More Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I made this cinnamon raisin bread today. The recipe was fairly simple and straightforward, again from The Bread Baker's Apprentice The final bread was very soft, packed with raisins and walnuts giving it great texture and wonderful flavor. However, I think that I like my cinnamon raisin bread recipe that I previously posted about a bit better. Its sweeter and the wheat flour and raisin combination is just the right texture for my tongue.

Big Rock Sourdough

I know, I know, no one has ever heard of Big Rock Sourdough. It certainly won't be sweeping the nation like San Francisco Sourdough, but it was a tasty creation in my kitchen this weekend. The crust was crusty, the inside was nice and chewy. The crumb was tight. The sour flavor was a bit light if you are one who really enjoys sour sourdough but perfect for me. I have to admit, I am so excited about this bread. About 6 months ago I tried making a barm of wild yeast and I thought I was successful. However, once I made my bread, it did not raise and was extremely dense. I developed a bit of a fear of sourdough then. I mean, it takes days to build a barm and then more days to develop your dough. The thought of so much time and so many ingredients wasted for a terrible bread I had to throw away anyway. At least when I bake a cake and it fails, I know within a few hours. But, I talked myself into trying it again. All these months of making other successful breads, all the while knowing that sourdough had gotten the better of me. I received Peter Reinhart's A Bread Baker's Apprentice and Crust and Crumb for Christmas, and it has really kicked my bread baking up a notch. I followed his instructions for a wild yeast starter and consequently used his recipe for a basic sourdough and it turned out fabulous. However, I have to confess, I did end up spiking the final dough with a bit of yeast only because on the day everything came together, I did not have four hours to wait for it to raise. I needed it to raise within a couple of hours and the additional yeast did just that. Next time though, I will make it on a weekend and really try and let my wild yeast do their thing for even more flavor. I think this baby was enough of a success that I am going to submit it to Susan at Wild Yeast for this week's YeastSpotting

Sourdough Bread
adapted from The Bread Baker's Apprentice

Starter
4 oz (2/3 cup) barm (room temperature)
4-5 oz (1 cup) bread flour
1-2 oz (1/8 -1/4 cup) water

Dough
20.25 oz (4 1/2 cups) bread flour
.5 oz (2 tsp) salt
14 oz (1 3/4 cup) lukewarm water (you may use a little less or more)
1 tsp instant yeast (sorry, I didn't weigh this one, it was a last minute thought)
Directions:Mix together the barm and the flour. Then add only enough water to make it form a firm ball. Allow to ferment at room temperature until doubled. For my dough this took about 6 hours. If your home is a bit warmer or colder than mine it will take more or less time. Stick the starter in the fridge overnight.

When you are ready to make your final dough, be sure to take your starter out of the fridge at least an hour ahead of time. Mix together the salt, flour, water, and chunks of the starter until everything comes together.

Knead the dough either by hand or with a mixer until it is fully developed. Allow bread to raise until double. If you used instant yeast, this will take about 2 hours. If you are counting on your wild yeast, this step will take longer.

Shape dough as desired. At this point you can bench proof your bread or you can put in the refrigerator overnight. I put mine in the refrigerator overnight and it worked wonderfully.

If refrigerating, be sure to take it out at least an hour before baking (if using instant yeast, longer if you are only using wild yeast). Score as desired.

Bake at 500 degrees for 10 minutes and then turn down the heat to 450 degrees and bake until done.

Hawaiian Bread

My uncle emailed me this recipe after a church dinner where my husband went to town on some King's Hawaiian Bread. This recipe is from cdkitchen.com and is supposed to taste just like King's Hawaiian Bread. I have to admit, it tastes pretty dang good. It was light and fluffy. It reminded me of white bread but with a hint of sweetness from the pineapple juice. I was eating it all day yesterday, not even taking the time to butter it, but just pulling it apart in chunks and enjoying it plain. I don't know if I would go so far as to say that it tastes just like the stuff you would get at the store, but it is worth making. However, after reading the reviews of this recipe it seemed like it was going to be a difficult bread to bake. Now, generally speaking, I was never one to read reviews. I just didn't; it took to much time. However, my husband is a big review reader. Until meeting him, I would just show up at the movie theater and watch whatever movie was playing at the time I was there. This is not the case with D. Reviews have to be read to help make an informed opinion on things whether its movies, books, or the latest piece of woodworking equipment. To be perfectly honest, since meeting him, I watch better movies. Now he's got me doing it and the reviews on the website for this bread are a little scary. Perhaps the directions were confusing to people, so I will try and explain some of the things that it seems people ran into trouble with.

Hawaiian Bread
makes three round loaves

7 cups flour (I used bread flour)
3 eggs
1 cup pineapple juice
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp vanilla
2 packages yeast (I used 4 1/2 tsp instant yeast)
1 stick melted margarine

Mix the ingredients together in a large bowl. Because of the large amount of flour, it will be tricky to just use a spoon. I have a stand mixer, so once it became too difficult to stir with the spoon, I used my dough hook to help finish. Let raise until double. Turn out on a floured surface and knead 10 times (see note number 4). Divide dough and shape as desired. I made two round loves and five rolls. Allow to raise until double. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Notes
1. The original recipe called for 6 cups of flour. I found that that made a very wet dough so I went ahead and added another cup. It's still more of a wet dough then I am used to for a white bread, but very workable. I don't believe that the extra flour weighed it down too much and it didn't dry it out, so I think that it was a worthwhile addition.

2. The recipe does not indicate what kind of yeast you are supposed to have two packages of. In reading the directions, it does not tell you to proof the yeast so my immediate opinion was that you should use instant yeast because it does not need to be proofed. I used instant yeast and it rose wonderfully. I used 4 1/2 tsp of instant yeast and D. commented that it tasted a little yeasty so you may be able to cut the yeast back a bit. Instant yeast has more live yeast cells than active dry yeast, so you tend to need less of it. The lack of detail seemed to confuse people, so if you use instant yeast, you do not need to proof it. If you use active dry yeast, you should proof it in about 1/4 cup of warm (110 degrees Fahrenheit) water. Remember that if you proof your yeast in water, then take that amount of water from the amount that you put in (your total water should equal 1 cup).

3.) There were several comments from people about changes that they made that I do not think probably make a huge difference in the success or failure of the bread, so you probably do not need to stress about making these minor changes. The recipe calls for plain flour (I assume they mean all-purpose). I used bread flour and it worked fine. Use whichever you have. Some people said they used butter instead of margarine. In this case, I do not think that it matters that much. Possibly the taste will be a bit different and your salt content will change, depending on whether or not you use salted or unsalted butter. Some people also said they used more pineapple juice and less water. Again, that doesn't really matter much. As long as your liquid is around 2 cups, you should be fine. If you add more pineapple juice, it will taste more pineapplely, but the finished product should look about the same.

4.) Telling you to knead 10 times is weird to me. It never made any sense. Actually, I was never sure how long you were supposed to knead bread dough until I read Peter Reinhart's book Crust and Crumb. He recommends using the windowpane test to see if your bread is fully developed. What you do is take a small piece of dough and stretch is between your two hands trying to create a thin piece of dough. If you are able to stretch it and get it so thin that you can see through it, you have fully developed dough. If you stretch it and it breaks before it becomes translucent, then you need to knead a bit longer. This trick has really worked great for me, my bread had been prettier and tastier ever since.

Hopefully these tips help relieve some of the confusion. It is so tough sometimes to look at a recipe and a short list of directions and be able to create something wonderful.

Brown Sugar Bear

A few years ago, as a part of a wedding shower gift, I received a Brown Sugar Bear. It was a small gift given to me by my sister. We both knew the meaning: no more lumpy brown sugar! Even my mom was excited for me over this small token gift. Growing up in northern Illinois, we had the most humid summers. My mom's brown sugar was always hard and lumpy. My sister and I always struggled to measure the appropriate amounts of the sugar because of the stiff chunks that would not pack. While one of us was stirring vigorously to remove the lumps, the other would steal them from the bag and pop them in her mouth for a sweet treat while baking.

Sure enough, the Brown Sugar Bear did its job. My brown sugar has no more lumps. Soft and fluffy, it always packs into the measuring cup. There was no more guesses as to how much brown sugar was still needed. Consequently, no more snitching brown sugar lumps. I never knew that I would miss those little sweet pebbles until today, for some reason my Brown Sugar Bear was left out of the bag and my brown sugar was a solid lump. I worked and worked to get out the 1/2 cup I needed to bake some peanut butter cookies. When I threw it into the mix, my batter was then full of lumps. I beat and crushed until there was no remaining lumps.

As I was putting the brown sugar away, I fished out a lump and put it in my mouth. Nostalgia waved over me. Memories of baking cookies with my mom and sister. Of learning fractions with measuring spoons and arguing over who got to stir. Memories of Christmas cookie baking parties and snitches of dough. I bake because it relaxes me, but it just really sunk in today, the reason it relaxes me is because I had so many amazing experiences in the past that involved baking. It always makes me sad when people say they never baked with anyone growing up because I was lucky enough to bake with everyone growing up. French toast with one grandma, cookies and cakes with the other. My aunt taught me to make the most amazing fudge. But it was my mom who taught me the most, with whom I have the most baking memories. I am lucky in this sense, because even though I bake alone in my own kitchen, I still have all of their happy feelings and it soothes me.

So, dear Brown Sugar Bear, thank you for making my brown sugar soft, but once in awhile its nice to remember the sweetness of lumpy brown sugar.

Go Bananas, Go Go bananas!

Everybody and their mother has a recipe for banana bread. Banana bread is probably the first homemade bread I can remember eating and the first bread I ever made. Banana bread is not a yeasted bread, at least not the banana bread I have made in my lifetime. Rather, it is raised via chemical leaveners and in this case, baking soda. I have always made the same banana bread recipe which is the same banana bread recipe that my mom has always made. Its a good recipe, nice and familiar. However, this time something different was in order. This recipe is adapted from Alton Brown's cookbook, "I'm just here for more food-Mixing+Heat=Baking" This banana bread was a bit heartier than many banana breads but it still had a very sweet crust and just a hint of banana flavor. I changed the original recipe quite a bit because of what my cupboards contained but it still turned out delicious.

Banana Bread
1 cup (7 1/2 oz) sugar
1-2 very ripe bananas
1 2/3 cup (7 3/4 oz) all purpose flour
1/3 cup (1 1/4 oz ) whole wheat flour
1 tsp (< 1/4 oz) baking soda
1 tsp (< 1/4 oz) salt
1 stick (4 oz) melted butter
2 large (3 1/2 oz) eggs
1 tsp (1/4 oz) vanilla extract
1 cup nuts

First take the bananas and mash them into the sugar until the mixture is smooth. This technique is interesting because, unlike some banana breads, there are no chunks of banana in this bread. Mashing the bananas takes some time but is well worth it.

Next mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl minus the nuts and mix your wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Add the ingredients first to the sugar/banana mixture and then add the dry. Stir together until just mixed. Fold in the nuts if desired.

Pour batter into a loaf pan and bake for about an hour give or take. This batter supposedly is very conducive to making muffins, but I only tried the traditional loaf.

Notes:
For more banana flavor, use more bananas. The original recipe called for 3-4, but I didn't have them, nor do I like a lot of banana flavor.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

CINNAMON RAISIN BREAD

Growing up one of my favorite baked goods was my mothers homemade cinnamon rolls. They were soft and gooey with a hint of yeasty smell to them. She didn't make them very often, and because of that they were even more special. Since growing up, I have made her cinnamon rolls many times. However, for some reason, I actually hate cutting the dough into rolls. I feel like no matter what I do they are shaped funny and cinnamon leaks all over. I can never get them even and neat. Consequently, I have decided that I prefer making cinnamon raisin bread. I first started making cinnamon bread one lovely day when I was feeling lazy and I made my mother's cinnamon rolls and just did not cut them up. I rolled up the dough full of cinnamon and sugar goodness and stuck it in a bread pan. Sadly, the dough that my mom uses for cinnamon rolls is too heavy for cinnamon bread and the whole thing collapsed on itself once it was taken from the bread pan. Then I had to set out to find a recipe that would be appropriate in bread form. I have tried several different ones and have come to the conclusion that the one listed below is my favorite. I love the addition of oatmeal. It makes the bread so soft. There is also a touch of wheat flour in the recipe which gives added sturdiness, beautiful color, and contributes to the enticing aroma of this bread when it bakes. This recipe also is amazingly simple to make. It is a direct method dough and all of the ingredients are stirred together from beginning. There isn't the challenge of trying to incorporate a cup of raisins into your completed dough.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread adapted from cooksrecipes.com
1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup quick oatmeal
1 cup raisins
2 cups boiling water
2 tsp instant yeast
4 1/2-5 cups bread flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 stick melted butter

Put the wheat flour, brown sugar, salt, butter, oatmeal, and raisins in a bowl. Pour boiling water over the mixture. Stir until all the butter is melted. At this point I allow the mixture to cool a bit, sometimes adding a cup or so of my bread flour before I add my yeast. Add yeast and then finish adding the flour. Knead for about 6-8 minutes with your dough hook and longer by hand. Allow the bread to raise until double.



Once the dough has doubled in size, take it out of the bowl and divide it into two equal parts. Take the first section of dough and roll it out. I like to use melted butter as the "glue" for my cinnamon/sugar mixture, but I have also used water and it works just as well. Brush melted butter or water over the rolled out dough. Then generously sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture over the dough. Take the two sides of the dough and fold them in. Then take one end and start rolling. You can use a little melted butter or water to seal the dough to itself when you are finished rolling. Place rolled dough into a greased loaf pan. Repeat the above process with the second portion of dough. Allow dough to raise until double. Bake the loaves at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Notes: I use instant yeast in my recipe. If you choose to use active dry yeast, you will need to proof it in warm water and consequently you will have more liquid in your recipe that I typically do and you will probably need to increase your flour. Also, I find it helpful to place a layer of parchment paper on the bottom of my loaf pans before putting the dough in. I find that even if I have a good seal, frequently some cinnamon and sugar leaks out of the bread and I have a sticky mess on my hands without the parchment paper. I sometimes use an egg wash on top of this bread too. It makes the top nice and brown and shiny. It also will make it burn like crazy if you do not pay attention.

In the photos my wonderful husband took of making cinnamon raisin bread I chose to get rowdy and braid my bread into one big loaf. Quite honestly, it did not look as pretty as I had imagined it in my head, but if you want to try it maybe it will work better for you. What I did was to take three 10 ounce portions and fill them with the cinnamon/sugar mixture and roll them up. I then braided these rolls together. After that I took three 4 ounce portions of dough and did the same thing, making a smaller braid and placing it on top of the large one. I allowed them to proof together and then baked as usual. I had a bit of leftover dough that I just made into a normal cinnamon raisin mini loaf. I was hoping for some really beautiful swirls, but I did not get them.

Bothersome Bagels

For my very first post, I was hoping to have created something magnificent. Sadly, all I got was flat, goofy shaped bagels. Bagels have been something that I have wanted to try for a long time. I eat one for breakfast almost every morning and I find them to be an immensely satisfactory breakfast item. I was lucky enough to received Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" as a gift for Christmas this past year and have had fairly good success with his French Bread and his Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread. With both of them I had decent success. These bagels, however, were quite troublesome.

Unfortunately, this was a very busy weekend. I had to work and I had a co-worker's housewarming party as well as being assigned to bake two pies for my aunt's 50th birthday. For some reason, I then felt compelled to also make bagels. These bagels take two days to create. Normally that is what I love about baking bread. The creating of the dough and the beautiful swollen mass it becomes after proofing. I love kneading the dough and shaping the loaves and watching them become delicious treats. I love that really good bread takes a long time and immense patience. Homemade bread is a delectable reward for all of your efforts. However, with the craziness of the weekend, I failed to pay proper attention to my poor bagels and consequently, they were visually unsatisfying but they tasted good!

Here is the recipe I used adapted from Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice"

Sponge:
1 tsp (.11 oz) instant yeast
4 c. (18 oz) unbleached high gluten or bread flour (I only had bread flour so that is what I used)
2 1/2 c. (20 oz) room temperature water

Stir ingredients together until they form a batter. Cover and leave at room temp for about 2 hours or until the sponge becomes foamy and bubbly

Dough
1/2 tsp (.055 oz) instant yeast
3 1/2 c. (17 oz) unbleached high gluten or bread flour
2 3/4 ( .7 oz) tsp salt
2 tsp (.33 oz) malt powder

First add the yeast to the sponge and stir. Then add 3 cups of flour, the salt, and malt. Stir slowly until the mixture forms a ball adding the additional flour to stiffen the dough. Knead the dough until developed. (about 10 minutes by hand and 6 minutes with a mixer)

Divide the dough into 4 1/2 oz pieces for regular bagels, cover and rest for 20 minutes.

Shape bagels (The cookbook shows two different methods for shaping the bagels. I chose one way by poking a hole through the middle of the dough ball and gently widening the hole. My husband chose the other method where you roll out the balls and shape them into ropes and then shape them into circles. Unfortunately for me, his bagels turned out to be prettier and much teasing about his "superior" shaping method ensued. Use whichever shaping method strikes your fancy.)

Place bagels on sheet pans covered in parchment. Cover and let rest for another 20 minutes. Your bagels are ready to be retarded when you place one in a bowl of water and it floats within 10 seconds. If it does not float, rest them until one does.

Cover and place over night in the refrigerator.

The next day boil the bagels for 2 minutes on each side. After boiling you can put toppings on and then bake for 5 minutes at 500 degrees and then lower the temp to 450 degrees for 5 minutes (longer if you want darker bagels)

Notes: Because I did not follow the cardinal rule of baking and read my recipe all of the way through first thing; I let the dough proof in the bowl for an hour before dividing the it into pieces. I believe it was this mistake that led to my flat bagels. When I went to boil them, they degassed quite a bit when I picked them up. The toppings I chose were sesame seeds, which worked wonderfully, and onion flakes, which shriveled up and burned. The onion flakes may have worked much better if they were incorporated into the dough. Next time I might also consider egg washing the tops before baking for a shiny look. Hopefully, better luck next time :)