Okay, before you do anything else, go check your yeast. Because if you, like me, tend to neglect the use-by date on yeast packages, you, like me, may get burned with flat bread. It turns out the two-year-old yeast doesn't rise, not at all. And so the first time I made this bread, it turned out to be, well, a brick.
But the second time (this time with fresh yeast) turned out very well indeed. And so here's the recipe. It produces a light, very-faintly-sweet loaf, with a crunchy crust and gorgeous soft crumb. Plus, like all homemade breads, it smells divine while it's cooking. That might be my favorite part of breadmaking: the smell. Sure, it takes a little elbow-grease for the kneading, but when your house smells like bread for the next three days, you tend to forget the effort involved. Just remember to check on the yeast before you start.
Honey Oatmeal Bread
2 cups boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons salt
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (I used the extra-active variety. If you use regular, double all the rising times I give here.)
4 cups bread flour plus extra for kneading
In a large mixing bowl, combine boiling water, oats, honey, butter and salt. Let stand for 15-20 minutes, then add the extra-active yeast. Add 2 cups of flour; mix well. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 20 minutes. If you're like me, the dough may still be sticky at the beginning of this kneading process. Just keep adding flour as you knead until it stops sticking to everything that touches it, and achieves a proper bread-dough texture. It'll get there eventually. My loaves took anywhere from an additional 1/2 cup of flour to 1 1/2 cups.
Spray cooking spray over a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and cover it with a damp towel. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in volume. I used my oven for this purpose: use turn it on to as low as it will go, and turn it off again once it hits 150F or so. It will cool down a little, and this will give you a warm dark place for your dough to do its rising in peace. My dough took about 40 minutes for this first rise.
Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Use your kitchen shears to cut the dough into two equal pieces and form loaves. Place the loaves into two lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cover them with your damp towel, stick them back in your warm place, and let rise again until they once more double in volume. Mine took 20 minutes this second time. Toward the end of this rising, go ahead and preheat oven to 375F. Obviously, you have to remove the loaves from the oven if you were using it as a rising spot to do the preheating. It won't hurt them at all, just leave them covered with the towel until you're ready to cook them.
Once they've risen, bake the bread at 375F for about 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Remove loaves from pans and sit them on a wire rack to cool before attempting to cut them. I know they smell tempting when they're hot, but they're rather fragile before they cool, and you risk squishing them if you try to cut them too early, so resist for another 15 minutes or so to give them a chance to firm up a little first.
Servings: 2 loaves, or about 20 slices
Showing posts with label breads and muffins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breads and muffins. Show all posts
Monday, October 27, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Yam Biscuits
These are light and fluffy and just the faintest hint of sweet: perfect for making biscuit sandwiches with some of the fresh roasted chicken from yesterday. Supper today was two chicken biscuits and some green beans: simple, but really good.
I think a good biscuit recipe or two is something every cook worth their salt should have under their belt, so here's one of my favorites.
Yam Biscuits
Adapted from Orangette
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbs light-brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 Tbs chilled unsalted butter
3/4 cup chilled sweet potato puree (Read: peeled, boiled, and pureed sweet potatoes. To avoid all the hassle, buy a tin of yams in the tinned foods section of your grocery store.)
1/3 cup buttermilk
In a large bowl, Start by whisking all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl: 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 2 Tbs light-brown sugar, 2 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp baking soda. Using a pastry cutter, cut in 6 Tbs chilled unsalted butter, until the whole mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-size lumps of butter remaining. In a small bowl, use the pastry cutter again to pulverize your yams into puree, then stir in the 1/3 cup buttermilk. Stir the wet ingredients quickly into the dry ingredients until combined (do not overmix). I usually do this mixing with my hands, which will get dough all over them, but which I find is gentler than electric mixers for this.
Set the oven to preheat to 425F, then turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead very gently until dough comes together. A few remaining lumps are okay, but you shouldn't see individual chunks of butter or anything. If the dough is too sticky, work in more flour, until it achieves the proper consistency. Needing to add flour is common: the dough is right when it doesn't stick to your fingers anymore. It's too wet if you're still having sticking problems. Shape the dough into a circle, and pat it to an even 1-inch thickness. With a biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Arrange the biscuits on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick baking spray (the kind that has flour in it). Once you've gotten as many biscuits out of the circle as you can, gather up the scraps and repeat the process to cut out more biscuits until you've used all the dough. I usually just give up and roll the last few into little balls then press them flat to save time.
Bake the biscuits for 20 minutes or until they turn golden. I usually turn the pan around once during the cooking time; it's not necessary but it's a nice touch. If in doubt about the biscuits' doneness, test one by opening it with a fork and examining the center. It should be moist but not doughy. If the biscuit isn't done, just stick it back together and put it in to bake for another few minutes.
Servings: 12 large biscuits, or 20 small ones
I think a good biscuit recipe or two is something every cook worth their salt should have under their belt, so here's one of my favorites.
Yam Biscuits
Adapted from Orangette
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbs light-brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 Tbs chilled unsalted butter
3/4 cup chilled sweet potato puree (Read: peeled, boiled, and pureed sweet potatoes. To avoid all the hassle, buy a tin of yams in the tinned foods section of your grocery store.)
1/3 cup buttermilk
In a large bowl, Start by whisking all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl: 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 2 Tbs light-brown sugar, 2 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp baking soda. Using a pastry cutter, cut in 6 Tbs chilled unsalted butter, until the whole mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-size lumps of butter remaining. In a small bowl, use the pastry cutter again to pulverize your yams into puree, then stir in the 1/3 cup buttermilk. Stir the wet ingredients quickly into the dry ingredients until combined (do not overmix). I usually do this mixing with my hands, which will get dough all over them, but which I find is gentler than electric mixers for this.
Set the oven to preheat to 425F, then turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead very gently until dough comes together. A few remaining lumps are okay, but you shouldn't see individual chunks of butter or anything. If the dough is too sticky, work in more flour, until it achieves the proper consistency. Needing to add flour is common: the dough is right when it doesn't stick to your fingers anymore. It's too wet if you're still having sticking problems. Shape the dough into a circle, and pat it to an even 1-inch thickness. With a biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Arrange the biscuits on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick baking spray (the kind that has flour in it). Once you've gotten as many biscuits out of the circle as you can, gather up the scraps and repeat the process to cut out more biscuits until you've used all the dough. I usually just give up and roll the last few into little balls then press them flat to save time.
Bake the biscuits for 20 minutes or until they turn golden. I usually turn the pan around once during the cooking time; it's not necessary but it's a nice touch. If in doubt about the biscuits' doneness, test one by opening it with a fork and examining the center. It should be moist but not doughy. If the biscuit isn't done, just stick it back together and put it in to bake for another few minutes.
Servings: 12 large biscuits, or 20 small ones
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Pepperjack Gougeres, BLT Style
Man, has it ever been a long time since I posted here! I'm not dead (yet), I'm just busy. And for me, busy usually means resorting to cold cuts and apples for all sorts of meals. Yesterday, I ate an apple for breakfast, a turkey sandwich for lunch, and an apple and a turkey sandwich for dinner. You've no idea how much it pains me to admit that. I hate feeling uncreative.
The good news is, last weekend I managed to find time to test a new recipe, and it turned out splendidly. It's my take on Judy Rodgers's (of Zuni fame) recipe for gougeres. What, you ask, are gougeres? They're little cheesy puff pastries, like what might happen if you took a cheese biscuit and inflated it. They're also bite-sized, which was a nice change of pace for me. I love making whole meals out of appetizers. I always find myself tempted to eat too many if the appetizer is good, so turning them into a whole meal lets me combine this tendency with my love of interactive food. Appetizers are sort of interactive, right? You can eat them with your fingers, at least.
Anyway, where normal people would eat one or two gougeres for an appetizer, I eat seven or eight for a meal. And they're fabulous done this way: cheesy little puffs stuffed with the makings of a BLT, my all-time favorite sandwich. I took Judy's excellent recipe and toyed with it (as I'm wont to do), adding a Southern twist by incorporating pepperjack cheese into the puffs. You could probably also add pimentos, and do a riff on pimento cheese with these, which I think would be both clever and tasty. Maybe I'll try that next time I get a hankering for mini-sandwiches. You could also fiddle with the stuffings for these, and turn them into just about anything you need. Ham and scrambled eggs could be added for a breakfast sandwich (Yum! They're really good this way), or fill them with whatever you've got in your pantry. I just love BLTs, and these make a great little conduit for that passion.
Pepperjack Gougeres, BLT style
For the gougere batter:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup chicken broth (I know I always say use stock, but I used broth here, because this should really only be a hint of flavor, not a whole shebang)
3 tbsp unsalted butter (use the European kind if you can get it)
1 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup Gruyere, grated
1/2 cup pepperjack cheese, grated
To stuff the gougeres:
10-12 slices bacon
8 or so leaves Romaine lettuce, washed and de-stemmed
1 pint cherry tomatoes
Preheat the oven to 400F.
In a large saucepan, bring the water, butter, and salt to a simmer over medium heat. Pour in the flour (yes, all at once) and stir with a wooden spoon or a very stiff spatula until the batter pulls away from the edges of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and let the batter cook for a few minutes, until it seems almost stiff and fairly shiny.
When it reaches the shiny stage, remove it from the heat and add an egg. Stir vigorously with the spoon or spatula until the egg is incorporated. At first, the egg will not seem to incorporate at all, but gradually, with lots of stirring, it can be coaxed into the batter to mix in completely. Have patience, and a strong stirring arm. It takes me five minutes or so of stirring to incorporate the egg. The batter will at first seem like slabs of slippery paste, but should eventually return to the sticky point once it's absorbed the egg.
Repeat this process for the other two eggs, stirring until each is completely mixed in before adding the next one. It's okay if the batter cools quite a bit during this process. Once you're done adding the eggs, season with pepper, then add all the cheese. Fold the cheese into the mix. Some of it should melt, but it's okay if you have pieces that don't. That makes it even better.
Using a large spoon, dollop the batter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, about 1 tbsp per gougere. They should come out looking like little mounds. These don't have to be perfect, pointy bits that stick off will just add a hint of crunch to them.
Bake your gougeres until they are golden-brown and and firm. In my oven, this took 30 minutes, but set your oven's timer for 20 and check them often after that so that they don't overcook. To check if they're done, remove a single gougere from the parchment and pry it open. The inside strands of dough should be tender and moist, but not mushy. If it's underdone, just stick it back together, put it back on the parchment, and bake for a few more minutes.
While the gougeres are cooking, get out a pan and your bacon. Cut the bacon strips in half, one 1/2 strip per gougere. When I'm making these to eat, I sually don't cook all the bacon at once. I only cook enough for the gougeres I'll eat at that meal, and leave the rest for when I eat the others later. Bacon always tastes best when cooked fresh. Cook the bacon in the pan over medium-high heat until crispy, turning once or twice to crisp all sides. Drain the bacon pieces on a paper towel.
Tear the lettuce into manageable pieces, about the same size as a cooked 1/2 slice of bacon. You'll want about two pieces of lettuce per gougere. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half. You'll want 3 tomato halves per gougere.
To serve the gougeres, split them down the middle with a fork. Pack in a slice of bacon, two slices of lettuce, and three tomato halves, then close the top back down on the little sandwich. These are best when warm, so you can eat them fresh from the oven, or if you're eating them later, microwave a few for 30 seconds or so to warm them back up. As I said before, I recommend cooking the bacon fresh just before you eat the gougeres, so that it tastes best.
Servings: 20-25 gougeres
The good news is, last weekend I managed to find time to test a new recipe, and it turned out splendidly. It's my take on Judy Rodgers's (of Zuni fame) recipe for gougeres. What, you ask, are gougeres? They're little cheesy puff pastries, like what might happen if you took a cheese biscuit and inflated it. They're also bite-sized, which was a nice change of pace for me. I love making whole meals out of appetizers. I always find myself tempted to eat too many if the appetizer is good, so turning them into a whole meal lets me combine this tendency with my love of interactive food. Appetizers are sort of interactive, right? You can eat them with your fingers, at least.
Anyway, where normal people would eat one or two gougeres for an appetizer, I eat seven or eight for a meal. And they're fabulous done this way: cheesy little puffs stuffed with the makings of a BLT, my all-time favorite sandwich. I took Judy's excellent recipe and toyed with it (as I'm wont to do), adding a Southern twist by incorporating pepperjack cheese into the puffs. You could probably also add pimentos, and do a riff on pimento cheese with these, which I think would be both clever and tasty. Maybe I'll try that next time I get a hankering for mini-sandwiches. You could also fiddle with the stuffings for these, and turn them into just about anything you need. Ham and scrambled eggs could be added for a breakfast sandwich (Yum! They're really good this way), or fill them with whatever you've got in your pantry. I just love BLTs, and these make a great little conduit for that passion.
Pepperjack Gougeres, BLT style
For the gougere batter:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup chicken broth (I know I always say use stock, but I used broth here, because this should really only be a hint of flavor, not a whole shebang)
3 tbsp unsalted butter (use the European kind if you can get it)
1 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup Gruyere, grated
1/2 cup pepperjack cheese, grated
To stuff the gougeres:
10-12 slices bacon
8 or so leaves Romaine lettuce, washed and de-stemmed
1 pint cherry tomatoes
Preheat the oven to 400F.
In a large saucepan, bring the water, butter, and salt to a simmer over medium heat. Pour in the flour (yes, all at once) and stir with a wooden spoon or a very stiff spatula until the batter pulls away from the edges of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and let the batter cook for a few minutes, until it seems almost stiff and fairly shiny.
When it reaches the shiny stage, remove it from the heat and add an egg. Stir vigorously with the spoon or spatula until the egg is incorporated. At first, the egg will not seem to incorporate at all, but gradually, with lots of stirring, it can be coaxed into the batter to mix in completely. Have patience, and a strong stirring arm. It takes me five minutes or so of stirring to incorporate the egg. The batter will at first seem like slabs of slippery paste, but should eventually return to the sticky point once it's absorbed the egg.
Repeat this process for the other two eggs, stirring until each is completely mixed in before adding the next one. It's okay if the batter cools quite a bit during this process. Once you're done adding the eggs, season with pepper, then add all the cheese. Fold the cheese into the mix. Some of it should melt, but it's okay if you have pieces that don't. That makes it even better.
Using a large spoon, dollop the batter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, about 1 tbsp per gougere. They should come out looking like little mounds. These don't have to be perfect, pointy bits that stick off will just add a hint of crunch to them.
Bake your gougeres until they are golden-brown and and firm. In my oven, this took 30 minutes, but set your oven's timer for 20 and check them often after that so that they don't overcook. To check if they're done, remove a single gougere from the parchment and pry it open. The inside strands of dough should be tender and moist, but not mushy. If it's underdone, just stick it back together, put it back on the parchment, and bake for a few more minutes.
While the gougeres are cooking, get out a pan and your bacon. Cut the bacon strips in half, one 1/2 strip per gougere. When I'm making these to eat, I sually don't cook all the bacon at once. I only cook enough for the gougeres I'll eat at that meal, and leave the rest for when I eat the others later. Bacon always tastes best when cooked fresh. Cook the bacon in the pan over medium-high heat until crispy, turning once or twice to crisp all sides. Drain the bacon pieces on a paper towel.
Tear the lettuce into manageable pieces, about the same size as a cooked 1/2 slice of bacon. You'll want about two pieces of lettuce per gougere. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half. You'll want 3 tomato halves per gougere.
To serve the gougeres, split them down the middle with a fork. Pack in a slice of bacon, two slices of lettuce, and three tomato halves, then close the top back down on the little sandwich. These are best when warm, so you can eat them fresh from the oven, or if you're eating them later, microwave a few for 30 seconds or so to warm them back up. As I said before, I recommend cooking the bacon fresh just before you eat the gougeres, so that it tastes best.
Servings: 20-25 gougeres
Friday, April 11, 2008
Zucchini Bread
Every summer, I plant a squash plant and a zucchini plant. One of each is plenty since it's just me and the cat at home, and then I have fresh veggies for most of the summer. The problem is that the plants often produce far more than I can reasonably use. My favorite solution to this problem is to grate the unused zucchinis or squash (Squashes? What's the plural of a squash?) in a food processor, then freeze them in 2 cup ziploc bags. This way I can make zucchini bread all winter long.
Recently, I realized that I have a lot of frozen zucchini left in my freezer, so I need to make batches of zucchini bread before the summer comes and I have fresh ones again. This is the recipe I've been using since I was about twelve, and found out what zucchini bread was. It produces a wonderfully moist loaf. I like to eat a slice with a nice cup of hot tea just before bed.
Zucchini Bread
Note: Zucchini turns out to be very wet when you grate it. When frozen, the water often leaches out during thawing, and you end up with a bunch of water and some zucchini matter at the bottom of the bag. It's fine, actually, it doesn't make a difference to the recipe, but I usually discard about half the water in the bag after thawing so that the batter doesn't get too thin. YMMV. With fresh zucchini, you don't need to worry about any of this.
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini (Or yellow squash. You can do substitutions within the squash family here)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven to 325F. Spray two 8x4 loaf pans with a non-stick baking spray (the kind that has flour in it as well as non stick spray). If you don't have a non-stick baking spray, use a regular non-stick spray, then flour the sprayed pans.
Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Beat these until they're mixed completely, then add them to the dry ingredient mixture and mix all of it until it forms a relatively smooth batter. Add in the zucchini, and stir until it gets incorporated. Add in the walnuts, and stir until those get incorporated evenly. Pour the batter into the loaf pans.
Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of a loaf comes out clean. For my oven, it takes about 55 minutes. Another test of doneness is how much a loaf falls in the center when you remove it from the oven: it may relax a little, but it shouldn't fall too much. Too much collapsing means it need a few more minutes.
When the loafs are done, remove them from the oven and let them cool for ten or so minutes. Run a knife around the edges to separate the loaf from the pan, then invert them onto a plate and reinvert them onto a cooling rack (this process means you get a loaf sitting right-side up on the rack. You can do it with two cooling racks, if you don't want to dirty a plate). Let the loaf cool for another hour or so before cutting.
These loaves freeze well, and will last almost indefinitely in the freezer.
Servings: 2 loaves
Recently, I realized that I have a lot of frozen zucchini left in my freezer, so I need to make batches of zucchini bread before the summer comes and I have fresh ones again. This is the recipe I've been using since I was about twelve, and found out what zucchini bread was. It produces a wonderfully moist loaf. I like to eat a slice with a nice cup of hot tea just before bed.
Zucchini Bread
Note: Zucchini turns out to be very wet when you grate it. When frozen, the water often leaches out during thawing, and you end up with a bunch of water and some zucchini matter at the bottom of the bag. It's fine, actually, it doesn't make a difference to the recipe, but I usually discard about half the water in the bag after thawing so that the batter doesn't get too thin. YMMV. With fresh zucchini, you don't need to worry about any of this.
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini (Or yellow squash. You can do substitutions within the squash family here)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven to 325F. Spray two 8x4 loaf pans with a non-stick baking spray (the kind that has flour in it as well as non stick spray). If you don't have a non-stick baking spray, use a regular non-stick spray, then flour the sprayed pans.
Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Beat these until they're mixed completely, then add them to the dry ingredient mixture and mix all of it until it forms a relatively smooth batter. Add in the zucchini, and stir until it gets incorporated. Add in the walnuts, and stir until those get incorporated evenly. Pour the batter into the loaf pans.
Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of a loaf comes out clean. For my oven, it takes about 55 minutes. Another test of doneness is how much a loaf falls in the center when you remove it from the oven: it may relax a little, but it shouldn't fall too much. Too much collapsing means it need a few more minutes.
When the loafs are done, remove them from the oven and let them cool for ten or so minutes. Run a knife around the edges to separate the loaf from the pan, then invert them onto a plate and reinvert them onto a cooling rack (this process means you get a loaf sitting right-side up on the rack. You can do it with two cooling racks, if you don't want to dirty a plate). Let the loaf cool for another hour or so before cutting.
These loaves freeze well, and will last almost indefinitely in the freezer.
Servings: 2 loaves
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