Tag: bread baking

Daughter Downloaded

My daughter landed early and safely very late Tuesday evening but didn’t step off the plane until Wednesday morning (technically a couple of minutes past midnight). Despite arriving at least fifteen minutes ahead of schedule, no gate crew could be found once the plane taxied to Terminal C. I kept my self from dozing off in the cell phone parking lot by leaving the car turned off despite temperatures in the teens. Rachelle finally called me and I navigated the surprisingly congested orange cone maze of construction that is the remaining two terminals at KCI to retrieve her before she froze to death. An uneventful drive home through Platte City and Leavenworth found us back at home by 1:30 a.m. My alarm goes off at 5:18 am.

Unsurprisingly, I ignored my alarm and slept an extra hour. I had convinced myself that Wednesday was the department gift exchange so I absolutely had to drive to work. I realized mid-morning that the gift exchange was Thursday so I could have worked from home. However, it was a mixed blessing, my absentmindedness, as it gave me the opportunity to take a late lunch and shop for my daughter at Trader Joe’s on Ward Parkway, about 10-15 minutes south of where I work. She has a corn allergy and many products at Trader Joe’s are safe for her to eat. And I found that of the two Trader Joe’s stores in the KC metro area, the one on Ward Parkway was larger and much easier to access than the one I visited last Saturday in Overland Park.

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Virtual Family Bake Off

I received a call from my son Thursday evening.  This is a somewhat unusual occurrence as the last time I spoke to him was on the occasion of his 31st birthday back in early February.  In our defense, we are both busy professionals working much more than your typical 40-hour work week, so we don’t have a lot of spare time for idle chit-chat.

Derek and Ton Ton
Derek and Ton Ton

We exchanged pleasantries and got caught up on the latest antics of their new pet Rottweiler, Ton Ton, when he popped the question.  You know, the one you always expect when your offspring call you because they never call you unless they … wait for it … want something.  But this time, my son surprised me.  He wanted my Italian Herb bread recipe.

Seriously?  This was too easy and too good to be true.

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Recipe Review: Vermont Whole Wheat Honey Oat Bread

It was raining and thundering this morning.  That means a perfect day to make bread.  I asked Terry what type of bread he would like me to bake and he said ‘honey oat.’  So I went to my favorite flour company (King Arthur Flour) and searched through their recipes for an oat bread.  I landed on the Vermont Whole Wheat Oat Honey bread recipe with 207 reviews and an above four star rating.  I thought I’d made this recipe in the past, so I blithely started dumping the ingredients into the pan of my bread machine.  My first clue that this was NOT a bread machine recipe should have been the two cups of water.  Most bread machine recipes are between one and one and a third cups water with three to four cups of flour.

The light bulb finally went off after I’d boiled the two cups of water. 
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Recipe Review: KAF Beautiful Burger Buns (4 Stars)

Since the temperature broke into the mid-60s yesterday under clear sunny skies, I decided to uncover the grill for dinner.  I started this recipe in the bread machine in early afternoon so the buns would be done when the burgers came off the grill.

Beautiful Burger Bun recipe at King Arthur Flour

I did not butter the buns before baking nor after baking.  Nor did I do an egg wash with sesame seeds.  I went completely easy and simple and just shaped eight bun balls and baked them.  Next time, I’ll probably divided the dough into ten or twelve pieces for smaller buns and perhaps add the sesame seed topping.

Both my husband and I loved the buns.  They taste and smell like great hamburger buns from a bakery, only very fresh!  I highly recommend this recipe.

Recipe Review: Italian Herb Bread

I spent most of Sunday baking.  First I tested a new bread recipe (see previous post on the Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread recipe). Terry and I wanted to have Italian for dinner, so I decided to make some Italian herb bread.  I reviewed my two ‘stand by’ recipes, Italian Supermarket Bread and Rosemary Sourdough, and decided I really needed to program my Zojirushi for a custom dough cycle (less kneading, more rising).  I couldn’t find the print edition that I received with the BB-CEC20 bread machine (I filed it away with all the other appliance manuals), so I downloaded a searchable copy (aka as a PDF file).

As I paged through the “How to Enjoy Your Home Bakery Supreme Breadmaker Operating Instructions and Recipes” for the Zojirushi Model BB-CEC20, I got distracted by the recipes listed under the Basic Course.  Continue reading “Recipe Review: Italian Herb Bread”

Recipe Review: Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread (via King Arthur Flour)

Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread

by P.J. Hamel at King Arthur Flour

Rating:  TBD

Converting the original recipe (click on recipe name above) to fit in my bread machine:

In a the bread pan for your bread machine, combine the water, oats, maple or brown sugar, honey, butter, salt, and cinnamon. Let cool to lukewarm, about 10 to 15 minutes

Continue reading “Recipe Review: Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread (via King Arthur Flour)”

Cracked Honey Wheat Bread

Other ingredients1 1/4 cups boiling water
1/4 cup cracked wheat

4 T canola oil (or butter/margarine)
4 T honey
1 cup KAF White Whole Wheat Flour
2 cups KAF Unbleached Bread Flour
1 T vital wheat gluten
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp yeast

∞∞∞

Cracked wheat soakingUsing my bread machine, I placed the boiling water in the bread pan first with the cracked wheat to soak (min of 30 mins) while I gathered the other ingredients.  I added the honey and oil to pan.

Ready to mix∞∞∞

Then I added the dry ingredients, except for the yeast.  I made a crater in the mound of flour mixture and placed the yeast carefully in the crater.

I set a delay on my dough cycle (my bread machine includes a 20 min preheat feature I can add for all programmed cycles) and let the machine do the rest.  I prefer to back my bread in my oven, rather than the machine, so I almost always use dough cycle.

My Precious
My Precious (click image for rest of album)

[flickr video=8350532602 secret=d75c012cf5 w=400 h=327]

Once the cycle completes, remove the dough from the pan, shape it and allow the dough to rise, covered, for about 1 hour, or until it’s crowned about 1 inch over the rim of the pan. Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 45 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf registers about 190°F. Remove the bread from the oven, turn it out of the pan, and let it cool on a wire rack.

∞∞∞

Check back in a couple of hours for updated photos and the results of my bread dough epiphany.

Cooling on rack
Cooling on the rack

Soured on Sourdough

I tried valiantly but failed miserably twice this past weekend to bake a simple sourdough loaf.  I fed my sourdough starter and let it bubble for several hours Saturday before attempting the first loaf of Rustic Sourdough.  I read the recipe through quickly, but not very coherently.  I added the ingredients to the bread machine and started the dough cycle.  Thirty minutes before the cycle ended, Terry and I left the house to buy a handful of items at the grocery store.  I asked him to remind me to take the dough out of the machine when we returned, for shaping and final rise.  Instead, we sat down and started watching a movie.  Forty-five minutes later, the light bulb went off in my head and I remembered the dough.

As soon as I took the pan out of the bread machine, the dough deflated.  I quickly shaped the dough without kneading it too much and placed it in a loaf pan.  Forty-five minutes later, it had hardly expanded more than a half inch or so.  I preheated the oven and baked it anyway, even though it came out of the oven resembling a brick.  Terry tasted it and loved the flavor, so I’ll probably chop it up and turn it into croutons.

Sunday, I repeated the process with my sourdough starter, feeding it and letting it bubble for several hours.  I reviewed the Rustic Sourdough recipe again and again completely ignored one of the key ingredients, forgetting to add it to the bread pan of the bread machine before starting the dough cycle.  I didn’t forget about the dough, though, since we had already run all of our errands.

I took the dough out, shaped it, placed it in the pan, and put forty minutes on the kitchen timer.  As I walked away from the counter, another light bulb went on in my head and I rushed to my Nook to review, for the third time, the recipe.  I finally connected the dots.  The key ingredient I had forgotten happened to be the sugar, necessary to feed the yeast.  I had not forgotten the salt, which is also necessary, to keep the yeast from expanding forever.  Not once, but twice, I forgot to include sugar in the sourdough.

The dough rose slowly, but not nearly as much as it should have during the final rise.  It would have risen higher had the yeast had some sugar (beyond what it could glean from the flour).  I preheated the oven and baked the loaf, which now resembled French bread rather than Sourdough.  I even spritzed the oven with a water bottle to simulate a steam injected French oven.  The steam crystallizes the crust.

I haven’t sliced this loaf yet, but will taste test it this evening during dinner.  This second loaf may also be consigned to crouton duty.  Do I dare try a third time to capture the elusive perfect sourdough loaf?  Thunderstorms are forecast for Thursday, so I may take advantage of the low pressure system to try again on that day.

Recipe Test: Stromboli (via King Arthur Flour)

Stromboli: King Arthur Flour Recipe

My daughter continues providing meals to her father (and I benefit as well).  One of her suggested menu items happened to be stromboli.  She called her boyfriend last night for the recipe, but he had a bad day at work so supper at the Moss Home quickly became leftovers.  Rachelle called me later while I was out at the grocery store picking up items for today’s return of the chicken pot pie.  She needed French bread to make her stromboli.  I told her I needed a minimum of three to four hours to make that type of bread.  I asked her if I could make some French bread on Sunday afternoon so she could make the stromboli on Monday.  She agreed and eventually left to spend the evening (and night) with friends.

Monday morning, I reviewed the stromboli recipe via the King Arthur Flour web site.  I placed the ingredients for the dough in my bread machine and added time to the dough cycle so that the dough would be ready for Rachelle around 4:30 p.m.  I went merrily off to work and called her at 3:00 p.m. to make sure the bread machine started on time and that the dough looked like it should.  She told me it looked great and smelled wonderful.

Our Stromboli looked very much like this one (sorry, I forgot to take a photo of ours)

I got home at my regular time and the stromboli was already baking in the oven on parchment paper on the pizza stone.  The house smelled glorious.  Within a half hour, we took the baked stromboli out of the oven and let it rest and cool for ten to fifteen minutes.  I sliced it while Rachelle heated up some marinara sauce.  We each enjoyed at least two slices, if not three.

Later, after we’d stuffed ourselves, Rachelle realized she should have let the stromboli rise before baking it.  Neither of us had thought about that and had not allowed for that second rise time in our evening dinner planning.  Next time, we’ll definitely let the stromboli rise for at least a half hour or longer.  This recipe is a keeper!

On the Second Day of Christmas

I spent the day baking bread.  Always enjoyable for me and any of my house guests.  The aroma of baking bread permeates our home.

My first loaf of the morning I made for my father.  Since our family is celebrating Christmas (by opening presents and feasting on an Italian themed dinner) tomorrow, I wanted to make a fresh loaf of his favorite: White Sandwich Bread <= (click link for recipe).

The second loaf will be my version of the Italian Supermarket bread recipe I found last year at the King Arthur Flour web site.

The third and final loaf will be Rustic Sourdough, modified to mix and rise in the dough cycle of my bread machine.  The original recipe from King Arthur is really a double batch (makes two loaves) and I would have to drag out my Kitchen Aid mixer to accommodate five cups of flour and the other ingredients.

Once the loaves are all baked and cooled, I will take some photographs and post them below.

Merry Christmas!