Bread | MyKitchenInHalfCups

November 17, 2013
by MyKitchenInHalfCups 6 Comments

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.

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.

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.)

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

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.

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

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!

October 16, 2013
by MyKitchenInHalfCups 10 Comments

Rainbows and Carrot Bread for BBB

No parsley, rice flour that was there on Monday and disappeared on Wednesday … what maybe has some relation to a grain of rice … maybe barley … maybe not … try it anyway.

You do know that a second baking provides a golden opportunity to try it a different way aiming for better … or disaster.

Heather, our colorful Kitchen of the Month at Girl Chef, has brought Babes and Buddies an awesome Fall bread. The orange of carrots is a gorgeous fall color and really gives vibrancy to this loaf.

Carrot Bread

Recipe from: Heather: adapted from Artisan Breads: Practical Recipes & Detailed Instructions for Baking the World’s Finest Loaves by Jan Hed
Yield: 4 loaves

for the Poolish:
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water + more as needed, I must have used at least 2 cups total
364 grams stone ground rye flour

for the Dough:
2/3 cup toasted sesame seeds, used pepita’s (pumpkin)
1.5 cup toasted sunflower seeds
60 grams ground flax seed
2-1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup carrot juice or orange juice, lukewarm
2-1/4 cups grated carrot
1/2 cup chopped parsley, omitted as I had none
824 grams bread flour, I used a mix of flours, about 450 bread flour, then a mix of white whole wheat and spelt
2 tablespoons honey, maple syrup or agave, used agave
1/4 cup sunflower oil – I used grapeseed oil
4 teaspoons sea salt

for the Crackle Glaze:
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons lukewarm water
132 grams rice flour, rice flour lost used barley flour
2 teaspoons agave, cut to 1 teaspoon
1-3/4 teaspoons sunflower oil
3/4 teaspoons sea salt

1. Day 1: Make the Poolish Dissolve the yeast in the water, and let sit a few minutes to bloom. Whisk in the flour until smooth – if it is very thick, continue whisking in more water until it is the consistency of a thick batter. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours; at this point it should be a bit bubbly.

2. Day 2: Baking Day In a large bowl (or bowl of a stand mixer fitted with dough hook attachment), dissolve the yeast in the carrot juice, let sit a few minutes until it looks creamy (bloomed). Add the grated carrot, parsley, the lesser amount of bread flour, and the poolish to the bowl. Knead on low spead for 3 minutes. If the dough doesn’t seem too sticky, then don’t add any more of the flour; it will firm up as it is kneaded (plus you have more to add to it).

3. Add the oil to the bowl and knead for another 8 minutes. Add the salt, increase the speed, and knead until elastic, about 7 more minutes. At this point, the dough will not be sticky any longer. Use the extra flour, a tiny bit at a time, to remedy the dough if it is. Add the toasted seeds, and gently mix in.

4. Place the dough into a large, lightly oiled bowl or container and cover. Let sit for 60-90 minutes, knocking the dough back halfway through. To knock the dough back, remove it from the bowl and set it on a work surface. Use your hands to knock the air out of it. Fold the edges towards the center to form a cushion. Replace in the container, seam side down.

5. make the Crackle Glaze: While the dough is rising, dissolve the yeast in the water in a medium bowl. Whisk in the remaining ingredients. It should be spreadable, but not runny. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes before using.

6. shaping and baking: Turn the dough out onto a lighty floured work surface and divide into 3 equal parts (approximately 78 ounces of dough to equal three 26 ounce portions).

7. Form the portions into three round balls, and cover them with a clean tea towel. Let rest for 10 minutes.

8. Shape each circle of dough into an oblong loaf, by gently pressing ball down into a circle and then tucking/rolling into shape. Set loaves, seam side down, onto a lightly floured bread peel or thin cutting board. Glaze the loaves generously with the crackling glaze (you’ll have a lot of leftover glaze), and leave to rise at room temperature for 60-75 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size and the the surface is crackled.

9. Place a baking stone into the oven, and preheat to 475° F during last 20 minutes or so of rise time.
My first two loaves where done in a small Breville convection oven. The highest temperature possible in that oven is 450° and since it’s so small and the elements very exposed, I’m a little leary of misting. Sill we were very happy with the bread.
Since I divided the dough in half and immediately refrigerated one half, I baked the second two loaves after that refrigeration time the next day. I allowed the dough to warm up about an hour and a half and then continued with the directions and baked it in the downstairs regular electric oven. This time the bread baked initially at 475° and was misted but it was not convection. I did follow the instructions below in number 10 for opening the oven door every 10 minutes. Some of the photos look very dark but there was no burning.
Neither baking got much oven spring and the loaves came out color and time wise pretty much the same.

10. Slide the loaves onto the stone (let them rise directly on a baking sheet or two if you don’t have a stone – slide that into preheated oven) and spray generously with water. Close oven door. Lower the temperature to 400° F after 5 minutes. After another 10 minutes, open the oven door to let in a little air. Repeat two more times (every 10 minutes). Total baking time will be 45 minutes.

11. Remove bread from oven and cool on a wire rack. What you think my cooling rack looks odd … well it’s really a grill basket for little burgers but it works!
I hope your soup is ready.

Notes:
I doubled the carrots, used orange juice not carrot juice, no sesame seeds, used pumpkin seeds; doubled the amounts of both seeds; replaced 100 grams of bread flour with Spelt: used agave for sweetener.
Really like Pat’s idea of diluting a jar or two of baby food carrot andand perhaps I should check to see if there’s baby carrot juice.
This makes excellent toast, great grilled cheese and tomorrow I’m using the last loaf to make stuffing for roast chicken dinner.

This is a fairly dense bread, allow it to cool or it will be gummy on the inside when you’re re

The Bread Baking Buddies are: YOU!

With Heather at Girl Chef the hosting Babe kitchen of the month, if you’d like to join in, simply bake this Carrot Bread (yes, you may adapt) – and then send her a link to your post via email (girlichef at yahoo dot com). Submissions are due by October 29th. Once you’ve posted, Heather will send you a Buddy badge for baking along and you’ll appear in the Buddy post. I hope you’ll join us this month!

The weather is chilling down, bake this bread and have the soup hot!

Wonderful bread Heather, many thanks!

October 2, 2013
by MyKitchenInHalfCups 7 Comments

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

Corrine at Yogi Latte

Karen at Karen’s Kitchen Stories

Claartje at Claire’s Baking

Cathy at Bread Experience

Carola at Sweet and That’s It

Renee at Kudos Kitchen

Kelly at A Messy Kitchen

Anita (Soepkipje) at Ipernity

Aparna at MyDiverseKitchen

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.

September 16, 2013
by MyKitchenInHalfCups 25 Comments

BBB ~ Crunchy Crackers

When you find a trusted source, you kept going back don’t you? Shoes you like, you’re likely to look for the brand again? A food blog you try a recipe from, you like, you’ll look to try another? For me there’s at least one site whose products I love and even order repeatedly from and use their recipes. For a bread lover, who do you think that might be? King Arthur Flour has proven itself over and over for me and these crackers are just another proof. This is a beautifully easy recipe to mix and bake but for me at least it’s glory lies in the topping possibilities and yes the use of a variety of flours.

Probably the most often spread we enjoy with these crackers is my spinach and artichoke, made with double spinach and given it’s own crunch with water chestnuts.

Crunchy Crackers

Recipe By: KAF
Yield: 2 cookie sheets

Summary from KAF:

This recipe mimics an extra-crunchy, seed-topped whole-gain cracker you may find at your supermarket. These are great for spreads and dips of all kinds.

198 to 227g lukewarm water
170 g King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
120 g King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons non-diastatic malt powder or sugar – I used agave
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
14 g whole milled flax or whole flax seed ground
14 g sesame seeds or whole flax seeds
*Substitute 28g golden flax seeds for the flax and sesame, if desired.
topping
71 g sunflower seeds, midget preferred*
28 g sesame seeds*
28 g whole flax seeds

sea salt or your favorite flavored salt, if desired
*Substitute 3/4 cup artisan bread topping + 1/4 cup whole flax seeds for the sunflower, sesame, and flax seeds, if desired.

1. Mix and knead together all of the cracker ingredients (except the seeds) to a smooth, fairly stiff dough. Add 1-2 more tablespoons of water if the dough is dry.

I used the larger 227 ml of water and regardless of the flour type used, I have found this to be a sticky wet dough. I’ve played very loose with the white whole wheat flour called for in the recipe: on different occasions I’ve replaced part of it with barley flour, buckwheat flour, spelt and rye flours. Perhaps we enjoyed the buckwheat flour the most but all were terrific. Each time I’ve baked these I’ve added chopped walnuts but my Babes have show me I must expand my nut choices ~ think pecans, pine nuts …

2. Knead in the seeds.

You may do as I’ve done at this point and refrigerate the dough: if you do that, allow the dough 90 to 120 minutes to re-warm to room temp and expand slightly as in step 3 below.

3. Let the dough rise, covered, for 60 to 90 minutes, until it’s expanded a bit.

Don’t expect a large rise here. “Expand a bit” did not translate into doubling as you often expect with doughs.

4. Divide the dough in half. Working with one piece at a time, roll it into a rectangle approximately 14″ x 9″, a generous 1/8″ thick. This will probably require you to roll the dough until it fights back; give it a 10-minute rest, then come back and roll some more. It may need two rest periods to allow you to roll it thin enough.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve always played around using different flours or maybe it’s because I’ve always had that rest period in the refrigerator but I’ve never had this dough fight back, it’s always been easy to roll out.

I also use special rubber bands on my rolling pin to take the guess work out of how thick the dough rolls out. I’ve used the yellow bands in the past for the 1/8 inch but this time I went with the red 1/16. It worked just fine and gave me very thin crackers, crunchy!

5. For easiest handling, turn the dough onto a piece of parchment paper. Spritz the dough with water. Sprinkle with 1/4 of the topping seeds, lay a piece of parchment on top, and press the seeds in with a rolling pin. Turn the dough over, peel off the parchment, and repeat. Set the seeded crackers on a baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining piece of dough.

Play: these seeds are suggestions, what’s in your pantry, what do you like, what wildness can you come up with? Seeds are great but consider using your favorite nut here. I chopped seeds and nuts. Because there are only two of us on most occasions, I generally divide this dough into half or thirds and bake over several days.

6. If you don’t have parchment, roll on a rolling mat or on a very lightly floured or lightly greased work surface; and transfer the seeded crackers to a lightly greased baking sheet. Sprinkle each sheet of crackers with some sea salt or flavored salt, if desired. Crush the sea salt between your fingers or grind it in a salt mill if it’s very coarse.

7. Prick the dough over with a fork or one of these. I ruined many a cookie sheet using forks to prick cracker dough until I found one of these rollers …

and cut it into rectangles, whatever size you like. This seemed like an insane gadget to buy at the time but after using it repeatedly for crackers and biscuits, I’ve really come to wonder why I put off paying the $20 for so long. It expands to cut any width you like and locks in place. Initially I thought this would be a bugger to wash but I just open it up wide and give each roller blade a wipe, close it up and swish it in the water: clean!

Pull the crackers apart just a bit; you don’t need to separate them completely. Let the crackers rise for 30 to 45 minutes. while you preheat your oven to 350°F; they’ll get just a bit puffy.

8. Bake for 20 minutes, until the crackers are a medium brown. Turn off the heat, wait 15 minutes, then open the oven door a couple of inches and let the crackers cool completely in the turned-off oven. When they’re completely cool, break apart, if necessary, and store airtight.

Once again I am KOM … Kitchen of the Month! The Babes have really gone crackers with this one so be sure to check them all out. They’re on the side bar there. If you’d like to be a buddy with us this month, I will be delighted to have you in the Cracker round up to be posed on the 29th September. To be a Bread Baking Buddy, just make the crackers, take some photos, write up your post – tell us your experience with the dough – and send an email to ~ comments my kitchen at mac dot com ~ you know to take out all those spaces ~ PLEASE PUT “Cracker Buddy” as your subject line and get those mails to me by no later than the 28th. I’ll send you the buddy badge and get you in the round up.

See those fire crackers in our badge, thank you Lien! Now get cracken and BAKE!

August 16, 2013
by MyKitchenInHalfCups 13 Comments

BBB ~ Jamie’s Nut Roll

This is the story of how I had to open a can of green beans in order to bake Jamie’s Nut Roll. Yes, Life’s A Feast, Jamie is our delightful Kitchen Of the Month. And, yes, thank you for this one!

Start to finish, this one does take some time in total. Hands on time however is actually fairly limited. I very often have to chuckle when I remember thinking that bread takes so long to make … that was before I actually made bread and I know just about anyone who’s contemplated baking bread has had the thought “It takes so long, I just don’t have that time.” That would be true if you had to actually be doing something to the dough not just leaving it alone.

How simple can it get when the night before you put yeast in warm water. Add the butter, milk, eggs yolks, sugar, salt and flour. Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth. Cover and refrigerate overnight. I will tell you that after I mixed with the wooden spoon and it was smooth, I really didn’t believe this would be much more than the glop it appeared to be. Just go with it.

Nut Roll Coffee Cake

Recipe By: Jamie from Taste of Home Cookbook (Taste of Home Bakeshop Favorites)
Yield: one loaf in tube pan

For the dough:
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
70 ml warm water (110°F to 115°F)
225 grams unsalted butter, melted
125 ml warm skim milk (110°F to 115°F)
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar, I used brown
3/4 teaspoon salt
350 grams flour I used a combo: 100 spelt and 250 white whole wheat, more as needed
35 grams ground flax seed
For the filling:
3 egg whites ~ but there were 4 yolks in the dough?
1 cup + 3 Tbs sugar again I used brown, divided
2 cups ground walnuts & pecans
2 tablespoons 2% fat/lowfat milk, ! forgot it, which was lucky because I used that fourth egg white
2 tsps ground cinnamon ~ or whatever looks/smells right to you; I used 2 tablespoons

Directions:

1. The day before, prepare the dough:

2. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add the butter, milk, eggs yolks, sugar, salt and flour. Beat until smooth – the mixture will be sticky. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

At this point I thought “this isn’t going to make bread”. It’s goop.

3. The day of baking, prepare the filling: ***** even though the directions left this step out, consider this dough is cold coming from the fridge: I took mine out and allowed to warm for the time it took to make the meringue below.

4. In a small bowl, beat the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in 1 cup sugar, about 2 tablespoons at a time, on high speed until the sugar is incorporated and dissolved.

5. In a large bowl, combine the walnuts, milk, cinnamon and remaining sugar; fold in the meringue. For a little extra, toast the nuts! That was a good touch. I toasted the walnuts … then I chopped them … then I went for pecans. I didn’t toast the pecans but I did add 3/4 a cup to the already full measure of walnuts.

6. Prepare the Coffee Cake:

7. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease a 10-inch tube pan. !#@$###!!! A what … hahahahahaha all my tube pans have been packed for weeks … tube pan … what is a tube pan … well the le creuset dutch oven is a pan and it’s on the shelf … but it has no tube … so you make a tube … and that is when I had to open the can of green beans … wrapped in foil a green bean can becomes a fabulous tube and the dutch oven becomes a tube pan!

8. Divide the dough in half. On a well-floured work surface, roll each portion into an 18 x 12 –inch (45 x 30 cm) rectangle. Spread half of the filling evenly over each rectangle within 1/2 –inch (1 cm) of the edges. Roll each up jelly-roll style, starting with the long side; pinch seam to seal.

9. Place one filled roll, seam side up, in the greased tube pan. Place the second roll, seam side down. Neither one of my rolls were long enough to make it all the way around my make shift tube pan; I just laid the middle of the second roll on top of the first one where it didn’t meet and it all evened out.

******Again missing from the directions but just from the “routine of having baked so many loaves, I gave this a 40 minute rise on the counter before popping it into the oven.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 – 45 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.
What I should have done: take the bread temp. I think this loaf could have baked several minutes longer but maybe not 5. If I’d taken the temp I know better when it would be done next time.
Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before removing the coffee cake from the pan to a cooling rack to cool completely. Removing from the pan prevents bread from becoming soggy.

10. Eat as is or drizzle with glaze or dust with powdered sugar.

You can see how my top roll didn’t quite come together perfectly but I more than happy with it’s charm. And yes I used all four of those egg whites and had way more meringue than I should have and it squished out … but it just shows you the goodness inside so I’m happy with that as well.

Just the butter called for in the recipe, extra nuts, extra cinnamon … Oh my goodness, all you need now is to get crack’n and bake this … well then you might want coffee although after dinner with wine this was good too.

Didn’t I warn you? It’s August, it’s HOT and you will want to turn on your oven for this one! If you want to make this bread with us … like really how could you not … then you really want to be a Bread Baking Buddy, then bake it, blog it and send Jamie a link by August 26th. Please use Bread Baking Buddy in the subject line and Jamie will add you to the roundup. But before you do that, check out if and how the other Babes managed their nut roll, on my side bar.

Thank You Jamie!

June 17, 2013
by MyKitchenInHalfCups 7 Comments

BBB ~ Nan e Barbari (Persian flatbread)

Flat, I’m flat, I’m flat as a pancake. Flat as a pancake, busy as a bee and happy as can be with Nan E Barbari!

Since I am so very late posting this month because the universe has chosen to bless me with a hail storm of crisis events – always loved that Morton salt girl with the huge umbrella in the downpour – when it rains it pours. I will do this very short with just a few notes of mine.

Notes: You really want to bake this: It’s drop dead easy and fast for yeasties.

My original goal was to have a lovely Persian dinner with this like lamb meatballs … but I never got that past the idea stage and instead we used half of a loaf for toast and the rest for glorious sandwiches! When we get to Michigan, this is going to be high on my list for a BBQ nite.

Recipe from our Kitchen of the Month Elizabeth

and

based on Lida’s recipe for Barbari Bread at 1001recipe.com

Nan e Barbari (Persian flatbread)

dough
5 gm (~1.5 tsp) active dry yeast
360 gm (1.5 c) water, at 90F (32C) ¹
60 gm (~0.5 c) 100% whole wheat flour
360 gm (~2.75 c) unbleached all purpose flour (100 grams of this was spelt)
2 gm (~0.5 tsp) baking powder
6 gm (1 tsp) salt

30 gm ground flax seed
nigella seeds (or black sesame, poppy, sesame seeds)
sauce
1 teaspoon flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
160 gm (2/3 c) water

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix the flours, baking powder, yeast and salt and whisk together. with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. (Doesn’t that give you pause … baking powder, yeast. Well, it did me but I blindly followed along.) Add water and mix with wooden spoon or your hands until it clears the sides of the bowl.

This resulted in flatter loaf.

2. Kneading: Turn the dough out onto an UNfloured board. Now Elizabeth has a fetish about washing and drying her bowl … I don’t. Please do not be tempted to skip this step. I did … ship it. Using both hands on either side of the dough and thumbs resting on the top in the center, lift it up and flip it over in the air before plopping it back down on the board. Considering all that hail storm, my plopping was more like whack and bam but boy that was just terrific. Fold the dough in half away from you as you plop the dough down. Keep repeating until the dough is smooth. Every so often, use the dough scraper to clean the board. Stretching the dough is desired on the turns. But this won’t start happening right away. When the dough is smooth, place it in the clean mixing bowl (there is no need to oil the bowl).

3. I placed the dough ball in my rising bucket and put the lid on. Allowed to double.

4. Prepare the sauce: Whisk flour, baking soda and water in a small pot. Bring it to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

5. Pre-shaping: Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Scatter a light dusting of flour on the board and gently remove the risen dough onto it. Don’t worry that the dough is quite slack. Cut the dough in half. Form each piece into a ball and place well apart on the cookie sheet.

Loaf came out with most loft using this method.

6. I covered this with a large plastic box and allow to rise to double in a draft-free area. (about an hour)

Final rise after shaping.

7. Final Shaping: Brush each round with the sauce. Dip your fingers in the sauce and dimple the rounds down to form two ovals with lengthwise furrows. Brush ovals with the sauce once more and sprinkle with nigella seeds. Allow the ovals to stand for about 30 min. Elizabeth has terrific links for videos, very worth while, I just don’t have time to include today.

8. Baking: Baking: If you do not have a barbecue, this bread can be baked in a conventional oven. Lida suggests baking it in a preheated 375F (190C) oven for about 30 minutes until golden brown.

Grand color!

Serve the bread warm. And if cools completely all is not lost because …

Can you have better at a picnic!?

You can still have glory!

Are you drooling now … Get thee to the kitchen and BAKE!

Thank You Elizabeth for a great bread, please for give the speed post. Some times life just throws such incredible curves.

See our Kitchen of the Month Elizabeth blog to be a Bread Baking Buddy!

May 16, 2013
by MyKitchenInHalfCups 12 Comments

BBB ~ Whipped Spelt Bread

Our glorious Kitchen of the Month, Ilva, has presented the Babes and all desiring to be Bread Baking Buddies with a most interesting flour and baking technique. This recipe would have delighted me just because it was using spelt flour. Spelt has been on my list to try for literally years – I’m that slow.

Here’s how Ilva introduced this bread:

This time we are back to basics, a loaf of good bread, simple but with difference, this one you don’t knead but you whip! And you whip it good! It’s from a bread book by the Danish baker Hanne Risgaard and it is called Home Baked: Nordic Recipes and Techniques for Organic Bread and Pastry. I have made several breads and cakes out of and they have all been good. I made this bread months ago and we liked it a lot, it has a great crust and texture. The dough is soft/wet but not soft like the Croc, it is much easier to work with. She uses spelt flour, both sifted and whole-spelt but I used only sifted spelt flour and then normal wholewheat flour. If you can find spelt flour use it because it has a nice flavour, if not you can try some other flour that absorbs water more or less to the same degree. The spelt flour I find here is similar to AP flour.

… and then there was … the Whip!

There was this whip … The whip provoked great and long discussions: I tried it and gave up, went to the dough hook J-thingy; I didn’t even try it, it just seemed impractical, started with the dough hook; Hey, it works. The continuum ran the gauntlet with the whip flying all the time.

Because I wanted to get it right, I’m baking this a 2nd time. I wanted to redo it so as to get lowering the oven from 480° to 410°; I wanted to try the balloon whisk; I wanted to get a photo of the wild gluten strands (that Karen calls it like it is: snot). Three things and I corrected all of those … except I mixed it up Wednesday, rested it overnight … ah, no time to bake … rested it 2 overnights. The oven warms to ° as we speak.

NOW I’ve discovered that even though, as you will see, the recipe clearly calls for spelt flour twice and that’s what I used, it would seem that most every Babe except me used spelt and some other flour – rye, whole wheat but something other than spelt. I’m jealous, they got lighter looking breads … but I’m also delighted to find that you can bake a 100% spelt loaf and it is truly delicious. We did like this bread very much. One day soon perhaps I’ll try this again and use about 160 grams bread flour for some of the 1000 grams of spelt.

BBB Whipped Bread

Recipe By: Ilva: from Home Baked: Nordic Recipes and Techniques for Organic Bread and Pastry by Hanne Risgaard
Yield: 2 loaves

840 grams 29,63 oz sifted spelt flour
160 grams 5,64 oz whole-spelt flour

(I used 1000 grams whole grain spelt flour total)
30 grams flax seed meal
10 grams 0,35 oz fresh yeast (I used 2.5 teaspoons active dry yeast)
20 grams 0,70 oz salt
800 grams 28,21 oz water, approx

Directions:

1. Mix the two types of flour in the mixing bowl, yeast, salt and water. Mix the dough at high speed using a whisk until the dough no longer sticks to the sides and bottom of the bowl. (By-golly, the balloon whisk works and in just about the same time that the dough hook took.) Scrape the soft dough off the whisk, put a lid on the mixing bowl, and let the dough rest in the fridge overnight. I’m sure there is lea-way here but two nights in the fridge is not recommended.

2. The next day, allow the dough to warm for a couple of hours before continuing.

3. Gently turn the dough onto a generously floured work surface

The dough yawns at the Whip.

and dust the top of the dough with a little – ha I used LOTS, this stuff is sticky – flour. Divide the dough into four equal-size pieces.

Divide into four pieces

4. Quickly twist the pieces together in pairs, preserving as much air in the dough as possible. Place the two twisted loaves on separate peels lined with parchment paper. Let them proof until nearly doubled in volume.

Fat to skinny ends …

5. Preheat the convection oven with baking stone to 250°C/480°F.

… and do the twist.

6. PRE-HEAT 480°

7. Generously mist the inside of the oven with water. Ease the loaves, along with the parchment paper, onto the baking stone. Spray a little more water into the oven. Repeat after one minute.

Help! I’m falling out of bed.

8. After 5 minutes of baking, lower the heat to 210°C/410°F, then bake the loaves for another 20-30 minutes more.

Very nice crumb and taste, no bitterness.

And today’s report whipped with the whisk, right oven temps:

Right oven temps … better color!

Haven’t sliced the loaf, still too warm. But everything looks good.

How could you resist? Why would you want to?

Ilva:

If you want to make this bread with us and be a Bread Baking Buddy, then bake it, blog it and send me a link by May 26th, to luculliandelights AT gmail DOT com with Bread Baking Buddy in the subject line and I will add you to the roundup. But before you do that, check out if and how the other Babes managed their whipping, on my side bar.

We have bread! Hope you find time to bake with us.

April 16, 2013
by MyKitchenInHalfCups 18 Comments

Tomato, Basil, & Garlic Filled Pane Bianco

I must apologize to Natashya. Living In The Kitchen With Puppies (Natashya ) our most wonderful Kitchen of the Month, gave us a glorious recipe … for white bread and I used almost half white whole wheat and added ground flax seed. Sigh, then when it came time for the kneading … I reached for the whole wheat, really I did. Still, I really like the look, the crumb and for sure the taste. Then when the recipe called for 3/4 teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder, well, I haven’t had any of that in my house for maybe 30 years. Since, I had just bought a long stocking of fresh garlic, there was just no way I was going to the store for 3/4 teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder. So, I’m really sorry Natashya, I really played with the recipe … oh and oops, I had a really bad senior moment and forgot to add the cheese to the tomato, garlic filling but hey what’s cheese for if not to put between two slices of a loaf and grill it! Oh yes it is a glorious bread. Thank you Natashya for inviting me to play. And thank you King Arthur.

There are those of us who obsess about somethings. Like measurements. I’m not one of those. Especially I’m not one of those when life tries to keep me in sleepless chaos. Amazing how you can be totally exhausted, even falling asleep sitting up but as soon as you get horizontal, the brain leaps into high gear and starts reviewing every thing that’s got you tied to the worry wart and your eyes are wide open all night. So while I can’t be bothered to obsess about measurements, Elizabeth takes care of all that obsessing for me. (Not being one to name names.) This is the kind of recipe I would look at and think “WAY to much yeast.” No slow rise with flavor develop with this one. BUT I’m getting a different picture lately. Ordinarily I’d have been inclined to make it a tablespoon. Since Elizabeth raved about the oven rise and I was using some whole wheat, I went with the 4 teaspoons. I did put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes and let it rise then about an hour and a half.

As to the sugar … I’m at the end of a bag of brown sugar that’s gotten a little dry … so I used a clot (sort of like a big pinch). See how carefully I measure.

Gosh, I’m beginning to feel rather heretical. Normally, I go with the metric measures. I really like just pouring flour from the bag into the bowl on the scale. For some reason known only to the cosmos, I used the cup measures. Go figure.

Tomato, Basil, & Garlic Filled Pane Bianco

Recipe from: King Arthur Flour’s website adapted by Natashya
Yield: 2 loaves

Ingredients by volume:
* 1/2 cup warm water
* 1/4 cup sugar ~ sigh, couldn’t do it, just a pinch
* 4 teaspoons instant yeast
* 1 cup warm skim milk
* 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 2 large eggs
* 2 teaspoons salt ~ didn’t really measure
* 6 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
* 1 (8 1/2-ounce) jar oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
* 5 heads garlic, roasted, yes really
* 1 1/2 cups shredded Italian blend cheese, forgotten but topped with parmesan
* 2/3 cup chopped fresh basil ~ not quite

1) Combine the water, sugar (I used just a pinch), yeast, milk, olive oil, eggs, salt, and flour, and mixed and kneaded by hand, until you’ve made a cohesive, soft dough. By hand, the dough formed a smooth ball. Place the dough in a greased bowl, and turn to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about 45 minutes. To roast my garlic and let it cool, I wanted a slightly slower rise. A twenty minute rest in the fridge followed by an hour and a half rise on the counter worked very well.

2) Meanwhile, thoroughly drain the sun-dried tomatoes; lay them on a paper towel to absorb any excess oil. Using kitchen shears, finely chop the tomatoes.

3) Line two baking sheets with parchment. Gently deflate the dough and divide it in half. Roll one piece into a 22″ x 8 1/2″ rectangle. Sprinkle on half the garlic, cheese, basil, and tomatoes.

4. 4) Starting with one long edge, roll the dough into a log the long way. Pinch the edges to seal.

5) Place the log seam-side down on a baking sheet. Using kitchen shears, start 1/2″ from one end and cut the log lengthwise down the center about 1″ deep, to within 1/2″ of the other end.

6) Keeping the cut side up, form an “S” shape. Tuck both ends under the center of the “S” to form a “figure 8”; pinch the ends together to seal. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, 45 to 60 minutes.

7) For the second loaf, I played with a different shape. Filled and rolled the same way but cut the ends became the center buds and the log cut into triangles.

8) While the loaves are rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.9) Bake the first loaf for 35 to 40 minutes. Tent the loaf with foil after 15 to 20 minutes to prevent over-browning. Bake the remaining loaf.

10) Remove loaves from their pans; cook on racks. Store any leftovers well-wrapped, at room temperature.

Because I forgot the cheese in the filling, I tried several slices on the grill … OH MY OH MY what a glorious cheese sandwich.

Want to try this bread with us? You know you do! If you wanna give this one a bake too, you’re all very welcome to bake along as our Bread Baking Buddy. Bake, tell us what your thoughts are about it, blog and send it all to Living In The Kitchen With Puppies (Natashya ). Here’s the scoop from Natashya: I invited the Bread Baking Babes to have fun with this bread, and all Buddies and home bakers are welcome to join in. If you would like to bake this delicious bread – bake it up, blog it, and let us know how you liked the experience. Send me a link by April 26th, and a medium-sized photo if I can’t get one from your site, to kitchenpuppies AT gmail DOT com – I’ll put up a round-up on the 27th. Send an e-mail with Buddy for Tomato Basil & Garlic Filled Pane Bianco. Really, you’ll enjoy this even if you don’t use five heads of garlic.

March 16, 2013
by MyKitchenInHalfCups 15 Comments

BBB ~ Dessert or Breakfast ~ Gâteau À La Crème ~ It’s Bread

First, Kitchen of the Month: Lien from Notitie van Lien (Lien’s Notes).

You want perfection, she’s got it.

You want to learn from mistakes, I’ve got that or at least some of them, I’m sure I could mess this up and will when I bake it the next time but I will be baking this again. The above was my freeform attempt at this gateau, not what I’d call success.

Before she baked this bread, Lien was curious about all those eggs and butter in the recipe, saying “I tend to have a lot of problems with doughs like that, which have a hard time rising. So lots of eggs, really lots of eggs, lots of butter, crème fraîche….I think the amount of servings should be 6 to 8 instead 4-6.” Trust me friends, Lien did not have trouble with this one, her gateau is a work of art! You can have it as a dessert, which we did once but it goes great with coffee as breakfast which I did twice. Yes I know life is so hard when you have to eat brioche.

Gâteau À La Crème

Recipe By: Lien: adapted from Raymond Blanc “From Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets”

Serving Size: 4 (6-8)
Yield: 1 gateau and 1 loaf or in my case however you like to swing it

For the BRIOCHE DOUGH (enough dough for 4 small, 3 larger gateau or use the left over dough to make a loaf or brioche rolls)

500 grams untreated strong plain flour, (1lb 1½oz)preferably organic

{I admit I used 200 grams white whole wheat (with 300 grams bread flour to total the 500 grams) and 20 grams of ground flax and will do both again}
7 grams sea salt
3 tablespoons caster sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
7 free-range eggs, preferable organic
300 grams (10½oz) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

For the crème FILLING (makes 1/2 liter, enough for 2 small gateaux / double the recipe if you want to use all the dough for gateaux)
6 free-range egg yolks, preferably organic
50 grams caster sugar
75 grams lemon juice, juice and zest (1 1/2 lemons made the juice)
250 ml (8¾fl oz) crème fraîche
GLAZE – Admit: I totally skipped this
2 free-range egg yolks, preferably organic (1 eggyolk or 1/2 whisked egg is more than plenty)
1 TBsp caster sugar (optional)
20 g (¾ oz) butter, cut into cubes (optional)
1 TBsp nibbed sugar, to decorate

Directions:1. For the brioche dough, place the flour, salt (actually I held the salt out until I mixed in the eggs), sugar and yeast (keeping the yeast away from the salt as it will attack it and damage its ability to ferment), in an electric mixer bowl. Add the eggs and mix with a dough hook attachment for 5 minutes on low power until the eggs are completely incorporated (alternatively, place the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir together for 5 minutes). I did use the old KitchenAid in this case and it has lived to tell the tale.2. Increase the speed of the machine or your stirring and mix for another 5 minutes until the dough comes away from the edge of the bowl. Then add the cubes of butter and continue to mix for 2-3 minutes until completely incorporated.3. Remove the bowl from the machine, if using, then cover and set aside at room temperature for 1 hour to prove, then chill the dough for a further hour (it will be easier to work with). I believe next time I’ll divide the dough at this point and refrigerate half immediately for a day; making this two days for baking.4. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas 6. (make that 180ºC or the rim gets too dark) – I baked mine at 400° F and only my escapee got to dark.5. Lightly flour a work surface and your hands. Take 300 g of the brioche dough and bring it together with the palms of your hands to form a ball, then place it on a baking tray and flatten it slightly. Starting from the middle of the dough, gently press the dough flat and spread it out to form a circle to approx 20 cm (8 in) in diameter, but leave a 2 cm (1 in) gap from the edge as this will create the rim of the tart. Be careful not to stretch the dough and try to keep the base even in thickness.

6. Cover with a clean tea towel and place the dough in the warm area for 25 minutes or until puffed up.

7. For the crème filling, mix the egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and juice together in a large mixing bowl and gradually mix in the crème fraîche. Set aside.

8. For the glaze, brush the rim of the gateau with the egg yolk and prick the base of the dough evenly with a fork to help the even cooking and rising of the dough,sprinkle with the nibbed sugar . Pour part of the crème mixture in the middle of the dough, sprinkle with the caster sugar and dot with the butter, the rest of the filling should be poured in when the baking sheet is already in the oven, so it won’t spill and

9. bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until the brioche has risen and the filling is set. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool, then serve.

Because I’m the savory girl that I am, yes I had to bake this with a savory filling. Because my affair with spinach knows no bounds, the savory filling uses spinach. Because when I went to the market for the crème fraîche, there was quark sitting right next to it – I went into such a frenzied happy dance in the store they almost had be removed – the spinach filling has quark in it! I’ve never found quark in an American market until now.

These I did in tart pans. Like the way the dough fell into the filling here and will try for more of that next time.

Will try for less dough on the bottom and more up the sides next time.

SPINACH FILLING
8 ounces quark
1 large egg
3 cloves garlic, crushed
salt & pepper
spinach, chopped

next time bacon! with the spinach! oo la la YES!
touch herb: rosemary, thyme, what’s your favorite

Lien’s original recipe is delicious lemony and rich and perfect for easter breakfast or coffee with all that butter and eggs. Don’t forget to check out the other Bread Baking Babes (links in the side bar). And we really really enjoyed the lemon! But for me, I would pick the spinach filling and good grief quark is just heavenly! I went right back to the store and got three more containers! Gorgeous!

But regardless of what you fill it with, brioche is still bread elevated to an all time high. It reheats so wonderfully crisp!

You just want MORE!

If you wanna give this one a bake too, you’re all very welcome to bake along as our Bread Baking Buddy. Bake, tell us what your thoughts are about it, blog and send it all to me (notitievanlien(at)gmail(dot)com), so I can return the favour by sending a Buddy Badge back ánd include you all in a round up of the Buddies. Deadline 29th of this month as usual. Have a great time baking and Happy Easter!

Why can’t I figure out how to get my e-mail on here … comments my kitchen at mac dot com … you know no spaces in there.

March 3, 2013
by MyKitchenInHalfCups 1 Comment

Our 5th Anniversary Buddies know how to do PIE!

I looked up quotes on pie and like the following two, even if they did get it wrong.

Eugene Field said

“But I, when I undress me

Each night upon my knees

Will ask the Lord to bless me,

With apple pie and cheese.”

he should have asked for Spinach Pie!

And that wonderful Garfield’s author, Jim Davis, missed it to, when he said:

“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.”

No, Jim I’m sure the Spinach Pies would have fit the diet better.

My good friend Karen in her post about these Spinach Pies said

“Our differences make us a whole”. And I say “Our Bread Baking Buddies make our kitchen complete. We are BreadHeads”.

I do love to see how we all start with the same recipe and make it our own. I thank each and everyone of you who has baked with us once or multiple times. It is always a joy to hook you on the yeasties.

Our Buddies Make Our Kitchen Table Complete. I revise many a recipe with new options after reading our Buddies. I thank you all!

Sandie at Crumbs of Love