Sourdough French Bread

I haven't used my starter in about a month so it needed to be kneaded! I decided to make sourdough French bread to go with my Sunday family dinner of red beans and rice, fruit salad, green salad. Doesn't sourdough French bread sound just right with that menu?

Here's the recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 T yeast
• 1 tiny whisk dipped in honey
• 1 cup starter
• 4 cups bread flour
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• About 1/2 tsp soda
• 2 more cups unsifted bread flour
  

Pour warm water into mixing bowl and stir in the yeast, using a whisk dipped in honey. Add the starter. Mix the 4 cups flour, sugar and salt together and stir into the yeast mixture. Mix vigorously for about 3 minutes. Turn this mixture into a greased bowl.


Cover with a wet towel (a much greener solution than using plastic wrap) and allow to rise until double (2 hours about)


Stir the soda into the remaining cup of flour. Add to the dough gradually - about a T or so at a time. Dough will be very stiff. Knead (if using machine dough hook or by hand) for 8 minutes until satiny and dough can't absorb any more flour.

Shape into 2 oblong loaves and place on lightly greased cookie sheet. I have this perforated device designed for French bread, so I used it.

Cover with a wet towel and let rise again until doubled (about another 1 1/2 - 2 hours). I made the mistake of not re-wetting my towel from rise number one and it stuck to the bread - see the wrinkles in the risen loaves below? So when I removed the towel, I did cover it with plastic for a short 20 minute rise to help with the damage from removing the towel (and thus collapsing some of the rise).



Preheat oven to 400 degrees. When you put the bread in, spray the bread with water and spray the oven about three times in the first 10 minutes. Bake overall for about 45 minutes.



We had this delicious bread with our Sunday dinner but I have been eating it sliced thin for pimento cheese sandwiches and for the past two mornings have used it to make Toad in the Hole - anyone remember that from growing up?

Toad in the Hole:

• Take a biscuit cutter and cut a circle out of the center of a one inch thick slice of bread.
• Butter the bread and warm up the iron skillet.
  
• Place the bread buttered side down (I put the holes in the skillet too) and
  
• crack a farm egg into the hole in the bread slice.
  
• When the egg looks ready, flip it over.
  
• When done you have a delicious egg fried inside the delicious skillet toasted bread
  

Fabulous.

Rosemary Thyme Bread

With parsley and sage, this bread would complete the Simon and Garfunkle song. I have a huge rosemary bush in my front garden and am always trying to find ways to use it. This weekend I made both a focaccia with an infusion of rosemary, onion, garlic and oil on the top of it and a loaf bread with rosemary and thyme. Since I've talked about focaccia recently, here's the rosemary and thyme bread.

Ingredients:

• 1 T active dry yeast
• 2 cups warm water
• 2 T olive oil
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur's white whole wheat flour)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 T fresh thyme leaves or 1 T dried
• 2 1/2 tsp salt
• about 4 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
  

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. I always add a dollop of honey to my yeast and warm water. I do it by dipping a small whisk into a jar of my honey and using that whisk to stir the yeast into the water.




Stir the olive oil into the yeast mixture. Stir together the whole wheat flour, herbs, salt and 2 cups of the while flour in a medium bowl.
Note that the recipe calls for 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh rosemary. Below you can see a 1/4 cup measuring cup filled with fresh rosemary leaves.


After finely chopping the rosemary, I only have about half of what I need. So I chopped almost the same amount to bring the 1/4 cup to full. It's always important in a recipe to distinguish if they say 1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped vs. what we have in this recipe: 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh rosemary.



Add the flour/herb mix to the yeast mixture and mix together well with the paddle. Adding flour gradually as needed, change to the dough hook on the mixture and mix on low for about 2 minutes. Move to medium speed and knead with the dough hook for about 8 minutes. If the dough is very sticky, gradually add flour as needed.

Scrape the dough onto a floured surface and knead a little by hand. Let dough rise in a lightly greased bowl for about 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and put it into pans (I used round baking pans) or you can shape it into rounds and let it rise on a cookie sheet for a more primitive looking loaf, or if you have them, you can let it rise in a banneton.

About 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450. When you are ready to put the loaves into the oven, slash across the tops with a sharp knife. Bake for 10 minutes, spraying with water a couple of times during this period.

Reduce the heat to 400 and bake for another 30 - 35 minutes until the loaves are brown.

Remove from pan, cool on a rack, and enjoy.



Note: Sorry about the delay between postings. My youngest daughter got married in the middle of April and I got out of the routine, but I'm back now! I never stopped baking, just stopped posting, so I may go back and fill in some gaps as I have time.

English Muffins - From Scratch!

A long time ago I made English muffins from scratch. It was such fun that I even bought rings to shape the muffins! I haven't revisited the idea in years, but decided to do it again recently.



The recipe requires both a griddle and an oven. Here's what you do (and you don't have to have English muffin rings to do this successfully):

• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 1/2 tsp honey
• 1 cup lukewarm milk
• 2 T olive oil or cooled melted unsalted butter (I use olive oil)
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 - 1 2/3 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 3/4 tsp salt

Dissolve the yeast in warm water in a large bowl. Stir in the honey. Let it work for 5 - 10 minutes.
Stir in the warm milk and the olive oil
Mix together 1 1/2 cups of the white flour, the whole wheat flour and the salt in a medium bowl.
Add this to the yeast mixture, using the paddle attachment of the mixer
Change to a dough hook and knead (or knead in the bowl or on the counter) for 10 minutes. Add more white flour as needed.
Cover the bowl with a wet towel or plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise until doubled (about 1 1/2 hours).

Dust a work surface with flour. Divide the dough into 10 parts and move them to the work surface. Sprinkle each part with flour and shape into a 4 inch round or square. Dust with flour.

Cover and let rise for 35 to 45 minutes (until doubled).

Warm a griddle over low heat for 10 minutes until a drop of water sizzles. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 325.

Slide a spatula under one muffine and transfer it to the griddle. Cook for 5 minutes on one side.
Turn and cook for 5 minutes on the other side.
Turn AGAIN and cook for another 5 minutes and turn AGAIN and cook another 5 minutes.

Remove from the griddle and place on an unoiled baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes or until brown on both top and bottom. Cook one or more muffins at a time, depending on the griddle size, until you have baked all the dough.

Cool the muffins on a rack. Split in half and toast. Serve with butter and jam or honey.



Postscript: This was a long, painful process. My griddle holds 8 muffins, but still it took about 30 minutes for the first 8 and an additional 30 minutes for the last two. I found the turning every 5 minutes on the griddle to test my cooking patience! I don't regret making them because we all loved them, but it will be a long time before I visit this recipe again!

Orange Cinnamon Sweet Rolls

My youngest daughter is getting married in three weeks and I'll have people I need to feed breakfast to on Saturday, the day of the wedding. I've been trying to get ready ahead of time so I won't be frantic on the wedding weekend.

This weekend in preparation for the Saturday breakfast needs, I made orange cinnamon sweet rolls from epicurious.com

Here are the ingredients:
3 T warm water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup plus 1 tsp sugar (I used honey in place of the sugar).
5 - 5 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 T finely grated fresh orange zest
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup warm milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing bowl
4 large eggs at room temperature for 30 minutes

Stir together warm water, yeast, and 1 tsp honey in bowl of mixer with paddle attachment and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. While yeast is proofing, whisk 4 cups flour with zest, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl.

Add milk, vanilla, butter, and remaining 1/2 cup honey to yeast and then mix at medium speed until combined. Beat in 3 of the eggs, one at a time and then add the orange cinnamon flour and mix until well combined.

Change to dough hook and mix at medium-low speed, adding more flour (1 - 1 1/2 cups) a little at a time, until you have a slightly sticky dough, but smooth, in about 5 minutes. Transfer dough to counter and knead by hand until smooth and elastic (about 3 minutes). Form dough into ball and transfer to large buttered bowl, turning dough to coat with butter.

Cover bowl with towel and let dough rise until doubled (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours).

Turn dough out onto work surface and knead several times. Cut dough into 12 equal pieces. If I had done this, the rolls would have been enormous - I cut the dough into fourths, and then cut each fourth into four parts. I made the recipe twice, so I had 32 rolls when I was done.

Roll each roll into a smooth ball, rolling between your hands or on the counter. Arrange balls about 1 inch apart on a parchment lined baking sheet on a 17X14 inch cookie sheet.

Cover with damp kitchen towel and allow to rise about 1 - 1 1/4 hours until doubled.

Whisk together remaining egg with 2 tsp water in a small bowl. Snip a 1 inch X in the top of each roll. Brush rolls lightly with egg wash and bake until golden (about 10 minutes for the size I made).



Here's the snip:



These rolls were good out of the oven but my oldest daughter said that she kept thinking they needed some kind of sugar coating. They call for serving with orange butter:
1 stick of salted butter and 1/3 cup orange marmalade pulsed in a food processor.

I went out into the kitchen and made up a honey glaze.

1/4 cup soft butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 egg white
3 T honey

I painted this onto the rolls. They are beautiful and delicious. I put them in the freezer to stay for the three weeks until the wedding. I'll probably make the orange butter to serve with them, but they are delicious with the glaze.

Colossal Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips

This is my mother's recipe:

1 cup butter (salted butter works best for this recipe)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour (1 cup white, 1 cup whole wheat)
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 bag Ghiradelli chocolate chips (note: the recipe actually calls for 1 1/2 cups raisins, but we always use chocolate chips instead)

Cream the butter and the sugar.
Add eggs and vanilla.
Combine the dry ingredients (Dylan is working hard to do this with his whisk)


Mix dry ingredients into creamed mixture. Add raisins (or in our case - chocolate chips)

Dylan carefully poured in the chocolate chips.

These are supposed to be "colossal" cookies - very large and baked for 15 - 20 minutes at 350. We baked them in my Thermador oven set for convection at 350. We made the cookies about 1 1/2 inch balls and baked them for about 10 minutes.


Although this is not a freezer cookie, my mother freezes this dough all the time. So we rolled most of the dough into 2 inch diameter rolls and wrapped them in waxed paper, bagged them in a ziploc with baking instructions. They are in my downstairs freezer, waiting to be baked the week of the wedding in April.

Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies

My youngest daughter is getting married next month and we are baking and freezing cookie dough for cookies to put in bags for the out of town guests. We mixed up three kinds in the last few days. Each time we baked a test batch of about a dozen cookies (who could blame us?) because we thought we needed to make sure they really were good.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of our results in baking these delicious cookies. I got the recipe from epicurious. Trust me, our dozen cookies looked exactly like the picture from Gourmet and they tasted fantastic.

What I did get were these wonderful pictures of Dylan licking the beater after the chocolate treats had been all mixed up!





Getting to bake with this wonderful grandson is a treat for me!

I rolled the dough into rolls about 2 inches in diameter, wrapped them in waxed paper, put the rolls in a ziploc with a label of baking instructions. I'll thaw and bake them right before the wedding in April.

Ciabatta Bread

This weekend Dylan and I baked a lot. We made sourdough French bread, but I'm not thrilled with it and will wait to post about French bread. We baked a sweet orange flavored focaccia. And we baked chocolate chip cookies.

We baked the rustic Ciabatta bread in the March/April 09 issue of Cooks Illustrated. It's pictured above. I'm posting a link but unless you subscribe to Cooks Illustrated online, you'll not be able to access this recipe (and their video) after April.

It turned out great and both loaves were eaten in two days!

Instead of the Biga (1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, 1/8 tsp of instant yeast, and 1/2 cup water at room temperature, I used 1 cup of my sourdough starter mixed with 1/8 tsp of yeast.)

The dough:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp table salt
3/4 cup water at room temperature
1/4 cup milk at room temperature.

Place the Biga and dough ingredients in the mixing bowl. Use the paddle attachment to mix on low until a shaggy dough forms at about one minute of mixing. Then mix on medium-low until the dough becomes a uniform mass on the paddle - about 4 - 6 minutes. Change to dough hook and knead on medium about 10 minutes.

Put dough in a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise about an hour, until doubled.

When dough has doubled, spray cooking spray on a bowl scraper and fold the dough over itself, turning the bowl 90 degrees each time for 8 folding operations. Cover again with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 more minutes. Repeat the folding and turning, replace the wrap and let rise yet another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450, preferably with a baking stone in it.

Cut two 12 X 6 inch pieces of parchment paper and flour them well. Flour counter well and turn dough out onto it. Cut dough into two parts with a bench knife. Flour hands well and press dough into 12 X 6 inch shape. Fold the shorter sides of the dough toward center, overlapping them like a letter to form a 7X4 inch loaf. Repeat with other half of the dough.

Transfer each loaf seam down to parchment sheets, dust with flour, cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Slide parchment with loaves onto wooden pizza peel. Using floured fingers, poke surface of each loaf to form 10X6 rectangle. Spray the loaves with water.

Slide loaves with parchment onto baking stone and bake spraying loaves with water twice more during the first 5 minutes of baking time.

Transfer to a wire rack, discard parchment, and cool loaves to room temperature.

I liked this recipe but remember an even better ciabatta from Nancy Silverton's La Brea Bakery cookbook. I'm going to try it the next time I'm in the ciabatta mood.

Delicious! Dylan ate his for the rest of the afternoon. In the picture below he kept a piece going while he played trains.