Reinhart's Marble Rye

I'll admit--I was not raised on rye bread. I have never actually bought it at the store. Despite being 1/8th German, I am not a huge fan of the flavors of German food. Sauerkraut, pickles, corned beef, dill and caraway--just not among flavors you'll see pop up here. So I'll warn you now, this may not be an authentic Rye bread. I didn't use the caraway. I'm not breaking any Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge rules here--it was optional.
However, it was delicious. It had the hearty, deep flavor of a peasant or harvest bread that I absolutely adore, similar to my Boston Brown Yeast Loaf. Rye flour, molasses, cocoa powder, makes this deeply colored, moist, delicious loaf. Put together with the other loaf that leaves out the cocoa and molasses for contrast, and you have a beautiful bread as well as a tasty one.
Reinhart said about swirled breads, the most important thing is that you must use two doughs that are similar, or they won't cook up evenly. Here he actually uses pretty much the same dough, with just an addition or two.
It's only a little more difficult than a regular bread recipe, despite the gorgeous results. Just a matter of properly working with the rye flour, and then layering the doughs. One tip I would have for the bakers is to hold off on adding all the flour--my dough was a bit dry, and I had to add some water in to prevent the bread from being too stiff. And do take care when kneading--rye flour contains pentosans, a gummy substance that can ruin your bread if you're not careful. It gets kind of squishy and sticky, and can be hard to work with. Most rye breads aren't 100% rye flour, as they wouldn't have a very good texture at all, and this recipe isn't, either. So only knead for the recommended time--don't overdo it.
I won't post the recipe, as per the rules of the Challenge, but I found it Here for you if you want to try it yourself. (Do! It's delicious.)

Reinhart

Soft and Chewy Semolina Pizza Dough (Fast!)

As much as I love the simple, brilliant dough Reinhart offered in his Bread Baker's Apprentice, I can't help but tinker with it. I have my usual standby up til now, the Best Overnight Dough, but I think I may have improved upon it with one simple change. At least, if you listen to my husband, I have.
In a hurry and without a dinner plan, I made up my favorite recipe, but I knew that the lack of overnight refrigeration would give me a less than terrific dough. (I'm serious about pizza.) I've made it and used it right away before, and it just isn't as good. The overnight fermentation creates so much flavor, softens the texture, and makes for such an awesome dough--give those little yeasty beasties some time to party, and let the enzymes out to play, and you've got fabulous pizza dough. (Any dough, actually. More on that later.)

But adding just a smidge of dry milk will offer the benefits of adding fresh milk--softer texture, even crumb, nice color--without inhibiting rise. Dry milk has been treated at a high temperature, disabling enzymes that can interfere with the rise. Plus, it's darned convenient. I keep a plastic storage container of it in my fridge, to toss into bread doughs.
So sorry Peter, but I think I may have found something that suited my taste just a bit better!

Soft and Chewy Pizza Dough
by Anna

100g semolina flour
350g bread flour
45g oil
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) instant yeast
300g warm water
8g (2 tbsp) powdered milk

Mix all ingredients together in mixer bowl, and knead by machine for 8 minutes, until dough clears the bottom of the bowl but still clings to the side when the mixer is off, and your fingers when touched--it should still be quite tacky. You can add more bread flour as needed by the teaspoon if dough is too sticky. You can also do this by hand, for about 10 minutes, but it helps to oil your hands and your board rather than flour it, or the dough will become too dry.
Divide dough into three even pieces, oil and cover each with plastic wrap, and let rise for about an hour, until doubled. (You can also divide this into three pieces, place each in an oiled bag, and refrigerate overnight up to three days. This will make the dough even better! Remove from fridge two hours before you need it.) Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 500 degrees, and place a stone on the floor of your oven, or the very bottom rack.
Working with one piece at a time, roll to about 1/2 inch thickness, which should be about a 12-inch round. Dust a piece of parchment with semolina flour or cornmeal, and place dough on it. Brush dough with olive oil. Using a peel or the flat back of a sheet pan, slide parchment and dough onto hot stone. Let bake 5 minutes, and remove from oven. Top with sauce and toppings of choice (go easy with the toppings, overloading it will lead to a denser pizza) and place back in oven for 5-7 additional minutes. The cheese should be melted and just browned, and the edges should be nicely colored. Check underneath, you should see nice dark spots and a nice crisp crust, but no blackened areas. (This may take trial and error to get it right in your oven, sometimes the bottom will burn too fast, or the top won't be done--you can try different positions until you find the right configuration.)
Remove and let rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

This post proudly submitted to Yeast Spotting.

Dark Chocolate-Almond Cookies

I finally made these cookies. I have had Bakewise for a long time, and I finally made the chocolate chip cookies.
I made them in this:

My new baby. Isn't she gorgeous?
Of course, before she went in we had to do this:

because this awful and barely functional thing was in the way, circa 1977:

Along with its mate, a wall-mounted Magic Chef oven and broiler, also from 1977, that would consistently burn the outside edges of every cookie while leaving center ones pale and underdone, no matter how many times I turned the trays. You wouldn't believe some of the misshaped loaves of bread I pulled out of that thing--and it didn't even go up to 500 for decent pizza. It's still installed, though unplugged, and the rest of the remodel will take place in March. Point is, I got my new convection oven in, and I'm very happy. Of course, having it gives me motivation to bake, but not much more time, since I still have this to take care of:

which is actually great-- look at that face.

I changed the recipe just a little from the original, using purchased nut meal to save a step and some time, but next time I might toast and grind them myself, to see if there's much flavor difference. I also swapped almond meal for pecans, and didn't add more nuts (though I would have liked to, they were going to work with the husband and you can never can tell about nuts.) I used my favorite chocolate chips in the world, Ghirardelli 60% dark chocolate. They are bigger than tollhouse, creamier, and just taste so good. One more thing--I have made a lot of Shirley's recipes, and she has "an extreme sweet tooth" as she puts it. I reduced sugar by 1/4 cup, because I hate cookies that are too sweet.
These are incredibly tender cookies. Replacing some of the flour with nut meal not only adds a wonderful flavor that you can sneak by the nut-haters, but it inhibits some of the gluten from forming and leaves you with a fantastic texture. Of all the tinkering I've done with my own recipe, I'm just mad I didn't think to do this sooner.

Dark Chocolate-Almond Cookies

150g (1 1/2 cups) almond meal
285g (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
pinch cinnamon
2 sticks (8oz) butter, softened to about 65 degrees
250g (1 1/4 cups) white sugar
1 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp vanilla
2 eggs, room temp
12 oz (2 cups) 60% dark chocolate chips

In a medium bowl mix flour, nut meal, salt, soda, and cinnamon well.
In a large mixer bowl, cream together the sugar and butter til very light and creamy, about 4-5 minutes. Add molasses, then eggs, and vanilla, scraping well. Turn speed to low and add dry mixture in about 3 additions, beating til just blended. Remove from mixer and beat in chocolate chips.
Cover and chill dough for 30 minutes, or up to 2 days. (Can also portion into cookies, freeze on a tray, and pack into a ziploc for future baking at this point.)
Preheat oven to 350.
Line tray with parchment or silicone, and arrange 2 inches apart, 12 to a sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, until just colored. You wat them to look just slightly underdone--they will stay nice and soft that way. Leave on hot tray at least 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool.
Makes about 3-4 dozen, depending on size.

This has become my new favorite cookie recipe....at least until my uncle can find it in his heart to share his.

A Daring Christmas, a Loaf of Bread, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

You must excuse me--I've stepped away from my computer for a bit. Through the holiday ruckus, a sick baby, my own brutal winter cold, and now a mystery ailment that has taken a lot of the function from my right hand--I haven't kept up as I should. And I feel bad, because the holidays are a prime baking time. I have baked some, but not as much as I should have. And blogging is a bit more difficult now that my hand is quite painful to use.
But I wanted to catch up on a few little things I managed to snap photos of. One being my Daring Bakers post for December, which is dreadfully late. I had a lot of fun making a gingerbread house with my kids--although it won't win any awards for either architecture or aesthetics. I was hurried as usual, and distracted (also as usual these days) and my construction materials didn't exactly line up. We used a lot of icing mortar, let's say. I let my kids do all the decorating for each of their houses. I had originally intended to make another house and get it right, do it nicely, but ran out of time and frankly, lacked motivation. I've been sick almost the entire month of December.




Second project--Reinhart's Light Wheat Bread, for the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. This was a simple loaf, using what I normally use in my own recipes--most similar to my Everyday Bread. It's an easy, lightly sweet, straightforward loaf of sandwich bread, and it was delicious. Made me remember last year, or the year before, when I had the time to bake bread three times a week. Life before baby.


I hate to be one of those people who has lots of excuses. I started this blog with two older kids, living in a rental. I now have two kids in school and a baby, we're homeowners trying to remodel and I'm going to take a class this Spring--back to college. So I just don't have the spare time I used to. Not so much excuses, but reasons for my long gaps between posts. I'm not abandoning the blog--but I'm busy!

Cinnamon Shortbread

The first batch of holiday goodies went out to some family today. I know--a week before Christmas, and I am just getting started. I still have a couple packages to ship out and deliver, Winter Solstice coming up on Monday. Not to mention the cooking for the big day itself.
I am perpetually behind. But so are most of us this time of year, so I'm not going to worry about it too much. I won't be doing much relaxing, but who is?
My stepdad's mother's favorite cookie is shortbread. It originated in Scotland, and is prevalent today all over the UK. It's a really simple little cookie, and that means that it can be fantastic or terrible. It's not like a brownie or chocolate chip, where there's so much going on to distract you from bad texture or mediocre flavor. Nope--Just flour, butter, salt, and sugar make up these buttery, tender little wedges. They're meant to be slightly sandy and crumbly, and they melt in your mouth if done properly.
Being an ancient cookie, and also being used for so many things like cookie crusts and such, there were hundreds of recipes to choose from. Some used the traditional oat flour, most called for wheat, some recipes include cornstarch or other flours. The point of it is to inhibit gluten from forming--our little friend that gives bread its chew is the enemy of shortbread. Gluten forms when flour and water get together, making those elastic strands that trap bubbles and give rise to our baked goods. But if you use oat flour, or some other combination, you avoid this pretty effectively. Besides, it's historically accurate--Scotland, Ireland and the British Isles had more oats than wheat.
You know I'm all about history--and I'd have liked to have used the oat flour. But I neglected to decide on my recipe, and didn't have any on hand. I was making this after the kidddies went to bed, so I couldn't run out to Vons. I decided to use the recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks. Another thing that creates gluten is agitation, and that's why the traditional way a shortbread is made usually involved the biscuit or pie method. That's where you cut or knead butter directly into the dry ingredients. The fat coats the flour, preventing gluten from forming.
Well, my recipe had another method, and considering the tests this kitchen puts into their recipes, I decided to just go along with it.
Powdered sugar is beaten with soft butter until creamy, lightening the texture. Then dry ingredients--no leavening-- are beaten in. This particular recipe has so much butter it actually requires you to knead it for a minute, just so it will form enough gluten to hold together--because fat inhibits that, too. (Really, there's no chance these cookies will be tough or chewy.)
Then you pat it into a round, score it gently, and you can dock it with a fork, imprint very lightly with a pattern, which in hindsight, I should have done gently with cookie cutters. I did mine free-form with a decorative edge on some parchment, but forming it using the side part of a springform pan will get you a perfect circle. Sprinkle some sugar or cinnamon-sugar on top and bake low and slow until it's nice and crisp.
You are rewarded with an amazing little cookie. It smells heavenly, just buttery and delicious. I added just a touch of cinnamon to mine to add a bit of holiday interest, and it was totally divine.

Cinnamon Shortbread Cookies

11.25 oz (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 oz (1/2 cup) confectioner's (powdered/icing) sugar
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, soft
cinnamon-sugar for sprinkling

Mix flour, salt, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. In a mixer bowl, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Turn mixer to low and slowly add dry ingredients, mixing about 30 seconds.
Turn onto lightly floured board and knead gently for a few minutes, until dough is vey smooth. Place onto a sheet of parchment and roll into a 9" circle--it will be about 1/2 inch thick. Flute edges, and/or press gently with a decorative pattern if desired. Score just the very top with a knife into 16 wedges, and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.
Refrigerate 20 minutes, and in the meantime preheat oven to 300.
Place in middle of oven, and bake 40-45 mins, til just barely browned. Immediately cut through scored marks with a sharp knife, and transfer to a rack to cool. Will keep about a week tightly wrapped.

BBA Challenge--(Amazing!) Italian Bread

Usually, when I buy a cookbook, I do so knowing that 80% of the recipes I will probably never get around to making. Oh, they may sound great, but I am so busy the best-laid plans don't always come together. The steak bought for a fabulous 10-ingredient Thai lettuce wrap will be scaled down to a quickly grilled entree. The gourmet chocolate will languish in the pantry until I finally get around to making that cake, and the the specialty flour will end up in the freezer for a month at least. Which is why I liked joining the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge so much--I'm going through every recipe!
I lagged a looooong time in between French Bread and Italian Bread, meaning to make it at least three times before I actually did. (The bigas became pizza one night and bagels a second.) I don't know why but I assumed it would be a lot like the French Bread, even before I read the recipe. I should have paid closer attention. And oh, for those of you who don't know what a "biga" is, it's a type of starter-- dough you make before you start to make your bread, then let sit out for awhile before adding it to your final dough. A biga is a firm starter, with about 50-70% as much water as flour--50-70-% hydration, we say in breadmaking. It also has yeast, and that's it. It's what gives artisan bread its amazing flavor, that time put in for the yeast to grow, texture to develop, enzymes to do their thing, and the flavorful action to happen. (For a more detailed explanation of starters, click here.)
It was FABULOUS, people. I have tried many times to duplicate the oh-so-soft, pillowy "French" bread at my local Albertson's. If you've ever had it, you know what I'm talking about. Fresh from the oven and still warm, it tears apart and has just the perfect amount of chew, yet it's downy soft and ridiculously good. Sort of a soft, chewy crust, not a crunchy one. My husband and I can eat an entire torpedo in ten minutes flat....we're not proud of that.
This bread was the closest I have ever come to that loaf. Softened with milk and oil, given complex flavor and an open texture from a good starter, it has everything you'd want. Soft enough to make terrific sandwiches, firm enough to bake free-form into a rustic-style loaf.
The only thing I did differently to this loaf was with the starter. The instructions state to let it sit at room temperature for a few hours, then overnight in the fridge. Well, I waited until bedtime, then stashed it immediately in the fridge. Then let it sit out 4-6 hours when I got around to making it a couple days later. (I told you...I plan ahead, yet never seem to get anywhere.) So my biga was extra-ripe, one could say. So barring that, I follwed the instructions, and this time was rewarded with a delicious loaf with very little tinkering needed. (I made the first one last week and have another batch rising as we speak.)
As per the instructions of the challenge, I won't post the recipe, but I found out someone else did--the Smitten Kitchen. So here's the link--try it! Don't be intimidated by the steps, it's actually quite a flexible schedule, and it's so worth the results. Trust me. And this cookbook, with two recipes so far that I have made repeatedly, has now made itself worth every penny.
This post submitted to Yeast-Spotting.