Yogurt Commons Bread

Over the years I've made modifications to the Commons Bread. Recently I've wanted more fiber in my diet but I still prefer the taste of the white flour over whole wheat. Psyllium husks seem to do the trick quite nicely. I've also started to make labneh, or yogurt cheese, and used the whey in the bread. I found that it changed the texture of the bread really nicely, and I even feel like it even keeps the crumb of the bread moist for longer. Since I don't always make labneh or have whey on hand, just plain yogurt does the same thing.

SLOW

Experience cook 4 hours

Novice cook 4 hours

3 cups flour (450gr)

¼ tsp instant yeast (yes, really, that's all!)

1¼ tsps. salt (12gr)

1½ cups water

½ cup yogurt or liquid whey

1 tsp psyllium husk powder

Mix the flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the water and yogurt to thoroughly blend into a very wet dough that'll look more like a sticky batter. Cover the bowl and let it rest in a warm place for at least 12 and preferably up to 24 hours. It’s ready for the next step when the surface is dotted with bubbles. It is crucial that the dough be kept warm, otherwise the little bit of yeast won't be able to propagate in your dough - if you don't have a warm place, put in the cold oven and turn on the light; this should keep it plenty warm to rise. If you don't have a warm place at all, the key is to watch for the little bubbles on the surface, which will take longer to appear in a cold place.

Flour a work surface and dump the dough out onto it, cover and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, layer a bowl with some parchment paper - when the dough has finished rising you will pick up the whole thing to deposit into your hot dutch oven.

Using only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers, shape it into a ball and deposit it into your parchment-lined bowl. Cover and in the same warm place, let rise for about 2 hours. When ready, the dough will be more than double in size.

Put a large cast iron pot or Dutch oven (cocotte) inside to heat (I use a 1 3/4 quart CorningWare dish) and turn on the oven to heat to 450°F\230°C. 

When the dough is ready, remove the pot from the oven, lift the parchment-lined dough out of its bowl and into the pan. Shake the pan to settle the bread evenly. Cover with the lid, and bake 30 minutes. Remove the lid, and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until the loaf is nicely browned. Cool on a rack.

Onion Flatbread

These make a tasty snack on their own, or go well with hummus. It's tricky to get an even layer of the batter onto the cookie sheet, which is why you'll get gummier parts that might need a bit more time. You should do this only after cutting up the sheet of baked flatbread since the parts that are done will over crisp.

1¾ cups (410g) water 

¼ cup (50g) olive oil + extra for drizzling 

1⅔ cups (200g) flour 

1 tsp salt

2 onions (17oz/500g), sliced thin

⅓ cup (40g) grated parmesan 

2 Tbsps. (20g) cornmeal 

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F (or 400?).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the water, flour, olive oil, and salt until the mixture is smooth and forms a fairly liquid batter.
3. Stir in the onions to coat. Let sit for a half hour, up to overnight.
4. SEE NOTE 3 ABOVE Line a baking tray with parchment paper, and pour the batter into the tray, holding back or setting aside the onion (I used a collander). Use a spatula for spreading the batter out evenly.
5. Arrange the onion pieces evenly across the pan.
6. Combine the parmesan and the cornmeal in a small bowl and evenly sprinkle on top.
7. Drizzle a little olive oil on top to give extra flavor and crispness.
8. Bake for 60 to 90 minutes or until golden and crispy on the edges.
9. Serve warm (not hot!), cut into wedges or rectangles.
10. NOTE: if there are any pieces still too squishy, put them back in the oven for 15 minutes or until the desired doneness is achieved.

Pizza Dough

This is an easy dough recipe and, the philistine that I am, I use any flour I have, primarily all purpose. The thin crusts are my favorite, I like them with crunch!

Makes : 1 thick crust or 2 thin crusts

Time: Approx 2hrs

4 cups (520g) white flour + more as needed

2½ tsps. (14g) dry active yeast

1½ tsp salt

2 Tbsps. olive oil + more for brushing

1¼ cups warm water (105 to 110°F)

1/4 cup tomato sauce

Cheese of choice (80-100g)

Toppings of choice 

1. Use some of the water (the ¼ cup is fine) to dissolve the yeast.
2. If using a mixer, combine all the ingredients. With a dough attachment, turn on the machine to medium-low speed (Kitchen Aid = 2) 
3. Let rest 2 min then mix another 30 secs.
4. Remove and hand knead on a floured surface for at least 4 mins. NOTE also cover with flour before starting to knead. The dough is sticky! It will absorb the flour on the board, so add more flour to the board as it becomes too sticky.
5. If mixing by hand, on a board or the counter, make a mound of flour, sprinkle on the salt, create a bowl in the center of the flour mound, and start adding the oil, water and dissolved yeast, combining with your fingers. 
6. As when making pasta, the dough is sticky! It will absorb the flour on the board, so add more flour to the board as it continues to stick to your hands. BUT keep in mind that the more flour you add, the tougher the dough will be. Otherwise, it will be quite sticky to start but should become whole feel like slightly tacky ball of dough. Knead for about 4 minutes.
7. Oil a bowl and put the dough in to rise. Cover with a damp cloth. Let rise for 1½ hours in a warm draft-free place.
8. Put a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500°F for 30 mins (if no stone use a cast iron frying pan as preheat-sink and place dough on top of heated cast iron pan).
9. While the oven and pizza stone are heating up, spread out dough by hand. 
10. Use a fork to pierce the dough all over.
11. Brush with olive oil, all the way to the edges.
12. Put the toppings on, and sprinkle very lightly a little salt all around the oiled edges.
13. Turn down the temperature to 425°F and cook for 20 mins OR until the edges start to brown (note that the dough will cook another 5 on the counter as it cools).
14. Let cool on rack or perforated pizza pan.

Apple Cinnamon Bread

THE BREAD

1½ cups apple sauce, drained in a sieve of extra moisture before measuring (390g)

¼ cup/4Tbsps (2oz/58gr) melted butter 

½ cup sugar (110gr)

½ cup (4.5oz/125gr) Brown Sugar (packed)

2 eggs

1 + ½ tsp ground cinnamon 

1½ cups (7.7oz/220gr) flour

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp cloves

STREUSEL TOPPING

¼ cup (32g) flour

¼ cup (62g) Brown Sugar (packed)

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

1½ Tbsps. (23g) melted butter

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. 
2. Sieve any extra moisture from the apple sauce before measuring the 1½ cup.
3. Melt the butter and whisk into the apple sauce
4. Add the sugars and then whisk in the eggs.
5. Without stirring, add the flour, cinnamon. salt, baking soda and cloves.
6. With a wooden spoon mix the batter just until combined.
7. Grease a bread pan with butter and pour in the batter.
8. In a small bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar and and cinnamon until evenly combined. Rub in the butter.
9. Sprinkle the streusel on top of the batter.
10. Bake for 1 hour or until a knife comes out clean.

Flour Tortillas

These of course go really well with Refried Beans, Ensalada de Col, Red Rice, Chocolate Chilli, or Black Bean Chilli, sour cream, cheese and, oh, anything else that would make a good burrito or enchilada. You can make the dough well in advance and refrigerate before you're ready to use it. 

3⅓ cups (460g) white flour 

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

⅓ cup (67g) neutral vegetable oil or lard

Up to 1 cup warm water

1. Combine the dry ingredients, then make a well in the center and add the oil and up to ¾ of the water. Stir well until all dry ingredients are incorporated and the dough begins to come together to form a shaggy ball. Add some more water if it seems like it isn't sticking together.
2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 1 to 2 minutes or until the dough is nice and smooth. 
3. Divide into 16 equal portions (about 50gr) and form each piece into a ball. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes (or as much as 2 hours).
4. When ready to cook the dough, heat a large pan over medium heat. 
5. On a floured surface roll each dough piece into a rough circle, about 7 to 8" inches in diameter (don’t stack uncooked tortillas on top of each other or they will stick together).
6. When the pan is hot, place one dough circle into the pan and allow to cook 45 seconds to 1 minute or until the bottom surface has a few pale brown spots and the uncooked surface is bubbly. If browning too fast, reduce the heat a bit. If it’s taking longer than a minute to see a few pale golden brown spots on the underside of tortillas, increase the heat a bit. Flip to other side and cook for 15-20 seconds. The tortillas should be nice and soft but have a few small brown spots on the surface. Sometimes they will puff up, don't worry, they'll be delicious.
7. Cover with a towel and keep warm until ready to serve. Easily saved and re-heated on a dry pan until soft again.

Soda Bread with Caraway Seeds

3 1⁄2 cups flour (535g)

1⁄2 cup sugar (100g)

1⁄2 tsp baking soda

2 tsps. baking powder

2 tsps. salt

2 Tbsps. caraway seeds

2 cups sour cream or yogurt 3.5%

2 eggs

Optional : 

1cup (2.5oz) sharp cheddar

3⁄4 cup raisins

1. Preheated the oven to 350ºF.
2. Combine dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. In a small bowl beat eggs and stir in sour cream.
4. Add the egg mixture optional ingredients, if using, to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon.
5. Batter will be very thick and sticky.
6. Place batter in a greased 9 inch spring form pan.
7. If you find the dough too sticky, you can dust the top with enough flour so that you can pat the batter like a bread dough evenly in the pan without it sticking to your hands.
8. With a knife make a shallow crisscross on the top.
9. Bake for 50 minutes.

Straightforward Cornbread

A very simple and good version where I can dial down the sweet for savory and dial it back up for desert applications (buttered and slathered with maple syrup, oh my!).

1 cup milk (250g)

6 Tbsps (3oz/84 gr) melted fat (butter, lard, olive oil, whatever)

2 large eggs

1¼ cups (210g) cornmeal 

1¼ cup (180g) flour

2 Tbsps to ⅓ cup sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1. Heat oven to 400°F.
2. Grease bottom and side of a round cake pan or line with parchment paper.
3. Whisk the milk, butter and eggs in large bowl.
4. Plop in the remaining ingredients all at once and stir just until the flour is moistened (the batter will be lumpy).
5. Pour it into the pan.
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and it passes the toothpick test.
7. Cut into wedges and serve.

Same-Day Commons Bread

I love this bread. It's a variation on another bread recipe I quite like, what I like to call the Commons Bread, but this version is much quicker and makes loaf-type bread.

1 slice = 80g

~174 calories per slice

SLOW

Experience cook 4 hours

Novice cook 4 hours

3 cups flour (450gr)

¼ tsp instant yeast (yes, really, that's all!)

1¼ tsps salt (12gr)

1½ cups water at 125 to 130°F

1. Mix the flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the hot (this is key) water to blend - dough should be a bit wet, add water if it looks too dry. What you’re looking for is wet, shaggy, sticky dough, but not so wet as to be batter. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and let it rest in a warm place for 3 hours. It’s ready for the next step when the surface is dotted with bubbles. It is crucial that the dough be kept warm, otherwise the little bit of yeast won't be able to propagate in your dough - if you don't have a warm place, put in the cold oven and turn on the light; this should keep it plenty warm to rise. Conversely, wait until you see the tell-tale dotted and bubbled surface before moving to the next step.
2. On a clean board, turn out the dough. With a dough scraper slathered with oil, lift and turn the dough 12 times. Then, using the scraper, flatten the dough into a ½" thick rectangle on your board. Lift and folder over first ⅓ of the dough towards the middle, then the opposite ⅓ on top of the first. With the scraper, lift the ends and fold them onto each other to form a ball. You'll likely need to oil the scraper again, and then lift the ball onto waxed or oiled parchment paper and set into a cold bread pan.
3. Once the dough in its pan, cover with a damp tea towel and set on top of the stove. Let rise for 30 minutes. The heat from the warming oven will help with this final rise. Heat the oven to 450°F. Heat with an empty bread pan in the oven. 
4. After the 30 minute rise, turn the dough into the hot bread pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Makes about 850gr.

Cornmeal Spoon Cakes

These are delicious little pancakes we use to scoop up chilli or bean stews (or we just eat them on their own). I usually use polenta-style cornmeal, which is a bit coarser than cornmeal typically used to make cornbread. This means that cooking it in the boiling water becomes very important to avoid crunchy cakes!

¾ cups (120g/4.2oz) cornmeal
½ cup boiling water
1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) butter
½ cup (75g) flour
1½ Tbsps sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
¾ cups milk
1 egg, beaten

1. Cook the cornmeal in the boiling water with the butter over low heat for 5-10 minutes.
2. Stir in the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and beat with a wooden spoon until well incorporated. It's important at the stage to be thorough and break down the cornmeal into small particles covered in the flour mixture; this will make adding the milk and eggs to make a smooth batter so much easier.
3. Mix in the milk and beaten egg and beat with a wooden spoon until the big lumps are gone. You can probably use a whisk since the batter should be pretty liquid. To tell the truth, I've made this with lumps in and you can't tell from the finished product.
4. Heat a griddle or pan over medium heat for 5 minutes before putting anything in it.
5. Add a bit of oil or fat and swirl around to cover the bottom of the pan, then drop soup spoons full of batter onto the griddle (you can fit 5 if you're careful) and cook until the edges are dry.
6. Flip and cook again until brown, set aside in a warm oven while repeating the process with the rest of the batter.

Skillet Cheese Biscuits

There's something wonderfully rustic about baking in a cast-iron pan on the stove-top. I suppose you have to enjoy crust, and with these babies, the crust contains crunchy bits of toasted cheese. It's a finicky pastry, because the temperature has to be well matched to the amount of time it takes to bake, or the pastry over-browns or, at worst, burns. Since the timing is so short it depends on the individual stove being used, so err on the side of caution and for your first try, set your stove to a lower temperature than you normally would.

1⅔ cup flour
2 Tbsps baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup (2oz/58gr) cold butter cut into cubes
1 egg
¾ cup milk or buttermilk or yogurt
1 cup (3oz) grated Parmesan

1. Mix together dry ingredients
2. Add the butter pieces and pinch with your fingers to create a crumb texture. The secret is to have small globules of butter throughout the dough; really cold butter helps with this.
3. Make a well in the middle and crack in the egg - lightly whisk the egg in the well, add the milk and finally mix everything with a wooden spoon just until combined; try not to overwork the dough. It will be quite sticky.
4. Liberally butter an 8 to 10" cast-iron pan. Spread the dough over the bottom. Make cuts in the raw dough to form 8 wedges (tricky 'cause the dough is sticky). Turn on the heat to medium (or lower) and cover. After 5 minutes shake the pan to check if the dough is cooked enough to be unstuck and shifts along the bottom. If it does, gently lift to see if it has browned enough underneath and, if not, leave until it turns nicely golden. Flip and cook another 5 minutes. This part can be tricky - to flip, if your pan has rounded sides, you might be able to slide the biscuits onto a plate to flip it over into the pan or; try using two broad spatulas to lift onto a plate and do the same as above.
5. Again, test the biscuits by shaking the pan to see if it moves, and then gently lift to check the browning. If it's to your liking, turn the biscuits out onto a wire rack and allow to cool, at least long enough to handle, then break apart along the cut lines.

Staffordshire(ish) Oat Cakes

Plain old oats, you say? Nay, I reply! The I make them, these make the most surprisingly light, lacy crepes with just a little sponginess in the middle and a lovely chewy/crispy edge. You can also increase the amount of batter you use per cake to make a thicker galette, which is more usual. While traditionally eaten with eggs and sausage, or peanut butter and jam - which I recommend - they are also a delight with Indian or Ethiopian food, used like an injera bread to scoop up the saucy delicacies and eat with your hands.

1 cup (115g) oat flour (in Scotland = fine oatmeal) 
½ cup (75g) whole wheat flour 
½ cup (75g) white flour 
1¼ tsp (6g) dry active yeast 
1 tsp (8g) salt 
Warm Water half and half water and milk at no more than 110°F and no less than 105°F. How much you ask? It depends on texture. Prepare 3½ cups, but see Step 3 to see how much should go in.
vegetable oil or lard for frying

1. Thoroughly mix together the three flours, yeast and salt in a bowl.
2. Heat the water.
3. Make a well in the center of the mixture and slowly stream in the water/milk mixture, stirring well with a wooden spoon, until the batter is well combined and is the consistency of thick double cream. (NOTE: You may not need to use all of the water; a batter that is too wet won't cook evenly, leaving you with soggy centers.)
4. Cover the batter with a damp, clean tea towel and set aside for 1 hour to 4 hours, to allow the gluten in the batter to develop.
5. To cook, heat one teaspoon of oil or lard in a frying pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add a ladleful (⅓ cup) of the batter mixture and swirl the pan to coat the bottom of it in a thin layer.
6. Fry the oatcake for 1 to 3 minutes (for me it's 2 minutes at setting 7), or until golden brown. The edges will start to curl up when it just starts to colour.
7. Flip the oatcake and fry again, or until golden-brown on the second side.
8. Set the oatcake aside on a warm plate and keep covered, add a little oil to the pan and repeat until you've used up the batter.

Pumpkin Bread

We've had a bumper crop of pumpkins this year, and I've been working on ways of using it. As hard as it is to believe, there's only so much pumpkin pie one can eat! Actually, I felt a little Harry Potter-ish looking and trying pumpkin recipes. Well, not actually like Harry Potter, since he and the wizards didn't really do anything so useful as cook, being too busy saving the world, la-dee-dah! I suppose I'm more like the house elves. Hopefully you'll find this recipe magically delectable.

¼ cup (2oz/58gr) melted butter 

1½ cups (372g) mashed baked pumpkin
1 cup (7.1oz/200gr) sugar
2 eggs
1½ cups (8oz/225g) flour
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.
2. Melt the butter and set it aside to cool a little. If you add it to the eggs too soon you'll get scrambled eggs!
3. In a medium sized bowl mix the pumpkin, sugar and the eggs together until you get a smooth consistency (it's ok if there are little chunks of pumpkin.
4. In a large bowl blend together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves.
5. Pour the butter into the wet ingredients, mix it in, and then dump the wet mixture into the flour, and lightly mix, only until evenly combined. Like cake, over mixing activates the gluten in the flour and makes for a tougher texture.
6. Grease a loaf pan and pour in the dough.
7. Bake for 1 hour or until a knife comes out clean.

Popovers

(NOTE: This recipe stopped working. I posted it before I had established my testing methodology, so it's now in the recipe development blog, the Experimental Mouffette. Things are going very well, it has been improved, has passed the first testing phases, and should be updated, here, shortly).

I have recently rediscovered the joy of popovers. These were never standard fare growing up. In fact, the first time I'd had them was in my mid-twenties at a friend's country place in McDonald's Corners near Perth, Ontario. Baked in a gas oven with home-made crabapple jelly (which I'd made), they were a revelation. A few days ago, realizing that my repertoire of breakfast foods was sadly under-developed, I mixed a batch from a recipe I found in the good-old Moosewood cookbook. This time, right after taking them out of the oven, I stuffed a few squares of dark chocolate into the pastry's hollow, covered it with parchment paper and waited a few minutes. The chocolate melted beautifully and I had a gooey, chocolatey treat to eat. The recipe below is mostly from Moosewood, with a few minor alterations.

But the popover has raised some questions - can it be stuffed? Can it act as a receptacle for savory foods? Would it be good flavored with, say, fruit juice, or herbs? My investigation is just beginning.

I think I'm onto somethine, if not new, at least tasty. While searching for popover recipes on-line, I found a restaurant review for something in Amherst, MA in the U.S. called Judy's, where the signature element in many of the dishes is the humble popover.

In the meantime, here's what is, so far, my favorite popover recipe.

NOTE: put ramikins or muffin tins in oven to heat before starting your mix. This can be done at least 5 minutes before pouring in the batter.

4 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

½ tsp salt

2 Tbsps (28gr) butter + more for buttering the tins

1. Pre-heat the oven to 425°F.
2. Melt the butter and allow to cool a bit.
3. Warm the milk a bit (microwave for 30 secs).
4. Whisk together the butter and warm milk, add the eggs and, when uniform, add the flour and salt; continue to whisk until it's a lovely smooth consistency.
5. When the oven reaches 425°F, put a little pat of butter in each muffin tin (about 1⁄4 tsp or less) and pop in the oven. It's important that the tin be super hot when you pour in the mix.
6. Work quickly for this part; take muffin tin out of the oven and quickly swirl the now-melted butter around until the bottom 2⁄3 of the containers are covered with butter (this is less of an issue for non-stick tins). With a 1⁄4 cup measure, distribute the batter among the tins (I use a muffin tin with 12 cups) and pop back into the oven.
7. Bake for 25 minutes; then bake for another 10 minutes at 325°F. Serve immediately with butter and jam or, stuff into the middle a square of chocolate - it will melt.

Originally published Sunday, April 4, 2010

Commons Bread

When my mother introduced brown bread to the family diet, she started something. I've eaten all sorts of different kinds of breads, some baked in outdoor rustic wood-fired ovens, some baked by my grandmother in her conventional electric oven (when she baked her 'pain de ménage'), from different kinds of grains, some herbed, some sweetened, baguette, olive oil, you name it. Never, ever would I have imagined that amazing bread could be made at home with a minimum of effort. This is a strange recipe. If you decide to try it, and I recommend that you do, follow the instructions to the letter, no matter how odd or wrong they appear to be. You'll end up with a beautiful, rustic round of bread with a crisp crust and a pleasantly chewy sponge. The only down side, and in my opinion it is a minor one, is that it takes 12-24 hours to make, because the dough needs so much time to rise. The wait is well worth it!
You can also leave the dough for an additional 24 hours and it will develop a sourdough flavour.
I originally called this my Wonder Bread, but I've changed the name to Commons Bread, in honour of reclaiming the commons for the people, to live a happy, really real, sustainable life. Bread, as a basic food, is a great place to start simplifying and making available to everyone the ability to make good, sustaining, satifying and nutritious food. Vive la Révolution! :)

ADDENDUM: turns out bread is far more interesting, versatile and sensitive than I ever thought. I'm starting some experiments that may change/clarify this recipe or create brand new ones. I'll save my notes here.

ADDADDENDUM: I have been making this bread in a much simpler format. Turns out that water temperature is a major factor, and it's possible to have same-day results within 4 hours instead of 24. This quicker version is available here.

ADDADDADDENDUM: I suspect size and shape of bowl is important. For some reason my bread hadn't been as lofty as it sometimes has been and I couldn't figure out why. I'm still not sure, but I've switched bowls. I had been doubling the recipe in a larger bowl but recently it's only been the two of us, so I went back to making just one loaf at a time. I made one in the large bowl I was using to mix the dough for two loaves and the bread came out more flat and dense than I would like. I randomly thought it was silly to dirty a large bowl so I went down a size. My next three loaves, all done singly and several days apart, have been gorgeously lofty with lots of bubbles inside and with that lovely soft, custardy texture I like so much about this bread. I'll have to see if I can figure out the dimensions of this bowl.

1 slice = 80g

~174 calories per slice

SLOW

Experience cook 4 hours

Novice cook 4 hours

3 cups flour (450gr)
¼ tsp instant yeast (yes, really, that's all!)
1¼ tsps salt (12gr)

2 cups water (can substitute 1 cup water with 1 cup liquid whey from strained yogurt)
Your Options: Cornmeal, wheat bran, or extra flour, as needed

1. Mix the flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the water to blend (see NOTE). What you’ll have is wet, shaggy, sticky dough, but not so wet as to be batter. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let it rest in a warm place for at least 12, and up to 24, hours. It’s ready for the next step when the surface is dotted with bubbles. It is crucial that the dough be kept warm, otherwise the little bit of yeast won't be able to proliferate in your dough - if you don't have a warm place, put in the cold oven and turn on the light; this should keep it plenty warm to rise.
2. Flour a work surface and dump the bread out onto it. Sprinkle over a little more flour and fold it once or twice. Upturn the bowl it was rising in over it and let rest 15 minutes.
3. Using only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers, shape the dough into a ball. Sprinkle some flour onto a piece of parchment paper, and lay the dough on it, seam side down, and dust with more flour. Cover again with the upturned bowl and let rise, again being mindful of the temperature it's in, for about 2 hours. When ready, the dough will be more than double in size.
4. Heat the oven to 450°F\230°C. Put an 8-quart/2-litre cast iron pot or Dutch oven (cocotte) inside to heat. When the dough is ready, remove the pot from the oven, turn the dough into it, seam-side up (The parchment paper makes this pretty easy). Shake the pan to settle the bread evenly. Cover with the lid, and bake 30 minutes. Remove the lid, and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until the loaf is nicely browned. Cool on a rack.

NOTE: When I mix my dough, I add 1 cup of water and blend that in, then start to add water averaging about a half cup. We live at sea-level next to the ocean in a temperate rain forest, and when the humidity is high, I needs up to a quarter of a cup less water - my marker that I have enough water is simply when all the flour has been taken up into the dough.

Originally published Monday, April 5, 2010

Zucchini Bread with Walnuts and Chocolate Chips

This passed the Ben test in only two tries (this being the second). I usually keep recipes on the Experimental Mouffette blog until I've perfected them (to Ben's liking) and then until I can reproduce them three times. This got such a high reading on the Ben-O-Metre that it got a photograph, so I figure, it's ready to share. It makes quite a heavy loaf, and the crumb is super moist. The walnuts and chocolate chips are just suggestions. You can omit them or substitute them with whatever you like.

⅓ cup (2.67oz/76gr) melted butter and grape seed oil (fill a little less than ¼ of the measuring cup with melted butter and top it off with the oil)
1½ cups flour
3⁄4 cup sugar
2¼ tsps baking powder (or 1 Tbsp.)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ cup (2 oz) walnuts, chopped
½ cup (3 to 3.5 oz) chocolate chips
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1½ cups (9 oz) shredded zucchini

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Melt the butter. Butter a 8½" by 4½" loaf pan. 
2. In large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, walnuts and chocolate chips.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter and oil, and the vanilla. 
4. Add the grated zucchini to the flour mixture and mix thoroughly, until the zucchini pieces are separated and covered in flour.
5. Now, add the wet ingredients and mix only just until well combined, and no more (the more you stir, the tougher the crumb of the cake will be).
6. Pour the batter into the buttered loaf pan. Bake 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. 
7. Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack for about 10 to 20 minutes before popping it out of the pan. Once the loaf is removed from the pan, let it cool completely, still on the wire rack.

Decadent Corn Bread

This is not for the faint of heart... or with heart conditions. It is such a rich, silky cornbread, filled with cheese and butter! Just amazing, and packed with calories.

1 cup (8oz/225gr) butter, melted
½ cup white sugar
4 eggs
1¼ cups (10oz) cream-style corn
½ cup corn kernels
½ cup (4oz) chopped pickled chile peppers
½ cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
½ cup grated Cheddar cheese
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
4 tsps baking powder
¼ tsp salt

1. Set oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a 9x13" baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the melted butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in cream corn, corn kernels, chiles, Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to corn mixture; stir until smooth. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean.

Multigrain Bread

I think I may have found my ideal multigrain bread recipe. The combination of the reconstituted whole grain meal and flax seeds makes it moist and flavorful - I wonder if I could make a delicious, high fiber bread pudding with it? That is, if it lasts long enough to be old enough to use!

1 1⁄4 cups multi-grain hot cereal mix

2½ cups boiling water

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting work surface

1½ cups whole wheat flour

4 Tbsps maple syrup (or honey)

1⁄4 cup (2oz/58gr) butter, melted and cooled slightly

2½ tsps instant yeast

1 Tbsps salt

½ cup raw sunflower seeds

1⁄4 cup flax seeds

½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats or quick oats

1. Combine cereal mix in bowl of standing mixer and boiling water in your main mixing bowl; let stand, stirring occasionally, until the mixture cools to about 100°F and resembles thick porridge, under 1 hour.
2. Whisk the flours together in a medium bowl.
3. Once the cereal has cooled, add the maple syrup, the melted butter, and the yeast and stir to combine until it forms a ragged ball covered in dry flour. Pour everything out onto a clean surface and knead - the dough will still be quite sticky, but keep kneading until all the flour has been taken up and dough is just clammy and firm. Return the ball to the mixing bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rest 20 minutes.
4. Combine the seeds and pour onto your work surface, as if you were spreading flour. Turn the dough onto the seeds, sprinkle it with the salt, and knead for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the seeds and salt are all taken up by the dough and well distributed throughout, the dough becomes a taut ball, and it springs back when you pinch it.
5. Grease a large bowl and place dough inside; cover ant let rise until doubled, from 45 to 60 minutes.
6. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat to 375°F. Grease two 9 by 5-inch loaf pans. Transfer the dough to a very lightly floured work surface and pat into a 12 by 9-inch rectangle; cut the dough in half, roll each piece to make a 9" long log and roll in the oats OR to make buns, divide the dough into either 9 or 16 equally-sized pieces and wedge together in a 9x9 inch pan. Cover again with well dampened cloth and let it rise until it doubles in size, about 30-40 minutes. Bake until the internal temperature registers 200°F on an instant-read thermometer, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the loaves from the pans and allow to cool on wire racks before slicing, about 3 hours.

Source recipe: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=7535

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I'd been looking for a good recipe for whole wheat bread, and I think I found it. Whole wheat bread recipes tended to taste too strongly of whole wheat and be more dense than I like, and thanks to http://www.cooksillustrated.com/, I think I've figured out why and, also found out what bread dough should feel like. More in the Instructions for the recipe on that! I've made a few changes to their recipe and am really pleased with the result.
NOTE: It is pretty sweet. I reduced the 3 Tbsps. of syrup to only 2.

2 1⁄4 cups bread flour, plus extra for work surface

1 1⁄3 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsps salt

2 Tbsps (1oz/28gr) butter

1 cup milk

1⁄3 cup water

2 Tbsps maple syrup (or honey, or agave syrup)

2 1⁄4 tsps dry active yeast 

1. Adjust oven rack to low position and heat oven to 200°F. Once oven temperature reaches 200°F, maintain heat 10 minutes, then turn off oven heat.
2. Mix flours and salt in a large bowl and create a well in the middle. In a pot, melt butter, add milk, water, and maple syrup and heat to 110°F. Remove from heat immediately and allow to cool - the pot will continue to heat the liquid, and you want it to be no greater than 110F or it will kill the yeast. Pour the 110°F liquid into the well, then add yeast to the liquid. With a wooden spoon, start mixing the flour and the liquid/yeast together. When it thickens, use hands to combine everything. Now this is important: the dough will be quite sticky to start - just rub your hands together to get the dough off and keep kneading in the bowl. Once in coalesces into a ball, pour out any remaining flour from the bowl onto your work surface, and keep kneading the dough to incorporate it all. And this is my real discovery about making bread - do not add more flour than this or the bread will be tough. Just knead the bread until it stops feeling sticky, and starts to feel smooth, slightly warm and damp, like someone whose palms are sweaty. If the ball feels dry and floury, then you've used too much flour. Another test is to lightly pinch the dough, and if it bounces back, it's done. Kneading should take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Place dough in a very lightly oiled bowl, rubbing dough around bowl to lightly coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap OR a (very) damp cloth; place in the warm oven until the dough doubles in size, 40 to 50 minutes.
4. Form the dough into a loaf by gently pressing the dough into a rectangle, one inch thick and no wider than the length of the loaf pan. Next, roll the dough firmly into a cylinder, pressing with your fingers to make sure the dough sticks to itself. Turn the dough seam side up and pinch it closed. Place the dough in a greased 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan and press gently so dough touches all four sides of pan.
5. Cover with plastic wrap OR (very) damp cloth; set aside in a warm spot until the dough almost doubles in size, 40 minutes. Heat the oven to 350°F, placing an empty loaf pan on the bottom rack. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.
6. Remove the plastic wrap/cloth from the loaf pan. Place the pan in the oven, also pouring heated water into the empty loaf pan; close the oven door. Bake until instant-read thermometer inserted at an angle from the short end just above the pan rim into the center of the loaf reads 195°F, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan, transfer to a wire rack, and cool to room temperature. Slice and serve.

Ciabatta Bread

This is my first attempt at making Ciabatta and, although the result was good, the original instructions were not very good, and I'd like to experiment with other recipes, just for fun. This is one of these recipes that take a long time! I didn't read the instructions carefully and missed the fact that the bread had to rise a second time for 90 minutes, and I was making the bread for a sandwich for a birthday party we were going to, and I barely had time to make it! But I persisted, just because I said I was going to make it and I would not have been satisfied with just buying something, and even though I panicked I was able to make it with, literally, 5 minutes to spare!

Biga (starter)

1⁄4 tsp instant dry yeast

1 cup water, at body temperature

1 1⁄4 cups flour

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water.
2. Mix in flour by hand and stir just until there are no lumps. The mixture will be very wet and sticky.
3. Cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.

Bread

1 tsp instant dry yeast

3 Tbsps milk, at room temperature

2⁄3 cup water, at body temperature

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 1⁄3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1⁄2 tsp sea salt

cornmeal, for baking tray

1. Stir the yeast and warm milk together in the bottom of the bowl of a standup mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the warm water, oil, and the starter, and mix with the paddle until blended (or the dough can be mixed by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon but be forewarned, it is very sticky).
2. Switch to the dough hook and add flour and salt, kneading on low speed for 2 minutes, then, increasing to next speed up, knead for 3 minutes. Slap the dough with your hand in the bowl, until it feels stretchy and springs back (it will be too sticky to knead on a work surface).
3. Place dough into an oiled bowl, cover bowl with plastic and set in a draft-free, warm area to rise for about 90 minutes. The dough should have lots of big air bubbles visible when ready.
4. Measure out parchment paper that will fit into a large baking tray and liberally and evenly sprinkle with cornmeal (do not put in baking tray yet - the baking tray has to heat up in the oven before putting the bread on). Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and roll up into a cylinder (like you would for a loaf or bread), but then stretch and pull the flexible dough into a rectangle about 20 inches by 8 inches. Cut dough in half and place each on parchment-lined baking tray. Cover loaves gently with a slightly damp tea towel and let rise another 90 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 425°F and place a baking tray upside down in oven to heat. Remove the hot tray from the oven, and slide the parchment with the bread onto hot tray and return to the oven quickly. Spray tops of loaves with a little water, close oven quickly and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, spraying again with water after 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the tray to cool before tearing or slicing.

Whole Wheat Flat Bread

We keep buying whole wheat flour when we intend on buying plain unbleached white. This means I'm always looking for things to make with whole wheat flour just to use it up! At some point this week, I saw that we had containers of hummous and tapenade and such from an evening a while back, on the verge of going bad. I'd also just come back from work and I didn't feel like going on to get pocket bread to eat the stuff. Light-bulb flash: I decided to make some mini pocket bread. They're quick to make and, served hot out of the oven, they are delightful.

2 cup whole wheat flour – well sifted

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp olive oil

Scant 1 cup hot water

1. Dump all the ingredients in a bowl and mix, then knead the dough until smooth, adding flour until it no longer sticks to your fingers. Let it rest for 30 minutes, covered and away from drafts.
2. Roll out the dough to a 1⁄4 inch or less and then cut out circles with a glass or cookie cutter or pat the circles into shape.
3. Bake at 350°F until they puff up and start to brown, around 25 to 30 minutes.