Monthly Blog Post – Rose’s Bread Bible Bakers: June 2017

“Blues is to jazz what yeast is to bread. Without it, it’s flat.”

Carmen McRae

Crispy on the outside with a soft moist interior.  Wow, our assignment this month was a big winner!  Our June Rose’s Bread Bible Bakers assignment was for a fantastic Potato Buttermilk Bread.  It was similar to the Olive bread we made a few months back in that it uses a biga or starter so you’ll want to allow plenty of fermentation time for full flavor development.  The addition of buttermilk and potato flour gave this loaf a nuanced, but lovely flavor and tenderness.  Rose warns in her introduction to the recipe that the potato flour promotes a very brown crust, and it certainly does.  Watch this one carefully while it’s in the oven.

As with the Olive bread mentioned above, I used the King Arthur Flour Artisan Bread Flour with outstanding results as usual.  I also tried their dried buttermilk powder for the first time which worked well, and I believe I will buy more once I use this up as it is much more convenient than having to go to the store for buttermilk since it isn’t a staple in my refrigerator.  For the potato flour, I picked up a bag from Bob’s Red Mill at my local Whole Foods.

Since I had not baked this bread before, followed all of the directions to the letter until it was time to bake the bread.  I always love using the La Cloche for the artisan-type free form breads.  For some reason, I forgot to put the bread on the La Cloche base,  and placed it directly on the hot baking stone that I had preheated with the dome.   As a result, I did have a bit of scorching on the bottom of the loaf, but it still turned out fantastic.  I baked the loaf under the dome for 25 minutes after lowering the temperature, and had I left it any longer I believe it really would have burned.

Potato Buttermilk​ loaf after the second rise

By the way, this bread used a good bit of vital wheat gluten which I suspect is essential.  My doughs typically rise in far less than the suggested time.  If a recipe says allow 1-1/2 hours, mine is often ready in 45 to 60 minutes.  Not so with the first rise on this one.  It took the full recommended time for the first rise, but the second rise did happen a little more quickly.

A lovely ham sandwich

If you follow my bread posts, you’ll know that any bread I make is likely to end up in a sandwich, and this one was no exception.  In addition to the ham sandwich shown, it made a fantastic grilled cheese.  Rose says that this bread does not freeze well and is best eaten within a day.  I recently got a new bread keeper from King Arthur, and it has done a stellar job keeping this bread fresh for two days so far.  I’m confident that this tasty bread will be gobbled up before it has a chance to go bad.

If you’re interested in trying the recipe, you can find it here.  You won’t be disappointed.  Let me know if you try it.

 

BBB AKA Big Beautiful Bread

Reader note:  I liked this bread so much that I decided to try it again and experiment a bit further with the ingredients.  The results were fantastic, and I’ll append the post below with the details.  This bread should be added to your baking to-do list.  There is a saying they have in Singapore — “die die must try”.  This is that bread.

If you’ve followed along on the blog, you might recall a recent post about my go-to bread — Sheryl’s Harvest Grains Loaf.  I find this to be a reliable recipe for when time is short and I want a healthful whole grain bread.  You can find the recipe here.  Last week I thought I would take a look at the King Arthur website for additional recipes that I could try which use the harvest grains blend.

I happened across this recipe for A Simple, Rustic Loaf (it’s a winner with a five-star rating) and thought I’d give it a try.  This recipe baked up as a huge crispy crusted loaf with a delicate interior — this bread is very different from my go-to loaf in a few very important ways.

• First, this loaf needs much more time as it uses the sponge method.  I prepared the sponge and let it sit at room temperature overnight which enabled fantastic flavor development.  The small amount of rye flour also contributes to the flavor.  In addition to the fermentation time, this bread needs extra time for a second rise.
• Second, this bread uses a smaller amount of the harvest grains mixture relative to the flour, and there is no whole wheat flour so the texture is much lighter.
• Finally, this bread has no sweetener or oil added.

I followed the recipe as written with three changes.  First, I add vital wheat gluten whenever my recipe uses whole grains or a seed mixture like the harvest grains blend.  For this recipe, I added 2 tablespoons.  Second, I did not have pumpernickel flour and used rye flour instead.  Finally, I baked the recipe using my La Cloche baker which you can read more about here.  The La Cloche ensures a fantastic crisp crust.  To use this recipe with the La Cloche, you will want to pre-heat the oven with the dome inside at 450° for an hour before baking.  If your oven is like mine, you will want to remove the upper rack before you begin the pre-heating and create more space to accommodate the La Cloche.  I also pre-heated my baking stone on the rack where I will place the baker.  When you’re ready, pop the bread in the oven (the bottom of the baker goes on top of the hot stone) and carefully put the very hot dome on top.  Bake at 450° for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 400° for 15 minutes.  Finally, remove the dome and bake for 5 more minutes for a total baking time of 35 minutes.  By the way, there is no need with the La Cloche to spray the bread with water or use a pan of ice cubes to create steam.  As you can see below, I had great oven spring and ended up with a loaf that was so big, I couldn’t fit it into my bread keeper without cutting it in half.

 

This was a really happy experiment, and I’m sure this big beautiful bread will become a regular in my repertoire.  Don’t fret if you don’t have the Harvest Grains blend.  As much as I love it, I know how it is when you are out of an ingredient and need to substitute.  There are plenty of ideas for how to improvise if you look through the reviews on the recipe page.  Let me know if you try this one, I think you’ll really enjoy it.

Experimentation Update

As mentioned above, I made this bread a second time.  This time I decided to make a change to the amount of all-purpose flour used in the dough.  Instead of 9-1/2 ounces, I used 7 and then added 2-1/2 ounces of King Arthur’s Ancient Grains blend.  This whole grain flour is a blend that includes 30% each amaranth, millet, and sorghum flours and 10% quinoa flour.  I honestly had not gotten a lot of use out of this flour and needed to try and use it up which led to this experiment.  The resulting bread had a slightly earthy but complex flavor that was indescribably delicious.  Be sure to add the vital wheat gluten as I describe above.  This dough rose really quickly creating another BBB — the first rise only took 50 minutes.

This is the actively bubbling starter after about 8 hours at room temperature

Slashed, this big beauty is ready for the oven

The interior isn’t quite as airy and the crust is a tiny bit softer but the flavor is fantastic

Monthly Blog Post: Rose’s Bread Bible Bakers May 2017

 

Photo of Strasbourg, Alsace regional capital, and capital of the European Union

Here is a bit of trivia for you.  Our April baking project was for an Alsatian Onion Pizza.  If you’re not familiar with this charming region in the North East corner of France, it sits near the intersection of France, Switzerland, and Germany.  The region is historic in that it is home to the greatest number of feudal castles in Europe — 400 of these castles in various states of ruin have been discovered.  The area also has a very rich wine heritage which includes Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Gewurztraminer, and Muscat.  The local wines are enchanting, and that view is supported by famed fashion designer Christian Dior.

 

“A small glass of Alsace wine is like a summer dress or a spring flower; it’s a ray of sunshine that makes life brighter.”

Christian Dior

The area also has a rich gastronomic legacy which includes of all things Munster cheese. While I’ve not visited Alsace, I considered this recipe as a virtual afternoon trip to the region.  Note that as I searched a bit on the internet for similar recipes, most included bacon, which would honestly make a great addition.  Rose uses black olives instead in her recipe which you can find here along with her other variations.

The foundation of any pizza is, of course, the crust.  Rose offers up the recipe for her Perfect Pizza Dough along with an assortment of topping recipes and combinations.  While this one would not have likely been my first pick as I scanned through the choices, it was certainly enjoyable.  It also provided me with inspiration for a breakfast pizza.  I’ll be sure to update this post once I have the chance to test out that idea.

Rose recommends using King Arthur’s Italian Style flour which I just happened to have on hand.  I had not baked with this flour before, and don’t yet have an opinion on this one.  Here’s why.  The first recommendation that Rose makes is that you prepare the dough in advance and allow it to mature over a period of eight to 24-hours.  I had been busy with another loaf of my fave hearth bread and did not start the dough until just a few hours ahead of time.  In addition, I mixed the olive oil into the dough in error instead of just putting it inside the container with the dough while it was fermenting.  I’ll admit I was distracted by the loaf of bread that I had in process.

Another important timing note for this recipe is that the onions take a really long time to cook.  You start by smothering them over low heat for 45 minutes.  Then you crank up the heat to caramelize and dry them out.  I did not time this, but it took a little while.  I’d also note that to thinly slice three large onions, you really want to use a food processor  I started with my mandoline, but after slicing about 3/4 of an onion I moved on to the food processor.

Bless her heart, Rose gives us permission to be experimental and somewhat liberal with the amounts of topping ingredients since everybody wants to maximize their favorite ingredients.  For me, this meant extra gruyére cheese and olives.

This recipe was a great opportunity to give my new baking stone a workout.  My old stone had cracked into three big pieces after many years of loyal service, so I ended up with this hot red number from Emile Henry.  I loved baking with this stone for a few reasons.  First, it has a glazed surface which is much easier to keep clean than the unglazed stone I had before.  Second, it is rectangular instead of square so it works better (at least I think it does) on a rectangular oven rack.  Third, and perhaps most important is safety.  This stone has handles built into the sides so I can move it safely, even while it’s hot.  I, unfortunately, have a tendency to  have the stone on the wrong rack and need to move it when the oven is already hot.

In terms of baking technique, you’re directed to pre-bake or blind bake the crust for 5 minutes.  The intent is to prevent the crust from becoming soggy, but honestly, that did not work so well.  I thought I had gotten all of the excess liquid out of the onion topping so when I make my breakfast pizza I will need to adjust the pre-bake and the topping to keep the crust crisp.

The Alsatian onion topping is delicious, however, I would suggest leaving out the added sugar.  I suspect it would be plenty sweet without it.  Despite the problems of my own making that I’ve noted, I will give this pizza dough another chance with extra care to follow the directions as written.  I have historically used a pizza dough recipe from Joanne Weir with good results, so I’m not sure that I would replace that with this one.  I’ve been craving a nice crispy, airy crust like the one I had here at Rays and Stark Bar here in LA.  I haven’t found a dupe for that one yet, but if you have any suggestions, I’m open to them.  I’m sure one change I will need to make is to bake directly on the stone.  I expect that to be much easier with my new stone.

Are you baking your own pizzas at home?  Of course I’d love to hear your favorites since I love pizza.  One of my favorites is a Turkish Lamb pizza from Joanne Weir that I learned in one of her classes.  I’ll link to it here.

Sheryl’s Harvest Grains Loaf

If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you know that I do love to bake bread (I like to eat it too!).  As much as I love freshly baked bread some recipes take more time and effort than others.  Since I don’t have unlimited time for baking, I’ve had to search for a bread recipe which meets the following criteria:

• Quick to make with only one rise
• Improved nutritional value from whole grains without being dense or bitter
• Additional taste, texture, and nutrition from seeds and grains
• Freezes well so I can have some on hand without having to bake

 

This loaf makes great grilled ham and cheese sandwiches

The recipe that I am sharing in this post meets all of these requirements and has become my go-to quick and easy loaf.  This one is great for sandwiches (grilled ham and cheese anyone?) or toast.  In addition to baking it for my personal consumption, I often like to take along a baked offering when visiting friends or family.  One of my uncles raves about this bread, so I try to make it whenever I know I’ll see him.

I originally found the recipe for Michelle’s Harvest Grains Loaf a couple of years ago.  The recipe was originally written for a bread machine, so I have adapted the technique for my KitchenAid stand mixer and made a couple of tweaks based on my learnings from baking with Rose’s Bread Bible over the years.  I’ve also made a few modifications to the ingredients.  The most significant one is the addition of vital wheat gluten which enables me to achieve the light texture I wanted even though the recipe uses whole grains and seeds.  I use the Bob’s Red Mill product because it does the job and is readily available at my local supermarket or at Whole Foods.

The hero ingredient in this recipe is the harvest grains blend.  I haven’t seen anything like this anywhere else.  It is super tasty and filled with goodies like poppy seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and oats.  I was absolutely heartbroken last year when I accidentally ended up with almost a whole two-pound bag worth of the mix on my kitchen floor.  Apparently, the lid on the canister wasn’t on securely, I didn’t have a firm grip, and the rest is history.  I had to turn around and immediately reorder, but fortunately, there was a reduced price shipping deal at the time.  The grain blend is really important to the success of this recipe so I recommend ordering it just for this recipe, although there are several other recipes on the King Arthur site you can try in order to get more use out of the product.  One other recipe I’ve used it in with good success is for Harvest Grain Buns (dinner rolls) which were a hit on our Thanksgiving table.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups warm water
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar or honey
• 2 tablespoons grapeseed or other vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup Harvest Grains Blend
• 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 cup King Arthur Premium Whole Wheat Flour or White Whole Wheat (I normally use the white whole wheat, but the regular works fine too)
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast — I use the SAF Red Instant from King Arthur
• 2 tablespoons Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten

Instructions

1. In the workbowl of your electric stand mixer, i.e. a KitchenAid combine all of the dry ingredients, except the salt by hand to distribute the ingredients.  With the machine on low speed, pour in the water, oil, and sweetener until a rough dough forms.
2. Cover the workbowl with a towel and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
3. After the dough has rested, add the salt and knead the dough by machine on medium-high for 7 minutes.  You should now have a smooth supple dough like the image below.
4. Lightly grease an 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ bread pan.
5. Shape the dough into a log and place it in the pan.
6. Allow the loaf to rise, covered, until it’s crowned about 1″ over the rim of the pan.  In my experience, with the yeast specified above, I  typically am ready to bake within 45 minutes.  I forgot to set my timer, so the results shown here were after a 60-minute rise.
7. While the bread is rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.
8. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the bread’s interior temperature registers 190°F on an instant-read thermometer.
9. Remove the bread from the oven, remove it from the pan, and cool it on a wire rack.
10. Store, well-wrapped, for 5 days at room temperature, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Monthly Blog Post: Rose’s Bread Bible Bakers February 2017

This month our baking group is cooking up a healthy Flaxseed Loaf, which in my opinion makes a great everyday sandwich type bread. If you’re looking for a bread that incorporates whole grains, is rich in antioxidants as well as healthful Omega 3 fatty acids this bread may be just what you’re looking for. Here is an interesting tidbit from the World’s Healthiest Foods website:

Interestingly, bread enriched with ground flaxseed has also been shown to have a greater antioxidant capacity and a much lower glycemic index value (of approximately 51) than the same bread without the ground flaxseed addition. These research findings are great news for anyone who wants to include flaxseeds in baked dishes, in either whole or ground form.

This bread is one that I’ve made in the past – in fact I had notated some changes that I’d made to the recipe back in 2008. I pretty much stuck with those very minor changes this time around and will describe them for you below. One of the things that I loved about this bread is that it is relatively quick and easy to make, has a mellow flavor, and it bakes up with a really nice crust.

I can’t copy the recipe here, and it is not one that Rose has published anywhere other than the book, or if she has, I can’t find it. If you’re interested, however, see my “duh” moment below for a way to borrow the book if you want to try it out. I can assure you that you will learn so much about baking bread and enjoy so many of the recipes that you’ll not be disappointed if you buy the book.  Whether you borrow or buy, this book is really helpful when it comes to baking bread.

 

Dry ingredients, including the flaxseed ready for mixing

 

The recipe calls for a combination of three flours – all-purpose, whole wheat, and pumpernickel. In many recipes which call for whole wheat flour, I substitute an equivalent amount of King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat flour. If you look back at prior posts, you’ll see that I have used this flour in a number of recipes – Irish Soda Bread, Everyday Whole-grain Bread, and Pumpkin, Oat, and Date Muffins are three examples I’ve written about on the blog. You’ll get all of the benefits of whole wheat, but with a milder taste and texture so you’re able to sneak it into baked goods if you’re looking to up the whole-grain content.

I really have to be careful about how much flour and other dry goods that I buy and keep on hand. If I overdo it and don’t use it up quickly enough I end up with a variety of pantry pests. Keeping my dry goods in the freezer isn’t an option due to space limitations. I’ve invested in a fairly large selection of airtight Oxo POP containers, use traps faithfully, and can still end up with problems. For that reason, I did not want to invest in a bag of pumpernickel flour which is a more coarsely ground flour than the rye we used in our December recipe, Levy’s Real Jewish Rye. Therefore I replaced the pumpernickel flour with the Arrowhead Mills rye I had on-hand which made for a lighter, but equally tasty bread.

By the way, the one change I did not make this time around, but it is an option is to add one ounce of wheat germ and increase the water by one ounce. The idea here was to further increase the whole grain content, but since I didn’t have any wheat germ on hand I skipped over that. If you happen to have some on hand, however, it is a good addition.

Flaxseeds after a quick go round in the Vitamix

The required flaxseeds can be easily cracked or ground in a spice grinder (I have an old Cuisinart that is just large enough) or now I run them through my Vitamix using the Dry Grains Container. This container is great for making your own flour – think about the oat or chickpea flours, or superfine sugar that you can produce at home as you need it — saving your valuable time and preventing waste. The container is a pricey item (it has a special blade built into it) so you’ll want to shop around for the best price.

The dough after mixing

The remaining dough ingredients are pretty typical – yeast, water, honey, and salt. The honey provides a nice subtle sweetness and helps to enrich the color of the finished bread. I decided to experiment with a specialty pink salt that I picked up on a recent visit to Sur La Table. I must admit that I’m a neophyte when it comes to salt and didn’t have enough appreciation for this humble but essential ingredient. Although I know it is important to how our food tastes, I can’t say that I’ve ever done a taste test to compare different varieties, of which there are many. I read a very interesting article which includes an interview with Mark Bitterman, author of the book titled Salted: A Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral (a James Beard award winner by the way). I’m now intrigued and looking to get my hands on the book as I rethink my use of kosher salt and begin exploring other types of salt to use in my cooking.

Beginning the shaped rise, you can see the dough is about an inch below the top of the pan

After the rise it’s well above the top of the pan

Slashed and ready to bake

If you’ve read and used enough of Rose’s yeast bread recipe’s you will be familiar with her basic techniques. The highlights for this recipe are a pretty rapid first rise – mine took less than an hour to double, followed by a beatdown and shaped second rise which also took less than an hour. I then popped it in the oven for 40 minutes at 375°.

 

The finished Flaxseed Loaf…time for a sandwich

On a closing note, I had a “duh” moment this weekend so I want to share that bit of learning with you. I finally realized that in addition to checking out physical books from my local library, I can also borrow e-books for free. Our Los Angeles library system (and many others as I understand it) enable you to borrow Kindle books which you can read on any Kindle-compatible device. If you don’t already have a copy of Rose’s book and want to take it for a free test drive, check to see if you can get it through your local library’s e-book lending service.

 

Are you finding ways to get more whole grains and healthful ingredients into your baked goods?  How are you doing it, and how is it working for you?

2017 #piegoals

I recently shared a blog post about making individual-size fruit crisps as a diet friendly and quick alternative to making a whole pie.  As part of that post, I mentioned that one of my goals is to up my pie-making game and that to start the process I had purchased the book Art of the Pie by @KateMcDermott.  I had originally intended to make an apple pie as part of my Christmas brunch menu but ran out of prep time — I had to cut and run with my other deserts.  I had already prepared a chocolate pound cake recipe and homemade cinnamon ice cream so those would just have to do.

Once I got past the holiday, I was able to resume work on the apple pie I had originally planned.  This ended up being my second pie recipe from Art of the Pie.  I wanted to share the results of this effort, and talk about some of the actions I plan to take to increase my pie making skills this year.  Note that most of my emphasis will be on the aesthetic aspects rather than how to prepare the dough and filling as I’m already getting good results in those areas.  Any advice or suggestions you may have for me as I begin this journey will be greatly appreciated!

For this pie I decided to use McDermott’s traditional crust which is prepared with a combination of butter and shortening.  The dough recipe recommends that you roll and use it on the same day that you make it.  The directions are written for manual preparation, however I used my normal food processor technique.  I also ended up rolling this pie crust four days after making it.  The crust was nice and flaky once baked, but I did find that the dough softened up very quickly when I took it out of the refrigerator.  This put pressure on me to work quickly which is a bit at odds with my focus on aesthetics.

Brushed with egg wash and ready to bake

I decided to focus my attention on decorating the top of the pie using a small tear drop shaped cutter that I recently purchased as part of a set from Sur La Table. When I looked these up on the website I read that these were intended for cutting aspect, but they were just fine for cutting pie dough.  My idea was to create a design in the middle of the top and to use the cut outs as a replacement for simple knife slashes to permit venting .  To do this I had to roll the top crust out and guesstimate where I thought the center would be and use the cutter to make the cut outs.  I then needed to carefully transport the top by loosely wrapping it around my rolling pin and hope to place the top in the correct position.  I think I got pretty close on that.  Although I managed to place the top, I didn’t have enough crust around the edges of the top and bottom to create a nice fluted edge all the way around so I tucked the edges into the side of the pan as neatly as I could.  I also developed a tear in the crust that I had to struggle to repair.  I’ll need to practice this stuff a bit more in my future attempts.  The final step relative to the crust was to place my tear drops around the top of the crust and apply an egg wash.

For the apple filling I used McDermott’s recipe for The Quintessential Apple Pie.  I had it in my head that I would need to peel the apples before baking, and I was thrilled to skip this step per the recipe directions.  One of the recommendations is to use two  apple varieties for depth of flavor.  I am not a great apple connoisseur but I used a combination of organic Jonagold and Opal apples.  As I tasted the apples before baking, I found that I really liked the flavor of the Opal apples.  I did a bit of research as I wasn’t familiar with this cultivar — I discovered the likely reason for the lack of familiarity.  According to the website, this is an apple which is available during a limited season, from December to March.  In the U.S. they are grown exclusively at Broetje Orchards in Prescott, WA.  This cultivar is relatively new having been discovered in Europe in 1999, and they are a cross between a Golden Delicous and a Topaz.  These apples were introduced to the U.S. market in 2010, and what really has me sold on these is that they do not brown when cut.  Another unique characteristic is that they are organic, Non-GMO Project verified.  I purchased these at my local Whole Foods Market, and look forward to experimenting further with them.  If you would like to try them, take a peek at the website for a grocer near you.

While drafting this post, I mentioned these non-GMO apples to a friend who innocently asked what GMO really meant.  I explained to her my understanding which was basically correct, but I found a lot of additional info on the topic.  I will provide links to a couple of interesting articles here, but the important point to remember is that with GMO or genetically modified organisms (AKA genetically engineered) we do not fully understand the potential negative impact of these foods hence the risk of the unknown.  What is a GMO, and how are GMOs different from hybridized foods, for example pluots which are a cross between a plum and an apricot?  According to the GMO Awareness website,

“Genetic modification is the process of forcing genes from one species into another entirely unrelated species. Unlike cross breeding or hybridization—both of which involve two related species and have been done without ill effects for centuries—genetic engineering forcefully breaches the naturally-occuring barriers between species.”

Here are real GMO examples from GMO Awareness:

“Other examples of GMOs include strawberries and tomatoes injected with fish genes to protect the fruit from freezing, goats injected with spider genes to produce milk with proteins stronger than kevlar for use in industrial products, salmon that are genetically engineered with a growth hormone that allow them to keep growing larger, dairy cows injected with the genetically engineered hormone rBGH (also known as rBST) to increase milk production, and rice injected with human genes to produce pharmaceuticals.”

According to The World’s Healthiest Foods website:

“GE foods by definition contain novel proteins that were not present in the food prior to its genetic modification.  Since proteins are often the basis for an allergic food reaction (our immune system will sometimes make antibodies to help neutralize proteins that are interpreted as being potentially dangerous to our health), many scientists have speculated that novel proteins in GE foods may cause these foods to trigger allergic reactions more frequently than their non-GE counterparts.”

The net is that while there is no scientific evidence proving these GE foods are bad, there isn’t proof that they are good either.  By the way, my understanding is that organic foods (if truly organic) by definition are non-GMO, but non-GMO foods are not necessarily organic.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming after what my Mom would call a bird walk — the pie filling.  The one other thing I’d like to point out about the filling recipe is that Calvados was an optional ingredient.  That is not something that I had on hand, however I had just received my holiday order from King Arthur Flour.  One of the items I purchased this time was boiled apple cider.  This was a first time purchase for me — I decided to give it a try as my #piegoals were top of mind.  This stuff really helps to enrich the flavor of the apples and it seemed to combine well with my Bragg’s apple cider vinegar.

So, how did the completed pie turn out, and what did I learn from the experience?  The first thing I would mention is that somewhere in the book I read that with a fruit pie you can end up with a gap between the underside of the top crust and the top of the filling.   The solution if you don’t want the gap is to partially pre-cook your filling.  Now you could reasonably deduce that since I was happy to not peel the apples that I didn’t really want to pre-cook the filling.  Your deductive reasoning would be absolutely correct as I was pressed for time.  I didn’t think that the gap would bother me, but not having the gap really would make it easier to have nice looking slices.  The aesthetics of the slices were challenging with the combination of the teardrop cutouts and the gap between the crust and the filling.  My learning here is that there is a good reason for “minding the gap” as they say in London.

Second, while not peeling the apples first is a great time saver, my suspicion is that some skins when cooked will not provide the most pleasing flavor.  There was an occasional bite with a mild aftertaste that I couldn’t place.  My suspicion is that it came from the skins of the Opal apples.  While it wasn’t “bad” I’d rather do without it.  My thought is to bake a whole Opal apple to test my theory.  The lesson here is to know your apple varieties and the taste of the baked skin before making a decision “to peel or not to peel.”  While this lesson is specific to apple pie, the concept may apply to other fruits so it is worth thinking about.

While apple pie is great on its own, I thought it would be even better to serve it up with some home made cinnamon ice cream.  I found a recipe on allrecipes.com which I made as directed with one exception.  Once I prepared and cooled the custard, I put it in the refrigerator to chill overnight with the thought that it would provide additional time for the flavors to mingle.  This ice cream was approved by kids and adults alike, and I would definitely recommend it.

Williams-Sonoma Classic Cajeta Caramel Sauce

To top things off, I splurged on a jar of gourmet caramel sauce from Williams-Sonoma.  The taste of this sauce is absolutely fantastic, however it does not drizzle easily.  I think you need to warm it up somehow (stovetop or microwave) to get the consistency just right.  You can find the sauce here.

Overall the pie was a success from a taste perspective, and I gained more experience with the decorative aspects of pie making.  The apple flavor of the bubbling juices as the pie came out of the oven was definitely enhanced by the boiled cider.  As I think about how to further develop my pie goals and a plan to achieve them, clearly practice will be essential.  One idea is to look for a bake-along similar to Rose’s Bread Bible Bakers.  Other ideas include my own “self-study” program, attending a class at Sur La Table or another local cooking school, and looking for pie specific blogs.  A trip to Kate McDermott’s pie camp would provide an intensive learning opportunity.  Any other ideas?  And for you pie experts, how did you do it?  I want to know!  In the meantime I will update you on my progress via the blog and on Instagram using the hashtag piegoals.

Monthly Blog Post: Rose’s Bread Bible Bakers December 2016

This is our final Bread Bible project for 2016, and I must say that being a part of Rose’s Bread Bible Bakers has been a real treat.  In addition to baking and eating some great breads, being part of a fantastic bread baking community, and continuing my growth as a baker, I’ve also had the opportunity to broaden my bread comfort zone if you will.  I do want to give a special shout-out and thank you to the members of our bread baking community.  We are a fantastic international group of bakers, and if you want to join the remainder of our journey just click on the link here.  I’ve posted below a photographic summary of our activity since May.  Although I’ve been baking from this book for several years, through this bake-along I’ve tried several recipes for breads that initially did not appeal to me, but will now become part of my repertoire.  Our December bread is a great example.

Rose’s Basic Hearth Bread

Royal Irish Soda Bread

Ginger Scones

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Caramel Sticky Buns

Flaky Scones

Blueberry Muffins

I have never been a fan of rye bread — I suspect my dislike perhaps came from a bad childhood experience.  I have a vague recollection of something my mother said was rye bread that I didn’t like, and I never tried it again.  I actually thought about taking a pass on this one, but I am so glad that I didn’t.  I type this as I finish eating a slice adorned with butter only, having had a tasty smoked turkey sandwich with my homemade cranberry chutney earlier in the day.

“Levy’s” Real Jewish Rye was a real treat with a nice crispy crust and moist golden brown interior.  By the way, I think the secret to the beautiful color of this bread is from using barley malt syrup which I buy from King Arthur Flour. The taste of rye flour is very subtle in this bread as there is roughly 20% rye flour with the remainder being white bread flour.  I used my beloved Artisan Bread Flour from KAF and Organic Rye Flour from Arrowhead Mills.  I will confess that I forgot to pick up the caraway seeds so that was the one change to the recipe as I didn’t want to go back out in the rain for them — and yes, thankfully it does rain in Southern California.

The recipe directs you to leave the sponge and flour mixture for four hours before mixing.  I was delayed returning home, so mine sat at room temperature for approximately six hours.  When I mixed the dough, I did find it a bit wetter than usual so I had to add a good bit more bread flour.  I suspect it was a result of our cool, damp weather and the excess time at room temperature.  My dough rose quite rapidly which is one of the benefits I find of using the SAF Red Instant Yeast.  If you haven’t tried it, I love that you don’t need to proof it, it’s very economical, and it usually gets results at the faster end of the time range given in your recipes.  I often find myself baking at night so I can bake and get to sleep sooner which is a plus.

This bread was a real winner, and I’ll look forward to baking it again in the future.  It is definitely proof that our childhood perceptions can be wrong.  I am looking forward to baking our remaining bake-along recipes in the New Year ahead as well as working on my #piegoals.  You’ll be hearing about them soon on the blog.  In the meantime, let me know your baking goals for the New Year.  I wish you the only best in all of your endeavors.

P.S. — I’m so excited and ready to break into my happy dance!  Our January recipe is one of my long-time favorites.  Yipee!

Everyday Whole-Grain Bread

Last week I tried King Arthur’s recipe for Everyday Whole-Grain bread and really enjoyed it.  The recipe was featured in their October bake-along and calls for 1/2 each of all-purpose and whole wheat flours.  As usual, I used their white whole wheat, and for the vegetable oil, I used olive oil.  It tasted great in my sandwiches.  You can find the recipe here.

Monthly Blog Post: Rose’s Bread Bible Bakers October 2016

Our recipe this month was for Rose’s Royal Irish Soda Bread.   Since I had never had soda bread, I took it upon myself to do a bit of research on the topic. My first finding is that this bread would not be considered to be an authentic Irish Soda Bread in the mind of a purist. In fact, I learned through an article in Epicurious (AKA Bon Appétit) that soda bread purists will tell you that this is not the real thing. Indeed, there is a society dedicated to the preservation of Irish Soda Bread – who knew?

According to an article published in the Tampa Bay Times (which includes this recipe) Irish Soda Breads, as Rodney Dangerfield would say just don’t get no respect. These are humble breads –prepared with the most basic set of ingredients: flour, salt, buttermilk, and baking soda. Any additions like butter or raisins are not true to the original recipe. These were considered to be luxury add-on items. As stated by Irish chef Rory O’Connell in the Epicurious article, when modified with these luxe items it should be considered as “_____ [you fill in the blank] bread on a soda bread base”.

I would consider this to be the simplest bread we have made thus far as there is no yeast, therefore no need to allow the bread time to rise. The finished product has some similarities with the scones we made back in June. You can find that post here.

As usual, Rose provides solid techniques and at least one variation. If you’ve followed my Bread Bible posts, you know that I always like to try the variations, and I actually baked this recipe twice. My first time around, I omitted the raisins as I wanted a more authentic bread as described in the Epicurious article. I also used a blend of 50% all purpose flour and 50% whole wheat flour. Rose provided a whole wheat blend as an option, and for this bread, I used King Arthur’s white whole wheat due to its milder taste. This bread became a lovely golden brown throughout. It reminded me of cornbread perhaps because of its texture and the buttermilk and baking soda combo.

The second time around I stuck close to the original recipe. I used King Arthur’s all purpose flour and instead of soaking the raisins in Irish whiskey, which I didn’t have, I used dark rum. I figured that nobody would really know the difference, as the flavor from the alcohol is subtle. I still ended up with a very golden bread, I suppose because although the raisins were drained there was a tiny bit of brown fluid to color the dough.

I will note two products that I used which I had not had experience with before. For both loaves I used an organic “cream top” buttermilk from Kalona Farms. According to their website, they use sweet cream to produce their buttermilk which they say “…allows us to not only improve the health benefits of our product but it is also more sustainable. We now can use every drop of sweet cream buttermilk that is created when we produce butter. “ I am not a buttermilk connoisseur and would never drink the stuff, but it did have a nice smell and produced a very tender result. Kalona has an interesting story. They are based in Iowa and source their raw materials from a community that is largely comprised of Amish and Mennonite farmers. Here in Southern California we typically have a single brand of buttermilk, in our grocery stores. It is typically sold in one-quart cartons, it is mass produced, and it is not organic. The Kalona product caught my eye because it was the exact opposite –it’s available in a pint size bottle, it’s not mass produced, and it is organic.  I plan to purchase this again for future baking projects.

Both versions were moist and delicious due to the addition of butter, and this is another area where I did a bit of experimentation. For the loaf without raisins, I used Trader Joe’s unsalted butter. When shopping for ingredients my intention was to try the Kerrygold brand as I had not used it before. When I got home I realized that I had accidentally picked up their garlic and herb butter instead of plain unsalted butter. I ended up using the garlic butter on the freshly baked loaf and it tasted really good.

I went back to the store before baking the second loaf and bought the unsalted Kerrygold for that loaf. I believe the butter and buttermilk combined in the second loaf to create a very moist loaf with a nice sweet buttery flavor. I plan to use the Kerrygold in some additional baking projects so that I can continue to compare the results. I did research butter taste tests, and the one test I read ranked Kerrygold third or slightly ahead of my regular Land o’Lakes butter. I’ll also plan to seek out Plurga and Presidént butters for further experimentation during the holiday season. If you have any opinions on these I’d love to hear them.

The final point I’d like to share is that I am a strong believer in using modern tools in my cooking and baking projects. With our busy modern lifestyles, we need to boost our productivity in the kitchen wherever possible. For this soda bread, I used my Breville Sous Chef that I purchased this summer. I used the same technique as described in my June post on making scones. The key with this approach is to use the plastic blade (not the steel blade) and to pulse the ingredients very briefly so that you still have buttery bits. These are necessary for the proper texture so don’t over process it. You want to add the liquid through the feed tube quickly and not over mix. It is okay to use a little flour when shaping the dough (a few spoonfuls) but you don’t want to add too much and toughen the dough up.

Once the dough has been shaped, slash the top and pop it into your pre-heated oven quickly. I did find that I needed a few extra minutes (less than five) in the oven so that a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry.

There you have it – an easy but delicious bread.   By the way, I did find an interesting recipe for a seeded version from Noreen Kinney that I look forward to trying. You can find that recipe here. Let me know your thoughts and whether you have tried soda bread. I want to hear all about it!

Pumpkin, Oat, and Date Muffins

Now that fall has really arrived in Southern California, I thought it was time to do some fall baking. I think of pumpkins as really being the ultimate symbol of the season. I had some canned pumpkin on hand and thought a muffin recipe would be a good choice for seasonal baking. I started with a base recipe from King Arthur Flour to develop this variation. These came out with perfect texture and just the right amount of sweetness. To boost the nutritional value and fiber content I used some of King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat  and whole rolled oats. I had considered using my Vitamix to make oat flour, but that extra step really was not necessary.

Note that the base recipe (Pumpkin Leaf Muffins) I jumped off from called for 100% all purpose flour, which always makes me feel guilty so I substituted 1/3 white whole wheat for the all-purpose. I like the milder taste that you get from white whole wheat – it isn’t as obvious in terms of the taste or texture. According to the King Arthur website,

“All the goodness of grains in a lighter, milder-tasting flour. 

Our unbleached white whole wheat flour is milled from hard white winter wheat – a lighter-colored grain than traditional red wheat – which yields milder-tasting baked goods. Substituting this flour for up to a third of the white flour in your favorite recipes gives you all of the nutrition and fiber of whole grains without compromising flavor.”

I’ve been using this flour for several years now with good success. If I happen to be out when I’m placing an order with King Arthur then I will order it directly from them. Otherwise, I am usually able to find it at local specialty grocers and will pick up a bag as I need it. If you haven’t tried it, and if you aren’t a fan of regular whole wheat flour, do give it a try.

Here are the ingredients that you need which will yield 12 generously sized muffins.  By my calculations, each muffin comes in at roughly 221 calories with 2.45 grams of fiber and 4.82 grams of protein.  The fat content as written was 33%, but you can substitute reduced fat (2%) milk without any negative effect on the taste or texture.

• 1 cup pumpkin puree (about 1/2 of a 15 ounce can)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil – I used grapeseed oil
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice*
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup King Arthur Premium Whole Wheat or White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chopped dates (add 1-2teaspoons of flour if you are using a food processor to minimize sticking)
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

*If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, substitute 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a 12-well muffin pan with papers.

• In a large bowl whisk together the pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar, oil, molasses, salt, spices, and milk.

• In a separate bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, and baking soda together.

• In a third bowl assemble the oats, nuts, and dates

• Add the flour mixture all at once to the wet ingredients and mix until all ingredients are well combined.

• Stir in the oats, nuts, and dates.

• Distribute the batter evenly into the wells of the prepared muffin pan.

• Bake until firm to the touch, about 18 to 20 minutes.

Store baked muffins well-wrapped, for 3 days at room temperature, or freeze for up to a month.

Eat and enjoy!