Baguette Success

Despite all self-sabataging efforts, this baguette came out just barely shy of pefection. (This picture is bad and I couldn't get those beautiful slits in the top of the loafs--that is all.) It was crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and salty. The French are genius, and apparently, I am too. I have tried my hand at making bread countless times. Countless. The only time I've ever made yeast bread that was even edible was this idiot-proof bread from Sullivan Street Bakery in New York. Other times I've burned them, but most often they refuse to rise and end up more akin to a cement block. This French baguette, my friends, is a true success. I have been trying for literally years (seriously--I used to make yeast bread weekly when I lived with my parents) to achieve this, and I can't even believe it happened because I did not follow the directions. 

They say that's the rule with baking: There are rules and they must be followed. Cooking allows much more improvisation (and room for error). But substitute olive oil for butter in a cake and you're screwed. The problem with bread is waiting. The bread has to rise (in the right climate) for a certain period of time. Well the World Cup and the rest of my social life took precedence over kneading bread after it had risen one hour. And when I did end up kneading, the dough was so gummy and gooey I thought for sure it would just melt in the oven. I obviously know nothing about proper bread making because I thought all those other times would work out, and they ended in complete and utter failure. It felt imminent this time. Certain death of good yeast. I guess I know a lot less about life and love and bread than I thought I did.

Baguette: from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

(to come)

Baked!

Apparently I picked enough apples to make a dozen pies. After a pie, apple butter, lunch for at least a month and two loaves of Sprouted Kitchen's Hearty Apple Loaf, I only have about seven pounds of apples to consume. Megan suggested tossing them because the outsides are a bit squishy, but once peeled, the apples made a perfect addition to this bread. Back on Thursday night when I made this, I was certain I'd finish them off or at least come close, by doubling this recipe. Alas, I barely made more than a dent in the final bag of apples. And lord, I made a giant mess. But this bread was one of the best. With loads of cinnamon and nutmeg, it's great paired with coffee or tea on a chilly morning--of which we in Nebraska have had none, it's been absolutely gorgeous outside!

Sprouted Kitchen posted this recipe a week or so ago, and the original includes items such as almond meal (flour) and muscovado sugar. I used neither of these--it turned out fine. This is Lainey's dumbed-down version, if you will.

Hearty Apple Loaf:

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup oatmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon (dried) ginger

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk (milk with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup ricotta (I didn't have quite enough for 2 batches, so I used a ricotta-Greek yogurt combo)

1/4 cup butter, just melted (not softened, actually melted)

1/2 cup sugar (plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar to be drizzled on the top)

2 cups peeled and finely sliced apples (about 3 small apples)

Preheat oven to 375. Grease the pan. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients and stir until mixed together. In a smaller bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, ricotta, melted butter and sugar. Whisk until consistency is smooth. Slowly pour wet ingredients into dry. Stir until wet mixture has been sopped up by the dry, being careful not to over work. Stir in the apple slices. Pour batter into pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

Blueberry Orange Loaf

I could eat berries as if they were candy, staining my fingers red, blue and violet. And lately, I sort of have been. I've been pouring blueberries and strawberries on my Kashi cereal every morning. I've made tarts, gazed longingly at muffins, put them on salads. I have great plans for the blueberries, cherries and strawberries taking up an inordinate amount of space in my fridge and freezer. I'm thinking of crepes, crumbles and granola. And also quick bread, pulled straight out of the oven and eaten with a pad of melted butter on top.

Blueberry Orange Loaf: 2 cups flour 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 egg, beaten 3/4 cup milk or half and half 1/4 cup cooking oil 1/4 cup orange juice 1 cup blueberries 3/4 cup chopped and blanched almonds 2 tablespoons orange zest Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl, beat together milk, egg, oil and orange juice (in that order so the milk doesn't curdle). Form a well in the dry mixture. Pour wet mixture into dry and combine until barely moistened.

In a small bowl, combine blueberries, almonds and orange zest. Stir together with 1 tablespoon flour. Add to batter and stir until just combined, be careful not to overwork the batter. Pour into greased 8x4 loaf pan and bake for 50 to 55 minutes until cooked through.

Maria Bakes Bread

I love this post for two reasons: 1.) all I had to do was post it and 2.) someone else makes attempts at yeast bread and it's not completely perfect (though much better than some of my recent attempts). Thanks, Maria, for another great post. The past few months have been hectic, but I've managed to make some yummy foods and snap a few pictures. I was craving homemade french bread so found this recipe online. As you'll see in the pictures, I'm not good at making the bread all the same size and shape (pshh, I think it looks fine/like a normal loaf of bread). I was also afraid my baking sheets were not big enough, so I made 4 loaves rather than 2. In my opinion, the bread was too yeasty tasting so suggestions are welcome.

French Loaf:
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon cornmeal (I didn't have this)
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, yeast and salt. Stir in 2 cupswarm water and beat until well blended using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment (didn't have this so I just stirred by hand). Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.

On a lightly floured surface, knead in enough flour to make a stiff dough that is smooth and elastic. Knead for about 8 to 10 minutes total. Shape into a ball. Place dough in a greased bowl, and turn once. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled.

Punch dough down and divide in half (or quarters). Turn out onto alightly floured surface. Cover, and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll each half (quarter) into large rectangle. Roll up, starting from a longside. Moisten edge with water and seal. Taper ends.

Grease a large baking sheet. Sprinkle with cornmeal. Place loaves, seam side down, on the prepared baking sheet. Lightly beat the egg white with 1 tablespoon of water and brush on. Cover with a damp cloth. Let rise until nearly doubled, 35 to 40 minutes.

With a very sharp knife, make 3 or 4 diagonal cuts about 1/4-inch deep across top of each loaf. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and brush again with egg white mixture. Bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, until dough is baked through. If necessary, cover loosely with foil to prevent over browning (I didn't do this). Remove from baking sheet, and cool on a wire rack.

Tastes best warm with butter!

No Knead Bread

In Africa, we had freshly baked bread every night for dinner. Hot off the campfire. The cooks/chefs were so skilled at making bread, they didn't even need an oven. I, on the other hand, am a complete failure when it comes to baking yeast breads. I am notoriously impatient, and yeast bread is unforgiving and uncompromising. It is one thing in the kitchen with which I can't meet in the middle. It always turns out hard, small, undercooked or burnt, or some combination of all three--burnt on the outside, doughy on the inside. My compromise is to give up for the time being. Instead, I made this whole wheat quick bread with sultanas to go with my soup last week. It was just barely sweet, making it a perfect combination for the savory soup. When my mom makes soup, she often pairs it with blueberry tea bread or banana bread. Bread and soup have a fond place in my heart.

Brick Alley Bread: from Better Homes and Gardens 2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup raisins (or sultanas as I used)
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg white, whisked

Pre-heat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together egg, honey and buttermilk. Then add raisins and stir. Add wet mixture to the dry mixture, stirring until just moistened. On a greased baking sheet, turn out dough. Using hands form into an eight-inch circle that is of even thickness (about 3 inches). Brush dough with egg white. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until edge is golden, and it has been cooked through.

Banana Bread

Quick breads and soup go together in the Seyler household, and it is a beautiful thing. The two standards breads are banana and a blueberry tea bread that never quite cooked through. And the soup could be anything. Tortellini, split pea soup with ham, chicken noodle. It didn't matter. It was comfort for a gloomy day in pre-spring (much like what's going on in Omaha right now). Banana Bread: from Better Homes and Gardens Baking

2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
dash ground nutmeg
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (4 or 5 bananas)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil

Pre-heat oven to 350.

In one bowl, mix all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mash up the banana, eggs, sugar and cooking oil until it's only a little lumpy. Add the wet mixture to the dry, stir with a wooden spoon until it's only a little lumpy (if you want nuts, add them here). Do not over-mix. Transfer to greased 9x5x3-inch pan. Bake for 55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cranberry-Orange Loaf

If you haven't noticed, I go in kicks. First there were tomatoes, then mushrooms, squash and now cranberries. I get excited (obsessed) about an ingredient and I go crazy. (Plus, I need to finish off the leftovers). So here's another variation on orange (tangerine) and cranberries. It's rather unfortunate I chose to make this week cranberry-orange week as I have an e-freaking-normous canker sore in the back of my mouth (a result of biting my cheek not herpes simplex one, you high schoolers!). The sore is so swollen that every time I swallow I bite it, and I am in serious danger of overdosing and injesting enough oral benzocaine to warrant a call to poison control. Megan informed me last night that orange juice, tomatoes and the like (i.e. anything acidic) are bad. I'm just praying that it will heal enough for me to be able to sleep on the left side of my face and to enjoy tomorrow's feast.

On a tip from Sugar Punk (where I got this recipe) and Better Homes and Gardens, it's not necessary or adviseable to mix the batter to a smooth consistency. As you can see in the above photo, not quite all the flour has been mixed. It supposedly makes the bread lighter in the end. True, I did find this bread to be lighter than the tangerine-orange muffins, which I probably over-mixed. Plus, it's less work. We all win here.

Cranberry-Orange Loaf: 2 cups flour 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 cup butter, softened peel from one orange (tangerine in this case) 3/4 cup orange juice (props to me for using juice from the tangerine) 1 egg 1 cup chopped cranberries Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add butter and mix until crumbly. Add the peel, juice, egg and cranberries. Stir until moistened. Pour batter into an 8" by 4" pan. Bake for 75 minutes at 350 degrees.