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.

Sourdough Starter Day 5

Yesterday was a repeat of Day 2. so I added 1/2 cup of rye flour and 1/4 cup water. Stir, cover and set aside.

Today, Day 5, is a repeat of Day 3, so I stirred the mixture, discarded half and added 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup water and 2 tsp rye flour. Mixed and covered, and put culture aside to sit at room temperature for another 24 hours.

Sourdough Starter-Day 3

Well I'm making a sourdough starter. I can see success so far, as of day 3. It must be about 40 years since I did this before. A lot less scientific then, if I remember correctly, but very Mother Earth.

This time, I'm using the formula from Lauren Chattman's Bread Making for what she calls Fool Proof Sourdough Starter.

Day 1

1/4 cup water
1/2 rye flour

Combine flour and water in a glass bowl. Stir till smooth with just a few lumps. Cover with plastic and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours.

Day 2

Stir mixture. Mine had not done much.

Add 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup rye flour. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours. During the day I did begin to see some fermentation and growth in the mixture.

Day 3

Definitely seeing bubbling and a doubling in volume.

Stir mixture and discard half. Put remainder in clean glass bowl. Add 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup water and 2 tsp rye flour. Mix and cover, and let culture sit at room temperature for another 24 hours.

Brioche Crescents and Brioche Parisienne - Day 2

The morning of day 2, I pulled the brioche dough out of the fridge and prepared to turn it into two variations of Brioche, as outlined in The New Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton. Since it has no illustrations, I looked for images to confirm the appearance of these type of Brioche.

First I divided the dough into 2/3 and 1/3 and put the smaller piece back in the fridge, while I made the following. The dough was stiff and puffy, but easy to work.

Brioche Crescents:

This required rolling the dough out into a rectangle, about 10 inches by 34 inches, and then cutting it lengthwise in half. Then each strip was cut into triangles, Each triangle was then rolled up from the wide end to form a crescent. These were placed on a parchment covered baking tray . Each crescent was brushed with an egg/milk wash and left to rise till doubled in size. This took about 45 minutes

Oven was pre-heated to 450 degrees and crescents were baked for about 25 minutes till golden brown.

Brioche Parisienne:

The rest of the dough was taken out of the fridge, and cut it into 10 to 12 pieces. Each of these were rolled into balls and placed in a zigzag pattern into a greased bread pan. Some of the smaller balls were used to fill in the spaces. Pan was covered with plastic and left to rise. This too more than 2 hours.

Oven was pre-heated to 350 degrees and the Brioche was baked about 50 minutes till golden brown.


Results were fine. Lovely light crust and soft crumb. Great with butter and jam!

What I don't understand though is why the difference in baking temperature? As I venture further into my study of the chemistry and mystery of bread making, I'm sure I'll figure it out!

Brioche Crescents & Brioche Parisienne -Day 1

I have decided to make Brioche again, this time using the classic recipe for Brioche with Starter from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of breads. There are some differences from the earlier recipe I tried from the New York Times Cookbook, especially in the Starter preparation.

Brioche with Starter

Starter Ingredients:

2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
1/2 cup warm milk
1 cup all-purpose flour


Dissolve yeast in warm milk This was harder than disolving it in warm water. Not sure why.
Stir in flour till its a shaggy mess and mix for 3 minutes. Cover with plastic and leave at room temperature for 2 hours.

Dough Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour
6 eggs at room temperature
1/4 -1/2 cup water warm (105-115)
3 tbsp sugar
1/1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup butter at room temperature

Prepare dough first, by putting 2 cups flour in bowl of stand mixer.. Break 4 eggs into well in middle of flour and mix with spatula blade. Add 1/4 cup water, sugar, salt and blend to make batter. I added a bit more water at this point.
Soften butter and add to batter along with 2 more eggs. Mix on slow with dough hook until butter is incorporated. Stop mixer and add starter to dough and mic for 8 to 10 minutes until both doughs are mixed. The dough will be somewhat soft and tacky.I did add a few more tsp on flour.

Place dough in greased bowl and cover with plastic. Leave at room temperature till doubled, about 2 hours.

Punch down dough and turn with hand and place back in bowl and cover. Refrigerate overnight.

Rustic Ciabatta Day Three

If you read my previous post you will know that I did not bake all of the dough from my Rustic Ciabatta experiment. Instead I refrigerated about 60% of the dough overnight, to bake the next day, for company. So the following day I took out the dough and let it rest to come to temperature. Next I cut it into two pieces and spread them out on parchment covered baking sheets. I dusted them with flour and covered each pan and let them rise. This took about 2 hours. In the meantime I pre-heated the oven to 475 degrees.

Uncovered the loaves and sprayed the oven with water. Put in my loaves, sprayed the tops, and sprayed the inside of the oven again every 10 minutes.The loaves were ready in 30 minutes. Results were fine; a little less risen than the loaf from the day before, but large crumb and chewy texture.

Rustic Ciabatta!!!

Well I've tried to make ciabatta for the first time. Quite something. The whole process of retarding fermentation means that it can 2 to 4 or 5 days to complete the process of making this type of "rustic" bread.

I started the day before yesterday to make stage one: the "biga".  I ended up using an adaptation of a recipe from Crust to Crumb which Peter Reinhart calls a Universal Rustic Loaf, with some shortened steps using suggestions from Lauren Chattman's version of Ciabatta, from her Bread Making book

My version of the recipe follows.

Rustic Ciabatta

Biga Style Pre-Ferment:

16 oz unbleached bread flour
1 1/4 cups cool water
1 tsp instant yeast

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl, and stir until mixed. Kneed for 5 minutes and dough is smooth and tacky. Cover bowl with plastic and let stand for 3 to 5 hours, or till doubled.

Punch down and cover and refrigerate overnight. Freeze any biga not used in recipe

Rustic Ciabatta:
16 oz biga
16 oz unbleached bread flour
1 tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk at room temperature
2 tbs olive oil
1 cup cool water

Take out biga an hour before using. Measure amout needed. Freeze balance for another time.
Measure and combine all other ingredients in bowl of stand mixer. Cut up biga into small pieces and add to mixer. Use paddle attachment and mix slowly till everything is combined. Put in dough hook and mix for 8 minutes till dough is very sticky. I had to add a bit more water to achieve this consistency.

Cover bowl and let sit for 3  to 4 hours till about 1 1/2 times. Scrape dough onto heavily floured counter.  Divide into 2 or 3 pieces and loosely shape into rectangles. I was not planning to bake all of that day, so I put one ball of dough back into a bowl, covered it and put it back into the refrigerator overnight.

With heavily floured hands transfer dough to parchment covered pan and stretch dough to make a long flatish
loaf shape. Dimple top with fingers and dust with flour and cover with plastic Le t stand till dough is bubbly on surface.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Put pan on bottom shelf of oven and add boiling water to create steam

Put pans in oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Spray oven with water to start and after 10 minutes.
Loaves should be golden brown when done. Cool on wire racks. Interior crumb should be open and airy.

I am very pleased with the results! Lovely taste and texture.

Walnut Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe comes from Bernard Clayton't New Complete Book of Breads, and is for a very earthy bread. Simple recipe with great results. I was looking for a good bread that can be sliced thin and keep well. This seems to be a good candidate. This is my version of the recipe


Walnut Whole Wheat Bread

5 cups stone ground whole wheat flour
5 tsp dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup dry milk powder
2 cups hot water 120 to 130 degrees
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp butter
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

2 medium greased bread pans

Mix 3 cups of whole wheat flour with salt, yeast and dry milk. Pour in hot water, honey and butter. Stir till blended. About 1 minute in stand mixer using flat blade

Add one cup of flour a bit at a time until it is a sticky mess. Let stand for about 5 minutes. Replace blade with dough hook, and slowly add rest of flour and knead about 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Turn out into bowl sprayed with cooking spray, cover and let sit for 1 hour or so and dough is puffy.

Punch back dough and turn out on floured work surface. Flatten dough into rectangle and place walnuts in middle. Knead the walnuts into the dough until evenly distributed. This will take about 4 to 5 minutes.

Divide dough to fit pans.

Cover pans and let rise until almost double. About 45 minutes

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Bake 45 minutes and loaves are pulling away from sides. They should be golden brown.

Let cool on wire racks.

Great toasted with jam or cheese.

Rabbit and Kohlrabi Stew

Since I had some rabbit left from New Year's Dinner, I took it off the bone and decided to make it all into a stew. Added kohlrabi diced, as well as sliced carrots. Some more mustard and Veloutine for thickening and voila. Rabbit Stew. The kohlrabi is a nice choice with the latent mustard in the sauce. Quite tasty.

Baguette

I wanted to try making a baguette again. My last attempt was tasty enough, but flat and not too "authentic". I used a recipe from Lauren Chattman's Bread making: Crafting the Perfect Loaf, for Daniel Leader's 4 Hour Baguette. Some differences to other recipes that I have used, but the results were perfect! Here are my adaptations to the original recipe, since I don't have baking stones.

Baguette 
Makes 2 loaves

8 ounces room temperature water 70 degrees or even cooler if the kitchen is warm
3/4 tsp instant yeast
2 cups plus 2 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Combine water, flour, yeast and salt in bowl of stand mixer and stir with rubber spatula till a rough dough forms.

Kneed dough by machine on medium for 10 to 12 minutes till it clears sides of bowl and it is still a bit lumpy.

Put in bowl that has been sprayed with cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap and set aside till dough is puffy with bubbles on the surface. About 45 minutes.

Give dough a turn. Lift up up and set it down on its side, and cover again. Let sit till increased by 50%or so. About 45 minutes to 1 hour. Dough will be very soft.

Turn out dough on lightly dusted surface and cut into 2 even pieces. I had to resist adding more flour at this point since the dough felt almost too soft to handle. 

Fold into a rectangle and let sit for 10 minutes.

Shape each piece into baguette shape 12 to 14 inches long and place on parchment covered baking tray about  4 inches apart. Then lift up parchment in between loaves so the loaves are close together and place rolled up kitchen towels on other side of parchment to cradle and support loaves while baking.  This is a neat alternative described by Lauren Chattman for proper baguette pans.

Sprinkle with flour and cover with plastic and let stand until puffy and almost double in size, about 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. and place pan with hot water on bottom shelf of oven.

Remove towels and pull parchment so its flat.

Put diagonal cuts on top of loaves with sharp knife. I was nervous doing this because the dough was so soft, so my cuts did not go deep enough.

Spray over with water and put tray on middle rack in oven and bake till golden brown, about 25 minutes. Spray again after 10 minutes. This was my version, since I don't have baking stones.

Cool on wire racks.

Bread looked great and tasted just like it should, chewy  and springy. The crumb looked great too. 

Cream of Chestnut Soup

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Braised Rabbit with Onion and Mustard Sauce

New Year's Day Dinner and I decided I wanted to do rabbit. I've had rabbit a few times in restaurants, but I have never cooked it before. Hunted around in a few of my cookbooks and come up with a recipe I wanted to try from the New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins of the Silver Palate cookbooks. I needed to adapt it since the original which was " inspired by a dish from Restaurante Du Marche in Paris". called for three rabbits!!! Bit much for our small family. So here is my version

Braised Rabbit with Onion and Mustard Sauce

2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil
1 rabbit cut up
black pepper
1 large onion diced
4 garlic cloves minced
1 tbsp brown sugar
t tsp thyme
1 tsp ground fresh ginger
1 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp mustard ( used a thyme lemon flavoured mustard)
Veloutine or other thickening agent.if required

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Sprinkle pepper on rabbit. Heat butter and olive oil and brown rabbit. Transfer rabbit to oven casserole dish and cook onions and garlic till translucent.Add brown sugar, thyme and ginger to onion/garlic mixture. Add stock and mix. Pour over rabbit and cover dish Put in heated oven for 45 min to 1 hour.
Remove rabbit to serving dish and keep warm. Pour sauce into pan and bring to boil. Boil down by 1/3. Puree sauce and add mustard, and enough of a thickening agent make a not too thick sauce. Pour sauce over rabbit and serve.

All in all a pleasant taste. I would increase the mustard and ginger if I did this recipe again. Perhaps add a bit of cinnamon and/or allspice.

Shrimp and Scallop Paella

Last minute decision to make a Paella for New Year's Eve dinner. I had not made one of these for decades I'm sure. I followed my instincts and this was the result.

Recipe follows:

Shrimp and Scallop Paella

1 cup Basmati rice
2 cups water
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp saffon
1 onion cut up
4 garlic cloves
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 red pepper
1 small eggplant chopped
1 carrot sliced asn pre cooked
1/2 cup peas
1 cup shrimp deveined
1/2 cup bay scallops
1/2 tsp spice mixture* see below

Cook rice in water with salt and saffron.

Melt butter and olive oil and cook onion and garlic till soft. Add  eggplant and pepper and cook till browned and soft. Add to rice and. Toss in shrimp, scallops, peas and carrots and season to taste.

My Special Spice Mixture

I always have a small jar of this on hand. I use it in almost everything that needs a little zing!

Special Spice Mixture

½ cup paprika

¼ cup chili powder

3 tbsp salr

2 tbsp dried coriander

2 tbsp garlic powder

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp curry powder

2 tbsp mustard powder

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tbsp thyme

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp cayenne

Mix all ingredients together.

Store in airtight container and store in cool dry place away from heat and light.

Can be used as a rub on meat and as seasoning in a variety of dishes.