Because I'm baking all of the recipes that I missed in 2008, my sticky buns were the ones the original TWD group baked from Baking; From My Home to Yours. If you want to see the ones from Baking With Julia, which are more complicated and involved "laminating" the already-buttery dough with butter, you can click here to find links to the sticky bun posts of 135 bakers in the current TWD group.
n.o.e.'s notes:
- You can find the sticky bun recipe on the blog of the original host blog, Madam Chow's Kitchen.
- I had previously made a full batch of brioche dough, and saved enough in the freezer to make 1/4 recipe of these buns. I rolled and cut the dough so that I could have more in number, if smaller in size - I ended up with 9 just-right-sized sticky buns.
- You put the ingredients for the honey-caramel topping in the pan then place the formed and cut buns on top. The baked buns are inverted after they come out of the oven, and the sticky caramel-y topping ends up covering the buns.
- The dough really didn't rise as much as it I thought that it should have, and I have no idea why. And, although I thought I did the math correctly, there seemed to be more topping than bun. That wasn't totally a bad thing!
the verdict:
I loved the topping and the pecans on these buns. The buns themselves were a tiny bit dense from their minimal rise, but overall the sticky buns were a delicious treat for a Sunday morning breakfast.
Margaret of the blog Tea and Scones also posted the sticky buns this week, along with the brioche raisin snails, you can read them both here.
It's been a while since I posted a sandwich bread on this blog, as usually all the yeasted goodies are posted on my bread blog. But White Bread is the first choice in the all newTuesdays With Dorie baking group, wherein we begin our journey through Dorie Greenspan's book Baking With Julia.
That's right, there will be more Dorie on Tuesdays! I thought long and hard about whether to join the new group. I hemmed and hawed. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I waffled. And then, I decided to give it a try; we'll see how it goes.
The recipes in the new book tend to be more complex than Dorie's recipes in the previous TWD book, Baking From My Home to Yours, were so the group is only going to bake 2 recipes per month. I am aiming to bake at least one of the selections each month, posting on the appropriate Tuesday. For the next several months I'll also be catching up on all of the recipes that I missed from the early days of the first TWD, posting on close to the date when they were originally assigned for the TWD group four years ago.
The book for this round of TWD, Baking With Julia is based on the Master Chefs television series that aired back in the 1990s. Julia Child was the host of the series, and 26 bakers were guests on the show, baking with Julia Child in her kitchen. Dorie Greenspan made it all into this book. Of course the book's recipes are not Dorie's, or even Julia's, and it's going to be fun to try recipes from many different bakers in the course of this new version of TWD.
n.o.e.'s notes:
- The bread recipe is a contribution by baker Craig
Kominiak. If you want to bake this bread, you can find the recipe onJules'
blog, here, as she is one of our hosts this week, along with Laurie of Slush. Or you could buy the book and bake along with the group; the last I heard there are 300+ blogs from almost every state and from countries around the globe.
- I like a sturdy crumb on my bread, so I used bread flour.
- I never use with active dry yeast when baking, but instead use instant yeast, which doesn't need to be 'proofed' or activated. To convert, use about 3/4 the amount that you would use of active dry yeast. The instant yeast is added along with the flour.
- My stand mixer has been ailing for a couple of years (I'm hoping that 2012 will be the year of Operation Repair Kitchen Aid.) I've learned to avoid kneading dough with a mixer but to knead by hand, which I enjoy, or use my food processor instead. I learned the food processor method from Rose Levy Beranbaum and I like it so much that even when my stand mixer is fixed I won't go back to making bread dough with it. When using a food processor, the ingredients are mixed in a slightly different order but the dough turns out much more quickly and I think just as beautifully. So, using this method, I first put dry ingredients together in my food processor, including the instant yeast and pulsed several times to mix the ingredients together. Than I added the water and finally the salt, pulsing until the dough pulled together and the gluten began to develop. Then I turned the dough onto the counter and kneaded it by hand, adding softened butter as I kneaded, although I could have done this step in the food processor also.
- My dough was very slow on both rises: it took 2 hours for first rise and 1.5 hours for the loaves to rise after they were formed. I just told myself that the dough was developing more flavor!
- I made half recipe of the bread dough, which I split and baked in two medium-ish metal pans of slightly different sizes. Did you know that if you save the papers from sticks of butter they are great for greasing baking pans? This time I also used the papers to line the bottoms of the pans to make sure the loaves would release.
the verdict:
We enjoyed the bread toasted with butter - it has a sturdy crumb and the browned crust was a bit chewy in a good artisan-white-bread way. While this bread doesn't unseat our very favorite white bread, it is one that we savored down to the very last crumb.
If you want to see a passel of other white bread posts, head over here and start clicking on links to the other bakers in the all-new Tuesdays With Dorie!
I ordered this cool cutting board here after hearing about it from Jaden of Steamy Kitchen
This week's recipe for the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group - the Golden Brioche Loaves - comes as a little bit of deja vu for those bakers who were part of the group's early history. Dorie Greenspan uses the same dough for this week's loaves as she uses as the base recipe for her Brioche Raisin Snails and her Pecan Honey Sticky Buns. Both of those treats were chosen in the first few months of TWD, so any bakers who were with the group from close to the beginning will have seen this dough previously.
I joined TWD after the sticky buns and raisin snails so I had not previously made Dorie's brioche formula, but I am not a total brioche newcomer. In bread bakers' terms, brioche is an "enriched dough" because it is, well, enriched - by a combination of eggs and butter. Brioche can be extremely rich, or it can be "lean" (which is still pretty rich) and used for en croute and other applications. I've baked a medium-rich brioche for the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge (you can read about that bread in this post on my bread blog) and I made a lean brioche dough of Dorie's when I made the brioche berry tart.
I decided to kill three birds with one stone this week. I froze two thirds of the dough so that I can use it for those Dorie Greenspan recipes that I missed, the Brioche Raisin Snails, and Honey Sticky Buns. Stay tuned for eventual posts on those breakfast goodies.
With the remaining third of dough, I decided to make another breakfast classic: raisin bread. Seriously, how delicious does brioche raisin toast sound?
n.o.e.'s notes:
- Margaret of Tea and Scones is the hostess for this week's brioche, and you can find the recipe on her post.
- Instead of active dry yeast, I used instant yeast, which doesn't need to be activated. Rather, it is added with the dry ingredients.
- I cut the quantity of sugar in half.
- I don't use a mixer for making bread, but I often use my food processor. One huge advantage to using the food processor for breadmaking is that you can start with cold ingredients; there is no need to warm them. The motor on the food processor can get hot, and it definitely warms up the bread ingredients as it mixes them. In many people's eyes, one huge disadvantage to using the food processor for bread dough is cleaning out the food processor once the dough is mixed!
Here's how I mixed the dough in my food processor: put the flour, salt, instant yeast and sugar in the bowl of the food processor and process enough to mix the dry ingredients. Slowly add the water, milk, eggs and process until the dough comes together. Add the butter and process until the dough passes the windowpane test. Then it is ready to transfer to the rising bucket.
- The brioche dough is very very soft, almost batter-like. Mine took a very long time to double.
- Once the dough has doubled, it rests in the fridge. After time in the fridge, the dough becomes quite stiff. that's when you form it into logs and lay them in the loaf pan to warm up, rise and then bake.
- To make the plain brioche into raisin brioche, I kneaded in some raisins, then divided the dough into four pieces. I flattened each piece, sprinkled it with cinnamon, and rolled it into a little log that lay crosswise in the loaf pan.
- I was way too lazy to break an egg to make egg wash for this little loaf, so I brushed the surface with some milk before popping it into the oven.
- My bread was baking swimmingly until I went to check it for doneness. One edge had stuck to the pan and when I loosened it with a spatula, I ended up deflating one side of the loaf. Which is why it looks so lopsided in the picture. Luckily, it was still fluffy and light inside.
the verdict:
Luckily the lopsided shape didn't matter once the bread was sliced up. The golden brioche made for a beautifully refined raisin toast. As if there wasn't enough butter in the dough (there was), the toast was fabulous warm with butter melting into the cinnamony raisiny tender crumb.
Think of a wonderful picnic in a meadow in early Spring (the day after Easter, for example). What would be in your picnic basket? That is the question posed by Italian blogger Cindystar, the host of April's Bread Baking Day (#21), as she chose the theme "Spring Country Breads":
"I would like to share with you a virtual pic-nic on Easter Monday. In Italy it's a popular tradition to have an outdoor trip in the countryside, on that special festive day all families and friends gather together, lay a blanket or a tablecloth on the grass and have a sort of epicurean brunch (never missing hard boiled eggs, part of tradition!)with children enjoy playing outdoor and adults lazily enjoying the first warm spring sun."
I've recently made and posted two different types of typical sweet Easter breads (Hot Cross Buns, traditional in England, and a yeasted version of Dove Bread, an Italian favorite) and thought I'd try something different for this event. I paged through my bread books, and in Rose Levy Berenbaum's book The Bread Bible I found a lovely-sounding savory bread with an unlikely-sounding name: "Stud Muffin" (so called because it is studded with cubes of cheese before baking) She describes it as an Italian bread for Easter, a variation of a recipe from Perugia, Italy, called "torta di Pasqua" ("Easter cake" - although it is not a sweet one like the Colomba Pasquale/ Easter Dove.) How perfect! It's a bread intended for just the type of event Cindy evokes for us. And it's Italian!!
Stop by Cindystar in early May and see the roundup of Spring Country Breads. You are bound to be amazed at the wonderful creations of bakers literally all over the globe. This bread is also going to Susan at Yeastspotting, a fabulous weekly roundup of all things bready and yeasty. I'm always inspired by the handiwork of the bread baking bloggers!
Oh, and leave a comment on my 200th Post for a chance to win a $20 King Arthur gift certificate.
See those bits of browned gruyere?
n.o.e.'s notes:
- The baking pan is one of the keys to getting this bread to turn into a "muffin." My closest baking dishes were both 1.5 quart rather than 2 quart, so I prepared 3/4 recipe.
- I followed Beranbaum's directions for the "ultimate full flavor variation" which involved leaving the sponge at room temp for 1 hour, then in fridge for 8+ hrs, before incorporating it into the bread dough.
- Beranbaum gives detailed food processor instructions for preparing this bread. These are great because you use cold ingredients, rather than warm. The food processor tends to (over)heat the dough; generally you want to use your ingredients right from the fridge.
- I had a little bit of fun measuring my egg with the digital scale to get the appropriate 3/4 amount, but I'll spare you the gory details.
- My Parmesan cheese was Australian (shhh, don't tell Cindy!)
- The dough weighed 790 grams (Rose gives you the approximate weight of your finished dough, which is kind of cool)
- After hand kneading, the dough was incredibly soft and supple dough with flecks of black pepper. It was a total pleasure to work with the dough.
- The dough didn't rise much in the fridge, but as instructed I deflated it regularly just the same.
- The next day the dough rose very well - it's supposed to "nearly triple" and mine definitely did that. It deflated just a bit when I brushed the surface with egg. Luckily it puffed nicely in the oven. And smelled divine at the same time.
- After taking the bread out of the oven, the bread cools on its side on a soft pillow, to protect it as it's cooling. Apparently this bread is too fragile to stand on its base without collapsing. So it rests on a pillow for an hour, with lots of hovering by the proud mama/baker, who turns the bread every few minutes.
- I've wondered a lot of things in my admittedly short yeast-baking career. (Did I knead the dough enough? Did I add too much flour? Did I kill the yeast? Did I remember the yeast? Does my bread hate me?) But I've never thought I'd be asking myself: Is my bread resting comfortably? Is the pillow soft enough? Do I need to turn my bread to the other side for a few minutes? Perhaps a soothing lullaby?
the verdict:
After all of the sweets that have come out of my oven in the past couple of weeks, this bread was a breath of fresh air on a Spring day. Actually if you make this bread it might have you seriously wondering if you've died and ended up in heaven. Cue the harps; it's that perfect.
See those melty bits of Gruyere? Swoon!
"Details," you say?
Little bits of Parmesan and Romano cheese are dotted regularly throughout each slice of bread, and every now and then you hit the jackpot - a bread hole completely coated in Gruyere! And if that isn't enough, the black pepper is what puts this bread over the top. Well, and the fantastic moist crumb. Yum!!
I wanted to experience this bread the traditional way, so I took Beranbaum's suggestion and piled some prosciutto on a slice. It was the most perfect ham 'n cheese I've ever eaten!! Or imagined, for that matter. But as wonderful as that was, I most enjoyed this bread all by itself, just barely warm. It was also pretty great at room temperature. In fact this bread was so fabulously seductive that I had to put in the freezer after a day or two - just to avoid hearing it call my name. The cries are much more muffled through the freezer door.
the recipe:
I was unable to locate a link for this recipe, so I've gone ahead and typed it up the way I baked it - 3/4 recipe. I've slightly condensed/reworded too.
Stud Muffin
Rose Levy Beranbaum The Bread Bible
Here is the way that I prepared this bread.Beranbaum gives lots more specific information in her book, especially for various methods of mixing the dough.I used my food processor, which I think is her preferred manner for this formula.
1.5 quart soufflé or other deep round baking dish, well greased
baking stone (or baking sheet)
Sponge
117g (4.1 oz, or 2/3 cup + 1 T) unbleached all-purpose flour (Beranbaum specifies King Arthur, Gold Medal, or Pillsbury only – I used King Arthur)
1.8 g (½ tsp) instant yeast
133 g (4 oz, or ½ cup) water
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, yeast, and water until very smooth, to incorporate air, about 2 minutes.Will be the consistency of thick batter.Scrape sides of bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and allow to stand for 1-4 hours at room temperature.
“Ultimate Full Flavor Variation”:
For best flavor development, allow to ferment for 1 hour at room temperature and then refrigerate for 8-24 hours.
Dough
42 g (1.5 oz) Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, cut into chunks
42 g (1.5 oz) Romano cheese, cut into chunks
257 g (9 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour (same brands as above)
3 g (1 tsp) instant yeast
5 g (¾ tsp) salt
2 g (1 1/8 tsp) black pepper
42 g (1.5 oz, or 3 T) softened butter
88 g (3 oz, or 3/8 cup) cold water
¾ large egg (about 33 grams not counting shell)
53 g (1 ¾ oz) Gruyere cheese, cut into ¼ inch dice
In food processor with regular blade, process Parmesan and Romano cheeses until finely grated (powdery).Transfer to a bowl and switch to dough blade.
In medium bowl, whisk together all but about 21 grams of the flour, the yeast, salt, and the black pepper.Empty it into the food processor, and scrape the sponge on top.Add the butter.
In measuring cup with a spout, whisk together the cold water and egg.With the machine running, slowly pour the mixture into the feed tube.Stop the machine, add the grated cheese mixture, and process for about 15 seconds, until the dough forms a soft, shaggy ball.If the dough does not form a ball, add some of all of the remaining flour by the T, processing in 4-second bursts.The dough should feel slightly sticky.
Empty the dough onto a lightly floured counter and flatten it into a rectangle.Press 3/8 cup of the Gruyere cubes into the dough, roll it up, and knead to incorporate evenly.The cough will weigh about 780-788 grams.
Put dough in a lightly greased bowl, mark where doubled will be, then cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough 8-24 hours. Pat down several times in the first hour or two until the dough stops rising.
When you are ready to shape the dough, turn it out onto a counter and knead it lightly (It will be supple and smooth).Round it into a ball. Push down into prepared pan; it should fill the pan about half way.Cover lightly with a piece of wax paper and let rise in a warm area (80 – 85 degrees!) until almost tripled, about 3-4 hours.The center should be ½ - 1 inch above the rim of the dish.
45 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Have a shelf at the lowest position and place a baking stone or foil-lined baking sheet on it before preheating.
Brush the surface of the bread with a bit of lightly beaten egg.Insert remaining cubes of cheese into the dough using a chopstick; first gently twist chopstick into dough then use chopstick to push in a cheese cube, leaving it visible. This was tons of fun!
Place the dish on the hot stone.Bake for 40-45 minutes, until bread is golden and instant read thermometer registers 190 degrees.
Remove bread from the oven and set on a wire rack for 30 minutes.
With the tip of a sharp knife, loosen the sides of the bread and unmold the bread onto its side onto a soft pillow (covered with plastic wrap to keep it clean) on the counter to finish cooling.This will prevent the soft fragile sides from collapsing; turn it a few times to speed cooling, but always leave it on its side.It will take about an hour to cool completely.
Early in Lent, I saw King Arthur's recipe for Colomba Pasquale, a rich Italian Easter bread baked in a beautiful metal dove-shaped pan. (Now there's a specialty pan if I ever saw one.) More commonly, Colomba is baked in a sturdy paper dove pan. King Arthur helpfully suggests that in the event you lack a dove pan to bake your bread in, you can make a free-formed loaf which you can shape into a dove, or, if all else fails, a simple loaf pan will do the trick.
I printed the recipe, and resolved that I would bake the Colomba bread for Easter. Then I found out that there was an online baking event celebrating the venerable Colomba. The event announcement was made here:
Participation for this event is fun and easy: bakers are free to use Colomba recipes of choice, and post their versions of the bread on their blogs by the end of April 18.
n.o.e.'s notes:
- I don't have a dove pan, (I do have a silicone pig pan, but it just isn't the same!) I briefly entertained the idea of making my own dove pan (my Italian blogging buddy Natalia helpfully sent me a link showing how. After I made my bread I saw that a Dutch blogger, Lien, made a slide show on her Colomba post which demonstrates how to make a dove mold.) In the end I decided to go with two regular baking pans.
- This recipe starts with a sponge. I mixed up the sponge ingredients, using the recommended SAF Gold yeast. Once it doubled, I put it in the food processor, adding the other ingredients. For flavoring the dough, I used a total of 1 tsp orange zest, 2 tsp lemon zest and 2 tsp vanilla extract.
- Colomba usually features candied orange peel, or mixed candied citrus peels. I made up a big batch of mixed peel, using double the syrup ingredients of Giada's recipe and a variety of citrus peel: 1 grapefruit 1 orange 1 clementine 1 lime 1 1/2 lemons
When the peel was cooked and cooled, I chopped it fine and added some candied blood orange peel left over from my recent biscotti. I measured out 1/2 cup of the chopped peel and added 1/2 cup of chopped golden raisins.
- I was expecting the dough to take a couple of hours to rise, but in the warm spot on top of my stove it doubled in 1 1/2 hours.
- I divided the dough in half, and put in a loaf pan and a round deep springform pan.
- The dough took about an hour and a half to crest the pan!
- The recipe calls for a meringue type topping, made from whipped egg white along with sugar and ground almonds. My egg white would not whip in my mixer, so this was sort of a disaster for me. I eventually brushed on a very thin layer of the topping. Next time I'll use my mini fp to make a topping.
- I made a dove cutout out of waxed paper and tried to sprinkle the sugar and the almonds around it, leaving a dove shape in the middle. Well, that was a total bust, so I popped the pans in the oven.
- The breads rose beautifully in the oven.
- When it came time to release the loafs from their pans, the loaf baked in the springform pan stuck to the sides of the pan just a bit. We let it cool for about half an hour, then ate it slightly warm. The two of us easily downed half of one loaf (and would have eaten more but I wanted to photograph it the next morning in daylight!
- My attempted dove didn't show up very much on the finished loaf - if you look really closely at the loaves in the picture above (and use some strong imaginations) you might be able to discern a dove shape on the top of each. Or not!
- I put my little stencil over the loves and sifted confectioner's sugar all around it.
There: now you can see the dove!
the verdict:
This bread was soooo good - tender and plenty moist, with a great subtle fruit-and-citrus flavor.
Comparing this bread to other rich fruit-filled yeast breads that I've baked: We liked it better than the hot cross buns, and better than the most recent batch of kugelhopf.
The SAF Gold yeast did its job very well, making this bread rise quickly and successfully for me. Aside from the meringue issue, this wasn't a very difficult recipe, and I can see myself making this one again, and maybe I'll make a dove mold!
I'm sending my Colomba to "Cindystar" (Italy), host of the "Easter Baking" event, for inclusion in the Colomba roundup. If you visit her blog on April 21, you will see other versions of beautiful and elaborate Easter dove breads! [Update: to provide the link for the roundup!]
I'm also sending this bread over to Susan at Yeastspotting - check out all the amazing bread on that weekly roundup.
What does a new yeast-enthusiast who has avoided sweets all Lent do when Easter is fast approaching? Make Hot Cross Buns, that's what! These buns are a rich Easter bread using all the luxurious ingredients that were traditionally not eaten during the fasting period of Lent. Hot Cross Buns are a centuries old tradition in England, but their roots go back into the murky depths of legend. (In researching bun recipes, I came across lots of information, including this interesting blog post.) I'd read that Hot Cross Buns are traditionally baked on Good Friday so I determined to do the same.
I chose a recipe from King Arthur called Easy Hot Cross Buns (click here for the recipe, and here for King Arthur's illustrated step by step post). I'd seen this recipe back in February, and the images were embedded in my mind. Nice rounded buns, stuffed with dried fruit and piped with a glossy icing cross.
My initial plan was to start on Friday right after lunch, which I figured would give me time to photograph the fresh buns in some natural light. But S-Dog was sick, and I spent all afternoon at the vet with him. By the time I got to the buns, the day was waning, and so I was stuck taking a bunch of indoor available light photos of the buns hot out of the oven.
I'm skipping over half a dozen yeast experiments to post this on in time for Easter, but I've made lots of wonderful bread and some beautiful rolls which I'll eventually post. Bolstered by recent yeasty success, I was hopeful/ confident that I'd end up with buns of beauty...
n.o.e.'s notes:
- This was my first time using SAF Gold yeast, which is supposed to be better/faster for rich dough.
- I reduced the cinnamon to 3/4 tsp, and used 1/4 tsp each of freshly ground cloves, allspice, and nutmeg.
- I mixed the dough in the food processor: first whirled the dry ingredients, then added butter, then eggs, one at a time, then (2%) milk slowly. At this point, the gluten was already pretty well developed.
- I'd read somewhere that for softer buns, you can add a bit of extra liquid then wait a half hour or so to knead the dough. That sounded really cool, so I tried it, with an extra tablespoon of milk and then let the dough rest 20 minutes. Then I kneaded the dough further in the food processor until it passed the windowpane test (the dough stretched and became translucent).
- Next I added the dried fruit: 1 oz golden raisins, 2 oz currants, 2.5 oz chopped dried cherries
- The dough was very, very sticky. VERY sticky. I think I should have kneaded in some flour. (And I shouldn't have added the extra milk)
- The dough rose very well: after one hour, it was nearly doubled, and still excessively sticky. I forged ahead, using a muffin scoop to measure out 3 3/4 oz portions, and ended up with 12 buns. They did not resemble the perfect rounded buns in the King Arthur picture. I tried smoothing the tops with oiled fingers, which was largely unsuccessful.
- After proofing the buns for another hour I popped the pan into the oven. I used Peter Reinhart's steam method - pouring hot water into a metal pan in the oven for the first 5 minutes of baking.
- They baked for close to 25 minutes until just over 200 degrees on an instant read thermometer. The buns rose a good bit and ran together into one big mass; a far cry from the perfect rounded buns I'd envisioned.
- Although I tried to loosen them, one bun stuck to the bottom of the pan when I turned them out.
- A half recipe is fine for the icing, if you use a small plastic sandwich bag (with the corner snipped) to pipe the crosses.
the verdict:
I tasted a bit of the scrap from the warm pan. It was soft and tender and gently spiced. The smell was so tantalizing that my husband begged for one to have with his after dinner coffee. I let them cool for 20 -30 minutes and pulled one off for him. The crumb was moist and shreddy and tender. He loved it! I've frozen the rest to have for Easter breakfast - can't wait for a lovely sweet whole bun to enjoy after the Lenten fasting.
These were not the perfectly formed round pillows of my imagination. But, if taste truly reigns supreme, then these hot cross buns are king!
Making bread has gotten a bit complicated lately. My KA mixer has developed a gear problem, and I hesitate to use it for dough (although my appliance repair man told me it shouldn't make any difference). I've had a sore right elbow and now I'm sporting a sore left wrist, so I'm trying to not do lots of kneading (although the kneading motion doesn't hurt as badly as twisting kinds of movement.) This seemed like a perfect time to try out the food processor for making bread dough. The fp as a bread making tool has its champions - Rose Levy Beranbaum, for one - and its detractors. I wasn't in a position to worry about the detractors, and set forth to make King Arthur recipe for Pecan Wheat Bread, using the fp for the heavy mixing.
n.o.e.'s notes:
- I didn't read the fp manual before making this dough (but I did read it afterwards and learned some very useful info!) My machine struggled a bit, since I had just dumped all the ingredients in at the same time, as I would have in a mixer. What I didn't know, but do now, is that in a fp you mix the dry ingredients first, then leave the motor running and add the liquid slowly, letting it get incorporated before adding more. And it's FAST.
- Right when I was ready to transfer the dough to the counter for some hand kneading, I realized I'd forgotten the yeast! So I added it, processed briefly, and then kneaded on the counter for a short time. The dough was ready. Even though it wasn't pretty or elegant in execution, the fp really got the job done on bread dough kneading.
- For the bulk rise, the dough doubled in an hour in a warm spot.
- I shaped the loaf, put it in a bread pan and left it to proof. It rose 1"+ over the rim in about 45 minutes.
- The bread was golden and fully baked in 33 minutes at 350 degrees.
the verdict:
This bread has a wonderful texture and it slices beautifully. We loved it toasted, and it would be great for sandwiches. Although it rose nicely, each slice has a good bit of substance, moistness, and chewiness. I love the balance of whole grain and slight taste of sweet nuttiness from the pecans. It tastes great just by itself!
I love working with this dough. It is a pleasure to handle, rises very well, and produces a delicious loaf of bread. If you are looking for a straightforward yeast bread recipe that tastes delicious, this is a great candidate. It's certainly destined to be a regular in my kitchen. In fact I've already made the bread again. The 2nd time it rose like crazy:
I sent the loaf with my husband for a weekend of hiking with his brother. They loved it as toast and in sandwiches.
We go through a lot of bread, especially for toast in the morning. This is why, incidentally, you see so many of my yeast adventures featuring bread baked in standard loaf pans. For several months I've been baking a couple of loaves a week. I do repeat our favorites, but the allure of trying new bread recipes is quite strong. This is leaving me with a long backlog of yeast posts and right now I'm trying to figure out how to catch up in my bread posting!
The recipe says: "If you use the smaller pan, the bread will rise very high and a bit outwards, forming a slight "mushroom" shape."
Hay Day (a wonderful farm market that used to be in Westport, Connecticut) sold a very popular bread, and featured the recipe in both of their cookbooks. It is called Whole-Meal Bread, and indeed it does have a decent percentage of whole grain flour. But what really appealed to me was the two types of molasses in the ingredient list. I love it when I get to use blackstrap molasses, a strongly flavored cane syrup that is rich in iron. n.o.e.'s notes:
- I kneaded in a good deal of bench flour - maybe a cup? - because the dough was pretty sticky.
- The dough doubled in about 1 1/2 hours in a warm spot of my kitchen.
- I shaped it and placed it in a pyrex loaf pan, in cooler part of the kitchen to proof. I left house for 1 1/2 hrs, since this rise was supposed to take 2 to 2 1/2 hours. When I came back it was fully risen, in fact it had more than doubled. I quickly preheated the oven and popped it in.
- The loaf baked for around 40 minutes, until it registered 190 degrees on an instant read thermometer. The bread stuck to the pan a bit. I think I'd dust the pan with cornmeal after oiling it, to help with the release.
- My bread had a hole in the middle. I've since learned a lot more about loaf formation (this loaf was about a month ago) ... among other things!
the verdict:
This big mahogany-colored loaf was light and soft and moist, but at the same time a bit chewy, with a great molasses flavor and a little hint of whole grain goodness. It's not at all like a quick bread, there's just a hint of sweetness from the 1/4 cup of molasses. Because of the molasses/whole wheat combination, the flavor (but not the texture) is faintly reminiscent of Boston Brown bread. This bread could do equally well paired with savory elements in a nice sandwich as it does toasted with butter and jam.
the recipe:
Whole Meal Bread adapted from the Hay Day Country Market Cookbook For one loaf:
1/2 cup milk [I used 2%] 1/2 cup plus 1/8 cup water 1/8 cup sunflower oil [can use butter] 1/8 cup blackstrap molasses 1/8 cup unsulfered molasses 1/2 T coarse sea salt 1 1/8 tsp instant yeast [I might cut that to 1 tsp next time] 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 3/4 - 2 cups all purpose flour
1. Whisk together the whole wheat flour and 1 3/4 cup of the all purpose flour and yeast.
2. Combine milk, water, oil, both molasses and salt in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir until ingredients are melted and combined then remove from heat and pour into mixing bowl.
3. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the liquid, to make a stiff dough that easily pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Add more all-purpose flour, if necessary.
4. Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl, turning to coat the dough. Cover with a kitchen towel and set in warm spot until doubled in volume, 1.5 - 2 hours.
5. Lightly oil an 8-cup loaf pan.
6. Turn the dough out of the bowl and shape into loaf. Place into the pan, cover loosely with a towel, and allow to rise again until doubled, 2 - 2.5 hours.
7. Meanwhile preheat oven to 350 degrees.
8. Bake loaf until risen and brown, and sound hollow when tapped. Immediately turn out of the pan and set to cool on a wire rack.
One day I was meandering unsuspectingly around the foodienet and suddenly I was ambushed by this bread on Jude's gorgeous site Apple Pie, Patis & Pate. I just HAD to try some. And since Jude was not around to make it for me, that left me to bake it.
The recipe was a giant step in complexity above any yeast recipe I'd yet attempted. Up until this point, all of my yeast experiments had been with direct rise recipes, but this one used an indirect method, relying on both a biga and a soaker. These are types of pre-ferments, which contribute to better flavor and structure of the finished bread. As far as I can understand it, during the resting stage of these predoughs enzymes break down the sugars within the grains, thus releasing the flavor.
n.o.e.'s notes:
- I made a little chart to figure out the times to make each component of the dough and when to make the final dough.
- Mixing the biga and the soaker went very smoothly. One went in the fridge, one on the counter.
- When it came time to make up the dough, the biga and the soaker are combined with additional ingredients, then kneaded, etc.
- Taking one ball of dough (cut into 12 pieces) and another ball of dough (also in 12 pieces) and adding only dry ingredients (I re-read the recipe umpteen times: no additional wet ingredients) did not produce a "shaggy dough." In fact I couldn't get it to come together at all. Not with a spoon, and pretty much not with my hands. I had to knead it in the bowl before I could even get it to the bench to knead it. Using a hindsight as I sit here a month after baking this bread, I'm pretty sure I should have added a bit of water as I was kneading the dough.
- As I kneaded the raisins would not stay in - they kept popping out.
- Back when I made this bread Jude's recipe had an error in the quantity of walnuts (he has since fixed it, thanks!) I finally ended up using 30 grams (1/4 cup). I didn't think I could incorporate any more nuts while also trying to corral the renegade raisins that jumped out at every turn. Literally.
- The bulk rise was really slow; it was supposed to be around 45 minutes, but at that point the dough had only risen from 3 to just under 4 cups. At 1 hr 45 min, it had risen a smidge more. My husband made a nice warm bath for the dough bowl:
- The dough did respond, and began to rise! Finally it was at 1.5 the original size.
- Then I turned it out onto the counter, formed a rectangle, added cinnamon sugar and shaped the loaf:
- For the proofing, we went back to more sloooow rising. The dough was supposed to reach 1.5 of the shaped size (and the recipe said around 45 minutes). After an agonizingly long amount of time (very late at night) the dough seemed to stall. It was risen a bit but not as much as it probably should have been. I gave up, called it "risen" and popped it in the oven.
- This bread smelled incredible - of yeast and cinnamon - as it baked. I checked the bread regularly. It was in the oven for longer than the recipe's time range, but it never did get above 190 on the thermometer I was using (the recipe specifies 195). At 1 hour and 18 minutes total I called it "done".
the verdict:
This was no refined wimpy raisin pastry! This is bread with some heft. It was very very dense, but it was quite nice toasted. And it really needed butter. The bread wasn't particularly sweet; the vein of intense cinnamon was a great counterpoint to the plain whole wheat/raisin crumb. You'd need to be a fan of the taste of hearty whole grain bread to have a positive view of this bread. I do so I did! Thanks, Jude, for introducing me to this recipe.
My very own copy of Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book arrived in yesterday's mail! I want to take my time reading it, because he has wonderful explanations, tips, and guidelines on every page. After a bit more practice I plan to bake this bread again. I already know that I will mix the dough earlier in the day so that I'm not waiting for a slow rise in the wee hours of the night!
[update: After reading the original recipe in the Whole Grain book, I realized a few things that would have helped my loaf: Adding a few tablespoons of honey when making the final dough, and kneading the dough with wet hands.]
I'm sending this to Susan at YeastSpotting, a wonderful roundup of all things bready. Head over there and check out all of the breads that folks have baked up this week.
I will always, always have a fond spot in my heart for kugelhopf, a raisin-studded sweet bread, originally from Austria. It was the first yeasted thing that I've ever baked, and when it turned out beautifully risen, I was smitten. The delicate and delicious taste just added to the love-fest. My husband was so enamored of this sweet bread that I decided to buy him some proper kugelhopf molds for Christmas, accompanied by the promise that I'd bake more for him. I'd made the kugelhopf for TWD, and Dorie Greenspan's recipe calls for an 8 cup mold; the molds that I liked the best in my online mold shopping were 6-cup and 10-cup (this one was Nordicware from Sur la Table). I figured I could make a double batch of Dorie's recipe and use both molds. my encounter with kugelhopf in its native habitat
In the meanwhile I traveled to Germany in December to visit my younger daughter (and take in some German Christmas markets). I'll have to say that I took lots of pictures and lots of notes about the food on this trip, with an eye towards posting my experiences on this blog, but when I got back it was three days before Christmas, and, well, I was pretty busy. I have a bunch of draft posts on different aspects of the trip; at some point I hope to have them finished - by then it will probably be summer and who is going to want to read Christmas posts then?
After I tooled around in Dusseldorf, Aachen and Cologne, I headed to Berlin for 5 days. I'd been there several times previously (we love that city) and have a few favorite haunts. One is a destination of just about every other tourist who visits Berlin: the KaDeWe department store. This store is impressive on a normal day, but it really pulled out the stops for Christmas.
After wandering enchantedly through the winter woodland themed decorations on the main level, I bought some lovely paper napkins and a wonderful kitchen apron. Then it was time for the 6th floor: the largest department store food hall in the world! We've bought various things there over the years (tea, coffee, chocolates, kirschwasser) but we always stop at the pastry case.
The KaDeWe bakers make some of the best tortes in existence! I stood there in December, admiring the beautiful and colorful Yule logs, when suddenly - what did I see? Could it be kugelhopf? Yes, it was (only they call it "gugelhopf" in Germany; no matter, it's the same thing) And, yes, I could buy it by the slice. Which I did, packed up to go so that I could enjoy it in my hotel after dinner. Check out the cross section in the photo below - can you believe how TALL that kugelhopf is?
I'll have to say that it tasted good, but really not as good as the one I baked at home using Dorie's recipe. It had a soft delicate texture and a lovely flavor, but I didn't care for the raw alcohol taste of the rum that was brushed on the outside before the powdered sugar was dusted (dumped?) on. It was also a bit drier and not as soft as Dorie's. All the same, I savored every morsel. Baking my second kugelhopf
Valentine's Day seemed like the perfect opportunity to make kugelhopf for my husband (yup, I'm just a little behind on my yeast postings!) I even toyed with the thought of using dried cherries - to keep with the seasonal color theme - but Jim really likes raisins much better, so I kept to the traditional fruit choice.
Although we adored Dorie's recipe for kugelhopf, I figured I'd see how a new recipe compared. I had a bunch of contenders and finally chose the one in the Fannie Farmer Baking Book. [recipe at the end of this post]
As an aside, although Dorie's book indicates that kugelhopf is best eaten right away or stale the next day as toast, some of the other cookbooks I consulted were a bit more optimistic about the longevity of the bread. According to Fannie Farmer, "Europeans like Kugelhopf a day for two old, when it's slightly dry - it makes delicious toast. If you want it to remain fresh, freeze what you won't eat within a couple of days."
Nearly all the recipes called for a 10" pan, including the one I'd selected. Most 10" pans have a 12 cup capacity, including most bundt pans; my larger kugelhopf pan holds 10 cups. I didn't want to overflow the pan, so I scaled the recipe to 80% for the key ingredients. For the stir-ins I roughly estimated a heaping 3/4 of the recipe's amount.
Once I had scaled the recipe and measured out the ingredients, I unwrapped my new kugelhopf mold and saw that there was a recipe right on the inside of the wrapper - scaled, of course, for the capacity of the mold! I might make that next time...
n.o.e. notes:
- For some of the flour I used KA organic all purpose. For the rest of the flour, I dipped into my stash of original White Lily flour, which is reputed to make soft and tender baked goods. (Last summer, White Lily stopped making flour in its long-time Tennessee plant; production is now in the Midwest and White Lily devotees believe they can taste a difference. I made sure to buy a bag before the switch was made.)
-Instead of dry yeast, I used instant yeast (added with the flour)
- For fruit, I used a mix of currants and golden raisins. I chopped the golden raisins to make them roughly the same size as the currants. The recipe called for rum. Before adding the rum to the dough, I first heated it and macerated the fruit in the warm rum. Then I drained the fruit and measured the remaining rum, making up the difference in milk.
- The recipe called for lining the pan with almonds. I didn't want to obscure the beautiful lines of my mold, so I used less than 1/4 cup of sliced almonds. I also omitted chopped almonds in the bread itself.
- The dough was v-e-r-y s-l-o-w r-i-s-i-n-g. I started with the dough in a spot that was average room temperature, but then I moved it to warmer and warmer spots. It finally doubled in about 4 hours. I've since purchased a package of SAF Gold label yeast, which is purportedly better for rich, sweet doughs, so we'll see with the next loaf...
- Unlike Dorie's recipe, this involved no overnight rest for the dough (although I'm sure I could have added that step). As it was, I put the dough in the pan and moved it into cool garage while we went to dinner. Back inside, in a warm spot, it filled the pan in a total time of 2.5 - 3 hours. Because I scaled the recipe for the pan, I was confident that the amounts were correct, so I could wait (patiently) for the dough to rise and fill the pan. - The kitchen was filled with warm subtle wonderful smells while this was baking.
- I struggled a bit with the baking time/temperature. The recipe called for a hot oven for part of the time, then a reduced heat for the remainder. I tried to estimate the times for a smaller pan, and came up with: -- 400 for 8 minutes -- 350 for 15 minutes -- then tented the pan and baked at 340 for 8 or 10 more minutes. At this point the kugelhopf was golden brown and had puffed up above the rim of the pan. So beautiful!!
- It cooled for just a minute or two. The cake popped right out of the pan.
- I sifted a bit of confectioner's sugar over the top, but just a little because I wanted to see the pretty shape of the mold.
the verdict:
We didn't eat it right from the oven, but cut into it for breakfast about 12 hrs later. Sadly we found that it was a bit dry. But the flavors were very very good and it made really great toast. I think that because the pan is so tall the bread is narrow, so it cooked very quickly. Next time, I will have to pay even closer attention to the bread as it bakes, and adjust the temperatures and times. I will probably experiment with a different recipe, just for fun.
[update: After I baked this kugelhopf, I came across some other recipes that look quite intriguing: David Lebovitz makes Nick Malgieri's recipe and Peter Reinhardt's recipe as posted at My Kitchen in Half Cups]
I'm also submittng this bread to Susan at YeastSpotting, a weekly compilation of wonderful yeast creations.
the recipe:
Kugelhopf from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book for 10" mold [approximately 12 cup capacity - such as a bundt pan]
1 pkg dry yeast 1/2 cup milk, warmed 1/2 cup sugar 2 tsp salt 5 eggs 1/4 cup rum or 1/4 cupadditional milk, warmed 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 T grated orange zest 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp nutmeg 8 T butter, softened 1/2 cup chopped almonds 1 cup raisins 1/2 cup sliced almonds
1. Stir the yeast into the warm milk (use 3/4 cup milk if you are omitting the rum) and let stand to dissolve.
2. Combine the sugar, salt, and eggs in a large bowl, andbeat well, then add the rum (if you are using it), vanilla, and orange zest, mixing well. Stir in the dissolved yeast.
3. Add 2 cups of the flour, the cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter, and beat until the batter is smooth and well blended.
4. Add the remaining flour, the chopped almonds and raisins, and beat again until smooth. The batter will be heavy and sticky.
5. Cover the bowl and let rise until double in bulk - maybe 3 hours or more.
6. Grease the Kugelhopf or tube pan thoroughly. Punch the dough down and place it in the pan, punching and patting it into place to fit evenly. Cover the bowl and let rise until double in bulk. Press on the top the sliced almonds.
7. Bake the bread in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, then reduce to 350 degrees and continue baking for about 40 minutes. If the top becomes brown, cover loosely with foil for the last 20 minutes or so.
8. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, the turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
