MyKitchenInHalfCups

Once Upon a time: Cooking … Baking … Traveling … Laughing …

Category Archives: Savory Cooking


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BBB ~ Sfincione Bagharese

Aparna, our kitchen of the month, you may have thought it was hard to find a bread we haven’t baked but honestly even though this little group has been baking for these many years and it does seem like we’ve baked just a huge number of breads, every month I marvel that wow it’s just water yeast flour, the same ingredients as last month BUT it’s just never the same and it NEVER gets boring. Thank you so very much for this introduction to this our 14th anniversary bread.

Check out Aparna’s post on this bread at My Diverse Kitchen.com.https://www.mydiversekitchen.com/sfincione-bagharese

From Aparna’s site you can travel to all the other Babes who baked this bread.

SFINCIONE BAGHARESE

(Partly adapted from here)

POOLISH:

150 g white whole wheat

150 ml water

1 tsp dry active yeast

DOUGH :

All the Poolish from above

150 gm AP flour

250 gm semolina flour

300 ml water (more or less)

30 ml olive oil

15 gm salt

ONION LAYER :

5 medium sized onions (one a red onion)

30 ml olive oil

Salt to taste

CHEESE LAYER :

300 gm mozzarella sliced (thinner slices will work best)

400 gm Ricotta

BREADCRUMB LAYER :

Some chopped scallions 

4 to 6 slices of BEEKEEPER’S PAIN DE MIE

100 gm grated Parmesan cheese

50 grams walnuts

Salt to taste

Red chilli flakes or crushed pepper to taste

1 tsp dried oregano

Also two very well oiled round 23cm trays

HOW TO MAKE IT :

Make the Poolish by mixing together in a medium sized bowl the flour, dry yeast, and water until a sticky dough is obtained. Add more water if necessary to achieve this. Cover loosely with a plastic film and leave to rise for about 2 hours. The polish should be somewhat bubbly and have doubled in size.

I mixed the dough by hand. Mix together the flours, water (more or less as required), oil and the poolish. The dough will be sticky. Add the salt and knead till it is soft, very pliable and smooth. Shape it into a round and place it in a bowl greased with olive oil. Cover the bowl loosely and leave it to rise till double in volume. Mine took about 2 and a half hours.

Cook the onions. While the dough is rising, get the toppings ready. Heat the oil in a pan and add the sliced onions. Sprinkle a little salt and cook the onions on low to medium heat until they turn translucent and soft. Do not brown or caramelized them. Take the pan off heat and let them cool to room temperature.

Prepare the breadcrumb mixture. Run the bread slices (with or without crusts) in a food processor to make the crumbs. Put the breadcrumbs in a bowl. Mix together with the oil, salt, red chilli flakes (or crushed pepper) chopped scallions/ spring onions, oregano and grated cheese. The texture should be of loose but moist crumbs.

Once the dough has risen, gently knead to deflate it. Divide it into two equal portions. Press out each portion into a roughly 9-inch circle (or oval) using your fingers. ****Since Aparna and I both seem to think the topping is the show of this bread, next time I will bake mine in a 10 inch or larger pan and make more topping to cover the larger surface area.  If the dough feels sticky, oil your fingers lightly. Place in the oiled trays. I used a pie dish. Let the dough rise again, for about an hour till almost double in thickness and quite puffy.

Top with anchovy (maybe one day I’ll try anchovy but not this time), then the cooked onions. Next comes the Ricotta and a hard cheese (I used Parmesan ). Make sure to cover the surface of the dough evenly. Finish layering by spreading the breadcrumb mixture on the top.

Bake the Sfincione at 250C (480F) on the bottom shelf of the oven for about 10 to 12 minutes. The underneath of the bread should become golden and crisp. Then move the pan to the middle shelf of the oven and bake for another 10 minutes or so, until it is crisp and golden brown on the top as well. Remove from the oven and let it cool.  

Next time I will use parchment on the bottom so there will be no issue of sticking AND if the bottom seems too moist, I can take it out of the pan and return it to the oven rack for 2 to 5 minutes for crisper texture.

Cut and serve. Leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.  Hahaha. I did give one loaf away but the other loaf we very quickly took care of. 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ALL BABES, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.

We know you’ll want to make Sfincione Bagherese too! 

To receive a Bread Baking Buddy Badge to display on your site: make the topped flatbread in the next couple of weeks and post about them (we love to see how your bread turns out AND hear what you think about it – what you didn’t like and/or what you liked) before the 28 February 2022. If you do not have a blog, no problem; you can also post your picture(s) to Flickr (or any other photo sharing site) and record your thoughts about the bread there. Please remember to contact the Kitchen of the Month to say that your post is up.

For complete details about this month’s recipe, the BBB and how to become a BBBuddy, please read:


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BBB ~ Wool Roll Bread

Flour Water Yeast = Basic

Flour Water Yeast = Basic + Technique + Shape =

Spectacular Magic Unique Breads

Our host kitchen of the month is Judy at Judy’s Gross Eats. She can tell you about this bread taking the internet by storm. I’m going to tell you about how this is simply amazing. Our son and his three kids raved about the milk bread they baked all during the pandemic. They loved how you could squeeze it and it came back. They just really loved it. Whole grains…ha, those were awful tasting things that ruined any bread. This was all white. This was real bread. I loved watching their productions, the photos and the movies and what they put on their slices. But white bread just isn’t my thing. I didn’t try it.

Then here comes Judy with this milk bread. AND here’s a friend with a birthday. Wow! Great opportunity to bake a spectacular white bread that I can give away. So I baked white bread…I was taking it to the party…there was wind and rain…party got canceled…didn’t give away bread…Gorn loved it.

Truly, this makes for spectacular baking but in my mind, on my taste buds, white bread even with the fillings I used (and they were really really good) I just find white flour bread bland. I feel sure there will soon be a time I bake this again and make it with some character flours.

The magic of three basic ingredients always blows my mind. With this bread, it is a technique and shaping that bring it into the realm of the GLORIOUS. Technique is cooking the flour into a paste, the tangzhong, and adding that to the dough. Shaping adds the final magic. I’m astounded by breads that look spectacular and difficult…then turn out to me relatively simple to execute, and this definitely fits in that category.

My fillings. Well, this recipe called for dividing the dough into five pieces. That gives you the opportunity to use five different fillings all in the same loaf. I used Biscoff Crunchy Cookie Butter, peanut butter, brown sugar & cinnamon, chocolate and left the last plain. Not surprisingly I liked the Biscoff and the peanut butter the best. Fillings can be sweet or savory and my mind swims with the possibilities.

I lost track of width I should have made the five rolls and ended up with misfit. Judy’s misfit I think was stunning, mine not so much but it still worked. I did like the idea of different fillings. Fermenting in my mind, you could make these five rolls smaller and make more pieces and create many surprise flavors. That might make more work but it sounds interesting.

Japanese Milk Bread from King Arthur Baking Company

Tangzhong

• 3 tablespoons (43g) water

• 3 tablespoons (43g) whole milk (used half & half)

• 2 tablespoons (14g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour

Dough

• 2 1/2 cups (298g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour

• 2 tablespoons (14g) Baker’s Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk

• 1/4 cup (50g) sugar (used 35 grams)

• 1 teaspoon (6g) salt

• 1 tablespoon instant yeast

• 1/2 cup (113g) whole milk (used half & half)

• 1 large egg

• 4 tablespoons (57g) unsalted butter, melted

1.      To make the tangzhong: Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan, and whisk until no lumps remain.

2. Place the saucepan over low heat and cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until thick and the whisk leaves lines on the bottom of the pan, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Three minutes.

3. Transfer the tangzhong to a small mixing bowl or measuring cup and let it cool to lukewarm.

4. To make the dough: Weigh your flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Combine the tangzhong with the remaining dough ingredients, then mix and knead — by mixer or bread machine — until a smooth, elastic dough forms; this could take almost 15 minutes in a stand mixer. I started doing this by hand as I like that best BUT I quickly felt I would get a much better result with the kitchen aid AND I got the smoothest dough ball ever.

Baby smooth bottom! Twelve minutes in the KitchenAid.

5.      Shape the dough into a ball, and let it rest in a lightly greased bowl, covered, for 60 to 90 minutes, until puffy but not necessarily doubled in bulk.

6. Dough shaping: Divide the dough into 5 pieces. Roll each piece into a thin, oblong shape, then, using a sharp object (I used my 6 inch bench scraper), start about 2/3s from the designated top and make 1/8” to ¼” cuts.

This is almost five minutes long I’m sorry, I have to learn some editing 😌 Yes, we have pesky fruit flies in the film. Please excuse the straw like grey hair that gets in the way.
Continue reading →


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Red Pepper Coques ~ BBB

Red Pepper Coques

Red Pepper Coques

Feta makes it dinner!

Yes it may be pizza like in vision but this is crunchy very unlike a pizza crust.  Like pizza it comes from the Mediterranean but from Spain.
So it’s different than pizza altogether but then it’s decidedly just as enthralling in flavor and interest.
It’s simple to mix, the only special thing is an overnight in the fridge and that’s easy.
This fits in my favorite category of mix it days ahead of time and put it together like a magic trick for company.  That’s what I did with half the dough, I made this for a big family dinner.  “The Littles” (two girls under 10) said that was really good bread … but then so did all the adults. 

Two nights later, I baked a quarter of the dough and served it with a salad and called it a light dinner.  Four nights later, I served the last quarter dough round with fresh veggies and a guacamole hummus dip and called it dinner.   The dough that keeps on giving!

Yes, Karen (Karen’s Kitchen Stories) our kitchen of the month, this is very simple to do by hand, no food processor here.

Red Pepper Coques

Dough
268 grams bread flour
200 grams white whole wheat flour
30 grams ground flax seed
2 teaspoons sugar, omitted
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
10 2/3 ounces ice water
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons table or fine sea salt
Red Pepper Topping
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large onions, peeled, halved, and thinly sliced
2 cups jarred roasted sliced red peppers
3 tablespoons sugar, omitted
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar, Fini Reduction of Balsamic
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley, fresh basil

1. Dough
In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and yeast about 5 times. Turn the processor on, and slowly pour in the ice water and process for about 10 seconds. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

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2. Add the oil and the salt to the dough and process for 30 to 60 seconds, until the dough forms a ball. Remove the dough from the the processor, and knead by hand for a few seconds, and form it into a ball. Place it into an oiled bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours, and up to 3 days.

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3. Topping
Heat three tablespoons of the olive oil in a 12 inch non stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions, red peppers, sugar, garlic, salt, pepper flakes, and bay leaves. Cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes over medium low.
Remove the lid and continue to cook, stirring regularly, for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the onions are golden brown. Remove the pan from the heat and discard the bay leaves. Transfer the mixture to a heatproof bowl and stir in the vinegar. Cool completely before using. You can make the mixture in advance and refrigerate overnight.


4. To Make the Coques:
Deflate the dough and divide it into four equal sized pieces. Shape each piece into a tight ball and place, seam side down on your work surface, and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Let rest for an hour.
Place oven racks in the upper and lower third positions and preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Brush two half sheet pans with 2 tablespoons of olive oil each.

5. Place one dough ball on your work surface, and roll it out to a 15 inch by 5 inch oval. Place it on the baking sheet, lengthwise. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls, two per baking sheet. If the dough springs back, let it rest for another 10 to 20 minutes, and re-roll. Dock each about 15 times with a fork. Brush each oblong piece of dough with the rest of the olive oil.

6. Bake the dough for 8 minutes, switching the pans at the four minute mark.
Remove the pans from the oven, and spread them with the red pepper and onion mixture. Sprinkle with the pine nuts. Place the baking sheets back into the oven, and bake for 16 minutes, switching and rotating the pans at the 8 minute mark. Continue to bake until the flatbreads are golden and crispy.
Remove the pans from the oven and let cool on the pans for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the parsley, and transfer to a cutting board to slice and serve.

Red Pepper Coques

Feta makes it dinner!

There is simply no way you should not bake this … it is just delightful. Too good to pass up and so simple to put together.
If you want to bake along, email Karen your photo or blog link to karen.h.kerr@gmail.com and she’ll feature you in a follow up post and send you a really cool badge.


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Tootmaniks Gotovo Testo ~ BBB ~ Bake Me!

 


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Kaak Bread ~ BBB ~ Lebanese Street Bread

Our hostess this month, Kitchen of the Month: Karen of BakeMyDay.  She being a very fashion conscious woman has brought us a new hand bag … as in the kind you fill with your hearts desire of goodness and yum it … that means eat it up.
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This is Lebanese street food.  Simple and tasty.
As I understand it a vendor will create a pocket and the bread is filled on the spot with your choice of different fillings.  I did several of mine with za’atar mixed in labneh.  Very good.

And dull as it may seem I also did my favorite with an olive oil fried egg.

235 grams buttermilk, 2 1/2 cups total water + buttermilk
245 grams water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon instant dry yeast
135 gr whole wheat flour **, used 3 cups flour total
490 gr all purpose flour, you may need a little more, but don’t add too much flour **
1 egg for egg wash
1-2 tablespoon sesame seeds per kaak
You will also need lined baking sheets

Directions:

1. The night before baking, I mixed 1 cup white whole wheat with all the liquid and placed in the refrigerator.

2. Allowed the over night mix to warm for an hour before mixing in the yeast, sugar, salt and oil.
I mixed 1 1/4 cup white whole wheat and 3/4 cup bread flour into the overnight mix.
Fairly straight forward dough kneading…
This dough will need a normal rise until doubled. What you’ll be looking for is a malleable non-sticky dough.

3. Shaping; divide dough in equal parts (aim for 100 gram each) and ball up. Cover and let rest to relax for about 15 minutes.

I rolled the dough ball into a log.

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4. Then I rolled the ends of the dough ball into ropes and tapered them at the ends.

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5. Raised the ends and pinched together. Flattened the bottom of the purse.

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6. Place the shaped breads on lined baking sheets, be careful not to stretch the dough.
Loosely cover to rise another 25-30 minutes.

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Egg wash the breads, sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 12-15 minutes (all whole wheat takes longer) or until golden and puffed in a pre-heated oven 400° F (200-220°C).
I think they will benefit from a bit of steam in your oven. Use your preferred method; either ice cubes, boiling water in a heated pan… bake on a stone…
No stone in this kitchen, baked mine on sheet pan.

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This was very easy to work into my schedule, very easy to shape … and fun to shape, and very easy to enjoy.
You know you need a new purse, so get out the flour and start mixing!
Be a Buddy and bake with us!  Karen gives you directions on her blog to bake with us and be a Buddy … and you get great rolls and a new bread to discover.
I super enjoyed these with the za’atar mixed in labneh.


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BBB Rolls ~ NOT Cinnamon Rolls

What can I say … They are angel light even using white whole wheat flour.  They are marvelous but then they had a fabulous breakfast filling, which included bacon.  Maybe the rest of the filling ingredients weren’t traditional breakfast fare but they were great for our breakfast yesterday and today.

The part that I don’t get is the yield/serving size.  This was my biggest mistake.  I divided by 2 and only made half the recipe.  I still got 19 rolls … ah, well, when I have guests, I’ll certainly make the full recipe and then bake a fresh batch the next two mornings.  Because I always tend to want to share, I may make the full recipe when it’s just the two of us anyway and share parts of each baking.

BBB logo april 2016

BBB Wacky Rolls and NOT Cinnamon Rolls
Babe Kitchen of the Month: Karen of BakeMyDay
Serving Size: 21
Yield: 21 rolls

480 ml [2 cups] milk
120 ml [1/2 cup] butter
30 grams brown sugar (my modification)
2 – 2.5 teaspoon yeast
520 grams [4 cups] KA white whole wheat flour
45 grams ground flax seed
65 grams [1/2 cup] AP flour (extra, reserve to add later)
1/2 teaspoon heaping baking powder
1/2 teaspoon scant baking soda
1/2 tablespoon salt
melted butter
190 gr [1 cup] sugar, I omitted

1. Oven: 375F / 190 C

2. Room temperature milk, butter, brown sugar and yeast in a bowl.
Add 4 cups of white whole wheat flour. Stir until combined, cover and let rise for 45 minutes.

3. Next, remove the cover and ADD baking powder, baking soda, salt and the remaining 1.2 cup of flour. Stir thoroughly to combine.

Oops!  I already did that in step one ~ why read when you can breeze along …

4.  Roll out the dough in a rectangle or refrigerate for at least an hour or up to 3 days. (Probably need to keep an eye out for overflowing dough, so punch down if it rises to the top). Relatively slack dough so it probably is easier to work with when chilled!
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I did chill my dough BUT the best thing I see here is:  Make all the recipe, DO NOT divide by 2.  Mix entire recipe; bake half one day and the other half a day or 2 later!  Joy in the morning!

5. Proceed as you will with any other rolls you make; roll dough into a large rectangle on a floured surface. My first batch were thicker than the second day with colder dough.  I liked both.

6. To make the filling, use your imagination… go sweet, go savoury, go wacky. Make it yours and make it good!

OK Karen:
butternut squash roasted tiny cubes
bacon chopped
apple chopped
spinach fine chopped
garlic fine chopped
walnuts, roasted and chopped

(pecans didn’t make it; I think cranberries would be marvelous; happily even though I worried I was adding too many different things, this was a great combo!)

7.  Start rolling, I always start with the long side closest to me and roll away from my body. You could do it the other way round, I am easy like that! Just keep a tight roll.

I think I roll about the same as Karen but I need to work on a slightly tighter roll.

Once you have your roll, pinch the seam and roll it once over so the seam is on the bottom. Slice into 1.1/2 inch thick slices. Cover and set aside to rise for at least 20-45 minutes before baking.  15 minutes worked for me both times.

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8. Bake fo 15-18 minutes in a preheated oven (375F/190C)
White whole wheat flour required 24 to 26 minutes.

Rolls - Not a cinnamon roll

And so we have Breakfast Rolls.  NO cinnamon, NEW tradition!

9. Make these rolls all your own.  Cook with what you like to eat and you should be able to create a lovely high and light roll you can enjoy for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Just remember:  NO CINNAMON.

What Karen ask was why the leavening? Why not use just yeast, or only the other two?

So yes, you need to use all three in this recipe!

You will probably want to see what Elizabeth who did extensive research on the results with the three rising agents (yeast, baking powder, baking soda) had to say.  I’ll try to link to her page as soon as she posts.

My take on these rolls is all three rising agents aren’t used in Angel Rolls for nothing.  These rise like there is no tomorrow or no top to your bowl unless you use a really big bowl.  The dough is beautiful, light and supple.

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I so wanted this egg to be runny … but it stood still

10. Proof positive once again: ” Bread just wants to be bread. ”  Wisdom from Babe Elizabeth.

Notes:

The original recipe starts with heating milk/oil/sugar to just below a boil and let this cool. Karen didn’t do that and neither did I. Also, the recipe tells you to sprinkle on the yeast and let it sit for a minute to bloom. I never do that… didn’t do it this time and neither did Karen.

Basically this recipe follows the rules for making rolls, as in: make the dough, bulk rise. Roll out in a rectangle, add filling of your choice, roll up from the long side and cut into slices. Proof and bake in a moderate oven.

Now the difference lies in the leavening combo and that comes to show in the rising method.

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I do love cinnamon rolls and these would make excellent cinnamon rolls but to NOT make them cinnamon rolls presents an excellent opportunity and I definitely think you should join us on this one.

Join us as a Bread Baking Buddy.  Karen is our host this month. Bake these “Not-a-cinnamon-roll rolls” according to the recipe on Karen’s site and post it on your blog before the 30th of this month. Please make sure you mention BBB April 2016 in the subject line and link to this BBB post in your own blog post. If you don’t have a blog do not hesitate to bake and email me at bakemyday at gmail dot com with your name, a 500px wide image of your bread and the link to your BBB post. I will then send you a BBB badge for this bread that you can then add to your post on your blog. The round up can be expected around the 2nd of May.


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RUSSIAN CHRYSANTHEMUM BREAD ~ BBB

This month’s bread is visually stunning, looks fancy and like it could be fussy.  But it’s not … fussy that is.

Lien, our Kitchen of the Month for November, introduced this bread as savory.  I changed around Lien’s suggested filling slightly but the lamb sounded good and I’m always in for savory.  We really really enjoyed this over several days, for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner.  I would absolutely bake this again just as I’ve written it below.  I would absolutely recommend you get in the kitchen and bake it too.

Russian Chrysanthemum Bread

Recipe By: Lien:  adapted from: http://www.stranamam.ru/post/8536219/
Yield: one large round loaf; or two smaller

DOUGH
350 grams bread flour
100 grams sprouted wheat flour
50 grams white whole wheat flour
7 grams dry instant yeast
20 grams ground flax seed
20 grams chia seeds
125 ml milk, lukewarm
125 yogurt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
90 ml olive oil
GLAZE, I omitted this
1 TBsp milk
1 egg yolk
Equipment Needed
1 round cookie cutter 2 1/2 inches in diameter
large shallow pie dish 28 cm in diameter
My FILLING
450 grams lamb ground, sauted
½ red pepper, seeds removed, chopped fine
1 poblano chile, chopped fine
3 garlic clove, chopped
1 red onion, chopped fine
1 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
½ teaspoon all spice
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika powder
1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
80 grams grated smoked gruyere cheese, grated for topping/garnish
water, to give moisture or tomato sauce

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1. DOUGH I omitted sugar called for in Lein’s recipe and mixed yeast and salt with the flours, flax and chia seeds.  I mixed yogurt, egg and oil together.  Then I mixed the dry ingredients with the wet.  Knead into a supple dough.

2. Shape into a ball and let rest in a lightly greased bowl, covered with plastic foil. Let the dough rise for about an hour or until doubled.

3. FILLING I made this several days before baking.
Glaze the chopped onion and garlic in a frying pan. Leave to cool.
Mix the ingredients except the cheese for the filling well. Set aside.

4. SHAPE & FINAL RISE Lightly grease your pie dish.
Work with about ⅓ of the dough at the time.  I didn’t read this and divided the dough in half; really divide in 3 parts would work much better.

Roll it out to a thickness of about 3 mm. Cut out rounds with a cookie cutter.
Place 1 tablespoon of filling on each round and sprinkle with some cheese. Fold the circle in half, and fold the two point together. It now looks like a petal.

Place in the pie dish, starting around the border with the point of the petal facing to the center. Repeat until there is just  a little space left in the middle. Make three slightly smaller circles, fill and fold as the others and place them in the middle. Cover with lightly greased plastic  or foil and leave to rest and rise for about 45 minutes.

5. BAKE Preheat the oven to 180ºC  (356°F)

Whisk egg yolk and milk for the glaze and brush the bread with it. I sprayed mine with water.
Place the bread in the oven on a rack and bake for 25 minutes.
Lower the temperature to 170ºC (340°F) and bake for another 10-15 minutes until golden.
When the loaf is done, take it out of the oven and the tin, place on a wire rack and brush with some melted butter. Let cool or eat warm.

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Notes:

Divide dough into three parts for easier handling.

Recipe makes enough dough for more than one 8 inch pie plate or perhaps I rolled my dough too thin.

Place small round baking dish in center if a dip is desired.

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Sometimes stunning can seem like a limit.  By that I mean, at least for me, when Lien introduced this as savory for some reason all I could think of was a meat filling (even though she suggested a bean filling as a meat substitute idea).  Now, that I’ve baked this I’m struck with how fabulous these little pull apart bites are and how incredibly versatile this bread could be.  Perhaps it started when Karen put up her Pizza Chrysanthemum Bread.

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Now, I have a constant running loop of “fillings” for this bread and they are not all savory: Peanut Butter & Jelly;  Garlic Butter;  Pepperoni Pizza;  Chicken Enchilada;  Refried Black Bean & Salsa;  Cinnamon Sugar;  Chocolate Chip with Peanut Butter;  …  and with the holidays coming up how about some traditionals like Mince Meat;  Pumpkin Pie; … well let’s just go with Pie as in Apple Pie …  Are you catching my drift?  This is a stunning shape for a bread.  The small bite size makes it perfect for so many different meals and snacks, it’s absolutely a natural for a party of any sort.

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Yes, we really did have it for breakfast.  Much better than an egg mcmuffin.

Go BAKE, Be a BUDDY.  Tell me you love me … well, just tell me you love BREAD will be good.

As Lien says it:  Become our Bread Baking Buddy, bake, blog, post, tell us about it and you’ll be added to the round up post on my blog (begin of December) ánd you’ll receive the Bread Baking Buddy Badge that you can add to your post if you want. So get baking and sent you details to notitievanlien (at) gmail (dot) com. Subject: BBBuddy. Deadline is the 29th of November. Have fun baking!


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BBB Aloo Partha

Let me tell you, satellite internet is not wonderful. Well, at least the one we have here in the north woods isn’t.  When the wind blows, it rains, it snows, and sometimes it’s just  beautiful outside … our satellite doesn’t really care … it just randomly takes a rest. That’s what is’s done for the last three days and that’s my excuse for being so late. The only thing I miss about the big city is the high speed internet.

Karen is our Kitchen of the Month. Thank You Karen for the BBB’s very first bread recipe without yeast!  Aloo Paratha has long been on my list for baking and we loved these. Shamelessly easy to make.  Filling them is only limited by your imagination. Serve as a little bite with wine. Serve as a light lunch.  Serve with the evening soup. Be traditional, serve with a warming curry.

BBB Aloo Paratha

Recipe By: Karen of BakeMyDay from how to cook everything by Mark Bittman”

2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup sprouted wheat flour
salt
1 teaspoon ajwain* dried thyme, or ground cumin
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil, like grapeseed or corn, plus more for brushing the breads
1.1/2 lb. starchy potatoes, peeled and cut in half
1 jalapeño or other fresh hot chile, seeded and minced or more to taste
2 teaspoons ground coriander
freshly ground pepper
juice of 1/2 small lemon
1 clove garlic pressed
3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
melted butter
*ajwain comes from carom seeds which look like celery but taste like very strong, slightly coarse thyme

They look like the real Aloo Paratha! done in a skillet.

They look like the real Aloo Paratha! done in a skillet.

1. Combine the flours with 1 teaspoon salt and the thyme in a food processor.  OK, let’s stop right there. I have a food processor, yes I do. I even gave in and went to the friend’s hanger where he’s kindly allowing us to store a lot of boxes while we try to put in a kitchen and get a storage shed built. Gorn even located said food processor and I unpacked it … or most of it. It seems the critical piece that makes the electrical contact was left out … hopefully packed in another box that will one day be unpacked … but that was not yesterday nor today. I’m reasoning that even today there are a huge number of cooks in India making paratha and even today a huge number are making paratha without the aid of a food processor … SOOOOOOOO like a good Daring Baker (thank you Lisa) and good Bread Baking Babe that I am I forged ahead mixing the dough by hand and even though it took slightly longer than 30-45 seconds (5 minutes actually) I did end up with a dough slightly sticky to the touch and continued on.

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Turn the machine on and add the oil and 3/4 cup water through the feed tube. Process for about 30 seconds, until the mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky to the touch. If it is dry, add another tablespoon or two of water and process for another 10 seconds. In the unlikely event that the mixture is too sticky, add flour a tablespoon at a time. Remove the dough and, using flour as necessary, shape into a ball; wrap in plastic and let rest while you make the potato mixture. (At this point, you may wrap the dough tightly in plastic and refrigerate for up to a day or freeze for up to a week; bring back to room temperature before proceeding.)
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2. Put the potatoes in a large saucepan and add water to cover and a large pinch of salt.  Sorry, we have to stop right here again … I don’t have a stove top upstairs in our “kitchen” yet and I just wasn’t willing to run outside in the rain to use the stove downstairs … so I baked the potato, I suppose I could have steamed them in the microwave but I baked them. Oh, and all that green … I added a nice handful of spinach.  Turn the heat to high, bring to a boil, and adjust the heat so the mixture simmers steadily; cook until the potatoes are tender, 15 to 20 minutes, then drain. Mash the potatoes along with half (all) the chile, the coriander, a large pinch of salt, some pepper, and the lemon juice; taste and adjust the seasoning (you may prefer more chile; sometimes aloo paratha are quite hot).

Divide

Divide

3. When the dough has rested, set out a bowl of all-purpose flour and a small bowl of oil, with a spoon or brush, on your work surface. Lightly flour your work surface and your rolling pin. Break off a piece of dough about the size of a golf ball. Toss it in the bowl of flour and then roll it in your hands to make a ball. Flatten it into a 2-inch disk, then use a floured rolling pin to roll it into a thin round, about 5 inches in diameter, dusting with flour as necessary.

Pull up the sides to make a purse and then flatten, roll thin.

Pull up the sides to make a purse and then flatten, roll thin.

4. Mound about 2 tablespoons (that was too much for the size I made, adjust accordingly)  of the filling into the center of one of the rounds of dough. Bring the edges of the round up over the top of the filling and press them together to make a pouch. Press down on the “neck” of the pouch with the palm of one hand to make a slightly rounded disk. Turn the disk in the bowl of flour and roll it out again into a round 6 to 7 inches in diameter. Pat it between your hands to brush off the excess flour. Put the paratha on a plate and cover with a sheet of plastic wrap. Continue to roll all of the remaining dough into parathas and stack them on the plate with a sheet of plastic wrap between them. You can keep the paratha stacked like this for an hour or two in the refrigerator before cooking them if necessary.
Keep them stacked for two hours … perfect! The rain had stopped and I used the stove top downstairs to cook two of them.
5. Heat a griddle or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat for a minute or two, then put on a paratha (or two, if they’ll fit) and cook until it darkens slightly, usually less than a minute. Flip the paratha with a spatula and cook for another 30 seconds on the second side. Use the back of a spoon or a brush to coat the top of the paratha with oil. Flip and coat the other side with oil. Continue cooking the paratha until the bottom of the bread has browned, flip, and repeat.

Panni Aloo Paratha India + Italy

Panni Aloo Paratha
India + Italy

I did do two in this traditional stove top manner but … on two occasions I used the panni grill. While that doesn’t give the traditional look to the paratha, it produces a nice paratha.
Do this a few times until both sides of the paratha are golden brown and very crisp, 2 to 3 minutes total for each paratha. As the paratha finish, remove them from the pan and brush with melted butter if you’re going to serve hot; otherwise wait until you’ve reheated them.6.  variations: cauliflower, sweet potato …
Yep, we enjoyed these immensely with our wine in the evening. These are shamelessly easy to make. The dough can be held over in the fridge a day or two so it’s a delight when there is just the two of us to make these for several days in a row. They make wonderful little bites for a light lunch or a little bite with a glass of wine in the evening.
Now the only question remaining here is: Are you going to join in and become a Bread Baking Buddy?If you’d like to join in, simply bake this Aloo Paratha (yes, you may adapt) – and then send Karen a link to your post via email (bake my day at gmail dot com).  Submissions are due by November 29th.  Once you’ve posted, Karen will send you a fabulous Buddy Badge designed by our own Babe Lien for baking along and you’ll appear in the Buddy post.  I hope you’ll join us this month!


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Our Buddies are Crackers! Great Crackers! Oh yeah …

Buddies … I can’t fully explain what bread baking means to me/us.  I know it’s all mixed together with the feelings of touching the physical dough, connecting with a long history of bread bakers through the centuries, befriending those around my kitchen table and that strange creative process of relaxing kneading.  It’s always fascinating to me that bread is such simple ingredients and is always different, glorious but always different.

Buddies … I can’t fully explain what our Bread Baking Buddies mean to me/Babes.  I know it’s partly all the above of baking bread but it’s something above that and extraordinarily special.  Strangers come into my kitchen, take a recipe, are willing to put time, effort and good ingredients into that recipe, make it their own and bake with us.

This time around I especially enjoyed Louise Persson’s words:

I’m pleased to have been able to bake this unusual recipe with the BBBs. I saw it posted at KAF sometime ago and thought I would never attempt crackers. Yet baking as a Buddy, I’ve stretched myself and added some new experiences, and happily, this was one of them.

I really can’t remember how I found the BBB while browsing through blogs one day, but I’m very glad I did! I look forward to each new bread, sometimes, like this month, thinking, “Oh, I can’t. I don’t have the time or skill.” But it’s amazing what we can accomplish, isn’t it?

Louise’s experience is typical of so many of us.  Perhaps I should be less emphatic, I do know Louise expresses what I experienced when I started blogging and it continues to this day even though I do recognize I have more confidence when I approach a new recipe.  Yes Louise it is amazing what we can accomplish when we give it a go.

On top of that empathy, what perhaps thrills me/Babes even more is to think that we have somehow influenced a few others to take up this BreadHead Cause and enjoy, experience, learn and share these experiences.

Bread Baking makes my heart happy.  Bread Baking Buddies make my heart happier.  I am so glad that you each give of yourselves and take time to bake with us.  You are truly very special people.  Thank you. Each one of you.

Our Cracker Buddies are (in no particular order):

Louise BreadHead without blog

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Corrine at Yogi Latte

Corrine

Karen at Karen’s Kitchen Stories

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Claartje at Claire’s Baking

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Cathy at Bread Experience

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Carola at Sweet and That’s It

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Renee at Kudos Kitchen

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Kelly at A Messy Kitchen

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Anita (Soepkipje) at Ipernity   

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Aparna at MyDiverseKitchen

Seed Crackers 6

Now do you see what I mean when I say these are are really special bunch of bakers!

Hope you can excuse me being late (but it did allow some extra Buddies to sneak in!) between company and that great mystery of the internet gobbling up my post requiring it to be redone … I was late.

If you baked as a Buddy and I missed you please send me an e-mail with your link and a photo so that I may include you!

You’ll excuse me now while I go bake these crackers again AND see if I can get baking on the Babes October bread.

BBB logo July 2012


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BBB Oats, Oatmeal, Oh…Sara’s Easy Little Oatmeal Bread

There are times when you know exactly where things started to go off course, where things went wrong.  Then there are other times when you’re really following the recipe, everything clicked along just perfectly and you have to look back and question every step and still can’t find where it went off.  Easy is just not to be trusted.  Fast is one thing … Easy is something else.  Some of us can make easy really hard.

This month’s Kitchen of the Month is hosted by Sara of I Like to Cook and she has a blog to prove it too!  The bread she brought us this month is really very healthy; filled with whole grains – wheat and oats – low sugar – only a tablespoon of honey and no added fat … well none in the loaf, you do brush it with melted butter 😉

Now, Sara must have found this an easy bread because that’s what she called it and she baked it more than once and she has a little one to keep her busy.  I found the rising part a little not easy.  I will admit that I just about never bloom my yeast before using it.  Since I baked with this yeast before and after this loaf and they both rose with great vigor, I don’t think the problem was with the yeast.  The kitchen was warm, 79°F so you can’t blame it on a cold kitchen.  It did rise but even with doubling the time it didn’t reach the rim of the pan and had no oven spring.

What’s special about this bread:  No Kneading, good grains, low sugar, low fat, baby it’s fast!

Sara’s Easy Little Bread

Recipe By: Sara: Adapted from Gran’s Kitchen: Recipes from the Notebooks of Dulcie May Booker via 101 Cookbooks
Yield: 1 loaf

1 1/4 cups / 300 ml warm water (105-115F)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (one packet)
1 tablespoon runny honey
1 cup / 4.5 oz / 125 g unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup / 5 oz / 140 g whole wheat flour
1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g rolled oats (not instant oats)
1 1/2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted, for brushing

50 minutes into rising...

50 minutes into rising…

Here’s the way I did it:

Mix the flours, oats, yeast and salt in a large bowl.

Add the honey & water mixture to the dry and stir very well.

Mix together the wet and the dry to blend evenly.

Brush a 8-cup loaf pan generously with some of the melted butter.

Turn the dough into the tin, cover with a clean, slightly damp cloth, and set in a warm place for 30 minutes, to rise.  I left mine an hour to rise.

Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C, with a rack in the middle.

When ready, bake the bread for 35-40 minutes (mine was ready = pulling away from the side of the pan and registered 198°F) @35 minutes, until golden and pulling away from the sides of the pan.  Sara finishes things up by leaving the bread under the broiler for just a heartbeat – to give the top a bit deeper color.  I did this and gave it an extra heart beat too much and it was a little dark but still fine; so just be advised and watch it.

It's the bottom.

It’s the bottom.

Remove from oven, and turn the bread out of the pan quickly. Let it cool on a rack so it doesn’t steam in the pan. Serve warm, slathered with butter.  I let mine cool thinking of all the whole grains in it.

The crumb ... and buttered!

The crumb … and buttered!

Breakfast

Breakfast

It made fine toast and a very nice breakfast.

And then … And then … And then … it was Friday and I was reading YeastSpotting and found a rather interesting post by a new to me blog:  TreatNTrick.

Well, it was sort of like a delayed 4th of July.  It really did send off all kinds of fireworks.  It was like the light bulb went off in my head, the light bulb that was 1000 watts.  This went from an interesting learning experience nice home made loaf into the realm of the “you will bake this one again” and more than once because this is the extraordinary bread that meets the need for good tasting utility bread.  I’m sorry, I can see your eyes have glazed over and you’re not getting it; utility sounds like a dirty word to you.

Alright, let’s do this pancake shall we and have breakfast together.  Coffee ready.  I can wait or let me show you this will it brews.

So, I’m YeastSpotting at midnight and it was all I could do to keep myself in bed and not go straight into the kitchen to try this out.

You need bread cubes, corn stripped off the cob and it’s juices, garlic clove minced, pepper (I chopped a Poblano pepper but pick your favorite), tomato, salt to taste and some seasonings (I used some fresh chopped rosemary left over from the night before, cumin and a good pinch of Aleppo pepper; pick your favorites).  Then you need some liquid and a little binder.  I used 2 eggs, buttermilk and I think about 7 tablespoons of corn flour and 2 tablespoons of oat bran, no sugar in sight.  You do see that we’re staying within the a very healthy place right?  If you check out TreatNTrick you’ll see how to do it without eggs or milk.

I’ve always disliked pancakes, let me qualify that.  I dislike flipping pancakes, I just suck at it … always.  These were no exception.  The first one I made too thick and too big.  It came unglued.  Next I tried doing it in a waffle maker.  MUCH better.  The last couple I did on my griddle and they were perfect; I can flip on a griddle not in a skillet.  The best thing about the waffle was you got several crunchy bread cubes in each waffle.  Somehow that didn’t happen with the pancakes.  My favorites were the smaller griddle cakes.  These are really special.  Great for company.

So, my thought is this is a utility bread.  It’s good healthy home made bread that can be baked quickly and then turned into something really spectacular with these Savory Bread Pancakes.  The bread cubes can be frozen even for later use.

While the pancakes I think are brilliant, my next thought really rocked … at least I think it does.  I love making and eating Thanksgiving dressing.  I’m always wanting to make it with healthy really good homemade bread.  My intentions are good.  But when it comes down to the wire, I really don’t like to use terrific bread that I put so much into to make dressing.  This bread however made with wonderful healthy ingredients takes a very small investment of time and seems just perfect to the task.  Easy enough to load it up with herbs when it’s mixed.  Now you see the “utility” of this bread and utility doesn’t seem like such a dirty word does it?

I do hope you’ll want to be a Buddy with us on this one.   1.Bake the featured bread, snap a pic & share your thoughts about how you liked it (or not liked it) 2.Send  an email to Kitchen of the Month.  Sara of I Like to Cook to notify her and make it easier to write the round up.

Don’t forget to visit my fellow Bread Baking Babes to see how they baked and also… visit our Katie! She is the BBBBB (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire) who writes up such lovely round ups of all the BBB Breads every month!

This Bread and all it’s iterations is going to Susan for YeastSpotting!

And now as they say for something completely different:


The Babes will bake and post on August 15th in honor of Julia Child’s 100th birthday, and we would love for the Buddies (that is, anyone who would like to play), to join us in posting on that day. Big thanks to Elle for creating the invitation. For the recipe we will be baking, please email Susan:   susan at wildyeastblog dot com (NB: This is an invitation for NEXT month, August. THIS month (July), Buddies are still invited to make the Easy Little Bread.)

Savory bread pancake from http://treatntrick.blogspot.sg/2012/07/savory-bread-pancake.html