Posted on 01/21/2017 10:04:48 PM PST by CottonBall
Hello fellow cooks! This is Cottonball, your 2nd substitute thread poster for Jamestown1630, along with Yaelle.
I decided to indulge in one of my favorite hobbies for this week’s foodie thread - I LOVE making bread. Just like growing plants, making bread for me is an act of love and creation – the little yeasties making the flour and water into something magical always excites me and gives me a feeling of accomplishment. Seeing the dough rise and take shape is like giving birth (without the pain or medical staff).
I wasn’t always able to make edible bread – I spent probably 15 years making bread that had more in common with bricks than bread. At some point though, something clicked and I decided to ignore the directions on rising times, and instead focus on what the dough actually looked and felt like. Sometimes, my dough takes twice as long to rise as recipe directions say, and other times, half as long. The dough itself now decides when it is ready, and that has made all the difference to successful loaves, rolls, or pretzels.
I have 3 favorite and beloved bread recipes to share with you this week: a surprisingly light and fluffy 100% whole wheat bread, an easy no-knead holey and crispy loaf, and a beautiful marbled rye that gets lots of compliments.
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100% Whole Wheat Bread – patience is the key to this one, let it rise until puffy and jiggle, given it time – it will get there!
prepared pantry
The key to really great 100% whole wheat bread is to extract the best flavors from the whole wheat and temper the harsh tones that sometimes accompany whole wheat flour. Good whole wheat bread has an almost nutty taste without a bitter aftertaste. A long fermentation gives the yeast a chance to produce its own flavors and convert the starch to sugar. By refrigerating the dough overnight, you can make excellent 100% whole wheat bread.
This is one of our favorite bread recipes. Yeasts perform differently at low temperatures. In this recipe, the dough is mixed the day before and refrigerated. The acids and enzymes produced by the yeast at lower temperatures temper the harshness of the whole wheat and develop wonderfully complex bread flavors. It's no more work than other recipes; you just mix the dough the day before.
Bakers note: This bread should be very light and fluffy, not dense. The secret of making it so is to make sure that the dough rises fully both in the first rise and in the pans. The dough will fill two 5 x 9-inch loaf pans and should be very soft and puffy before baking. If you let it over-rise, you may see a blister or two in the dough. Poke the blisters with the point of a knife and hurry the bread into the hot oven.
5 to 6 cups fine-ground whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons wheat gluten (optional)
1 teaspoon dough conditioner
1 seven gram packet of instant yeast (or two teaspoons)
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons water
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons melted and slightly cooled butter
1. Place about three cups of the flour in the bowl of your stand-type mixer. Add the yeast. Carefully measure 2 cups room temperature (80 degrees) water. The water should feel cool to the touch. Mix the water with the flour with a dough hook for 30 seconds or until the yeast is dissolved and the ingredients begin to combine.
2. Add the salt, sugar, and butter and continue mixing. Add most of the remaining flour, the wheat gluten, and dough conditioner and continue mixing at a medium speed for at least four minutes adding more flour as needed to reach a soft dough consistency. (It is important that the dough be mixed for at least four minutes to develop the gluten.) The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but will be soft, not firm, to the touch.
3. Once the dough is mixed, place it in a large greased bowl, turning once to coat both sides, and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight or for up to three days.
4. On the day that you would like to bake your bread, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it warm to room temperature--about three hours. The dough should rise to nearly double in size.
5. Once the dough has risen, form the loaves. Coat your hands with flour and gently form a loaf by pulling the dough around itself to create a slightly stretched skin. You may need to coat your hands several times if the dough is sticky. If necessary, pinch the seams together on the bottom of the loaf. Lay the loaf gently in a well-greased loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap. Repeat with the second loaf. Let double again in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once the dough has doubled (the loaf should be very puffy), place the two loaves on a shelf in the top half of the oven, well-spaced so that air can circulate between the loaves. Bake for thirty minutes or until done. The interior of the loaves should register at least 185 degrees when an insta-read thermometer is inserted through the bottom crust. Remove the bread from the pans and cool on wire racks. Let it cool completely before cutting.
Variation:
SWEET WHOLE WHEAT BREAD RECIPE
- I wanted to make the loaf a bit more interesting for gifts and these additions make it a delightful loaf, wonderful with peanut butter or butter. It makes great toast too.
Add 1/3 c honey, and 1 T molasses, and ½-1 cup more flour
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Crusty No-knead Holey Bread – this one has a crusty, crackling crust and a soft, moist interior. I don’t know what they mean by a roasting pan, but I’ve made this in a Dutch oven and in a disposable foil 9” cake pan, with great results.
1 ½ tsp yeast
1 ¾ cups water (70 to 75°)
3 ½ cups + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour, divided
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tbsp cornmeal or additional flour
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. In a large bowl, mix 3 ½ cups flour and salt. With a rubber spatula, add yeast mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until smooth (dough will be sticky). Do not knead. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise at room temperature one hour. Punch down dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Pat into a 9 inch square. Fold dough into thirds, forming a 9 x 3” rectangle. Fold rectangle into thirds, forming a 3 inch square. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise at room temperature until almost doubled, about one hour. Punch down dough and repeat folding process. Return dough to a bowl; refrigerate, covered, overnight. Line bottom of the disposable foil roasting pan with parchment paper. Dust with cornmeal. Turn dough onto a floured surface. Knead gently eight times; shape into a 6 inch round loaf. Place into prepared pan; dust top with remaining 1 tbsp flour. Cover pan with plastic wrap; let rise at room temperature until dough expands to a 7 ½ inch loaf, about 1 ¼ hours. This will give good oven spring and bigger holes. If rise more, smaller holes. Preheat oven to 500°. With a sharp knife, make a ¼ inch deep slash across the top of the loaf. Cover pan tightly with foil. Bake on 2nd or 3rd lowest rack 25 minutes (on lowest bottom will burn). Reduce oven setting to 450°. Remove foil; bake 25 to 30 minutes longer or until deep golden brown. Remove loaf to a wire rack to cool. Variations: before kneading dough after taking out of the frig, sprinkle with 4 ounces diced sharp cheddar cheese. Or sprinkle with 1 cup dried cranberries & 4 tsp grated orange peel
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Marbled Rye – makes a lovely, impressive loaf that is great with club sandwiches. It’s not as complicated as you might think – after making it once, you’ll see that and want to make it again and again.
Light rye:
1 1/2 cups of white rye flour
3 cups unbleached bread flour
2 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsps instant yeast
2 Ts shortening
1 T molasses
1 1/3 cups water @rt
Dark rye:
Light rye recipe
2 tsp instant coffee granules
3 Ts cocoa powder
First, mix the light rye. Mix until the dough forms a loose ball, adding an additional T of water or two if necessary to bring the dough together. The dough should feel supple and pliable but not sticky. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling to coat it all over. Cover and set aside.
Next, make the dark rye in the same way. Ferment both doughs at room temperature for about 1 1/2 hours, or until they double in bulk.
Next, turn each of the doughs out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide each color into 6 equal segments. Use a rolling pin to roll them out into rectangles approximately 8″ by 5″ in size. Layer the rectangles so that the colors alternate, making sure that the light rye is on the bottom, using 3 light and 3 dark for each loaf. Starting on the long side of the rectangle, fold about 1/3 of the dough towards you, pinching the dough down to form a seam. Next, take the other long edge of the rectangle, and fold it up and over the rolled-up dough, again pinching the edge to form a seam. The entire outside of the roll should be covered in the white rye, stretched around the inside layers. Repeat this shaping process with the other pieces of dough.
You can place them on a large baking sheet lined with parchment or into well-oiled loaf 8×5″ loaf pans. Mist the loaves with oil and cover with plastic wrap. Proof at room temperature for 60-90 minutes, or until the loaves double in bulk. (Alternatively, you can refrigerate the dough for up to 2 days before proofing and baking.) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk one egg with 1 tsp of water, and lightly brush the loaves with this egg wash. Bake on the middle rack for about 30 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the bread is 190 degrees (you can use a meat thermometer or a fancy bread thermometer for this). Remove immediately from the pans and cool on a rack for 1-2 hours before slicing or serving.
Exactly true !
I believe that it has a higher butterfat content..
and from contented cows.
Does anyone have a tested dark Pumpernickel bread recipe (not bread machine) that they would like to share?!! So many recipes now for bread are for bread machines only.. I’m not sure at all how you convert a machine recipe into a “old fashioned” one. :)
Lots of kids means not getting to the dentist every six months ($$$!) so I bought a book called Cure Dental Decay (no cavities, just wanted to prevent them as much as possible). The author recommended Kerrygold butter because the rapidly growing grass in Ireland gives the cream a high mineral content that our cornfed cows in the US don’t have. Very beneficial to the teeth!
At that time I would have had to order it and it was far too expensive for me. Now, both Walmart and Aldi carry it-yay! I still buy the cheap stuff for baking and cooking, but bread gets Kerrygold.
Here’sc black bread and a pumpernickle recipe that I’ve made numerous times each. I get recipes from the internet, then tweak them, so there are 2 variations for black bread, since i couldn’t decide which modifications i liked better.
Yet, as you say - the directions are for a bread machine, but i’ve never made these in one. Bread machines don’t give me the control I want (you can ask my husband if i’m controlling LOL).
My rule of thumb for any bread recipe is to proof the yeast in the warm liquids, sprinkling a little sugar on top to encourage it. I let it sit 10-15 min. If it doesn’t bubble up, i throw it out and try again with water not as hot (i overdo on the hot side). I haven’t had problems with dead yeast yet, since i go through so much of it.
Then I add flour, and mix the salt into the flour so it doesn’t come into direct contact with the yeast since salt will kill yeast. Then i add everything else, the order doesn’t seem to matter - except for things like fruit or cheese or chocolate or nuts, things you want evenly dispersed in the loaf. Add those at the very end after kneading is finished. I let my kitchenaid mix on low until the flour is incorporated (so i don’t have flour all over, LOL). I watch the dough to see if more flour or more water is needed also. I find doughs rise better if dough is a little sticky. Once everything the flour/water is fine, I out the mixer on med-lo and let her go for 5-6 minutes. As long as the mixer doesn’t walk off the counter, the speed is fine.
Then I put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic, and put in my oven warmed for 1-2 minutes. My previous oven had a bread proof cycle, which i replicate on my semi-commercial stove by turning on the oven for a very short time. My oven thermometer says it’s a bit under 100. Let rise till double. Then form into a loaf for a pan, or a ball or cylinder for a free-form loaf. Oh, and ~3 cups of flour makes 1 loaf. So if the recipe is nearer 6 cups total, divide in 2. Let rise again, the same way. These i cover with plastic wrap sprayed with Pam, so the wet dough doesn’t stick when it rises.
Most breads bake at 350, unless you’re looking for a really crispy crust. oh, and the loaves are ready when a finger poked in an unobtrusive place creates a divet that fills in very slowly. If it fills quickly, it has more oomph to give to rising. You din’t want it completely risen (over proofed) or it will ironically collapse a little in the oven. With a little left to give, oven spring will have it rise another 1/2-1” in the oven. I always test 10 minutes prior to the recipe time. Or in the case of a bread machine recipe, at about 20 minutes for a standard sized loaf. 180 for most breads, 190-200 for sweet, eggy breads. Going by looks alone or tapping the bottom (how do you do that with a hot loaf anyway!) never worked for me.
Sorry if this is TMI!
1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F)
1 T oil
1 1/2 Ts molasses
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup rye flour
2 tsps instant coffee powder
3 Ts powdered milk
1 tsp salt
2 Ts unsweetened cocoa powder
1 T caraway seed
1 1/2 tsps yeast
Place ingredients into the pan of the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select Whole Wheat cycle, and Start. After the first rise, remove dough from the machine. Shape, and place into a lightly oiled 9x5 inch loaf pan. Cover, and let rise for 1 hour. Bake at 350 degrees C for 45 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool before slicing.
Russian Black Bread
1 1/2 cups water
2 Ts cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup rye flour
1 tsp salt
2 Ts margarine
2 Ts dark corn syrup
1 T brown sugar
3 Ts unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp instant coffee granules 1 T caraway seed 1/4 tsp fennel seed (optional)
2 tsps active dry yeast
OR
1 1/3 cups strong brewed coffee, @rt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup dark molasses
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 Ts brown sugar
1 cup rye flour
2 Ts unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsps salt
2 1/2 tsps active dry yeast
onion powder, fennel seed, caraway seed - optional
Place all ingredients in bread machine pan in order suggested by manufacturer. Select Dough cycle. When the machine indicates the end of the final rise, remove the dough. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Shape the dough into 12 dinner rolls, or one 9x5 inch loaf. Let rise until doubled in size while the oven preheats, they should rise quickly. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven for rolls, or 35 minutes for a loaf, or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Sounds good! You’re doing what most Italian bread recipes do - making a biga, or starter, for the dough for extra flavor
Sorry, the closest I’ve come is a Portuguese sweet roll or bread recipe, with orange and lemon extracts.
What does Hawaiian bread have in it, pineapple extract?
Flavorful bricks, LOL!
A couple of years ago a friend of mine and I tried the natural yeast route. She was having digestive problems as well. There are a couple places we mail ordered the dried yeast from and it worked pretty well. Like you said, a lot like sourdough. Just had to be patient with the rising, since commercial yeast couldn’t be added.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ve been wanting to make this type of bread for a long time now. (((Hugs))) Mom
p.s. It’s never TMI... with bread... you need all the fine little details IMHO.
You’re so welcome. I’ve learned it all the hard way, so I hope I can help others avoid having to throw loaves away.
Let us know how it goes, on this thread or any other.
The note on Facebook said hard drive issues. Bummer huh?
Ps. Glad to see you here!
Thanks for posting these recipes. My mom used to make these breads all the time.
I have made these Hawaiian rolls and we liked them more than the store bought ones. Don’t see why you couldn’t try it as a bread.
http://www.handletheheat.com/homemade-hawaiian-bread-rolls/
You’re very welcome.
I notice I messed up the line
“1 tsp instant coffee granules 1 T caraway seed 1/4 tsp fennel seed (optional)”
in the first black bread recipe.
Should have been:
1 tsp instant coffee granules
1 T caraway seed
1/4 tsp fennel seed (optional)
Coffe isn’t optional, fennel is, caraway I always add but can be left out.
Homemade Worcestershire Sauce.
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The difference between commercial and homemade is staggering.
I don’t pressure can it but rather just store it in the frig.
I have one bottle left from a batch I made over a year ago.
It’s still delicious. It will probably keep for several years given the spices.
A well-stocked pantry should have most or all required ingredients.
Bring to a boil and keep at a low simmer for 30 minutes:
3 cups malt vinegar
1 cup molasses
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup tamarind concentrate
2 large onions, chopped
8 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup yellow mustard seeds
2 tablespoons cracked black peppercorns
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
5 flat anchovy fillets, chopped (for a vegan version, omit) Note: I use dried anchovy I get from the Korean markets. Japanese markets carry them, too. Remove the head and tiny intestine track before using. They will completely dissolve during the “ripening” stage.
6 dried shiitake mushrooms (vegans should triple this)
5 cardamom pods, smashed
2 cinnamon sticks
Meanwhile, warm over medium heat in a skillet, stirring frequently:
1 1/2 cups sugar
until the sugar melts and turns brown, about 7 minutes. Slowly and carefully pour the caramelized sugar into the simmering mixture (it will sizzle and spit, so back up a little). Be sure to scrape or squeegee all of the sugar from the pan while it is still warm, or you will be scrubbing longer than necessary. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to a covered container (my batch barely fit in a 2-quart canning jar... vegans need a bigger jar) and refrigerate for 4 weeks.
Once the sauce has steeped, strain it into a bowl (you might want to do this twice) and transfer to individual bottles or jars with the help of a funnel. The sauce will keep refrigerated for up to 8 months. For long-term, room-temperature storage, transfer to sterilized, 1/2 pint jars. Fit the jars with sterilized lids and rings; process for a half hour at 15 PSI.
I’m thrilled to have this recipe, since my husband hates the anchovy taste in store bought Worchestershire sauce. Now I can make it without it.
I have everything but tamarind concentrate. Is there a substitute?
Not to my knowledge.
It has such a very unique, tangy taste that would be hard to substitute, IMHO.
It’s quite inexpensive, too. A couple bucks, as I recall.
Indian and other Asian (Malaysian, etc) grocers carry it.
Oh, and don’t discard the onion skins. Add them to the liquid to be simmered, too.
Oh ok I thought it was pricey!
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