Zaatar foccaccia

Ever since my bout with anemia last summer, making bread has become a chore. Because of this, gradually I have made less and less bread. But, today, with zaatar spices in hand, I wanted to make bread again.

Among my first summer entries, you can find a garden herb pesto/fresh tomato foccaccia that is a family favorite. I adapted this from a recipe from VegList, a veg*n email loop I belonged to in the dark ages before Yahoo groups.

Today, I have transformed that basic foccaccia into a zaatar and sunflower seed variation.

The DOUGH
About 1 teaspoon yeast
1.5 cups warm water
Mix and let rest 15 minutes.

Add:
1 pinch fresh ground salt
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup unbleached white flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rye flour

Stir with a wooden spoon.

Add another cup white flour and a little wheat flour.
Add a handful of flax seeds
Add a handful of roasted sesame seeds

Kneed.

Coat with olive oil and let rise abot 1.5 hours until doubled.
Lightly oil and flour a big cookie sheet.
Press out the bread.
Brush with oil. Coat with liberal zaatar and sunfloer seeds.

Let rise another 45 minutes. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes.

Multigrain Biscuits (experiment)

• almost one cup unbleached Wegmans all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup rye flour
• 1/4 cup flax seed

(for a total of about three cups "flour")

• 1 generous tablespoon baking powder

mix thoroughly. Add:

• a tad more than 1/2 teaspoon iodized sea salt

fold in:

• 6 tablespoons butter

Add:

• one cup soy milk

Knead. Cut with bottom of glass once pressed thin. Mine made 19 biscuits. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
based on:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/06/brown-biscuits.html

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Today I'm making bread. I didn't intend to make bread, but it just kind of happened and I thought I'd experiment and make cinnamon raisin bread...

If you're looking for my previous entries on bread and different recipes, click on the label for bread at the bottom of the entry or follow this link:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/search/label/bread

Now, my initial flour mix:

• 2 cups unbleached white flour
• 2 cups wheat flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

In separate bowl:

• 2 cups warm water
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon yeast

I mixed about 3 cups of the flour mix into the water bowl and made a dough. Then I added to the flour mixture bowl:

• 1 cup oats

Now, I placed the dough in the slightly warm oven to rise. It should be doubled and ready for step two in 2-3 hours.

Okay, a check at 10:30 reveals that the bread is ready for phase two.

I sprinkle half the oat/flour mix where I plan to knead the bread, then I add some white flour around the parameter and flour my hands. I knead the dough and add raisins, disappointed that I only have a 1/2 cup raisins in the house...

Now, leave it sit to double again. Should take an hour.

Bread, bread, bread

We need bread. Bread to eat (we have cream cheese and brie in the fridge), bread to freeze (Thanksgiving approaches) and bread to let get stale (homemade stuffing... Yeah, I make the bread and let it get stale for stuffing, which is more like make large loaves instead of small and let the family munch until it starts to get stale, then freeze until the day before Thanksgiving).

If you follow my link to my bread baking, it will take you to various shapes, sizes, experiments and successes. I base my bread on a recipe found on the internet, in the French style for its relative simplicity.

The ingredients as stated are simple:

• 4 cups flour
• 1 Tablespoon dry active yeast
• 1-2 tsp salt (I use iodized sea salt)
• 2 cups warm water
• Oil for the bowl

Now this morning, I have already attempted a HUGE batch. Step one is to mix the salt and the flour in a bowl. In one bowl I have:

• 4 cups unbleached white flour from Wegmans
• 1 tsp iodized sea salt

In bowl two, I have a multigrain sort of experiment going. This is a fun way to experiment because failures simply become Thanksgiving stuffing. This bowl contains:

• 2 cups unbleached white flour from Wegmans
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups rye flour
• 1.5 teaspoons sea salt
• about 1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted
• about 1/2 cup flax seeds

Step two is to mix two cups warm water with the yeast and half the flour. I started a big bowl with 2 cups warm water, 1 tablespoon yeast, and 1 tablespoon honey. In a second bowl, I added 3 cups water, two tablespoons yeast, and 1.5 tablespoon honey and I'm letting it sit while I type this...

Now to add the flour. The recipe calls for mixing half the flour into the liquid and incorporating with your hands into a dough. Then, cover with a dish towel and set at room temperature for three hours. I always add more than half the flour mixture. Half the flour mixture seems to make soup. I add and stir with a wooden spoon until it starts to transform into more of a sponge, then a runny dough, and I stop there. This usually takes about 3/4 of the flour.

More in three hours...

Three hours later... I have four large bowls rising now. I had an incident with my multigrain batch. I had divided it in half because it was too big for the bowl and I forgot to incorporate the rest of the flour... Traditionally, you take the very wet dough and incorporate the rest of the flour and then some and need for ten minutes, aiming for not sticky, supple and elastic. But my last loaf, I got it perfect and then realized I had forgotten the last multigrain batch of flour. Adding some warm water allowed me to get this flour in, but now I worry that I handled it too much and it won't rise nicely.

Once you have some nice dough balls, you place them in a clean oiled bowl, cover them and return them to a nice warm spot to rise for an hour. I stick everything inside the oven to protect them from drafts.

In an hour, we'll do the final knead, shape, preheat the oven and do the final rise.

Time to shape... The knead at this point takes about five minutes, then you shape and put on cookie sheet, cover and let rest about 20 minutes while the oven preheats to 450 degrees. You also need to place a bowl of water in the oven to try and get the crust 'right.'

Now today I made all that dough and got not quite the yield I expected: 3 small loaves of multigrain, 1 not quite medium loaf of multigrain and 2 fairly nice sized medium white loaves. I even did a very diluted egg wash on them, more wash than egg (and cooked the remaining egg and water for the tortoise. So, we'll see how it all turns out.

You bake the bread for about 25 minutes, and you're supposed to remove the bowl of water after the first 15.

**This multigrain bread is as good as the bread I like from the bakery that I call 'magic bread.'

Banana Pancakes

I made a double batch of pancakes using Betty's Crocker's 25th anniversary cookbook.

The basic recipe for pancakes is this:
1 egg, beaten until fluffy
1 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar or brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
(combine ingredients and fry on griddle)

The Betty Crocker oat variant is this:
substitute 1/2 cup oats for 1/2 cup of the flour. Add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. (This actually makes the calorie content go down from 100 to 85 calories a pancake)

Now, they claim the yield is nine four-inch pancakes.

So, this is what I did:
Angel's banana-oat pancakes
2 eggs, beaten until fluffy
1 cup oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1.5 cups soymilk
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons canola oil
6 teaspoons baking powder (which isn't that 2 tablespoons?)
pinch idiozed sea salt
2 extra ripe small bananas mixed thoroughly into batter
1 banana, perfect eating condition, sliced to stir into batter

Leftovers get frozen for quick, yummy breakfasts later.

Great Day for bread!

It's humid. Humid as in take one step outside and the humidity coats your body.

So I started bread. Lord knows the yeast likes this weather. I experimented with a wheat-white-rye loaf.

In my big glass bowl, I mixed:
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon yeast

(The honey really gets the yeast really moving. It's not necessary.)

In another bowl, I mixed:
2 cups (and a little more) unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rye flour
3/4 teaspoon salt

Then I put three cups of that mixture into the water/yeast froth and stirred with my wooden spoon until dough-like. I covered with a damp towel and now it needs to sit for three hours. Then I'll add the rest of the flour and need.

Brown Biscuits

I decided to experiment with Brenda's biscuit recipe that I found the other day:

http://oldfashionedliving.com/biscuits.html
Brenda Hyde's Homemade Biscuits
Ingredients:

2 cups sifted flour

2 tsp. baking powder

4 tablespoons butter or shortening

1/2 tsp. salt

about 3/4 cup milk Sift Flour once, measure, add baking powder and salt, and sift again. Cut in shortening or butter. (this is where I use my hands by rubbing the butter into the flour). Add milk gradually, stirring until soft dough is formed. Turn out on slightly floured board and lightly "knead" for 30 seconds, enough to shape. Roll 1/2 inch thick and cut with 2 inch floured biscuit cutter. Bake on ungreased sheet in a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Makes 12 biscuits. You can also make tiny tea biscuits that are only 1 1/2 inches wide with a small cutter or glass bottom. These are great served with tea, jam or honey. Makes 24.

I wanted to double it, and somehow my efforts went crazy. So I decided to make brown biscuits.

Angel's Brown (Wheat) Biscuits
(Which once we made them we ate with maple syrup or with peanut butter and raspberry organic fruit spread)
Ingredients:
2 cups white flour
3 cups wheat flour
1.5 cups dehydrated milk
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
4-5 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
@1.5 cups water

I mixed the flours, the baking powder and the dry milk. Then I added the salt. Then I added the butter. Then I whisked together the soy milk and molasses and diluted with about a half cup of water. I worked the dough with my hands, adding additional water as needed. I think I ended up using 3/4 of the cup. So my estimate on how much water is 1.25 cups total.

For lunch, we made broccoli/mozzerella biscuit pizzas.

And the bread comes out of the oven

As I feared, my daughter lost interest in the bread after two rounds of kneading. Because we made so many loaves, we experimented with some flavors. From left, parmesan cheese, herb and sesame seed, plain white; and the wheats: plain, molasses oat, and honey oat. We're still discussing which will have with my hot spinach dip for dinner.

More bread

My husband and I slept in this morning. So we're sitting around drinking our coffee. My husband is quite smug that he got three containers of International Delight creamer for the cost of one large Coffeemate. I am less smug, because I think International Delight tastes nasty and he forgot the half-and-half. But that is far from important. I will deal...

My four-and-a-half-year old gazes up from playing with her new toys and asks, "Mommy, can we make bread?"

How can I say no? Especially since my good friend Shannon will be staying with us starting this week. And she survives on coffee and carbohydrates. Hence the need for half-and-half. I ask the family if they are all willing to help make a double batch, which is about EIGHT loaves of bread.

It requires the entire family's support because we'll need every surface for bowls and mixing and rolling. They agreed. So, we cleaned the kitchen until it sparkled and began our work. One batch is white, the other wheat. I sneaked some honey into the wheat base. Will update this post throughout the day... You can click on 'bread' or 'French' to find my other discussions of making bread.

It looks like I never posted the (original) recipe. Here it is:
From FamousFrenchDesserts.com
French bread baguettes
4 cups flour
1 TBS dry yeast
1-2 tsp. salt
2 cups warm water
oil

1. In a bowl, mix together the flour and salt.
2. In another bowl, combine yeast, warm water, and half the flour/salt mixture (I use more). Using your hands, mix until a dough forms. Cover with a dish cloth and let sit at room temperature for three hours. It should triple in size.
3. Gently incorporate the rest of the flour/salt using your hands.
4. Place on lightly flour surface and knead for ten minutes. It should be supple and elastic.
5. Lightly oil a bowl. Place dough in bowl. Cover with dishtowel. Let sit for one hour. It should double in size.
6. Preheat oven to 450. Knead again. Cut dough into three parts and form into baguettes. Place on a baking sheet. Let sit for at least twenty minutes.
7. Place a bowl of water in the oven. Bake baguettes for 15 minutes, remove bowl of water. Cook baguettes for ten minutes more, maybe less. *I often turn mine when I remove the water, helps the consistency of the crust.

Another note... Speaking of bread... My husband and daughter walked to CVS today. We had two dollars in CVS 'extra bucks' to spend and the walk gives them something to do outside. (The ExtraBucks came from an emergency trip to CVS when I needed bathroom supplies and had no grocery stores available.) To my surprise, CVS had the 12-pk of Thomas's English Muffins on sale for $1.99. So my husband bought them and treated our daughter to a cheap pack of stickers. The second six-pack went into the freezer.