soda bread (aye?)

Oh me, Oh my i'm behind on these posts! Not to worry prompt perusers, there are breads-o plenty in the making. In my ever shrinking free time i've been working on croissants and pecan swirl loaves among other delectable baked goodies, soon to be shared with you all. In the meantime, It's Christmas time... and while I had planned to share with you all a cultural holiday bread, I will instead share with you this busy, busy season the glory of soda bread. In case you don't know, Soda bread has no yeast. It's made with artificial leavening (baking soda. Thus the name!) And because there is no yeast, there really is no proofing process which makes this bread a quick treat, great for little sandwiches or just for snacking. The recipe I altered for this version called for dates. If you'd like dried fruit in your soda bread, by all means toss some in. I planned to make cucumber sandwiches with mine, so I opted out.

you will need:

about 4 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup of buttermilk (if you don't have it, you can use regular milk)
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg (beaten)
1/4 cup of walnuts (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt

what to do:

Start by mixing together the butter, egg, buttermilk, walnuts, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl. Add the flour gradually until the dough pulls together and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for just a minute until the dough is smooth and the flour is totally incorporated. Pat into and 8 inch circle and transfer onto a greased baking pan. Dust the top lightly with flour and put it into a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for about 30-40 minutes until the top is lightly brown and it sounds hollow when tapped. Transfer to a rack to cool and enjoy!

Barley and Wheat

Why buy sandwich bread when you can make it yourself? All it takes is a little time and care. This week found me with strange work hours and long mornings, so I figured I'd skip the grocery store bread (I know, aren't you appalled? I buy my bread at the grocery store sometimes. That's right. I'm a schmoe.) But I was (again) unsatisfied with the recipes I found for wheat bread (or rather, my honey crystallized so honey-wheat was sort of out of the question) So, my good dear people.. I present to you for the second week in a row, a totally made-up recipe. Regardless of the risk, this is one tasty bread, if I do say so myself and the first non-sweet one I've actually used a bread pan for.

the ingredients are pretty basic, minus maybe the barley flour. For this one, I used an active dry yeast rather than my tried and true starter.

ingredients:

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup of warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup barley flour (my actual measurement was about two handfuls so it might be closer to half a cup)

1/2-1 cup wheat flour
2-3 cups white flour

what to do: I started by combining the yeast with warm water. Give it a minute or two to activate and then add the salt, sugar, oil, molasses. Slowly integrate the barley flour and then the wheat flour. Add the white flour gradually while kneading until you reach a good consistency. Continue kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Place it back in your mixing bowl, cover with a damp towel and allow to rise in a warm place for about two hours. Once risen, punch it down and knead for a few minutes longer. Grease your bread pan and place your loaf in it, again covered with a damp towel to rise once more in a warm place (this time for about an hour or so until doubled in size). Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. If it starts to get too brown on the top after 15, then cover with foil and continue baking.

Pumpkin Sourdough

I don't really know how to explain this one. To be honest, I had a weird craving for something that doesn't really exist. And to justify it, I came up with a lot of reasons as to why I should do it. Reasons like, all those cans of pumpkin puree are on sale since Thanksgiving has now passed..and theoretically the bread would be orange, and we all need a little color in our lives, right? Right. Despite my efforts, I could not find a recipe for this bread. So what did I do? I made it up. All in all, it was a pretty exciting experiment. The bread itself is a little spicy and the color is delightful.

ingredients:

2 cups of proofed starter
1/2 cup of pumpkin puree
3 teaspoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of molasses
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of water (probably only needed 1/4)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
a dash of nutmeg

about 1/2 cup of wheat flour
and 3 to 4 cups of white flour

here's what I did:

I started by proofing my sourdough starter overnight. When it was good and ready this morning, I measured out 2 cups and set it aside. Then I put the pumpkin puree, olive oil, sugar, molasses, salt and spices in a large mixing bowl and added my starter and water to that. Gradually, I mixed in the wheat flour, and then the white flour until the dough started to pull together.

The dough was then kneaded for about 10 minutes until elastic and smooth and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size.

Once doubled (2 hours later) I punched it down and kneaded lightly, then formed it into a loaf and placed it on a greased baking sheet to rise again until doubled.

Once doubled, I let it bake in a preheated oven to 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until delightfully browned and hollow when tapped with a wooden spoon.


My last note is that this would make amazing sandwich bread. You know you wanna.

Tartlets? Tartlets.

My apologies for the belated post, folks. Thanksgiving and my work schedule has kept me a little busier than intended. But the good news is that Thanksgiving happened. And that means all the essential Thanksgiving staples happened too. Speaking of tradition..

A couple of years ago, around the holidays I was thumbing through my mother's recipe catalog and found this awesome recipe for pecan tartlets. Since then, I've made them every year for any special occasion (I absolutely love pecan pie). What's great about these is that they're small so you don't have to feel bad about committing to an entire slice of pie if you've overeaten but still want something sweet, or if you tend to do what my family does and eat one of every kind of dessert available (we like our sweets).

the crust:

you will need..

1 stick of butter
1 brick of cream cheese
1 cup of flour

what to do: cream together your three ingredients and then portion them into a nonstick mini muffin pan. Whenever I make them, I always have a little bit of dough left over, so if you do too then no big deal, and if you don't then that's fantastic too (just keep it in mind when forming the crusts). gently press the dough into the muffin form as evenly as possible creating a little basket for the filling. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

The filling:

you will need..

1 egg (beaten)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
3/4 cup brown sugar
a dash of salt
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 a cup of chopped pecans (I always add a little bit more..)

mix together all of your ingredients and spoon into the dough cups you made. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes until the crust browns and turn them out of the pan while they're still warm.

Everything is better with gruyere.

Ok, maybe not everything, but most things bread related are better with gruyere. Honestly, I don't know why so many people bother with cheddar. Not to dis cheddar or anything... The point is cheese. Cheese is just good. And when you add it to things that are already good, they just get better. Pancakes for instance. Pancakes are good. Add some ricotta: your pancakes are now awesome. The same basic principle applies to waffles. Waffles are good. Gruyere waffles are even better.

So for this, I took a recipe titled "everyday waffles" from an ordinary cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens...) and then added a cup or so of shredded gruyere (so simple, right?).

ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup oil or shortening (be real. use butter.)
1- 1 1/2 cups shredded gruyere

You can really put as much cheese in these as you want to. As long as you have a non-stick waffle maker, I am confident that you will have absolutely no problem. Anyway, for these you'll want to sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) and in a separate bowl beat the eggs well, add the milk, melted butter or oil and then slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. I always add the cheese after everything else is well mixed together. Then bake in a hot waffle iron. This recipe makes around 8 waffles.

Beer Bread

I'm not really sure whats gotten into me this week. It must be the change in the weather: it's getting colder, the rainy season has obviously started...it must be November. And with November comes Thanksgiving. The one (or two) days out of the year where it's totally okay to overeat a bunch of heavy, starchy foods. Awesome. So I had this intense need to make some sort of rye bread. I looked up a few different recipes which either didn't suit my time limitations(admittedly, I did procrastinate this week..) or didn't posses all of the qualities I was interested in for this week's project. So I sort of made the Frankenstein of Rye bread... but that's okay because it has beer in it.


ingredients:

1 teaspoon molasses
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 tablespoons oil
4 tablespoons milk
1 cup of stout or porter(I used chocolate stout. I mean, hey, why not)
1 3/4 teaspoon dry active yeast

about 1 1/2 cups rye flour
about 1/2 cup barley flour
the rest should be white flour (up to 3 cups but probably more like 2)

Start by activating your yeast with 2/3 cup of warm water. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes until frothy. In the mean time, measure out your dry ingredients (flours, caraway, fennel, cocoa powder, and salt).

Heat 1 cup of stout (or porter) in a saucepan with the heat on medium to low. Once warm, add the stout to the yeast and then add the molasses, oil, and milk. Add the dry ingredients gradually, mixing well (add as much white flour as needed to get to a good consistency. The dough I made was slightly sticky, but not runny at all).

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Return to bowl, cover and set in a warm place to rise for about an hour and a half or until doubled in size.

Punch down your dough and knead it again. Form it into a loaf (or blob, totally up to you), cover and let it rise again until doubled.

Bake in a preheated oven at about 400 degrees. My oven runs warm, so I had it set to 350, but it was probably near 375... Let it bake until the crust is dark brown, should sound hollow when tapped. Mine took about 25 minutes to bake (but your bake time may vary..)

enjoy your Frankenstein Beer Bread!

the bread I made was loosely based on a recipe for Black Bread found in The Bread Book by Sara Lewis

Halloween= things made from pumpkins.

Since it is October (and pumpkins are all over the place) a friend of mine requested something made from pumpkins. My mind naturally went to pumpkin bread.. and the decision was finalized when one of the chefs at work gave me a dairy-free pumpkin bread recipe (I work with amazing people). Some drama happened during the process of acquiring the necessary ingredients..which resulted in some alterations to the original recipe. All in all, this was not a total failure (it was actually sort of an adventure. Not as much as the puff pastry...but in terms of adventure, if puff pastry is going around the world in a hot air balloon, these muffins were like getting in the hot air balloon and then realizing you're afraid of heights and then politely asking to come down now) So I'll post the original recipe and then explain what I changed..

ingredients:

1 can (15 oz) of pumpkin
4 eggs
2/3 cup of water
2/3 cup of olive oil
1 teaspoon of molasses
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of brown sugar
2 cups of white sugar

31/2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger


Alright. So, when I decided it was time to get to baking these little suckers, I realized that 1. I didn't have half of the ingredients I needed and 2. that it was raining. I decided to go to the nearest store which just happened to be Trader Joes....which did have canned pumpkin but apparently never carries molasses. So I purchased my can o' pumpkin and cinnamon and decided to give the liquor store near my house a try (they've had what I was looking for in the past, so it was worth a shot). The liquor store had anchovy paste (just in case you REALLY wanted to make a Caesar salad...) AND the option of canned or jarred anchovies (do people really eat these?), but no molasses. So I decided I'd make do.


what I did:

I substituted the molasses for about 3 tablespoons of honey
I also realized that I was pretty much out of white sugar, so I ended up using about 1 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of white sugar
and used 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder instead of baking soda (i really need to replenish my pantry apparently)
...and my ginger was bad, so I just omitted that all together...

To make this bread, you're going to want to mix the pumpkin, eggs, water, olive oil, molasses (honey), vanilla and sugars together in a bowl first. Mix the spices, salt, and flour together in a separate bowl and then add them slowly to the wet ingredients. Once everything is well blended, put your batter into a bread pan or pour into a muffin pan. I did both. There should be enough to make either 2 loaves or 24 muffins, or 1 loaf and 12 muffins... whatever you want, really. Bake in a pre heated oven at 350 degrees. The muffins take about 15 minutes, but the loaves take near forever to bake ('near forever' translates to about an hour, but maybe longer. When your knife comes out clean, it'll be done..)

and voila!

Palmiers

This recipe took a lot of courage. Until this point, I've heard over and over again what a pain pastry dough can be.. the amount of time it takes, the amount of butter, and love and care..But I bit the bullet, so to speak. Aided by the very rare and illusive three-day weekend, I conquered the pastry dough and found the ability to make these delectable pastries. That isn't to say that I wasn't skeptical every step of the way: worried that I didn't use enough butter, that I folded the dough the wrong way, etc.. but to my amazement (and sheer delight) they turned out were oh so delicious with all their buttery, flaky glory. Seriously, when I took these puppies out of the oven I literally jumped up and down. I was that excited.

As with the brioche, I converted the measurements from ounces so they may be a liiiitle bit off.

ingredients:

about 3 cups of flour
a tablespoon of salt (totally guessing with this one. It was .33 ounces but looked near a tablespoon)
1/3 cup of melted butter
about 1 1/2 cups of water

and 9.5 ounces of butter for folding.. (that's about 2 1/2 sticks of butter)

To make the puff pastry:
1. I'm sure it won't make a difference if you're used to mixing in a bowl, but I just used my work surface. Start by making a mound out of your flour and salt and then hollow out the center to create a well for your liquids.

2. pour the melted butter and water into the center and gradually stir from the inside outward to incorporate the liquids and you will have your dough. (sounds easy right? unless your well breaks and suddenly your table is covered in clarified butter. Don't break the well..)

3. once the dough has formed, knead it BRIEFLY. I've said over and over to knead until your dough is elastic (or have I?) but you don't want to do that with this kind of dough because if it gets to that point of super elasticity you'll want to die once you have to roll it out. Once your dough seems smooth, gather it into a ball and wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it for 30 minutes (or longer, but it'll need at least 30 minutes)

Congratulations! You have dough! Now you get to start folding in the butter! (otherwise known as part two)

1. roll your dough out into a large rectangle.

2. Measure about 1/4 of a cup of softened (not melted) butter and place it between 2 sheets of plastic. Flatten it out by beating it, and roll it out into a rectangle about 2/3 the size of your dough)

3. remove the plastic from your butter (I took off one side, put the butter on the dough, and then peeled off the remaining plastic. It seemed easier, just sayin') and place it on the bottom 2/3 of the dough rectangle (if your dough rectangle is oriented vertically, you should place your butter horizontally). Then fold the top third of the dough over so that it covers half of the butter. Then fold the bottom third over the rest of the butter. It sort of reminded me of changing a diaper (that may or may not be a helpful mental image..) But the point is that your butter should be fully enclosed by dough. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for another 30 minutes.

4. You will need to repeat the fold (its called a "four fold") 3 more times (to give you four- four folds. That's 1028 layers of dough and butter..)

Once you've completed folding, your pastry dough is ready to become a Palmier!!

1. Start by thickly buttering a baking sheet and chilling it. Then preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

2. Scale one pound of pastry dough (should be about half of what you've made). Dust your work surface with granulated sugar and roll your pastry dough out to create a rectangle that is about 13 in by 17 in. Trim the edges with a sharp knife.

3. Fold the long sides into the middle so that they meet without overlapping. Brush them with a little water and then fold the long sides in half again, allowing them to meet but not to overlap. You should now have a rectangle about 3 1/4 in by 17 in.

4. Brush with a little water again and fold together to form a rectangle 1 1/2 in by 17 in.

5. Cut dough into 1/2 inch slices with a sharp knife and lay on the buttered tray in staggered rows (they will get bigger..) Press the slices down gently with the palm of your hand.

6. Bake at 375 until golden brown. Turn them over and bake until well colored. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. The total bake time in my oven was about 15-20 minutes (maybe even less) so keep an eye on them.

7. enjoy your palmier. That was a lot of work, but it was soooo worth it.

(I took this recipe from a book called Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen...just FYI..)

things you can do with old bananas..

I live near a pretty awesome independently owned and operated grocery store that has a bruised / old produce cart. I'll admit that I am a frequenter of the cart, and I have made it a habit to pick up bruised bananas (who wouldn't you get like 5 bananas for $1) take them home..peel them..and put them in my freezer. Unfortunately I buy more bruised bananas than I have time to bake, so my freezer is now full of bags of bruised bananas (which I'll admit is a little strange, even for me). My point is, there are a lot of things you can do with bruised bananas, one of which is, banana bread...the other is (naturally..) banana nut muffins.

Banana Bread:

ingredients

3 or 4 ripe bananas (if you use old frozen bananas, you will need to thaw them and drain off the water)
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup of sugar
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of flour

method:

start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Then mix the melted butter into the bananas (I usually mash the bananas and mix in the butter at the same time). Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle in the baking soda, salt and mix well. Add the flour last and pour into a buttered bread pan. The mixture should be sticky and moist. Bake for 45 minutes (may need more time depending on your oven. you'll know it's done when a knife comes out clean)

I have also made this banana bread with other seasonal fruits added in. Mid summer, I added fresh apricots and a little but of almond extract for flavor.


Banana muffins: these are pretty similar to the banana bread. Same basic principle, different form.

ingredients

2 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
2-3 ripe bananas (again, if frozen, thaw)
1/2 cup of butter
2 eggs
6 tablespoons of milk
2 teaspoons baking powder (the original recipe I used called for 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda as well, but I didn't use it because I was out and it didn't make much of a difference)
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
(I also added 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom and a little nutmeg)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
walnuts (optional. but why not. Walnuts are totally brainfood.)

method:

mix your flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon (and other spices if desired) and set aside. Then, in a separate bowl cream the butter (melt it first) and bananas. Add the eggs, sugar and milk and mix until smooth. Fold together the flour mixture with the banana mix (add walnuts if desired) and then pour into greased muffin tins (only fill 3/4ths of the way) and bake in a preheated oven to 350 for about 25 minutes.

(monster) Brioche (of doom)

Faithful blog readers, I have been challenged to a duel. Okay so it isn't really a duel because it's fairly one-sided...as in I have no adversary per se....unless I am my own opponent. At any rate, throughout this whole charade I've realized that I would very much enjoy making croissants. But, to be honest, they sound scary and difficult to make. So i'm working my way up to croissants. In lieu of an actual bakery, One of the very awesome chefs at work has been so kind as to loan me one of her textbooks from when she was in school (friends, if you have things you would like me to make, by all means send me a book or a recipe) so I have a sort of road map of baking. And the first stop was Brioche.

The book I got the recipe from measures ingredients in ounces, not cups or teaspoons so my conversions might be a little goofy (but the bread turned out, so if they aren't perfect, they are at least close).

ingredients:

1/4 cup of milk
2 packets of yeast (I used starter so I'm not sure if this is accurate)
2-3 cups of flour
3 eggs
1 tablespoon of sugar
3/4 teaspoon of salt
nearly 2 sticks of softened butter (7 oz)

method:

Ok, so I can't follow directions. And my starter was hungry. So what I did and what the directions for this bread wanted me to do are two different things. First, lets go through what I should have done...

The first step is mixing the sponge: scald your milk and cool to lukewarm. Dissolve the yeast and add 1/4 cup of flour. Let it rise until it has doubled in size.

gradually mix in the eggs and then the salt, sugar, and flour to make a soft dough. Beat in the softened butter until fully integrated into the dough.

Instead of using packaged yeast, I used two cups of starter which I had proofed overnight. I scalded the milk, let it come to room temperature and then added it to the starter. Since the yeast was already activated, I didn't really think that it needed to proof more, so I added the eggs and dry ingredients. The dough that I made was probably a little stickier than it should have been so I added a little bit more flour and then mixed in the butter.

If you're planning on doing any shaping or handling you should refrigerate your dough overnight, otherwise the dough that I made was pretty impossible to work with. Since I was just going to bake mine, I let it rise for about 20 minutes. The next step is to put the dough in a greased pan, apply an egg wash to the top and then bake for about 40 minutes (until golden) in a preheated oven at 375 degrees. If you're making smaller rolls, you'll want to bake at 400.

Within a few days of making the Brioche two chefs who have never met each other and who work in completely different towns suggested to me that leftover brioche makes excellent bread pudding. And since I'm just one person and I did have an entire loaf of very rich brioche...I had some leftovers. So I made the pudding (come on. When two chefs who have never met each other give you the same suggestion, you had best do as they say).

Bread Pudding:

6 slices of day old bread (or in my case...half a Brioche)
2 tablespoons butter (or 4..depending on who you're trying to fatten up)
1/2 cup of raisins (optional. I didn't use them. and I probably never will)
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups of milk
3/4 cup of white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
(I also added 1 teaspoon of cardamom)
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Start by preheating your oven to 350.

Then break (or slice) your bread into small pieces (or cubes) and put them in an 8" square baking pan (I just put them into my loaf pan). Drizzle your 2 (or 4) tablespoons of melted butter over the bread.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine your eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, (cardamom), and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread and be sure that it all gets covered with the mixture (use a fork or your hand to press down the bread if you need to). If you have the time, refrigerate for a few hours (or overnight) so the bread gets a chance to soak everything up.

Bake for 45 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.

Now, if you really want to go crazy you can make your own caramel sauce while your bread pudding is in the oven (at the risk of turning into Paula Deen...I swear I'm not. She made her bread pudding with with Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a butter rum sauce..here)

making caramel is pretty easy. All you need is butter and sugar (and booze..if you want). Start by putting about half a cup of sugar into a pan. The amount of sugar you put into the pan depends on how much caramel you'd like to make. Keep the heat on low while stirring constantly until the sugar starts to melt and then add a few tablespoons of butter. When it starts to bubble, take the pan off the heat and carefully add cream (or milk). Wait a few seconds (or else the sugar might spit at you and it will be very. very. hot) You don't need very much, just enough to get to a creamy consistency, and then add about half a shot of bourbon (to taste..depending on how much you're making..That's going to be a lot of bourbon for one serving of caramel, but to each their own).

and voila!

the responsible thing to do would be to not make a silly Challah joke...

So, my stint at the bakery only lasted three weeks. Never fear, the baking and blogging will continue with the help of loaned books and shared recipes (thank you faithful bread enablers!) The bakery I was volunteering at just wasn't a good fit. They knew it, I knew it, my lack of upper body strength knew it...

But I did learn a thing or two there at the bakery. My second day of work landed smack in the middle of Rosh Hashanah, so I learned how to twist Challah! The dough had already been made and proofed, so the final step is about all I learned... which left me feeling unsatisfied and curious. So when I got home, I found a recipe and made it myself. (spoiler: I haven't figured out how to use starter for this, so I used packaged yeast)


ingredients:

1/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup warm water
2 packets of dry yeast
3 eggs
6 cups of flour
1 egg (for the wash)
(poppy seeds are optional..but why not, right?)

method:

place your sugar, salt, and oil in a large bowl. Add the hot water and stir to dissolve the sugar and salt. Stir in the yeast and let it stand until it's foamy. Add the slightly beaten eggs.

Add in 4 1/2 cups of flour until the dough starts to pull together. Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead in 1-2 more cups of flour. Continue kneading until your dough is smooth and elastic (about 8-10 minutes)

Place your dough in a greased bowl and roll it to coat it in the oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rise until doubled in size. Punch it down (don't actually hit the dough, just deflate it) and then let it rise again.

divide the dough into two equal parts and using the palms of your hands, roll them with even pressure from the center out until you have two ropes of the same size and length. Position one of your ropes horizontally and then place the second rope over it so that it creates a cross (lets see if I can explain this properly..). Then pick up the left end with your left hand and the right end with your right hand and effectively do a switcheroo... like in this picture

(which I stole from the internet...thanks internet!). Do the same-ish with sides D and C and then continue incorporating the other two strands. After you have successfully braided your dough, either leave it as is or connect the two ends forming a circle and let it rise for a third time on a baking sheet.

When it appears significantly larger, beat your remaining egg and brush it over the top of your Challah. Coat with poppy seeds if you so desire and bake at 350 for 35 minutes until golden brown (if you're unsure if it's done or not, it will sound hollow if you tap the bottom with a wooden spoon).

my breads bring all the boys to the yard...

Around labor day, I was invited to a potluck as a sort of last hurrah of the sunny weather. After much deliberation as to what I would bring (usually i'm pretty quick to sign up for dessert...which was taken in this case. My thought process then went from an epic salad to...) I decided to make buns. The hostesses were making carne asada tacos and there was mention of hot dogs, so I figured buns would be appropriate. So I looked up a pretty basic bun recipe and altered it so that I could use starter instead of packaged yeast.

ingredients:

5 cups of flour
2 packages of active dry yeast (or 2-3 cups of starter. I think I used 2 1/2 which produced some pretty fluffy buns)
1 cup of milk
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup of vegetable/ olive oil
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp. salt

method:

1.stir together 2 cups of flour and yeast. If you're using proofed starter: measure out 2-3 cups of starter and then mix 2 cups of flour into that. In a pan, heat the milk, water, oil, sugar and salt. I just heated it until the sugar dissolved and the milk was warm. The original recipe wanted me to put it in the microwave, but I'm not really a fan of them. Add the heated mixture to the flour and yeast and beat until smooth.

2. mix in enough flour to make a soft dough. This is where I part with the original recipe. The original wants your to dust a flat surface and let your dough sit under the bowl for 10 minutes. I left mine to rise for 6-8 hours while I went to work (or in the case of labor day, I made the dough the night before and let it rise while I was asleep).

3. After you let it rise, you're going to want to knead it a little bit and separate the dough evenly (you can use a scale if you have one, or just eyeball it) into 12 (slightly flat) little balls. place on a greased sheet to rise until doubled in size.

4. This is the fun part. Add things to your buns (if you want). I topped the starter buns with a garlic paste. I put cheese on top of the second round of buns. I mean, you can do anything. Go crazy. But then put them in the oven, preheated to 400 for 12-15 minutes.



A week or so later, I decided to make buns for something else (this blog maybe? or a friend was coming to dinner? sandwich bread?) but I didn't have time or energy (or something) to proof the starter. So I made them with yeast. I do have to say, that the buns I made with starter were better. The flavor of the bread was awesome, they were fluffy and filling and just good. The ones I made with the yeast, not so much. Because of my time constraints (it really much have been dinner) I only left the dough out long enough to rise, which doesn't provide very much flavor. The longer you leave dough out to proof, the more flavor it collects, which is a good thing (unless you want your bread to taste like flour..). This was (I believe) also my first experience with active dry yeast. Which turned out pretty well. The buns were fluffy and pretty good, they just didn't have as much flavor as their starter counterparts.

Even though I wasn't completely happy with the second round of buns, they still contributed to another awesome dish. A few days after the buns, I was invited to a going away party (another potluck) so I decided I would try to make a broccoli casserole. (I have never made one, so it was another learning experience...) Did you guys know they put soup in casseroles? Cream of mushroom soup! It seemed like a salty cheater method, so I nixed it(/couldn't find it in the grocery store..) in favor of what I assumed to be the main ingredients (..cream? and mushrooms?) I won't go into depth about the casserole, but I did crumble some of the remaining buns for the topping. My point is, use your mistakes!!

"What's Focaccia?"

One day at work (probably a few weeks after the first successful sourdough) a co-worker of mine realized that I didn't know what Focaccia was. After a few minutes of unsuccessful descriptions, we decided that I would just have to look up a recipe and make it in order to figure it out (which really isn't that complicated but at the time it was like trying to describe what clouds were to someone who had never seen clouds). So I found the following recipe and proceeded to go absolutely crazy. Seriously, the possibilities are endless.

ingredients:
2 3/4 cups of flour (varies)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of white sugar
1 cup of water
2 cups of proofed starter (or 2 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast...i think)
thyme, rosemary, pepper, sage, or whatever you want, really
1 tablespoon of oil to mix and 2 tablespoons for the top (later)

Method:

in a large bowl stir together the salt, sugar, yeast, herbs of your choice (about a tablespoon or more, depending on how strong you want the flavor to be. I always use freshly chopped herbs so I usually end up measuring with my hands. Mix in the oil (you can use vegetable oil, but i usually use olive oil) and water. Add the flour just until everything starts to pull together.

Turn out your dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead while you add the remaining flour. Continue kneading until until it's smooth and elastic. I've never used a mixer for this, and it's always been on the right side of perfect, so don't worry if you don't have a mixer. Coat a large bowl with some oil, put your dough in it, cover with a damp cloth and put it in a warm place to rise until doubled.

Punch down your dough, preheat your oven to 450, and spread your dough out onto a greased baking sheet. Pat it out until it's 1/2 an inch thick (mine are usually rectangles, but if you prefer circles you can do it that way too) Brush the top with some oil and then add your cheese and topping (this is where I usually go crazy) Bake it for 15 minutes until beautiful.


(Basil, Gorgonzola, and caramelized onions)


(Finnish cheese, sage, and caramelized onions)


(Parmigiana and olive)


(Manchego with capers)


(Gruyere, basil, and caramelized onions)

So, you get the idea. These may not be the most traditional forms of Focaccia, but they're super easy, delicious, and make great snacks or lunchtime munchies.

It Started with a Starter

So, Ive realized that some back-tracking is going to happen in order for me to get to the new recipes and breads. I'll start at the beginning. In May, a friend graciously gifted me part of her sourdough starter (we're talking Oakland yeast, my friends). For those of you who don't know what a starter is, it's basically the alternative to active dry yeast. Restaurants will sometimes use these if they bake a lot of bread and some places keep their starters for years. The advantage to maintaining one of these puppies is the flavor of your bread. I've noticed that even using my starter for regular dinner rolls results in a tastier product. The down side is that you have to maintain it. It's like a little animal or pet. I usually keep my starter in the refrigerator (it slows the production of the yeast) and I feed it a flower-water mixture every week or so.

Getting a starter was a pretty big step for me. Although they aren't really difficult to make/ cultivate I had given it a go in December and failed because of conditions that were not ideal. So once I had one to obsessively care about, I decided it was time to make sourdough. After a few failed attempts (including one recipe I tried out the night before my graduation ceremony..which flopped), I stumbled across the one that I regularly use (from ):

The first step is to proof your starter. This involves emptying it out into a large bowl and mixing into it a cup of warm (not hot) water and a cup of flour. I try to let this sit out at least overnight or do it in the morning before going to work. You'll know it's ready because it gets frothy and bubbly (it sounds gross, and it sort of looks gross but it is also really exciting.)

To bake this you will need:
2 cups of your proofed sponge (starter)
3 cups of unbleached flour
2 tablespoons of oil
4 teaspoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt

the method:

start by putting 2 cups of your proofed starter into a separate bowl. Feed your remaining starter 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water, return it to it's receptacle and put it back in the refrigerator.

Add the oil, salt, and sugar to the 2 cups of proofed sponge. Start adding the flour 1/2 cup at a time. Either knead it in or use a mixer with a bread hook if you have it (i don't, so by hand it is!). The amount of flour you need will vary. I usually know my dough is ready when it won't accept any more flour (it won't be too wet, and you want to stop adding flour before it's too dry)

next, you'll want to place a damp cloth over your bread and put it in a warm place to rise. I usually turn my oven on for a minute to warm and then put the bread in it (but don't leave the oven on, or it'll cook your bread.) Let it rise for a couple of hours. Also keep in mind if you have an older oven you might have to re-heat it every once in a while. My oven cools about every 20-30 minutes, so around that amount of time I try to heat it back up. Your bread has risen enough when a finger poke creates a pit that doesn't spring back.

Punch down your dough and knead. Form it into a loaf and place it onto a lightly greased pan. Cover it and let it rise again until it has doubled in bulk.

Once it has risen again, place it into the oven (or if that's where its been all this time, take off the damp cloth and just turn on your oven) Do not preheat your oven and bake your bread at 350 for 30-45 minutes. It's done when the crust is a lovely golden brown color and the bottom sounds hollow if you tap it with a wooden spoon.

Breads and Things

So the idea behind this blog is pretty simple: bread plus goal meets indeterminate ending. The goal is to learn about breads and things, or at least that was the goal to begin with. I'm a recent graduate in a pretty bad job market, so needless to say I've had some trouble finding a job. Which has left me with a lot of time to do the things I have been putting off while I was in school. Things like, getting sick, having my wisdom teeth removed, and sustaining silly accidental injuries just to make use of my health insurance before it expires. This process of discovery, shall we call it, has first off given me a lot of "alone time" in my very small apartment and secondly resulted in a very strong desire for baked goods. Deciding perhaps, that my obsession and hobby could potentially become a career, I started volunteering at a local bakery (getting up at 3am really isn't as bad as it sounds). The Bakery I now work at one day a week specializes in organic, home-made, "Californian" sandwich bread...which is great for me in terms of learning how to mass produce bread in a commercial kitchen but isn't really teaching me how to make artisan bread or pastries. So in favor of a well-rounded education, I have decided to teach myself! So, the goal with the indeterminate ending is as such: I will make one new type of bread or thing a week, every week until I know absolutely everything.