Cranberry-Orange Zucchini Bread

That's it. No special title or anything. The truth is I rarely make quick breads, or dessert breads as they're sometimes called because I get caught up in baking more 'traditional' type breads. And it's really a shame since there are so many wonderful breads to choose from. The other thing, of course, is that these breads, fall somewhere in the middle. They are somehow not quite breads but also not quite cakes. More sugar for one thing. Also, they are usually raised using baking powder and/or baking soda not yeast. That's the case with this one I adapted from a recipe I found on AllRecipes.com. Which, if you don't know it, is a great site for lots of great recipes, advice, forums etc. Definitely you should check it out. It also includes a nice feature for resizing recipes and even converting from standard to metric measurements.

So anyway, I had some extra dried fruit that I needed to use up and this recipe fit the bill. I used dried cranberries, and grated in an orange peel along with some whole wheat flour (lately I'm using that a lot!) and voila. It was gobbled up quickly and I had to promise to bake it again! I guess that says it all.

Here's What You'll Need:

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup Canola oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons orange extract
2/3 cup sour cream
finely grated zest of 1 orange, about 1 tablespoon
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup chopped nuts, optional

Here's What You'll Need to Do:
Heat oven to 325°. Grease and flour two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3-inch loaf pans.
Combine the flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat or whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs, and orange extract.

Stir in the dry ingredients and th sour cream until well blended. Fold in the orange zest, zucchini, cranberries, and optional chopped nuts. Spoon into the two loaf pans, dividing equally.

Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester comes out clean when inserted in center.

Always a Challenge - Whole Wheat Buttermilk Sandwich Bread

The title is a little bit curious, don't you think? I mean, whole wheat and sandwich bread are two terms that actually can go together nicely. But not always. The problem is always in the final product. Whole wheat flour is very different from regular white bread flour. It has less gluten, to start with. And also absorbs more liquid and does so more slowly. That means it needs to be kneaded for longer. And it needs to rest in order to absorb the water.Or sometimes you need to help out a bit with a little added gluten. Some bakers add some some regular bread flour to the mix (as much as 50%) to give the bread more structure and strength. I have made it my personal challenge to find a formula using only whole wheat flour that stays moist and supple, like a good sandwich bread should, for a few days, without becoming crumbly too soon. This bread comes closer, is delicious, and lasts a while before drying out and becoming a mass of crumbs. Oh, and it makes good sandwiches too!

This recipe is my adaptation of a recipe for buttermilk bread found in The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book: A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking. Quite literally, this is one of the very best cookbooks for whole grain breads ever published. Hands-down great!

Here's What You'll Need for 2 loaves:
2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup warm water

3/4 cup (175ml) very hot water
1/4  cup (60ml) honey
1 1/4 cup (300ml) cold buttermilk (or soy milk to keep it non-dairy)

5 1/2 cups (830g) whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons (11g) salt

2 to 4 Tablespoons butter or margarine (to keep it non-dairy)

Here's What You'll Need To Do:
1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and set aside for about 10 minutes.
2. In the meantime, mix the hot water in with the honey and the cold buttermilk (or soy milk). This mixture should be barely warm.
3. Mix the flour ( I used 'white' whole wheat flour) and then salt, thoroughly, then, make a well in the center. Add in the yeast mixture and the buttermilk (or soy) mixture.
4. Stirring from the center, mix, then knead the dough until it is smooth and the gluten (such as it is) is well developed. Mix in the butter (or margarine only at the end of the kneading/mixing. The butter/margarine enriches the dough and makes it softer. If you want to make rolls from this dough use the larger amount of butter/margarine, otherwise the smaller amount is fine for the bread.
5. Form the dough into a ball, place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp towel, and let it rise until doubled in bulk (about 2 hours).
6. Press down the risen dough, form into a ball once again, and let it rise a second time until doubled. This time it will take about 45 minutes.
7. Divide the dough into two, and form each half into a loaf. Place each loaf into a prepared loaf pan, and cover. Let them rest for at least 1/2 hour until they reach the tops of the pans.
8. Towards the end of this final rise, pre-heat the oven to 325 F (160 C) for loaves or 400 F (200 C) for rolls. If you shaped loaves bake them for about 45 minutes (or until they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom). For rolls bake for about 15 minutes or until well-browned.
9. To really make these rolls or loaves special, brush them with melted butter (or margarine) when they are hot from the oven. This makes the crust soft and rich. And delicious!

Nothing Fancy - Just Regular Bread for Regular Folks

You know you've made it, when your baking products are special requested . Even more so when you are asked to bake a kind of bread for which you don't really have a specific recipe to rely on. By this I mean someone asks you for bread that is supposed to be for a purpose without saying something like, "Gee, could you make your raisin bread again?" Or something like that. This week I got a request that, to paraphrase went something like this... I'm tired of all the fancy 'artisan' bread with the crust and crumb and all the rest. Could you please just make some ordinary sandwich bread. Plain white bread for making a good sandwich. Nothing 'special',. Just regular bread for regular folk"! Well I was up to the challenge and this time, I didn't have to consult any cookbook or Google it anywhere. I created this recipe out of my head, using things I know about the characteristics of all the ingredients. Along with my goal of producing bread with a specific purpose. Not a dessert bread. Not brioche or anything fancy. Just everyday, pedestrian bread. Everybread, if you will.

Here's What You'll Need:
1 1/3 cups warm water
1 Tbs. dry yeast
1 Tbs. sugar
about 4 cups AP flour
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
1 large egg
2 Tbs. milk powder*

Here's What You'll Need To Do:
1. Dissolve the sugar in the water then mix in the yeast . Stir to dissolve then let the yeast sit for about 10 minutes until it gets frothy.

2. Add 1 cup of the flour and stir to make a smooth mixture. Add the egg, the oil , the powdered milk* and finally the salt, mixing each in turn to make sure there are no lumps.

3. Add the rest of the flour, one cup at a time. Stir until the dough is too dense to mix with a spoon, then place the rest of the dough on a floured table and knead until it is smooth and only slightly tacky. Finally placed the kneaded dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat with the oil, then cover to rise.

4. Let the dough rise, covered, until doubled in size (about 1 1/2 hours), in a warm place.

5. Remove the dough from the bowl, being careful not to de-gas the dough too much, and shape it into a loaf shape by 'stretching' the dough and pulling it create a tight surface.Place the loaf in a prepared pan. seam side down and let it rise, again, until it reaches the top of the pan.

6. About 15 minutes before the end of the second rise, heat the oven to 350F (175C). Then bake the bread for about 23 minutes. If it browns too fast, lightly 'tent' it with aluminum foil to slow the browning process.

7. Brush the loaf with olive oil or with melted butter (or margarine) when you remove it from the oven, then cool it on a rack.

* Sometimes it is difficult to find powdered dry milk outside of the US and Canada. In that case, I often use baby formula powder instead. Yes, that's right. Baby formula powder. If you want, you can also use the non-dairy version to keep your bread from containing dairy products. The baby formula acts to soften the bread, and increases the 'shelf life', i.e., it will stay fresh longer. It really works. I have used the Materna brand successfully for years very successfully. Try it, you'll love it!

Almost a Disaster - No-Knead Bread with Sunflower and Flax seeds

Well maybe I'm exaggerating, but just a little. My problem is that I am not a patient person when it comes to baking bread. No, that's not entirely true either. If you are going to bake bread, you have to be patient. Period. What I mean is, that when I get an idea, or hear about a new technique, or just plain 'get bitten by the bug', then I have to do it and right away. I mean now. I am still burning up trying to figure this one out. Really. One of the latest 'rages' sweeping the the bread-baking world is no-knead bread. This is a method (a shortcut really) to make an artisan-style loaf without kneading the dough!! I know! Huh? So I had to try it. I mean, how could I not try this? The problem was that it needs to 'bake' (cook really) inside a superheated cast-iron pot. Which I don't have. So... I said to myself, maybe I can use a large soup pot I have, protect the handles and it will be fine. And I melted the handle on the cover. I mean it's totally distorted, despite my efforts to reshape it through the aluminum foil while still hot. I don't get it!! Anyway, in the end, I baked the bread in the oven, conventionally but with no kneading, on a baking stone. It was delicious with a tough chewy crust and fairly open crumb. The seeds (sunflower and ground flax seeds) added great nutritional value and, of course, the extra crunch we all like. Now all I need is to find a cast-iron pot with a lid! (The one I saw at a restaurant supply store yesterday sold for about $185!!! So I'm still looking.

Here's What You'll Need:

3 cups of flour (bread flour is recommended)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/3 cups of cool water (approximate amount)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup ground flax seeds

Here's What You'll Need To Do:

1. Mix together the flour, salt and yeast. Pour in the water and stir with a wooden spoon for about half a minute. The mixture should be sticky. If it is not sticky enough, add more water until it is.

2. Cover your bread dough and let it sit at room temperature until it is twice the size and covered with bubbles. This can take 12 to 18 hours.

3. When the dough is ready, using a rubber spatula or similar tool, push the dough towards the center of the bowl. The dough will be sticky and will pull out in long strands. This is how it should be so avoid the temptation to add flour, other than lightly flouring your hands. Do what you can to tuck in the edges of the dough and to form a round shape.

4. Turn your dough out onto a piece of parchment paper or waxed paper. Put the seam side down and cover the dough with a towel. Be sure the dough is not sitting in a draft. Allow it to sit again until it doubles in size. This could take between one and two hours.

5. Now at this stage, you're supposed to preheat the oven to 500F (260C). Place the iron pot with the lid in the oven to heat thoroughly for half an hour after it reaches the temperature. Then, carefully, remove the pot from the oven open the lid, and slide the risen dough, smooth side up, into the pot (you will hear it sizzle) cover it and place it back in the oven. Lower the temperature to 450F (220C) and bake for about 40 minutes. Remove it and cool it on a rack. It will be very dark and gnarly but also very chewy and delicious. Yum


6. However, as I said, instead I ruined my soup pot since I have no patience. So...

I placed the dough on the baking stone, shaped like a boule, and baked conventionally, at 450F (220C) for 40 minutes. You can see the results for yourself.!

Not quite a croissant - Rolled-up Breakfast Rolls

The title is a little misleading actually. Because when you see the recipe you will know immediately that it is actually not even close to a croissant. Not close. These rolls are not made from laminated dough, although the dough is fairly rich. Also, they are rolled-up, but not even crescent shaped. I mean really! Croissants? Nuh uh! Instead, these rolls ended up a little smaller than I planned but hey, sometimes things don't work out exactly as planned, did you notice that? They are bite-sized breakfast rolls that, when warmed, are gone in about two gulps. They are also 1) soft, 2) rich tasting, and 3) full of flavor and aroma. So, hey, maybe they aren't exactly like croissants. They will keep for a few days. But again, that is not usually an issue.They are rolled up kinda like a croissant, so I guess that counts for something.

Anyway, I started out looking for a quick-baked roll, that you can snatch on the way out the door to work, school etc. These fit the bill perfectly, I'm sure you'll agree.

Here's What You'll Need:

2 2/3 cups bread flour
 1/2 Tbs. yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3 tablespoons margarine or butter, softened
Margarine or butter, softened

Here's What You'll Need to Do:

1. Mix 1 1/3 cups flour, yeast (dry), sugar, salt and baking powder in large bowl. Heat buttermilk, water and butter or margarine until very warm (125º to 130º) 52º-55º C.

Let the mixture cool a bit (say to 100º F or 38º C). Add to flour mixture. Beat on low speed until moistened, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Knead on floured surface 5 minutes. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.

2. Lightly grease cookie sheet. Roll dough into 12-inch circle.

Spread with 3 tablespoons margarine.

Cut into 16 wedges.

Beginning at rounded edge, roll up. Place each roll with points underneath on cookie sheet.

Curve ends of rolls to form crescents if desired. Lightly brush with margarine. Cover; let rise 45 to 60 minutes or until double.

3. Heat oven to 375º. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

 * The reason I think the rolls were a little small is because, IMHO, perhaps I should have rolled the dough out into 12 portions instead of 16. That would have made the rolls a little larger then I could have curved them more to look like a croissant. Not a biggie, for sure but still...

Whole Grain Rolls with Parsley and Olive Oil - Yum!

I have to admit I was a little skeptical. These rolls sounded just toooo easy! And yummy! And they were. This is the second time I have tried a variation on a recipe from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients
and the second time I have been pleased with the results. It's just a great cookbook. The best part of using his method for making dough, is how easy it is to make a big batch, and then keep it for a week or so in the refrigerator. Then, of course, there are all the variations on the 'Master Recipe'. These rolls are one of those variations, an adaptation of his whole grain 'Master Recipe' The addition of lightly sauteed parsley and garlic topped with shredded cheese make wonderful rolls that are healthy and that keep really well. But, truthfully, they were gone in a day or so. So it wasn't really an issue!!

Here's What You'll Need for 1 batch of the Master Dough:

 5 1/2 cups (720g) whole wheat flour
2 cups (270g) AP flour
1 1/2 Tbs. (15g) yeast
1 Tbs. salt
1/4 cup (35g) wheat gluten
4 cups (900ml) warm water
a large bunch of fresh parsley (no stems) chopped coarsley
3 or 4 large cloves of fresh garlic chopped coarsely
some olive oil for sauteeing
some cornmeal or semolina for dusting the peel or baking sheet

Here's What You'll Need to Do:

1. Mix together the dry ingredients (the flours, yeast, salt, wheat gluten) in a large container with a (not air-tight) lid.

2. Mix in the water just until the dry ingredients are hydrated. You do not have to knead the dough! Cover and let it rise and rest for about 2 hours or until the dough rises and then collapses back on itself.
3. At this stage you can put the whole container into the refrigerator overnight to develop the flavors fully. Or you can bake a portion of the dough immediately. However, for best flavor it is recommended to let the dough rest overnight.
4. This dough can remain in the refrigerator for as much as 14 days! When you are ready to bake, cut off a portion weighing about 1 lb (450g).Be careful not to degas the dough. This dough traps gas inside and if you knead it, it will produce dense loaves of bread, not light and fluffy!!
5. Cut off portions of the dough weighing about 3oz. (about 85g) roll them into 'snakes' and tie them into loose knots.

6. Place the 'knotted dough' on a baking sheet covered with cornmeal or with baking paper. Cover and let rest for about 45 minutes to relax and rise slightly.
7. In the meantime, chop the parsley roughly along with the garlic and sautee them lightly in the olive oil. Just before baking, brush the rolls with olive oil from the pan, and sprinkle the sauteed parsley and garlic

over the top. Add finely grated cheese if you like on top of all that.

8. Preheat the oven to 450 F (220 C). When the rolls have finished rising, bake them for about 15 minutes until golden brown and your kitchen smells heavenly.

9. Cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Back to Italy - Scali Italian Bread

Ok. I can't help it. Really I can't. I love Italian breads.  Not what they call 'Italian Bread' in supermarkets and bakeries all over America. Usually this is really just a variation on a classic French loaf but maybe a little softer. In fact, there are many, many kinds of wonderful bread from Italy, some famous (Ciabatta, for instance) and some less so. But what goes for Italian bread in America usually isn't. Sorry.

This bread, called Scali and justly popular and quite famous in the Boston area is a classic Italian loaf. It is a rich brown color, with a slightly chewy crust, a soft interior, and a tang that comes from the fermented dough. It uses a starter that does not have to sit that long. Just overnight. But of course, the longer it ferments, the sharper the tanginess. What gives it that extra special nutty flavor is the sesame seed coating. If you want, you can knead the sesame seeds right into the dough and then coat (generously, of course) with even more seeds. This is a great sandwhich bread and, when made correctly, it is eminently satisfying. A real favorite in Italian neighborhoods, I am sure you'll love it too!

Here's What You'll Need for 2 loaves (or 12 rolls):

for the starter
1 cup AP flour
about 1/3 to 1/2 cup warm water
a pinch of yeast

for the dough
all of the starter
2 cups AP flour
1 1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. dry milk powder (Sometimes I use Baby Formula when I want to avoid dairy for this bread)
2 tsp. yeast
2/3 cup warm water
2 Tbs. olive oil

for the topping
1 large egg white beaten with 1 Tbs. cold water
1/2 cup sesame seeds

Here's What You'll Need To Do:

1. Start the day before baking with the starter. Mix it together (essentially this is a biga that I have used before) and let it sit at room temperature, covered, overnight.
2. The next day...add the fermented starter to the other dough ingredients, and mix, then knead them into a smooth pliable dough.
3. Place this dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat, then cover and let it stand for about 90 minutes or until about doubled in size.
4. To make 2 loaves, remove the dough from the bowl, divide in 2 equal pieces, then divide each piece into 3.
5. Roll each piece into a 'rope', then pinch the ends together and braid the 'ropes' into a loaf.

Coat the loaf with the beaten egg white, then sprinkle generously with the sesame seeds. Finally, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and let the loaf rise until very puffy, about 90 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 425 F (220 C) about 20 minutes before the end of the rise. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes until it is a deep brown and the toasted sesame seeds smell heavenly. If making rolls, the baking time is about 15 minutes.
7. Cool on a rack.
Enjoy!!