The Bread is in the Baking

These are one of my favorite desserts. I first had one in Portland at Ken's Bakery, which is one of my favorite Bakeries, the other favorite being Bakery Nouveau. One in Portland, one is Seattle.

ANYWAY, back to Canelés. Canelés are a french pastry with a dark caramelized outside and a soft dough center. They have a rich buttery flavor and you can add citrus zest to give them more of a bite, if that's what you like. They come in a many sizes, but you need a specific mold in order to make them. The mold helps make the outside of the Canelé hard and crunch, while leaving the inside creamy.
The mold I use can be found on amazon, I bought a silicon mold that makes 18 tiny canelés, but I'm probably going to buy some larger molds soon. The silicon mold works very nicely because it's very easy to pop the canelés out, but if you get any batter on the outside of the mold it'll stains the mold.
I've tried a couple of variations of this recipe and I only achieved success with the last recipe. I've made the recipe a little simpler and added a little more flour. The batter can also be left in the fridge to use later for about 3 days. You'll just need to stir it back together.

Canelés
2 cups whole milk
18 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod, split
4 tablespoons butter
16 tablespoons flour
2 egg yolks
3 teaspoon dark rum
Butter for the molds(unless you're using silicon molds, than none is needed.

Preheat the oven to 375.

In a medium saucepan heat milk, sugar, vanilla, and butter until butter has completely melted. Let cool completely (and remove vanilla pod if you used it).

When milk is completely cool add the egg yolks and rum, and then gradually add the flour. Mix with a whisk until batter is smooth and no flour lumps.

Butter molds with melted butter and let stand for 2-3 minutes. Spoon batter into molds just below the rim.

Cook for about 1 1/2 hours. If you use smaller molds you will only need to cook them for about an hour.

Total Time: About 2 1/2 hours

Note: My dad pointed out a couple weeks ago that I had used a couple different spellings for "canelés". I changed this entry so the spelling is the same throughout the post, BUT I have found different variations on the spelling including: Canelle, canele, cannele and cannelle. All the different spellings will turn up different recipes.

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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 really tasty, but not like any doughnut you've every had. It's very bread-like, but sweet and a little flaky. If you think this recipe is going to be healthy because it's baked, it's not: you dip these doughnuts in butter. I got this recipe off of this site, which has a lot of other great recipes you should check out too.
I've changed the recipe a tiny bit, but not a lot. Mostly, I've made some of the ingredients less specific.

Baked Doughnuts
1 1/3 cups warm milk
1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
5 cups all-purpose flour
A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated (optional, I haven't used it)
1 teaspoon salt

Toppings
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Place 1/3 cup of the warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and set aside for five minutes or so. Be sure your milk isn't too hot or it will kill the yeast. Stir the butter and sugar into the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt - just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed. If your dough is overly sticky, add flour a few tablespoons at a time. Too dry? Add more milk a bit at a time. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth. Turn it out onto a floured counter-top, knead a few times (the dough should be barely sticky), and shape into a ball.

You can also do all of the above by hand.

Transfer the dough to a buttered (or oiled) bowl, cover, put in a warm place (a slightly heated oven works too) and let rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2-inch thick on your floured countertop. You can cut out your doughnuts with a big round cookie cutter or a large mug, just press down firmly on the rolled out dough. you can use a smaller cookie cutter or a shot glass to stamp out circles.

NOTE: You may have trouble getting your dougnuts moved after stamping out the center so try to do it on the baking sheet your going to use.

Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees as you wait for your dough to rise again.

Bake until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Start checking at 8 minutes. While the doughnuts are baking, place the melted butter in a medium bowl. Place the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl.

Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute or two. Dip each one in the melted butter and a quick toss in the sugar bowl. Eat immediately if not sooner. They taste best warm!

Makes 1 1/2 - 2 dozen medium doughnuts.

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Okay, so this is one of those, "hey I have a really good easy recipe for something that everyone likes" posts. I found this recipe on this site which has a lot of other great waffle recipes too, if you want to check those out. But this one is very straight forwards and really good.
Some of my friends and I had a waffle Wednesday going for a while (we'd have waffles late Wednesday nights) so that may have been the reason they tasted so good. Anyway, here we go.

The 2 of Everything Except Butter (and salt) Waffle! (not the real name, but if you like memorizing recipes it's a good reminder)
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
Pinch salt
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 cups of warm milk
2 eggs (separate the whites from the yolk, but only if you have a way of whipping your egg whites, if you don't, don't separate them)
one tablespoon full of melted butter.

First turn on your waffle iron!

Take egg whites and beat them until you get nice and smooth snow. (If you have the means to do so, if you don't do this step the waffles will still be really good).

Mix in all the milk, melted butter, sugar, and egg yolks so the sugar dissolves in a large bowl and then add in all the dry ingredients.
Stop mixing while you still have some lumps in the batter so you don't over mix it and make a batter that is to tight

Now add the egg whites and gently mix them in.

Put one cup of batter in the preheated iron waffle, close iron and wait 2+ minutes.

Total Time: About 10 minutes

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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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