The Bread is in the Baking

I bought a bunch of apples with the intention to snack on them, which is what I have been doing, but since there's only one of me and I only eat a few every couple of days, I'm not eating them fast enough. I stumbled on this recipe on Food Gawker, which is a WONDERFUL recipe site. I love it. Anyhow, I thought "Perfect!" and then realized I didn't have any cinnamon (I live in the dorms, okay?) but I did have pumpkin spice, so I used that instead and it came out great.

The recipe is a bit messy, but if you're careful it's really not much worse than anything else you'll make. I've cut some of the rising and proofing times down and cut some ingredients I didn't care for or have (orange zest, cinnamon, dark rum) and I chose not to make a glaze (it's sweet and sticky enough as it is), but if you want to see the real recipe it is here.

 Apple Spice Bread

Ingredients for the Dough:
1/2 Cup (4oz) Water, lukewarm
1/4 Cup Runny Honey

1 1/2 Tbs Dry Active Yeast
7 Tbs Vegetable Oil
2 Large Eggs
17oz. All-purpose Flour (about 4 cups, but it's best to weigh it)
1 1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Ingredients for the Apple Filling:
2 Medium/large Apples, cored and diced in 3/4" chunks
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Sugar

Mix the warm (not hot) water with the honey and yeast. Then add the rest of the ingredients for the dough. Mix and then knead them, using a mixer with a bread hook, or by hand, until you have a soft, smooth and elastic dough (about 8-10 minutes).

Put the dough in a oiled bowl and let it rise, covered, for 1 1/2 hours or until it's puffy and nearly doubled in size. Lightly grease/butter a 9inch springform pan or cake pan (I suggest you use a springform pan, they work really well).

Toss the apple chunks with the sugar, pumpkin spice.

Gently deflate the dough, transfer it to a lightly greased work surface, and flatte n it into a rough rectangle, about 8 x 10 inches.

Spread half the apple chunks in the center of the dough.

Fold a short edge of the dough over the apple in order to cover it, patting firmly to seal the apples and spread the dough a bit. Spread the remaining apple atop the folded-over dough. Cover the apples with the other side of the dough, again patting firmly (Basically, you've folded the dough like a letter, enclosing the apples inside.). Take a long knife and cut the apple-filled dough into 16 pieces. Cut in half, then each half in halves, etc. (This is the messy part)

Lay the dough chunks into the pan (Crowd them so that they all fit in a single tight layer and just tuck fallen apple pieces in among the dough pieces, or simply spread them on top.).

Cover the bread gently with lightly greased plastic wrap or a damp towel and let it rise for about 1 hour until it has almost doubled in height. Twenty minutes before the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 325° F. Place the bread in the lower third of the oven. Bake it for 45 minutes, or until the top is at least light golden brown all over and has no white spots.

Remove the bread from the oven, and after 5 minutes loosen the edges and carefully transfer it to a rack.

Total Time: About 3 1/2 hours

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I've used this recipe a couple times, it's a bit temperamental and so far I've gotten it close to perfect. This is one of those recipes you need to follow to a T, with the exception as to how much water to add, that always varies. In order to get the pita to puff up you need to flatten the dough with a rolling pin. I got this recipe from The Fresh Loaf. If you have questions about baking bread, this is a great site to look at, although a lot of the recipes can get really technical and complicated.

I'm the president of the Culinary Society on campus and we made the pita and after it came out of the oven we stuffed it with some sauteed mushrooms, spinach, ground lamb and feta cheese. So delicious! I definitely suggest it.

Pita Bread
Makes 8 pitas
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons yeast)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon. All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water gradually.
Once all of the ingredients forms a ball knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes.

When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the ball of dough around in the bowl so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.

NOTE: 90 minutes is the minimum time you need to let the dough rise. However, if you let it rise in the fridge overnight, the pita will have more flavor and will be more like to poof up when you bake them.

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it'll be easier to shape.

While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while you are preheating the oven. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.

After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before trying again.

Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes. If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, but it isn't necessary.


Total Time: About 2 1/2 hours

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Doesn't the name of this bread just sound mouthwatering?

And oh it is.

I've been meaning to make this bread for the last couple of weeks, but I haven't had time. Now I'm back at school and finally have a day to relax. Got all the ingredients and my friend Eddie and I got down to business. This is a ingredient intensive bread, so get ready to do some shopping!

Overall we stuck with the original recipe, we cut back on the flour by 3/4 of a cup and 1/2 cup of Parmesan and added garlic to the filling and I don't have a cake pan at school so we used my mini loaf pans instead.

The downside of using the small pans is that not all the tomato pieces stayed with the bread, so we left it with the tomatoes on the bottom when we served it. I'll have to invest in my own cake pan and make it the way it's supposed to be done and see if it makes a difference. The upside of doing it this way is that makes portions really easy. I used 5 mini pans which made 10 portions.

Upside-Down Tomato Basil Bread

Dough

2 1/2 teaspoons (or 1 package) active dry yeast
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons warm water
4 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper


Filling

4-5 tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped (basil from store produce pkg, about 1 oz)
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper (or three-pepper mix)
fresh-ground red pepper flakes, to your more hot/less hot taste -or- 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Tomato Topping

3 large or 4 small-medium tomatoes


Make Bread Dough:

Stir the yeast into warm water in mixer bowl; let stand about 10 minutes, until yeast looks bubbled and creamy. Fit mixer with dough hook. Stir in olive oil first, combining with yeast, then mix in flour, Parmesan cheese, sea salt, ground black pepper and hot pepper flakes. Kneading about 5 minutes, until dough is combined, soft and elastic.

Place dough in lightly oiled bowl; cover loosely with plastic wrap, then dish towel. Set aside and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours. Dough should feel very smooth, moist and soft.

You can start making the filling and cutting up the tomatoes for the topping while the dough rises. You won't need more than 45 minutes to prep and make the filling.

Make Filling:

In small bowl, place chopped fresh basil, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, sea salt, ground pepper and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine well, and set aside.

Tomato Topping:

Remove cores and chop tomatoes to small, rough pieces. Place in bowl (without accumulated liquid) and set aside.

Assemble Tomato Basil Bread

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Lightly oil (with olive oil) bottom and sides of 10″ round cake or springform pan (can also use 9 x 13 metal pan, Pyrex dish, or similar). Drain any excess juices from chopped tomatoes, then spread evenly over bottom of pan. Set aside.

Turn risen bread dough out on lightly floured surface. Gently pull and stretch dough to a rough rectangle, approximately 11″ x 24″. Using spatula, gently spread Filling evenly across dough to cover, reaching edges. Starting at long edge, roll dough up jelly roll style, as for cinnamon rolls. Try to roll evenly and without air gaps. With seam side facing down, make sure filled roll is solid and combined by patting sides and edges.

Using a thin, sharp knife (serrated is best) cut 1″ slices from dough roll. Arrange slices, spiral side down, on top of chopped tomatoes in prepared pan. In a 10″ round pan, you will have little to no room between slices (if using a larger pan, arrange slices barely touching, with small amounts of space between them.) Cover lightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise slightly, about 20 minutes.

Place filled pan on wider sheet pan or foil (important – to catch drips!) Bake on lower rack 40 – 45 minutes, until top rolls are medium brown, feel hollow when tapped, and tomato juices have bubbled and thickened. Remove from oven and cool on rack for 5 minutes.

Total Time: 4 hours

Picture courtesy of Eddie Barksdale

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While looking for recipes for dessert last night I stumbled upon this lovely recipe. I LOVE brioche. For those of you who don't known, brioche is similar to challah but more like pastry bread.

I found this recipe on the Foodbeam blog, a blog I have been wanting to try out for a while, but their recipes are very fancy so I hadn't gotten a chance. This recipe is not real fancy, just takes a bit of time since you have to let the dough rise overnight. Which makes this recipe perfect for breakfast (although morning prep and bake will take roughly 1-2 hours).

I changed very little of this recipe: I used more flour than the recipe asked for because the dough was still very sticky after 4 cups of flour. I used 5-10 chocolate chips in each brioche instead of chocolate squares.

Chocolate Heart Brioche

makes 24 small brioches

500ml warm milk
42g fresh yeast
4-8 cups flour
200g caster sugar (regular sugar works fine too)
a pinch of salt
2 large eggs
160g melted butter
24 milk or dark chocolate squares (or 1/3- 1/2 cup chocolate chips)

Combine the milk, yeast and a teaspoon of the sugar in a bowl. Stir once or twice and allow rising for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix 4 cups of flour, remaining sugar and salt and pour the yeast mixture on top of it.
Add the eggs and melted butter and mix, first with a round knife and then with your hands – until it forms a ball.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes. It should be soft and not sticky. (You can knead the dough in the bowl if it is large enough)
Butter a large bowl generously. Place the dough in the buttered bowl and let rise overnight in the fridge.

The next morning, allow the dough to come to room temperature (this is not completely necessary though it will make your brioche a bit lighter.
Preheat the oven to 393°F (200°C).
Knead the dough and cut off pieces of dough to form small 90g balls and insert a chocolate square in the centre of each ball.

Fill two 12-bun muffin tin with the dough balls and let rise for 20 minutes (I put muffin cups in the tin, but it's not necessary if you grease the tins and they come out far prettier if you don't). Brush with a little egg, then bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

If the tops get too brown loosely cover with foil.

Total Time: roughly 14 hours (40 minutes to make dough, set over night and then 1-2 hours to prep and bake in the morning

The beautiful picture was taken by my dad. THANK YOU!

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I was going through the recipes I have bookmarked that I haven't tried yet and stumbled upon this one. The recipe is very similar to the other baguette recipe I have on here, in that it's the same ingredients, but this recipe has you make an actual dough, rather than a batter, and takes a couple hours off the time. Which is awesome in my book. I've made a couple revisions from the original recipe but nothing huge (pretty ballsy of me for a first try, right?). Note about the way I bake: use as few bowls as possible.

So here we go:

Mini French Baguettes
4 cups bread flour
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
About 1 cup Warm water

Proof the yeast by mixing it with 1/2 cup of warm water and a teaspoon of sugar. Let it stand for a few minutes until it becomes foamy.

Incorporate the flour and the salt into the bowl with a spoon.

Gradually add warm water until you obtain a dough ball that detaches itself from the edges of the bowl, wash your hands off and coat them with flour and continue kneading dough until smooth (you may need to add some more flour, but don't add too much and you can do this step on a counter or, if your bowl is large enough, inside the bowl).

Place the dough into a bowl lightly coated with oil, cover with a kitchen towel or a plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 2 hours. The dough should double in volume.

After the dough has doubled. Transfer it to the floured surface and gently knead for 4 minutes and divide dough into 8 equal pieces.

Gently stretch each piece and roll it to form a log that will later be shaped into a mini baguette. Set aside and repeat this process with the remaining pieces of dough. This allows each piece to relax a little.
Starting with the first log that you shaped, elongate each baguette by rolling it back and forth on the work surface until the loaf reaches the desired length. Be mindful that the bread will expand as it bakes.

Place the mini baguettes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or lightly floured. Make 2 diagonal slashes on each loaf with a sharp knife and dust with a little flour.

Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for 40-60 minutes until the mini baguettes have become slightly bigger and more rounded.

30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Place an empty roasting pan on the bottom rack.

After the oven temperature has reached 500 degrees F, pour 2 cups of hot water into the roasting pan to create some steam and place the baking sheet with the baguettes on the top rack.

Bake for 10 minutes at 500F, then lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees F and bake for 20 -25 minutes until the mini baguettes are golden brown and crisp.

Total Time: About 4 Hours
 (Picture taken by Eddie Barksdale)

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This is one of my favorite breads. It's rich, dense and full of flavor. This is a great bread with eggs for breakfast and for snacks because a slice of bread is very filling. I got this bread off of this site. The recipe that I'm posting here is pretty much the same. This recipe takes a lot of flour, which you just need to add until the dough is no longer sticky and it is soft.

Light Rye
2 packages active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups of warm water (barely warm to the touch)
2/3 cup molasses
5 cups bread flour
2 cups rye flour
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 Tbsp caraway seeds (technically this is "optional" but if you don't like caraway seeds, don't eat rye bread.)

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with the molasses. Put yeast mixture into a large metal bowl. Add caraway seeds, salt, vegetable oil, cocoa powder, 2 cups of rye flour and then 2 cups of baking flour, mixing into the yeast mixture after each addition. Add more bread flour, a cup at a time, until the dough is not so sticky and it is too hard too mix. At that point, spread a half cupful of flour onto a large, clean, flat surface and put the dough onto the surface. Knead the dough by pressing down with the heel of your hand, stretching it, turning the dough a quarter-turn, pulling the dough back toward you and then pressing and stretching again. Knead additional bread flour into the dough until it reaches the right consistency. Knead for 5-7 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. (you can do all of this inside your bowl with your hands if it's wide enough, makes clean up a lot easier)
Spread some vegetable oil around a large bowl and place the dough in it, turning it so it gets coated in the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp cloth. Let rise at room temperature until it has doubled in size, about an hour and a half.

Gently press down on the dough so some of its air is released and knead the dough a few turns and then divide it by cutting it in half with a sharp knife. You use the knife so that you don't loose all the air in the dough, just some of it.
Shape each half into loaf. Place dough loafs into either oiled bread loaf pans, or onto a flat baking sheet or peel that has been sprinkled with corn meal, depending if you want to cook the loaves in pans or directly on a baking stone. Cover with plastic or a damp cloth.
If you are using a baking stone, place the stone in the oven. Place a pan of water at the bottom of the oven to create steam and preheat oven to 350°F for at least half an hour before baking (so now would be a good time).
Let rise again, this time not doubling in volume, but rising by about half of its volume, about 45 minutes, half as long as the first rising. The dough should be peeking over the top of the loaf pan if using a loaf pan.
If baking on a stone, score the dough a few times on the top of the dough right before putting it in the oven. Put dough in the oven. If you have a mister, mist the dough with a little water the first 10 minutes of baking. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until done. The bread should sound hollow when tapped.

Total Time: About 4 Hours

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I found this recipe on Anne's Food blog. It has some great recipes, but the measurements on her blog are European so I've changed them here. The recipe is very easy to follow, but this is one of the messiest breads to make. The dough is very more of a sticky batter than a dough and and it takes 3 1/2 to 4 hours to rise. BUT it's really good and easy to make. I make the dough in my dorm room, go to class, come back and stick the dough in the oven.

Baguettes
2 1/2 cups water
3 1/4 cups flour with extra protein (bread flour)
1 tbs AND 2 1/4 tsp yeast (this is the confusing part)
2 tsp salt
extra flour for the shaping

Mix the water and flour and work with a machine (or heavy wisk) for ten minutes, adding flour as you go. Sprinkle over the yeast, and work for three more minutes. Add the salt, and work for three minutes again.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (DO NOT USE A TOWEL it will stick) and leave to rise for four hours. I've found that if you put it in the oven your rise time is shorter by 30 minutes to an hour.

Preheat the oven to 527 °F (if your oven doesn't go this high, that's fine, 500°F will do the trick. When you turn the oven on put a large pan of water near the bottom of the oven, so that you'll get steam.

Prepare a large surface with lots of flour, and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour the dough onto the flour, it will be very soft. Don't knead it at all. With generously floured hands, gently form two lengths and place on the baking sheet, twisting gently as you go so that they'll end up with a twisted shape. Dust with more flour, and leave to rise, uncovered, for 30 minutes.


Bake the breads for 10 minutes. Then lower the heat to 392°F, and open the vent. Bake for 30 more minutes.

Remove, and let cool uncovered on a rack.

Total Time: About 5 hours

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I started making pretzels my senior year of high school. My friend had to make them for a culinary class he was taking and I helped him out. Pretzels are very easy to make, probably one of the easiest breads because it takes only 20 minutes and you don't really have to wait for the dough to rise (but they'll be a little lighter if you let them rise for 10-15 minutes). These are great to make for snacks and really fun to make with little kids.
The recipe I used is from the cooking network, but I've changed it a little.

Pretzels
5 cups of all purpose flour
1 packet dry yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp)
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 cups warm water (add more if flour is not all absorbed)
1/2 cup of baking soda

First off: Preheat oven to 350

Dissolve yeast and brown sugar in warm water then add flour and salt. Knead dough until smooth. Fill a pot with water and add baking soda, let boil.

Cut off golf ball sized pieces of dough from dough and roll into thick sticks. Form a U then cross the ends, twisting at the middle. Fold the ends back down to meet the U (which is now an O) and press to secure the dough.
After the water and baking soda has come to a boil place pretzels into the water for 30 seconds and then place them on a cookie sheet, sprinkle pretzels with salt (or whatever else you like, cinnamon sugar, Parmesan, etc.)
Put the pretzels in the oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown then take them out and let cool and EAT!

Total Time: About 30 minutes

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