LinBakesBread

Good morning fellow bread-bakers.

I am still getting caught up on writing up past bakes – busy summer!  Last week, while picking up my daughter in New York from her summer research project, we stopped into her favorite grocery store (just to check it out!).  Wouldn’t you know it?  We found two ingredients that are hard to find in Northeast Ohio: White Lily flour and Diamond Crystal Sea Salt (an ingredient I really wanted since that’s what the Bon Appetit test kitchen uses.)  Anyway, with White Lily flour in hand, we had one of the key ingredients to making an old favorite: Touch of Grace Biscuits.   The recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbook authors, food scientist and teacher, Shirley Corriher.  As she says in her cookbook, Cookwise, she once received a standing ovation for these biscuits.  They are delicious!

Here is the recipe.  Please bake Touch of Grace Biscuits with me.

Special Tools you will need:
none

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups White Lily flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
3 Tablespoons Crisco shortening
¾ cup buttermilk
½ cup heavy cream

Nonstick cooking spray (such as Pam)
1 cup all-purpose flour (such as Gold Medal) for shaping
2 Tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

Prep: Preheat oven to 475 degrees.  Spray an 8-inch round cake pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Mix dry ingredients: In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.  With your fingers, work in the shortening until there are no shortening lumps bigger that a pea.

Mix in wet ingredients: Stir in buttermilk and heavy cream.  Let stand 2-3 minutes. 

Shape the biscuits: The dough is so wet; you cannot shape it in the usual manner.  Pour a cup of the all-purpose flour onto a plate or pie tin.  Flour your hands well.  Spoon a biscuit size lump of wet dough into the flour and sprinkle some flour over the wet dough to coat the outside.  Pick up the biscuit and roughly shape it into a soft round.  At the same time, shake off the excess flour.  As you shape each biscuit, place it in the pan.  Push the biscuits tightly up against each other so that they will rise up and not spread out.  Continue shaping biscuits in the manner until all the dough is used.     

Bake:  Brush the biscuits with melted butter and bake just above the center of the oven until lightly browned, 15-20 minutes.  Cool for a couple of minutes in the pan and then dump out.  Slather with butter and jam and eat a couple while they are warm!

 Here they are!  We love them with Bonne Maman preserves!

Reflections on this bake:  Delicious, tender and moist with a slight tang from the buttermilk.  Really, the perfect biscuit!

Good afternoon fellow bread-bakers.

So, we are in search of our favorite banana bread.  My husband would prefer a less sweet, less cake-like banana bread.  So for this version, I started with Gold Medal Flour’s Best Ever Banana Bread and then tweaked it ever so slightly.  I substituted ½ cup of the regular flour with sprouted wheat flour and I also reduced the sugar by ¼ cup.

Here is the recipe.  Please bake Tweaked Version of Gold Medal Flour’s Best Ever Banana Bread with me.

Special Tools you will need:

None

 All the ingredients:

Ingredients:
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
2 cups flour
½ cup sprouted wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter (1 stick), softened
2 eggs
1 ½ cups mashed very ripe bananas (3-4 medium)
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Prep: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly coat 9x5x3“ loaf pan with nonstick spray and line with parchment paper leaving a generous overhang on long sides.

Mix dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sprouted wheat flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

Mix wet ingredients: Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time, beating to blend after each.  Add in banana, buttermilk and vanilla.  Beat another minute or so.  It may appear a little curdled.  That’s okay.

Mix wet and dry ingredients together: Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix just until combined.  Fold in walnuts.

Bake: Scrape batter into prepared pan; smooth top.  Bake bread until tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Transfer pan to a wire rack and let bread cool in pan 1 hour.  Turn out bread and let cool completely before slicing.

 The finished bread:

Reflections on this bake:  So Bon Appetit wins.  I definitely prefer ba’s best banana bread over Gold Medal’s version.  This bread was a little dry and not as sweet.  Still it’s tasty – I’ve been toasting it and slathering it with butter.  For the record, Bill (my husband) prefers this bread over Bon Appetit’s version.

I’m making my favorite again, Donna Adams’ Food Processor Bread.  We love that bread and it freezes beautifully.  We just ate the last little loaf of my previous batch with tortilla soup this past week.  Time to stock the freezer again!  Also, I’m going to re-format the recipe so that it’s easier to read (for my thousands of readers – haha).

Here is the recipe.  Please bake Donna Adams’ Food Processor Bread with me.

Special Tools you will need:

Food processor, such as a Cuisinart

Just a few simple ingredients:

Ingredients:
3/4 cup warm water (approx. 115 degrees)
1 Tablespoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 cups Montana Sapphire flour
1 Tablespoon sea salt (preferably La Baleine fine sea salt)

1 cup cold water (use cold water here because the food processor generates heat as it kneads the dough)
2 to 2 1/2 cups additional Montana Sapphire flour

1 teaspoon olive oil


Directions

Proof yeast:  In a glass measuring cup stir together the warm water, yeast and sugar.  Let sit a few minutes until bubbly.

Make Dough: Combine the flour and salt in a food processor fitted with a dough blade. Blend for a few seconds.  Add the yeast mixture and blend for about 1 minute.

Add additional 1 cup cold water and flour (start with about 1 3/4 cups flour) and knead until dough forms a ball and the sides of the bowl are fairly clean. Add in more flour as needed.  The dough should be soft but workable.  You should be able to take it out of the food processor without the dough sticking to your hands.  

Knead: Dump dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead 1-2 minutes.

First Rise: Add the 1 teaspoon olive oil to the container or bowl that you will let the dough rise in.  Put the ball of dough into the container and turn to lightly coat with olive oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and fasten with rubber band (to trap in the gasses).  Let rise 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled.  Punch down and then cover again with plastic wrap.

Second Rise: Let rise a second time for 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled.

Shape dough: Dump dough onto counter and shape into 3 tight, round loaves (see notes).  Place on parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with a little more olive oil (to prevent plastic wrap from sticking) and cover with plastic wrap.

Third Rise: Let rise a third time for 45 minutes.  

Bake: Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Slash tops and spray with water.  If you don’t have a spray bottle, just sprinkle with water. Bake for 15 minutes, reduce oven to 350 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on cooling rack.

Notes:

§  I  In order for the shaped loaves to rise properly, then need to be formed into tight balls.  You can do this by pinching the dough together, turning the ball 90 degrees and pinching it together again.  Repeat until the dough is in a tight ball. 

§         Since there is very little fat in the dough, it goes stale quickly.  If you're not eating it the day you make it, wrap in foil, then put in a zip-lock bag and freeze.

To heat and re-crisp the bread, spray bread lightly with water and heat in 425 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes.

 The finished bread!

 Reflections on this bake:

 This bread is always good. If there was just one bread that I could make, this is the bread that I would choose.  

Today I’m revisiting the oatmeal bread I made a while back, but this time substituting whole wheat flour for some of the white flour.  I think this will make very tasty toast!

Here is the recipe.  Please bake Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread with me.

The ingredients:

Oat Mixture:
1 ½ cups boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup honey
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon sea salt

Dough:
1 Tablespoon (or 1 packet) active dry yeast
½ cup warm water
1 teaspoon honey
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 ½ - 4 cups Montana Sapphire flour
1 teaspoon olive oil for greasing the bowl

Preparing the oats:  Pour the boiling water into a large mixing bowl and add the oats.  Stir in the honey, butter and salt.  Let cool to room temperature.

Proofing the yeast:   Dissolve and activate the yeast in the ½ cup warm water and teaspoon of honey.  When it’s frothy, add it to the oat mixture and stir it in.  Stir in the whole wheat flour and about 2 ½ cups of Montana Sapphire flour.  Mix until it begins to hold together and pull away from the sides of the bowl adding in more flour as necessary.  Dump it onto a floured work surface.

Kneading and Rising:  Knead the dough until it feels together, adding only enough flour to keep it from sticking.  Give the dough a rest while you clean out your bowl.  Continue kneading the dough until it is elastic and springy and doesn’t stick to your work surface (this took me another 5 minutes or so)

Form it into a nice ball and place it in a greased bowl to rise, turning it to grease the top.  Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and put it someplace warm to rise until it’s about double in size (It took my dough almost 2 hours). 

Shaping:  When you can poke your finger in the dough without it springing back at you, punch it down, turn it out onto your work surface and divide it in two.  Shape into loaves and place in your bread pans that have been sprayed lightly with olive oil (honestly, I’m not sure if that’s necessary, but I wanted my loaves to come out easily).  Cover the pans and let the dough rise about 45 minutes.

Baking: Place the loaves in a cold oven, set temperature to 400 degrees for 15 minutes and then down to 350 degrees for another 25 minutes.

The finished Bread:

Reflections on this bake:

Very good.  The addition of the whole wheat flour gives it a pleasant earthy taste.  I love it toasted and then slathered with butter and honey.  The only reason I didn’t give it a higher rating is because if I made this bread again, I would probably make it without (or use less) whole wheat flour.

We are once again out of bread!  How can that be?  So today I am going to make our favorite bread but change it up by adding sprouted wheat flour which I purchased from King Arthur Flour.  I’ve never even heard of sprouted wheat flour before, but I needed to add a few dollars to my King Arthur Flour order to get free shipping and thought I’d give this new flour a try.  From what King Arthur says, it “begins with whole wheat berries, the seeds from which a new wheat crop can be grown.  The berries are misted with water then briefly allowed to sprout…just until the sprout cracks the seed’s bran layer.  These sprouted seeds are dried and then milled into flour”.   It is supposed to have a lighter, milder taste compared to regular whole wheat flour.

Please bake Donna Adams’ Food Processor Bread with Sprouted Wheat Flour with me.

Special Tools you will need:

Food processor, such as a Cuisinart

 The ingredients:

Ingredients:
3/4 cup warm water (approx. 115 degrees)
1 Tablespoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 ½ cups Montana Sapphire flour
½ cup sprouted wheat flour
1 Tablespoon sea salt (preferably La Baleine fine sea salt)

1 cup cold water (use cold water here because the food processor generates heat as it kneads the dough)
2 to 2 1/2 cups additional Montana Sapphire flour

1 teaspoon olive oil


Directions

1.     Proof yeast:  In a glass measuring cup stir together the warm water, yeast and sugar.  Let sit a few minutes until bubbly.

2.     Meanwhile, combine the 1 ½ cups of flour, the ½ cup of sprouted wheat flour and salt in a food processor fitted with a dough blade. Blend for a few seconds.

3.     Add the yeast mixture and blend for about 1 minute.

4.     Add additional cold water and flour (start with about 1 3/4 cups flour) and knead until dough forms a ball and the sides of the bowl are fairly clean. Add in more flour as needed.  The dough should be soft but workable.  You should be able to take it out of the food processor without the dough sticking to your hands.  

5.     Dump dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead 1-2 minutes.

6.     Add the 1 teaspoon olive oil to the container or bowl that you will let the dough rise in.  Put the ball of dough into the container and turn to lightly coat with olive oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and fasten with rubber band (to trap in the gasses).  

7.     Let rise 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled.  Punch down.

8.     Let rise a second time for 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled.

9.     Dump dough onto counter and shape into 3 tight, round loaves (see notes).  Place on parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with a little more olive oil (to prevent plastic wrap from sticking) and cover with plastic wrap.

10.  Let rise a third time for 45 minutes.  

11.   Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425 degrees.

12.   Slash tops and spray with water.

13.   Bake for 15 minutes, reduce oven to 350 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes. 

14.   Remove from oven and let cool on cooling rack.

Notes
§  In order for the shaped loaves to rise properly, then need to be formed into tight balls.  You can do this by pinching the dough together, turning the ball 90 degrees and pinching it together again.  Repeat until the dough is in a tight ball. 
§  Since there is very little fat in the dough, it goes stale quickly.  If you're not eating it the day you make it, wrap in foil, then put in a zip-lock bag and freeze. 
§  To heat and re-crisp the bread, spray bread lightly with water and heat in 425 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes.

 The finished bread:

Reflections on this bake:

Very tasty!  It definitely is a milder wheat flour which is a good thing in my mind.  I think I might add more next time I make this bread.  Happy to have bread for toast in the morning and in the freezer to pull out the next time we have pasta.

My daughter, Rachel, is home from college so bread baking will be a collaboration for the next couple of weeks.  So happy -- It’s great to have a partner – both for inspiration and just practical help. We decided to make the focaccia recipe from Samin Nosrat’s series, SALT FAT ACID HEAT. Surprisingly, Focaccia is featured in the FAT episode.  I had no idea fat (In this case olive oil) is so important in making focaccia.  We are planning to use our regular old olive oil that we get by the bucket load from Costco – not sure if that’s a great idea, but it’s time to start the dough and that’s what we have.  Rachel will make the dough while we are playing euchre with our friends.  Oh, by the way, in case you’re wondering what Ligurian refers to, it refers to the region of Liguria which is a “crescent-shaped region in northwest Italy” (per google – the authority over all).  According to Samin, the best olive oil is made in that region.

Please bake Ligurian Focaccia with Rachel and me.

Special Tools you will need:

None


Simple Ingredients (we did not use the Kosher salt):

Ingredients
2 ½ cups lukewarm water
½ teaspoon yeast
2 ½ teaspoons honey
5 1/3 cups flour
2 Tablespoons Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 1 Tablespoon fine sea salt)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil plus more for pan and finishing
Flaky salt for finishing
Fresh rosemary (we added this, not in original recipe)

 For the brine
1 ½ teaspoons Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (we used ¾ teaspoon sea salt)
1/3 cup lukewarm water

Make dough: In a medium bowl, stir together water, yeast, and honey to dissolve. In a very large bowl, whisk flour and salt together to combine and then add yeast mixture and olive oil. Stir with a rubber spatula until just incorporated, then scrape the sides of the bowl clean and cover with plastic wrap. Leave out at room temperature to ferment for 12 to 14 hours until at least doubled in volume. We left it out overnight.

Form the focaccia, brine & proof:  Spread 2 to 3 tablespoons oil evenly onto an 18x13" rimmed baking sheet.  When dough is ready, use a spatula or your hand to release it from the sides of the bowl and fold it onto itself gently, then pour out onto the middle of the pan.  Pour an additional 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the dough and gently spread across.  Gently stretch the dough to the edge of the sheet by placing your hands underneath and pulling outward.  The dough will shrink a bit, so repeat stretching once or twice over the course of 30 minutes to ensure dough remains stretched. 

Dimple the dough by pressing the pads of your first three fingers in at an angle.  Make the brine by stirring together salt and water until salt is dissolved. Pour the brine over the dough to fill dimples. Proof focaccia for 45 minutes until the dough is light and bubbly.

Bake the focaccia:  Thirty minutes into the final proof, adjust rack to center position and preheat oven to 450 degrees.  If you have a baking stone (we don't), place it on rack. Otherwise, invert another sturdy baking sheet and place on rack.  Allow to preheat with the oven until very hot, before proceeding with baking.

Sprinkle focaccia with flaky salt.  Bake for 25-30 minutes directly on top of stone or inverted pan until bottom crust is crisp and golden brown.  To finish browning top crust, place focaccia on upper rack and bake for 5-7 minutes more.

Remove from oven and brush or douse with 2-3 tablespoons oil over the whole surface (don't worry if the olive oil pools; it will absorb as it sits).  Let cool for 5 minutes, then release from pan and transfer to a cooling rack.

The finished focaccia (forgot to brown the top curst....sadly)



Reflections on this bake:

Very good!  Lots of flavor, good texture.  Love the crunch of the flaky salt and earthiness of the rosemary on top.  It would be interesting to use really high quality extra virgin olive oil next time.  Considering just how much olive oil is in the dough (not to mention poured over the baked focaccia), I think it would change/enhance the flavor.  Not sure why our dimples didn’t stay dimpled…maybe we needed to let the dough rest a little longer.  Nevertheless, I think our focaccia was a success.

We are out of “good” bread in this house!   Crazy considering I am making bread once a week.  So, I am going to make our favorite bread, the famous Donna Adams Food Processor Bread, and re-stock our freezer.  I also purchased a jar of “Everything Bagel Topping” from King Arthur Flour and look forward to making avocado toast sprinkled with a teaspoon of this savory topping.

Please bake Donna Adams Famous Food Processor Bread with me.

Special Tools you will need:

Food processor, such as a Cuisinart

Simple Ingredients!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup warm water (approx. 115 degrees)
1 Tablespoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 cups Montana Sapphire flour

1 Tablespoon sea salt (preferably La Baleine fine sea salt)

1 cup cold water (use cold water here because the food processor generates heat as it kneads the dough)
2 to 2 1/2 cups additional Montana Sapphire flour

1 teaspoon olive oil


Directions
   1.       Proof yeast:  In a glass measuring cup stir together the warm water, yeast and sugar.  Let sit a few       minutes until bubbly.

2.      Meanwhile, combine the 2 cups of flour and salt in a food processor fitted with a dough blade. Blend for a few seconds.

3.       Add the yeast mixture and blend for about 1 minute.

4.       Add additional cold water and flour (start with about 1 3/4 cup flour) and knead until dough forms a ball and the sides of the bowl are fairly clean. Add in more flour as needed.  The dough should be soft but workable - that is, you can take it out of the food processor without the dough sticking to your hands.  

5.       Dump dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead 1-2 minutes.

6.       Add the 1 teaspoon olive oil to the container or bowl that you will let the dough rise in.  Put the ball of dough into the container and turn to lightly coat with olive oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and fasten with rubber band (to trap in the gasses).  

7.       Let rise 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled.  Punch down.

8.       Let rise a second time for 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled.

9.       Dump dough onto counter and shape into 3 tight, round loaves (see notes).  Place on parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with a little more olive oil (to prevent plastic wrap from sticking) and cover with plastic wrap.

10.   Let rise a third time for 45 minutes.  

11.   Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425 degrees.

12.   Slash tops and spray with water.

13.   Bake for 15 minutes, reduce oven to 350 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes. 

14.   Remove from oven and let cool on cooling rack.

Notes

§  In order for the shaped loaves to rise properly, then need to be formed into tight balls.  You can do this by pinching the dough together, turning the ball 90 degrees and pinching it together again.  Repeat until the dough is in a tight ball. 

§  Since there is very little fat in the dough, it goes stale quickly.  If you're not eating it the day you make it, wrap in foil, then put in a zip-lock bag and freeze. 

§  To heat and re-crisp the bread, spray bread lightly with water and heat in 425 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes.

 
My Delicious Avocado Toast!

Reflections on this bake:

Well, I left this bread in the oven about 30 minutes longer than I should have and it still turned out good.  Hmmm….the fact that it didn’t burn to a crisp made me wonder if my oven was calibrated correctly.  So I went out and bought an oven thermometer and lo and behold, my oven is baking at about 25 degrees lower than what I set it at!  Okay – good to know.  Anyway, the avocado toast was divine!  For once, the avocado was perfectly ripe which I find rarely happens for me and the everything bagel topping was delicious.

Good morning bread bakers.

Today I am making Sweet Lemon Corn Bread Muffins with Fresh Blueberries.  It comes from a beautiful cookbook, “Donna Bell’s Bake Shop” written by one of my favorite actresses, Pauley Perrette. (Pauley used to play Abbey on NCIS).  She also happens to own a bakery in midtown New York and the recipes from this cookbook are all items sold at the bakery.  But I digress.  I am hankering for making something sweet (as I have a loaf of my Incredible Toast bread in the freezer) and these corn muffins with lemon and blueberries should satisfy my sweet tooth!  

Please bake Sweet Lemon Corn Bread Muffins with Fresh Blueberries with me.

Special Tools you will need:
None

A whole bunch of ingredients!

Muffins
3 cups flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt (I added this to the original recipe)
2 cups fresh blueberries, stems removed, rinsed and dried
4 large eggs
1 ¼ cups sugar
¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup sour cream
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup buttermilk
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
5 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

 
Directions:

Prep oven and pans: Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Mix dry ingredients:  Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and blueberries in a large bowl.

Mix wet ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar.  Add the melted butter, sour cream, oil, buttermilk, lemon zest and lemon juice and mix it all together.

Combine wet and dry ingredients:  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently mix until combined.   The batter should be lumpy.

Fill pans and bake:  With a large ice cream scooper or large spoon, scoop the batter into the cups of the prepared muffin tins, filling each three-quarters full.  Bake until a knife inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean and the muffin is firm to the touch, 25 to 30 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes.

Make glaze and frost:  Whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice until the glaze is smooth.  Spoon over each muffin, allowing the glaze to drip down the sides.

The finished muffins:

Reflections on this bake:

So close to being delicious….but the recipe didn’t call for any salt and I really think it needs at least ½ a teaspoon.  I will have to do a little research on the internet to see if this lack of salt was intentional or an oversight.  Anyway, other than the need for salt, they tasted pretty good.  I also think I overmixed the batter slightly as they were not quite as tender as I think they should have been.  I plan to make them again, adding in the salt and being extra careful not to overmix.

My research:  First, I couldn’t find this recipe anywhere on the internet, so I can't confirm that salt was accidentally omitted.  However, I do think there should have been salt.  According to my (limited) research,  the function of salt in a cake or cupcake is to "enhance the flavor of the other ingredients. Its presence perks up the depth and complexity of other flavors as the ingredients meld. Salt also provides a balance to the sweetness of cake batters—but a salty flavor should not be discernible." (from Exploratorium.edu)

Today I am going to make dinner rolls – hopefully the soft, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth kind of dinner rolls you might find in an old-fashioned diner. I decided to try a recipe that uses the Japanese Tangzhong method which promises to deliver just those qualities.  First I will have to heat a portion of the flour and water to make a pudding-like mixture. It is this pudding-like mixture that should make all the difference.  You see, I learned that flour can absorb twice as much hot water as cold water and it’s this extra water in the dough that will make the rolls super soft.  I am ready to start baking and see what this technique can deliver!  Oh, I almost forgot:  I got this recipe from www.butterandbaggage and this person got the recipe from Cooks Illustrated.

Here is the recipe.  Please bake Fluffy Dinner Rolls with me.

Special Tools you will need:
Stand mixer such as a KitchenAid

Here are all the ingredients -- nothing fancy!

Ingredients:

·         Flour Paste:
  ½ cup water
 3 Tablespoons Montana Sapphire flour (or other bread flour)

Dough:
½ cup cold milk
1 egg
2 cups Montana Sapphire flour (or other bread flour)
1 ½ teaspoons yeast (original recipe called for instant yeast which I would probably use in the future)
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened plus extra to grease bowl
½ Tablespoons salted butter, melted

Directions:

Make Paste:  Whisk water and flour together in a medium-size microwave safe bowl until there are no lumps.  Microwave, whisking every 20 seconds until mixture thickens to a stiff, smooth, pudding-like consistency (1-2 minutes total).  Near the end, I microwaved for just 10 seconds at a time before whisking.

Make Dough:  Add the milk to the paste and whisk until smooth. Then whisk in egg. Transfer this mixture to the bowl of your mixer.  Add the flour and yeast.  Using the dough hook, mix on low speed until all the flour is incorporated, about 2 minutes.  Let sit for 15 minutes.

Add the sugar and salt and knead on medium-low speed for 5 minutes.  Then add softened butter, 1 tablespoon at a time until incorporated and continue to knead for 5 additional minutes scraping down sides as needed. 

Knead Dough & First Rise: Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface.  It will be sticky.  Knead briefly to form a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Prep Pan & Form Rolls:  Grease a 9-inch round cake pan.  Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and press gently to remove air.  Pat and stretch to form an 8 inch by 9 inch rectangle.  With the short side facing you, cut the dough into 4 equal strips and cut each strip into 3 equal pieces.  Work with one piece at a time and press it into an 8 inch by 2 inch strip.  Starting at one end, roll up each strip into a tight cylinder.  Place seam side down in prepared pan, pointing inward.  Place 10 around pan and 2 in the middle.

Second Rise: Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Bake: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Bake until golden brown, 20-25 minutes.  Let cool in pan for 3 minutes and then remove and brush with melted butter.  Serve warm.

 The finished rolls:

Reflections on this bake:  Unlike any bread I’ve ever made before!  It has a soft, pillowy texture – almost like Hawaiian Rolls (I dare say).  None of the ingredients were unusual.  Achieving that amazing texture was all due to that little bit of extra hydration made possible by the flour and hot water paste.  I will have to learn more about that Tangzhong method; I’m quite intrigued.  While the texture was the star, the light buttery flavor was delicious too.  I am definitely making these again and may see if this recipe can be made into a “do-ahead” recipe.

 p.s....our kitchen is under construction..these are my cooking digs in the mean time:

Today I am re-visiting the very first bread I made this year, Donna Adams (famous) Food Processor Bread.  The only change I’m making is that I’m substituting ½ cup of whole wheat flour for ½ cup of the regular flour.  I know I will love it; this is a tried-and-true recipe. I plan on freezing the little round loaves and serving it later this week. 

Here is the recipe.  Please bake Donna Adams (famous) Whole Wheat Food Processor Bread with me.

Special Tools you will need:

Food processor, such as a Cuisinart

 The ingredients

Ingredients
3/4 cup warm water (approx. 115 degrees)
1 Tablespoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 ½ cups Montana Sapphire flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon sea salt (preferably La Baleine fine sea salt)
1 cup cold water (use cold water here because the food processor generates heat as it kneads the dough)
2 to 2 1/2 cups additional Montana Sapphire flour
1 teaspoon olive oil


Directions

1.   Proof yeast:  In a glass measuring cup stir together the warm water, yeast and sugar.  Let sit a few minutes until bubbly.

2.   Meanwhile, combine the 1 ½  cups of flour, ½ cup of whole wheat flour, and salt in a food processor fitted with a dough blade. Blend for a few seconds.

3.  Add the yeast mixture and blend for about 1 minute.

4.   Add additional cold water and flour (start with about 1 3/4 cup flour) and knead until dough forms a ball and the sides of the bowl are fairly clean. Add in more flour as needed.  The dough should be soft but workable - that is, you can take it out of the food processor without the dough sticking to your hands.  

5.   Dump dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead 1-2 minutes.

6.   Add the 1 teaspoon olive oil to the container or bowl that you will let the dough rise in.  Put the ball of dough into the container and turn to lightly coat with olive oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and fasten with rubber band (to trap in the gasses).  

7.   Let rise 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled.  Punch down.

8.   Let rise a second time for 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled.

9.   Dump dough onto counter and shape into 3 tight, round loaves (see notes).  Place on parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with a little more olive oil (to prevent plastic wrap from sticking) and cover with plastic wrap.

10.  Let rise a third time for 45 minutes.  

11.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425 degrees.

12.  Slash tops and spray with water.

13.  Bake for 15 minutes, reduce oven to 350 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes. 

14.  Remove from oven and let cool on cooling rack.

Notes

§  In order for the shaped loaves to rise properly, then need to be formed into tight balls.  You can do this by pinching the dough together, turning the ball 90 degrees and pinching it together again.  Repeat until the dough is in a tight ball. 

§  Since there is very little fat in the dough, it goes stale quickly.  If you're not eating it the day you make it, wrap in foil, then put in a zip-lock bag and freeze. 

§  To heat and re-crisp the bread, spray bread lightly with water and heat in 425 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes.

Reflections on this bake:  So I am posting this entry before I actually eat any of the bread, so can’t honestly comment on the taste.  I will come back and comment after this Friday when I take it out of the freezer and re-heat it in the oven and serve it to my friends.