Bread Makes The Meal

That's what we had for dinner tonight. (Yes, I know, I still have the "Milk and Water Bread" recipe going. But this was a royal command suggestion from Herself. Of course, the world's best meatball parm sandwich requires the world's best Italian bread. Namely: Italian Batard ( Everything Bread , p.30) ½ cup warm water (I used very warm water, nearly hot) 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (I used the buckwheat honey; I do think it made a difference) 1¾ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 package) (I put in closer to 2) 1 cup all-purpose flour (for a change, I followed this—see explanation below) 1 cup warm milk (mine was more like room temperature) 2 tablespoons olive oil ½ teaspoons [kosher] salt 3 – 4 cups bread flour ¼ cup cornmeal This is one instance in which I nearly followed the recipe. Not quite. The recipe calls for making a sponge and letting it develop for 8 to 12 hours. But as it was 1:00 in the afternoon when I got started, I decided to g...

That's the book from 1917 that I'm doing tomorrow's recipe from. You can find it on Google Books; I'm using the recipe for "Milk And Water Bread". Dissolve one yeast cake in quarter of a cupful of lukewarm water, stir in enough flour to make a batter, cover and leave to rise. Mix together a cupful of scalded milk, a cupful of boiling water, a tablespoonful of lard, an equal quantity of butter, and a teaspoonful and a half of salt. Stir this mixture into the sponge and add five cupsful of sifted flour, or one cupful of white flour and enough entire wheat flour to knead. In the latter case add also three tablespoonsful of molasses. This bread may be mixed, raised and baked in five hours, and should be mixed in the morning when the cook is able to watch the dough as it rises and to keep it at a uniform temperature. The bowl containing the dough may be placed in a pan of water, keeping the water between 95° and 100° Fahrenheit. Many cooks who have not proved them...

I've been too busy over the last day or so to get to a computer. But I haven't forgotten my bread. Night before last, I tried (a variety of) Peasant Bread from Everything Bread . It called for ¼ cup each of rye and whole wheat flour as well as the bread flour. I unfortunately only had the bread flour, so I just went ahead and made it straight. I liked the bread; Herself didn't—I don't think I gave it enough time to rise. It was done, or nearly so, but the crumb was very dense. Here's the recipe: Peasant Bread 1½ cups warm water 1 tablespoon honey (I used buckwheat honey—I love the taste) 1¾ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 package) ¼ cup rye flour ¼ cup whole wheat flour (I didn't have either, so I substituted ½ cup of bread flour) ¾ teaspoon salt (we don't have kosher, so I used plain iodized) 3 – 4 cups bread flour ¼ cup cornmeal In a large bowl, combine water, honey, and yeast. Stir to dissolve and let sta...

I'm just going through some of my websites today. I thought I was going to be baking bread yesterday; then I would have had pictures for you. But we wound up running a few errands instead, and I was Just Too Tired. So instead, I went to The Fresh Loaf (.com) and looked into their lessons . What I learned is that no one seems to mention the "roll out the dough, then roll it up" approach that I learned from my Pillsbury recipes. Hmm. Next time I'll try just forming the dough into more or less the right shape. I'll keep going through this. In many ways, I still feel my lack of experience, and I know that what keeps me going is not my certainty of the result so much as my joy in the process. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

That's the title of a paper I read last night; about bread-baking and bread-eating in the Middle Ages. If you're up to reading a fairly short (4-page), well-written academic paper, I recommend it. Oh, and the soda bread from the other day? The crust was well done, but the inside didn't really rise at all. It was soggy and thick and generally not great. So did I (a) use too much milk, (b) use the mixture of regular and buttermilk when I should have used just buttermilk, (c) use potentially expired baking soda, (d) not mix well enough, (e) not bake long enough? You tell me—I'm thinking possibly all of the above. I was lamenting the bread last night, and Herself was listening and not saying much, until she asked me to bring down her recipe box. "Why?" I asked, ever curious. "Just bring it down," she said. So being the good husband, I just brought it down. She went through it for about 10 seconds and showed me another recipe for Irish soda brea...

I decided I didn't have the time late tonight to do a rising bread, and then spent about an hour looking for a recipe for Irish soda bread, before Herself reminded me that we had got one from a family friend. I'll comment on how I did in the recipe itself. Irish Soda Bread 4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt ½ cup raisins (optional – I don't use them) 1½ cup buttermilk (see below) Okay, so first of all, about the buttermilk. I knew we had some. What I didn't realize was that it was about three weeks past date. So I opened it up to smell it. It smelled fine, but it was the consistency of yogurt—and smelled a bit like yogurt, too. It wouldn't pour out of the container, either; so I added about half a cup of regular milk just to get it liquid again. It seemed to work, and it looked and smelled fine. Now, on to the instructions: Mix all ingredients and knead into a ball. Hmm. That doesn't look much like a ball. Let's try a bit more milk?...

I may or may not go to get rye flour tonight to make the awesome bread I was talking about the other day. (I don't think I'll be going for long hikes or climbing mountains while waiting for the bread, though. Especially not in near-100 degree heat.) I would like to make sure this is popular with Herself as well, of course. And "raisins and walnuts"—I know we have walnuts, but I'd leave out the raisins; I've never been a fan of raisins in bread. Not even cinnamon bread. The other recipe that got my attention recently was from the same blog, and not even a bread recipe (!): Chilled Peach And Ginger Soup . I've never had a cold soup before; this sounds wonderful. But what bread would go with it? God speed, and remember, All sorrows are less with bread .

Last night I did indeed make the Amish white bread—and stayed up, as Herself let me know, quite a bit past my bedtime. It's worth the sacrifice for bread, though, isn't it? Here's what I made: Amish White 1 cup warm water ⅓ cup sugar 1 packet (1¾ teaspoon) yeast 2 tablespoons oil 3 cups flour 1 teaspoon (kosher) salt (I still just use the regular salt; it seems to work fine) In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in the water and add the yeast. Let stand until foamy (about 10 minutes). Add the oil and 1 cup of flour. Mix until combined; then add the salt and the rest of the flour. Mix to combine. On a floured surface, knead for 8 or 10 minutes (I usually go toward the long end of this, unless I've added more flour) . Return to the bowl, oil the top (I always forget this step, and maybe that explains the issue below) , and cover with cloth or plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 1 hour. (The recipe at this point just says ...

I realized that over the weekend I didn't get to stir my sourdough starter—and I missed a feeding. So I was a bit hesitant last night to lift off the (by now very dry) cloth I keep over the starter bowl. I shouldn't have worried. It didn't look particularly different, or smell "off". I took out a cup, added a half cup of flour and half a cup of water, and stirred. This morning, it looked like this: (All those little spots are air bubbles; the picture didn't turn out great.) So the starter is alive and kicking, I'm going to make another couple of boules tonight or tomorrow—and tonight I'm definitely making the Amish white bread. Horror of horrors, we actually had to buy Store White Bread (for $4.50!) last night. So I'll have to do something about that. And as I still can't find the Sally Lunn recipe (but then again, you saw what the desk looks like—it could be anywhere there...) I'm trying not to bake too much bread; we only have so m...

I was really busy last night and didn't get to do any baking. I was very disappointed. But also very tired. I promise I will do some tonight :-) In the mean time, here's a really amazing-looking bread from one of my regular reads. The only thing is, with a 14 to 16 hour ripening time for the sourdough base, I'd have to make this over two (or even three!) days. It will take careful planning. I've also made a decision of sorts. Since, as they say, it's easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, I'll be posting the recipes I bake with from now on, with plenty of pictures to go around. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

"Go" as in "post", that is. We had a great weekend with Herself's family and I'm ready to go. Of course, this means I didn't get to make bread over the weekend. But I thought I'd share with you the Sally Lunn recipe that I will make tonight or tomorrow. But I Can't Find It . I know I left it somewhere here on the desk. Unfortunately the desk is a total mess: As you might guess, it's a bit difficult to find anything, especially with a cat wandering. I'll look for it more tonight and post the recipe as soon as I find it. God speed, and remember, All sorrows are less with bread .

I'm not going to be blogging tomorrow - it'll be a busy weekend for me. But fear not—another of Mama's recipes awaits for next time! God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

Oh wow. This looks yummy. Should I make it? I'll check with Herself whether she'd eat it :-) God speed, and remember, All sorrows are less with bread .

I wish people would write more of this . "Cast off sorrow, Bread tomorrow"? That's my line. Maybe: Knead the dough, There we go, In the oven for some loving, It's a charm - nice and warm! Okay, not great - but it's a first poem :-) Here's a much better poem about bread and baking, from someone who apparently could have been either poet or baker, but chose poetry. Any poems crossing your minds? God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

But I remembered just in time this morning. Feeding every five days, I really ought to write it on the calendar. But it seemed fine this morning. I don't think all the flour broke up when I stirred it; it was a bit lumpy: On another note, I've started looking at bread recipes from a century or more ago; something that I ran into while browsing Google Books. I may share some of these; they look interesting, funny, or both. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

Today my stomach was feeling really awful, and everything just felt slightly out of whack. I didn't feel like I could eat much, so most of the morning I nibbled on slices of sourdough boule. (How do you pronounce that, anyway? It looks like it should be pronounce "boole", or maybe "boolay" - but I always want to pronounce it "bowl"; I have no idea why.) Oh man that was good. This loaf was less overdone on the outside and less underdone on the inside. Very dense and chewy with a very close crumb, but totally done. It was really crusty and there was just this flavor about it that (to quote Smith Of Wootton Major ) "reminds me ... of something I've forgotten". It was Excellent! I'm not sure if I'll do the crescent rolls this week; I've been thinking about the Sally Lunn—recipe to follow tomorrow or so. I'll let you know and there will certainly be pictures. And as I'm feeding the sourdough tonight, I may or may n...

I missed a day yesterday; but in return for making you wait, I have something to share! Yesterday I got a letter from my mom, with a bunch of recipes - nearly all of which I can personally vouch for as delicious. There's (Boston-style) brown bread, Sally Lunn (as I remember, a sweet, dense, cakey bread), no-knead English Muffin bread (Mama claims she used to make this, but I don't remember it), and to start things off: Crescent Butter Rolls 1 cake compressed yeast (about 1¾ tsp) 1¼ cups lukewarm water ¼ cup sugar 3 well-beaten eggs ¾ cup melted butter 4 cups unsifted Flour Crumble yeast into water and stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt, eggs, butter, and flour. (Note: Following the advice Leslie Bilderback gives, I usually give five or ten minutes for the yeast to proof before adding the other ingredients.) Stir until smooth. Dough will be very sticky. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight. (Or, I guess, you could just let it rise right there - but...

It (that is, the Sourdough Boule recipe from Everything Bread ) started off so well. Well, almost "so well". I didn't watch my timing as well as I wanted. Leslie in Everything Bread suggested to let the bread rise for an hour and a half at room temperature "or until the bread doubled in size". So I went off to the community garden for an hour and a half. By the time I got back, the bread had nearly tripled in size, I think! So I punched it down, divided it in two, and rolled it into boules. By that time, we had to go shopping. So I put the two boules on a big plate and put them in the fridge, figuring that would slow things down enough that they'd be about the same size when we got back. No such luck. When we got back about three hours later, the two loaves had grown together and I had quite a time trying to separate them. By the time they were on the baking sheet, one was much bigger than the other, and they were both flat on one side: You might n...

I got up this morning intending to make bread at some point today. I still am, and I'll report to you tonight! But Herself said, "Can you make chocolate-chip waffles today?" So of course I said, "Yes!" I knew that Everything Bread had some waffle recipes in it, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to get another recipe under my belt. Well, it turns out that there's a recipe for Chocolate Waffles (page 192); but what we both wanted was regular waffles with chocolate chips. So instead, I used the Belgian Waffles recipe a couple of pages earlier, and put chocolate chips into it. With a few modifications :-) We were out of butter, so I had a choice of melted tub margarine or canola oil. I went with the canola oil; melted tub margarine just has this really weird smell to it. Doesn't seem right. And (as I probably said earlier) we don't really have the space for a bunch of different kinds of flour. The recipe called for cake flour; we...

So I've decided - butter top will be the new bread that I'm making (page 22 in Everything Bread ). That will go great for sandwiches, which is a major component of lunch. And it appears that the starter, though thin and watery, may have been intended so. Apparently this is called a "100% hydrated" starter, because the amount of water (now 3 cups) is 100% of the amount of flour. I did the second feeding yesterday evening, and it foamed up really quickly: (I admit to tweaking the picture a bit - the flash reflected off everything and made it bright white. All I did was turn down the brightness a bit so you could see the foam on top.) So I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Or Sunday. Or both—whenever I get to the bread is fine. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

Cathy over at the Bread Experience blog has a great entry for her July 2011 Bake Your Own Bread (BYOB) Roundup . These breads look amazing. It may take a while, but I'm sure you'll see me on the roundup sometime. In the meantime go on over and feast your eyes!

Last night, Herself had some of the challah bread. She made a face :-/ like that. It was dry, she said, and she didn't care for the taste. Oh well... I just realized last night that I forgot to put the egg wash on before baking it. No wonder it didn't look right. Today is Day 10 for the starter, time to feed again. It should be ready for sourdough use by now, according to the recipe; so I'm looking forward to this weekend! Assuming the starter works, that is. I'm, well maybe not pessimistic but at least tentatively skeptical. After that? I'm going through the cookbook as I type—maybe the ciabatta (though I'll need to go buy whole wheat flour) or the Italian batard. Some of these recipes call for kosher salt rather than standard table salt. Am I missing something by using table salt? Maybe. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

And without much to say, unfortunately. I'm still following the sourdough starter instructions in Everything Bread , which say to feed every 5 days—it just looks awful thin to me. The challah bread actually turned out quite well. It's a bit dry, though; I had thought the eggs would moisten the dough more. I understand why it has to be made without dairy (to keep kosher, since it's historically been made with meat dishes) but I wonder how that would change it—adding a little more fat to it. But I'm happy with it. I'll come up with an idea for this weekend's bread tonight. Meantime, God speed and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

So I decided to follow my friend Candace's suggestion and make challah bread out of Everything Bread (page 85). There were a couple of differences I had from the recipe. The instructions said to use a cup of all-purpose flour and two or three of bread flour—well, I didn't have any all-purpose flour around; so maybe the bread will be a bit stiffer than the recipe. Then, the recipe suggested that the bread might take two hours to double in size, rising at room temperature. I let it rise for an hour, and then we had to run some errands so I put it in the refrigerator and let it rise until we came back about three hours later. It was doubled by then, so I just let it warm up a bit and proceeded with the rest of the instructions. Only to hit a small snag. The instructions said, "Turn risen dough onto a floured surface," that's okay; "divide into 3 equal portions," I can do that; "and form a 3-strand braid." Umm, grind to a halt here. How do ...

The starter is doing really well (day 6). It was foaming up earlier, and I stirred it once. It seems to have gone very liquid; I'm not sure that's right, it had a much thicker consistency yesterday. I usually bake bread on Sundays, but today we had a little bit of a party - an early Independence Day party, more or less. So tomorrow I'll be baking, and I was looking over things I haven't done from the Everything Bread cookbook. Butter Top? Farmhouse White? Honey White? Hawaiian Bread? I'm not sure how much butter we have in the house - if I get desperate (and only if I get desperate) I could substitute margarine; but I'd rather walk down to the store, if it's open. What's your preferred sandwich or toasting bread? Anything special? God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

Very simple, the instructions were "Add one cup of flour and one cup of water; stir until mixed." I'm going to wind up with a lot of starter. Bought some more bread flour (Gold Medal; I just can't see springing $4.99 for the King Arthur) and sugar (which I then spilled half over the stove as I was filling the canister). The Amish White that I make for sandwich bread takes a lot of sugar; 1/3 cup per loaf. I love it, though. Probably my favorite sandwich bread - and Herself can't get enough. A friend of mine, an English professor, found out I bake. He suggested a story called A Small Good Thing , by Raymond Carver. It's a very sad story; very heavy. Kind of like the bread that's mentioned in the end. "It had the taste of molasses and coarse grains." I'd like to make a bread like that. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

Today is the last day of just stirring the sourdough starter; tomorrow, according to the recipe, I need to start feeding it. I was going to take a picture when I stirred the starter tonight, but I have to say it looked exactly the same as it did yesterday. At this point I'm just wondering if it's going to change significantly - I want it to be ready so I can actually start baking with it! That bread I made yesterday is delicious with butter as a dessert; but I'm going to have to try the recipe as printed. Definitely. Or, I could try the cinnamon-raisin loaf. Herself loves cinnamon-raisin bread. Me, I'll be picking out the raisins. But it would be fun to make. That's all for tonight, I think; I started this post really late and my mind is falling asleep. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .