Artisan Bread x2

Today, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed having artisan bread dough in my fridge.  It was the base of sticky buns for breakfast and pizza for dinner.  Both turned out spectacular and I only spent about 10 minutes prepping each dish.   The day was so busy that I didn't get any pictures- next time.

Cook Book Review: Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

So, yesterday when I wrote about Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and told you I "experimented", I have to admit, the first thing I did was add whole wheat flour to the recipes.  I like a good, white artisan bread sometimes, but for everyday consumption, I feel my family and I need something that is a bit healthier.

I guess I wasn't the only one with this thought, because after sifting through all the feedback from Artisan Bread, Hertzberg and Francois went back to the kitchen and produced Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  Written in the same style, and applying the same methods as Artisan Bread, Healthy Bread kicks up the ingredients to use whole wheat flours, whole grains, nuts, fruits and seeds to make truly delicious healthy bread.

I received my copy of Healthy Bread for my birthday.  I opened it, perused it and got sucked into it.  I've begun working through the recipes and have had fantastic results.  I generally opt for the white whole wheat flour and these whole grain recipes are tailored to handle traditional or white whole wheat.  They have formulated the recipes to produce light, airy whole wheat bread. After making dense, whole wheat bread for way to long, I am loving the new results!

While the ingredients used in this book are a bit more "exotic" than in Artisan Bread, most of the ingredients for the standard recipes can be found in a grocery store baking aisle.  As you move to more complicated breads (like the gluten free recipes) there are more specialized ingredients.

If you're looking for some good-for-you bread recipes to add to your collection, check out Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I think you'll like what you find.

(Disclaimer: This is a voluntary review and I have not been compensated in any way for this review.)

Cook Book Review: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Back in February, a friend recommended Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoe Francois.  the recommendation came complete with at copy of the master bread recipe.  I was intrigued.  I requested my own copy from the library.  I experimented.  I renewed the book.  I requested it for my birthday.

I loved this cookbook. I had an "old standby" cookbook for my bread baking that was my general reference, but after reading ABin5 (as they abbreviate it on their web site), my inner baker was liking the new methods presented.

As I read through the introduction and then skimmed through the recipes, I kept thinking that it just seemed way too easy. It couldn't really work, could it?  I experimented, and their recipes do work.  Multiple recipes and techniques are presented for each base dough recipe.  This was one part that I really appreciated about this book.  We are a small household, and goodness knows I don't need all kinds of extra loaves of bread around the house.  But, if I know a dough base is good for about 2 weeks and can be used a few different ways,  I can look at my menu and plan accordingly.

ABin5 also provides instructions for freezing enriched (eggs and milk added) dough recipes that don't have as long of a refrigerator life.  I was skeptical, but these methods worked too.

The instructions are clear and concise.  Once your read through their method, have the correct equipment and understand your ingredients, I think that anyone can achieve great artisan bread at home under the tutelage of Hertzberg and Francois.

If you're interested, check it out at your local library or peruse their website.  Tomorrow - I'll give you my 2 cents on Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

(Disclaimer: This is a voluntary review and I have not been compensated in any way for this review.)

Destination: Warm Fresh Bread!

While on any journey, one looks forward to the destination, and in some cases, many destinations.  As I wrap up this portion of the bread journey - we will arrive at loaves of warm, fresh, bread.  I plan on continuing on the my bread journey and sharing as I go.  HandyMan has requested Pumpernickel bread for his birthday and I'm curious to try a gluten-free sandwich bread recipe.

Without further ado -one of my favorite bread recipes.  You can substitute flours in whatever combination you wish to experiment with keeping in mind the texture you want from the finished bread and the gluten contents of the flours you are using.  For this batch I used almost equal parts of bread flour, white whole wheat and all purpose flour.

Basic Bread

2-1/4 teaspoons of Dry Active Yeast (1 packet)

3 tablespoons Sugar

2 cups Warm Water

1 teaspoon Salt

4-5 cups of All Purpose Flour

Directions:

Place the yeast, sugar and warm water in your mixing bowl.



Let sit about five minutes, or until foamy.



Add 1/2 of the flour and salt and mix. (*If you are using multiple types of flour, it can save time to combine the flours in a separate bowl and add the flour mixture to the bread dough)



Continue to work in remaining flour until dough pulls away from the bowl.  Dough will be soft and slightly sticky.



Spray a large bowl with cooking spray or cover lightly with oil.  With floured hands, removed dough from the mixing bowl and place dough in the clean bowl.  Turn it over so that the ball of dough is lightly coated with oil/cooking spray.



Cover and allow to rise for 1-2 hours or until at least doubled in size.



Here is where this recipe differs from many others.  From this point on, you want to handle the dough as little as possible.  You can either make one large loaf, or two small loaves.  Since we are a small family, I usually opt for the small loaves-you may choose your own adventure here! :)

Take a sharp or serrated knife and separate the dough (skip this step if making one loaf).



I made one free form loaf one sandwich style loaf from the two pieces of dough.  To form the free form loaf, remove one of the pieces of dough gently with floured hands.  Gently pull the sides down towards the bottom of the loaf until a smooth ball is formed.  Place dough on a floured silicone sheet or parchment paper and allow to rest for 20 minutes.



While the free-form loaf is resting, preheat your oven to 425 and place your baking stone in the middle of the oven and a metal baking pan or broiler pan underneath it.  Once dough has begun to rise a bit, score the top of the loaf with your sharp or serrated knife.  When the oven is hot, place the loaf (parchment/silicone sheet and all) onto the baking stone and pour about 1 cup of water into the baking pan and carefully and quickly close the oven door.  Bake for 35-45 minutes or until nicely browned.  Loaf should sound hollow if tapped.  The longer you bake, the crisper the crust.

In the same fashion, take the second piece of dough and pull it into an oval and place it in a greased loaf pan.  I only have glass pans, so I knew I wouldn't have a very "sturdy" crust on that loaf.

Allow the loaf to rise 30-40 minutes and score the top if you choose.  Then bake at 375 for 40-60 minutes -or until browned and it sounds hollow to the tap.

After warming the house on this rainy afternoon and making it smell WAY too good, here were the finished loaves:

And by the time they had cooled enough to cut into, everyone was ready to eat!

(It was still a little to warm so the middle gummed together a bit when we cut into it!)

Bread Journey: Choosing Bake-Ware for Home Made Bread

I think there are as many pieces of bake ware for bread as there are days in the year.  Many specialty breads have specialty baking pans and pans come in a myriad of metal types, stone ware and silicone.  For the purposes of this journey, we’re talking about a basic free-form loaf that is shaped and then baked or a loaf of bread made in a traditional loaf pan.

If you are making a free-form loaf, I strongly recommend a baking stone.  If you don’t have a baking stone, a cookie sheet or an air-bake sheet is second best.  The baking stone, when preheated with your oven, provides a very evenly heated baking surface, making for a crisp bottom crust.  I form my loaf on a piece of parchment paper, allow to rise or rest as the recipe calls for and then place the loaf – parchment and all – onto the stone.  This method has achieved great results.  I've also used a silicone baking sheet instead of the parchment and had good results.

Glass and metal loaf pans are most common for baking traditional bread loaves.   In my experience the metal ones allow for slightly quicker baking time as the glass takes longer to heat up.  If using a dark metal pan or non-stick pan, you may want to reduce your heat slightly.  Every oven bakes differently so you will need to experiment.  An oven thermometer (which I have yet to invest in but should) can take some of the guess-work out of the baking process by giving you your actual baking temperature.

Generally, you will not get a crisp a crust on a loaf pan bread as you do on a free form bread.  You can cheat, however, and start the bread baking in the pan for 1/2 to 3/4 of the called for cooking time.  Then, quickly remove the bread from the pan and place it on your baking stone (which has been in the oven) and allow the loaf to finish cooking.  This will crisp the crust up nicely.

Once you have your dough and bake ware established, it’s time to bake bread!  Tomorrow, we bring it all together with one of my favorite easy bread recipes.

Tricks & Tips for Mixing Great Bread Dough

Whether you like to dig and mix your bread dough with your hands, feeling the softness as you knead and release some stress, or let your mixer or bread machine do the work, mixing up bread dough requires a bit of TLC, close observation and sometimes a bit of intuition.  Here are a few tips that I've stumbled upon with my baking - usually the hard way - that can help you mix up a great batch of bread.

Observe the recipe with flexibility. Many baking recipes, like cakes and cookies, can be followed to a “T” with a great result every time.  Yeast breads are a little different.  I can use the same recipe as my neighbor and have completely different results.  Take your recipe one step at a time and watch for the cues from your dough – especially when adding flour.

Proof the Yeast Most bread recipes begin with something like this: “Add [some amount] of yeast to [some amount] of warm water”.  Some recipes are specific about what they mean by “warm water”.  In general, as long as the water coming out of your tap is warm and not steaming, you should be fine.  The purpose of this step is to activate the yeast.  In about five minutes you should see the little specs of yeast begin to soften, puff up and dissolve into the water. It is very important to make sure this happens – if the yeast isn’t growing in your water, then it’s not going to grow in your bread dough and your dough won’t rise.  Sometimes, if your water is too warm, it will kill the yeast instead of waking it up.  Other times, yeast may be outdated and not hold a leavening power anymore.

Incrementally Add Flour-Once you’ve gotten your yeast proofed and other liquids into the mix, it is time to add the flour.  No matter what your recipe says, I do not recommend adding all your flour at once.  Start with half the flour the recipe calls for.  Mix that much in to get your dough to a batter-y type consistency.  Then add remaining flour a bit at a time.  Remember, the denser your dough is, the denser your bread will be.  If you have not reach the full amount of flour that the recipe calls for, but your dough has pulled away from the bowl in a nice ball – you may very well have enough flour in your dough. On the flip side, you may have added all the flour that the recipe calls for and your pile of dough is still a sticky mess.  Add additional flour 1-2 tablespoons at a time until you have a smooth ball of dough to work with.

Once you have mixed up your dough, place it to rise according to the recipe and walk away.  Let it do it’s rising business and come back later to finish your process.

What's in Your Flour?

Every warm piece of fresh bread to grace the dinner table holds three foundational ingredients: Flour, Water and leavening.  The flour makes up almost 75% of the final loaf of bread.  So let’s look at the flour options and decide what will be best for your bread.

Anatomy of Wheat Flour

While there are many types of flours on the market-oat, rye, rice, semolina and more – we are going to focus on the flours in the wheat family.  Wheat flours come from the grains of the wheat plants.  Just as there are many varieties of say, tomatoes, there are also a number of varieties of wheat plants.  Each wheat kernel is made up of the bran, germ and the endosperm.  Differing quantities of these parts of the kernel are found in different types of wheat flour and all three must be present for a flour to fall with the “whole grain” category.

Gluten protein found in wheat flour gives bread dough its elasticity by forming the strands necessary for the dough to capture the carbon dioxide released by the leavening agent.  The gluten content of flours is also referred to as the flour protein content and is measured as a percentage.

Below are a few of the more common wheat flours available in most of our American grocers.



Bleached All Purpose Flour – In general, I avoid the bleached all purpose flours.  Their bright whiteness comes at the cost of processing with harsh chemicals and removal of many of the nutrient carrying germ and bran.  This also leaves the flour with a very low gluten content making it a poor choice for bread.





Unbleached All Purpose Flour – Most unbleached all purpose flours will weigh in at about 10% protein content making them a great choice for bread making.  This happy medium of flour also mixes well with other lower protein flours to lighten the loaf.  It too is made from just the endosperm of the wheat kernel.



Bread Flour – Bread flour is an unbleached all purpose flour that carries a higher protein content (12% protein) therefore making for a chewier bread. It can be combined with denser flours to add a bit more texture to the bread.  It also serves well to help free-form loaves hold their shape through rising and baking.



All Purpose Whole Wheat Flour – An all purpose whole wheat flour is going to contain the whole grain of the wheat providing excellent nutritional value as well as a moderately low protein content.  When combined with Unbleached All Purpose Flour, great loaves result.

Whole Wheat Bread Flour - Whole wheat bread flour has a higher protein content than the all purpose whole wheat flour and can usually produce a pretty good loaf on its own.  It can be combined with an all purpose white flour to lighten it up a bit if a 100% whole wheat is too dense for your liking.



White Whole Wheat – White Whole Wheat flour is relatively new on the scene and I’ve only found it in my stores through one manufacturer.  It has the nutrients of a full whole wheat but is made from a white wheat kernel and the flour is lighter than a traditional whole wheat.  It mixes nicely with an all purpose flour to make a beautiful light loaf.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert.  This is merely information distilled from my readings of Bread, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking and RecipeTips.com.  Flour photos from RecipeTips.com.

Bread's Place on Our Dinner Table

Often, warm bread often sits along side a favorite meal on the American dinner table.  Sometimes it is the centerpiece of deli sandwich or hearty sidekick to a soup dinner.  A fresh loaf has even been known to be the main course alongside fruit and cheese on a summer evening on our back porch.  There are many ways to include bread in your menu, and while the grocery store bakeries often do a great job with their warm loaves, nothing, in my opinion, beats a warm loaf from my own oven.

I began baking bread in earnest about six years ago when I took a step back and wanted to bring our kitchen table back to the basic ingredients and away from processed foods.  Fortunately, we do not have any food intolerances in our family, so bread is still a regular part of our diet.

I had dabbled in bread making prior to that and enjoyed the process of working with the dough.  I enjoyed the process so much that I turned down the offer of a bread maker from a friend.  More recently, I have brought my MamaMixer into my bread making process, but I still enjoy getting my hands in the dough.

I have experimented with different ingredients and types of breads.  Plain loaves, Focaccia, baguette, pizza crusts, pretzels, bagels, cinnamon rolls, Parker House rolls and Brioche just begin to list the many types of bread that have marched out of my oven.  Most attempts turned out wonderfully, but I was still looking to perfect a good, crusty loaf of bread.

I’ve found that it is a perfect combination of ingredients and baking process that make this possible: part art, part science.  With a little information added to your recipe and a bit of experimenting, the perfect loaf of bead is just waiting for you.

This week we will look at the different types of wheat flours used for bread making, tricks to getting the dough “just right” and choosing the perfect bake ware: each a step in the Bread Journey to lead us to a great loaf of bread.

The Bread Journey

I love to make bread.  To take a handful of ingredients, give them a good spa treatment - massage, rest, and sauna - and voila: warm bread.  Over the last ten years I have thoroughly enjoyed the therapy of making bread: pouring my energy into the dough and watching that work come to a rather immediate fruition.  I find the whole process is extremely gratifying.

Recently, I've begun to expand my knowledge base in the area of bread making.  From the types of flours and their properties and importance to bake-ware and baking methods.  So, beginning next Monday, I will be guiding the Bread Journey, exploring all of these things and more.

Make sure to check back for tips and tricks to making a great loaf of bread. Subscribe to our RSS Feed by clicking here or become a fan of ThrivingMama on Facebook to see our updates in your feed.

Cinnamon Rolls

I am very fond of warm cinnamon rolls.  This recipe is great for batch cooking and the frozen batches reheat well enough that you'll never guess that they spent time on ice.  Topped with cream cheese frosting, these delectable pastries are great on a brunch menu or on their own.  Along with the recipe below I've included some tricks and time savers for you as well so be sure to read through and the printable recipe is at the bottom of this post.

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients


Dough:

2 packages Yeast

1c. Warm Water

2/3 c. + 1 tsp. Sugar

1 c. Warm Milk

2/3 c. Butter

2 Tsp. Salt

2 Eggs, beaten

7-8 c. Flour

Filling:

1 c. melted Butter

1 c. Brown Sugar

1/2 c. Sugar

3 Tbs. Cinnamon

Directions

1. Place yeast  and 1 teaspoon of sugar into warm water.  Stir to dissolve and let it sit.
2. Warm milk, 2/3 cup butter and remaining sugar in saucepan over low heat until butter is melted and let cool.
3.  Place 6 cups of flour in large bowl.  Place yeast and milk mixtures and beaten eggs in bowl with flour.  Mix thoroughly.
4.  Add remaining flour a bit at a time until dough is workable.  It should be very soft and slightly sticky.  Knead 5-10 minutes or until smooth.
5.  Allow dough to rise until at least double in bulk.  Punch down and let rest for 5 minutes. Combine dry filling ingredients.  Time Saver: dough can be mixed up and put in the refrigerator to rise overnight, cutting down prep time in the morning.  Just allow dough to warm a bit before trying to roll it.



6.  Separate dough into 6-8 sections to work with.
7.  Roll each section, one at at time, out into a large rectangle.  Keep in mind that the dough will double again when it bakes, and gauge your thickness accordingly.
8.  Brush dough with melted butter and sprinkle the filling on top of the butter.


9.  Roll dough into a long log, making sure to keep dough tight and slice off cinnamon rolls.  Make sure to use a very sharp, thin knife or Cool Trick: use a piece of thread.  Bring thread under the roll, cross the ends over the top of the roll and pull tight - perfect cut every time - no mashing and mangling!



10.  placed on greased baking pans or sheet.  Allow room for the dough to rise and let rise 30 minutes before baking.


11.  Bake 25-30 minutes at 350* or until golden brown. Another Cool Trick:  immediatly after you take your cinnamon rolls out of the oven, dump them upside down on platter or cookie sheet to cool.  This allows the filling to cool in your cinnamon roll instead of melting all over the bottom of your pan.




12.  Frost with your favorite vanilla or cream cheese frosting. (I use 1 package of cream cheese, 1 stick of margarine (both softened) and 2 cups of powdered sugar add milk 1 teaspoon at a time for desired consistency if necessary).

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Bread

I know fall has begun to make it's way into our neighborhood when I reach for my Bread book. I picked up a copy of Bread a couple years ago and it has become my go-to cookbook for making yeast breads. It is filled with techniques, recipes and tips I have found many of them helpful as I work to perfect my technique and would be helpful for a baker at any experience level. The recipe for Parker House rolls - phenomenal! I have yet to make a perfect ciabata but I will keep trying!

I love to make bread in the fall and winter and homemade soup and fresh bread is a common meal in our house. Having the oven on takes the chill out of the house and warm, fresh bread seems to warm the soul. Kneading, mixing and the smell of active yeast somehow seems therapeutic against dark drab days. So stay tuned and I will be sharing some of my favorite bread recipes as we head into soup and bread season. What are your favorite breads?