Category Archives: Bread

Bittman’s Speedier No-Knead Bread with Olive Oil

As much as I love Jim Leahy’s no-knead bread, the reality is that by the time I get my act together to start making it, it’s too late to get a rise by the time I need to serve the bread.

Enter Bittman’s recipe for speedier no-knead bread. With a rise time shortened from 8 hours to 4 hours, you could conceivably have it ready for lunch, which was my plan for Saturday at the cottage. Unfortunately, that would require getting up before 9 am. Too much wine with dinner Friday night nixed that idea. I decided to make the bread anyway, starting at around 10 am on Saturday, figuring we’d eat it at some point during the weekend.  As you’ll see by the recipe below, I accidentally modified it by adding some oive oil to the dough, which I think was not such a bad thing,

Now we’re eating it toasted for Sunday breakfast. Given how delicious it is, there’s no way we would have had any left for today’s breakfast if we had it for lunch yesterday.

I think it all worked out for the best, don’t you?

Mark Bittman’s Speedier No-Knead Bread with Olive Oil

I have trouble finding instant yeast, so this recipe uses active dry yeast, which I proofed before using. If you use instant yeast, as Bittman does, you’ll add it to the dry ingredients and increase the water by 1/4 cup. (The Fresh Loaf has a good post on the differences between these two types of yeast.) If you don’t want to proof your yeast, eliminate the sugar. 

I mis-interpreded Bittman’s ingredient list for “oil as needed”, and added about 2 tbsp of olive oil to my dough. (He meant to use is to oil your working surface.)  On researching what I might have done, it appears that oil strengthens the bubbles in the rise and increases the storage life of bread.  In this case, it also gave the bread a chewier texture, more like a sourdough.  I like that.  

In retrospect, I should have cut back the water by that amount, which explains why my dough seemed so loose – however, it remained easy to work with, so I don’t think I hurt anything. Next time I make it, I’m going to increase the oil to 1/4 cup, which seems to be the norm in bread recipes with oil, and cut back the water accordingly. If you try it first, let me know how it turns out. 

Yields: 1 loaf

Ingredients

  • 1 packet active dry yeast
  • ¼ cup warm water
  • A pinch of sugar
  • 3 cups bread flour (I used King Arthur’s)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 1/4 cups water

Directions:

1. Dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup warm water. Add a pinch of sugar. Once the yeast starts to foam, it is ready to use.

2. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add dissolved yeast, 2 tbsp olive oil and 1 1/4 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rest about 4 hours at about 70 degrees.

3. Pull dough out of bowl – it will be shaggy, but will come away in one piece if you work gently enough. Plop in onto a lightly oiled work surface (I use a large wooden cutting board) and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes more.

4. While the dough is resting, put a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot (I use a Le Creuset round French oven) in the oven (lid on) and heat to 450 degrees fahrenheit.

5. When the dough has rested for 30 minutes, carefully remove the now very hot pot from oven. Slide your hand under the dough and drop it into pot, seam side up. Unless the dough is crawling up the sides of the pan (in which case you can shake the pan once or twice to drop it in) don’t worry if it falls a bit off center in the pot. It will straighten out as it bakes.

6. Cover with lid, put back in the oven, and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Roasted Carrot & Ginger Soup with Cheddar Dill Scones

I don’t know about your husband, but mine is out of control when it comes to food shopping.

It’s not his fault, really. He is a victim of his own evolutionary programming, which, in a bizarre maladaptation to modern society, is triggered whenever he enters Costco. At that point it begins to fire off uncontrollable urges that he cannot possibly resist, as co-activation of the male hunter-gatherer gene and the bargain hunting gene drives him to purchases extremely large boxes and bags of foods in quantities that we can’t possibly store in our NYC apartment or eat before they go bad.

Like the 5-pound bag of baby cut carrots be brought home last week. (What on earth was he thinking?… )

Short of setting up a take out salad bar in the dining room or throwing a cocktail party for 100 complete with the world’s largest crudite platter, I was going to have to figure out some way to use those little suckers.

But I love a challenge. And, thankfully, my family loves carrots.

Hopefully, you love carrots too, because that’s about all you’ll be getting on the blog this week. Today, it’ll be carrot soup. Wednesday, Carrot Cake. Then on Saturday, a Moroccan Carrot Salad.

Feel free to post your own favorite carrot recipes in the comments section. I’m starting to run out of ideas, but unfortunately, not carrots – there’s still about a pound left.

ROASTED CARROT & GINGER SOUP

I modified a recipe from the Silver Palate Goodtimes Cookbook, leaving out the wine and using olive oil instead of butter and roasting the carrots first. Serve with Cheddar Dill Scones (recipe below) and garden greens tossed with Lavender Honey Vinaigrette.

  • 4 tbsp olive oil (divided)
  • 1 1/2 pounds baby-cut carrots (or thickly sliced regular carrots)
  • 8 cups chicken stock
  • 1 large onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 3 large pieces of crystallized ginger, finely chopped
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Fresh dill to garnish

Toss the carrots with 2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl, then spread out on a baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes till they start to soften and are browned.

In a soup pot saute the onions, ginger and garlic in 2 tbsp olive oil over medium high heat till onions are soft. Add stock, carrots and bay leaf. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, about 15 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf. Puree in the pot using an immersion blender. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice if desired. Garnish with fresh dill and serve. Also delicious cold.

CHEDDAR DILL SCONES

Modified from Ina Garten. I cut back the butter from 3 sticks to two and used whole milk instead of cream – it just seemed like an insane amount of fat, especially since I was also adding cheese and eggs.  Ina adds the dill and cheddar at the end – I just added them right in with the wet and dry ingredients so I would not have to work the dough so much. I also added a tad of pepper for a slight kick.  

  • 4 cups flour
  • 2 tbsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground black pepper (or a pinch cayenne pepper)
  • 2 sticks cold butter, diced
  • 4  cold large eggs, beaten lightly
  • 1 cup cold whole milk
  • 1/2 pound mild Cheddar, small dice
  • 1 cup minced fresh dill
  • 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water for egg wash

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. In another bowl, beat milk, eggs and dill.With a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dough until it is the texture of coarse meal. With a wooden spoon, stir in the cheese.Make a well in the center, pour in the egg-milk-dill mixture, and working quickly with the spoon and eventually your hands, make a shaggy loose dough.

Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface and knead lightly for just a minute or less till workable. Pat or roll to 3/4 inch thickness and using a biscuit cutter, cut out your scones. Lay out on baking sheet lined with parchment or waxed paper.

Brush with egg wash and bake till golden, about 20-25 mins.  Serve warm.

TO SERVE THIS MEAL TO COMPANY

This is a very easy meal to serve to company as a lunch or light dinner.

The soup can be made up to a day ahead and reheated. You can also roll, cut out and flash freeze the scones ahead.  You can wash and dry your greens ahead and refrigerate, and make your dressing ahead.

Just before your guests arrive, take out the salad greens and dressing and put the greens in a salad bowl.  Preheat your oven.  Twenty minutes or so before you plan to serve dinner, pop the scones in the oven.  While the scones are baking, reheat the soup and hold it warm. Once the scones are done, call everyone to the table, dress the salad  and enjoy!

If this meal seems too light, add some grilled sausages or Irene’s baked chicken. 

First Bread of the Season

We’ve only got one day to open up the cottage, having stopped along the way to taking my eldest daughter back to college for her summer research session.

There’s so much to be done. We really should clean out the gutters and scrub down the porch and the outdoor furniture.

The stone patio (and I use the word patio loosely) is overgrown; but the weeds are too pretty to pull right now, and gratefully, I let it be.

The herb garden needs weeding and replanting – only the thyme has survived.

But we’re only here for a day, so we just do the bare minimum while the girls sleep in. Mow the lawn, sweep the porch and put out the furniture, wipe down the refrigerator and the open kitchen shelves, sweep the kitchen and dispose of the two dead animals we found outside in the garbage can. (Somehow, it seems there are always dead animals…)

Then, before the day gets too far along, I head back into the kitchen to do what I love most when I am here – bake bread. We’ll serve it at lunch with egg salad made with thyme from the the garden, and sliced tomato and avocado. They’ll be plenty left to pack sandwiches for the road, and I’ll give the second loaf to my daughter to christen her new apartment at school.

Later this afternoon we’ll all head down to the lake for a cold but glorious first swim of the season. We feel so remarkable afterwards that I decide from here on in, we will shall call it “taking the waters”. The girls will sunbathe on the floating dock and Mr TBTAM and I can catch up with the our neighbors and make plans for the rest of the summer. Tonight after dinner, we’ll have S’Mores on the back deck under a crescent moon, then play Boggle before an early bedtime. After all, we’ve got a long drive ahead of us tomorrow.

In a few weeks, we’ll be back again to properly settle in, but this christening has been exactly what the season needed.

Wheat Bread, No.1

This bread recipe comes from Mrs CH Leonard’s Cookbook, circa 1923, a little gem I picked up at last year’s antique fair. This is my first foray into the book, compiled by a woman who, according to the preface –

…may properly be styled as one of those olden times wives and mothers who personally superintends and much of the time actually selects and prepares the food for her family.

This, of course, stands in contrast to myself, who –

…may be properly styled as one of those modern times wives and mothers whose husband usually cooks weeknights and stocks the larder since he works near Fairway and sees a Saturday morning trip to Costco as sacred as completing a mignon, and who pretends she’s a good mother on weekends, when she cooks and posts recipes on her blog to create the impression that she is one of those olden times wives and mothers who… you get the point.

Mrs GH Leonard’s recipes read like recipes your grandmother might give you – rich with detail, but vague as to exact amounts and cooking times.  The book also contains medicinal recipes and household cleaning formulas scattered amidst the foodstuffs – the “Antidotes for Poisons” chapter, for example, comes just before “Chafing Dish Recipes.”

I’m reprinting Mrs Leonard’s recipe exactly as written –

Take 3 pints of flour to 1 pint of wetting. The ‘wetting” may be either milk or water  or half of each, but must be warmed. It milk is used, scald it and let it cool to a temperature of 75 degrees, or pour boiling water in the milk and let the milk and water cool to the same temperature.  The flour should not be so cold as to cool the wetting below 75 degrees. Dissolve one cake compressed yeast in one cup warm water; add this yeast to the wetting; salt to taste; add 1/2 tbsp lard and 1 of sugar and mix with flour in a large bowl or pan in a stiff batter; place the batter on a moulding  board and knead to a stiff dough; work in all the flour necessary at this kneading. Some breads require more flour than others. Grease a large bowl or pan, put in the dough, and set in a warm place to rise; also grease the top of the dough. When it has risen sufficiently, knead with as little flour as possible to keep from sticking, form into loaves and put into greased tins, pet it rise and bake. To test the oven, throw a little flour in the oven; if it browns quickly the oven is all right ; if the flour burns the oven is too hot. The fire must be hotter after the bread has been in 10 minutes. An ordinary sized loaf requires 45 minutes  for baking. When taken from the oven, brush the loaf over with milk and place where it will cool quickly or near an open window.

I used 1 envelope instant yeast rather than compressed yeast.  For “lard” I used olive oil, used 1.5 tbsp salt “to taste”, assumed “1 of sugar” meant 1 tbsp of sugar, and used about a cup of flour for the kneading. Following Mrs Leonard’s method for determining oven temp, I ended up with 400 degrees fahrenheit, which I raised to 425 degrees after 10 minutes of baking.

The bread was delicious – think homemade Wonder Bread, but a little more dense and without the squishiness, meaning that you can’t roll this bread up into a little ball and pop it in your mouth the way you can with Wonder Bread. Sorry. A very nice sandwich bread that should toast beautifully.

No-Knead Bread. Thank You, Irene!

Long time blog TBTAM readers know that many of the great recipes I share on this blog come from my mother-in-law Irene, the world’s greatest home cook. So it should come as no surprise to learn that this weekend’s hurricane, which shares my mother-in-law’s name, brought me the best bread recipe I have ever made, and the best bread I have ever eaten.

I’ve been wanting to try Jim Leahy’s No-Knead Bread ever since Mark Bittman first revealed it to the world in 2006 – a simple yet elegant method of making bread that has found an almost cult-like following on the web and around the world. But the 12-18 hour rise always stopped me dead in my tracks whenever I considered making the bread, since I rarely, if ever, plan anything that far in advance. But once I realized on Saturday morning that Hurricane Irene would essentially confine me to my apartment till at least Sunday afternoon, I knew the time had finally arrived for me to drink the No-Knead Kool Aid.

And am I ever glad I did. This bread will change you life. I mean it. It is the easiest and best bread you will ever make. The crust is hard and golden, while the crumb is porous, soft and almost spongy with a sourdough type taste and consistency that rivals anything from the best bakeries. Hot from the oven it is heaven. Toasted with a little butter and jam it is divine. Use it for sandwiches. Eat it with cheese. Or just eat it plain.

You’ll never want any other bread again.

Thank you, Irene!

No-Knead Bread

From Jim Lahey via Mark Bittman in the NY Times. I strongly encourage you to watch the accompanying video before making this bread. 

As pointed out by baking maven Rose Levy Beranbaum, the water amounts in the recipe (1 5/8 cups) varies from that in the the video (1 1/2 cups), as do the rise times. (The video says nothing about the second 2 hour rise.) I decided to use 1 1/2 cups, and did not realize there was a second rise since I based my recipe on the video. I also used rapid rise instead of instant yeast. (With the MTA shut down, I could not get to a store that carried it.) As a result, my dough had completed its rise by about 4 hours, and by morning it actually had dropped a bit. Next time I will use the right stuff, do the second rise and expect my bread will be even lighter.  I should also point out that I accidentally put my bread in seam side down, so I did not get the nice folds that Leahy got in the video.

  • 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour (I used King Arthur all-purpose)
  • 1/4 tsp instant yeast
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
  • Wheat bran or cornmeal (I used wheat bran)

Combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 1/2 cups water, and stir until blended with your hands or a wooden spoon (I used a spoon). The dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise 12  to 18 hours at warm room temp (mine was about 72 degrees). The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle a bit of flour on it and your hands, and working with a very light touch, press the dough down a bit then fold it over on itself (see video for technique.)  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

Sprinkle a clean smooth cotton towel with wheat bran, flour or cornmeal. Shape the dough into a ball and place seam side down on the towel. Sprinkle more bran on top and wrap the towel loosely around the dough. Let rise another 2 hours.

During the last half hour of the rise, heat a Dutch oven or other heavy baking dish in a 450 degree oven. When dough is ready, remove the pot from the oven and turn the dough into the pot (again, see video for technique – I screwed this part up…) Shake pan to center the dough in the pot .(Careful! It is hot!)  Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. Try to wait till it cools before slicing and eating, so the crust can develop a bit more.

No-Knead Links (Share your fave No-Knead links in the comments.)

  • Lahey has a book of his No-Knead bread recipes (I’m adding this one to my wish list.)
  • Lahey’s version of the recipe varies cooking and rise times. Worth reading.
  • La Weekly interviews Lahey on his technique.
  • Breadtopia bakes Cooks Illustrated almost no-knead variation on Lahey’s No-Knead, including a whole wheat version.
  • Garden Fork uses parchment paper to make the transfer of the dough to the hot pot easier.
  • Sofya simplifies the method with a mixer and one bowl technique.
  • Vanilla bean blog has gorgeous pics of the method, and a beautiful final product.
  • Simply So Good makes some wonderful additions to the recipe, which she says she got from Le Creuset, but is the same as Lahey’s.
  • The Cookbook Chronicles uses a sourdough starter and regular yeast to get a gorgeous bread.
  • Leite’s Culinaria has Lahey’s No-Knead olive bread recipe.
  • Penni Wisner has whole grain variations and lots of tips on the no-knead technique.
  • Shutter bean makes Lahey’s walnut raisin No-Knead.
  • Bob Parvin has an excellent post with tips on no-knead that answers almost any questions you may have about the method.

Flatbread with Eggplant, Peppers & Olives (Coca de Recapte)

This traditional Catalan flatbread is based on yet another recipe from Williams Sonoma Barcelona cookbook. Coca recapte are savory pastries made with meat or fish and vegetables, the combination of which depends, apparently, on what is in the larder. Or, as Catalan food blogger Anna at the Good Food Room describes it :

Recapte” is Catalan for “Alright, after a hard work’s day, let’s see what we have left and how we can turn it into a meal”…

Well, this coca recapte was made after a hard day’s play following an early evening swim and a day spent antiquing, playing scrabble, biking and hanging on the front porch. In true Barcelonan style, we did not eat till well after 9 pm. Not quite the same as a visit to Spain, but just as nice.

Flatbread with Eggplant, Peppers & olives (Coca de Recapte)

I love the technique for cooking eggplant in this recipe – roasted the same way you roast peppers. This coca recipe uses baking powder, but other coca recipes I’ve seen used yeast. In the future, I think I’ll make this using Mark Bittman’s pizza dough recipe.

For the dough

  • 1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 3/4 cup water

Topping

  • 1 red pepper
  • 1 green pepper
  • 1 medium eggplant
  • 1 large sweet onion, very thinly sliced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced fine
  • 12 black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 large ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 5 tbsp olive oil, plus a tad more to grease the pan

Preheat oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit. Place peppers and eggplant on baking sheet and roast, turning them so they char evenly on all 4 sides, about 45 minutes.

While veggies are roasting, slice and caramelize the onions. In a cast iron skillet, melt 1 tbsp butter in 1 tbsp olive oil over moderately high heat. Add sliced onions, turn down the heat to medium and saute, stirring frequently, until onions are caramelized, about 10-15 minutes. Cool.

Remove roasted vegetables to a brown paper bag to cool about 15 minutes.

While the roasted veggies are cooling in the bag, make the flatbread dough. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the center, and add olive oil and egg yolk. Gradually add water, mixing into the flour with a wooden spoon. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about a minute until soft, smooth and elastic. Form into a ball and place into a large lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes until dough puffs slightly.

Peel cooled roasted veggies, discarding the stems, seeds and skins. Slice into thin strips, then toss gently with onions, garlic and olives. Season generously with salt and pepper. Set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to fit a lightly oiled 12 by 9 inch baking pan.  Press dough into pan and trim edges if need be.

Cover the base of the dough with the tomato slices. Brush with 2 tbsp olive oil. Arrange the veggies evenly over the tomato slices and drizzle with remaining oil. Bake until edges are starting to brown, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool slightly, slice into squares and serve warm.

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Coca Recapte around the web

Homemade Croutons

We like to buy nice bread, and always store leftovers in the freezer. When the leftovers begin to infringe on Mr TBTAM’s ice cream space, I make breadcrumbs. But what does Mr TBTAM do when I’ve made breadcrumbs and he still has no room for his ice cream?

He makes croutons! (Did I mention he actually cooks more than I do?…) Then he uses them in our fave everyday salad -Bibb lettuce and mesclun greens with goat cheese, dried cranberries and balsamic or lemon vinaigrette.

We’re storing the croutons in an airtight glass jar in the cabinet. I do keep breadcrumbs in the freezer, but I have a feeling these delicious babies will be gone long before they get stale or rancid in the jar. What do you think?

Homemade Croutons

Use whatever dried spices you like, but be generous with the salt and pepper. If you use fresh garlic, better to fry it up in the oil first, then discard the garlic and use the garlic=flavored oil so you don’t get burnt garlic pieces on your croutons.

  • 4 cups cubed leftover French Baguette (If frozen, thaw it just enough to be able to slice it)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Dried spices to your liking (we used some garlic powder and paprika, you could use dried herbs)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Toss the bread with olive oil and the spices in a large bowl being sure to coat well. Spread our in a single layer on baking sheet and bake till golden, about 20 minutes, tossing a few times to be sure they brown evenly.
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Crouton Round-up – If you have a favorite crouton recipe, send me a link and I’ll put it here.

  • Celtic Mommy makes her Croutons w/ sourdough bread and parmesan
  • OurGirlBites uses sourdough, garlic and herbs.
  • Cooks Hideout uses Herbs de Provence and just a tbsp of oil for 4 cups of bread, and they look delish!
  • Dogtipper makes bone-shaped croutons for dogs! I have to admit, I’ve been tossing a few to our pup and she loves them…
  • Underground Caterer uses fresh herbs and has instructional pics

Onion-Herb Bread

This herb-filled bread is based on yet another recipe from Criag Claiborne’s NY Times Cookbook (c 1961). It is called Spiral Bread, and uses scalded milk, a throwback method that some think originated in the days before pasteurization as a way to sterilize milk before baking. In fact, there ‘s more to it than that – scalding works to enhance rising by inactivating enzymes in the milk that inhibit yeast activity.

Claiborne uses a double-flour addition mixing method that may enhance aeration by adding only half the flour and mixing very well with a mixer before adding the rest of the flour and kneading.

I did get a very nice rise on this bread. While the herb filling was delicious, the bread itself seemed bland – I think I’m becoming a whole wheat addict. Everyone else, however, loved this bread.

I modified Claiborne’s herb filling to accomodate what I had growing in my backyard herb garden and what I had in the fridge – therefore, scallions became onions, thyme and rosemary were added and the overall quantity of herbs allowed me to make just one filled loaf and one regular.

Onion-Herb Bread

This recipe wil make one herb-filled loaf and one regular loaf. To make two herb-filled loaves, just double the filling ingredients.

1 cup scalded milk
2 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1 cup lukewarm water
2 (1 1/4 oz) packages yeast
7 cups sifted flour
Olive oil
Onion-Herb filling (recipe below)

Scald 1 cup of milk in a small saucepan. Add sugar, salt and butter. Stir and cool to lukewarm.

Pour 1 cup lukewarm water in a large bowl of standing electric mixer. Add yeast and stir until dissolved. Add milk mixture. Add 4 cups flour, stir in and then beat well. Add remaining flour, remove from mixing stand and mix in by hand till dampened. Let stand 10 minutes.

Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead until smooth, about 10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, grease surface, cover and let rise in a warm place (80-85 degrees Fahrenheit) until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Punch dough down, turn out onto a smooth surface, and let rest 10 minutes.

Grease two 9x5x3 inch loaf pans.

Split dough in half, and roll one half out into a rectangle about 9 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick. (Make sure it will fit into your loaf pan). Brush with lightly beaten egg and spread filling over it, leaving a one-inch border on all edges. Roll up like a jelly roll and pinch the edges to seal. Place seam side down into greased loaf pan.

Flatten the other half of the dough and fold over twice to make a loaf. Place seam side down in loaf pan. Brush tops of both loaves with oil and let rise, covered, for another hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Bake bread one hour, turn out and cool on rack.

Onion-Herb Filling

1 cup finely chopped parsley
1 cup finely chopped onion
3 cloves finely minced garlic
3 tbsp thyme, finely chopped
3 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped
3 tbsp finely chopped basil
2 tbsp butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Cook onions in butter over moderately high heat in a skillet until translucent. Add garlic and herbs and continue cooking, stirring, until herbs are thoroughly wilted but not brown. Add seasonings. Cool.

Reserve 1 tbsp of the beaten egg. Add the balance to vegetables. Use in bread, above.

Anadama Bread (adapted from the NY Times)

My last bread attempt was a whole wheat anadama bread recipe from Craig Claiborne’s 1961 NY Times cookbook, modified by using honey instead of molasses. It was delicious, but denser than I’d like due to a poor rise, and with too thick and hard a crust.

This time, I made a more traditional anadama bread using white flour and molasses, modifying a recipe from the NY Times for the food processor.  The result  – a soft, moist, slightly chewy, not quite spongy textured bread with a nice crust. The flavor was lovely, although I think I prefer the nutty sweetness of my whole wheat version.

Using white flour instead of whole wheat definitely gave a better rise, though the rise did not entirely hold up during the baking. The original recipe is made in a mixing bowl with a dough hook, and calls for mixing for 7 minutes till it pulls away from the sides – that may be the kneading-substitute. I made mine in the food processor, taking it out to a floured board much sooner than 7 minutes when it became clear that if I continued, I’d wear out the food processor motor, and kneaded for about 2-3 minutes. I suspect this may not have been enough kneading, and thus I did not get optimum gluten formation. It could also be the 2,000 foot altitude here in the Endless Mountain – high altitudes can cause too fast a rise with poor structure. However, given my poor rises here in the past, I suspect its the gluten and not the altitude, since we are just not that high up. (Although your ears do pop on the way up and down the mountain…)

Anadama Bread (adapted from the NY Times)

The original recipe adds nutmeg, which for some odd reason I did not have.

1/2 cup cornmeal
water as directed below
1/2 cup molasses
6 tbsp butter, softened
1 – 1/4-ounce package active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for kneading)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Oil for greasing.

1. In a bowl, stir together the cornmeal and 1 cup water. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring another cup of water to a boil. Add cornmeal mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is very thick, about 10 minutes. Stir in the molasses and 2 tablespoons butter. Cool till tepid and transfer mixture to food processor.

2. Whisk the salt into the flour in a large bowl. In a small bowl, stir together the yeast and 1/2 cup water until yeast has dissolved, add to cornmeal and pulse for a second. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time, pulsing for several seconds after each addition. Process until dough starts to pull away from sides of bowl, or in my case, until the processor starts to sound like it’s going to wear out, then turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead it for a few minutes, adding more flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking. (I ended up adding about another 1/2 – 3/4 cup flour)

3. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Allow dough to rise for 1 1/2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

4. Lightly grease 2 9-by-4-inch loaf pans. Press down dough and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Fold each piece loosely into a loaf and place each in a pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until loaves have doubled in size.

5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake loaves for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until bread is a dark golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

6. Allow bread to cool in pans for 5 minutes, then turn out onto wire cooling rack.

Yield: 2 9-by-4-inch loaves.

Whole Wheat-Honey Anadama Bread

On vacation at the cottage for a week, I’ve decided to focus on learning bread making.

My most recent attempt was a loaf of Cuban Bread, which turned out rather fine if you ask me. So, I am sticking with my 1961 edition of Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook, which I found here in the cottage when we bought it, and where I found this recipe for Anadama Bread.

Anadama Bread is a traditional new England bread made with cornmeal and molasses, thought to have originated in Rockport, Massachusetts. There are several amusing stories as to how this bread got its name, all involving a farmer and his wife Anna, and the words “Anna, damn her!”.

Claiborne’s recipe calls for a mixture of whole wheat and regular flour, unlike most other Anadama bread recipes I’ve since found, which use bread flour. Not having molasses (and not liking it much either) I made mine using honey. Not having cornmeal, I used polenta, which, as Alton Brown so humorously tells us, is essentially the same thing.

The results was a dense, sweet, chewy, moist bread that everyone loved. We used it for Monte Cristos for tonight’s dinner, and I expect it will make some fine toast tomorrow morning.

I was a bit disappointed with my bread’s rise. This was possibly because the day was cool here in the mountains (as opposed to NYC, where it topped the high 90’s), even in the sun, which is where I rose my bread.  Not having a gas range with a pilot, it’s hard to find a warm place to raise bread here, unless I light a fire and place it nearby. I should have done what I did last time I made bread up here, which was to rise it on the dashboard of the car in the sun. (If anyone has any other suggestions for me in this area, they would be much appreciated.) I also may have added too much flour, making the dough heavier than it needed to be.I notice that other recipes use 2 envelopes of yeast, which may be the simple answer given the use of whole wheat flour.

Anadama Bread (adapted from NY Times Cookbook 1961)

1/2 cup corneal
1 cup cold water
1 package yeast
1 1/2 cups boiling water
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup honey
2 tsp kosher salt
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 – 3 cups sifted white flour

Mix the corneal with 3/4 cup cold water. Soften the yeast in another small bowel with 1/4 cup cold water.

Add corneal to boiling water on the stove top and stir over low heat until it boils. (This will take at least 10 minutes – you are making grits, after all…) Add the butter, honey and salt and cool to lukewarm.

Combine yeast and corneal mixture and mix. Add whole wheat flour and enough white flour to give a fairly firm, non-stick dough. Turn out onto a floured board and knead until smooth and elastic.

Turn the dough into a greased bowl, grease the surface, cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place (80-85 degrees) until doubled in bulk.

Knead lightly again and shape into two loaves. Place in greased loaf pans. Brush with oil. Cover and let rise until double in bulk.

Bake in preheated oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 375 degrees and bake another 35 minutes longer.

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More Anadama Bread Recipes

  • The NY Times recipe adds nutmeg
  • Donalyn tells us her recipe has 2 WW points per slice. She does not cook the corneal first, justs adds it to her dry ingredients. Gorgeous photos!
  • Epicurious has a quick whole wheat version made with buttermilk
  • James gets a gorgeous rise with his version
  • Simply Recipes has a lovely loaf – and the nostalgic comments are a fun read.
  • Jude makes Peter Reinhart’s recipe – takes two days. I thought my version took a long time!
  • Pinch My Salt has some gorgeous shots of Reinhart’s method.
  • The Spice Garden tops her Anadama bread with oats and flaxseeds
  • GirliChef makes Anadama Rolls

Cuban Bread (Pan Cubano)

No matter where we ate in Cuba, the bread was delicious – almost always freshly made, even warm on occasion. Sort of a cross between French and Italian, sometimes like a heavy sandwich bread, sometimes more like a baguette. Then of course, there were those little bite size rolls at El Guarjirito… Needless to say, I came home itching to make bread.

A weekend visit to our cottage in the Endless Mountains was the perfect opportunity for bread making. I have only one cookbook there – The New York Times Cookbook (c 1961)– and as always, it came through, with a recipe for – would you believe it? Cuban Bread!

I don’t know if it’s an authentic recipe or not – I’ve since found others that use a sourdough-type starter. I do know that it indeed tasted a lot like bread I ate one afternoon at a restaurant in Havana. It made us some wonderful sandwiches and toasted up beautifully.

Warning – I am truly a novice bread maker. This post is more a report of my experience and not a lesson in bread making. To hang out with folks who really know what they are doing when it comes to bread making, head on over to The Fresh Loaf or let Bittman show you how he does it (and does it again).

Cuban Bread (Pan Cubano)

This recipe was modified from the James Beard Cooking School. I further modified it because Claiborne did not tell me what to use to grease the bowl (I used Olive oil) and because I did not have corn meal.

1 package yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
1 1/4 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
6-7 cups flour
Olive oil (I assume)
Corn meal

Dissolve the yeast in the water and add the salt and sugar, stirring to dissolve thoroughly, until it starts to foam. Add the flour, one cup at a time, beating with a wooden spoon, until you have a stiff dough. Knead for about 10 minutes till no longer sticky, then shape into a ball and place in a greased bowl and grease the top.  Cover with plastic wrap or a clean dishcloth and place in a warm spot (I used the porch railing in the sun) until it is doubled in bulk.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and shape into two long, french style loaves or round, Italian style loaves. Arrange on a baking sheet heavily sprinkled with corneal and allow to rise for 5 minutes (I did not have cornmeal, but wish that I did. I love that texture on the outside of bread).   Set a pot of water on the stove to boil while the bread does this last rise.

Slash the tops of the loaves with a knife or scissors, brush the tops with water and place in a cold oven. Set the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit and place the pot of boiling water on the bottom of the cold oven. Bake the bread until crusty and done, about 40-45 mins.
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Pan Cubano Around the Web

  • Andrea Meyers tells us that my recipe is a “quick” Cuban bread, (as oppoesed to the more traditional method using a starter) and makes a very similar recipe ifrom Memories of a  Cuban Kitchen.
  • Taste of Cuba has the traditional recipe that uses a starter
  • Plantanos, Mangos and Me makes my recipe but in a food processor and with an egg wash. Looks gorgeous!
  • Dino Grrl (does she know Dino Doc?) makes a whole grain bun version.
  • Watch Libby make Cuban Bread in this You Tube video – Nice Job
  • Klaus Tenbergen tell us that authentic Cuban Bread is baked with a palmetto fond atop. (See Lydia’s photo for an example)
  • The Fresh Loaf has a nice thread with lots of Cuban Bread recipes
  • MyBig Fat Cuban Family shares her mothers recipe for use in a bread machine

COMMENTS

Bardiac said…

Wow, that’s interesting that you put water in a cold oven. I wonder what that does? Keep the crust from drying too much?

Now I want to make bread and eat it slathered with butter. :/

AUGUST 07, 2010

Nale said…

I like all sorts of bread. This is new for me, and I will try it. 😉

AUGUST 08, 2010

rlbates said…

Beautiful!

AUGUST 08, 2010

Frugal Fig Flatbread

Say that five times fast. Then take a bite of the most delicious appetizer I think I have ever served.

The recipe is adapted from The Frugal Foodie Cookbook, written by Alanna Kaufman and Alex Small, aka the bloggers Two Fat Als. I met Alex and Alanna at the Union Square Farmer Farmer’s Market a few weeks ago, where they were selling their book and cooking up Eggplant Pasta. Once I learned that Alex is a med student at Mt Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, I knew I had to buy his book. (Even though I passed up the pasta – Y’all know my feelings on eggplant…) I was so excited – another medical food blogger! And with a book deal!

Alex and Alanna, a law student at Columbia University, met while undergrads at the University of Pennsylvania, and created all their recipes in their book while living on a student budget. Each recipe in the book has a little story attached and a cost breakdown per serving. Most of the recipes appear to be originals. The book’s introductory chapter (much too short, in my opinion) reveals the Als’ secrets for saving money while eating well – like making their own stock and breadcrumbs, using leftovers wisely, freezing herbs and making their own bread.

Of course, frugality (and regular bread making) is best accomplished by those with little financial resources but lots of free time. Students fall nicely into that category. It’s much harder being frugal while working 10-12 hour days, and even harder once you start taking night call. So it will be interesting to see how Alex and Alanna adapt their frugal lifestyles once the demands of residency and the law firm begin to take their toll. Hopefully by then, they will have the resources they need to enjoy being foodies without the luxury of free time.

Fig and Fontina Flatbread with Rosemary

The Fat Als use this Mark Bittman pizza dough recipe for their wonderful appetizer. That particular dough recipe calls for instant yeast. Since I only had active dry yeast, my recipe calls for proofing the yeast first. I’ve also adapted the original recipe by adding fresh rosemary and a generous sprinkle of salt and black pepper. Although The Als’ recipe calls for half figs, I’ve found that it is better to use fig slices, so that the juices find their way onto the bread while it is cooking. Next time I’ll use even more rosemary.

The recipe below makes two large cookie sheet size breads with a slightly puffy crust. If you like your crusts thin, as we do, you can split the dough into thirds and roll it out thinner, making three smaller breads from the same batch of dough. You’ll need to watch it more closely as the ends will cook quickly.

This bread goes great with a cold beer.

For the dough –

1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup hot water (100 degrees – very hot tap water will do)
A pinch of sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur’s bread flour); more as needed
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a little more
2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt
3/4 cup water

For the topping-
1 cup shredded Fontina cheese
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 lb. black mission figs
Fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper

Pour 1/4 cup hot water into a small bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on top along with a pinch of sugar. Give a quick stir and let sit till bubbles rise. Combine flour, salt, olive oil and activated yeast in a food processor. Begin processing and add 3/4 cup water through feed tube. Process, adding a little more water if necessary, until mixture forms a slightly sticky ball.

Turn dough onto a floured work surface, and knead to form a smooth, round ball. Put dough ball in a bowl, and cover with a clean damp towel. Let rise until dough doubles in size, 1-2 hours.

Just before the dough is done rising, preheat your oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Slice the figs by cutting them in half lengthwise (de-stem the ends with the knife if needed), then trimming the backsides flat, so you end up with nice thick slices with skins just around the edges. Divide dough in half and roll it onto lightly oil-greased baking sheets. Rub a little olive oil over the doughs, and divide cheese and figs among them. Sprinkle generously with fresh rosemary, salt and freshly ground pepper. Bake in the oven on the top shelf for 8-10 minutes, until golden. Cut into squares using a pizza cutter and serve.

I’ll Never Buy Breadcrumbs Again

Inspired by this wonderful video by Gourmet executive food editor Kemp Minifie, I decided to make my own breadcrumbs. I made mine exactly as Kemp did, except that I used my Kitchen Aid food processor instead of a blender – it did a beautiful job.

All I can say is – I’ll never buy bread crumbs again. Stay tuned for a great recipe for using these breadcrumbs.

Homemade Toasted Bread Crumbs
If you buy bread, and you’re like me, you’re probably wasting bread. I can’t tell you how many pieces of leftover bread I’ve thrown out over the years. Well no more. Save your leftovers or heels of the loaf in the freezer and use them to make bread crumbs. These crumbs store well in the freezer, but taste most amazing if used right away. You can toss a few fresh basil, oregano or parsley leaves before processing in if you want herbed crumbs.

Leftover Bread, cut or torn into pieces
Salt
Olive oil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahremheit. Place bread into food processor. Pulse till coarsely ground.
Spread the crumbs evenly out on a baking sheet and bake till golden brown – about 15-20 minutes – stirring them a bit about halfway through to assure even browning. Pour into a large bowl and toss with about 2 tbsp olive oil and salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
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Gourmet Magazine’s Test Kitchen website has more great videos. No subscription is needed.
Cooks Illustrated also has great instructional videos, but they require a paid subscription.