Rolling in Dough

The 2009 Bake Your Own Bread Challenge

I happened across The Baker's Bench the other day. It seems that Sandy has taken a stand and decided to bake all of her own bread this year. ALL OF IT - including bagels, hamburger buns and bread sticks, as well as everyday sandwich bread. Wow.

I am a bread baker, but I'm a lazy one. I usually start with wonderful intentions of a house filled with the sweet aroma of freshly baked bread, but then I get busy and end up picking up a baguette on the way home. I have baked hamburger buns and bread sticks (the latter with unimpressive results), but I generally buy these, too. I have never actually made a bagel.

But let's be honest, no store-bought bread can hold a candle to homemade. So I considered the possibility of accepting the challenge. Could I really bake all of my bread this year? Well, yeah, I can. So I'm in. I have joined the ranks of the BYOB bakers. Hooray!

Please check back for many bread recipes and follow me as I learn how to make bread sticks worth eating, perfect a "real" French baguette, discover some fun new grains and sprinkle sesame seeds on hamburger buns. I'll probably take another stab at nurturing a sourdough starter. Who knows, I might even try to make bagels.

Sandy hosts a roundup of bread recipes contributed by all of the BYOB bakers on the 1st and the 15th of each month. Visit The Baker's Bench to meet the others and see all of the bread recipes. Maybe you'll be inspired to join us.

Let's Bake!

Mediterranean Semolina Bread

I signed up to play in Taste & Create V, a fun idea created by Nicole of

For The Love of Food. She partners the bloggers who have signed up, each must tiptoe through the other's blog entries and recipes and find an interesting dish, cook it and blog about it. I was lucky enough to be paired with Laurie of Mediterranean Cooking In Alaska, a blog I've had my eye on for some time. Her premise is fascinating - she is Greek, and keeps a house in both Greece and Alaska, cooking traditional Greek foods with the local ingredients she finds in Alaska. I can hardly imagine two more diverse places to live and cook, and the local cuisines couldn't be more different. Her recipes are amazing, with beautiful pictures that make me ache to visit Greece to experience the food firsthand. So after happily reading page after page of mouth-wateringly delicious looking cuisine, I settled on her Olive Oil Bread. Round and golden with a star shape cut into the top, I knew this was my recipe.

As I kneaded the dough, I could tell that this was going to be a lovely bread. The dough was silky and soft, the perfect consistency. It contains semolina flour, which I had never baked with, but it really gives the loaf a nice creamy texture. When the finished bread came out of the oven, I wasn't disappointed. The bread was a large, beautiful loaf, with a crisp, crunchy crust. The interior had a lovely tight texture, rather like a white bread you might buy at the store. And the taste was distinctive and unusual - the semolina gave it the flavor of corn meal, but without the rough bite. A wonderful bread by all accounts. And a surprising bonus, it keeps beautifully. Living here in Colorado, the air tends to be a tad dry. Bread is rarely edible after the first day you bake it - so the birds in my yard are quite well fed. But this loaf stayed fresh and moist for four or five days, as we enjoyed it with breakfast, spread with peanut butter and as toast. Yum!  Thanks Laurie for a great recipe - I'll be baking this often!

                     

This is Laurie's Recipe - I copied it off of her blog. I think the directions for preheating the stone help to give this bread it's wonderful crust, and will be baking all of my breads this way in the future. As I side note, I didn't add the rosemary when I made this. I love rosemary in bread, I just like my peanut butter sandwiches better without it.

Rosemary Bread (Ψωμί με Δενδρολίβανο)
Makes one large loaf
I prefer using a baking stone when I make bread as it helps my home oven maintain an even temperature and gives bread a crisper crust. I also have an old baking sheet with edges that I use when I make bread. I preheat the baking sheet and baking stone for at least 30 minutes at 500°F. I turn the heat down to 450°F when I put the bread in to bake. Just before I close the oven, I dump a cup of water into the baking sheet and quickly shut the door. (Do not throw water directly on the oven floor or it will warp. Trust me, I know this from experience.) The water creates steam which prevents the bread from quickly forming a hard surface, thus allowing the bread to rise to its fullest extent. The water cooks off quickly, and leaves a hot, dry oven which, together with the baking stone, helps ensure a crispy crust.

2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp. honey
2 1/4 tsp. dry yeast (1 packet)
2 Tbsp. minced rosemary
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cups semolina flour
2 – 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Coarse salt

In a large bowl, mix the warm water and honey. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let it sit for 10 minutes, or until the yeast begins to foam. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or by hand with a wooden spoon), mix in the rosemary, salt, olive oil, and semolina flour. Let sit for 10 minutes (this is necessary to properly hydrate the semolina).

Start mixing in the all-purpose flour. When the dough starts clumping together, switch to the dough hook (or to kneading by hand), and keep adding all-purpose flour until you have a moist, but not quite sticky, dough. Flour a board or counter, dump out the dough, and knead in the remaining flour as needed to make a smooth, soft dough.

Let the dough rise for 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. Punch down the dough, shape into a large round loaf, place on a parchment-paper-lined rimless baking sheet, and let rise until the loaf has almost doubled in size. (You can also rise the bread directly on a wooden peel sprinkled with semolina flour or corn meal.)

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Cut an asterisk in the center of the loaf with a razor blade or extremely sharp knife. Brush lightly with water and sprinkle with coarse salt. (If you have a baking stone, slide the bread - and parchment paper if using - from the baking sheet or wooden peel onto the stone.) Bake for 15 minutes. Without removing the bread from the oven, turn the heat down to 325°F and bake for an additional 20 - 25 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

BreadBakingDay #5 - The Roundup

Welcome to the BreadBakingDay #5 Filled Bread Roundup. When I suggested the Filled Bread theme, I could not have imagined the wonderful variety of beautiful and delicious looking breads that have come my way from 11 different countries from around the globe. Several of the recipes are traditional family recipes baked during the festivities of December, many more are simply favorites of their contributor. A couple are improvised (with great results!). All are spectacularly gorgeous breads that I simply must try my hand at baking at home. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to bake and share their breads with us! Get out the yeast and flour and get ready to discover some amazing and wonderful breads! Which of the BreadBakingDay #5, Filled Breads will you make first?

Some Savory Breads To Get You Started -

From Australia, Y at Lemon Pi, sent along her Christmas Ham Foccacia, making good use of her holiday ham leftovers. I'll bet nobody complained about having ham the second day.

From Spain, Marta at Los Fogones de Mi Casa sent her recipe for Majorcan Sausage Roses, beautifully done individually rolled breads, packed full of spicy sausage.

From Portugal, Suzana at Home Gourmets made her first ever bread to share with us. Grape and Walnut Bread, a creation that she smeares and serves with Camembert. Yum! If everyone's first bread turned out as lovely as this looks, there would be a lot more bread bakers out there!

From California here in the States, Dhivya at Culinary Bazaar made a Millet Bread that looks delicious and is even good for you! I'd never seen a recipe with millet in it - great idea!

From India, Aparna at My Diverse Kitchen sends along her recipe for Spicy Onion, Tomato and Bell Pepper Bread. This is a gorgeous creation chock full of veggies and Indian spices. Can't wait to try it!

From Germany, Petra at Chili und Ciabatta baked Rarif al Rarif, Egyptian Cheese Rolls, light, crispy and covered in Sesame Seeds. What a great appetizer!

Also from Germany, Ulrike at Kuchenlatein made her Son's favorite Filled Pizza Bread. It is a gorgeous concoction of pizza fillings surrounded by a crispy crust sprinkled with herbs. I can see why he loves it!

From Alaska, Laurie of Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska, made Chicken in Rosemary Bread. I bet this smells and tastes wonderful! Rosemary is one of my favorite herbs to use in bread and it goes so well with chicken.

From Saudi Arabia, Zainab of Arabic Bites sent Sahan Fatayer, small triangular rolls filled with cream cheese and feta and spinach. Her sister Meedo created Lofafat Dajaj Bel Khodar, an exotic bread filled with chicken, mushrooms, veggies and spices. Both would make great appetizers!

From Germany, the FoodFreak, delighted in recreating Aloo Paratha, an Indian flatbread stuffed with potatos and onions that have been cooked in spices. A tricky and ambitious undertaking - thanks for showing us how to do it!

And also from Germany, the Chaos Queen submitted Hot Dog Sandwichs with Mustard and Ketchup, a sophisticated take on Pigs in a Blanket, complete with caramelized condiments.

And now for the sweets -

As the creator and keeper of BreadBakingDay, and author of Kochtopf, it is only appropriate that Zorra made a recipe that is truly over the top. Her Russenzopf with Nut Mascarpone Filling, is not for the faint of heart. Give this drool worthy beauty a try after your New Year's resolutions have expired.

In New Zealand, Arfi of Homemades baked beautiful Apricot Kolaches topped with jam. They disappear as fast as she can make them and she guarantees that they can actually improve your mood.

From Greece, Ivy of Kopaiste baked her family's traditional Christmas Bread, Christopsomo, a rich bread loaded with nuts, figs, honey and tons of spices. You can eat it as a festive bread, or slice it and rebake it slowly to make rusks to dip in coffee or tea.

From Ontario, Canada, Sarah of What Smells So Good?' sent us her Mom's Holiday Brioche. Sarah had the only copy of this traditional recipe and thus saved the day on Christmas morning. I'll be trying this soon, but it might have to be my "everyday" Brioche. It looks too yummy to save until the holidays.

From California, Susan of Wild Yeast sent us pictures and a great description of her beautiful Cardamom, Pear and Pecan Sticky Buns. What a great combination! Pears are an unusual  and brilliant choice to fill her rolls!

From the Netherlands, Lien of Notitie van Lien, made a divine Amaretto Roulade. Simply Spectacular - filled with ground almonds and orange zest. A fabulous festive bread!

From Germany, Sus of Corumblog took the opportunity to create a Filled Quince Bread, choosing to use her favorite fruit. I've never had a Quince, but this looks lovely!

From California, Judy of Judy's Gross Eats, sent us a Cheese Filled Sweet Bread. Cheese baked into a sweet dough is a great combination!

From Massachusetts, Manuela of Baking History brought her Kuchen Roll, a slightly sweet dough filled with cinnamon and prunes. It's a recipe from a vintage cookbook and looks delicious!

And finally my own contribution, Apple Pecan Babka. A streusel topped coffee cake bread, twisted into a loaf pan. There is a bit of crunchy filling in every bite! It's great with your morning coffee or afternoon tea.

I hope you've enjoyed all of these wonderful filled breads as much as I have. Please visit Eva of Sweet Sins, as she will be hosting BreadBakingDay #6, and announcing the theme on January 6. I'm can't wait to see what she will have us baking next month!

Happy New Year and Happy Baking! Cheers!

Chelsea

Apple Pecan Babka

When I was given the great honor of hosting Bread Baking Day #5, I decided that Filled Breads were a interesting option. But when it came time to bake my own bread, I was at a loss. Nothing was really speaking to me. But as a wandered through my cookbook collection, I came across a Babka, or Grandmother's Roll, recipe. I had never had a Babka, but I like the way the name rolls off my tongue. It has an interesting figure eight shape, which is an unusual, but truly brilliant shape for a filled bread. It distributes the filling throughout the dough, as opposed to the more common rolled shape that tends to leave a single spiral of yummy filling, but the rest of the bread unfilled and uninspiring. I was sold. The recipe called for the Babka to be filled with both cinnamon and chocolate, but Mike doesn't like chocolate (go figure), so I decided to substitute chopped pecans, Granny Smith apples and brown sugar. This recipe also has a deliciously crunchy streusel topping, again an unusual, but inspired choice for a bread.

The resulting Babka is a revelation. A slightly sweet dough, peppered throughout with crunchy pecans, moist apples and little pockets of cinnamony sweetness. The streusel topping adds a nice finish, and is a nice change from the frosting so often seen on rolls and coffee cakes. This a perfect accompaniment to a morning cup of coffee or tea.

                                       

As a side bar, every New Year's Eve, I bake something and hide a coin in it - a money cake to start the New Year. There is a French tradition of a Three King's Cake, where a favor was hidden in a cake to be enjoyed at the New Year. It was said that whoever found the favor would have much prosperity in the coming year. I started baking the money cake a few years ago when Mike was in a career slump. I figured that if he found the coin, his prospects might improve. So when he found the coin in his piece (I decided that it couldn't hurt to set him up the first year), he thought that it must be destiny that his business was going to turn around. And it did - Amazing! Since that first year, I either close my eyes to put the coin in or have Lovie do it, so I have a fair, but not unfair shot at finding it myself. The Babka was our money cake this year, and Mike again got the piece with the coin in it. This is my entry in Bread Baking Day #5, Filled Breads. Be sure to read the roundup! Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Apple Pecan Babka

Dough

4 oz. warm milk

1 1/2 t. dry yeast

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg, plus 1 yolk

2 1/4 cups AP flour

1/4 t. salt

5 T. butter, cut into pieces, room temperature

Filling

2 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and chopped

1 cup chopped Pecans

1 cup Brown Sugar

Cinnamon

Streusel Topping

1/4 cup Butter

1/2 cup Flour

1/2 Brown Sugar

2 t. Cinnamon

Dissolve yeast  in warm milk, let stand until creamy. Mix eggs, sugar, and yeast mixture and whisk until combined. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour and salt. Add the egg mixture and beat with the paddle attachment until the flour is incorporated. Switch to the dough hook. Add the butter and knead 10 minutes until a smooth dough forms.

Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

Butter a 9x5 loaf pan, add parchment paper leaving several inches overhang on each side, butter the parchment paper.

Punch down the dough and let rest 5 minutes.

Roll dough into a 16" square. Brush the edges of the dough with egg wash. Spread apples, pecans and brown sugar over the dough leaving 1/2 " around the edges. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll the dough up, pinching the edges to seal as you go. Twist the rolled dough 5 or 6 times, then fold the log into a horseshoe shape. Cross the ends to form a figure eight and twist twice more. Fit the twisted dough into the prepared pan. Let rise 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make the streusel, combine the butter, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until the mixture is about the texture of coarse bread crumbs. Sprinkle on top of the loaf. Bake loaf 50 minutes, rotating the pan after 25 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 325, and bake 20-30 minutes longer, until golden brown and a knife inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Do not underbake! Cool on a wire rack. Slice and Enjoy! 

BreadBakingDay #5

BreadBakingDay was a brilliant idea for an ongoing food Blog Event, created by the lovely Zorra at Kochtopf. BreadBakingDay celebrates the wonderfully chewy miracle from the oven that I simply cannot live without. So I am thrilled to have the enormous honor of hosting BreadBakingDay #5, Filled Breads. Let your inner baker go wild. Mix up any bread you like, white or wheat, roll it out, fill it with something inspiring and roll it up and bake it. It can be fruit, cheese, salsa, sauce, spices, veggies, candy - whatever you are in the mood for. Rolls, calzones and meat pies all count as filled breads and if you have a filled bread that is a tradition where you live, we'd love to read about it. Simply bake your lovely filled bread creation, take some pictures, write about it and post between now and January 1. Please include a link to Rolling in Dough in your post and send me an email at chelsea@tresbonvivant.com, including the permalink to your post, a picture if you have one and your name and general location. I'll have the collection of wonderful breads up by January 5. What a great way to end one year and begin a new one - by baking bread!

If you would like to explore some other wonderful bread baking ideas, please join Baking History for the roundup of BreadBakingDay #4, Bread with Spices!

I'm including a recipe to get you started. Please feel free for use it, alter it or use any other recipe that catches your fancy. This makes a rich bread with a tight crumb. I filled one of these with Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomatoes, and the other with Butter, Brown Sugar, Cinnamon and Raisins - one for breakfast and one for dinner. Can't wait to read about all of your breads! Cheers!

Basic White Bread

from Beautiful Breads and Fabulous Fillings by Margaux Sky

Makes 2 loaves.

1 tablespoon yeast

2 cups warm milk

2 cups warm half and half

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup powered sugar

8 cups AP flour

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

3-4 cups of filling of your choice per loaf

1 egg and 2 tablespoons of water for an egg wash.

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the milk and half and half. Let stand for 5 minutes, until the yeast is foamy. Add the butter and mix with a whisk. Add the powered sugar and mix well to break up any clumps.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour and the salt. Slowly add the liquid mixture and knead well - 3-4 minutes if using the stand mixer, and 4-7 minutes if by hand. Keep the dough moist for a soft, tender bread.

Place the kneaded dough in a generously buttered bowl, cover and let rise in a warm, dry place for 60 minutes.

Punch down the dough and divide into 2 pieces. Butter 2 9" loaf pans. Roll out your dough, and spread the filling over the dough. Tightly roll the roll, folding in the outer edges as you go to keep the fillings inside. Place the rolled loaf in the pan. Cover and let rise for another 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slash the loaves diagonally three times, deep enough to see the fillings. Brush the egg wash over the loaves and bake for about 1 hour. Cool in the pan for 30 mintues, then remove from the pan and cool another 30 minutes on a wire rack before slicing. Enjoy!

   

Cinnamon Rolls - Comfort Food Compliments of the Daring Bakers

  I can't be too busy. It stresses me out. I need a certain amount of home time to putter about, bake and regroup. But life doesn't always share my affection for doing nothing and work forces me out into the world. Last weekend was our semi-annual trade show. Three long "fun" filled days that begin with pallet jacks and lugging boxes and conclude with high heels and schmoozing clients. I work in the hair industry so this is a wonderful opportunity for people watching, as there is something about a hair show that combines the freaky, the unusually dressed and the people who apparently don't own mirrors into one venue. As I drug myself home late Sunday evening, I imagined my Monday, a day that would be spent sleeping late, hanging with Lovie and indulging in September's Daring Bakers Challenge - Cinnamon Rolls/Sticky Buns. Comfort food. Just the thing to rejuvenate my lagging spirit and tired body.

I poured a steaming, spicy cup of Chai Tea and put in a Mozart CD. There is something about kneading bread dough to classical music that makes me feel wholly in the moment - I can hardly think of a better  way to spend the afternoon. This was good because I was feeling a little fuzzy - not quite firing on all cylinders. I set out my first round Mise-en-place, and started the dough. Easy enough - it is a lovely consistency, sweet, soft, satiny and firm, a joy to work with. As I set the dough to rise, I contemplated my plan of attack. The recipe has both a Cinnamon roll and a Sticky Bun variation - I was going to take on the Sticky Buns. I don't usually like Sticky Buns, they always seem blah and tasteless, like someone just dumped something sweet over dough that always seems too dry and stuck a few raisins to it like flies. But I'm always up for trying something new - maybe this would be the recipe that would change my mind forever about Sticky Buns. Plus, it has a Caramel layer - a challenge! Just what I need on this day after the Fall show when I can't quite even remember my name.

Have you ever heard that the first lesson of cooking is that you are supposed to read all the way through the recipe before you get started? In the future when I am starting a new recipe, I think I shall actually do this, because when I got to the part of the recipe where the Caramel layer is made, it called for corn syrup. Guess what is not in my baking cabinet? The recipe did allow for the use of cane or gold syrup in place of the corn syrup, but since I appeared to be missing this very basic cooking ingredient, what are the odds that I was going to find a forgotten bottle of cane syrup in the recesses of my cupboard? Not to mention the raisins. I have a five year old - aren't raisins mandatory eating for five year olds? Apparently not in my kitchen. I did locate 6 petrified figs from last Christmas that I was going to use to make Sugarplums, but decided that they were not going to work as a substitution. So I guess I was going to make Cinnamon Rolls instead, which is really no problem, since I and everyone else here loves them. I rolled them up, set them to rise, popped them in the oven and reveled in the delicious aroma of cinnamon and bread that was filling my kitchen.

As I iced the rolls, I thought about how lucky I was to be baking Cinnamon Rolls, they really are the most perfect comfort food, but I really will have to try Sticky Buns one of these days. As I licked the last bits of icing out of the pan, I wondered what the next challenge would be. I can hardly wait!

Be sure to check out all of the Daring Bakers Cinnamon Roll/Sticky Bun creations at the many wonderful and daring baking blogs listed in the blogroll on the sidebar. You will amazed at how different each of rolls turns out - all delicious and mouth watering and unique in their own way.         

Ciabatta

I've been a bit lax about keeping up my Crust and Crumb and Nickel & Dime Wine postings. Truth is, I've had a string of bread baking disasters, and I haven't found another wine that I really like. There are currently five empty bottles sitting on the counter waiting for me to summon the interest to write about them. I need to recycle them and start again. 

As far as the bread goes, I baked an Irish Brown Bread that I found in Beard on Bread. I liked it's heavy dense and chewy texture well enough, but nobody else in the house was even remotely impressed. When I finally gave in and put it out for the birds, the thick chunks lay forlornly on the lawn for another three days. Guess I won't be making that again. I have also been working on some of the recipes in The Italian Baker, trying to recreate authentic Italian loaves. This has proven more difficult than I had anticipated, but I read somewhere that you can learn more from making one bread twenty times than making twenty different breads once, so I'm trying to put this into practice, working through the uncomfortable bits. Which brings me to Ciabatta. The recipe in The Italian Baker makes a beautiful, smooth, satiny dough that is truly a pleasure to work with. And while I revel in the supple, fragrant ball that is the dough, I have been unable to get the loaves into the oven without deflating them. The directions speak of letting the second rise occur on a sheet of parchment, followed by a quick flip onto the bread stone in the oven. Whatever. It is such a soft dough that it sticks to everything. I have bonded Ciabatta to the cutting board, the parchment, damp tea towels, the bench scraper, oiled plastic wrap and the back of a cookie sheet. Each time I try to unstick it, it deflates, leaving me with flat, uninteresting and unbeautiful Ciabatta. I've destroyed about 20 loaves of bread. Lovie began asking if I was killing bread again every time a string of profanity emanated from the kitchen. There had to be a better way.

Last night I began again. I started a Biga on Friday and let it sit on the counter for 24 hours before I mixed up my dough. The first rise went well enough, creating the soft, puffy fragrant mound of dough that only a starter can produce. As I made the loaves, I set each of them to rise on the peel in their own thick pile of cornmeal. I covered them with waxed paper set on ramekins, so as not to lay it on the dough and held my breath. When the rise was complete and I had puffy dimpled loaves and the oven was hot, I timidly gave them a shake. They didn't stick! Confident now, I pushed them into the oven and set the timer. When it went off, I was waiting with a bread knife and butter dish at the ready. They were beautiful! Golden brown, with a soft tight crumb surrounded by large holes. Finally a bread worth blogging about. I'll keep working on it though, I'm already imagining how much better my Ciabatta will look after another fifteen practice batches.

Ciabatta

Biga

1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 1/4 plus 2 tablespoons water, room temperature

3 3/4 cups flour

Stir the yeast into the warm water and let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the remaining water and the flour 1 cup at a time. Mix with a wooden spoon 3-4 minutes. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 6 to 24 hours. The Biga will have tripled in volume and will be wet and sticky when ready. Makes about 3 1/2 cups.

Dough

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

5 tablespoons warm milk

1 cup plus 3 tablespoons water, room temperature

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups Biga

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon salt

Stir the yeast into the milk in a mixer bowl and let stand until creamy. Add the water, oil and Biga and mix with the paddle until blended. Mix the flour and salt, add to the bowl, and mix for 2-3 minutes. Change to the dough hook and knead for 2 minutes at low speed, then 2 minutes at medium speed. Spray the inside of the bowl with oil, cover and let rise until doubled 1 1/2 hours. The dough should be full of air bubbles, supple and elastic.

Cut the dough into 4 pieces on a well floured surface. Roll each piece into a cylinder and smooth into a rectangle about 10x4 inches. Make a little bed of corn meal for each loaf and place loaves in it to rise on a peel or the back of a cookie sheet. Dimple the top with your fingers. Cover and let rise until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Thirty minutes before baking, heat the oven and baking stones to 425 degrees. When hot, slide the loaves onto the stones and bake for 25 minutes. Spray your loaves with water 3 times during the first 10 minutes to create a crisp crust. Cool on wire racks and enjoy warm, slathered with soft butter. Bake and enjoy often.

Bazaar Season

We live in the part of town that used to be Italian. Most of the Italians have long since moved to the suburbs, but come July, NW Denver celebrates its Italian heritage by hosting a series of Bazaars, fund raisers for the different Catholic Churches. It's an opportunity to put on the dog and visit old friends. Ninety year old ladies with perfectly round orange coifs, dark men sporting Italian horn necklaces, middle aged people who attended Catholic school together and young girls hoping to be noticed all gather on a hot parking lot and gossip about the old days - against the backdrop of a big band offering Frank Sinatra serenades. It's a great way to spend a Saturday night. The food is nothing to write home about, but is traditional to the event - Pizza Fritas, a deep fried pizza dough covered in sugar, draft beer, occasionally red wine, and always the Sausage Sandwich. A line will form and snake around the lot with people willing to wait 45 minutes to trade five dollars for a grilled sausage patty dipped in red sauce and served on a bun, sometimes with grilled peppers. Food and Frank Sinatra aside, I attend for another reason. Like all upstanding organizations, the churchs' primary fund raising activity centers around gambling. There are Italian cheeses, salamis and the occasional pasta bowl to be won. Each week, I feverishly trade my hard earned dollars for tickets and jostle for position among the coiffed ladies, hoping that Lady Luck will smile upon me and I will return home, proudly carrying a cheese of my own. Actually, the whole thing is crazy, I could go to Costco and buy my own cheese for a fraction of what I spend at the Bazaars trying to win a cheese. Maybe it's the thrill of the game, but there is nothing like the feeling of watching the wheel slow down and stop on your number. The winner cheers like they won a car, and everybody else throws their tickets down in disgust. When the next round starts, they are there, waving their money and asking for "some good numbers this time". 

I'm telling you all of this because after nearly two years of not winning a cheese, last week I did. With the first dollar I spent. Hooray! After perusing the selection of Cotto Salami, Cappacolla, ham and jugs of Olive oil, I decided on a huge Mozzarella, like six pounds of it. So, in addition to all of the goat cheese in my fridge, I am now well stocked with Mozzarella. Cheese, anyone?

Now that I am enjoying cheese with nearly every meal, I'm trying to find some different things to do with it. Last night I made Calzones. I filled Mike's with Italian Sausage, grilled green peppers and mozzarella (of course). As the tomatoes are finally ripe in my garden, I tried something different for my own. After I roIled out the dough, I added some Mozzarella, Ricotta, Roma tomato slices, and Feta with sun-dried tomatoes to mine. I baked them for 10 minutes and they were wonderful. I decided to bake them seam side up, and the presentation beats the folded over variety hands down. A fabulous use of Mozzarella - only 4 1/2 lbs to go. There is another Bazaar tonight. I'll be there gambling with the ladies. Keep your fingers crossed - I could still find room in the fridge for a big Provolone! 

Cinnamon Apple Pecan Bumpy Bread

  In honor of Bread Baking Day #2, I pulled out the United Presbyterian Women's Cookbook from Algona, Iowa. My Grammie belonged to this church for about 40 years and I would attend with her when I visited during the summer. Thinking back now, I have images of Midwestern ladies all done up with white gloves and a fancy handbag, the service being followed by some sort of luncheon in the basement where Jello was always served, and communion consisting of grape juice and small squares of Wonder bread, reflections of Midwestern civility. I hope that the congregation in my memory still attends church there - as I like the idea that people still think that church is an occasion worth dressing up for. People in Colorado attend church dressed as though they stopped by on the way to a monster truck rally. But I digress... Anyway, with years of feeding farmers under their belts, the ladies of the United Presbyterian Church in Algona, Iowa can cook! They don't cook fancy stuff but it's fresh, wholesome and always delicious (except their scary and unusual love of scalloped corn, which I never understood). My Grammie gave me a copy of the church cookbook as a housewarming gift when I moved into my first apartment. I don't have any idea when it was published - there is no date, but my mom has had a cookbook just like it for as long as I can remember. It's full of homey recipes designed for simple cooking, and my mom is full of stories about the ladies who contributed to it, including the church organist Mrs. Mawdsley (who's recipe I used here), my mom's 6th grade music teacher.

My mom is truly the master of these rolls and I have tried my best to duplicate her efforts. This is a fantastic recipe that always gets rave reviews when I make them, and everyone that attends the Christmas Eve fish dinner at my house goes home with a pan of them to enjoy on Christmas morning. This is a great all-purpose sweet roll recipe to make cinnamon rolls, coffee rounds or doughnuts with, depending on how you decide to form, fill and cook them. For Bread Baking Day #2, I chopped up two apples and 1/2 cup of pecans and added them to the brown sugar, butter and cinnamon I filled the dough with, cut the dough into small pieces and dropped them into a loaf pan to make Bumpy Bread. It still tastes like sweet rolls but can be sliced and even toasted if you want. Try it and let me know what you think!

This is my entry into Bread Baking Day #2, generously hosted by Columbus Foodie. Check the link after August 4th to see all of the fruity bread entries!    

Pane Francese - Lessons from the oven

I am a bread lover. Bread is the one thing that simply must be in the house, or it seems like there is absolutely nothing here to eat (even if the fridge is full). That whole low-carb thing where all bread is eschewed could never be a diet for me. I especially love to bake bread - the whole process of the kneading and the rising and the smell in the house - to me is one of the most essential parts of living and eating well. But having said that, I am not a patient baker. I love bread recipes that I can start around 4:30pm and still enjoy with dinner that evening. I hate to admit it, but apparently I need instant gratification. This lack of patience has long prevented me from fulfilling my bread baking potential. The starters, sponges and bigas necessary for so many wonderful breads simply take longer to develop than I am willing to wait. But as part of my Crust & Crumb initiative, I'm going to try and bake with a little patience.

So, this week I started a couple of days ahead to make Pane Francese, or Italian French Bread. According to The Italian Baker, this was formerly known as Como bread, where it was served as a snack midway through the Sunday afternoon bicycle ride between Milan and Como. Guess you would be ready for a snack after 25 miles on the bike, especially if you were only halfway there.

I began on Wednesday with a biga, that I left on the counter for about 18 hours. Thursday, I made the dough before I went to work, and left it to rise in the fridge, thinking that I was enhancing flavor with the slow rise time. When I got home around 2:30, I took it out, noted the extremely slow rise, again congratulated myself for being patient enough to make flavor enhanced bread through slow rising and left it under a light to warm up in the 90 degree temperature of my kitchen. At 5:00pm, I began to worry about my Pane Francese, which was still cold. The recipe said it should have lots of little bubbles under the surface. I had no bubbles. I began losing my patience, and started hurrying the bread along. I dumped it out, left it to rest and made it into loaves to begin the second rise. It did, some. But not a lot. I decided to go ahead and bake it anyway, and started the oven. This is a bread I wanted to eat with dinner tonight, not tomorrow. But now that my patience had left the building, I forgot to slash the top, I didn't use a wash to get the nice golden brown color I love, I forgot to add some water to the oven to create a crisp crust and I didn't bake it long enough. Nice work on that patience thing. But I learned a couple of nice things about bread. It's forgiving - even with everything I could have done right and didn't, my bread turned out ok. It has nice holes, an interesting sweetness that you just don't get from a really yeasty bread, and a nice dense texture. Even when it's not great, it's pretty good. Almost any bread that you take the time to knead by hand and create in your own kitchen is going to taste better than Wonder Bread. And I can try again any day, hopefully adding more patience to the recipe next time.