baking

Multi-Grain Bread

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Today was a bread baking day.  For the past while, we’ve been making our basic multigrain.bread.slicedsourdough bread, but I felt like experimenting this time.  That’s one of the beauties of a good, basic bread recipe; it’s easy to modify and make interesting!

I actually did two different breads today, with an overnight sourdough rye that I will post the recipe for separately.  I started this one while the sourdough was having its first of 3 risings (not counting the overnight starter).  Even though the other one was started much earlier, this one was finished first!

Multi-Grain Breadmultigrain.bread.fresh.baked

Ingredients

1 Tbsp yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup milk
1 cup water
3 Tbsp sugar
2 Tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1/2 – 1 cup thick cut oatmeal
3/4 – 1 cup flax meal
3/4 – 1 cup rye
4 – 5 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, crushed*
1/8 cup sunflower seeds, crushed*

  1. Heat the water and milk together to scalding temperatures.  Add the butter to melt.  Pour into a large bowl, stir in sugar and salt, and let cool slightly.
  2. Sprinkle yeast over warm water and let soften for about 5 minutes.
  3. Add the oatmeal to the milk mixture to soften.  Stir in yeast.
  4. Mix in the flax meal, rye and enough all purpose flour to make about 3 cups total.  Beat thoroughly.   Mix in pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
  5. Add more flour, a little at a time, until a soft dough forms.  Turn onto floured surface and knead, adding more flour as needed, until dough is soft and pliable.
  6. Place into well oiled bowl, turning to coat all sides.  Cover and set in a warm, draft free place to rise until doubled; about 1 hour.
  7. Prepare baking sheet or loaf pans by oiling well.  Cornmeal can be added to the baking sheet as well.multigrain.bread.risen.loaves
  8. When doubled, punch down dough and turn onto lightly floured surface.  Knead lightly and divide into two pieces.  Form into loaves and place on prepared baking sheet or loaf pans.   Slash the tops of the loaves with a knife, if desired.
  9. Cover and let rise until loaves reach the top of the loaf pans, or about half an hour.
  10. Bake in oven preheated to 375F for about 40 minutes.
  11. Set loaves on racks to cool.  Lightly brush surface with oil for a softer crust.

*Hint: to crush the seeds, put them in a slide lock freezer bag, then use a heavy rolling pin to crush them to the desired amount.  I used roasted and salted seeds, but unsalted can also be used.

multigrain.bread.sliced.title

 

Basic Sourdough Rye Bread

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The following is the Rogers Basic Rye Bread recipe, modified into a sourdough version.

We have never used lemon juice in bread baking before, but the packaging for our rye flour recommends it as a conditioner for no-additive flour.  In fact, the packaging is very enthusiastic about the use of lemon juice in bread baking! :-D

We did not use the optional caraway seeds.

This time around, I decided to use our pizza stone.  It’s been ages since I used it, and I wanted to see how it worked for bread baking.  The stone cannot be oiled, so the surface is dusted with only corn meal to prevent sticking.

Basic Sourdough Rye Breadsourdough.rye.prep

1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp molasses
1 Tbsp Yeast

  1. Dissolve yeast and honey in warm water and let stand for 10 minutes.

2 Tbsp molasses
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp salt
1 cup water
1 cup rye sourdough starter
1 Tbsp lemon juice
3 cups rye flour
2 1/2 – 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Optional: 1 Tbsp caraway seeds
Optional: egg wash (1 egg beaten in about 1 Tbsp water)

Note: honey can be used in place of molasses

  1. In a large bowl, mix molasses, oil, salt, optional seeds, warm water, lemon juice and starter.  Add the yeast mixture and mix well.
  2. Add the rye flour and beat with an electric mixer on low for 2 minutes, or by hand for about 200 strokes.
  3. Add all purpose flour by the half cup full until a stiff dough is formed.
  4. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead thoroughly, adding more flour as needed.  Knead for about 5 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic.
  5. Form the dough into a ball and place into a greased bowl, turning the dough to coat all sides with oil.  Cover and place in a warm spot to rise until doubled; about 1 – 2 hours.
  6. Punch down the dough and divide into two pieces for regular sized loves, or four pieces for mini loaves.
  7. Lightly knead and shape the pieces into loaves and place onto prepared baking pans.  Cover and let rise for about 20 minutes.  Score the loaves with a sharp knife.  Add optional egg wash.
  8. Place in centre rack of oven preheated to 350F.  Bake for about 40 – 45 minutes for regular sized loaves or about 25-30 minutes for mini-loaves.
  9. Allow finished loaves to cool on rack.

sourdough.rye.baked

Braided Egg Bread

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Today, we made our bread for our traditional Polish Easter basket.  Though paska is usually associated with Easter, this lovely bread is also traditional.

One of the things that’s important for this bread is for the eggs to be at room temperature.

dried blood orange zest

Zest of 2 blood oranges.

This year, we added a new ingredient; dried orange zest.  I like to dry my own zest, and this time I had some from blood oranges.  I deliberately chose the reddest ones to get a much darker coloured zest.

If you have a zester, it makes it really easy to quickly zest your fruit over a paper towel.  Spread the zest thinly and leave to dry.  When dry, store in an air tight container.

Easter Bread

Easter bread ingredients

Not pictured: flour

2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
2 tsp salt
2-3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp yeast
saffron; a few threads
optional: orange zest
2 eggs
5-6 cups all purpose flour

 

  1. Proof the yeast in warm water (about 1/2 – 2/3 cups) in a large bowl for about 10 minutes.
  2. Soften the saffron threads in a small amount of very warm water.
  3. Scald the milk, then add in the butter, sugar and salt.  Stir until butter is melted.
  4. Allow the milk mixture to cool before adding it to the yeast mixture.  While it’s cooling, stir in the saffron and optional orange zest, then add the milk mixture to the proofed yeast.
  5. Stir thoroughly, then mix in the eggs (if the mixture seems too warm still, the eggs can be added after the first cup or two of flour).
  6. Add 3 cups of flour and beat thoroughly with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, or by hand for about 200 strokes.
  7. Add more flour by the half cup-full until a stiff dough begins to form.  Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead thoroughly, adding more flour as needed.  If kneading by hand, knead for at least 5 minutes.
  8. Clean and oil the large bowl.  Add the kneaded dough to the bowl, turning it to coat all sides with oil.
  9. Cover loosely and place in a warm place to rise until doubled in size.
  10. Once the dough is doubled in size, turn it onto onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently a few times.  Divide the dough in half, and return one half to the bowl.
    Braided egg bread

    Braided loaves, ready for the oven!

    Braided loaves, after rising and ready for the oven!

  11. To form a braid, divide the remaining half into 3 equal pieces.  Knead each piece a few times, then form into a rope about 12-18 inches.  Join the three lengths together at one end, then braid the dough.  Tuck under the ends to hide them, then transfer the braided loaf onto a well oiled baking sheet.
  12. Repeat with the second half of the dough, or use it to create other shapes.
  13. Cover and allow to rise again for about half an hour.  Preheat oven to 350F.
  14. Optional: glaze the loaves with an egg wash (2 egg beaten with about a tablespoon of water) to get a nicely browned surface.
  15. After the loaves have risen, place into the centre of the preheated oven and bake for about 30 minutes.
  16. When done, allow the bread to cool slightly before carefully removing from the pan to a cooling rack.

Egg.Bread.baked

 

Oatmeal Flax Bread

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It was bread baking time today.  My younger daughter usually does most of it, but she wasn’t feeling well, so I got to do it this time.

I ended up doing three different 2 loaf recipes. A white sourdough, in loaves, sourdough rye, as 4 smaller rounds, and a new one; two loaves of oatmeal flax bread.

I think it’s the first non-sourdough bread we’ve made since the move!  The only real reason it wasn’t also a sourdough was because the large plastic bowl I have was being used for the plain sourdough to rise, and the only other bowl I had that was large enough was stainless steel.  Not something to use with sourdough!

The recipe I used was modified from Two-Way Oatmeal Bread in Whole Foods for the Whole Family, from La Leche League International.

I am quite pleased with how it turned out!

Here is my modified recipe.

20180309outmeal.flax.bread2 cups boiling water
2 cups rolled oats (thick or steel cut, not quick oats)
1 cup ground flaxseed (sold as Flaxseed Meal)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp yeast
5-7 cups flour

 

  • Pour boiled water over oats, flaxseed, brown sugar, oil and salt in a large bowl.  Mix and allow to cool to lukewarm.
  • Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add to cooled oat mixture.
  • Beat in flour to make a soft dough.  Knead 5-15 minutes, adding more flour if necessary.  (I added only 5 cups of flour total; amount will change based on humidity and temperature.)
  • Let rise until doubles; at least 1 hour.
  • Punch down dough and divide into 2 loaves.  Shape and place in greased loaf pans and let rise until slightly over the edge of the pans.  (Or let rise in the refrigerator overnight.)
  • Bake at 350-375C for about 45 minutes (with my glass loaf pans, I used 350C), or until golden brown.
  • Cool in racks.
  • Recipe can be halved or doubled, but do not double amount of yeast.

As an aside, ground or crushed flax seed soaked in warm water can be used as an egg substitute in some recipes.

I just really like it in bread.

The Re-Farmer

 

Sourdough Cornmeal Muffins

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted a recipe!

Last night, I decided to do another recipe I haven’t made in a long time.  Normally, I would have done a double recipe, but I didn’t have enough cornmeal left.

Alas.

Here is a recipe for:

Sourdough Cornmeal Muffins
adapted from The Sourdough Cookbook by Rita Davenport

sourdough.cornmeal.muffins1Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1/4 cup oil
1 cup milk

  • Prepare tins for 12 muffins and set aside.
  • Preheat oven to 400C.
  • In a large bowl, mix try ingredients together.
  • In a medium bowl, beat egg, then stir in remaining ingredients.
  • Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.
  • Divide batter into 12 muffin cups (about 3/4 full each).
  • Bake 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.
  • Remove from muffin tins.  Serve hot.

sourdough.cornmeal.muffins2

 

They’re good cold, too!

If they last long enough to become so. :-D

Excellent with a nice cup of rooibos tea!

 

Sourdough Rye Bread

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Recently, I was finally able to find a bag of rye flour.  Of all the things I knew would be harder to come by after moving here, rye flour was not one of them!

In anticipation of baking day, I got a rye sourdough starter going last night, using 2 cups rye flour, 2 cups warm water, and about 1/3 cup of our usual starter.

Allow me to introduce you to…

Overnight Rye Sourdough Starter

…The Rye of Sour-on.

My kids are hilarious.

Sourdough starter

Sir Sour Alot is looking good!

Because our original starter has aged so well, it can be shared or used as a base for “overnight starters”, which some recipes call for.

The girls didn’t bother looking up any rye bread recipes.  They just modified their usual Quick and Easy Sourdough recipe (minus the optional garlic and Parmesan with herbs).  With their usual double recipe, they used 2 cups of rye starter, substituted the sugar with molasses, and added 3 cups of rye flour before switching back to all purpose.

Rye sourdoug bread loaves

Rye sourdough bread

The result was a denser bread that didn’t rise as much during backing.  Which is good, because it means they slices will fit completely in the toaster, unlike our usual loaves, which sometimes need to be flipped. :-D

Slices of rye sourdough bread

Still warm from the oven!

Hearty and delicious!

I like the idea of using multiple kinds of flour when baking bread, but that requires having multiple kinds of flour on hand.  Which we really don’t have the space for, anyhow.  So we usually just use all purpose flour, since it gets used for so many other things as well.  I think I’ll make an exception for rye flour – which was only available in a small bag, anyhow.

It looks like we’ll be maintaining two sourdough starters now; Sir Sour Alot and the Rye of Sour-on.

The Re-Farmer

Sourdough Banana Bread Muffins

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While my husband and I ended up being away for far longer than expected, our daughters did some baking.  Along with the now regular baking of 4 loaves of sourdough bread, they made sourdough banana bread muffins with chocolate chips, modifying a recipe they found for banana bread online.

It was a marvelous treat to come home to!

20180213sourdough.bananabread.muffin

Sourdough Banana Bread, with muffin variation

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 brown bananas
1 egg
1 cup starter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup nuts, chips, etc.

  1. preheat oven to 350F
  2. cream butter and sugar
  3. add banana, egg, vanilla.  Beat like hell.
  4. slowly mix in starter.
  5. mix in flour, soda and salt
  6. stir in your choice of nuts, chocolate chips, etc.
  7. pour into greased loaf pan
  8. bake for 60 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

For muffin variation, add paper liners to 20 muffin cups.  Fill 3/4s full with batter and bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Quick Sourdough Chocolate Cupcakes

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When we were living in Victoria, BC, and had made our first sourdough starter, this recipe from The Sourdough Cookbook was one of our favorites.  Not only was it chocolatey and delicious, it was one of the few things we could bake in our wonky PMQ oven.  We couldn’t bake a cake, because it had hot and cold spots so bad, parts of it would be raw and parts overcooked, but we could manage cupcakes and muffins.

We didn’t bake very often at all while living there.

Last night, I gave Sir Sour Alot a new home in one of our giant Tupperware Thatsa Bowls.  Since there is so much room in there, I fed it more than usual so that there would be lots left over after my daughters baked bread today.  With the larger amount of starter, it will be good to be able to use it for multiple things, all in one day.  They made 4 loaves of black olive and cheddar bread today.  While the first pair of loaves was baking, I started to pre-measure the ingredients and prepare the pans.  That way, when the second pair of loaves came out, I could quickly start mixing the batter while the oven got to temperature (the bread recipe calls for the same temperature, but with glass loaf pans, we reduce by 25F, so it was already pretty close).

Here is the recipe;

20180127sourdough.chocolate.cupcakes.ingredients

Quick Chocolate Cupcakes
(from The Sourdough Cookbook)
preheat oven to 400F and pre-measure the ingredients.

1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup softened butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder (sifted)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

  1. Grease 16 muffin cups, or line with paper liners; set aside. (note: I prepared 18 muffin cups)
  2. Place all ingredients into a large bowl – do not mix until all are combined.
  3. Beat with electric mixer on high speed for 2 minutes.
  4. Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 – 3/4 full with batter.
  5. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
  6. Remove from muffin cups and cool on rack.

The recipe then says to put frosting on them, but I don’t think we have ever bothered! :-D

When I started mixing these today, the batter was MUCH thicker than I expected.  Almost a dough, rather than a batter.  I think perhaps the sourdough starter was thicker than when we’d made it before.  I ended up adding extra milk to it.  It still was really thick, but it turned out wonderfully, anyways.

The recipe said 14-16 cupcakes, but I filled 18 muffin cups (I had three tins with 6 muffin cups each), so they were a bit on the small side.  They turned out very light and airy.  So much so, the first one I tried to photograph didn’t work out because, when I started to break it open with my fingers, the inside was so delicate, the slightly crispier outside just crushed it!  So I got another one and very carefully used a knife to cut it open.  :-D

These have a rich chocolate flavour, but are not too sweet.  So you taste chocolate, not sugar.

As for the sourdough, you don’t really get a “sourdough” taste, but there is definitely something there that’s different.  It adds a depth and complexity to the flavour that is quite nice, and of course, it adds to that light and fluffy texture.

Very delicious.

And, judging from how many are disappearing with the girls upstairs, they might not last until morning.

Ah, well.  I guess I’ll just have to make more…  Oh, the tragedy. ;-)

The Re-Farmer

Black Olive and Cheddar Sourdough variation

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For the past while, we’ve been using Sir Sour Alot to bake 4 loaves of bread, every other day.  Give or take.  We’ve been using the Quick and Easy Sourdough Bread recipe each time because… well… it’s quick and easy.

When it came to the final kneading of the dough, before shaping into loaves, that’s when we would get creative and start kneading in other ingredients.  Garlic powder, grated dry Parmesan or Asiago cheese, or both together (both from the Bulk Barn), rolled oats, shredded cheddar cheese, etc.  Whatever we have in the cupboard that we thought to try.

Yesterday I needed to make a quick run into town, so I was able to pick up a can of sliced black olives.  I used half the can, chopping the black olives up finer, and kneaded it in to half the dough, together with about a cup of shredded cheddar.  (We kneaded rolled oats into the other half.)

We also used warm potato water, drained from the potatoes I’d made for supper, as the liquid.

20180125-olive.cheddar.sourdough.loaf

This is what they looked like, by the time the other loaves were done in the oven and I was about to put these in.  When kneading the shredded cheddar and olives into the dough, the cheddar basically disintegrates and gets completely worked into the dough.  So you can’t really see it, but you sure can taste it!

It took all our will power to finish off the last of the previous baking we did before going into the fresh loaves!  Two of which went into the freezer as soon as they were completely cooled.

This morning, we tried the olive and cheddar loaf, toasted.

20180126-olive.cheddar.sourdough.toast

It was so incredibly delicious, we’re now thinking of making ONLY olive and cheddar bread from now on!

Since Sir Sour Alot expanded so enthusiastically last night, maybe we’ll do some extra baking tonight.  I even picked up more cheese – old, rather than medium, cheddar, for the extra tang.

So, to summarize, to the basic recipe we made the following changes:

  • substituting potato water for regular water in the recipe.
  • adding chopped black olives and shredded cheddar cheese (medium) to the dough during the final kneading.

I look forward to when we can start making yogurt cheese again.  After draining the liquid off the yogurt to make the cheese, I would use the liquid to bake bread, and it’s even better than potato water.

The Re-Farmer

Quick and Easy Sourdough Bread, with garlic and parmasan

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While I was driving my husband to a medical appointment and then the pharmacy, my daughters eagerly went at my new copy of Alaska Sourdough and baked bread.

This was not our first attempt at doing a sourdough yeast bread in loaves.  However, when we tried it before, we did not have any commercial yeast left.  Normally, this is not a problem; it just takes longer for the dough to rise.

Except it didn’t really rise.  Even using the oven with the light on to keep it warm and draft free, and giving it 4 hours, it still didn’t double in size.  Nor did things improve after shaping the loaves and setting it aside for a second rising of a couple of hours.

We baked it anyways and got a very dense loaf that was delicious, but it was half-way between unleavened bread and regular bread in texture.

Our home is simply too cool for doing sourdough bread without using commercial yeast, though if we had shaped them into buns instead of loaves, it might have worked better.

We have yeast now.

The girls went through the cookbook and settled on the Quick and Easy Sourdough Bread recipe because… well… it was quick and easy.

Of course, it was also modified a bit.  Because we do that.  They added Herb and Spices Parmesan (found at Bulk Barn) and garlic powder.  You can’t see it in the bread, but you can taste it!

They also doubled the recipe, because two loaves with 4 people is gone in a day.

So here is the modified, two loaf, recipe.

1 cup Sourdough starter
1 Tbsp yeast (1 pkg)
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 cups flour
optional: about 1/4 cup each, garlic powder and Herb and Spice Parmesan, or to taste.

Add yeast to warm water.  Mix in sourdough starter, sugar, salt and 4 cups of flour.  Beat well.

Put in oiled bowl and set aside in a warm spot to rise until doubled.

Mix soda win 1 cup flour.  Add to risen dough.  Knead in garlic, Herb and Spice Parmesan, plus more flour as needed, until satiny and springy to the touch.

Cut dough in half and shape into loaves.

Bake in 400F oven for 45 minutes.

Note: if using glass loaf pans, reduce heat by 25F.

The recipe did not call for a second rising, so with the doubled recipe, the first two loaves went straight into the preheated oven, while the second two loaves got a second rising while waiting.

I would go with doing a second rising.

The resulting bread has a lovely, spongy texture that is dense enough to handle being spread with rather cold butter (when we buy bread, sometimes I have to warm up the butter in the microwave for 8-10 seconds, just to be able to spread it.  Otherwise the slices just disintegrate!).

We polished off the first two loaves with some beef stew.  A marvelous combination.