Bread Makes The Meal

"Boughten" bread. On Sunday—though we didn't eat it until tonight. It's not that I couldn't have made it. We just haven't had a whole lot of time recently, and we picked our menu for today (meatball sandwiches) kind of hastily. So we had no bread in the house, and I happened to see this walking by the bakery department. By this evening it had started hardening (which I hadn't entirely expected), so we reheated it and split it for the sandwiches. I also got it because I thought I might like to try and imitate the loaf, if it was any good. Well, it was; but I'm debating whether to go ahead with the idea. My idea of "Country White Bread" has a bit softer crust, and something that doesn't dry out quite so quickly. Maybe with a bit more sugar to it? I have a recipe for it in Everything Bread ; maybe I'll make that on the cookie sheet rather than in the loaf pan. Just an idea. What's the difference for you between Country...

Nancie and I were watching the Food Network channel this morning. We often watch the Sandwich King program on Sunday mornings, because we both love sandwiches. Today was a Mexican-inspired sandwich - chicken molé torta. This is pretty standard (I guess, as I've never had it) chicken molé on a roll called a "bolillo". The website gave the recipe for the chicken, with a link to Food Network's glossary for the word "bolillo". It took a bit of searching for me to find that they actually did have a recipe for bolillos (bolilli?) on the site (so why didn't they just link to the recipe? You might think...) Which got me thinking: Jeff Mauro, the chef who is "the Sandwich King", did a good job of describing what a bolillo is, and how it looks and tastes; but he didn't talk at all about what it was, or how it was made. He didn't even mention that there was a Food Network recipe for it. Now I understand that bread is probably not the mo...

Paul, over at The Fresh Loaf , had some interesting thoughts this morning on why we bake bread, and what it is that makes bread important as bread—especially its flavor. Which started me thinking. (A potentially dangerous activity, but I risk it from time to time.) I started baking bread again about six months ago, because I missed the experience of baking, but also because I missed the taste and smell of home-made bread. But as I've blogged about the recipes, even with all the descriptions of how to do it, and lovely pictures (or sometimes not so lovely?), I've been leaving out that important point: the resistance, then give, of the crust in your teeth; the warm, sharp tang of the sourdough; the simple "Here I am, feeding you!" of plain white bread. I'm going to change that. I'll start blogging more about what the bread smells like, and feels like, and reminds me of. As I said when I wrote my About Me page, is part of what I'd like to be sharing...

Before I start on the main post, I must apologize for the long delay. You don't want to know what the last few days have been like. So, Sally Lunn bread was a major success. I don't think I got everything quite perfect; but the end result was that one of the two loaves I made was gone in three days. With very strong approval from Nancie and her mom as well. There was the "not-very-bready" taste to it I remembered; I can now say definitively that this results from the eggs. Three eggs are more than I usually put in two loaves of bread (which is to say, more than none). And one thing I learned from it was that only about 25% of the pictures I take are really good enough to use as illustrations. Here's the recipe, then: Sally Lunn Bread ½ cup warm water 1¾ teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast (I actually used 2, I don't remember my reasoning at the time) 1 cup warm milk ½ cup (1 stick) butter ¼ cup sugar 2 teaspoons salt 3 eggs, well beat...

Although we watched an episode of Chopped last night in which one of the mandatory ingredients for a dish was barley flour—but I don't think I've seen barley flour before. It was described as having essentially no gluten; maybe I could make a flatbread out of it? Assuming of course that I could find some. (Apparently, Bob's Red Mill has some, but I've never seen it at ShopRite, Acme, Stop'n'Shop, or even Wegman's. Now, on to Sally Lunn. Wikipedia speaks of it as referring to a kind of bun . The recipe I got from Mama is for a loaf. And the article says it's "often lightly scented with lemon." Are we talking about the same thing? I think not. Mrs. Acton's English Bread Book from 1857 mentions "Flour, 1 lb. [about 2½ cups]; butter, 3 oz.; pounded sugar, 3 oz.; German yeast, full ounce; [let rise] 2 to 3 hours, or until extremely light. Flour, in addition, one pound; to stand in tins until risen to their edges." It allo...

I'm not feeling totally great this evening, but I wanted to share with you something from Wild Yeast Blog , one of the bread-baking blogs I follow. The recipe is for Sourdough Banana Bread, a combination of two of my favorite breads. Thanks, everyone, for following and (hopefully) telling people about this blog. I really appreciate the love from all of you. Good night, and remember, All sorrows are less with bread .

And better, I think. See if you agree. Looking back, I don't see that I've ever posted Leslie Bilderback's "Amish White Bread" recipe. Assuming I haven't, here it is, then (unless she tells me to please take it down): Amish White Bread 1 cup warm water ⅓ cup sugar 1¾ teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast 1 cup flour 2 tablespoons oil (I usually use olive oil for flavor) ¾ teaspoon salt 2 more cups flour So start off by dissolving the sugar in the warm water (as always, not much warmer than body temperature) and adding the yeast. Stir until the yeast is all mixed in and go read a book or something for ten minutes. When the yeast is all foamed up on the top, add the oil, and then stir in the first cup of flour. When this is well mixed, add the salt, and then the other two cups of flour. Flour your surface, and empty the bowl out. You should have a soft, but fairly cohesive, dough. Knead this for eight or nine minutes. It'...

I was going to make some other kind of bread on Wednesday, but it was pointed out that we had a number of bananas that were ready to go—more than we were going to eat. And we didn't have long to eat them, so could I please do something with them? Four of these—perfect for banana bread. So I looked for a recipe with plenty of bananas, and guess what? Leslie Bilderback came through again! Thanks Leslie! (Note: I think I've described this before? But not with pictures like this.) Banana Bread ¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter ¾ cup granulated sugar 3 ripe bananas 1 egg ¼ cup sour cream (I actually used closer to ½) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour 1½ teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt (Optional; I don't usually bother) 1 cup chopped walnuts Preheat oven to 350 °F (175 °C; Gas Mark 4). (Here Leslie gives instructions for prepping a 9" x 5" loaf pan with "pan spray" and parc...

I have to say, this dark rye I made yesterday is delicious! (And almost gone!) I made a couple of sandwiches with it, and I wanted to share. Yesterday, I was just hungry, and I wanted to have something hearty. Fortunately, we had some Kerrygold "Blarney Castle" cheese around. This is lovely cheese, not bland but not with an overpowering taste and smell; a bit sharp but mild enough to let the taste of the bread show through. The only thing I found disappointing about the bread was that the characteristic "rye" taste wasn't very strong. I wonder if this was because I modified the recipe not to use the sourdough starter? It was still delicious, a lot like the brown bread I remember Mama making for us. I just cut off a few slices, put them straight on the bread, and Yum! But you know what was missing? (And I haven't had this for ages .) That's right—pickle! They have this at the Stop & Shop, but we rarely go there for our groce...

So Saturday we were out pretty much all day shopping and running errands, so I took most of Sunday off to recuperate :-) Today was going to be the recipe I gave for bread from 1857, but Nancie requested rye bread instead, so that takes precedence. Since I didn't have a sourdough started, I tried to modify the recipe. It's just coming to the end of the rise, but I thought I'd share with you what I've done so far: Dark Starterless Rye Bread (modified from Leslie Bilderback's Light Caraway Rye recipe) 1 cup warm water 1 tablespoon granulated sugar 2 teaspoons active dry yeast, about 1 package ½ cup cool water; 2 cups dark rye flour 1 teaspoon salt 3 – 4 cups bread flour In a large bowl, combine warm water, sugar, and yeast. Stir to dissolve, and let stand until foamy, about ten minutes. Add cool water and rye flour; stir to combine and form a sponge. Let the sponge stand for about 10 – 12 hours, until well fermented: Add enough bread flour to c...

Happy End Of (Northern Hemisphere) Summer to you all! Of course, when exactly the end happens is debatable. Me, I like the idea that the equinoxes and solstices mark the midpoints of the seasons, so that my autumn began about a month ago. But however you reckon things, fall is about here, here. So I wanted to show you a recipe for bread that I'm going to make this weekend. It's another bread from The English Bread Book by Eliza Acton. I haven't actually converted it into a "modern-style" recipe yet, but I know my basic approach. Here's the recipe, as Eliza has it: Flour four pounds, mixed in a very large bowl with a teaspoonful of salt. The middle made hollow, and a single tablespoonful of brewer's yeast (which has been well watered for two days, and kept in a cool larder) very smoothly mixed with a pint of cold milk and water,—of which one part of three was new milk, and two were filtered water,—poured in, and stirred and beaten well with as m...