few additional minutes. It didn't look like an impressive dough when it was set out to rise.

A nice rise in our warm sunroom!

Wow, what a nice rise. I've heard that the dough "matures" nicely after rising and overnight in the refrigerator. It's not the same as dough with gluten, but there's a nice combination of flours--tapioca, sorghum, and brown rice. You don't get that in baking with gluten, normally. Most people just stick with the standard wheat flour.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you will leave a comment. Please return soon, I'll be baking again!

Almost Like Rye, But Gluten Free

2011-06-01T13:03:00.002-04:00

I've been experimenting with gluten-free flours. It's a whole different world of different flours to explore. The techniques are different, and so are the challenges.

A local mom and pop health food store is selling off their grocery items at a discount, so I snatched up some Bob's Red Mill teff flour to try for this recipe. I just love rye bread, so I wanted to see how this bread would taste.

Teff dough, just after mixing in Kitchenaid

This dough mixed up slightly firmer than my other gluten-free doughs. The other gluten-free doughs have mixed up like a loose, sticky paste. This one held together much more, right after mixing.

Teff dough, after rising

The dough rose nicely. Still, the texture was much stickier than dough with gluten.

I formed a boule on a piece of parchment, by constantly wetting my hands to shape it. It's not possible to knead this dough!

I decided to make both a freestanding boule and a loaf. A foil loaf pan was used because they are slightly smaller than my standard ones. I was only using one pound of dough, so I wanted a smaller loaf pan.

The breads look nice, but I'm dissappointed that the boule came out a bit flat. I might be to blame, though. I had a number of things cooking (including some of our dinner), and so the breads went into the oven a bit late.

However, I wonder if rising the dough in a small, cloth-covered basket would help the bread keep it's shape? I'd have to sprinkle the cloth with gluten-free flour or cornmeal, to make sure they don't stick. Something to try next time....

And how did it taste and look inside?

The bread tasted great, the caraway seeds added a lot of flavor. The crumb looked nice, also. I'd make this bread again if the teff flour weren't that much more expensive than regular rye flour.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting! Please leave a comment. What have you been baking?

Stop by again, soon. It's fun to share baking.

Judy

Anadama Bread

2011-05-12T16:07:00.000-04:00

This was a surprisingly tasty bread. Not dry at all!

I made the dough as loaves, which were baked at 350 degrees. I sprayed the tops with water before baking.

Focaccia with Garlic Shards, Artichokes and Feta

2011-04-05T09:44:00.000-04:00

There's a note on my book that says, "good" at the top of this recipe. I'm guessing that someone else in our baking group made it, and liked it. Since it came up as our baking assignment, I just had to try making it. We had this focaccia bread for dinner tonight.

A half batch of HBin5 master dough was made. As usual, I used white whole wheat flour instead of regular whole wheat flour. We didn't have any marinated artichokes, but we had artichokes canned in water. So I added some olive oil to some artichokes and let them marinate for awhile. The olive oil was drained to saute the garlic and to drizzle on the focaccia bread just before baking.

Instead of adding rosemary, feta cheese was added during the last 5 minutes of baking so that it wouldn't burn. The focaccia bread was already pretty full of toppings, so the rosemary would have been too much.

Focaccia Breadd with Garlic Shards, Artichokes, and Feta

It was really good! We were so excited to eat it, I forgot to take a picture of it when it first came out of the oven. This is the only piece saved--for my lunch the next day!

We'd highly recommend trying this recipe! You will forget that it's whole grain.

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment before you go, I'd love to hear from you. And I hope you will return soon, I'll be baking again!

Judy

Buckwheat Bread

2011-04-05T09:42:00.000-04:00

Buckwheat bread

I thought I would jump ahead in our HBin5 baking group schedule to try buckwheat bread. There's all kinds of flours in my fridge, and they want to be used (yes, my ingredients talk to me! :)

This week I baked a bunch of muffins. I also made sour cream coffee cake because there was some sour cream in the fridge, which was asking me to make it into something yummy. My hubby is happy with all the sweets, so I can probably sneak in a whole grain bread for dinner tonight.

Buckwheat is pretty interesting. It's actually a fruit! I usually keep some around the house. It makes a good pilaf with mushrooms and a hot cereal. It can be used in gluten free baking. However, this recipe includes wheat flour.

There were a couple of changes to the recipe. White whole wheat flour was used, to make a finer texture. Fine granulation groats were used, which is what I had around the house. The dough seemed watery after mixing. I guess the buckwheat soaked up much of the water overnight in the fridge. It was firmer the next morning.

Michelle, our baking group leader, mentioned that she was able to find lined baskets recently at a dollar store. I had read about one famous baker who bought many of these for rising baskets, instead of the expensive brotforms. I immediately went to the store, and snapped 4 of them up!

$1 lined basket, for the dough rising

I made a half batch of dough, which is about two pounds. I'd like to make a foccaccia bread recipe with half of it on Sunday. Therefore, only one pound of dough was used for this loaf.

I floured the basket liberally with whole wheat flour and to do the gluten cloak on the sticky dough.

It looks a little lonely in the basket! It will be interesting what happens during a 90 minute rise.

After the rise in the lined basket

Well, it did get a bit larger during the rise. But how do I get it onto the peel so I can slide it onto the hot stone?

This might not be as much of an issue with a larger loaf. It would probably be easier to roll out of the basket.

On the peel

The loaf deflated slightly when I put it on the peel. Hopefully, the oven spring will help the rise. The loaf was sprayed with water and then scored with my super sharp knife. The loaf baked in a 450 degree oven, with steam, for about 30 minutes.

Buckwheat Loaf, cooling on the rack

Here's the buckwheat loaf, cooling on the rack. It did rise some more in the oven, but not much.

Buckwheat Bread

It was a nice surprise to hear my hubby say "good" when he bit into a slice of bread. It didn't have a whole wheat taste, but was still whole grain. There was a slight mouthfeel of the groats, which was really nice.

Another loaf was made, with the remaining dough, the next week. This time, the proofing basket wasn't used.

Buckwheat Bread, which rose on the peel

There really wasn't a big difference in rise between the two methods, in this case.

This bread really grew on me. It's really good with flavorful cheeses and soups. We served it with sesame chicken recipe that had a mustard-apricot sauce:

Sesame Chicken, hot out of the oven

"Sesame Chicken"
3 1/2 to 4 pound chicken, cut into pieces and patted dry.

1/2 cup apricot (could use plum jam or honey)
1/2 cup mustard (Dijon or French)
2-4 TBSP untoasted sesame seeds (or more if desired)

Mix jam or honey with mustard. Spread mixture on chicken. Coat with sesame seeds and place in a 9x13" baking dish. Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for approx 1 hour. I then cover, and cook a bit longer. If you don't cover it, it gets too brown. Cook until tender and golden brown. Serves 4-6 people.

I couldn't find my dijon mustard, which is usually used in this recipe. Instead, I used a mixture of French's mustard and the "Ben's Sweet and Hot Mustard" that I won from our co-baker, Guff, who has a blog called Old Pop's Blog. He was kind enough to share his mustard with a giveaway, and I was the lucky person to win it.

The chicken was delicious, and we have enough leftovers for another meal. I don't really like hot foods, so the mixture of the two mustards was just right. We laughed when we later found the dijon mustard! It was meant for us to try Ben's mustard in this recipe!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you will leave a comment. I'll be baking again soon, would love to see you again.

Judy

Baked French Toast Casserole

2011-03-15T19:24:00.000-04:00

French Toast Casserole, with Egg Bread

Baked French Toast Casserole

This is great for brunch. It's easier than preparing French toast right on the spot. I think egg bread makes it taste sweeter than white bread.

Serves 8-10.

(recipe can be easily halved for a 9" x9" pan)

Small piece of egg bread, cut thin

Egg bread (or challah)-- 12 smaller or 8 larger pieces, sliced into ¾ inch slices
8 large eggs
2 cups half and half
1 cup milk
2 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
Dash salt

For serving:
Maple syrup, warmed
½ cup to 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
Fresh fruit (like strawberries), optional

The night before:
Spray the pan well with butter-flavored spray, or grease pan with butter. Cut slices into one inch cubes. If you’re in a hurry, tear the bread into small pieces. However, the cut cubes look nicer. Place bread cubes in bottom of the pan. The idea is to cover the bottom of the pan evenly.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half and half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Beat with a rotary beater or whisk until well blended but not too frothy. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. You may want to press down on the bread cubes, to make sure they are all covered with milk-egg mixture. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees(F). Remove casserole from refrigerator and place on counter while the oven preheats, about 15 minutes. Place the casserole, still covered with foil, on the middle rack. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25-30 minutes—or until the casserole is puffy and brown.

Let cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing into squares. Serve topped with warmed maple syrup, chopped pecans, and optional fruit (berries are nice).

Topped with maple syrup, pecans, and strawberries!

Feel free to adapt this recipe to your tastes! You may want to use more or less egg bread, or different flavorings.

I hope this recipe helps make your brunch even more special! It's really easier to put together the casserole the night before, and just put it into the oven. That way, you don't have to make the batter and fry the slices at while everyone is waiting. You can be preparing other breakfast items in the meantime.

Come back soon, I'll be baking and creating again. I hope you will leave a comment below; I'd love to hear from you.

Judy

Chocolate-Raisin Babka

2011-03-02T11:50:00.003-05:00

"Does rum go bad when kept for a long time?" I asked the local liquor store.

"No," the gal said, with a small laugh. "it doesn't go bad. It stores well."

And that's how my ingredient shopping began for the AB5 Chocolate-Raisin Babka. You see, rum (yum!) is brushed on top of the slightly cooled loaf! But I don't drink very often. However, I have been eyeing this recipe for a very long time, and finally decided to make it. I had read that "babka" translates as "grandmother," so this sounded like something really special.

Ready to bake!

I purchased a small bottle of rum and some high quality Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate. I had heard that chopped chocolate melts better than chocolate chips.
Rather than make a full four-loaf batch of this recipe (and use 16 egg yolks!), one loaf was made. I used the egg whites in an omelette for lunch.

Dough rolled out, filling added

There didn't seem like enough chocolate and raisins in the recipe, so I tripled the amount.

Next time, I'll add some sort of sugar--maybe brown sugar.

The dough was rolled into a log, and placed into a 9" x 5" loaf pan. With the back of my hand, I patted the loaf pan into an even shape.

Next time, I might use an 8 1/2" loaf pan to make a higher rise.

It felt odd not to brush the loaf with egg wash, but I knew that the rum would be brushed on at the end.

Here's the partially-cooled loaf, after brushing rum onto the top. The rum really soaked into the crust.

The inside of the loaf looked like a cinnamon-raisin loaf.

This was an interesting bread. Personally, I think of a very sweet cake-like dessert when I think of babka. This tastes very much like a bread, but not something you would use for a sandwich. If I make it again, I will probably make it much sweeter.

Thank you very much for stopping by. I would love to hear your comments. Have you made this bread?

Check back soon, I'll be baking soon!

Judy

Valentine's Day Spinach and Cheese Calzone

2011-02-16T14:49:00.000-05:00

Spinach and Cheese Calzone

When I think of a Valentine's Day dinner, I think of sharing. Sharing time, sharing help, sharing friendship, sharing love.

Food is fun to share. However, chateaubriand steak for two can be pricey. That's why I thought of calzone. Although the HBin5 group is making whole grain "Stuffed Sandwich Loaf" for our current assignment, the ABin5 Spinach and Cheese Calzone seemed just right for Valentine's Day.

I made a batch of olive oil dough the other day. It would be great for pizza, calzone, and foccacia bread. This dough is "good" for 12 days, and so there's a good chance that I'll make enough recipes with it. This new square dough bucket really fits nicely in my fridge, too!

I sauteed more spinach than suggested. One half cup of spinach did not seem like enough--a second batch of spinach was made. The filling was made first , then set aside. Next time, I'd make the filling while the dough is resting. The dough needed to rest several times because it kept stretching back while being rolled out.

One change that was made. The rolled out piece of dough was much larger than my pizza peel. I thought I'd risk putting the calzone together before transferring it to the peel (after taking a picture, just in case!). Therefore, I loosened the dough on one half, put the filling on the other half of the dough, and manuevered the folded creation onto the pizza peel. This was a little tricky, but was accomplished with my dough scraper and moving extra flour under the calzone.

Once the calzone was moved to the peel, I adjusted it and cut 3 slits into the top. It wasn't necessary to seal it, it seemed to seal itself.

I had forgotten to add the broiler pan for the water--it's been awhile since I baked with steam. Therefore, I spritzed water every few minutes for the first 10 minutes. That seemed to work just fine. The calzone baked to a lovely golden brown color, and was firm. It was easy to slide it onto a baking sheet, covered with a towel to absorb heat.

Cooling on a Towel

Great with salad and Green Beans!

We both enjoyed the calzone. However, my hubby confided in me that next time, he wants to try marinara sauce with his calzone. He just didn't want to hurt my feelings. Actually, he has a great sense of what would make a dish better. We had a lemon chicken recipe last week that was so-so. He suggested green olives, and it was fabulous! Therefore, we will try marinara sauce on the second half of the calzone.

Here's a romantic baking comic that my hubby gave me the other day. He reads the comics daily. We have "Love is..." comics pasted up all over the house. This was pretty special, since I love to bake! I thought my co-bakers would enjoy it.

For me, the secret ingredient is the excitement of knowing how much my creation will make people happy--especially my hubby.

Happy Valentine's Day! Did you do anything special for Valentine's Day? I hope you will leave your comment about that below.

Cooking Appliance Alternatives to an Oven

2011-02-13T14:28:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone,

I am happy to report that Thermador finally came through with their promise to replace the broken part on my wall oven! Over $700 was spent repairing this oven since 2007 (part of it paid by insurance), and I wasn't going to spend $400 more on a new circuit board. This oven has been a lemon!

However, it's tough finding an oven to fit in our wall spot. Also, our oven cavity seems a lot bigger than others now on the market. Therefore, I was hoping that Thermador would stand by their product. After faxing the bills to them, they said they would provide the relay part at no charge as a "Goodwill Gesture."

It was really upsetting when my appliance repair people called to tell me that the order request for the needed relay part came back "discontinued, with no alternative." I called Thermador back. Happily, they provided a whole new circuit board, which contained the needed part. Yippee, I have my oven back, after a month!

Finally, installing the repair part!

The oven is still runnning about 35 degrees lower from the set temperature, so the repair people have been contacted. But it's been so much fun making a bunch of dinners and goodies again! An oven makes life so much easier and enjoyable.

Without an oven for a month, I was forced to think "out of the box." :) Here's what was used:

Toaster oven: The oven quit just before I was going to make bagels! After making a starter and making the dough, I wasn't going to let the dough go to waste. I made a number of phone calls to King Arthur Baker's Hotline that day. Amy helped me out, and I baked these yummy "pretzels.:

"bagel pretzels"

I baked two HBin5 recipes on loaf pans;

Dilled Rye with Whole Wheat

HBin5 Master Dough, Seeded top

A loaf pan worked ok to bake a raisin pecan bread. I had the dough in the fridge, and refused to toss it. If I turned the bread around halfway, it baked ok.

I baked a small chile relleno in a 9" x 9" pan, in the toaster oven.

Bread Machine, first foray into bread baking, 2007

My bread machine (remember those?)

Those square shapes, with the hole in the bottom, just bore me! However, I was able to bake an Italian herb bread and my challah recipe. I will keep it in the garage, as a backup. It really came in handy. I haven't bought bread in over a year, and don't plan to!

George Foreman Grill--Our friend, Eva, was downsizing her appliances a bit to gain room in her kitchen. She was donating her George Foreman Grill and Slow Cooker to a charity rummage sale. We did a little "pre-sale." I made a donation to the charity in exchange for these items!

We grilled steaks on the George Foreman Grill right after the oven broke. We tried using the outside grille, but we can never seem to get the propane to work in colder weather.

Stovetop--made soup and sauteed chicken.

Microwave--especially good for quick warmups. We prefer an oven, have seen reports of how microwaves change the chemical composition of foods (even water!).

Slow cooker! I had only used a slow cooker for soups and stews some years ago. Wow, I had really been underusing this treasure! At first, I just made a bean stew. But then I went to the library and found a few of the slow cooker books still were on the shelf. Lucky me! One of the books showed how to make so many dishes, including desserts, in a slow cooker:

'Old Fashioned Applesauce Cake with Walnuts"
From "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook"
by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann

I found several easy chicken recipes in the "Williams Sonoma Slow Cooker--Food Made Fast" cookbook. The beautiful pictures made my mouth water!

"Williams Sonoma Slow Cooker--Food Made Fast"
by Norman Kolpas and Chuck Williams

I tried the Chicken Cacciatore recipe, and we loved it. It was temping to just cook the whole recipe in the large fry pan--I was already using it to saute the chicken. However, I am glad that I transferred everything to the slow cooker to cook on high for 4 hours. The meat was incredibly tender!

Here is the Chicken Cacciatore, as I adapted it to our tastes. The garlic has been increased, and the salt was decreased.

Chicken Cacciatore, Slow Cooker
Adapted from "Williams Sonoma Slow Cooker--Food Made Fast"
Serves 4-6 (Made 2 dinners for us, plus enough chicken with sauce to serve over pasta).

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Flour

1/2 TBPS salt

1 1/2tsp. freshly ground pepper

A 3.5-4 lb. chicken, cut into 8 pieces

2-4TBSP olive oil

2 sliced Red Bell Peppers

1 sliced onion

6 cloves garlic

3/4 Cup Dry Red Wine

3/4 Cup Chicken Broth

28oz can Crushed tomatoes

1 TBSP dried oregano

8 oz. sliced mushrooms

Directions:

Brown the chicken:
In a ziplock-type bag, combine flour, salt and pepper. Coat the chicken pieces evenly with the flour mixture, shaking off the excess. It might be easier to do this in batches. In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add the oil. Add the chicken pieces, in batches, if necessary, skin side down. Cook until golden brown on the bottom, about 7 minutes. Turn the chicken and cook on the second side until lightly browned, 3-4 minutes longer. Transfer the chicken pieces to the slow cooker.

Cook the chicken and vegetables:
Return the frying pan to medium-high heat. Add oil if needed. Add the bell peppers, onion, and garlic and saute until they start to soften, about 3 minutes. Pour in the wine and broth to deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up the browned bits on the pan bottom. Stir in the tomatoes and oregano and bring to a simmer. Pour the mixture over the chicken. Cover and cook on the high-heat setting for 4 hours or the low-heat setting for 8 hours.

Add the mushrooms:
About 10 minutes before the dish is ready, stir in the mushrooms. Season to tast with salt and pepper and serve.

Great with basmati rice or fettuccine.

A real bonus for slow cookers is that they don't heat up the kitchen, while providing a great dinner. This willl come in really handy in the summer!

I guess the silver lining to our oven's breakdown is that I learned how helpful these other appliances, especially the slow cooker, can be!

Thanks for visiting me today. I bet you have had to "think outside the box at times." I've heard stories of long kitchen remodels. The prior owner remodeled this kitchen before selling this home, and they began eating out all the time. When the kitchen was done, they never went back to cooking!

What alternatives to the oven have you used? I hope you will leave a comment below.

Brioche--Is Butter Really Better than Margarine?

2011-02-01T15:07:00.000-05:00

I'm catching up on some of my posts, and thought I'd share this one with you. Around Thanksgiving, I went into test kitchen mode. Zoe Francois, one of the AB5 and HB5 authors, posted a step by step instruction for making Zoe Francois' AB in 5 Soft Thanksgiving Dinner Rolls

Zoe's recipe calls for butter. She's a wonderful, talented pastry chef, and I wondered if she cringed when I asked about using margarine in brioche. (Her later post said that she didn't.).

However, we have dietary restrictions. Therefore, we usually use margarine instead of butter or water/soy milk instead of "regular" milk. However, I began to wonder if there really was a taste difference.... I decided to make a half batch of AB5 brioche dough with margarine, and a second batch with butter and compare. Just this once.

Brioche dough, using margarine

I began by making a half batch of brioche dough with margarine, a week earlier. I made a change by adding a bit more flour to the dough, so I could make a braided bread. After refrigerating the dough overnight, the dough looked like this. It made a really nice braid:


Braided loaf from brioche dough

The bread was good, but not fabulous. Due to all the eggs and the extra flour, the bread had a very firm feel and mouthfeel to it.

Last night, I made another half batch of brioche dough. This time, I followed the recipe exactly. I used butter. The dough looked a bit different from the one made with margarine--different color:

Brioche dough made with butter

Brioche dough, using margarine

It's a bit looser looking because I didn't add the extra flour.

Brioche dough, after gluten cloak

Zoe's instructions didn't say anything about doing the gluten cloak, but all Jeff and Zoe's recipes call for it. I did the gluten cloak with the 1 1/2 of dough I was going to be using. I did the same with the 2 ounce pieces of dough for the rolls. Maybe it's overkill, but I was looking forward to some special rolls!

I placed the pieces of dough in the prepared pan and covered them with a tea towel:

I know the recipe says to use plastic wrap, but I love tea/flour sack towels. They work well, and are more environmental in my opinion.

While the rolls were rising, I used the rest of this butter-dough to make a loaf of brioche bread. Since this dough wouldn't have butter added on top, it would be a better comparison for my loaf made with margarine.

Brioche loaf, with butter

I covered this loaf with a tea towel and let it rise about 1 1/2 hours--till the rolls were out of the oven.

After about an hour, I put the egg wash on the rolls and placed them into the 350 degree oven. I usually put the timer on for 10- 15 minutes less than the rise time, so I turn on the oven at about the right time.

The rolls looked heavenly after about 30 minutes in the oven. My mini egg poacher seemed perfect for melting the butter!

It was going to be tough to wait to taste them!

I put the loaf into the oven. When it was done, it looked just beautiful:

Buttery Brioche Loaf

And the taste? I broke open the first roll and ate from the inside. The rolls, made with butter, had a slight more "buttery" taste.

I brought a roll out to my hubby, who was wrestling with our leaf blower's vacuum attachment. He gave the rolls a "9," which means he felt they were really good. He couldn't tell the difference between the dough of the margarine and the one from the butter.

The next step would have been to taste them both at the same sitting, but we were too full! Both were really good. However, some butter purists may enjoy the batch made with butter.

Stay tuned...

Anniversary Giveaway Winner Announced!

2011-01-26T07:41:00.000-05:00

The winner of my Artisan Bread/Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day Anniversary Giveaway is:

GA Jane!

Jane, I am unable to find your contact information on Michelle's website or in your profile. Can you please email me your address or leave some contact information so I can mail you your prize? Enjoy your floursack towels and Taylor digital thermometer!

Thanks to everyone who left a comment and entered the contest. Thanks for your support and baking fun together!

Judy

Roasted Garlic Bread & Anniversary Giveaway!

2011-01-11T18:03:00.011-05:00

Roasted Garlic Bread

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday time.

HB5 Master Loaf, in toaster oven!

I have been baking in my toaster oven lately:

I was just doing the finishing touches on some holiday baking when my Thermador oven wouldn't heat again! I was told it needed another $400 circuit board (with installation)! Between the buyer protection plan and my own out of pocket, I calculated $876 was spent repairing this oven in 4 years. Therefore, we began looking at new ovens.

After looking a bit, I thought I'd give Thermador a chance to help. After some discussion with the Thermador customer service and faxing of bills, they offered a new circuit board as a "goodwill gesture." Since everything else has been replaced (!), so I thought I'd give it a try. I just have to pay for the +$100 installation. But we will keep our eye out on oven sales for wall ovens our size!

Today, though, the oven worked! I was telling the electrician that it wasn't working and turned it on. Imagine my surprise when it began to heat up! I had made the dough for the Roasted Garlic Bread the day before, thinking that I'd be using the toaster oven. But now, I could really bake! I left the oven on all day, while the loaves rose and came out of the oven. I told my electrician to return later for a fresh bread.

I made some changes to the HBin5 recipe. About 1/3 of the spelt was substituted for white whole wheat--there wasn't enough spelt. There wasn't enough time to let it rise fully after dinner, so I left the dough on the counter overnight. The dough went into the fridge for a few hours in the morning. When shaping, I used the classic boule shape, instead of a long oval. It was just faster to do; less cleanup.

Here's a picture of the breads, rising on the peel:

I love covering my breads with these large cotton flour sack towels! When I am done, I just toss them into the wash.

After making "Dixie's Special Garlic Bread" with raw garlic, I was really curious about the flavor of the Roasted Garlic Bread. We really enjoyed the mellow taste of the roasted garlic. When my electrician couldn't show up later for his loaf due to snow, my hubby exclaimed "more for us!" Both breads have their place in my repetoire. This bread stands alone nicely, but the raw garlic bread makes a great base for toppings/sauces. Here's the link for Dixie's Special Garlic Bread

Maybe a starfish design next time?

Dixie's Special Garlic Bread

I'm just about to celebrate several baking anniversaries! I first heard about Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a day from Splendid Table on December 28, 2008. Actually, I missed the show. However, I was over a friend's house later in the day. She asked me to help download a copy of the Master Dough from AB5 from the Splendid Table website. I looked at the recipe, and just had to make it. I don't knead bread, and had found my bread machine to be very limiting. Immediately, I got the book from our local library. After a few loaves, I was hooked! I still have the Splendid Table copy I printed out, as well as the copy of the invoice for the book. Great keepsakes.

Also, this is the first anniversary of my baking with wonderful Michelle's Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes baking group. As I bake through the book with them, we get a glimpse into the lives of the co-bakers. The people in the group are so nice, and we try to help each other. It's helped me increase my baking knowledge. It's just wonderful. So I would like to hold a giveaway, to thank my fellow bakers.

My giveaway is three 30" x 38" all-cotton floursack towels, like the ones I just love. I bought a few of them, and would like to share three with the winner of my giveaway. They are really quite large!

Flour sack towels= multi use!

"But wait, there's more!" I'm also including a great Taylor digital thermometer. This one is really great--auto shutoff, a cord to hang around your neck or you can use the clip to clip it to your clothes:

Taylor Digital Thermometer

You enter the giveaway by leaving a comment below. If you aren't part of the AB5 or HB5 group, leave some contact information so I can contact you if you win.

If you are a follower, you will get an extra vote for the drawing when you leave a comment. So, if you aren't a follower of this blog, it's a good time to sign up. I feel these are great baking tools!

This contest is open to people in the USA, to make mailing easier. You can enter if you live out of the USA, as long as I can ship the prize to your relative or friend in the USA. So I hope that international readers can enter. I've made several wonderful international baking buddies; I don't want them to miss out..

The contest ends January 25, 2011. That's the second anniversary of when I ordered my copy of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and started on this baking adventure.

Thanks so much!

Judy

100% Whole Wheat Christmas Stollen and King Arthur Baking Kit

2010-12-13T17:55:00.004-05:00

100% Whole Wheat Christmas Stollen

Stollen? What's that? Well, this is my introduction to a Christmas Bread that my HB5 group is baking now. According to Guff at Guff's Healthy Bread In 5 Challenge , "Stollen is a rich German sweet bread containing nuts, dried fruit, and such--it gets its name from Stollen, a wooden post or prop; so called from its shape." Thanks, Guff, for this wonderful explanation!

Every year I make a special bread for my friend's Christmas dinner. The last 2 years, I've made Swedish Cardomom Wreath. When I told her about this stollen recipe, she wanted to try it this year.

A mixture of cherries, cranberries, blueberries and raisins seemed flavorful. I began by soaking the fruit in a mixture of brandy and water, after chopping it in my mini food chopper. Not sure how much of either, just enough to cover the rinsed fruit.

Soaking the dried fruit in brandy!

Well, now that the dried fruit is soaking, I can't do anything to make the stollen for awhile.

I guess I could open my package from King Arthur.... I was the really lucky winner of Zoe Francois' and Jeff Hertzberg's King Arthur Baking Kit giveaway. Zoe and Jeff are the famous authors of "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" and "Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day." Check out their wonderful website at Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
I've learned so much from their step by step posts and great videos!

I won the giveaway, but I almost didn't win! I got an email from Zoe on Thanksgiving day, and almost deleted it. I couldn't believe I would ever get an email from Zoe. THE Zoe! (Can you say "starstruck?"). :)

I'm going to use the kit in making this stollen, so you can see how great it is. The kit includes a square 6-quart acrylic storage container;  the great book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, King Arthur dough whisk; a 2-pound bag of King Arthur organic all-purpose flour; and an instant-read thermometer to test your loaf when it’s done. I think it's a great gift; you can find it at King Arthur No Knead Bread Gift Kit

The dough bucket looks really neat and compact. I wonder how it compares to the round dough bucket I've been using?

round vs. square?

Well, it turns out they are about the same height. But that square size will fit in my fridge better, and fits really nicely on my scale.I found that there's a tradeoff with the square dough bucket. It's a bit tricky to get the flour out of the corners. With practice, I bet I'll find a trick!

This temperature probe is great! The cover doubles as an extended handle! It's flat and will pack well when I travel.

I bake at the homes of friends, to give them the gift of freshly baked breads. They love that wonderful smell of baking in their home!

Ok, all my ingredients are laid out. I'm ready to put the stollen dough together! I'm going to use my King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour for this recipe. I'll make something later with the cute package of organic unbleached flour they sent me.

Here's a tip I would like to share. I'm making a half batch of stollen. I've gotten the amount in ingredients for a half batch mixed up in the past. Now I write the weights for a full batch to the left of the ingredients, and a half batch to the right.

I'm making a change in the recipe. My friend said she would love brandy in the stollen. So I am not cutting the amount of brandy in half for a half batch. Also, I am draining the dried fruit and using that fruit/water/brandy mixture as part of my water. Otherwise, I followed the recipe as listed in the HB5 book.

Ok, it's time to put the dough in the fridge overnight.

Yep, I really like the way this container fits in my fridge!

The next morning, I braved the very cold garage and took the dough out of the refrigerator. It had a nice color to it:

Let's shape the loaves. I measured out the suggested 1 1/2 pounds of dough for a stollen loaf. There was also enough dough for 2 mini loaves (Stollenettes??), about 8 oz. each.

"Let's Do the Gluten Cloak, Again!"

After doing the gluten cloak, I'm covering them with a flour sack towel to rest. That way, they are easier to roll out. Meanwhile, why don't we watch a HB5 video, where Jeff and Zoe introduce "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes," and Zoe shapes stollen. It might give us some shaping tips!:

I decided to use a combination of almond paste and toasted almonds:

Time for a short nap

The loaves are put aside to rest, rise and shine later! I have purchased a number of these timers from the dollar store. Each pan can have its own timer.

The loaves get an egg wash and are put in my oven for baking. I used the convection setting, to make baking easier. Don't they look yummy?

They cooled, and then I put 2 loaves in the freezer for later. My friend wouldn't be by for a few days. I put powdered sugar on one of the "stollenettes" so we could taste it. Really yummmy. My hubby said it would taste fabulous with jam, too.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my version of this HB5 challenge. I hope you will leave a comment below. I learn so much from baking friends!

And thanks so much to Zoe Francois, Jeff Hertzberg and King Arthur Flour. You guys are awesome!

Judy

Baking at My Friends' House, Without Any of My Equipment!

2010-11-28T13:55:00.067-05:00

Recently, I stayed at the home of good friends, while making a trip back to Los Angeles. I also stayed with them about 6 months ago, and asked if I could use their kitchen then. Baking relieves stress for me and gives me the feeling of doing something special for friends. I was happy that they enjoyed what I did so much!

This time, one of the daughters quickly requested "Can you make some of that chocolate chip challah again?" Loving the fact that she liked it so much, I put that on my list! Everyone seems to love what I bake or cook, and I love an appreciative audience!

Baking in their kitchen calls for creativity on my part. I have to figure out what's available, and "make do." I brought my Weight Watcher food scale (this one only goes up to 2 pounds) on trips.

However, I didn't have dough buckets, oven thermometer, digital thermometer, multiple baking sheets, dutch oven, tea towels, or a good set of measuring spoons/cups. Ok, there are measuring spoons, but the writing rubbed off--I guessed which one is a teaspoon. Next time, I might write the measurement with a Sharpie.

Their refrigerator space is at a premium, and we quickly loaded it up with goodies for the week.

But it was so much fun!

I started off by making raisin challah. In the AB in 5 book, the recipe says to roll out the dough, sprinkle with raisins , roll the dough into a log....

Handwise tip--A faster way is to add the raisins to the flour when making the dough. The raisins become coated with the flour and mix into the dough evenly.

A half batch of challah raisin dough was made. A large stockpot was used for mixing the dough and storing it in the refrigerator. It was a real juggling act to find room in the refrigerator for such a large pot!

The next morning, I quickly made the braid, added egg wash, and sprinkled sugar on top. Because I'm used to the Eastern Time Zone, I was awake and in the kitchen long before anyone else was awake. They are used to Pacific Time Zone, so I had plenty of time. They woke up to freshly baked bread!

Raisin challah

Since their daughter wanted something with chocolate chips, I decided next to make glazed rolls especially for her. In the AB5 book, the recipe says to roll out the dough, sprinkle with chips and sugar, and roll the dough into a log. I did that, and then cut off 2 inch slices of dough for the rolls. They were baked in a 9 inch cake pan.

After the rolls were cooled, I made a confectioner's sugar glaze for the rolls. I've used more confectioner's sugar in the past few years than I've ever used before (I moved to the South!).

Chocolate Chip Glazed Rolls

As mentioned before, refrigerator space is at a premium at this house. So I decided that my next bread with be the Jim Lahey Walnut and Raisin Bread--no fridge space needed. This is one of my favorite breads, and I'm glad I brought the recipe.

This dough mixed quickly, and sat on the counter overnight. No refrigeration, just time, is needed

My friend didn't have the 5qt dutch oven that is recommended for this bread. She had some shiny-new pyrex casseroles, which were about 3qt. I took a risk that I could divide up the dough and make 2 loaves from each batch.

This is tricky because the recipe calls for the wet dough to be plopped onto a tea towel for the last rise. There weren't any tea towels. I had one "sort of tea towel" and one cotton placemat. Hey, it worked out!

I wasn't sure the pyrex would hold up in a 450 degree oven, so I began by baking the first loaves longer at 400 degrees. The pyrex were so new looking, I was afraid to use them in a hot oven.

Jim Lahey's Walnut & Raisin Bread

The loaves were just great, even without the digital thermometer to test if they were done. In fact, baking this way may have answered why my loaves were damp in my dutch oven at home. It's possible that my 3.5qt dutch oven is too small for a full batch. There's plenty of room, but Jim Lahey recommends a 4.5 to 5 qt size. Maybe it needs room to steam?

I also brought sourdough baguettes from home:

100% Wild Yeast Sourdough Bread

They were part of a dinner consisting of Mexican Lasagne (layers of tortillas, corn, refried beans, salsa, and olives), salad, and Spanish rice. It was fun sitting down for a meal with my friends.

By the way, my friend says that the "magic eraser" removed any stains from the bread baking. But it also erased the memories...

I'm including a video of my favorite baking buddy while baking in their home. Molly never left my side while in the kitchen. What an optimist, since I never dropped any crumbs! We had to shoo her away from the hot oven. She's still a puppy and kept sniffing at the oven door when I opened it.

We had a great time, and I have been invited back again. Yaay!

Only, next time, I am putting together a "baker's travel kit!" I'll take one of those small roll-type toiletry bags, and add various baking items--small scale, measuring spoons, flat digital baking thermometer, tea towels, and any special ingredients. I'm not sure about measuring cups, because they aren't very flat.

What would you put in a travel baking/cooking kit? This may be a good topic for discussion, and I hope you will leave a comment including that below.

Thanks for stopping by, and visit with me again soon!

Judy

European Peasant Bread

2010-11-01T17:11:00.004-04:00

European Peasant Bread Baked in a Dutch Oven

I'm just "lovin' bakin' in my dutch oven." So, instead of the assigned HB5 breads, I thought I'd make another dutch oven bread this week. I could make another Jim Lahey bread, but how about one of the "Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes" breads?

There are still a number of AB5 breads that I haven't tried. This would be a good time to try the European Peasant Bread, with the twist of doing it in a covered casserole.

I made a half batch of the dough, with a few changes:

Used white whole wheat flour
Added 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten, due to all the rye and whole wheat flours used
It rose in a small (Dollar Store) basket, to simulate a brotform.
I sifted the dry ingredients. Michelle introduced me to a battery operated sifter, and it's great!

Norpro Battery Operated Sifter

At first, I thought I'd do a one pound loaf. However, since I wanted the bread to rise in a basket, I decided to use the two pounds of dough. Not too small, not too big, just right!

The basket was sprayed and floured before adding the dough, to keep the dough from sticking. I put the basket into a plastic bag and it was placed into the warmed microwave to rise. I'm not sure how long I let the dough rise--just until the dough filled the basket nicely. Meanwhile, the dutch oven heated in a 450 degree oven.

After the dutch oven heated for about 30 minutes, I removed it with my favorite Ove-Gloves mitts. The dough plopped into the pot when I turned the basket of dough over. Shaking the pot slightly helped shape the bread better in the pot. I could see the straw basket pattern in the dough! I was nervous about slashing the dough in such a hot pot, so that wasn't done.

Here's a picture of the bread, when I took the lid off. The bread baked, uncovered, for about 20 minutes more.

Since I've had breads with damp centers in the past, I made sure to use my digital thermometer in the center of the bread. The first time, the temperature went up slowly to 205 degrees. After ten more minutes in the oven, the temperature went up to 205 degrees rapidly. My instincts told me that the bread was ready to come out of the oven.

This is a picture of the finished European Peasant Bread. You can see some of the pattern of the basket on the bread.

The texture of this bread was really good. I know I baked it longer to make sure I didn't get a wet center, but I wonder if the sifting helped. It might help, since the vital wheat gluten is mixed throughout.

Yummy, yummy bread! The center was not damp, either! Glad I listened to my instincts.

It reminded us of the deli rye bread, but without the caraway seeds. Next time, I might add the seeds. We ate the bread for dinner with orange chicken and millet pilaf on Friday night. There was only a little left by the time Sunday rolled around (a sign of a good bread in my house), but it was just enough for salami sandwiches--a quick Sunday dinner.

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback.

Jim Lahey's Walnut Raisin Bread

2010-10-14T13:33:00.000-04:00

Pan co' Santi--Walnut Bread

I seem to be baking my way through Jim Lahey's book, "My Bread, The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method." This book is so popular, it's surprising that there isn't a group baking their way through it. Maybe a group should be started?

This recipe caught my eye because of the raisin and walnut combination. Also, it's a wonderfully rustic-looking loaf! It reminded me of his similar olive loaf, which was recently baked.

The dough was quickly put together after dinner one evening, with the intent to bake it the next morning. The dough is supposed to rise until it's more than doubled in size--about 12 to 18 hours. It actually rose longer than that, because of errands that needed to be done in the morning. This is a very forgiving dough.

The dough was placed on a tea towel to rise for 1 - 2 hours, before it was placed in my heated 3.5 quart Tramontina dutch oven. Jim Lahey recommends that people use a 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 quart pot. However, that would be too heavy for me. This pot has been used before, and the bread conformed to the size of the pot. Recently, I replaced the plastic knob with the Le Creuset stainless steel knob so that the knob could withstand higher temperatures.

The dutch oven was put in the 475 degree oven for 30 minutes, per the recipe. After that, the lid was removed so the bread could bake 15-30 minutes more.

After 15 minutes, the bread was checked with a digital thermometer. It registered over 200 degrees, so the bread was removed from the pot and put on a cooling rack.

We cut the bread several hours later, when the bread was cool. I was dissappointed to find that the bread seemed quite cool and damp in the center. Even though the bread registered done on the digital thermometer, it could have benefitted by baking it longer.

Possibly, using a smaller pot could have impacted the bread. If I remember correctly, the olive bread, made some time back, seems to have had the same problem. Therefore, my next Lahey bread will cook a bit longer covered and uncovered next time.

This was a marvelous loaf--we ate it over the weekend. The low amount of yeast, and the long rise times, really brought out the flavors of the grain, walnuts, and raisins. It was great plain, with sweet butter, or cream cheese. It will be interesting to experiment with longer bake times next time. Possibly, that will help the center cook more completely.

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback.

Whole Grain Garlic Studded Baguette, Whole Grain Pizza on the Grille

2010-10-14T12:50:00.002-04:00

Whole Grain Margherita Pizza

Garlic-Studded Baguettes

For my "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" baking group, I felt it was finally time to conquer my fears of making pizza on the grill. Also, I decided to make my favorite baguettes with a different dough.

We had a choice of several whole grain doughs. My choice was to try the Whole Wheat with Olive Oil dough again. The first time I made this dough, it seemed to be a bit loose. There's now a post-it note on my recipe that reads, "good for flatbreads." Now that I have more experience, I've begun to adjust these recipes more. Michelle, our host, is probably smiling about that!

White Whole Wheat flour was used, and slightly less water--about 1/4 cup less. Using less water seemed to help this time. The dough seemed firmer. After the dough rose and was chilled overnight, it was time to bake! Yaay!!!

Whole Grain Grilled Pizzas

It was time to brave the grill! I've been nervous about grilling pizzas. There's the thought of the dough falling through the grates. Also, it's my hubby who usually does the grilling, so I don't have much experience in this. He didn't want to do the pizzas. Lastly, it's close to fire! Need I say more?

For my first try, I used flour under the dough on the peel. Lots of flour! The pizza ended up with a "too much flour" taste. Next time, I think I'll flour my peel by rubbing flour all over it--not dumping it on top.

Getting the dough onto the grill was the toughest part. We have a split grill. It's great for small amounts of grilling. You can fire up half the grill for two people, or use both sides for more people. The problem for this type of grill is that the peel is too big for one side and there's not much "wiggle room."

The pizza slid into a bunched up mass on the grill, with the side caught off the grill. Quickly, I nervously straightened out the pizza. Possibly I can find a smaller peel for the future.

The dough was turned over when it began to bubble up, and olive oil was added. Then the tomatoes and cheese were added. We used "Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet" cheese. Closing the lid for a few minutes helped the cheese melt some.

The sliced basil was added just before removing the pizza.

A little Wiki research--This is very similar Pizza Margherita, which was made in honor of the Queen consort of Italy--Margherita of Savoy. The pizza toppings are fresh sliced tomatoes (well, I used canned diced), fresh sliced Mozzarella, and fresh basil leaves. It represents the colors of the Italian flag. It is believed to be the first pizza to use cheese--the pizzas we all know and love today.

There was about 1 1/2 pounds of dough left. That would be enough for two smaller pizzas. We decided to give the grilled pizzas another try. I decided to test out the suggestions of several people in our group.

Debbie felt that cornmeal works better than flour for sliding the pizzas from the peel.

Guff and Joanna both felt that flipping the pizza onto the grill worked well. Guff felt that putting the pizza on parchment paper, flipping it so that the paper was on top, and then peeling it off partway through the cooking worked well.

Gwen, from our HBin5 group, agreed that using parchment paper gives good results in grilling.

Joanna mentioned a youtube video of Alton Brown's "Good Eats" show, where he flips the pizza onto the grill.   I am including it here, because there are a lot of great tips--flouring the peel (not overflouring it!), cooking tomatoes, and rolling out the dough.

Also, in this video, Alton Brown shows how to grill a flatbread over a gas burner! This is wonderful for people who live in an apartment building or otherwise can't do outdoor grilling! He said it would even work for people living in a 5th floor walkup apartment in New York, as long as they have a gas stove.

The experiment--using cornmeal to slid one pizza onto the grill, and putting trimmed parchment paper under the other pizza. The fire was kept medium low.

The crust that had cornmeal under it on the peel had the same problems as the one with the flour. I shook the pizza to try to move it to the grill, and it bunched up into a mass over the fire. Quickly, I moved it back into a larger piece. But it lost its round shape; it's the one on the plate.

The pizza on the grill is the one that had parchment under it. It moved easily to the grill, kept its shape, and cooked nicely. We watched the pizzas carefully. However, I'll try Guff's method of flipping the pizza crust so that the parchment is on top next time. That may enable us to use higher heat.

We ate the pizza cooked on the parchment paper that night. It was wonderful, served with fast totellini soup.

Baguettes

I've made the garlic-studded baguettes before, and love the garlic-infused flavor from this method. This time, I decided to try omitting the stone or steam. What would happen?

letterfold technique

Twelve ounces (a bit larger than recommended) were used. The baguettes were shaped using the letterfold
technique, before stretching into a longer baguette. Whenever there was resistance, I let the dough rest for a few minutes (so the dough wouldn't be so cranky!).

The baguettes were place on my Silpat, on top of a baking sheet. They were baked after baking a different bread, and the temperature was about 375 degrees. After approximately 15 minutes, the breads were taken off the baking sheet and put onto the oven racks to firm up the bottoms.

Soft Crust Garlic-Studded Baguettes

These baguettes were wonderful with tortellini soup. I might continue making them this way, and you might want to try it. For me, baking without adding the hot water and stone is a bit simpler. Also, it takes less time and energy to heat the oven to a cooler temperature.

Grissini

I had some gluten free olive oil dough in the freezer. It was in the freezer for awhile, but looked fine. I figured it was good for flatbread. What did I have to lose by trying grissini and flatbread with that?!
I rolled 1/2 pound of dough out on parchment on a baking sheet, cut it into a rectangle (re-using the scraps) and drizzled olive oil on top. The toppings were kosher salt and some leftover spicy spice mix from baking crackers some months back. Then I cut the dough into strips; I made several groups of strips. Then it was time to put the grissini in the oven to bake. Halfway thru baking, I took the pan out, separated the strips, (easy) and finished baking them. Easy, and yummy! A lot easier than moving the strips onto a baking sheet. Crisp, too.

Sorry there aren't any pictures of the spicy grissini, but they went really fast! So did the 2 pieces of spicy gluten free flatbreads...

Wherever, you are, I hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall colors. As a former Southern California gal, seeing leaves change colors is new to me. We just took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway to see the beautiful bright red, orange, and yellow leaf colors on the trees. We were able to see the leaf colors at their peak! I thought you would enjoy seeing a few of the pictures:

Grandfather Mountain, NC, from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Yours Truly, enjoying the Fall Colors

Grandfather Mountain has a mile-high swinging/suspension bridge which gives breathtaking views.

Blue Ridge Parkway, Central Section, Moses Cone Memorial Park

Handwise tips: If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe:

My tip for this post is for the pizzas. By cooking two pizzas, we were able to freeze one pizza and eat one for dinner (cook once, eat twice!).

This bread is one of the breads from the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.
The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in this book. To see what Guff, Debbie, Gwen, Joanne, Michelle, and my other HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out The 21st HBinfive Bread Braid

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback.

Pear Tarte Tatin, Apple Strudel Bread and Cranberry Pecan Sweet Rolls

2010-10-04T17:50:00.002-04:00

For this braid, our baking group was able to pick between 2 doughs--whole wheat brioche, and pumpkin pie brioche. Since we made pumpkin pie brioche before, I tried the whole wheat brioche. What a wonderful dough--so nice and silky! A joy to use, and didn't have a strong whole wheat taste.

This dough was made in my Kitchenaid mixer. The liquid ingredients were placed in the bowl first. The yeast, salt and vital wheat gluten were then sifted into some of the flour with my new battery operated sifter*** (see Handwise tips). Jeff and Zoe posted to me that it would be ok to sift these ingredients with part of the flour. That should keep the vital wheat gluten from getting gummy. They said to just be sure to mix everything well afterwards.

Pear Tarte Tatin

This recipe was made with my dinner guests in mind, who love ginger and cardamom. My hubby experienced too much ginger in one of my recipes, and now won't touch it. Bosc pears were used, one of my favorite fall fruits!

The dough was made the night before, so it was time to make cook the pears. Peeling the pears with my Dazey Stripper didn't work.

Will someone start making these again???

That was unusual. This gadget is great for peeling apples or potatoes. Now I only see the peeler (without the necessary blades!) on ebay. The pears just seemed a bit too soft.

So, the pears were peeled, cored, and sliced with my trusty paring knife. We don't have a cast iron pan, so the pears were sauteed in our 11" Kitchenaid pan.

The dough was rolled out to about 12". To make the transfer easier, a pie-making trick was used. I folded the dough in half, then in half again. The corner of the dough was placed onto the center of the pan. It was then simple to unfold the dough onto the pears.

Because I was using a larger pan, I made really sure to tuck the dough underneath the pears:

After baking it for about 20 minutes, the pear tarte tatin looked like this:

Five minutes later, I placed a serving tray on top and flipped (in what a guest called "an act of faith) the tarte onto the serving tray.

The pears needed a bit of readjustment, but it was just great that the tarte came out in one piece onto the platter!!!

Apple Strudel Bread

Yummy, yummy, yummy! This bread is one of my definite favorites. Instead of making doughnuts, I thought I would make this bread again. However, this bread was made after an eventful day of cooking and entertaining guests. Baking that day was my therapy, and I wasn't up for challenges. Although the taste was fabulous, you'll see that it wasn't the "desired" shape.

Two pounds of dough were rolled out. The filling of apples, cinnamon, raw sugar and walnuts was added. There was my note on the recipe, from last time, to decrease the amount of raisins and walnuts--which I did.

However, I couldn't tell whether my note about the apples was to use 2 or 3 medium apples. Therefore, I decided to use one medium and one large apple. That may have been my downfall in this recipe....

Before rising!

After rolling the dough into a long log, it was really too big to place into my prepared 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan. I was just too tired to dig up a larger loaf pan, spray it with oil and wash my current pan. That's when I decided to fold the log in half and put it into the current loaf pan:

There were holes in the dough, after the transfer. They were patched with dough scraps, just as if it were a pie. Halfway through the baking, I checked on the progress:

Uh Oh!!!!

The long log should have been baked on a baking sheet. Not only did the loaf bake over the sides, the dough scraps were falling off (they were yummy!). Thankfully, I put a piece of foil underneath the loaf pan. At least I was alert enough to think of that....

Top of Apple Strudel Bread

Bottom of Apple Strudel Bread

As mentioned before, the final loaf wasn't pretty, but it was really tasty. I ate this quickly, and I'm not sure my hubby got to taste it! YUM!!!

Cranberry Pecan Sweet Rolls

The last assignment for this braid was the Honey Caramel Sticky Buns. I had made this before, and have vivid memories of the oven fire--Honey Caramel Sticky Buns and a "kitchen adventure."

Therefore, I decided to make simple sweet rolls. Craisins sounded good. The dough was rolled out, and the craisins were sprinkled onto the rectangle of dough. When the dough was almost rolled up into a log, I thought "what about some sugar?" So the dough was unrolled slightly, and some sugar was sprinkled onto the rectangle.

"Baking by Inspiration"

The log was cut into 2" slices which were placed on their sides. There were some chopped pecans in the cabinet, so those were sprinkled on top. After the baked rolls were cooled, a simple icing was drizzled on top:

These were shared with our happy crew of gardeners, our great neighbor (across the street), and my yoga teacher. My hubby snacked on these also. Well, at least he ate one out of the three recipes!

Handwise tips: If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe:

The Handwise tip for this recipe comes from our HBin5 host--Michelle, of Big Black Dogs. There seem to be 2 kinds of sifters, usually. One is the squeeze handle, which can be very tiring on hands. The other is a turn handle, which can also be tiring. Michelle told me about her Norpro battery operated sifter:

Battery Operated Sifter

At first glance, it was dissappointing that the sifter could only hold 4 cups. However, it's just wonderful that it does all the sifting by itself--no handles to squeeze or turn.

I will mention two aspects about this sifter:

Make sure you put the handle in place properly, or it won't work well. The flour will sift slowly.
This may not be a good sifter if your hands are sensitive to vibration. However, the sifting only lasts a short time.

This bread is one of the breads from the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in this book. To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out The 20th HBinfive Bread Braid

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback.

Judy

IL BOLO, Italian bread with olive oil, anise, & honey and Apricot Noodle Pudding

2010-10-04T14:33:00.000-04:00

IL BOLO

Our calendar for the HBin5 baking group said that this bread would be baked in a year. Frankly, I don't always have that kind of patience! Especially for a enriched bread having ingredients like this--honey, olive oil, vanilla, lemon zest, and anise seeds. My curiosity was aroused!

I put together the dough one morning, and went to run some errands at 9:30 a.m. while the dough was rising. I guess I really got into getting those errands done. I didn't get home until 3:30, with the thought that the dough would be ok. What could possibly happen?

This is what I found when I came in the door:

It was another one of my baking adventures, greeting me at the door! I quickly scooped up the overflowing dough, and began shaping the loaves. I told myself "any problems with the egg dough sitting on the counter over 2 hours will bake out at high temps..." :)

The loaves were baked at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, not the 35 minutes stated in the recipe. They were done at that time.

This bread was fabulous! I brought it to a large dinner get together, and people really loved it. The bread was soft, had a beautiful crust and tasted sweet. The caterer is a cooking buddy, who kept nibbling at it also.

I've been doing a lot of cooking lately, for our harvest festival. Noodle pudding (kugel) is popular this time of year, and I would like to share one of our favorites:

Apricot Noodle Pudding
12oz.         wide noodles (one bag)
1/2cup       margarine
6                eggs
8oz.            sour cream (light)
16oz.          lowfat cottage cheese
1/2cup        sugar
1/4cup        milk (could use lowfat)
1/2cup        golden raisins (dark raisins ok, too)
8oz.            dried apricots, cut up

Topping:
1 cup          corn flakes, crushed
1 cup          brown sugar
4oz.            margarine, softened

Directions:
Cook noodles until tender. Drain. Place in large pot or bowl and add 1/2cup margarine; set aside (margarine will melt).

Beat eggs; add sour cream, cottage cheese, sugar and milk. Mix.   Add dry fruit, combine with noodles. Pour into 9" x 13" baking dish.

Mix corn flakes, brown sugar and 4oz. softened margarine in medium bowl. With spoon, sprinkle small blobs of topping over kugel batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Cut when cool.

Kugel can be eaten hot as part of the main course. It's also good cold, and as dessert. Kugel may be frozen and reheated.

Serves 10-12

Handwise tips: If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe:

My tip for this post is for the noodle pudding. If I know that I am going to make noodle pudding in the near future, I cook the recipe's amount of noodles the same night that we are having pasta for dinner. We then use the same hot water to cook the wide noodles for recipes like this. After draining the noodles, I put them in the refrigerator or freezer bags. Since I measure out the amount of noodles to match the recipe beforehand, it's a simple recipe to assemble. I just melt the 1/2 cup margarine for the noodles, and add in everything else. Also, that's one less pot to wash later--always a helpful thing.

This bread is one of the breads from the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.
The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in this book. To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out The 20th HBinfive Bread Braid

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback.

Judy

Pane all'Olive--Olive Bread

2010-09-27T15:33:00.002-04:00

Pane all'Olive--Olive Bread

Several recipes in Jim Lahey's "My Bread" book have grabbed my attention. Just looking at this olive bread recipe got my kalamata olive cravings going. After a week of the cravings, this loaf just screamed "make me!"

For this bread, I used an 11.5 jar of kalamata olives. It was just short of the amount in the recipe, but I wasn't going to go back to the store for another jar. It was just enough, in my opinion.

Of course, it was a very wet and easy to mix dough. Here's a shot of the dough, after 5 hours of rising. Notice the nice bubbles forming!

After quite a bit of research, I bought a 3.5qt Tramontina enameled cast iron dutch oven. The 6qt size was just too heavy for me, even without the dough inside. Mr. Lahey must be very strong, as he suggests the larger pots! For this first use, the knob was covered in foil because it wasn't oven safe at 450 degrees. Since then, the knob was replaced with a stainless steel knob.


The First Use of My Tramontina Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven!!!

The Pot, After it Was Seasoned...

Using my new enameled cast iron pot was really exciting. I did a test where I tried to make a similar bread without a cast iron pot. Jim Lahey recipe--testing different baking methods.
The results varied when Corningware and a baking stone were used. So I was excited to try Jim Lahey's suggested method.

Although the recipe called for the bread to be baked at 500 degrees, my pot is ovensafe to 450 degrees. My Ove Glove mits are ovensafe to 450 degrees. Cooking at 500 degrees and manipulating a pot can have some anxiety. So the temperature used was 450 degrees.

The bread was just great, but it probably needs to be baked a bit longer at 450 degrees. Although the digital thermometer registered that the bread was done, it was a bit gummy in the middle. I'll have to make sure to take the temperature reading in the middle next time.

Definitely a "keeper" recipe, and it filled my olive craving! I already have my eye on his walnut bread recipe....


Jim Lahey's Recipe, Pane all'Olive

Handwise tips: If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe,

Using my Vidalia Chop Wizard

great measurements!

Rather than chop the olives on a cutting board or cutting them with a scissors, I used my Vidalia Chop Wizard. I can press down on the grid of blades (see extra blade grid on top of my dough bucket) with my whole forearm and chop a nice amount of olives into the container. Using my whole forearm gives me more strength. The container has markings for cups, and comes apart easily. The Chop Wizard soaks in my dough bucket, after use, for easier cleaning.
Soak all your tools in your empty dough bucket or a pan when you are finished using them. That way, you can wash them easily later (or tomorrow!) Give yourself the permission of time to clean up much later.

Thanks for stopping by to visit! I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback. And come back soon, I'll be baking again often.

Judy

Quinoa Bread

2010-09-21T18:27:00.002-04:00

Yummy Quinoa Baguettes!

Hubby: "What's for dinner tomorrow night, sweetie?"

Me: "I dunno, I didn't make up a menu."
That's when I remembered the quinoa I just purchased, and the Smart Bacon (soy) that I had in the freezer.

Luckily, it's easy to whip up some HB5 quinoa dough one night, and bake baguettes tomorrow. I had seen photos of yummy quinoa baguettes made by our HB5 group leader Michelle, of Big Black Dogs. The baguettes could make some great "BLT" sandwiches. And that's just what I made--the dough was mixed and was rising within just a few minutes.

There weren't enough hours for the dough to rise on the counter before bedtime. Therefore, the dough went into the fridge after 1 1/2 hours. I took it out the next morning to come to room temperature and finish rising.

The next day, the dough was somewhat stiff. While that made it easy to shape baguettes, I wondered if the raw quinoa had soaked up some of the liquid.

First baguette, and 2 pieces resting after gluten cloak.
Next time a raw grain is part of a recipe, I am considering keeping the dough wetter. After all, my maple oatmeal bread was very wet, and the oatmeal seemed to absorb some of the liquid overnight.

I used the letterfold technique found in the HB5 book, and they came out nice. I had 2 baguettes that were 11oz. each, and a smaller one of 7 oz. each.

The fresh quinoa baguettes made wonderful vegetarian "BLT" sandwiches.

Now, here's my "while the oven is still hot" recipe. I'm starting to test out holiday gift recipes, and this caught my eye. A similar recipe came in the King Arthur catalog, but I've adjustment the amounts and ingredients slightly:

Pecan, Chocolate and Caramel candies

(adapted from King Arthur Flour recipe)

1 ounce pecans

6 caramel candies

16 Dark Cocoa Candy Melts (by Wilton)

or other 1" - 1 1/2" bittersweet chocolate disk

sea salt to garnish each candy (if desired)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Unwrap caramels, place on a baking sheet and platter, and put them in a warm area to soften.

Chop pecans; you may need to chop more than 1 ounce in case you get crumbs. Toast chopped pecans. When pecans are toasted, place them into 16 piles (about 1/4oz./2tsp each) of pecans on a parchment-lined or lightly greased baking sheet.

Take caramel cubes and use your fingers to flatten them into disks the size of a half silver dollar. Place them on top of pecans. Heat in the oven for 2 to 3 minutes, until the caramel softens and begins to smell. Remove from oven. Top each cluster with a Candy Melt.

Once the chocolate has softened, top each candy with a few flakes of sea salt (if you like sweet and salty combo). Allow the caramel and chocolate to cool and set before removing candies from the pan.

Makes 16 candies

The candies tasted good. Next time, however, I might make them in a mini muffin pan to improve the shape.

This bread is one of the breads from the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.
The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in this book. To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out Big Black Dogs

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback.

Judy

100% Whole Grain Maple Oatmeal Bread

2010-09-20T15:32:00.013-04:00

Maple Oatmeal Bread, mini loaf

There wasn't much time to make this dough, but much time wasn't needed! That's the beauty of this type of baking. The most time was spent buying the wheat germ for this recipe and quinoa for the next loaf.

Raisins were added, after hearing reviews of this bread from other group members. As usual, I rinse my dried fruits to clean them. This also keeps the fruit from soaking up liquid from the dough.

Dough, next day

The dough was rather wet, but I didn't mind. I knew that I would be making mini loaves.

The next day, the dough was stiffer. It is possible that the raw oatmeal had absorbed some of the liquid. Still, it wasn't easy to do the gluten cloak.

We had a lot of plans for the day--building our harvest booth. So I quickly covered the pans to let them rise, set two timers (one to turn on the oven awhile before actual baking), and went outside to start work on the booth.

I had made half a recipe, and it was just enough for 3 mini loaves.

Ready to rise in mini pans

When the second timer went off, the loaves were put into the oven. Because they were mini loaves, they would bake sooner. I kept setting timers for 10 minute intervals, and took them out when the internal temperature said 195 degrees.

Yummy, full of raisins and flavor!

The breads were a really nice snack for all of us building the harvest booth! Nice crumb and flavor. My friend, Debbie, said that the raisins really made the loaf! Even my hubby said that he really liked it. We all felt the loaf would be great with butter. Next time, I might add some walnuts.

I think I'll have another piece right now--excuse me for a minute...

Mmmmm, tastes great with honey butter!

What a great treat to have while we built the booth, and to give a loaf to my friend. Here's some pictures of our harvest booth:

Putting up the "walls"

Our crew, the booth all finished. The "roof" is bamboo mats, so you can see the stars at night. Peyton, who is 9, is a pro at putting up the lights. We will be adding Chinese decorations later on, for our Asian theme.

The booth, lit up for night. We need to add more decorations, a table, chairs, and lots of happy people! Our friends look forward to this celebration every year!

Handwise tips: If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe:

I guess the best tip for this recipe is to add the dried fruits into the water/dough, when you are making the dough. And rinse the raisins--you will be surprised how dirty raisins can be.

This bread is one of the breads from the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in this book. To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out welcome-to-the-19th-hbinfive-bread-braid/">The 19th HBin5 Bread Braid

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below. I read every comment, and really appreciate your feedback.

Judy

100% Spelt Bread, Plain and Simple

2010-09-16T21:11:00.009-04:00

The assigned HB5 group bread was a 100% whole wheat bread, but we had the option to use spelt flour. There was only enough spelt flour for one bread, and this seemed a good time to bake it.

100% Spelt Bread, Plain and Simple

The dough for this bread seemed quite loose, even after refrigerating overnight. Our book says that both whole wheat flour and spelt flour weigh the same. I wonder if they absorb flour the same way.

The next day, the consistency was like our gluten free breads. The dough was hard to shape. I decided to bake the bread in a loaf pan. The bread is shown above. It was a nice bread; we really like spelt!

That's the bread, plain and simple.

Handwise tips: If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe,

You might space it out over a few days. Make the stored dough several days before. You don't have to bake on the same day, that's the beauty of this dough!
A mixer or food processor can help you. You could put soapy water in it and run it for a few seconds to help clean it after removing the dough.
Then, if you are using a food processor, remove the dough hook/blade so that you can fill up the bowl even more. Put an empty (cleaned) container from 35mm film upside down, over the center portion and you can fill it up higher to soak. The water shouldn't leak out!
When you shape it, let the dough rest if it resists stretching out. Wait 10-15 minutes after doing the gluten cloak, and it easily should be able to be shaped. Good time to have a seat and rest your hands!
Soak your tools in your empty dough bucket or a pan when you are finished using them. That way, you can wash them easily later (or tomorrow!) Give yourself the permission of time to clean up much later.

This bread is one of the breads from the "Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.
The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book. To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out HBin5, 19th bread braid

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope that you will leave a comment. And please stop by again soon, to see what's baking in my kitchen!

Judy

Baking Swedish and Norwegian Breads

2010-09-03T15:35:00.313-04:00


Judy & Kitty Making Norwegian Jukelage, waving Norway's flag

This baking adventure started out with my baking Swedish Limpa Bread from AB5. The combination of orange zest, cardomom, anise and rye seemed interesting. Therefore, I postponed my group's HB5 asssignment for this week. These breads just couldn't wait to be baked!

While freshly grinding the anise seeds and cardomom pods, from the health food store, the house smelled wonderful! The dough went into the fridge overnight, to make it easier to handle when shaping.

Just before the loaf went into the oven, a cornstarch glaze was applied. A sharp knife was used to cut a scallop pattern into the dough. More cardamom, anise, and sugar was sprinkled on top. Here's a picture of the bread, just before it went into the oven.

While eating the loaf for dinner, my husband learned he didn't like the flavors of anise and cardomom. Well, you can always learn something new about your spouse!

That's when I thought about my friend, Kitty. I love to talk to people about baking, and about all the baking styles of different countries. When Kitty and I talked about baking, she mentioned her favorite Norwegian bread--julekage (pronounced yooleekaka).

Kitty has been extremely busy in her job, and hasn't baked in awhile. Since the AB5 way of baking might help her, I invited Kitty to bake julekage at my house. She was excited to see how she could bake the AB5 method. Julekage is actually a variation of challah, which is in the AB5 book. We just added raisins (Kitty's choice), cardomom, and anise.

Here's a picture of Kitty, mixing up a batch of dough from the AB5 book. She enjoyed using my Danish dough whisk.

Two hours later, the dough was ready to be shaped. Look at that beautiful rise!!! And the smell of even the dough was wonderful.
That's the flag of Norway on the top of this "dough mountain."

Kitty said that her family makes 3-strand loaves which are sliced. They are eaten as part of breakfast or dessert. Kitty learned this shape from her mom, who learned it from her dad's mom. Kitty said that different families might shape their jukelege differently. They also make rolls, which are easy to pack for a snack.

Here's a picture of the rolls, fresh from the oven. We had measured out 3 ounces of dough for each roll.

The rolls, after icing them with Kitty's special icing recipe.

Kitty's Danish Almond Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
2 TBSP water
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp almond extract

Mix all the ingredients together. Add water until it becomes thin enough to drizzle. Makes 1/2 cup

After drizzling the icing on the jukelage as it cooled, we put almond slivers on the top of the icing as the cooled.

The finished, braided loaves.

Kitty asked her mom how to store the loaves so that the icing wouldn't come off. Kitty's mom said that people usually eat them up right away--no leftovers! But she said to store them in a paper bag overnight and then put the paper bags in the freezer bag to freeze them. That way, the icing shouldn't rub off.

Kitty was thrilled to take home some of the remaining dough to make rolls later in the week. And we enjoyed some wonderful Norwegian treats!

More Swedish Limpa Bread:

Swedish Limpa Bread

There was still some leftover Swedish Limpa bread dough, so we made another loaf. It was fun making patterns in this loaf.

For the last pound of limpa bread dough, we decided to make muffins. Following Kitty's julekage idea, muffins would be packable for a snack. Here's Kitty, putting a mixture of cardomom, anise, and sugar on top.

The muffins baked up really well. They only took about 20 minutes to bake.

The spices of cardamom and anise in these breads were fascinating to me. I have used cardamom in Indian cooking. How did it get to Sweden?

Wikipedia gave me an answer. It just had to do with the ancient spice routes! The first Dutch expedition left from Amsterdam (April 1595) for South East Asia^. Another Dutch convoy sailed in 1598 and returned one year later with 600, 000 pounds of spices and other East Indian products. ^{How cardamom got to Scandinavia from India}

So it was the Dutch who first brought these spices to countries like Sweden, Norway and Holland.

When Kitty came over to bake julekage, she said that her great grandparents owned a shipping company. They would travel to India and all over the world, bringing spices back to Norway. Wow, that really brought history to life for me!

Well, we had an absolute blast baking together! All my husband heard was the two of us laughing and singing ("Let's do the gluten wrap, again!..."). Also, the house smelled wonderful. While the muffins were baking, Kitty went to feed out koi fish in our pond. When she returned to the kitchen, she said she was just in love with the wonderful aroma. It reminded Kitt of Christmas baking from her childhood. What a wonderful memory!

We hope you have fun baking these breads. For some helpful Handwise tips, click on this link: Helpful Handwise tips, near the middle of the page

This bread is one of the breads from the "Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book. To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out The 19th HBin5 Bread Braid

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below.

Judy

Zucchini Flatbread

2010-09-02T20:09:00.003-04:00

Zucchini Flatbread

What a yummy summertime recipe--fresh parsley, zucchini and green onions. All combined on a healthier whole wheat crust with parmesan cheese and pine nuts. The dough was the "100% Whole Wheat Bread, Plain and Simple" from "Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day."

I did make two changes, however:

White whole wheat, instead of whole wheat flour, was used.
Parmesan, not Parmesan-Reggiano cheese, was used. We might try this cheese next time, to see the difference.

This recipe was a bit more work. The vegetables had to be chopped, grated and sauteed.

The dough had to be rolled to 1/8" thick. It was difficult to roll the dough onto my pizza peel, because of the position of the handle. So I started let the dough stretch by grabbing the top and letting gravity pull it down. As I went around the edges of the dough, it got pretty large. There was some rolling at the end, on the back of a floured baking sheet, which is larger than my pizza peel.

Next time I'll roll the dough out on parchment paper. The parchment paper can be removed halfway through the baking.

Here's a picture of the finished zucchini flatbread.

Those cookies in the background are chocolate with white chocolate morsels. I don't like to preheat the oven for 30 minutes and then bake at 450 degrees for just 15 minutes of baking! I had some extra cookie dough left over from awhile back. It was rolled into a log in was paper before freezing. All I had to do was slice the cookies while the flatbread baked.

Energy saving and yummy recipes!

Dinnertime!

Handwise tips: If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe,

Make the dough several days before you bake. The dough used, 100% whole wheat dough plain and simple, can be used up to 10 days after it is made! We still have some dough left, and can make this recipe again really soon.

Grabbing the dough at one end, and letting it hang, really helped stretch the dough quickly. By moving my hands around the edge of the dough, the "rolling out" of the dough went fast.

Soak your tools in your empty dough bucket or a pan when you are finished using them. That way, you can wash them easily later (or tomorrow!) Give yourself the permission of time to clean up much later

Followup: I had some leftover dough, and tried rolling it out on parchment. Several people in our HB5 group suggested that. While I found it easy to roll out, it was difficult to remove the paper mid-baking. Still, it was really tasty!

This bread is one of the breads from the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in this book. To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out The 18th HBin5 Bread Braid

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below.

Judy

A Healthier Pie Crust

2010-08-27T13:19:00.006-04:00

A Healthier Pie Crust

As some of you may know, I've been going through my stacks of collected recipes. Some of these recipes go back to the mid 1990's.

My hubby "suggested" that I toss the beloved stack. However, I told him that I've give myself a year to try as many as possible before tossing the rest. We have been trying the recipes, a few a week. Actually, what's happened is that we have found many new favorites! We both decided to remove the deadline, as long as we tried some new recipes each week.

This pie crust recipe comes from a 1996 Vegetarian Times issue, where the author remakes lemon meringue pie. The filling is a mixture of lemonade and kudzu to thicken it, which didn't interest me.

I am guessing the article was saved for the pie crust recipe. And I am glad I saved it! It is a good tasting "from scratch" recipe, and not one that uses a lot of butter, margarine, shortening, or sugar. It's not as flaky as a crust with shortening, but it's a great tradeoff. My husband gave it a "10", that being the highest score. However, we don't eat a lot of pies for him to compare. Still, we both felt it was really good, and light tasting. Small tradeoffs can add up toward better health and weight management.

If you want to avoid a lot of saturated fats, this is a great recipe. We hope you enjoy it also:

A Healthier Pie Crust

Adapted from Feb. 1996, issue, Vegetarian Times

Makes one crust

1 Cup unbleached white flour

1/2 Cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 to 1 1/2 tsp baking powder (I used a rounded tsp)

4 TBSP canola oil (chilled, preferably)

5 TBSP apple juice, chilled (use 6 TBSP, if needed)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

***Sift flours, salt and baking powder. Add oil, mix lightly with a spatula until oil is absorbed. Add 5 TBSP apple juice; mix again to form a ball. Add additional apple juice if necessary. Knead gently 1 minute, or until smooth. Flatten dough into a disk shape, cover with plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes in the coldest part of the refrigerator.

Roll out dough on floured surface, 1 -2 inches larger than a 9" pie pan. Fit dough into lightly oiled pan, easing dough along sides. Trim excess to edge of pan, crimp with fork. Chill 20 minutes or more. Tightly line bottom of crust with aluminum foil, weight with rice, dried beans or pie weights. Bake until light brown and crisp, 20 to 30 minutes. If you want, remove the weights after 15 minutes and bake the crust a bit longer to bake the bottom. It seemed to make a sturdier crust.

Cool pie crust on a rack. Fill as usual.

Note: ***I made this crust quickly in the food processor. The dry ingredients were mixed and then the oil. Finally, 5 TBSP chilled apple juice was added. A few bursts of the food processor kneaded the dough. After removing the craggy mixture from the food processor, I formed the dough into a ball. It didn't seem to need more apple juice, because it held together quite well. Finally, the dough was flattened into a disk and wrapped in plastic wrap for chilling in the fridge.

The crust, ready for filling!

My yummy (and first ever) lemon meringue pie!!! We really enjoyed this pie, and the crust was just right for the light taste.

Thanks for coming by. Happy Baking! I would love to hear your comments, so please leave one below. And don't forget to return soon, for my next post.

Judy

Rosemary Flax Baguette

2010-08-26T17:40:00.004-04:00

Rosemary Flax Baguette

The whole wheat dough for these baguettes was really easy to use. It was much stiffer than the dough using all purpose flour, making the shaping much easier. I baked these baguettes twice, using stored dough.

The first time, they were baked on my baguette pan. Parchment paper was used so the dough wouldn't seep through or stick:

Halfway through baking time, I took the baguettes off the baking pan and put them directly onto the stone that was in the oven. This gave the bottom of the baguettes a nice crust:

Energy saving tip: Instead of heating up the oven twice for baking, I baked my blueberry pie first. Then I heated up the oven higher for the baguettes. It takes a half hour to heat up the oven, but it the oven was pretty hot by the time I baked the baguettes:

Nice crumb, crust on the baguettes. Great whole wheat and rosemary flavor!

There was just enough dough for a second baguette, later in the week. It's great to have stored dough in the fridge--no need to mix up another batch of dough. This time, I did a "freehand" shape:

It looks like the baguette pan makes smaller loaves. The loaf on the left is the freehand loaf. The one on the right was baked in the baguette pan.

The baguettes were especially enjoyable when we dipped them into olive oil!

This bread is one of the breads from the "Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day" book.

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below.

Judy

Vollkornbrot: 100% Whole Grain Bread, and My Favorite Gazpacho

2010-08-25T19:38:00.010-04:00

Vollkornbrot: 100% Whole Grain Bread, and My Favorite Gazpacho

Hearty bread lovers, this is one for us!!!

Honestly, I wasn't sure I would like this bread. It sounded too dense--rye flakes, whole wheat flour, wheat berries. All purpose flour wasn't used, and the dough wasn't enriched with eggs or milk.

Wow, this bread is wonderful! As soon as I bit into my first bite, I said "where is the deli mustard!?" This bread can really stand up to hearty sandwiches.

The wheat berries and rye flakes came from my local health food store. The dough seemed wetter than usual. However, the recipe didn't say to presoak the wheat berries. After 24 hours, the wheat berries had soaked up much of the excess moisture.

I rolled out the dough into a rectangle. My favorite 4 sided folding method gives the breads a nice rectangle shape. For more information, check out my prior post: Folding technique for a rectangular loaf
The instructions are in the middle of the page.

After placing the dough in the loaf pan, I covered it with a shower cap to rise. Shower caps work wonderfully. It's fun to repurpose household items; it saves me from using plastic wrap.

We really enjoyed the finished bread with a chicken cacciatore dinner.

The leftover bread made wonderfully hearty croutons when mixed with olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasoning. They were baked in a 450 degree oven, just after I took something else out of the oven--energy saving!

The croutons seemed just perfect for a cold summer soup. To me, nothing screams "summer" to me like gazpacho or ratatouille. So, this month, I decided to make my favorite gazpacho recipe. Here's my favorite low calorie recipe, which is delicious!.

Gazpacho (Chilled Salad Soup)
Adapted from Weight Watchers
(Makes 4 servings)

1 cup tomato juice**** (see substitutions below)
1 packet or tsp instant beef broth and seasoning mix
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium cucumber, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
1/4 cup diced onion
1 TBSP olive oil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
3-4 garlic cloves (less, if you don't like garlic)
1/4 tsp salt
dash pepper
2 drops hot sauce (I use 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper)

Combine tomato juice and broth mix in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool. Combine remaining ingredients in work bowl of a food processor. Process until
vegetables are finely chopped. Add cooled tomato mixture;
process just until combined. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, preferably
overnight, before serving.

*** can substitute 1/2cup tomato sauce & 1/2cup water or 1 cup water, several TBSP tomato paste, salt and pepper. Whatever you have on hand.

About the HBinFive Baking Group
The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out The 17th HBin5 Bread Braid

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Come back soon, I'll be baking again often. I hope you will leave a comment below.

Judy

Kitchenaid Mixer tips!

2010-07-30T14:02:00.008-04:00

Kitchenaid Mixer tips!

My new mixer has enough space under the cabinet!

I've been wanting a mixer for about 6 months, and I think I've told just about everyone my quest. Bed, Bath & Beyond was really nice--they let me spend time with both the Kitchenaid and Cuisinart mixers.

Also, there were so many conflicting reviews! Even Consumer Reports was confusing--they reviewed the Kitchenaid mixers highly, but the consumers rated them low. Consumers talked about overheating, plastic gears, and oil leaking.

My choice wasn't getting to a final purchase, so I called Kitchenaid for help. I spoke to a rep named Jordan, who explained that most of the problems listed are incorrect usage problems. She said that many people aren't using the mixers the way they are meant to be designed.

She suggested that I read my manual thoroughly, and start with some of the recipes in the book. Non-Kitchenaid recipes need to be modified, and the book will serve as a guide.

To remind myself, and help my baking buddies, I am listing the comments from the various reps with whom I spoke on several calls my first days of using my new Kitchenaid Pro 600 mixer:

Kitchenaid Mixers, Per Jordan, rep, 7 21/10

This machine is made to be used really often, preferably daily. It was made to get women out of the kitchen so they would spend more time with their families. (Ha, Ha! Women like it so much that they spend more time with it!) Jordan said the overheating and oil leaking complaints are usage problems.

Oil leaking complaint:
Kitchenaid uses a food grade lubricant; they can't use an industrial lubricant in case it gets into the food mixed. It does break down. The heat of mixing will keep the food grade lubricant oil as a solid. If you don't use the machine really often, run it for 2 minutes at speed 10 every 2-3 weeks (on speed 2, if it's humid here). Otherwise, the oil will separate.

Overheating complaints:
The machine will overheat and shut off if too much flour is added at once, or a speed over #2 is used. If recipe not in Kitchenaid care guide, have to modify recipe. Use this mixing guide:

***For non-Kitchenaid recipes, modify the recipe so don't have too much flour in the beginning. Add liquid first, then about 4 cups of the flour. Add remaining flour slowly.
***Cut mixing time in half, or less. (Another rep said For every 10-12 minutes of mixing with another electric mixer or by hand, = 2 minutes with Kitchenaid!)
***If the dough is climbing up the dough hook, you are overkneading.
***For breads, don't go above speed 2--use only speed 2!

Add ingredients, go to stir speed to incorporate flour and then go to speed 2. Mix no more than 5-6 minutes. Dough hook mixes and kneads. Cuts down work time.

For 6qt bowl, don't use recipes containing more than:
14 cups white flour OR
8 cups high gluten/bread/specialty flour

A number of people in my baking group mentioned that their mixer overheats. I am guessing that they might not be modifying their recipe to the mixer's needs. The recipes from "Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" call for putting the dry ingredients into a bowl and then adding the liquid.

I called Kitchenaid about that, because it seemed different from the recipes in the manual. Candy, the rep said to follow the method of the recipes in the manual. If I use my mixer for my HB5 recipes, I asked if I could my dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Then I could put the liquid into the mixer's bowl, add about 4 cups of dry mixed ingredient, stir, and then add the remaining flour mixture slowly. Candy agreed that would work better.

Differences between Pro6qt and Professional 600:

Pro 6qt --11 wires on wire whip, less colors (have onyx black). same wattage, 575 watts, like Pro 600
Professional 600--9 wires on whip (not much difference), 575 watts, more colors.

Both have all metal gears and transmission. Auto reset, turns off if it gets too hot, shuts off, slow start--starts show and speeds up.

A Later call tip--use the mixer as much as possible the first month. Any manufacturing defects will show up the first month.

I look forward to using my new mixer!!!

The look of baking joy!!

First loaves of bread--white bread and cinnamon-raisin bread. The dough was lucious!

Look how high they rose! WOW!!!

8/9--I had some leftover bread, and decided to make a berry fruit bread pudding that was posted in a King Arthur flour email for Classic Summer Pudding

However, we found we had eaten half the loaf of the white bread. The raisin cinnamon loaf, pictured on the right, just didn't seem right for the recipe. Also, I didn't want to heat up the house by turning on the oven.

The solution seemed to be to make a loaf of white bread in my bread machine. We hadn't used the bread machine to bake a bread in over a year. I couldn't believe how much better my breads look now, compared to using the bread machine--no hole where the paddle was, better texture and taste.

Both breads, combined, did make a great fruit/bread pudding with a 4 fruit mixture. And the crusts are being used for Jim Lahey's chocolate torte!

Happy Baking, hope these tips are helpful to you. Please leave a comment about your mixer.