Sunflower Oatmeal Bread

I'm still playing catch-up.

This bread is adapted from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book. It's called Celeste's Sunflower-Oatmeal Bread, a nod to Hensperger's baking assistant, Celeste, who made the bread. I changed the formula a bit to use more whole wheat flour and less bread flour.

Ingredients
For two loaves
102 g rolled oats (~1 cup)
375 g whole wheat flour (~3 cups)
280 g bread flour (~2 cup)
8 g instant yeast (2 tsp)
12 g salt (2 tsp)

1 cup milk + 1 tbsp cider vinegar (Stir and let sit 5 minutes to emulate buttermilk)
1 cup water
1 egg
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp molasses
½ tbsp honey

70 g bread flour (added during kneading)
90 g raw sunflower seeds

Ingredients

Some bread flour and sunflower seeds left for the end

Bread flour kneaded in

12:05 pm: Sunflower seeds added towards the end of 10 minute kneading

1:39 pm: Good first rise

1:40 pm: Ready for second rise

2:17 pm: Good second rise too

2:34 pm: Rounded, rested and shaped. Total dough weight: 1322 g

3:02 pm: Proofed, slashed and ready for the oven

3:03 pm: Boule in pre-heated cast iron pan

Decently good looking crust after glazing with some butter

Decent crumb

The bread
The bread tasted pretty good. I froze one loaf, the first time I froze a loaf, and it tasted pretty good after thawing.

Notes
Date: October 18, 2011
Recipe: Adapted from Celeste's Sunflower-Oatmeal Bread from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book.

Flours: Whole wheat, bread flour, rolled oats
Bread specific ingredients: Raw sunflower seeds, egg
Sweetener used: Molasses, honey
Liquid: Water, milk + cider vinegar (instead of buttermilk)

Comments: Worth making again, perhaps without bread flour.

-RPH

Wild Rice - Molasses Bread

A month between posts! Let's account that to laziness, busy work life, vacation and move on, shall we?

This bread is from Beth Hensperger's book 'The Bread Bible'. The recipe given is for 2 round loaves. I made two loaves, one of which was the October bread for my father-in-law. I modified the recipe a bit to use more whole wheat flour than bread flour. Also, the book does not provide weights, so below are the amounts I used:

Ingredients
For two rounded loaves

250 g cooked wild rice (about 1½ C )
520 g whole wheat flour
15 g instant yeast (1½ Tbsp)
14 g salt (2 tsp)

47 g light olive oil ( ¼ C)
67 g molasses ( ¼ C)
300 g warm milk (about 1¼ C)
1 C water

260 g bread flour ( + about 13 grams during kneading)

Ingredients

Preparation
Mix the first four ingredients in a bowl. Mix the next four ingredients in another bowl and then add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture. Mix with a spatula.

Bread flour is added last

10:52 am: Very sticky mixture after adding all the ingredients

11:00 am: Ready for first rise

11:36 am: A quick first rise

12:25 pm: A good second rise

The surface of the dough had dried out a little because it had been covered with a cloth instead of a proper lid. So during the final rise (proofing) I covered the shaped loaves with a damp paper towel each before covering them with overturned utensils.

12:28 pm: Split for two loaves

12:32 pm: Ready for proofing

12:56: Proofed well.

1:04 pm: Slashed boule in preheated cast iron pan

1:45 pm: Out of the oven

Cooling.

Sliced well

Wild rice bits are clearly visible in the fairly even crumb

The bread
The bread was pretty good, but I don't remember any details I might have liked to write here.

Notes
Date: October 6, 2011
Recipe: Adapted from Wild Rice - Molasses Bread from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book.

Flours: Whole wheat, bread flour
Bread specific ingredients: Cooked wild rice
Sweetener used: Molasses
Liquid: Water, milk

Comments: A good tasting bread.

-RPH

Whole Wheat Basil Bread

Or Herb-Cheese Bread

This bread was inspired from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book, hence I'm using the name of her recipe. I must have missed it the first time I skimmed through the recipes because it is one of the few 100% whole grain recipes in the book. I also might have ignored it because it requires fresh basil leaves and I don't always have them on hand. But this time I had just got some from the farmer's market, so I was eager to try the recipe. However we were having friends over for dinner, so I decided to use some bread flour to make the bread lighter. Turns out I changed the recipe so much that I need to write it down here so I can reproduce it again. This was the first time that substantial changes I made worked well.

Ingredients
For one rounded loaf (or a 8½ x 4½ loaf pan)

½ C warm buttermilk (105 -115° F)
¾ C warm water
1 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp olive oil (slightly warmed)
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp instant yeast
255 g whole wheat flour (about 2 cups)
130 g bread flour (about 1 C)
1 tsp salt
¼ C chopped fresh basil
4 oz grated parmesan cheese

Ingredients

Preparation
Mix the first three ingredients. Mix the dried herbs in the warm oil to flavor the oil. Make sure the two wet mixtures are cool enough before adding them to the bowl containing the remaining ingredients. After the ingredients come together, let rest for 5 minutes and then knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough is soft and supple (to use Laurel Robertson's terminology). Cover the dough and let rise about an hour to hour-and-half (until a hole made with a wet finger doesn't fill in). Do not let the dough rise more than double in volume.

1:54 pm: Ready for first rise

3:00 pm: Nicely risen

Gently deflate the dough and round it. Cover and let rise again. The second rise usually takes half the time of the first rise.

3:12 pm: Ready for second rise

3:44 pm: A quick decent second rise

Shape the dough into the desired shape (log shape for a loaf pan). Cover with an inverted bowl and let rise for the last time. I sometimes cover the dough with a damp paper towel to keep the surface from drying out.
When the dough is half-way risen (usually about 20 minutes), pre-heat the oven. If using a cast iron pan, pre-heat it too. When using a cast iron pan, I usually heat the oven to 400° F and lower the temperature to 350° F after putting the dough in.

3:46 pm: Shaped and ready for proofing

4:22: Slashed and ready for the oven

About half way through the baking, at the 25 minute mark, remove the lid covering the pan to allow the crust to brown. In case of a loaf pan, the pan should be rotated 180° to ensure even baking. To test for done-ness thump the bottom of the bread. It should sound hollow. A digital thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf should measure about 200-205° F

4:23 pm: Placed in the preheated cast-iron combo cooker

5:26pm: Nice oven spring

Sliced very well

Herb and cheese specks clearly visible.

The bread
Our guests at dinner loved the bread, so much so that my friend wanted to come by to watch me bake it again 5 days later (following post) and we baked a loaf for each of us. RH loved the bread too. It was really quite yummy. We had some of it warmed and just by itself, and some of it with soup. 


Notes
Date: Sept 11, 2011
Recipe: Adapted from Whole Wheat Basil Bread from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book.

Flours: Whole wheat, bread flour
Bread specific ingredients: Parmesan cheese, fresh basil, herbs (dried thyme, oregano)
Sweetener used: Honey
Liquid: Water, buttermilk

Comments: Will have to make this bread with all whole wheat (or maybe spelt?) flour although it will most likely not taste as good. Sigh. But I was quite pleased with myself for successfully modifying the recipe to make something that worked well together.

-RPH

Anadama Bread with Cheddar Cheese

This was the September bread for my father-in-law. I have Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book checked out from the library. Only a handful of recipes are 100% whole grain, but many of the others are interesting and worth an attempt with modifications to use more whole grains. This recipe is called Anadama Bread with Tillamook Cheddar Cheese and recommends Tillamook mild cheddar cheese. What I had at home was not the famous Tillamook brand and it was medium, not mild. The recipe uses all purpose or bread flour for the flour. The measures are given in cups and not by weight. So there was a some room to make changes and also to test the 'right-feel-of-the-dough-consistency', that is supposed to come to a baker after baking bread for a while.

I made half the recipe, one 9 x 5 loaf pan worth. I decided to make a round loaf in the cast-iron combo cooker.

Ingredients

Cornmeal is cooked in water until bubbly and thickened. The cheese, honey and butter are stirred in and the mixture is allowed to cool. Yeast is dissolved in warm water. Flour and salt are mixed in the large bowl. For the 3 - 3¼ cups of bread flour, I used 180 g of whole wheat flour and 214 g of bread flour. (about 1½ cup each)

Ready for mixing

I let the dough rest for 5 minutes after getting the ingredients together before kneading for about 7-8 minutes. The dough was fairly easy to knead inspite of the gooey cheese mixture.

1:04 pm: Ready for first rise

2:06 pm: Well risen (touched the covering lid and flattened)

The recipe does not require a second rise, but I decided to do it.

2:07 pm: Ready for second rise.

The recipe suggests flattening the dough, spreading melted butter and then sprinkling some sweet paprika before rolling the dough jelly-roll style. This would result in a hairline-swirl in the crumb. I skipped this step.

2:36 pm: Shaped

3:08 pm: Proofed, slashed, ready for the oven

3:56 pm: Looking good

Sliced well with an even crumb

The bread
Mom and Dad (in-law) liked the bread. The flavor of the cheese was very subtle, in a good, not-over-powering, way. This surprised me because it seemed like a lot of cheese (1 C / 4 oz) to add to a loaf of bread.

Notes
Date: Sept 3, 2011
Recipe: Anadama Bread with Tillamook Cheddar Cheese from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book.

Flours: Whole wheat, bread flour, cornmeal
Bread specific ingredients: Cheddar cheese,
Sweetener used: Honey
Liquid: Water

Comments: Using bread flour makes the bread making easier and fun because a good rise is almost guaranteed. It's definitely good to try again, but a similar recipe I made later (look out for that post soon), would be a better option for a bread with cheese. I don't have comments about how well this bread lasted, but I know the receivers thought it was delicious.

-RPH