Tuscan Peasant Bread

Very tasty! The idea behind this bread is that you serve it with a meal the day you make it. It is recommended that you have it eaten within twelve hours of baking. It has a small amount of salt so it won't mold, but it will dry out really fast.
We tried it with some white sauce flavoured with broth from a beef stew the day it was baked, and then day two with some lentil soup. Delicious! It makes just one loaf. Keep in mind that it rises several times, bakes for a long time, and cools for a long time. So make it early!

In a large bowl: 2 cups of warm water, 2 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast (a scant packet). Stir until yeast is dissolved. Add 1 cup of unbleached flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. Mix well, then cover bowl and let raise about an hour.

After an hour add: A pinch of salt, a pinch of sugar, and another cup of unbleached all purpose flour.  Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour  half a cup at a time. (I ended up using 1 1/2 cups more flour then it called for)

Knead vigorously for at least 5-8 minutes. Dust with flour as needed. Sprinkle some flour in the bowl, then sprinkle more over the ball of dough after placing it in the bowl. Cover with plastic and let raise until doubled. 1-1 1/2 hours.

Lightly flour a parchment covered baking sheet. Shape the dough into a round or an oblong loaf. I think what I ended up with was something in between the two. Dust the top of the loaf with some more flour. Let rest for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 F 20 minutes before baking. (You can slash a pattern in the top of the bread if you want to, I sorta forgot..three slashes for the oblong, and a tic-tac-toe pattern for the round)

Place the pan on the lowest rack of the oven. I sat the pan on my 10 inch cast iron before placing it on the lowest rack, and I moved the other oven rack to the top and sat a pizza stone on it.
The actual directions tell you to line the lowest and highest racks with baking stones. But sometimes you've gotta work with what you have, right?

Bake 55-60 minutes. The loaf will look done around 45 minutes, but really does need the extra 15 to finish baking the inside.

     Transfer to a cooling rack and cool about 2 hours before serving.

Farm-Style White Bread with Cardamom

I have never baked with cardamom before, mostly because it was super expensive in Pennsylvania when we lived there and we were on a student budget. Well a month or so ago my husband stumbled over some at an Asian market we really like and it was within our budget so he grabbed some for me. The recipe wants you to get actual cardamom pods and then remove the seeds and crush them. Well what I was working with the actual seeds, and they were super hard, I tried putting them in a bag and using a rolling pin to crush them without success. So I just threw them in whole...wasn't the worst thing, but the bread would have definitely been better with them crushed. I got thinking and decided a pepper mill would work awesome, so I'm going to look for one that comes without pepper in it.

Anyway, this bread is SO tasty! Loved it! I am also in love with bread braids a lot lately so I've been making a lot of them.

Oh and one note: this recipe is HUGE! It makes four loaves. You can give a couple to friends or stick them in the freezer.

So to begin...

In a large bowl: 4 cups boiling water, 1 2/3 cups instant non fat dry milk (I ran out of dry milk and hadn't made it to the store so I just used 2% and heated it up, I didn't get it to a full boil just because I didn't want to burn it and it worked fine)..anyway to continue...4 Tablespoons (1/2 a stick) of unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 cup of sugar. Stir until the butter melts and let sit  until lukewarm..somewhere around 15-20 minutes.

Pour 1/2 a cup of warm water into a small bowl (or mug as I like to use) and add 2 tablespoons of active dry yeast and a pinch of sugar (or drizzle of honey/agave nectar) . Let stand until foamy.
Remove the seeds from 10 cardamom pods and crush with a rolling pin on some waxed paper (or if you have dried seeds grind them through your pepper mill, in total it's about 1-2 teaspoons)
Add 4 cups of flour (in total you will use 12-14 cups of flour), the cardamom, and yeast mixture to the milk/butter mixture. Beat until smooth and creamy, 1-2 minutes. Switch to a wooden spoon and add the remaining flour 1/2 a cup at a time until the dough is soft and shaggy and clears the side of the bowl.

Then comes the fun part when you round up four of your favorite neighborhood children to knead for you..5-8 minutes! LOL, just kidding. We do love these kids though. The best was when they started chasing my kids with their sticky hands. Awesome.

After kneading place the dough in a greased container, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let raise until double. About 1 1/2 hours.

Either put in your pans, or braid. Let raise about 40 minutes.

Twenty minutes before baking preheat oven to 350 F. Then bake on the center rack for 40-45 minutes.

Got Stale Bread??

Since I didn't get a new recipe made this month I still wanted to share something...here are two things we like do to when we have stale bread, and when you make homemade bread it goes stale...very quickly!

I hope you enjoy these two recipes, courtesy of the Food Network!

#1 French Toast

Believe it or not French toast is best when made with old, dry bread. Alton Brown's Recipe is the best.

French Toast

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2003

Prep Time:

10 min

Inactive Prep Time:

--

Cook Time:

24 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup half-and-half
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons honey, warmed in microwave for 20 seconds
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 (1/2-inch) slices day-old or stale country loaf, brioche or challah bread (sour dough is also really good!)
• 4 tablespoons butter

Directions

In medium size mixing bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, honey, and salt. You may do this the night before. When ready to cook, pour custard mixture into a pie pan and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Dip bread into mixture, allow to soak for 30 seconds on each side, and then remove to a cooling rack that is sitting in a sheet pan, and allow to sit for 1 to 2 minutes.
Over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a 10-inch nonstick saute pan. Place 2 slices of bread at a time into the pan and cook until golden brown, approximately 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove from pan and place on rack in oven for 5 minutes. Repeat with all 8 slices. Serve immediately with maple syrup, whipped cream or fruit.


#2 Bread Pudding!! I have several different recipes.I've made the Better Homes and Gardens version several times, but today I tried Paula Deen's recipe. Oh my yumminess!!! Loaded with sugar and butter, how can it not be?!

The Best Bread Pudding

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen, 2007

Prep Time:

10 min

Inactive Prep Time:

24 hr 10 min

Cook Time:

50 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 5 large beaten eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups cubed Italian bread, allow to stale overnight in a bowl (I used sour dough bread)
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
• 1 cup chopped pecans

For the sauce:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup brandy (I substituted apple juice)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Mix together granulated sugar, eggs, and milk in a bowl; add vanilla. Pour over cubed bread and let sit for 10 minutes.
In another bowl, mix and crumble together brown sugar, butter, and pecans.
Pour bread mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over the top and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven.
For the sauce:
Mix together the granulated sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir together until the sugar is melted. Add the brandy apple juice, stirring well. Pour over bread pudding. Serve warm or cold.

Here are pictures of the bread pudding I made today! I just poured the sauce over the top and am anxiously waiting for it to cool off!

French Bread

I love french bread because it is SO simple, and there is just something so delicious about a crusty bread with the soft insides. Mmmm. You don't have to collect any special ingredients, everything needed is most likely already in your cupboard.

To start place in a large bowl: 2 cups warm water, 1 1/2 tablespoons yeast, and one tablespoon of sugar (I was actually out of sugar so I didn't use any kind of sweetener). Let stand at room temp for about 10 minutes.

The recipe actually calls for 3 cups of bread flour and 3 cups of unbleached all purpose, I didn't have any bread flour so I used all unbleached. You add two cups to the yeast and stir briskly for 3 minutes. Then add the remaining flour 1/2 a cup at a time (you may need more, or less, then 6 cups depending on the brand, batch, etc)

Knead for 10-12 minutes (Unless you have used bread flour, then it only takes about 8 minutes). Place in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let raise in a cool room until tripled in bulk. About 1 1/2-2 hours. If you have the time punch it down and let raise again for another hour.

Divide into three equal portions and shape each one into a rectangle (which would make a baguette) or if you want a french bread loaf roll up the rectangle into a sausage shape.

Like so.

Bake at 400 for 20-30 minutes. Before baking slash little diagonal lines on the top of each loaf, no more then 1/4 an inch deep and let raise about 30 minutes. I baked mine on a greased airbake cookie sheet.

Eat immediately or transfer the loaves to a cooling rack. (The loaves I made were a lot smaller then a french bread loaf you would find in the store, I would say they were in between a baguette and a french bread)

Homestyle White Bread with Poppy Seeds

I apologize for the lack of detail in the following three posts! After some technical difficulties with the camera we were finally able to get the pictures off it, and rather then wade through the sixty plus pictures to find all the bread related ones I decided to just have a picture of the finished product.

Now for the good stuff! And this sure was! It looks and tastes beautiful. :)


Directions:

In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup:
3/4 cup warm water (105-115 F)
Sprinkle over the water:
1 Tablespoon (1 package) active dry yeast
pinch of sugar

Stir to dissolve and let sit until foamy.

In a large bowl:
1 1/2 cups warm milk (105-115 F)
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into pieces
2 1/2 teaspoons Salt
5-5 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour or bread flour

Add two cups of flour initially, then add the yeast mixture. Then add flour 1/2 a cup at a time until you have a shaggy dough that clears the side of the bowl. Knead 3-4 minutes. Or until dough springs back when pressed.

Place in a greased deep container turning to coat. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk. About 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Then:
Gently deflate the dough and grease two 9x5 inch clay or metal loaf pans. Divide the dough into two pieces and form. Place in the loaf pans and cover lightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise 30-45 minutes (doubled in bulk).

Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 375. In a small bowl beat 1 large egg with 1 Tablespoon of milk or cream (I think I may have used water). Brush the glaze over the top of the bread. Then immediately sprinkle with 1 tablespoon per loaf of the poppy seeds. Bake 40-45 minutes (10 minutes longer for clay pans). Or until loaves are brown and sound hollow when tapped with finger. Cool before slicing.

White Mountain Bread

I apologize for the lack of pictures. I'm slowly learning! The next post will be better.

I mentioned in the previous post that one of the biggest things for me with bread is how good it is after it's cooled off. And in the following couple of days how it holds up.
I have also been raised on wheat bread and prefer it so white bread has always tasted a little bland to me. This bread is actually very delicious, very flavorful AND it tasted great the next day. It definately gets 5 stars.

The following directions are to make it by hand, (with some help from the dough hook attachments that came with my hand mixer) you can always use an electric mixer if you have one.

3/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon/1 package yeast (I used active dry)
pinch of sugar for the yeast
1 1/2 cups milk (105-115 F)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, or vegetable oil
3 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon salt
6 to 6 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose or bread flour ( I use a mixture of the two)

1. In a small bowl sprinkle yeast and sugar over 1/4 a cup of the water. Let sit until foamy, about ten minutes.

2. In a large bowl combine the remaining water, milk, butter, honey, salt and one cup of the flour. Beat until creamy, about 3 minutes by hand or one minute with mixer. Add the yeast, then add the remaining flour about 1/2 a cup at a time. You can use the hand mixer until it gets to stiff, then use a wooden/plastic spoon. You may use more or less then what flour it calls for. The dough should be slightly stiff.

3. Knead for a minimum of 10 minutes, if the dough gets sticky add a tablespoon of flour at a time as needed.

4. Place dough in a greased container. Cover with plastic wrap and raise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

5. Divide dough into two pieces, shape into logs. Place in two 9x5 inch loaf pans. Bake at 375 F for 40-45 minutes. The Bread will be done when you tap it and hear a hollow sound. Immediately remove from pans, otherwise the bread gets soggy on the bottom. Place on wire racks for at least 15 minutes before slicing.


There's nothing like a good friend to bake with!