11/20/2010 - Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread

Just the thing for Thanksgiving! I've been saving this one and the anticipation has been building. I love the flavor and loyalty (that "yum" that stays in your mouth after you're finished eating) that walnuts bring to bread, and how can you go wrong with dried cranberries?

This is a relatively quick bread to make. I stirred together the sugar, flour, salt, and yeast, and then mixed in orange extract, eggs, milk, butter, and water. Then I kneaded a few minutes, added a pile of dried cranberries almost as big as the dough itself, kneaded a few more minutes, added the chopped walnuts, and continued kneading until everything was evenly incorporated. I let the dough rise for about two hours until it had doubled, and then I shaped it into a double braid. I divided the dough into three portions, and then stuck two portions back together. I divided that larger bulk of dough into three equal pieces, rolled them out like snakes, braided them, and placed them on my baking sheet. I did the same with the smaller portion of dough, and then I placed the small braid on top of the large one, pressing it down slightly. I brushed the loaf with an egg wash and left it to proof, uncovered, for an hour and a half. Then I baked the loaf at a fairly low temperature for about an hour.

This was a great bread. It looked fabulous, it tasted fabulous. We spread it with raspberry jam and a smidge of horseradish and sandwiched leftover chicken breast and provolone inside. The only way it could have been better is if it had been leftover cranberry sauce in place of the jam and turkey in place of the chicken. Next year this will be my Black Friday bread.

11/23/2010 - Poolish Baguettes

True to its name, this formula begins with a preferment called a poolish. I mixed flour, water, and a little yeast to make what looked like a thick pancake batter. I left it at room temperature to ferment for four hours and then put it in the fridge overnight. The next morning, I looked at the formula and realized I only needed one cup of poolish; I had followed the poolish formula and made about three cups. Rather than toss perfectly good preferment, I decided to make a double batch of baguettes using all the poolish and just add a little less water.

This formula calls for 1 3/4 cups sifted whole wheat flour. I don't have a fine sieve, so I followed the note on the side of the page and used 2 Tbsp unsifted whole wheat flour, substituting regular bread flour for the rest (but since I doubled it, it was 4 Tbsp). I mixed the dry ingredients and added the poolish and water; then I remembered that it's a dumb idea to use my smaller mixing bowl when I'm doubling a formula. But of course once one mixing bowl is dirty there is no way I'm going to transfer my half-mixed dough to the bigger one and dirty another dish. So I carefully mixed my dough and kneaded it, and left it to rise for two hours. After that first rise I kneaded it for a minute and left it to double again for two hours, as instructed. Then I shaped my baguettes. This formula normally makes three small baguettes; I made four large ones. They proofed for about an hour, then I preheated the over for hearth baking and scored them. These baked for about 20 minutes and came out quite beautifully.

The baguettes were soft and flavorful. J4 thought they would be perfect for sub sandwiches, but we never got around to trying it out. I think I did a much better job on these than I have in the past with French or Italian bread.

11/15/2010 - Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire

It seems like I saved all the easy one day formulas for the end, doesn't it? Here's another one that was ready by lunchtime.

This formula utilizes a soaker to tenderize several of the grains that grace this bread. Coarse cornmeal (I used the plain normal grind), rolled oats, and wheat bran (I substituted whole wheat flour . . . it has some bran, right?) are soaked in water at room temperature overnight. I left my soaker out overnight and in the morning I mixed up the flour, brown sugar, salt, and yeast. I added the soaker, some cooked brown rice, honey, warm milk, and water to make the dough. I kneaded it and left it to rise until it doubled. I shaped and panned my loaf, let it proof about an hour, and baked it 50 minutes or so.

This is a fabulous sandwich bread. I really enjoyed its light sweetness and soft, moist texture. This formula makes a two-pound loaf and I only have 1 1/2 pound bread pans, so my pan was a little overfilled, but it worked ok. Not awesome, but ok enough that I would do it again. This one could become a standby.

11/11/2010 - Casatiello

Casatiello is a rich Italian bread packed with cheese and bits of meat. Yum! J4 has been looking forward to this formula and picked up a block of provolone at the store last week to hurry me along. I used summer sausage for the meat since that's what I had in the house, but according to BBA salami is the preferred addition.

This is a quick one day formula that was ready in time for lunch. I mixed some bread flour, yeast, and warm milk to make the sponge, which foamed for about an hour. Meanwhile I diced up that summer sausage and lightly sautéed it, and J4 grated the provolone. To make the dough, I stirred together the remaining flour, salt, and sugar, and then mixed in the sponge and a couple of eggs. Next a good amount of butter is worked in, followed by the meat and finally the cheese. The dough was soft and very tacky; even dusting with flour frequently, it was a bit of a challenge to get everything evenly distributed without leaving half of the dough stuck to the counter. I let the dough rise to almost double, shaped and panned two loaves, proofed them, and baked them. My house smelled heavenly.

This bread was excellent. It was flaky and rich, but not sickeningly so like brioche. We loved the meat and cheese in it, although next time I'd like to plan ahead and get some salami. We passes along a loaf to friends and got rave reviews from them as well. This one's a keeper!

11/6/2010 - Marbled Rye

Unlike most of the rye formulas in this book, this bread is made in one day without any sourdough barm. Easy. You just have to make two doughs instead of one. The light and dark rye doughs are identical except that the dark includes a coloring agent. I used cocoa to darken mine. I actually used 50% more cocoa than the formula called for, and I would still have liked it to be a little darker. I suspect that the only way to get the rich dark rye that I'm looking for is with liquid caramel coloring, but I don't have any of that sitting around my kitchen.

I mixed and kneaded my doughs, first the light and then the dark. This dough incorporates a bit of molasses, and that smell still makes my skin crawl a little. The doughs rose for about an hour and a half, and then I divided them each into six equal portions for shaping. I flattened three light and three dark portions into rectangles and alternately layered them; I then rolled them up and sealed the crease to make a spiral loaf. I divided the remaining three light and three dark portions in half, and then squashed them together to form a marbled loaf. I panned my loaves, let them proof for another hour and a half, brushed them with an egg wash, and baked them.  

These loaves were just plain fun. The flavor was good (although J4 was disappointed that I didn't add caraway seeds), but I really just enjoyed the fun patterns in the bread. I just wish my dark rye had been darker.

11/2/2010 - Portuguese Sweet Bread

Before BBA, I always thought of this bread as Hawaiian bread, but PR says that Hawaiians give credit for it to the Portuguese. This bread is made in one day, and is enriched with powdered milk, butter, shortening, and eggs, and flavored with sugar and extracts of lemon, orange, and vanilla.

This bread is begun as a sponge of flour, sugar, yeast, and water that ferments and foams for about an hour. To make the dough, you actually cream together the enrichments first, and then add in the sponge and bread flour. I've never creamed ingredients to make a bread dough before; usually butter is added near the end when the dough is mostly formed and the gluten has begun developing, since too much fat tends to get in the way of that important process. I think the sponge in this formula allows some gluten development to occur prior to the mixing of the dough. I kneaded the soft dough and set it in a bowl to rise for about 2 hours. Then I divided the dough in two, shaped the pieces into rounds, and placed them in pie pans. They proofed for a full 3 hours, and then I brushed them with an egg wash and baked them for about an hour.

I don't think my loaves ended up rising quite to the size they were meant to, even though I allowed them plenty of time. They didn't really fill the pie pans. However, the texture of the bread was very good and not at all dense. The flavor was excellent as well, and we really enjoyed sandwiches on this bread. It also made fabulous French toast. 

10/30/2010 - Stollen

What better time to make stollen than for a Reformation Day Germanfest potluck? I have to admit that I wasn't too excited to bake stollen after being so disappointed with my panettone.

The evening before baking, I tossed my dried fruit mixture (golden raisins, dried cherries, and snipped dried apples) with white rum and orange extract. The next morning I mixed up the dough, rich with butter, egg, and milk and flavored with orange zest and cinnamon. I added the fruit mixture and kneaded it well, and then set it in a bowl to rise. I really enjoyed the shaping of this bread. The dough is lightly flattened into a rectangle, sprinkled with sliced almonds, and then flattened more in the middle with a rolling pin. It is then folded over itself a couple of times with more almonds sprinkled in the folds, pressed together, and curled into a crescent. After proofing and baking, the bread is brushed with oil and heavily dusted with powdered sugar. The finished loaves are quite dramatic.

I am still not a lover of fruit bread, but we all enjoyed stollen more than panettone. It was a bit dry for our taste, but just judging from the notes alongside the formula I think it is supposed to be that way.

  

10/28/2010 - Sunflower Seed Rye

Sunflower seed rye concludes my foray into sourdough breads, at least for the time being. I probably wouldn't have quit on them so quickly, but in baking this bread I determined that my sourdough barm is definitely no longer able to raise bread. It still gives the sourdough flavor, but I suspect I have a barm colonized with plenty of bacteria and lacking a healthy yeast population. I do have some barm in the freezer, and I may try again with that sometime in the near future. I have a lot of pumpernickel flour left, and there's not much to do with it that doesn't involve sourdough.

The day before baking this bread, I made the soaker by combining some pumpernickel flour with water and leaving them at room temperature overnight. I also made a firm sourdough starter by combining some barm with flour and a little water. This was supposed to rise to at least double, but mine didn't rise at all. After five hours or so I gave up on it and put it in the fridge. Lucky for me, this bread is spiked with commercial yeast so it would still work. The next day I mixed the dough, kneaded in the sunflower seeds, and let it rise to double. I then shaped two couronnes from my dough and let them proof on a baking sheet. I then baked my loaves hearth style, and they turned out beautifully.

We enjoyed this bread. It's definitely a rye that I would make again, someday when I resurrect my sourdough barm.