Yesterday I shaped my dough, placed them into their oiled pans, wrapped them in a towel and took them for a car ride. It worked out perfectly that I had about an hour drive so when I got to my destination I just popped the loaves into my friend's oven and 35 minutes later we had two perfect freshly baked loaves of bread.
Today I'm going to be trying a longer experiment with traveling dough. I'm going to my sister's but along the way I have a work call. So before I leave I'm going to mix the dough (no eggs or milk in it, just to be safe) put the towel over it and let it ride in my front seat for the 1.5 hour drive to my gig, punch down the dough and knead for awhile, then recover the dough and let it rise again in my car while I'm at work (about 3-4 hours) knead it some more to give the yeast some fresh air in the dough and then 2.5 hour drive to my sister's before it can be put in the fridge so that it can be baked in the morning.
I'll let everybody know how it goes when I come back from Sioux Falls!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
A baking sort of day
I made 2 loaves of bread as well as 12 bolso today, feeling pretty good about it all but it really shows that I need to get my bread making endurance up before the farmer's market! Mostly I need to work on timing it all out so that bread is going in the oven as bread is coming out of the oven. It would help if I would just make several loaves of the same kind of bread instead of like today where I made three separate kinds of bread.
First I made Irish Soda Bread, this was partly because I had buttermilk that needed using, partly because I was low on yeast and mostly because I've only made soda bread once and I wanted to try my hand at it again. I modified a recipe I found from Simply Recipes.
Ingredients:
4 c white flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp shortening (I was out of butter)
1 egg
1 3/4 c buttermilk
For the most part I followed the directions, the main thing I did differently was to dissolve the soda in the buttermilk like I did the last time I made soda bread from a different recipe. And I didn't forget to write down the raisins in the ingredients, I'm not a fan of raisins in bread (or much in general) so I didn't put them in my bread. And I baked mine in a bread pan, not a skillet, and I didn't score it, although I meant to, just forgot.
Next I mixed up the dough for the bolso, regular bread recipe but because I needed to use up my eggs I decided to toss an egg in the dough as well which meant a little extra flour too.
While it was rising I started to mix together the ingredients for my sourdough. This time I tried a 1.5 cups of the starter, last time it didn't have quite a 'sour' enough taste for me. Also I didn't have any beer on hand so I just used water, so the only beer in this sourdough is in the starter. I did toss in a couple handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese though. I set it aside to rise, fed my starter and then made the filling up for my bolso bread.
I sliced up and 3/4 lb of sausage and tossed them all in a pan with a little bit of olive oil and let them cook completely while they were cooking I mixed up one egg and a pound of shredded mozzarella, when the sausage was done I added it into the egg cheese mix (oils from the pan and all) and mixed it all together thoroughly.
Once the dough had doubled in size I punched it down and kneaded it for awhile on my floured table once it was ready to shape I split it up into 12 equal sized balls. Then one at a time I rolled them out and added a couple spoonfuls of the filling on one side, I folded the dough over the filling and using a fork pressed the edges to seal it together. Placed on a greased baking sheet and proceeded onto the next ball of dough.
Let them rise for about 20 minutes then coat with an egg wash (1 egg mixed with 2 tbsp of milk or water, I used milk). Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.
I was only able to bake eight at a time (four per cookie sheet) the other four I wrapped in tinfoil and put in the fridge to bake fresh later. They do get quite a bit bigger in the oven, so don't crowd them on the cookie sheet, before baking them it looks like you could maybe squeeze six on a sheet but don't do it. I ate one for lunch as soon as one cooled down enough to eat. Next time I would add tomato sauce to the inside and maybe some spice of some kind, they'd be really good with peppers inside too. They were still pretty tasty just as is though.
Next up the sourdough was ready to punch down and knead for awhile. It was done with it's second rising just as the bolso came out of the oven so that part worked out perfectly as well. Popped the sourdough in the oven and had my first long breather since I started the whole process, I spent the time wisely by talking to my sister on the phone. It took longer to bake then it has the past, a little over 45 minutes instead of the usual 40 minutes my bread takes. It came out looking good and I'll find out for sure when I try some at supper later tonight.
So things I learned today, bolso is fun but time consuming to make and next time I would add tomato sauce to the inside. And I need to work on my timing and endurance for bread making before June 8th.
First I made Irish Soda Bread, this was partly because I had buttermilk that needed using, partly because I was low on yeast and mostly because I've only made soda bread once and I wanted to try my hand at it again. I modified a recipe I found from Simply Recipes.
Ingredients:
4 c white flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp shortening (I was out of butter)
1 egg
1 3/4 c buttermilk
For the most part I followed the directions, the main thing I did differently was to dissolve the soda in the buttermilk like I did the last time I made soda bread from a different recipe. And I didn't forget to write down the raisins in the ingredients, I'm not a fan of raisins in bread (or much in general) so I didn't put them in my bread. And I baked mine in a bread pan, not a skillet, and I didn't score it, although I meant to, just forgot.
Next I mixed up the dough for the bolso, regular bread recipe but because I needed to use up my eggs I decided to toss an egg in the dough as well which meant a little extra flour too.
While it was rising I started to mix together the ingredients for my sourdough. This time I tried a 1.5 cups of the starter, last time it didn't have quite a 'sour' enough taste for me. Also I didn't have any beer on hand so I just used water, so the only beer in this sourdough is in the starter. I did toss in a couple handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese though. I set it aside to rise, fed my starter and then made the filling up for my bolso bread.
I sliced up and 3/4 lb of sausage and tossed them all in a pan with a little bit of olive oil and let them cook completely while they were cooking I mixed up one egg and a pound of shredded mozzarella, when the sausage was done I added it into the egg cheese mix (oils from the pan and all) and mixed it all together thoroughly.
Once the dough had doubled in size I punched it down and kneaded it for awhile on my floured table once it was ready to shape I split it up into 12 equal sized balls. Then one at a time I rolled them out and added a couple spoonfuls of the filling on one side, I folded the dough over the filling and using a fork pressed the edges to seal it together. Placed on a greased baking sheet and proceeded onto the next ball of dough.
I was only able to bake eight at a time (four per cookie sheet) the other four I wrapped in tinfoil and put in the fridge to bake fresh later. They do get quite a bit bigger in the oven, so don't crowd them on the cookie sheet, before baking them it looks like you could maybe squeeze six on a sheet but don't do it. I ate one for lunch as soon as one cooled down enough to eat. Next time I would add tomato sauce to the inside and maybe some spice of some kind, they'd be really good with peppers inside too. They were still pretty tasty just as is though.
Next up the sourdough was ready to punch down and knead for awhile. It was done with it's second rising just as the bolso came out of the oven so that part worked out perfectly as well. Popped the sourdough in the oven and had my first long breather since I started the whole process, I spent the time wisely by talking to my sister on the phone. It took longer to bake then it has the past, a little over 45 minutes instead of the usual 40 minutes my bread takes. It came out looking good and I'll find out for sure when I try some at supper later tonight.
So things I learned today, bolso is fun but time consuming to make and next time I would add tomato sauce to the inside. And I need to work on my timing and endurance for bread making before June 8th.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Pumpernickel Bread
At Jeff's request I gave pumpernickel bread a try. It was interesting, my first time with rye flour and my first time with molasses. The dough was much more stiff than normal which scared me a little, I was worried my bread was going to come out too hard but it came out perfectly! A little lighter in color than I was expecting but still yummy.
Ingredients:
2 tbsps dry active yeast
2 tbsps brown sugar
2 c. warm milk
3 c. white flour
2 c rye flour
1-2 tsp salt (never actually measure my salt)
2 tbsp caraway seeds
1/2 c molasses
1-2 tbsp of olive oil (also never actually measured)
I started with 2.5 of white and 2 of rye and ended up having to add about a half cup as I was kneading it. It was very sticky at first. When I went to punch it down I met resistance for the first time, usually my fist just sinks in but this dough resisted me a bit which is when I had a small measure of panic because it was too late to do much of anything about it at that point but knead it as much as I thought it could stand and coat it in some more oil and cross my fingers. I came back 30 minutes later (I couldn't resist!) and peeked at it's progress at rising number 2, it was rising! Suddenly I had hope again for my bread. About 3/4 of the dough I saved in the refrigerator for Jeff to bake for his family on Sunday but the rest of it I molded into a ball and baked on my pizza stone. I ate two pieces almost as soon as it was out of the oven it smelled so good!
And yes, that's my garlic pesto bread in the ziplock bag in the background and my jalapeno bread bowl on the left. I made a lot of bread this week.
My hands smell of rye, molasses and olive oil, this makes me immensely happy.
Ingredients:
2 tbsps dry active yeast
2 tbsps brown sugar
2 c. warm milk
3 c. white flour
2 c rye flour
1-2 tsp salt (never actually measure my salt)
2 tbsp caraway seeds
1/2 c molasses
1-2 tbsp of olive oil (also never actually measured)
I started with 2.5 of white and 2 of rye and ended up having to add about a half cup as I was kneading it. It was very sticky at first. When I went to punch it down I met resistance for the first time, usually my fist just sinks in but this dough resisted me a bit which is when I had a small measure of panic because it was too late to do much of anything about it at that point but knead it as much as I thought it could stand and coat it in some more oil and cross my fingers. I came back 30 minutes later (I couldn't resist!) and peeked at it's progress at rising number 2, it was rising! Suddenly I had hope again for my bread. About 3/4 of the dough I saved in the refrigerator for Jeff to bake for his family on Sunday but the rest of it I molded into a ball and baked on my pizza stone. I ate two pieces almost as soon as it was out of the oven it smelled so good!
And yes, that's my garlic pesto bread in the ziplock bag in the background and my jalapeno bread bowl on the left. I made a lot of bread this week.
My hands smell of rye, molasses and olive oil, this makes me immensely happy.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Farmer's Market and Tassajara Bread Book
I called the contact for the Waconia Farmer's market yesterday and I'm now going to be selling my bread there this summer! I'm very excited about this and have been thinking of the different kinds I'm going to make and figuring out how much it costs me to make a loaf of bread and how much to charge to make it worthwhile to make all that bread. The first one is June 8th and it's every Tuesday from June through September. The guy said that last year there was only one other person selling bread there and that most of the days they hadn't even shown up and so far no one else as said they'll be selling it so looks like I'll be the only one, makes me hopeful that I'll do well with sales.
On my brother's recommendation I picked up the Tassajara Bread Book. Amazing bread book, he has two more risings then I do and I'm very curious to try his method of baking bread. And while I was never really against whole grains (I prefer them actually) his reasoning for why people should bake with whole grain flour instead of processed is pretty solid.
"Wholeness means that the flour, meal, or flakes contain all of the elements of the whole grain, particularly the germ, that part of the kernel from which the grain would sprout if planted. So this germ is the most life-containing, life-giving part of the grain... For this reason whole cornmeal, which contains the germ, will have a greater life-containing, life-giving quality than the "degermed" cornmeal found in supermarkets. Whole cornmeal is a live food... Degermed cornmeal is a dead food, as it lacks the germ (of life)."
It's a book I highly recommend to anyone wanting to make bread.
On my brother's recommendation I picked up the Tassajara Bread Book. Amazing bread book, he has two more risings then I do and I'm very curious to try his method of baking bread. And while I was never really against whole grains (I prefer them actually) his reasoning for why people should bake with whole grain flour instead of processed is pretty solid.
"Wholeness means that the flour, meal, or flakes contain all of the elements of the whole grain, particularly the germ, that part of the kernel from which the grain would sprout if planted. So this germ is the most life-containing, life-giving part of the grain... For this reason whole cornmeal, which contains the germ, will have a greater life-containing, life-giving quality than the "degermed" cornmeal found in supermarkets. Whole cornmeal is a live food... Degermed cornmeal is a dead food, as it lacks the germ (of life)."
It's a book I highly recommend to anyone wanting to make bread.
Garlic Pesto Bread and Beer Sourdough
I made four mini loaves of bread yesterday, two of a plain beer sourdough bread and two of my garlic pesto bread. I've made the garlic pesto bread before but it had been awhile.
The sourdough turned out pretty well, I think next time I will add 1.5 cups of my starter instead of just the one. The sourdough taste was a little too subtle for me. But the beer is fantastic in sourdough, especially since it's in the starter as well as in the rest of the bread dough. For the sourdough all I did was substitute the water for beer (Fat Tire again) and added in one cup of my sourdough starter (anyone have a name suggestion for my starter?) I also ended up needing to add an extra cup or so of flour. I split the normal recipe that I use to make one big loaf and made two smaller ones. I baked one in a pan but the other I baked on the pizza stone, just to play with new shapes again. Before I had bread pans I baked all of my bread on the pizza stone and sometimes I miss getting to shape my bread.
For the garlic pesto bread I crushed about eight or nine cloves of garlic and mixed them into the dough, I was also very liberal with the oil. Total I probably added two tablespoons into the dough. I usually add parmesan cheese at this point too but I forgot this time. In the past I have also mixed in the pesto at this point but I wanted to try Jamie Oliver's way of making pesto so I waited till after punching it down to add in the pesto. Once I punched it down and kneaded it for a few minutes and split it in two then I laid it out one half on my floured table and pushed and pulled the dough till it was flattish then I spread the pesto over the entire surface and rolled it up like a burrito. Repeat for the other half. The pesto also had quite a bit of oil in being pesto and I rubbed more over all the outside of the loaf before letting it rise again. Once it was all done I was excited to cut into it to see my pesto swirl, and was disappointed to find no swirl, just green tinted bread (one of the very fun things about pesto bread). I think I spread my pesto too thin because I had flattened my bread out too much and created a large surface to spread the pesto on. The flavor was perfect so I don't think the solution is more pesto but rather less surface space so I can do a thicker layer of pesto. All the oil in the bread is great too and spreading it on the top made a nice flaky crust.
The sourdough turned out pretty well, I think next time I will add 1.5 cups of my starter instead of just the one. The sourdough taste was a little too subtle for me. But the beer is fantastic in sourdough, especially since it's in the starter as well as in the rest of the bread dough. For the sourdough all I did was substitute the water for beer (Fat Tire again) and added in one cup of my sourdough starter (anyone have a name suggestion for my starter?) I also ended up needing to add an extra cup or so of flour. I split the normal recipe that I use to make one big loaf and made two smaller ones. I baked one in a pan but the other I baked on the pizza stone, just to play with new shapes again. Before I had bread pans I baked all of my bread on the pizza stone and sometimes I miss getting to shape my bread.
For the garlic pesto bread I crushed about eight or nine cloves of garlic and mixed them into the dough, I was also very liberal with the oil. Total I probably added two tablespoons into the dough. I usually add parmesan cheese at this point too but I forgot this time. In the past I have also mixed in the pesto at this point but I wanted to try Jamie Oliver's way of making pesto so I waited till after punching it down to add in the pesto. Once I punched it down and kneaded it for a few minutes and split it in two then I laid it out one half on my floured table and pushed and pulled the dough till it was flattish then I spread the pesto over the entire surface and rolled it up like a burrito. Repeat for the other half. The pesto also had quite a bit of oil in being pesto and I rubbed more over all the outside of the loaf before letting it rise again. Once it was all done I was excited to cut into it to see my pesto swirl, and was disappointed to find no swirl, just green tinted bread (one of the very fun things about pesto bread). I think I spread my pesto too thin because I had flattened my bread out too much and created a large surface to spread the pesto on. The flavor was perfect so I don't think the solution is more pesto but rather less surface space so I can do a thicker layer of pesto. All the oil in the bread is great too and spreading it on the top made a nice flaky crust.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Beer Bread with cheddar and jalapenos
This was accumulation of ideas. I had made beer bread a few times already (regular bread recipe with beer in place of water) and a friend of mine suggested adding cheese and jalapenos to it, this sounded like a fantastic idea to me.
Then I started an experiment with sourdough. The idea of letting dough sour before baking with it seemed a little counter intuitive to me but I wanted to give it a go. However to appease the part of me that was a little squeamish about letting my food sour before eating it I decided I would make a beer sourdough starter instead of a normal one with just water.
And so all these ideas came together into one loaf of bread last night (or rather into six bread bowls, also a running experiment).
Changes to the basic recipe:
-added a few generous handfuls of shredded sharp Wisconsin cheddar cheese to the flour and salt
-used a bottle of warm Fat Tire in place of the water (any beer will do, Fat Tire has been my favorite to use so far though).
-added 1 cup of my beer sourdough starter
-once everything else was mixed together but before I started seriously kneading the dough I added in a jar of sliced, pickled, jalapenos (drained). Probably about 1.5 cups.
As always, adding in new ingredients meant shifting the total amount of flour and liquid. I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to add in more flour as needed and in this case I ended up pouring a few splashes from the bottle of beer I was drinking from while making it.
Just before baking the bread bowls I brushed on olive oil and sprinkled a generous amount of the cheese on top. Because of the shape of my oven I had to bake them 3 to a pan, one on top of the other so after about 20 minutes I quickly switched the pans around to help them bake more evenly and then let them bake for another 15-20 minutes.
They turned at amazingly delicious and incredibly spicy.
Then I started an experiment with sourdough. The idea of letting dough sour before baking with it seemed a little counter intuitive to me but I wanted to give it a go. However to appease the part of me that was a little squeamish about letting my food sour before eating it I decided I would make a beer sourdough starter instead of a normal one with just water.
And so all these ideas came together into one loaf of bread last night (or rather into six bread bowls, also a running experiment).
Changes to the basic recipe:
-added a few generous handfuls of shredded sharp Wisconsin cheddar cheese to the flour and salt
-used a bottle of warm Fat Tire in place of the water (any beer will do, Fat Tire has been my favorite to use so far though).
-added 1 cup of my beer sourdough starter
-once everything else was mixed together but before I started seriously kneading the dough I added in a jar of sliced, pickled, jalapenos (drained). Probably about 1.5 cups.
As always, adding in new ingredients meant shifting the total amount of flour and liquid. I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to add in more flour as needed and in this case I ended up pouring a few splashes from the bottle of beer I was drinking from while making it.
Just before baking the bread bowls I brushed on olive oil and sprinkled a generous amount of the cheese on top. Because of the shape of my oven I had to bake them 3 to a pan, one on top of the other so after about 20 minutes I quickly switched the pans around to help them bake more evenly and then let them bake for another 15-20 minutes.
They turned at amazingly delicious and incredibly spicy.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Basic Bread Recipe
My basic bread recipe (makes one large loaf):
In a small bowl gently combine:
2 cups warm water
1.5 tbsp dry active yeast
2 tbsp brown sugar
let sit for about 10 minutes, or until it becomes foamy
In a larger bowl:
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
mix together and create a well in the center, when yeast mixture is ready pour into the well and stir gently with your hands until it becomes dough like then start kneading for about five minutes or so. Add more flour or water as necessary, dough should be smooth and elastic and shouldn't stick to your hands too much. I will pour about a tablespoon of olive oil onto my hands before I start kneading too much, it helps keep the dough from sticking to your hands and adds a nice flavor/texture to the bread.
Cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place for about 45-60 minutes, until doubled in size. Punch down and knead again for about 10 minutes or so. Let rest for a few minutes while getting the pan ready (lightly oiled) then shape the dough as desired, cover with a damp towel again and let rise for another hour or until doubled in size. This is a good time to preheat the oven. Bake at 350 for about 35-40 minutes. Bread will be a nice golden brown color when done and will make a hollow sound when tapped with a knuckle. Remove from pan and let cool before storing. Some people claim you should let bread cool completely before consuming. I think these people are crazy. Bread hot and fresh from the oven is one of the best things on this planet.
In a small bowl gently combine:
2 cups warm water
1.5 tbsp dry active yeast
2 tbsp brown sugar
let sit for about 10 minutes, or until it becomes foamy
In a larger bowl:
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
mix together and create a well in the center, when yeast mixture is ready pour into the well and stir gently with your hands until it becomes dough like then start kneading for about five minutes or so. Add more flour or water as necessary, dough should be smooth and elastic and shouldn't stick to your hands too much. I will pour about a tablespoon of olive oil onto my hands before I start kneading too much, it helps keep the dough from sticking to your hands and adds a nice flavor/texture to the bread.
Cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place for about 45-60 minutes, until doubled in size. Punch down and knead again for about 10 minutes or so. Let rest for a few minutes while getting the pan ready (lightly oiled) then shape the dough as desired, cover with a damp towel again and let rise for another hour or until doubled in size. This is a good time to preheat the oven. Bake at 350 for about 35-40 minutes. Bread will be a nice golden brown color when done and will make a hollow sound when tapped with a knuckle. Remove from pan and let cool before storing. Some people claim you should let bread cool completely before consuming. I think these people are crazy. Bread hot and fresh from the oven is one of the best things on this planet.
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