Fresh Bread

I've been looking for inspiration lately...especially for bread making!

Here is a great bread site that I stumbled across!

http://www.thekneadforbread.com/

What are you favorite bread blogs or recipe sites?

Oregano Bread

Ingredients

• 1 packet dry yeast

• 3 1/2 cups bread or unbleached white flour

• 1 Tbs sugar

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 1/4 hot water (120-130 degrees, f.)

• 3 Tbs olive oil

• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh oregano

• 1/4 cup dehydrated onion or fresh minced onion

• 2 tsp garlic powder

 

 Directions

In a stand mixer combine all dry ingredients, including herbs and onions. Whisk well. Change to bread hook attachment. Add olive oil to hot water and with mixer running slowly, add water gradually in a steady stream. Allow bread hook to knead approx. 8-10 minutes 'til dough pulls away from the bowl and the sides are clean.

Form dough in a loose ball and place in a well oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap (or a moist towel if you prefer) to rise in a warm, shady spot for about 2 hours.

Remove risen dough to a board dusted in cornmeal, press and fold gently to remove large air pockets, form into a loaf and place in bread pan for the second rise of about an hour. Score with serrated knife or razor blade.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce oven temp. to 350 for remaining 20 minutes. Bread is done when crust is golden and knocking on the top yields a hollow sound.

Adapted from: One Good Loaf

Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

This delicious recipe is from our friend at A Chow Life. It's a great breakfast bread or anytime bread! I love the toasted walnuts for a crunchy contrast to the soft raisins! Her recipe is below!

Ingredients
1 package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/4 tsp, plus 3 tblsp. sugar
2 and 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup walnut pieces, toasted and chopped
5 tblsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1/2 cup water
1 cup raisins

Directions
Stir the yeast, warm water, and 1/4 tsp sugar together in a small bowl. Let the mixture stand in a warm location until the yeast starts foaming, 5-10 minutes.

Combine the flours, remaining sugar, cinnamon, salt, and walnuts in a large bowl. Stir well. Stir the yeast mixture, butter, and 1/3 cup water into the flour mixture. Then stir in the raisins or work them in by hand. Let stand 10 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead by hand until it is smooth and elastic, about 7 minutes.

Lightly oil a large bowl and turn the dough in it to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl loosely with a kitchen town and let the dough rise in a warm location until it is doubled in bulk, 45 -60 minutes.
Oil a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Punch the dough down and shape it into a loaf. Press the loaf into the prepared pan and, again, cover it loosely with a kitchen towel. Let it rise in a warm place until it nearly fills the pan, 45-60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the bread until the top is browned and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped with your finger, 35-40 minutes. Remove it from the pan and let it cool on a rack.
Adapted from The New Basics Cookbook

Here's the link to her RECIPE.

Peasant Pot Bread- No Knead Bread

This is a recipe from one of my most favorite foodie blogs, A Chow Life. She has the best bread recipes and the photography by her husband, Kirk Mastin, is incredible! I'll share her recipe with you but make sure to take a look through her blog and make some of her other delicious recipes!

Ingredients

4 cups (20 ounces) unbleached all-purpose white flour or white bread flour, plus more as needed


1 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 teaspoons table salt

3/4 teaspoon instant, fast-rising or bread-machine yeast

2 cups ice water, plus more if needed

Corn oil, canola oil or other flavorless vegetable oil or oil spray for coating dough
 
Directions
 
First Rise: In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Vigorously stir the water into the bowl, scraping down the sides and mixing until the ingredients are thoroughly blended. If the mixture is too dry to incorporate all the flour, stir in more water, a bit at a time, just enough to blend the ingredients. Don’t over-moisten; the dough should be very stiff. If necessary, stir in enough more flour to yield a hard-to-stir dough. Brush or spray the top with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. If desired, for best flavor or for convenience, you can refrigerate the dough for three to 10 hours. Then let rise at cool room temperature for 18 to 24 hours. If convenient, vigorously stir the dough once about halfway through the rise.
 
 

Second Rise: Using an oiled rubber spatula, gently lift and fold the dough in toward the center, all the way around, until mostly deflated; don’t stir. Brush or spray the surface with oil. Re-cover the bowl with plastic wrap that has been coated with nonstick spray. Let rise using any of these methods: for a 1 1/2- to 2 1/2-hour regular rise, let stand at warm room temperature; for a 1- to 2-hour accelerated rise, let stand in a turned-off microwave along with 1 cup of boiling-hot water; or for an extended rise, refrigerate, covered, for 4 to 24 hours, then set out at room temperature. Continue the rise until the dough doubles from the deflated size; remove the plastic if the dough nears it.

Baking Preliminaries: 20 minutes before baking time, put a rack in the lower third of the oven; preheat to 450 degrees. Heat a 3 1/2- to 4-quart (or larger) heavy metal pot or Dutch oven in the oven until sizzling hot (test with a few drops of water), then remove it, using heavy mitts. Taking care not to deflate the dough (or burn yourself), loosen it from the bowl sides with an oiled rubber spatula and gently invert it into the pot. Don’t worry if it’s lopsided and ragged-looking; it will even out during baking. Generously spritz or brush the top with water. Immediately top with the lid. Shake the pot back and forth to center the dough.

Baking: Bake on the lower rack for 55 minutes. Remove the lid. Reduce the heat to 425 degrees. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes longer, or until the top is well browned and a skewer inserted in the thickest part comes out with just a few crumbs on the tip (or until center registers 209 to 212 degrees on an instant-read thermometer). When it seems done, bake 5 minutes longer to ensure the center is baked through. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the loaf to the rack and cool thoroughly.

Serving And Storing: Cut or tear the loaf into portions; it tastes good warm but will cut much better when cool. Cool completely before storing. To maintain the crisp crust, store draped with a clean tea towel or in a heavy paper bag. Or store airtight in a plastic bag or wrapped in foil: The crust will soften, but can be crisped by heating the loaf, uncovered, in a 400 degree oven for a few minutes. The bread will keep at room temperature for three days, and may be frozen, airtight, for up to two months.

First Attempt at Bread Making- French Bread 101

When I married my husband and starting moving all my stuff into his house (now our home) I found he had one cookbook! This surprised me...he actually had a cookbook! It is falling apart, held together at the binding by duct tape (it's a man's cookbook after all), and the pages are frayed. He used it for one recipe: biscuits. He makes the best biscuits! Whenever he makes them, he always quotes one of his favorite movies, Jeremiah Johnson, "I make damn good biscuits, boy!"

I haven't really read this cookbook until I was looking for a good yeast bread recipe recently. I wanted to teach myself to make French Bread and other yeast breads that are kneaded by hand. The first section in the book is "Loaves." It was just what I was looking for and had a picture tutorial.

Ingredients:

5 1/2 to 6 cups all-purpose Flour

2 packages active dry yeast

2 teaspoons salt

2 cups warm water (115-120 degrees)

1 slightly beaten egg

1 TBS water

Directions

In a large mixer bowl combine 2 cups of the flour, the yeast, and salt.

Add warm water. Beat at a low speed of electric mixer for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly.

Beat 3 minutes at a high speed.

Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can mix in with a spoon. Turn out onto lightly floured surface.

Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a stiff dough that is smooth and elastic.

8-10 minutes of kneading total.

Shape into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turn it around in the bowl to grease all surfaces. Cover, let sit in a warm place until double. 1-1/4 hours.

Punch down, turn dough out onto lightly floured surface.

Divide in half.

Cover and let rest for 10 mins.

Roll each half into a 15x12 inc rectangle. (Or roll entire ball of dough into large rectangle for single loaf)

Roll up tightly from the long side. Taper the ends.

Place seam side down on well greased baking sheet (sprinkled with cornmeal if desired).

Cover and let rest 45 minutes.

Use a paring knife to slice 1/2 inch slices diagonally down the center of each loaf.

Brush with egg white mixture to obtain that golden crust.

Bake in 375 degree oven for 20-40 minutes.

(The time varies depending on the size of the loaves and your oven so keep an eye on it.)

About half way through the baking time, you can brush a second coat of the egg white mixture on the loaves.

Remove from oven. Cool. Enjoy!

So our first loaves did not turn out as pretty as we had hoped but they tasted delicious!

(Photography courtesy of Jessica.)