Old Order Amish White Bread

I needed a plain bread for every day toast and sandwiches and decided to try this recipe again with a couple of modest changes. I like the ease and the results.

Old Order Amish White Bread

 5 to 6 cups of unbleached bread  flour
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/1/2 cups quite warm water ( 120 to 130)
1/3 cup safflower oil

Measure 2 cups bread flour into bowl of stand mixer. Add yeast, sugar, salt, oil and water. Mix with spatula till blended. Add additional flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Switch to dough hook and continue to add flour till rough mass forms. This was at 5 cups for me.

Knead for 10 minutes. Put into oiled bowl, cover and let rise till doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Punch down and let rise again till doubled, about 45 minutes

Punch down, and cut into 2 pieces and shape into loaves. Put in greased bread pans, cover and let rise till about rim of pans.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn down to 350 degrees and bake another 30 minutes or so. Cool on wire racks.

Great taste plain or toasted, and lovely creamy crumb.

Pain de Campagne

I'm trying out this "rustic bread" from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Maker's Apprentice, to compare it to the Peasant bread I did last. I want to really see and taste the difference long fermentation and less yeast makes. This is the first bread recipe I've tried from this book. I also used weight measurements  instead of volume.

Day 1

Pate Fermentee

5 oz unbleached all purpose flour
5 oz unbleached bread flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp instant yeast
6 to 7 oz water at room temperature

Stir together flours, salt and yeast in a large bowl and add 6 oz of water. Mix till its a coarse ball. Add a bit more water or flour as needed to end up with a somewhat sticky ball. Knead for 4 minutes by hand. Put dough into lightly oil sprayed bowl. Cover and let rest for 1 hour or until 1 1/2 times volume.

Degas lightly, cover and refrigerate over night.

Day 2

Pain de Campagne

16 oz Pate Fermentee
8 oz unbleached bread flour
1.5 oz whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
6 oz water, lukewarm ( 90 to 100 degrees)

Remove Pate Fermentee from refrigerator 1 hour prior to making the dough. Cut into about 10 to 12 small pieces and place in bowl of stand mixer. Add flours, salt yeast and water and mix with paddle attachment till makes a coarse ball. Switch to dough hook and knead for 6 minutes.

Place in oiled bowl and let rise till double in size. Degas and let rise again.

Divide dough into 2 pieces and shape gently. Place on parchment covered baking tray. Cover and let rise till 1/1/2 times size.

Preheat oven  to 450 and place baking dish to hold water on bottom rack. When ready pour boiling water into baking dish, transfer dough and mist oven Mist again after a couple of minutes. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool on wire racks.

This bread, especially when I taste tested it against the Peasant bread was a revelation!! Crust was very crunchy and tasted carmellized. Crumb was  fairly open textured, with very complex flavours. Needed nothing except a bit of butter!!! Longer is definitely better taste wise.

Peasant Torpedo Bread

This recipe that I adapted from Bernard Clayton's new Complete Book of Breads, has a rather intriguing approach to fermentation. So we will see how the results measure up to the more traditonal approaches using much less yeast and much longer fermentation. I did this one by hand. Had to work out some frustrations!!!

Peasant Torpedo Bread

3 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
4 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 1/2 cups hot ( 120 degrees) water
2 tbsp shortening

Mix  2 cups flour, salt sugar, dry yeast with hot water in large bowl. Stir with wooden spoon or spatula till mixed.
Add shortening and stir for 2 minutes till all incorporate.

Add rest of flour, 1.2 cup at a time till all incorporated.

Knead for 10 minutes

Turn out into large bowl greased with cooking spray. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes, then punch down dough. Cover, let stand for 10 minutes and punch down again. Repeat 3 more times. Then punch down and let sit for 30 minutes or until double in size.

Form into ball shape. Let rest under a kitchen towel or plastic for 5 minutes.

Shape into torpedo and place on baking sheet covered with parchment. Score top with knife.Cover and let sit for 30 minutes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until bottom sounds hollow when taped.

Cool on wire rack.

This bread sprang more than I expected in the oven!!! Moist loose crumb and a light crust. Quite a nice bread. I would make 2 loaves in future.

Spelt Bread

Time to try a spelt bread, since I bought some spelt flour from the Grain Processor outlet shop a while ago. Hunted around for a recipe and decided to adapt one from Lauren Chattman's Bread Making book. Her recipe called for spelt flour and whole wheat, I decided to substitute unbleached bread flour because I wanted to get more of the spelt flavour. I also baked in a pan rather than making it into a batarde, since the dough seemed to be way to soft to hod the batarde shape.

Spelt Bread

Day 1

Biga

2 oz room temperature water
3 grams instant yeast
65 grams whole spelt flour

Combine in bowl using a rubber spatula till rough dough forms, making sure to incorporate all flour.
Cover with plastic and let stand 1 hour, then refrigerate for 16 hours

Day 2

Dough

12 oz water at room temperature
12 oz whole spelt flour
6 oz unbleached bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp crushed vitamin C tablet

Tear biga into pieces and place in bowl of stand mixer. Add all other ingredients and mix with rubber spatual attachment till rough dough forms. Let stand 10 minutes.

Switch to dough hook and knead dough for 8 minutes. Put dough in large bowl sprayed with cooking spray and cover and let sit till doubled, about 1 1.2 hour

Punch down and turn out on flour covered surface and cover and let sit for 20 minutes. Uncover and shape into loaf pans. Cover and let rise till over top of pans.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

 Here is a picture of the crumb texture. It smelled so good I forgot to take a picture of my loaf before I was tempted to cut off the end and try it! Complex flavour, very soft and yummie.

Cassava Cake

I picked up some cassava root recently since its something I've never used in cooking. Since I'm into experimenting, it was time to find out how to use this root. I found that it is also called yucca and it is part of the tapioca family, so a starch. A number or south Asian cuisines make it into a cake, so cake it is!! More like a custard cake.

Cassava Cake

2 cups peeled grated cassava
3 eggs beaten
1 can  evaporated milk
1 can  sweetened condensed milk
1 can coconut milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix all ingredients till thoroughly combined and pour into baking dish.

Bake for 1 hour. Cool completely in refrigerator before serving.

Very tasty, with a hint of coconut. Bit chewy from the cassava root. I served it with a tropical fruit salad.

Rustic Bread

It was about time to use the Biga Preferment that I put in the freezer. It was left over from making Ciabatta.
This time I wanted to try a "Rustic Loaf", from Peter Reinhart's Crust amd Crumb. I followed his recipe but not exactly. Here is what mine consisted of.

Day 1

Remove Biga from freezer and leave overnight in refrigerator

Day 2

Rustic Loaf

16 oz Biga pre-ferment ( take out of refrigerator 1 hour before mixing dough)
16 oz unbleached bread flour
1.5 oz sugar
0.5 oz slat
1/2 tsp instant yeast
4 oz milk at room temperature
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup cool water

Combine all ingredients in bowl of stand mixer and mix at low speed with paddle attachment for about 1 minute. Switch to dough hook and mix for another 8 minutes.

Put dough in large bowl sprayed with cooking spray, cover and let let  rise for 1/ 1/2 hours ( It should have been 4 hours but I did not have enough time for that)

Turn our dough on floured cloth, punch down and cut into 2 pieces. Shape pieces into rounds. Cover and let sit for 1 1/2 hour

Prepare baking sheets with parchment. Shape into long oval. Put each loaf on a parchment sheet, and pace both on one baking tray Pull up parchment in middle so loaves are almost touching and support parchment on other side with rolled up towels.  

Leave to rise another 1 1/2 hours. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Put pan with boiling water on lowest tray in oven. Put in loaves and spray loaves and oven with water. Repeat after 2 and and after 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 425 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.

Turn off oven and leave loaves for another 10 minutes or so.

Cool on wire racks.

Quite yummie! Great crispy crust with lots of tang. Nice crumb, but not as big as it should be, but quite chewy. Next time I will try to do the full fermenting time ans see the difference that makes.

Rye Sourdough with Cumin

Its been a while since I've had a chance to make bread due to Mom's care issues, but I did manage to squeeze this one in. I did the kneading by hand. I needed to work some frustrations out!

Rye Sourdough with Cumin

Day Before Starter

1.4 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup rye flour
1/4 cup water at room temperature

Mix starter with flour and water. Cover and let stand overnight

Dough

1 1/2 to 2 cups unbleached bread flour
1/2 cup rye flour
1 cup water at room temperature
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin

Mix 1 1/2 cup bread flour plus all the rest of the  ingredients and add starter. Knead for 8 minutes adding a bit of bread flour as needed. Dough will feel sticky

Place in bowl sprayed with cooking spray, cover and let stand till double in size, about 90 minutes or so.

Punch down dough, shape and place in greased bread pan. Cover and let stand till to top of bread pan, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat oven to  400 degrees. Bake about 35 to 45 minutes.

Cool on wire rack.

This dough took longer to rise than anticipated and then felt too soft to rise properly. Note there is no curved top . Tasty but I think sourdough (at least this starter) is not worth my trouble! I did like the touch of cumin.

Refresh Sourdough

I almost for got that I have to feed my Sourdough Starter today. Better late than never.

Refresh Sourdough

Throw out half of mixture.

Add 1/2 cup unbleached bread flour

2 tsp rye flour

1/4 cup water

Mix together and let stand 1 hour. Refrigerate till ready to use.

Sourdough Millet Bread

I had bought some millet flour a while ago when I went to the Grain Processors Warehouse in Scarborough in December, and I've been hunting for a recipe to try. So here goes.

Sourdough Millet Bread

Night before baking the bread

200 g millet flour
600 g boiling water.

Stir well, cover and leave

30 g rye sourdough starter
500 g unbleached bread flour
250 g water at room temperature

Mix till rough dough

Add millet and mix. Add:

80 g honey
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
up to another 500 g unbleached bread flour.

Kneed by hand for 10 minutes. Dough will be sticky.

Place in bowl sprayed with cooking spray, cover and leave in refrigerator overnight.

Baking Day

Turn dough out on floured surface and cut into 4 pieces. Use floured hands to shape into a batarde and place on baking sheets covered with parchment. Cover with a dry towel and leave to rest for 2 to 3 hours or until at least 1.5 to 2  times volume

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and bake for 10 minutes, then lower temperature to 400 degrees and bake for another 25 minute. Cool on wire racks.

This recipe was a bit challenging to make, and with little rise. The bread is dense, chewy with just a bit of a tang to the taste.

Shaker Potato Bread

This recipe from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Bread, is from a Shaker recipe. I had a lot of mashed potatoes left from making  Shepherd's Pie, and was in the mood to make bread, so I thought I would try this recipe. Its accredited to a Sister Jennie.

Shaker Potato Bread

1 cup plain mashed potatoes
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
1/2 cup hot water (120-130 degrees)
4 to 5 cups bread or all-purpose flour (I used all-purpose since I was out of bread flour)
1/2 cup butter at room temperature

Sponge

In the mixer bowl combine mashed potatoes, eggs, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, yeast, water, 2 cups flour. Stir with flat spatula blade into rough batter.

First Rising

Cover bowl and let sit 90 minutes or till doubles in volumes Meanwhile beat butter with remaining 1/4 cup sugar till creamy and set aside.

Dough

Punch down sponge and stir in  butter mixture, add flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Change to dough hook when dough gets to heavy. Knead with dough hook, adding flour a little bit at a time, as necessary, for 10 minutes, or till dough is smooth and elastic.

Second Rising

Put dough in bowl sprayed with cooking spray. Cover and let rise till about double in volume. Punch down dough and let sit for  few minutes. Cut dough  and shape to fit two greased medium bread pans.

Third Rising

Cover pans with parchment of wax paper, and place in warm place to rise till  above rim of pans.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake till golden brown, about 40 minutes. Bread should sound hollow when tapped on bottom. Cool on wire racks.

Very tasty. Definitely a hit. I would do this again any time I have some left over mashed potatoes and a need to make bread!

Sourdough Bread with Wheat Bran

Got to see if my Sourdough Starter works, so I'm making a sourdough bread recipe from Lauren Chattman's Bread Baking. Seems appropriate, since I used the starter recipe from there as well.

I ended up not following all of the risings as set out.

Final Build 
1/2 cup starter
2/3 cup unbleached bread flour
1 tbsp rye flour
1/3 cup water

Put starter in clean bowl and add other ingredients. Mix and cover and let stand for 12 hours

Dough

4 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1/2 cup wheat bran
1 1/2 cup plus water at room temperature
1 1/4 tsp sea salt

Combine all ingredients except salt, above in bowl of stand mixer.Stir with rubber paddle till rough dough.Cover bowl and let sit for 20 minutes.

Add salt and final build sourdough mixture and use rubber paddle to incorporate with a few turns. Switch to dough hook and mix about 10 minutes till smooth and stretchy. Turn out into bowl sprayed with cooking spray and cover. Let sit for 1 hour.

Here is where I changed directions from the recipe with had another 3 risings. My dough was very soft and loose at this point event though it seemed to have the proper consistency at the end of the kneading stage.

I punched down the dough and cut it in 2 , shaped the loaves and put each into prepared bread pans. I ended up letting it rise for 5 hours in total.

Preheated oven to 475 and baked the loaves for about 50 minutes.

Bread did not rise above the pan ( or I did not risk since it was so soft) but the results are quite tasty. Good crumb. The wheat bran given a bit of texture and flavour.


I wonder what it would have been like if I had followed the separate punch down and risings?

Pain Noir

Pain Noir! Black Bread. The name is intriguing and the list of ingredients even more so. Chocolate! Here we go.This recipe is from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, with a few variations from me as we go.

Quite a bit of coddling and one fermentation step for this loaf, I guess because there is less of a percentage of gluten.

Pain Noir

Initial Preparation

1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
1 square chocolate
1/2 tbsp butter
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

Stir cornmeal into pan with boiling water, and stir till smooth. Add cold water and continue to stir Let cool to 110 degrees C and stir in yeast.

Melt chocolate and butter over very low heat and set aside to cool to lukewarm

Fermentation step

1/2 cup molasses
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup instant mashed potatoes
2/3 cup whole wheat flour

Combine cornmeal/yeast mixture, chocolate with molasses, salt and mashed potatoes in bowl of mixer. Beat till smooth. Add whole wheat flour and mix for 3 minutes. Cover mixer bowl and let stand 1 hour to ferment.

Third Step

1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
cooking spray

Add rye flour and and mix. Change to dough hook or by hand slowly mix in up to 1/2 cup all purpose flour. Knead for 8 minutes or till elastic. Dough will be sticky

First Rising

Place dough in greased bowl and cover with plastic. Let rise till double in volume. Could be up to 75 - 90 minutes. Punch down and let rest 15 minutes. This dough did not rise very much for me, even though I doubled the time.

Second Rising

Shape into round loaf and place on parchment or cornmeal covered baking sheet. Spray top and cover with plastic. Give a second rising to almost double in volume, about 45 minutes. Again I had to increase the time and even then it did not double.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes. Bottom crust should sound hollow when taped.

Cool on wire rack.

Definitely black on the inside. Dense, chewy and quite flavourful. Tastes great toasted with cheese.