Catch Up with BBA Posts: Artos Greek Celebration Bread

Actually I made this bread on November 16 and just never posted about it.  It was easy and fun and a delicious bread.

I used a poolish started since I already had it available, but he starts with a barm.  He does say you can use a poolish.

As a beekeeper, I loved it that this bread has honey as an ingredient because, of course, I used honey from my own bee hives.  The honey and all the spices give the dough an inviting warm color.

I follow all of his directions as precisely as I can (for a person for whom precision is a challenge, at best) so I use Pam Olive Oil spray since he calls for it in almost every recipe.  Here I used it to oil the bowl in which the dough would rise.

This bread baked up beautifully into pretty round loaves.

While the bread was baking, I made the glaze of sugar, water, honey and orange extract so I would be ready to paint it onto the loaves when they were done.

Every year when our office has a holiday party, we draw names.  I give some version of the same gift every year - a jar of my honey (or homemade apple butter, if there is no honey - like this year), some homemade breads - this year it was this Artos holiday bread - and a few other homemade goodies - like seasoned nuts, candied orange peel.  I think the receiver was glad to get this loaf.  

I certainly enjoyed the one I kept which I ate right away - hers I saved in the freezer until the party.

Dinner Rolls for Christmas Eve

Our amazing dinner rolls for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner came from Beth Hensperger's The Bread Bible. Here are the ingredients:

1 T active dry yeast
1 tiny whisk dipped in honey
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup warm buttermilk
2 T honey
grated zest of one lemon
4 T unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
2 tsp salt
4 - 4 1/2 cups unbleached flour

Soften the yeast in warm water. Stir it into the warm water with a tiny whisk dipped in honey.

Heat the buttermilk to warm. Add the sugar (the original recipe calls for sugar; I use honey), the lemon zest, the butter, melted, the egg, and the salt.

Add some flour and the yeast and beat well. Then gradually (1/2 cup at a time) add the rest of the flour.

Knead the dough until smooth and elastic. Put the dough in a greased bowl to rise until doubled.

I baked these rolls in two greased cake pans. I always melt about a half a stick of butter.



Punch the dough down gently. Divide it in half (1/2 for each cake pan). Then divide each half into 9 equal portions. Shape each into a ball. Dip the ball in the melted butter and put it into the cake pan.

Preheat the oven to 375. When the rolls have risen, place in the center of the oven and bake for 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown. Turn out of the pans and serve.

Oatmeal Graham Bread from Hensperger

I was out of town over the weekend and didn't get home until late Monday so I baked my October oatmeal weekend bread on Tuesday. I picked Beth Hensperger's Oatmeal Graham bread from her wonderful book: Bread for All Seasons.

I love this cookbook and this bread appears in the February section. Personally I think it's perfect for fall as well.

Here is the ingredient list:

2 cups boiling water
1 cup rolled oats (I always use McCann's)
1/2 cup honey (my own from my bees)
4 T butter - she calls for unsalted - I didn't have any and used salted
1 1/2 T active dry yeast
pinch of sugar (I used a dip of honey on a tiny whisk)
1/4 cup warm water
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups graham or whole wheat flour
2 2/1 - 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
extra rolled oats for sprinkling
1 egg yolk
2 T sesame seeds

As in many oatmeal breads, first you boil the water and pour it over the oatmeal, honey and butter. This has to cool in order not to kill the yeast in the third step.


Meanwhile you soften the yeast in the water. I stir the yeast with a whisk dipped in honey and then leave the whisk in the mix as the yeast begins to work.


Now that the oatmeal mix is cool and the yeast is up and running, you pour the yeast into the oatmeal in the mixing bowl. Add salt, whole wheat flour (I always use King Arthur's) and a cup of the unbleached flour. You beat this together well - about a minute.

Then you add the rest of the unbleached flour, 1/2 cup at a time. I switch to the bread hook after the mixture gets pretty stiff. Knead first by machine and then some on the counter before leaving it to rise for 1 1/2 - 2 hours.


When the bread has risen, divide the dough in half and shape it into two loaves. Grease the baking pans and sprinkle oatmeal all over the bottom and sides.



Before baking in a 375 oven, brush the tops of the loaves gently with the beaten egg yolk and sprinkle with 1 T sesame seed per loaf.

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes and then cool on racks.

This is a beautiful and absolutely delicious bread. It is soft and honey-nutty tasting.

The crumb is pretty and the bread crust is tender. So far this is my favorite of the oatmeal breads. It would do well for sandwiches (tried it at lunch today) or as breakfast toast.

Canadian Buttermilk Honey Rolls

Today I was supposed to bake Reinhart's white bread from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. All of his breads call for instant yeast and I always use active dry yeast, so I'm doing his white bread (Version 2) tomorrow after I purchase some instant yeast!

In the meantime my beekeeper's club has its annual picnic and auction on Sunday. I promised to bring some baked goods to auction in addition to some bigger items that I've donated. I always try to make something that has honey in it. Tonight I baked Canadian Buttermilk Honey Rolls - they are absolutely luscious - I've made them many times.

The recipe is from the Book of Bread by Judith and Evan Jones. It's only available used, so I'm giving you the ingredients.

2 cups buttermilk
1 T active dry yeast
2 T honey
2 tsp coarse salt
2 T butter
1/4 tsp baking soda
4 - 5 cups white flour, unbleached.

Interestingly, you get the buttermilk to a lukewarm temperature and soften the yeast in 1/3 of it.



The butter, salt and honey are stirred into the rest of the warm buttermilk. Then you add the soda. Soda is usually added to baked goods with sour cream, buttermilk or sourdough to do the chemical process to allow the bread to brown.

When you've mixed all that together, you begin to add the flour, a cup at a time. I ended with the dough hook and finished kneading on the counter. You press the dough into a flattened shape, about 3/4 inch thick.

I then do what my mother always does to rolls. I cut them out with a biscuit cutter and dip each roll in melted butter before putting it into a cake pan to rise. I love the soft sides of rolls baked this way, rather than sitting individually on a cookie sheet.

These rolls only rise once - in the pan. This means the recipe can be done start to finish in 1 1/2 hours.


They bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Here are the finished rolls. I'll package them in Ziploc baggies and offer each dozen as a separate item at the beekeeper's auction.
I kept the small pan of rolls for me at home.

Sands White Bread Part II

The loaves were beautiful out of the oven and smelled heavenly. They were not as redolent of honey as the last recipe from Judith and Evan Jones.



This picture isn't well focused (I forgot about my Macro) but the crumb of this bread is lovely and it tastes really nice. This bread tastes more salty than the previous recipes and less sweet. The honey flavor is not nearly as distinctive as in the previous white breads.

Basic White Bread II - the Second White Bread Part One

I've owned Judith and Evan Jones' book: The Book of Bread since 1986. At the beginning the dedication is to James Beard. It actually says: "For James A. Beard, an inspiration."

I believe it may be out of print since I could only find it from private sellers on Amazon and it was listed on a couple of other used book sites, but nowhere as available new - except from used book sellers who listed it as "new" which I read as "as good as new." So I'm going to give you the recipe:

1 T active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups milk
4 T butter
4 T honey
1 T coarse salt
6 1/2 - 7 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

If you ever find this book, don't pass it by! It is a wonderful addition to a bread baker's library because the variety of recipes in it are so interesting.

Of course I used my own honey from my bees in this recipe.

First you soften the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water in a large bowl. Then you warm the milk and add the butter, the honey and the salt. When the milk is at 110 degrees F, you can add it to the yeast mix in the large bowl.



Mix in the milk mixture and then add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. After 6 cups, this is what my mixture looked like so I obviously needed to add more flour. I did so, 1/2 cup at a time and switched to the dough hook to do this.



As per Beth Hensperger, I put the dough in a straight-sided container to rise. It had more than doubled in about an hour.



I love turning the dough out of the deep container - it looks so full of energy on the counter!



Next post will continue this bread.

Ethiopian Honey Bread: Dabo

This recipe is featured on epicurious.com this month. Being a bread baker, I decided to try it. I corrected a typo on the recipe and have one other suggestion. Here are the ingredients and the recipe:

• 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 packets active dry yeast (2 scant T)
• 2 1/2 cups warm water
• 7 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3/4 cup honey

Mix the warm water, canola oil and 2 T of yeast in a small bowl.

In the large bowl of your mixture put the flour and salt and fit the mixer with the dough hook.

Meanwhile, chop up the rosemary and toast it in a hot skillet for about 30 seconds. By the time I did all of this, the yeast was ready to use.

Turn on the mixer and stir the flour and salt together. With the dough hook turning, gradually add the yeast mixture. When you do, the bread looks ready to finish, but you still have to add the honey and rosemary.

Add the honey which makes the solid looking dough suddenly wet and very sticky. Also add the rosemary.

I found at this point that I needed to knead in with the dough hook an additional approx. 3/4 cup flour to make the dough able to be handled.




When the dough is ready, put it into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and allow it to rise about one hour. At the end of the hour, turn the dough out of the bowl and gently shape it into two loaves. Put these loaves in greased 9 X 4 inch loaf pans. Again cover and allow to rise about 20 minutes. During the 20 minutes, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.



Bake the bread at 400 for about 28 - 30 minutes. When you remove the pans from the oven, lay them on their side for about 15 minutes to cool in the pans. The recipe says to turn them upside down in the pans, but mine won't sit on rounded tops so I didn't even try that. I simply put them on their sides.



At the end of the fifteen minute cooling period, turn them out of their pans and allow the rest of the cooling to take place on the rack. The whole kitchen is redolent of my bees' delicious honey at this very moment! I can't wait to eat the bread.

Epicurious says that the Ethiopians eat this bread for breakfast with a chick pea spread.

Parmesan Pull-aparts from Gourmet

Clearly I've been on a roll kick, inspired by Gourmet's issue this month. These are the only rolls that don't appear in the pictures in the magazine, but they sounded so good, I decided to try them sight unseen!

Here are the ingredients (which you can also find on Epicurious)

2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp honey (I use the honey from my own beehives)
2/3 cup warm milk
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour plus 2 T for sprinkling
1 1/4 cups grated (with a rasp) Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 tsp salt
3 large eggs
5 T unsalted butter, cut into T pieces and softened
1 T water

• First you grate the cheese - lots of it.

• Stir together the yeast, honey, and 1/3 cup warm milk in mixer bowl and let stand until the yeast starts to foam.
  
• Whisk together the flour and the grated cheese and the salt (see picture above).
  
• Mix into the yeast mixture along with the remaining 1/3 cup milk at low speed.
  
• Increase the speed to medium and beat in 2 eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each.
  
• Beat well, about 3 minutes until a soft dough forms.
• Beat in the butter, one T at a time, until the dough is elastic, about 2 minutes - this is where I had trouble. The butter just didn't want to beat in. I changed to the dough hook, but that made it more difficult - see the picture below. I ended up going back to the paddle, which was what Gourmet recommended, but it was difficult because the dough was solid and in the shape at which I usually use the hook. The butter mixing was very difficult.
• Put the dough in a greased bowl, sprinkle it with the remaining 2 T flour, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
  

• When the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a floured surface and cut it into 12 equal pieces.
  
• Roll each into a ball.
  
• Arrange the rolls in a buttered 9X2 inch round cake pan and cover with a non-terry kitchen towel.
  
• Allow to double - 1 - 1 1/4 hours.

• Preheat oven to 375 with rack in the middle.
  
• Whisk together the remaining egg with 1 T water and brush over the tops of the rolls.
  
• Bake until golden brown - 20 - 25 minutes.
  
• Loosen edges of rolls from pan with sharp knife (this is to take care of cooked egg gluing it to the edges of the pan).
  
• Invert rolls onto a rack, reinvert and cool for 20 minutes.

These are DELICIOUS - well worth the frustration with the butter mixing in (or not, as the case may be).

Seven Grain Honey Bread

Today Dylan and I baked another of my favorite Hensperger recipes from my falling-apart-at-the-seams copy of her Baking Bread: Old and New Traditions.
The recipe calls for seven grain cereal and I only had five grain but I used it and hoped for the best.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1 cup seven grain cereal (I used five-grain cereal)
• 1 1/2 T active dry yeast
• pinch sugar
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup warm buttermilk
• 1/3 cup local honey (as a beekeeper, I was thrilled to use my own honey from my backyard bees)
• 3 T corn or other vegetable oil
• 2 T unsalted butter, melted
• 3 eggs (we were almost out of eggs and had only two but I soldiered on)
• 1 T salt
• 4 1/2 - 5 cups unbleached bread flour.

And here's what you do:

• Pour boiling water over the cereal and allow to stand for 1 hour
• Proof the yeast in the warm water with the pinch of sugar (about 10 minutes)
• In a large bowl, combine the buttermilk, honey, oil, butter, eggs, salt, and 1 cup flour.
• Beat hard until smooth
• Add the cereal mixture and the yeast
• Add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time until the dough clears the sides of the bowl.
• Knead the dough until it is soft and springy (about 3 minutes), adding flour as necessary
• Let rise in a greased bowl covered with plastic wrap for about 1 t0 1 1/4 hours
• Turn dough onto work surface and divide into three parts.
• Make round loaves - I have round baking pans - they are actually called pudding pans - and I used those
• Let rise about 30 to 40 minutes
• About 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 375.
• Bake until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped about 35 - 40 minutes.

Dylan's favorite part is licking the beater!

Here are the three loaves. I'm lucky they came out at all. I had baked rolls in my convection oven at 375 and thought it was still on when I put the loaves in the oven, but actually I had turned it off.

When the timer went off for me to take the bread out, I realized the oven wasn't even on, the bread was pale blonde and although it had achieved "spring" in the oven, it wasn't done in any way. I left the bread in the oven, turned the convection back on at 375 and baked it for another 20 minutes.

Despite the rocky baking experience and the lack of one egg, the loaves turned out pretty. They are a little softer than I would have imagined and the loaf on the left in the group picture shows the indentation from the cooling rack.

Buttermilk Fantails - Part One

In this month's roll feature in Gourmet, I also made the buttermilk fantail rolls on pg. 86. This was an interesting recipe to try.

Here are the ingredients:

1 stick plus 2 T unsalted butter, melted, divided
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 T honey
3 cups all purpose flour (I used bread flour)
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

Butter muffin cups (12) with 1 T melted butter.
Stir together the yeast, warm water and honey in a large bowl and let stand until foamy about 5 minutes - if this doesn't happen start over with new yeast. (Again, as a beekeeper, it pleases me to find recipes that include honey.)
Mix flour, salt, buttermilk and 6 T melted butter into yeast mixture until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto well-floured surface and knead (I used the dough hook on my mixer) for 6 - 8 minutes
Put dough in large oiled bowl to rise, covered with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel - takes about 1 1/2 - 2 hours
Turn out dough and halve it. Cover the half you are not using with plastic wrap.

Roll dough out with a rolling pin into a 12 inch square about 1/8 inch thick. Brush dough with 1/2 T butter.


Cut dough into 6 strips - as you can see, I used a pizza wheel.



Mine weren't exactly equal, but it worked out anyway.


Stack the six strips, buttered side up, one on top of the other.



Continued on next post.