Rapid Pull-Apart Rolls

I was watching the Cooking Channel today. I do that from time to time. And time and again. The show Kelsey's Essentials came on, and as I lay back on the sofa to watch a half hour of quick bread recipes, I became intrigued. The recipes were actually for rolls, but you'll have to indulge me. Won't you? After the first recipe, for quick pull-apart rolls, I decided to act. It's Friday, and the thought of oven-warm rolls dripping with butter and jam was too tempting. It all looked easy enough.

Preheat the oven to 400° right off the bat. You'll see why later.

In the stand-up mixer bowl, three tablespoons of yeast is covered with 1.75 cups warm water and allowed to sit for five minutes. A half cup of honey is stirred in, followed by 1/2 cup melted butter, with the mixer on low speed, using the paddle attachment. Next come two beaten eggs and two teaspoons salt.

After this is nice and mixed, four to six cups flour are added slowly, until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. I used the full six cups, and still needed to add more. At this point I switched to the dough hook and added more flour, a spoonful at a time, until the right consistency was achieved.

The dough is placed on a work surface and divided into 24 portions, formed into balls and placed in baking pan or an oven-safe skillet. I used a baking pan. The tray of dough balls is covered with a towel and placed on the oven, to rise for 20 minutes. This is called proofing and the warmth from the preheating oven will aid in this.

After the dough balls have doubled in size, they are brushed with melted butter and put in the oven for 25 minutes, until golden brown. Another brushing with melted butter after they come out of the oven and they are ready to eat.

These were simply yummy!

Bon appétit!

Beer Bread

In the Moving Guide section of the back to school issue of the Oregon Daily Emerald, a recipe caught my eye. Beer bread. It didn't catch my eye because of "beer," but because it billed itself as so simple to make, a dorm-dweller could make it.

Three cups flour, 4 tablespoons active dry yeast and 2 tablespoons of sugar are whisked together. A 12-ounce bottle of beer is added. I used a hefeweizen. That is it!

The batter is poured into a greased loaf pan and bakes at 350° for 45 minutes. Again, that is it!

While the other bread recipes, more traditional and not so traditional, produce a better result, I am not going to bash this one. It was OK. Good even. But nothing to rave about. Bummer. Maybe with a pale ale instead of hefeweizen. Maybe with a little ham or other deli meat.

Bon appétit!

Greek Easter Bread

With Greek Easter one week away, not much free time between now and then, and the simple desire to bake something today, I am making Greek Easter Bread (τσουρέκι πασχαλινό, pronounced tsoo-REH-kee pahs-khah-lee-NO). It is a sweet bread often served with a traditional red egg tucked into the the top of the twist. I made the eggs last year and am skipping them this year. I just don't want to deal with 15 pounds of yellow onions. More precisely, the skins from 15 pounds of yellow onions. Let's just worry about the bread.

Luke warm milk and yeast are mixed in a small bowl. A few spoonfuls of flour are incorporated until a paste is formed. This is set aside to rise. The recipe doesn't say for how long. I just checked on it periodically. After half an hour or so, it had tripled in size. At least.

In the bowl for my stand-up mixer I added flour, salt and melted butter. Mahlab is boiled in water and then the strained liquid is added to the mixing bowl. Eggs, the yeast mixture and a few pieces of mastic that have been crushed together with a bit of sugar are added. As the dough hook worked its labor-saving magic, I added spoonfuls of flour until a good "maleable" dough came together. This is covered and allowed to rise for a couple hours.

After rising, the dough is punched down and shapes are created. I am going with simple braids. Ropes of just over a foot are formed. On a greased cookie sheet, three of these are then braided and the ends are tucked under. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Brush with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar or sliced almonds and bake at 350° for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. When tapped on the bottom, they should sound hollow. Cool on racks.

For the record, I made a half-recipe. The full recipe makes 6 two-pound loaves. I made 2 three-pound loaves and sprinkled one with Premium Maui Gold natural cane sugar.

Bon appétit!

No-Knead Bread

From the cookbook My Bread by Jim Lahey (not of Trailer Park Boys fame), I made the Basic No-Knead Bread recipe. Yesterday I mixed the flour, salt and yeast, then added the water. That's all there was to the mixing. I don't know if there is an easier recipe anywhere.

The dough is covered and left to rise, or ferment, for 12-18 hours. It will nearly double in size and there will be some bubbles on the surface from escaping gas as the yeast works its magic.

This morning I scraped the sticky dough onto a well-floured work surface and pinched and tucked the edges until I had a decent semblance of a ball of dough. The ball is placed seam-side down on a well-floured tea towel. Then ends of the towel are folded up and over the dough to cover it loosely. Allow this to rise again, for a couple hours.

With approximately 30 minutes remaining in the second rise, preheat a heavy, covered pot in a 475° oven. Invert the dough ball into the pot so that the seam side is up. I have found that sprinkling a little flour in the bottom of the pot will facilitate removal of the bread when it is done. Cover and return the pot to the oven. After thirty minutes, carefully remove the lid from the pot and continue to bake for 15-30 more minutes, until a deep golden brown.

Remove from the oven and immediately place the bread on a rack to cool thoroughly.

Bon appétit!

Rye Bread

I received a 5-quart Dutch oven for Christmas. The cookbook, My Bread calls for baking most of the breads in a covered heavy pot. Though not specifically what is called for, the Dutch oven is certainly a less expensive alternative. Much, much less expensive.

I love rye bread and decided to give that recipe a try. Bread and rye flours are mixed with salt and yeast. Some cool water is added and...that's it. Really. No kneading at all. But there is a waiting period. These recipes are what the author calls slow-rising. The sticky dough is covered and left to rise. For 12-18 hours. Or more. When the time has elapsed the dough should be about double in size and have some air bubbles visible on the surface.

The dough is then scraped from the bowl onto a well-floured work surface. With lightly floured hands I worked the dough into a flattish ball. The ball is placed on a well-floured tea towel, seam side down, covered lightly with the edges of the towel, and left to rise for a couple hours.

With about a half-hour remaining in the second rise, I preheated the oven to 475° and placed the Dutch oven on the rack in the bottom third of the oven. The risen dough is turned into the heated pot, covered, and baked for 30 minutes. The lid is removed and the bread continues to bake for 15-30 more minutes, until a deep brown.

When done baking, allow the bread to cool thoroughly before slicing. The book acknowledges the temptation to cut a slice from the still-warm loaf, but strongly advises against it. I opted to not challenge authority and see what would happen. I will wait.

The plan for this bread is to toast thick slices, slather them with mustard, then pile with thinly-sliced corned beef. And saurkraut. Can't forget the saurkraut.

Bon appétit!

European Peasant Bread

A wonderful cookbook I have is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, it is too good, but also, it is true. The authors developed a basic bread recipe that is easy, and importantly, does not require kneading. The dough is mixed, allowed to rise in a container (not air-tight) then refrigerated until ready to bake. There are many variations of the basic recipe. I love the European Peasant Bread. Crusty bread with a marvelous crumb.

Yeast and salt are added to warm water in the bowl of my stand-up mixer. The flours, in this case, whole wheat, rye and all-purpose. It is mixed until incorporated then dumped into a container with a lid. Leave the lid slightly ajar as the dough will rise and then fall slightly over a two-hour period. Store in the refrigerator until ready to bake.

When ready to bake the bread, dust the top of the dough with flour and pull a hunk of about a pound from the container. Dust with a little more flour and shape into a ball by pulling the sides down and under. Place on a pizza peel that has been covered with cornmeal and let it rest and rise for 40 minutes.

Twenty minutes later, preheat the oven to 450° with a baking stone set on the center rack. The recipe calls for placing an empty broiler tray on a rack under the stone. This is for placing some hot water in to create steam during baking. I have tried it with and without the water with great results both ways. For these Christmas loaves, I used the water.

Sprinkle the top of the risen dough ball with more flour and using a sharp knife, make a cross or other decorative pattern. Slide the dough directly from the pizza peel onto the baking stone and add a cup of water to the broiler pan.

Bake for 35 minutes or until the crust is a deep brown and firm. Of course, larger loaves require cooking time adjustment.

Bon appétit!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Bread

I recently bought a new cookbook called My Bread. It boasts a "revolutionary no-work, no-knead method." Now what bread lover could have resisted that? The recipe for Peanut Butter & Jelly Bread caught my eye on the first leafing through. I tried it once with disappointing results. Jelly leaked out during baking and burned on the sides of the loaves and the pan and the baking stone. But the finished product tasted good. Once I got past the burnt jelly. And the burnt peanuts. I vowed to try again in the future, with some modifications to the recipe.

The future came yesterday evening. I mixed the dough so that it could rise 12 hours and be ready to bake this morning. The first modification I made was to omit the peanuts from the dough. I think the peanuts in the dough of the first batch had allowed jelly to break through and burn. The peanuts would still be included in the recipe. Just at a different point. An interesting thing about this recipe is that water and peanut butter are blended and incorporated into the dough.

The next morning the dough had doubled in size and was ready for the next step. I divided it into quarters. (I had quadrupled the recipe). On a lightly floured pastry board, I spread each portion of the dough into a rectangular sheet about 8 inches wide by a foot long. Then I spread seedless black raspberry jam over the rectangle. I was careful this time to heed the warning about leaving an inch edge on all sides so that jelly wouldn't seep out. Now I added the peanuts which had been omitted earlier. I sprinkled them on top of the jelly.

Another modification I made was to leave out the peanuts from the bottom of the pan as well as from the top of the loaf once in the pan. They burned easily and made the egg wash difficult to apply. The sheet was then rolled up, much like a jelly roll. Carefully. Then ends were tucked under and the loaf placed in a oiled loaf pan. An hour more of rising and then into the oven for an hour and a quarter. The results were much better this time around.


Bon appétit!