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Good morning bread bakers!

It’s a rainy Sunday – perfect day for baking bread. Today I’m making Rye Bread from my King Arthur Flour cookbook. The recipe as written is just a guideline – you can change up the flours, wet ingredients, add-ins etc. I decided to make it fairly traditional with caraway seeds, but I’m also adding in grated orange zest. I hope that the flavor comes through. For some reason, I think that this will make tasty grilled cheese - with my favorite cheese, Muenster. I will let you know.

Here is the recipe. Please bake Rye Bread with me.

Special Tools you will need:
None - I mixed and kneaded this by hand

All the ingredients

Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups warm water
¼ cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon yeast
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 Tablespoon sea salt
1 cup rye flour
2 Tablespoons caraway seeds
1 Tablespoon grated orange zest
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ to 2 cups Montana Sapphire flour
Oil for the bowl
Cornmeal to sprinkle on baking sheets

Proof yeast: In a large bowl, combine warm water, brown sugar and yeast. Stir. Let sit until bubbly.

Mix dough: To the yeast mixture, add the softened butter, rye flour, salt, caraway seeds and orange zest. Mix well. Stir in the whole wheat flour and 1 ½ cups of the Montana Sapphire flour. When the dough begins to hold together and pull away from the sides of the bowl, turn it out onto your kneading surface where you’ve poured out the last ½ cup of flour.

Knead: Since rye dough tends to be sticky keep your hands and board well floured while you knead it. Knead for about 5 minutes. Even when it’s thoroughly kneaded, it will still be a bit sticky. That’s the way it should be – don’t add extra flour.

First Rise: When it’s thoroughly kneaded, put into a greased bowl, cover and let rise until double in bulk.

Second Rise: Punch down and let rise a second time until double.

Shaping and final rise: Divide dough into two pieces and shape into free-form oval shapes. Place on baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for about 1 hour.

Bake: Put loaves in a cold oven. Set temperature to 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 25 to 30 minutes.

The finished bread -- you can see the flecks of orange zest.

Reflections on this bake: I like it – don’t love it. With mostly whole wheat and rye flour, it tastes very "healthy" in a I-don't-want-to-devour-this-bread sort of way. The orange zest didn’t come through as much as I had hoped. However, since this in my husband's favorite kind of bread, I will definitly make it again -- I will just tweak the recipe. I'll double the amount of orange zest and change up the liquid -- maybe use potato water or buttermilk instead of water. On a more positive note, last night I made grilled cheese using this bread and cheddar cheese (no Muenster in the house). It was very good – browned up, got crispy and the cheese complemented the bread perfectly.

Rating Category	Rating out of 5
Taste	3
Texture	3
Likeliness to make again	5
Overall Rating	3.7

Good morning bread bakers!

Today I am baking Joanna Gaines’ After School Banana Bread. My friend told me about this recipe – with the crunchy sugar topping and moist, lightly sweetened bread – and I knew it would make my list of breads to bake. What distinguishes this banana bread from my other banana bread recipes is that it uses butter instead of oil and brown sugar instead of granulated sugar. It’s also baked in a square pan. I just happen to have 4 ripe bananas in the freezer so I’m ready to get baking!

Here is the recipe. Please bake After School Banana Bread with me.

Special Tools you will need:

Heavy duty mixer such as a Kitchenaid or hand mixer

The ingredients:

Ingredients:

Non-stick baking spray for pan
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) salted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
4-5 very ripe bananas, mashed (I used 4)
1 ¾ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I used walnuts)
2-3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Prep: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 inch pan with non-stick spray or line with parchment paper.

Mix wet ingredients: In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat together the butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until well blended. Add the bananas and mix until combined.

Mix dry ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

Combine wet and dry ingredients: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat just until combined. Add the nuts and mix until combined.

Bake: Pour batter in prepared pan and spread it evenly. Sprinkle the sugar over the top. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let the bread cool slightly in the pan on a rack.

The finished bread!

Reflections on this bake: Tasty! Very easy recipe and it comes together quickly. I love that it’s not overly sweet. The brown sugar gives it a more caramel-y flavor. I might use 5 bananas next time to up the banana flavor even more, but other than that, it’s perfect as is.

Rating Category	Rating out of 5
Taste	4
Texture	4
Likeliness to make again	5
Overall Rating	4.3

Good afternoon bread bakers!

Today I am baking Claire’s English Muffins from the Bon Appetite Test Kitchen. If you haven’t watched one of Claire's videos, she’s funny, self-deprecating and entertaining while at the same time very knowledgeable. I love learning from her. One thing that I learned is that English muffins fall into a category of baked goods that are griddled – kind of like pancakes. I like knowing these tidbits of food-related information. Better get started making the dough; it has an overnight rise in the fridge. I’m looking forward to the morning when the dough will be ready to form, griddle and bake just in time for breakfast.

Here is the recipe. Please bake Claire’s English Muffins with me.

Special Tools you will need:

Heavy duty mixer such as a Kitchenaid

Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water
1 packet yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 Tablespoon oil
3 ½ cups unbleached bread flour, divided, plus more
Non-stick vegetable oil spray
Cornmeal (for dusting)

Proof yeast: In a small bowl, mix warm water with yeast and sugar. Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Make dough: Pour yeast mixture in a stand mixer fitted with dough hook. Add buttermilk, salt, butter, oil, and 3 ½ cups flour and beat on low speed until a shaggy dough forms. Increase speed to medium and beat until dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. The dough will still be wet and sticky.

First Rise: Spray a medium bowl with nonstick spray, transfer dough to greased bowl, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Chill overnight. The cold rise makes the dough easier to handle, produces better flavor, and creates more nooks and crannies.

Shape English muffins: Dust 2 parchment-lined rimmed baking sheets generously with cornmeal (cover all of the parchment). Spray a clean work surface with nonstick spray, turn dough out, then spray dough. Using a bench scraper, divide dough into 12 equal pieces (about 3 oz each). Working with 1 piece at a time and using the bench scraper, fold dough inward onto itself on 4 sides. Turn dough over with the bench scraper so that the folds are underneath and transfer to prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing evenly on sheets. Sprinkle each piece with cornmeal, Spray plastic wrap with nonstick spray and loosely cover baking sheets, oiled side down. Let sit at room temperature until dough is nearly doubled in size, 60-80 minutes.

Cooking the muffins on a griddle and Baking: Heat a large skillet or griddle, preferable cast iron, over low heat. Place another rimmed baking sheet in the center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Working in 2-3 batches and keeping the remaining dough covered, slide 2 thin metal spatulas from opposite sides underneath the dough, also getting under the cornmeal to avoid sticking or deflating the dough, and transfer to skillet (do not overcrowd). Cook until bottoms are dark golden brown, 5-7 minutes. Turn over and cook the other side 5-7 minutes until dark golden brown. Using spatula, transfer muffins to preheated sheet in oven and bake until cooked through and sides are dry to the touch but still spring back, 5-10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Let muffins cool at least 30 minutes before splitting with a fork and serving.

Reflections on this bake:
Very tasty! I loved the crunch from the cornmeal, the tender inside and the tang from the buttermilk. Can’t wait to toast it and slather it with butter and apricot jam. As far the technique, I definitely referred back to the video of Claire making the English muffins, so I thought I’d give you the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxGczEE3NSw Happy baking!

Rating Category	Rating out of 5
Taste	4
Texture	4
Likeliness to make again	4
Overall Rating	4

Current Mood: accomplished

Good morning bread bakers!

Today I am baking New Jersey Crumb Buns from Cooks Country. Cooks Country has a TV show on my local PBS station and one evening I watched Bridget and Julia bake these. Oh my gosh – the crumb buns looked so good… I knew this was going to make my list of breads to bake. I kind of think this is more of a cake, but it has yeast in the dough and “bun” in the title, so I’m saying this counts as bread. I anticipate that these will be like those delectable Hostess crumb cakes I ate as a kid – can’t wait to taste the grown-up version of these little cakes.

Here is the recipe. Please bake New Jersey Crumb Buns with me.

Special Tools you will need:

Heavy duty mixer such as a Kitchenaid
9x13 baking pan

The ingredients:

Cake Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup milk
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast (1 packet)
¾ teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces and softened

Topping Ingredients

18 Tablespoons (2 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
4 cups Softasilk cake flour (I used King Arthur cake flour, but next time I will use Softasilk)
Powdered sugar to sprinkle on top

For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 9x13-inch baking pan.

In a bowl of a heavy duty mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine flour, milk, sugar, egg, yeast, and salt. Knead on low speed until dough comes together, about 2 minutes.

With mixer running, add soft butter 1 piece at a time, waiting until each piece is incorporated before adding next. Increase speed to medium-high and continue to knead until dough forms stretchy, web-like strands on sides of bowl, about 6 minutes longer (dough will be soft and sticky).

Using a greased rubber spatula, transfer dough to prepared pan. Using floured hands, press dough into even layer to edges of dish. Cover dish tightly with plastic wrap and let dough rise at room temperature until slightly puffy, about 1 hour.

For the topping: Ten minutes before the dough has finished rising, whisk melted butter, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt together in large bowl. Add flour and stir with wooden spoon until mixture forms a thick, cohesive dough. Let sit for 10 minutes to allow flour to hydrate.

If the dough has pulled away from the sides of the dish after rising, gently pat it back into place using your floured fingers. Break topping mixture into rough ½-inch pieces using your fingers and scatter in even layer over dough in the pan. (Be sure to scatter all crumbs even though it may seem like too much.)

Bake the buns: Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes. Crumbs should be golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted in center of cake should come out clean. Transfer dish to a wire rack and let cake cool completely. Using a spatula, transfer cake to cutting board; cut cake into 12 squares. Dust with powdered sugar.

To make ahead: (I didn’t do this – but thought I’d add this in since it seems like a great tip.) Once dough has been pressed into even layer in baking pan and has been wrapped tightly with plastic wrap, dough can be refrigerated for at least 4 hours (to ensure proper rising) or up to 24 hours. When ready to bake, let dough sit on counter for 10 minutes before proceeding with putting the topping on the dough. Increase baking time to 40 minutes.

Here are the final crumb buns

Reflections on this bake:

Very tasty with an overload of crumbs – in a good way. A little messy to eat – and a lot of the crumbs fell off. I think next time I make this I will use Softasilk flour. A note in the recipe say that using unbleached cake flour will result in a dryer crumb and my crumbs were pretty dry. At the request of a reader, I am going to start rating the recipes from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.

Rating Category	Rating out of 5
Taste	4
Texture	3
Likeliness to make again	4
Overall Rating	3.7

Current Mood: busy

Good morning bread bakers.

Unlike my last bread, this bread has a ton of ingredients and definitely stuff I don’t usually have on hand – like dried potato flakes, non-fat dry milk and vitamin C pills. However, I am very excited to make this bread. It comes from Cookwise by Shirley Corriher. Shirley is a food scientist and every recipe in that cookbook includes an explanation of why the recipe works and how the techniques and ingredients contribute to the overall recipe. I find all that very interesting, but I won’t bore you with all those scientific tidbits. On to photographing the ingredients and starting the sponge.

Here is the recipe. Please bake Incredible Toast Basic Loaf with me.

Special Tools you will need: (note, I am no longer going to list all the tools, only those that an average kitchen may not have on hand)

Heavy duty mixer such as a Kitchenaid
2 loaf pans

Here are all the plethora of ingredients!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup non-fat dry milk
1 ¼ cups cool water
1/3 cup dried potato flakes
1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast
½ cup warm water
¼ teaspoon sugar
1 ¾ cup and 3 cups bread flour (4 3/4 cups total)
¼ of a 500 milligram vitamin C tablet, crushed
3 Tablespoons melted butter
1 large egg yolk
1 Tablespoon corn syrup
¼ cup crushed ice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon oil for bowl
Nonstick cooking spray
1 large egg, beaten for glaze

Making the sponge: Stir the dry milk into the 1 ¼ cups cool water in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until almost simmering. Turn down the heat. Hold below a simmer for 1 minute, then turn the heat off. Let cool for several minutes, then stir in potato flakes.

In a measuring cup, stir together the yeast , ½ cup warm water and ¼ teaspoon sugar. Let stand until foam forms. Dump into the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer and add 1 ¾ cup flour. Pour in the milk-potato mixture and beat on low-medium speed with the paddle blade for 4 minutes. Let sit for 30 minutes to 2 ½ hours.

Making the Dough: Remove the paddle blade and insert the dough hook. Add the vitamin C, melted butter, egg yolk, corn syrup, ice and salt. Turn the mixer on for a few seconds just to stir it. Add the remaining 3 cups flour. Knead on low-medium speed for 5 minutes, until dough is very elastic.

First Rise: Place the dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat well with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Shaping the Dough: Punch down risen dough and dump out onto work surface. Divide in 2 equal pieces and shape into smooth rounds. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes.

Here Shirley goes into great detail on how to shape the dough into tight loaves. Basically, you have to pull the dough together and pinch it until you have a nice, smooth tight loaf. Repeat with the other ball of dough.

Second Rise: Spray 2 loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray and place a loaf in each pan, seam side down. Brush with beaten egg. Let the dough rise until slightly more than double, about 1 hour.

Baking: Position oven racks on the two lowest possible positions. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a shallow pan on the on the lowest rack and fill with ½ inch of boiling water. Place bread in oven and turn up the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake until bread is well browned, 45 to 55 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool on a cooling rack.

Reflections on this bake:

I hate to say this – but it lacked flavor!! With all those ingredients and technique, I expected to love this bread. It does live up to its name, however. It toasts up incredibly well – with just the right amount of crunch and browning on the outside while staying soft and chewy on the inside. So I think next time I make this I will add more salt. 1 teaspoon of salt to 4 ¾ cup flour just doesn’t seem like enough. Most other bread recipes use 1 tablespoon of salt with that amount of flour. I might split the difference and use 2 teaspoons next time. Let me know if you make this and your thoughts on the salt.

Good morning bread bakers.

So this was a busy weekend and I needed to make something quick and easy and also something that I could take to a Super Bowl party. This Beer Bread recipe comes from a community cookbook: Flavors from Western Reserve Academy. Patty Campbell, one of the English teachers, submitted this recipe and from what I hear, this bread is somewhat famous on campus. With only 4 ingredients (that I happened to have on hand) and minutes to mix up, I figured this Beer Bread would be perfect!

Here is the recipe. Please bake Beer Bread with me.

Tools you will need:

Large bowl
Measuring spoons
Set of dry measuring cups
Knife to cut the stick of butter
Wooden spoon for mixing
Loaf pan
Small bowl or cup to melt butter in

Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients:

1 stick salted butter, cut in half
1 12-ounce bottle of beer
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 cups self-rising flour

Prep: Put 1/ 2 stick of butter in the loaf pan and place in oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Allow the butter to melt while the oven pre-heats.

Making the Dough: Meanwhile, pour beer into a large mixing bowl and whisk in the sugar until dissolved. Add the self-rising flour and mix just until the dry ingredients disappear. Let sit about 5 minutes.

Baking: Remove pan from oven and spoon dough over the melted butter. Avoid smoothing the dough – lumpy is good! Bake for 1 hour.

Finishing the loaf: As the end of the cooking time approaches, melt the remaining half stick of butter and set aside. After baking for 1 hour, remove the bread from the oven and immediately pour the melted butter over the bread. Then, invert the pan and slide bread out. Cool for about 30 minutes before cutting.

The finished (half-eaten) bread:

Reflections on this bake:

Decadent – that’s what comes to mind. The outside is crusty and buttery. The inside is soft and cake-like with a hint of sweetness. You can definitely taste the beer, but it’s not overwhelming. I figured right – it was the perfect bread to make on a busy weekend and worthy of a Super Bowl party.

Good morning bread bakers.

After looking through quite a few cookbooks, I decided to make Swedish Coffee Bread from my King Arthur Flour cookbook. I’ve never made this before and am intrigued by the cardamom in the bread. Before I could even begin making the dough, I needed to figure out which kind of cardamom to use. I actually have 4 kinds of cardamom in my cupboard: whole green pods, whole black pods, cardamom seeds and a jar of ground cardamom. Wow! I cannot tell you why I have so much cardamom. After spending some quality time with google, I have concluded that I need to use the seeds from the whole green pods and crush them in my mortar and pestle. On to making the dough.

Here is the recipe. Please bake Swedish Coffee Bread with me.

Tools you will need:

Mortar & pestle
Large bowl
Measuring spoons
Set of dry measuring cups
1 cup liquid measuring cup
Knife to cut the stick of butter
Wooden spoon for mixing
Bench scraper to scrape of the dough that sticks to your work surface
Plastic wrap or towel to cover the dough
Parchment paper
Baking sheet

Here are all the ingredients:

Ingredients:

1 cup milk, lukewarm
1 rounded Tablespoon active dry yeast
4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs
½ cup sugar
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon crushed cardamom
1 teaspoon olive oil for the bowl
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
Cinnamon mixed with sugar to sprinkle on top

Crush the Cardamom: Remove the black seeds from the green ponds. (I used my mortar and pestle to break up the pods and release the seeds.) Crush the seeds using a mortar and pestle until you have 1 teaspoon. I crushed them fairly fine – although a few larger seed bits remained.

Making the Dough: Blend milk, yeast and 1 cup of the flour together in a large bowl. Let this stand for approximately 15 minutes. When the mixture is bubbling and expanded, beat in the eggs, sugar, butter, salt and cardamom. There will be lumps, but that’s fine.

Gradually add the rest of the flour, stirring until the dough begins to hold together and pull away from the sides of the bowl. I used only 4 cups to this point, but you may need a little more or less.

Kneading & Rising: Turn this soft dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3 to 4 minutes, adding a little bit of flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Let the dough rest while you clean out and grease the bowl. Continue kneading for another 3 to 4 minutes. When the dough is smooth and elastic, place it in the bowl, turning it so the top is greased. Cover and let rise until double, 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Shaping & Rising: 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, then divide each half into 3 equal pieces. Roll each of the pieces into a long rope – about 18 inches long. Take 3 of the long ropes, pinch the ends together and then braid. Pinch the ends. Repeat with the other 3 ropes.

Place the braided loaves onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

Baking: About 15 minutes before you want to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Turn out and cool on a rack.

Reflections on this bake:

Okay – very interesting flavor – I think I like it. Not sure I can describe the flavor of the cardamom – it is just very unique. Maybe vaguely similar to a spicier nutmeg? The bread itself is slightly sweet, very rich and tender. My favorite part is the cinnamon-sugar buttery crust that forms on the top. I think it will be perfect with a cup of coffee or tea.

Current Mood: mellow

Good morning fellow bread-bakers.

As forecasted, we got our 10+ inches of snow. Looks very pretty outside. Perfect day to spend in the kitchen baking bread #3. Today I’m making the oatmeal bread from my King Arthur Flour 200^th Anniversary cookbook. The original recipe calls for 2 cups of stone ground whole wheat flour, but sadly, I don’t have any so I’m going to make it with 100% Montana Sapphire flour. Have I mentioned that that is my favorite bread flour? Well it is. My mom always swore by it when we made strudel from scratch with my grandma. It was the only flour that would allow us to pull the dough paper thin without making a bunch of holes. It was also Donna Adam’s flour of choice for bread or anything that needed a high-protein flour. Okay – I diverge….on to bread baking.

Here is the recipe. Please bake oatmeal bread with me.

Tools you will need:
Large bowl
Measuring spoons
1 cup dry measuring cup
1 cup liquid measuring cup
Knife to cut the stick of butter in half
Wooden spoon for mixing
Bench scraper to scrape of the dough that sticks to your work surface
Plastic wrap or towel to cover the dough
2 loaf pans (mine are 5 ¼” x 9 ¼”, but recipe suggests 4 ½” x 8 ½”)

Here are all the ingredients (plus chicken soup cooking in that pot on the stove):

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

Dough:
1 Tablespoon (or 1 packet) active dry yeast
½ cup warm water
1 teaspoon honey
4 ½ - 5 cups Montana Sapphire flour
1 teaspoon olive oil for greasing the bowl
Olive oil spray such as PAM

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 about 3 ½ to 4 cups of flour. Mix in the flour until it begins to hold together and pull away from the sides of the bowl. 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.

Below - the finished bread (I cut it while it was still warm, so I smushed it a little...pretty sure it's baked enough time.

Reflections on this bake:

Oh this bread is delicious! Slightly sweet from the honey, soft crust, moist and tender on the inside. Can’t wait to toast it! I think I need to improve my shaping skills, however. The loaves are a little lop-sided. Pretty sure one of my many cookbooks shows the proper way to create a loaf shape. I will have to check that out before I shape my next loaf. Also I think my loaf pans are a little too big for this amount of dough – I think the smaller loaf pans as suggested in the recipe would have made taller, prettier loaves. Still, the bread tastes great and I would call this bake a success!

Current Mood: satisfied

Hey there. It’s way too early in the year to break my New Years’ resolution - so this weekend I get to make it up and bake two breads. Kinda looking forward to it. We’re getting our very first snowstorm of the season, so it’s a perfect weekend to spend time in our tiny, 1950s-era kitchen.

For my first bread, I will make Joanna Gaines' biscuits. I’ve had her cookbook for a little while now and have been looking for an excuse to try out that recipe. I read somewhere that she spent an entire year testing and fine-tuning the biscuits. I guess the secret ingredient is the egg – not normally found in a biscuit recipe. Anyway, I have high expectations.

Here is the recipe. Please bake these biscuits with me.

Tools you will need:

Large bowl
Measuring spoons
1 cup dry measuring cup
Spoon to mix the dough
Knife to cut the butter into small pieces
1 cup liquid measuring cup
Plastic wrap or foil to cover the dough
Biscuit cutter (or glass cup)
Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Small cup for the egg wash
Fork to whisk the egg wash
Brush for the egg wash

Here are all the ingredients:

Ingredients:

2 cups self-rising flour, plus more for work surface
1 Tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ sticks salted butter, cold and cut into ¼-inch pieces
1 large egg, beaten plus 1 large egg for brushing
¾ cup buttermilk plus 1 Tablespoon for brushing

Directions:

1.       In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda.
2.       Add the cut-up butter and rub in until the butter is about the size of peas.
3.       Stir in the beaten egg.
4.       Stir in the buttermilk until the dough comes together into a sticky mass.
5.       Cover the bowl and refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to overnight.
6.       Position rack in middle of oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
7.       Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
8.       Put dough on a floured work surface. Flour your hands (or sprinkle a little flour over the dough) and gently press into a round until it’s about ½ inch thick.
9.       Cut out rounds with biscuit cutter and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet, positioning the biscuits so that they are just touching each other.
10.   Make the egg wash. In a small cup, whisk together the remaining egg and 1 Tablespoon of buttermilk.
11.   Brush the biscuits with the egg wash.
12.   Bake until golden brown, 15-20 minutes.

By the way, I halved the recipe – there is only so much bread you can eat or give away!

My halved recipe made 10 biscuits.

Here are the baked biscuits

Reflections on this bake:

The biscuits were good – extremely tender. But…they actually tasted quite salty to me, which considering there is no added salt surprised me. There is a lot of butter – which is salted, so thinking that’s where it came from. Or else I’m registering the tang from the buttermilk as salt? Is there salt in self-rising flour? Let me check. Okay – surprise! There is salt in self-rising flour. It’s 3^rd on the list: Bleached wheat flour, leavening, salt….. Anyway, the texture was great -- but definitely way too salty. Sorry Joanna. I really wanted to love them.

Current Mood: mellow

Hey there. I'm taking the easy way out and for my first bread, and making a tried-and-true recipe. This is our family's favorite bread -- and I learned to make it way back in the late 80s when I was taking cooking classes from Donna Adams in Cleveland, Ohio. It has only 4 basic ingredients, flour, yeast, salt and water. There is also a tiny bit of sugar and olive oil. I don't know the science behind it, but according to Donna, the key to the amazing flavor of this bread is the third rise and the fact that you let the dough rise in an airtight, tall, narrow container. It keeps the gasses in and makes the bread have an ever-so-slight sourdough taste. Also, spraying the bread with water before baking mimics the steam ovens of professional bakers, resulting in a perfectly crisp crust.

Here is the recipe. Please bake this bread with me.

Tools you will need
Food processor (such as Cuisinart) fitted with plastic dough blade
1 cup glass measuring cup
1 cup dry measuring cup
Measuring spoons
Tall, narrow container (or a bowl) for letting the dough rise
Plastic wrap
Rubber band
Parchment paper
Baking sheet
Spray bottle with water
Sharp (or serrated) knife for slashing the bread dough

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.
Meanwhile, combine the 2 cups of 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 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.
Dump dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead 1-2 minutes.
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.
Let rise a second time for 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled.
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.
Let rise a third time for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Slash tops and spray 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

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.

Current Mood: mellow

Dear Reader,

My name is Lin and I like to bake -- especially bread. And it is for that reason, while most people resolve to exercise more or go on some crazy carb or sugar-limiting diet, I have resolved to bake bread once a week. There are no fancy rules.... It can be a slow-rising yeast bread, a super-quick baking powder biscuit or a Middle Eastern flat bread. I have also allowed myself to repeat beloved breads. My only rule is to bake bread once a week.

Please bake bread with me,

Lin