Posted on 07/29/2015 2:39:42 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
I've had several requests to do a thread on bread baking. I've hesitated, because it's been quite a while since I baked bread; I'm by no means expert at it; and I don't like to post recipes that I haven't tried and proven recently. But, due to popular demand, here we go!
My first experience with baking bread was back in the 1970s when so many of us young folks were bitten by the 'back-to-nature' bug. I was also experimenting with various levels of vegetarianism, and was very interested in cooking with whole grains.
The first bread I made was a completely whole wheat loaf, from the original 'Laurel's Kitchen' cookbook. At the time, I didn't have a KitchenAid, and did everything by hand. It was very hard kneading this dense dough for the required amount of time, but it turned out pretty well for a rank beginner's attempt. (I'm not sure if making this with a KitchenAid would be a very kind thing to do to the machine's motor, so I would suggest only using the mixer up to a point.)
I found a link to the recipe I used on a forum, and here it is:
http://cathe.com/forum/threads/laurels-kitchen-whole-wheat-bread-recipe.230551/
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Some years ago, a New York Times article on 'No Knead Bread' made quite a splash, and I tried it. The recipe requires a Dutch oven, and we had just bought a new Lodge enameled one (the poor man's Le Creuset ;-).
Well, I proceeded to almost destroy the beautiful new Dutch oven, by baking this bread in it at the recommended temps. I never tried it again, but recently I found a simple solution to the problem of burning your Dutch oven, which also makes transferring this very wet, sticky dough much easier: use parchment!
Here is the original recipe:
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread
And here is YouTuber Dale Calder, showing how he does a sourdough no-knead version using parchment. It's 12 minutes, but he shows some good handling techniques - and his Dutch oven is pristine, compared with what mine looks like now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmADkUSRatY
-JT
Everyone like English muffins...so try English muffin bread:
MAKES 2 LOAVES
INGREDIENTS
Cornmeal
5 cups (27 1/2 ounces) bread flour
4 1/2 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups whole milk, heated to 120 degrees
INSTRUCTIONS 1. Grease two 8½ by 4½-inch loaf pans and dust with cornmeal. Combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda in large bowl. Stir in hot milk until combined, about 1 minute. Cover dough with greased plastic wrap and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes, or until dough is bubbly and has doubled. 2. Stir dough and divide between prepared loaf pans, pushing into corners with greased rubber spatula. (Pans should be about two-thirds full.) Cover pans with greased plastic and let dough rise in warm place until it reaches edge of pans, about 30 minutes. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. 3. Discard plastic and transfer pans to oven. Bake until bread is well browned and registers 200 degrees, about 30 minutes, rotating and switching pans halfway through baking. Turn bread out onto wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Slice, toast, and serve.
Note: It freezes well...I cut the second loaf into thirds...wrap and freeze separately. When I want to use it, remove from freezer..thaw for 30 minutes..slice, then pop into toaster oven. YUM!
Now this recipe sounds doable! Will give it a try. Thanks!
Does it have the nooks and crannies of English muffins?
I’ve been saving water chestnut cans so I could have free English muffin rings. I’m close to having enough to start practicing making some soon!
It's easy.
/johnny
When you slice it..it’s a rough slice....butter melts nicely into it..
Easy for YOU to say ;-) You’re an expert cook.
Hi, Johnny; it’s good to hear from you!
-JT
That’s very interesting. I hadn’t seen this technique before, and I am saving :-)
-JT
If I do, I'll scribble down the recipe. It's all metric, grams and such.
I know it uses 550 grams of flour. and 250 ml of warm water to start with. 12 grams of yeast. 18 grams of sugar... etc...
/johnny
If you select to download, you are a much braver soul than I. That has been around for some time now. Sites for recipes of all types but user must download their ‘tool bar’
Frankly, Google and countless other search engines out there are just as good...and with no downloading anything onto your drive. Are you using Firefox? Checked out information from
http://www.shouldiremoveit.com/TotalRecipeSearch-Toolbar-9675-program.aspx
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/879255
Carefully read the quote about malware. After finding a recipe title that sounds too good to miss and then getting that tool bar download garbage is such a disappointment Fortunately, Google is doing a much more thorough job of processing a request. This wasn’t the case moons ago.
Here are two engines which don’t need to be downloaded.
RECIPE FINDER/SEARCH ENGINES
http://recipe-finder.com/
http://foodblogsearch.com/
Looking forward, Johnny. (I have a scale ;-)
=JT
Here’s one that was a home run this week.
Spaghetti squash casserole.
Heat large spaghetti squash in oven for 1 hr. at 380. Clean out seeds and pull out the spaghetti.
Mix with a couple of Tsp. Olive oil, 1/2 tsp. salt, some garlic powder and add in a can of sliced mushrooms.
Put the mixture in a glass baking dish and then add a layer of fresh basil leaves followed by a layer of fresh garden tomato slices. Salt and garlic the tomatoes.
Have a lb. of ground beef already browned and mix into that a jar of tomato pesto sauce. Heat that up and spread on top of the tomatoes.
Add a layer of shredded Parmesan and top that with a generous layer of mozzarella.
Cover in foil and bake at 375 for 30 min, remove the foil and crank the oven up to 400 for another 10 min or until the cheese gets some browning on it.
WOW. Killer good.
Made it again tonight using a layer of crisped Pancetta crumbles on top of the tomatoes and Italian sausage instead of ground beef. WOW!
Oh, forgot to add, also made pizza dough rolls. Took a frozen pizza dough from the store, thawed, tore into 12 pieces. Baked 14 min. at 400. Dumped those into a metal bowl and poured in a mixture of butter, olive oil, garlic and some fresh parsley. Mix and serve.
We like spaghetti squash, and my husband would really like this with the sausage.
Thank You!
-JT
I haven’t had a chance to come to the party for a couple of weeks. I have some recipes for those threads, that I might get around to posting some day. LOL
Here’s a quick bread that we always like to make - uses 1 lb coffee cans, but I’ve used loaf pans and it was good too.
COFFEE CAN BREAD
4 c flour
1 pkg yeast
1/2 c water
1/2 c oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 C Milk
1/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1. Combine 1 1/2 c flour with yeast.
2. Combine next 3 ingredients and heat till warm.
3. Add warm liquid to flour/yeast mixture and beat till smooth.
4. Stir in eggs and rest of flour.
5. Beat well till smooth and elastic.
6. Spoon into greased 1 lb coffee cans (use 2 cans)
7. Cover with plastic lid and let rise in warm area for approximately 35 min.
8. Dough should rise almost to the top. Remove lid and bake @ 325 degrees for 35 min. Let cool till bread turns loose from sides. Turn out and slice.
When I cook in loaf pans, I brush salted butter on top, and sometimes I add rosemary, thyme, and garlic to the butter too.
Big thing is 8 minutes of mixing, and adding small amounts of warm water to get the dough to just the point where it comes together without being shaggy.
I may make some later today.
It's already too hot for baking.
/johnny
It works well.
/johnny
Many thanks for the detailed info, and the links. I wasn’t going to try it..I have several resources on line that work very well for me..as you also mentioned. Have a great weekend.
Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding with Maple-Rum Sauce
METHOD Place 8 oz challah or other type bread cubes in sprayed square
baker; add combined 4 lge eggs, 2 c milk, tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup Vermont
Maid® Original Syrup; sprinkle w/ 3/4 choc/chips.
Bake puffed/golden 350 deg 45 min. Cool slightly (will fall).
SERVE warm with Maple-Rum Sauce, dollop whipped cream.
SAUCE BTB on med cup Vermont Maid maple syrup, 1/2 c ea butter,
h/cream, 1/4 c spiced or dark rum; simmer/slightly thicken 8-10 min.
Got it.
Thanks, Johnny.
I have a question for you. I was messin around today and tried something. I took a package of Costco chicken thighs and seasoned them and put them in the crock pot with just enough water to cover the bottom of the pot. Added a little bullion and cooked them. Then I peeled the skin off and pulled the meat off the bones. I added two small cans of El Pato tomato sauce ( the one with the duck on it) and returned to the crock pot. It turned out excellent but you may only want to use one can of the duck if you don’t like too much spice. Anyhow I had to buy a big package of corn tortillas cause that’s all they had at the store. Can I freeze the tortillas that are left over?
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