Bread making with the Bread Experience

Vienna Bread: BBA

2010-03-10T12:51:00.001-05:00

I had high hopes for the 39th bread in the BBA Challenge. Most of the other bakers had good things to say about it. Plus, the Dutch Crunch topping, made with a mixture of rice flour, a little bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt, vegetable oil and water sounded so good. So, I set out to make the Vienna Bread.

I began the process of making this bread about 6 days before I planned to bake the bread. I wasn’t able to find diastatic barley malt powder locally and I didn’t want to order it online, so I decided to sprout some wheat grains and make my own malt powder.

Making Diastatic Malt Powder using Sprouted Wheat Grains

It took about 3 days for the wheat to sprout, then another day to dry the sprouted grains so I could grind them in my bread mill without clogging it up.

If you’re interested in learning how to sprout wheat grains, refer to my post on sprouted wheat bread.

Just for kicks, here is a comparison of the dried sprouted grains versus regular grains that haven’t been sprouted. The dried sprouted wheat is on the left.

After I dried the sprouted grains, I ground them in my bread mill. Here is the freshly ground diastatic malt powder.

Making the Pre Ferment

Now, it was time to make the Pâte Fermentée, but there was a slight problem. The formula for the Pâte Fermentée makes 18 ounces and this bread only uses 13 ounces. So right off the bat, this bread was making me work.

In order to get the right percentages, I had to scale the amounts. Fortunately, Phyl Of Cabbages & King Cakes provided an easy breakdown of how to use baker’s math to do this step. Thanks Phyl!

So, I made the Pâte Fermentée, let it rest for 2 hours, then put it in the refrigerator overnight. For a step-by-step breakdown of how to make Pâte Fermentée, check out my post on French Baguettes.

The next day, I took the Pâte Fermentée out of the refrigerator, cut it into pieces, covered it with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for an hour to take off the chill.

Making the Dough

Stir together the dry ingredients.

Add the Pâte Fermentée pieces and the liquid ingredients.

Then stir everything with a Danish dough whisk (or your mixer if you must) until the dough comes together to form a ball.

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with flour and knead it for about 10 minutes to make a firm but supple dough. It should be slightly tacky but not sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and roll the dough around to coat it with oil.

Cover it with plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature for 2 hours.

Shaping the Loaves

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into 2 pieces.

Shape the pieces, into boules.

Spray them with cooking spray, cover with plastic wrap and let them rest on the counter for 20 minutes.

Shape the pieces into batards, then transfer them to a parchment lined baking sheet sprinkled with semolina or corn meal.

For step-by-step instructions on shaping batards, refer to the Tuscan Bread post.

Proofing the Loaves

Brush the Dutch Crunch on the loaves. Brushing the crunch topping on before proofing is supposed to provide greater separation and mottling; whereas if you brush it on right before baking, the coating is more even.

Mist the dough lightly, cover with plastic wrap, then let the batards proof at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until about 1 3/4 their original size.

Preparing the Loaves for Baking

Prepare the oven for hearth baking by placing a steam pan in place. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Right before baking the loaves, mist the loaves with water and dust lightly with bread flour by topping some flour through a sieve.

I was so proud of myself when I did this part because I thought it looked really cool with the dusted flour. Little did I realize that I had just made a mistake. More about that later…

Moving right along… I scored the loaves down the center.

Then put them in the oven to bake.

I rotated the loaves about halfway through for even baking.

I let them continue baking until they reached a medium brown color. About 30 minutes total baking time.

Then I transferred the loaves to a cooling rack to cool for about an hour before I got to taste them.

Here are the finished loaves. I was so proud of the way they looked, I just couldn’t wait to cut a slice and taste it.

So, I sliced a loaf and took a bite!

Boy was I ever disappointed! I couldn’t taste anything but flour. My taste tester tried it and said it tasted dusty. I thought it was the Dutch Crunch Topping that we didn’t like and I was wishing I had made one without it so we could compare, but I finally realized it was the flour I had dusted on the loaves just before baking them. Remember, I said I made a mistake. Well, I shouldn’t have dusted the flour since I was using the Dutch Crunch. Oh well! That’s what I get for trying to do too many things at once. I’m sure you never do that, right?

I had another slice warm with butter and it tasted better, but I just really wasn’t thrilled with it. My taste tester liked the bread and said I was being too hard on it. Since he liked it, I sent the rest of the loaf home with him and froze the other one.

It’s a beautiful bread and I worked really hard on it so I’m sending it over to be YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

I do plan on make the Vienna Bread again sometime because I don’t think I gave it a fair shot. Next time, I’ll make one loaf with and one without the Dutch Crunch and reduce the amount of Dutch Crunch made. As some of the other bakers have mentioned, it makes more than you need for these loaves.

Thanks for joining us in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is White Bread. I plan to make Variation #3 (page 269 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice).

Be sure to Follow along with other bakers in the challenge
And, join the BBA Challenge Facebook Group

Happy Baking!

Cathy

You might enjoy some of the other breads that we've featured in the Bread Baking Blog.

Feel free to leave a comment about this blog, or submit your own bread experience. We'd love to highlight your story on The Bread Experience site.

Pesto & Pine Nut Focaccia: HBinFive

2010-03-08T12:28:00.001-05:00

For the first bread of the March 15th HBinFive Bread Braid, I made Focaccia using the Healthy Bread In Five Minutes Pesto & Pine Nut Bread dough. My avocado wasn’t quite ripe enough to make the Avocado bread yet so I started with this one.

This dough had such a wonderful flavor that I thought it deserved to be made into something different than just a freeform loaf. Pesto and pine nuts seemed like the perfect combination for Focaccia. I used jarred pesto this time, but as soon as my basil plant starts producing, I plan to make some fresh basil pesto. Can’t wait!

The dough is made with a mixture of white whole wheat flour, spelt flour and all-purpose flour. I used freshly-milled flour made from organic white winter wheat.

I’m really enjoying milling my own grains. The flavor is so much better and it’s better for you. I still use commercial all-purpose flour, but I try to mill my own whole wheat whenever possible. I used Arrowhead Mills Organic Spelt flour this time (it’s really good), however, I found some organic spelt grains at the farmer’s market so I hope to be milling my own spelt flour soon.

I didn’t add any additional spices or ingredients to the Focaccia dough – it didn’t need them. I just formed the dough into a ball, then spread it out into a rectangle.

Then, I dribbled olive oil over the top and dimpled it before letting it rest on the counter for 30 minutes. Just before baking, I added a little more olive oil and sprinkled some kosher salt and crushed black pepper on top.

Then, I baked it on the baking stone with the steam pan underneath for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Let me tell you, I was not disappointed! Oh my goodness! This dough is awesome! I’ll be making it again for sure.

I only used half of the dough for the Focaccia, so I decided to make a freeform loaf using the remainder. I almost wish I had made two Focaccias because my son and I really enjoyed it, but from the looks of the loaf, we’ll enjoy it as well.

We’re still snacking on the Focaccia so I didn’t want to cut the loaf yet. However, once I do, I’m sure it won’t last very long.

About the HBinFive Baking Group

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the HBinFive baking group, check out Michelle's blog.

Thanks for joining me in the bread-baking blog. Check out Michelle's blog to see what everyone else bakes for the March 15th bread braid.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Tuscan Bread: BBA

2010-03-06T23:58:00.001-05:00

We’re moving right along… to the 38th bread in the BBA Challenge, Tuscan Bread.

Several of the other bakers in the BBA Challenge mentioned they didn’t like this bread because it is salt less. The book also states that the lack of salt makes Tuscan Bread rather dull and flat tasting. To me, it was neither dull nor flat tasting. It had a wonderful, slightly sweet flavor. I really liked it and so did my taste tester!

You do have to “think outside the box” with this bread or should I say, taste outside the “bread” box. Don’t get hung up by the fact that it has no salt. It is definitely a different experience on your palate, but it’s a good one! I don’t know about you, but I probably eat too much salt as it is so it’s refreshing to know that I can make and actually enjoy a salt-free bread. Of course, I spread it with stuff that had salt in it so there you go…

It actually took me 4 days to make this bread from start-to-finish rather than the 2 mentioned in the book. I made the flour paste two days before I made the dough and then I let the dough retard in the refrigerator overnight due to my schedule. This could be why the flavor was so good. As Peter Reinhart explains in the book, the cooked flour paste is yet another way to control flavor by manipulating time, temperature, and ingredients. Well, I’d say it worked!

Making the Paste

Make the paste 1 to 2 days before making the bread. It ended up being two days for me due to my schedule.

To make the paste, pour boiling water over the bread flour in a mixing bowl and stir vigorously until the flour is hydrated and makes a thick, smooth paste. Cool, cover, and leave out overnight at room temperature. I really liked the flavor of the paste. I thought it might taste like the glue paste we made with flour and water when I was growing up, but it didn’t. I didn’t use any special bread flour so I’m not really sure why I liked it so much.

Mixing the Dough

The next day, make the dough by mixing together the flour and yeast in a mixing bowl, then add the paste and olive oil.

Stir or mix, adding as much water as necessary to make a soft, supple ball.

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with flour and hand knead for about 10 minutes or if you’re using a mixer, mix for 6 to 8 minutes. Add more flour as needed to make a dough that is tacky but not sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and roll it around to coat it in oil. Let the dough ferment on the counter for 2 hours.

Gently divide the dough into two pieces being careful not to degas it too much. Shape the balls into boules. Cover and let them rest on the counter for 15 minutes.

Then shape the boules into batards. To make the batard shape, gently pat the dough into a rough rectangle.

Then without degassing the piece of dough, fold the bottom third of dough, letter style, up to the center and press to seal, creating surface tension on the outer edge.

Fold the remaining dough over the top and use the edge of your hand to seal the seam closed and to increase the surface tension all over.

Form the other ball of dough the same way, then transfer the loaves to a parchment-lined baking sheet for proofing. Mist the loaves with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Proof the loaves at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until they nearly double in size.

Baking the Loaves

Prepare the oven for hearth baking by placing a steam pan in place. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. and pour 2 cups of water in the steam pan.

Just before baking, spray the loaves with a little bit of water and lightly dust with bread flour by tapping some through a sieve.

Score the loaves by making 3 slashes using a lame or serrated knife. I used a serrated knife.

I think I made the slashes a little bit too deep.

Slide the breads directly onto the baking stone. After 30 seconds, open the door, spray the walls with water, and close the door.

Repeat twice more at 30-second intervals, then lower the oven setting to 450 and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the steam pan 10 minutes after loading the oven being careful not to splash yourself if there’s any water left. Check the breads and rotate them 180 degrees for even baking.

Continue baking for 10 to 20 minutes longer, or until the loaves turn a rich golden color.

Transfer the loaves to a wire rack and cool for at least an hour before slicing or serving.

Once the bread is cooled, it’s time to enjoy a slice and see what you think about salt-free bread. My taste tester thinks it would taste good with almost anything.

I tasted a piece spread with peanut butter, one with jam, and then another one with plain butter (not at the same time). Each slice tasted great. For one meal, I toasted some slices and served them with homemade Tuscan Bean Soup and some olive oil and herbs for dipping. Yummy!

I also had it with Bruschetta. I think that was my favorite.

Thanks for joining us this week in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Vienna Bread (page 261 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice).

Be sure to Follow along with other bakers in the challenge
And, join the BBA Challenge Facebook Group

Happy Baking!

Cathy

You might also enjoy some of the other breads that we've featured in the Bread Baking Blog.

Feel free to leave a comment about this blog, or submit your own bread experience. We'd love to highlight your story on The Bread Experience site.

Swedish Rye (Limpa): BBA

2010-03-03T09:53:00.001-05:00

The BBA Challenge continues … for me anyway. Several of the other bakers have finished, but I slowed down a little bit to enjoy the ride and to try and master some of these breads. I’m on Swedish Rye (Limpa) #37, only six more breads to go…

Swedish Limpa is flavored with molasses, citrus peel, aniseeds, fennel seeds, and ground cardamom. This version also utilizes an overnight sponge made with the barm we created at the beginning of the sourdough series.

I loved the idea of all of the spices in this dough; however the smell of licorice was pretty strong. I’m not a big licorice fan so I wasn’t sure if I would like this bread. I tasted the dough and thought “yuck”. Fortunately, the baked bread tasted much better than the dough. I liked it and so did my taste testers. My youngest son said, “I’m going to have some more of that!”

A friend on FB from Sweden saw the photo I posted of this bread on Facebook and told me that traditional Swedish Limpa isn’t scored. That’s too bad because I love the slashes!

Making the sponge

The day before you make the bread, make the sponge by combining the water, molasses, orange peel, aniseeds, fennel seeds, and cardamom in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then turn off the heat. Cool to lukewarm.

Stir in the barm and rye flour until the flour is fully hydrated and evenly distributed.

It should make a thick sponge.

Cover with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 4 hours, or until the mixture becomes foamy. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, remove the sponge from the refrigerator 1 hour before making the bread dough to take off the chill.

Making the Dough

Stir together the bread flour, yeast, salt, and brown sugar. Add the sponge and the melted shortening or warm vegetable oil. I used vegetable oil.

Mix until the dough forms a ball. I used my dough whisk instead of a mixer.

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with flour and begin kneading for approximately 4 minutes. Add more bread flour if needed.

The dough should be tacky but not sticky. Don’t over knead because over kneading makes rye breads gummy. The entire process should be completed within 6 minutes.

Fermenting the Dough

Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Ferment the dough at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

Shaping the Loaves

Remove the dough from the bowl, and knead it for 2 minute to degas. Divide the dough in half using a bench knife or serrated knife. Then, shape the dough balls into batards (torpedo) or sandwich loaves. I chose the batard shape. I just love this shape!

To make the batard shape, gently pat the dough into a rough triangle.

Without degassing the piece of dough, fold the bottom third of dough, letter-style, up to the center and press to seal, creating surface tension on the outer edge.

Fold the remaining dough over the top and use the edge of your hand to seal the seam closed and to increase the surface tension all over.

Set the batard aside while you shape the other one.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle it with cornmeal. Transfer the loaves to the baking sheet.

Score the top of the loaves with 3 parallel slashes. I used a serrated knife to slash the loaves. The serrated knife worked really well although I think I made some of the slashes a little bit too deep – 1/2 inch rather than 1/4 inch.

Proofing the Loaves

Mist the loaves with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Proof at room temperature for approximately 90 minutes, or until the dough rises 1 1/2 times its original size.

Preparing the Loaves for Baking

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and brush the egg wash over the surface of the dough just prior to baking.

As you can see, the slashes opened up very nicely.

Baking the Loaves

Bake the loaves for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan(s) 180 degrees for even baking.

Continue to bake for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the loaves. The loaves should be a light golden brown color and make a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.

Remove the loaves from the oven and immediately transfer them to a wire rack to cool for at least an hour before slicing or serving.

Here are the finished loaves. Cooled and ready to be sliced.

I really liked this bread. The flavor was great! It tasted really good with peanut butter and jelly. That’s my favorite test! I’ll be making this one again.

You might also want to check out what some of the other bakers thought about this bread.

This bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

Thanks for joining us in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Tuscan Bread (page 259 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice).

Be sure to Follow along with other bakers in the challenge
And, join the BBA Challenge Facebook Group

Happy Baking!

Cathy

You might enjoy some of the other breads that we've featured in the Bread Baking Blog.

Feel free to leave a comment about this blog, or submit your own bread experience. We'd love to highlight your story on The Bread Experience site.

Grilled BBQ Pizza with Whole Wheat Olive Oil Dough: HBinFive

2010-03-01T15:16:00.001-05:00

I saved the best for last. For the final bread of the March 1st bread braid, we were supposed to make Southwestern Focaccia with Roasted Corn and Goat Cheese; however, I opted to make pizza instead. Read on to find out why.

The Healthy Bread In Five Minutes’ book provides several dough options for making the Southwestern Focaccia. One option is to use Mesquite Dough made with a mixture of Mesquite flour, all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour and corn masa. Well, when I found out about mesquite flour, that just put this Focaccia over the top for me. I just couldn’t see making this bread with any other dough besides the Mesquite dough. I haven’t found Mesquite Flour (yet) so I decided to wait and make the Focaccia when I do find it. The recipe also calls for roasted corn so I thought it would be awesome to wait until I can get some fresh corn and roast it on the grill. If I can wait that long, that is…

Some of the other bakers in the group decided to make pizza with the whole wheat dough. I thought that was a great idea! I decided to grill the pizza rather than baking it on a baking stone like I usually do because it was beautiful day in Atlanta yesterday and I just wanted to be outside. Of course, by the time I got around to grilling it, it was a little bit nippy but still sunny.

I’ve also been wanting to try some of the recipes in my Pizza on the Grill Cookbook and I thought this dough would be perfect. I even got to use my handy foldable pizza peel. This is the main reason I got this particular pizza peel in the first place. It has a longer handle and it’s metal (the peel not the handle) so I thought it would be good for all the grilled pizza I plan to make. This is only the second time I’ve grilled pizza, but based on the results, I’ll be doing this more.

Grilled Barbeque Pizza with Whole Wheat and Olive Oil Dough

Recipe adapted from Pizza on the Grill by Elizabeth Karmel and Bob Blumer.

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

1 large boneless, skinless, chicken breast (about 12 ounces) or any sliced cooked chicken breast. I used grilled chicken tenders.
3 Tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 1/4 cup uncooked grits or polenta, for rolling the dough.
1 ball prepared pizza dough, at room temperature. (I used Healthy Bread in Fives Minutes Whole Wheat with Olive Oil dough, but you can use any pizza dough.)
1/4 cup Barbeque sauce.
1 cup grated smoked mozzarella. (I just used regular mozzarella.)
1 cup grated Colby jack cheese. (I opted not to use this cheese even though I had some.)
1/2 medium red onion, cut 1/8 inch thick and separate into rings.
1/2 bell pepper (any color), halved, seeded, and cut into very thin strips. (I used a red bell pepper.)
BBQ rub or red pepper flakes. (We just added more BBQ sauce instead of using the rub.)

Directions:

If you’re not using leftover chicken, then you’ll want to grill the chicken before you make the pizza.

Preheating the grill

For a gas grill, set all the burners to high. Close the lid and leave on high for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat of all the burners to medium.

Brush the chicken breast (or tenders) with 1 tablespoon of the oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the chicken on the cooking grate directly over the heat and grill until no longer pink in the middle, 10 to 12 minutes, turning once halfway through. Set aside until just ready to use, then cut into 1/4-inch thick strips.

Shaping the Pizza

For this pizza, I made up another 1/2 batch of the 100% whole wheat and olive oil dough using Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour this time instead of freshly milled whole wheat flour. I let it ferment for a few hours, then refrigerated it overnight.

When I was ready to make the pizza the next day, I shaped the dough into two balls and let them rest on the counter while I was grilling the chicken.

Then, I shaped the pizza by stretching it out with my hands, pressing it out from the center against the work surface. You’re supposed to make a 12-inch, organically shaped piece of dough – round, square, or rectangular – 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick; however, I made it in the shape to fit my pizza peel to make it easier to handle – or so I hoped. Then I brushed both sides of the dough generously with oil. I was really getting into the whole process so I forgot to take a picture of this part.

Grilling the Pizza

The instructions say to pick up the dough by the two corners closet to you and in one motion, lay it down flat on the cooking grate from back to front (as you would set a tablecloth down on a table).

This was a little bit tricky. I used the pizza peel to transfer the dough to the grill and then placed it as carefully as I could. Since I needed three hands for this already, I didn’t get a photo. I’ll have to do this again and get my son to take pictures.

Close the lid and grill for 3 minutes (no peeking!), then check the crust and, if necessary, continue grilling a few more minutes until the bottom is well marked and nicely browned.

Use tongs to transfer the crust from the grill to a peel or rimless baking sheet. Close the lid of the grill. Flip the crust to reveal the grilled side.

Then, brush the entire surface with the BBQ sauce. For the first pizza, I used some BBQ sauce I got in San Antonio the last time I was there on business. I didn’t have quite enough for two pizzas so I used some hickory smoked BBQ sauce as well. My sons and I decided it tastes better with the Hickory or other smoked flavor. I used that on the second pizza and the flavors worked together much better.

Top with the chicken and sprinkle with the cheeses. Arrange the onion rings and all of the bell pepper over the cheese.

Switch the grill to indirect heat by turning off the center burner(s) if you have a three- or four-burner grill. For a two-burner grill, turn off one burner. I have a three-burner grill so I turned off the center burner.

Set the pizza back on the grate over indirect heat (the unlit section) and grill, with the lid down, until the bottom is well browned and the cheese is melted, 7 to 10 minutes.

Remove from the grill, sprinkle with the BBQ rub, and season with salt and pepper.

We added extra BBQ sauce instead of the rub and pepper flakes. Although I’m sure my sons would’ve loved the pepper flakes, but I kind of forgot.

Slice and serve immediately. Not that I needed any urging to do that.

I thought this pizza tasted wonderful, particularly since it had a whole wheat crust. My oldest son just shook his head up and down when he took a bite – that’s a good thing! When I told him it was 100% whole wheat, he said, “I don’t taste it!” Another good thing.

My youngest son ate dinner at a friend’s house so he didn’t try it until later. When I asked him how he liked it, he said “it was awesome!” It was then I told him that the crust was 100% whole wheat. He was very surprised and had a pleasant smile on his face. He told me it’s the best pizza I’ve made yet and “it’s grilled”. Something about guys and grills I guess.

I baked the other pizza on the pizza stone in the oven to compare and there was a big difference. The flavor of the whole wheat was definitely stronger. The baked version was really good, but the grilled pizza just blended all the flavors together much better.

There were a couple of things I liked better about the baked version, however. For one, I added more BBQ sauce and used only the hickory-smoked which gave it a big flavor burst. I also put all the toppings (chicken, onions, and peppers) under the cheese. It definitely had a better flavor.

My sons and I loved this pizza. I don’t know that it’s the best pizza I’ve made, but I do think we have a winner here. Hey! When you can get your 20-year old and 17-year old sons to eat something that is good for them, it’s definitely a good thing. I’ll be making this one again.

Thanks for joining me in the bread-baking blog. Check out Michelle's blog to see what everyone else baked for the March 1st bread braid.

About the HBinFive Baking Group

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the new HBinFive baking group, check out Michelle's blog.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Aloo Paratha (Stuffed Flatbread): HBinFive

2010-02-28T11:26:00.001-05:00

Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old…

For some reason, that nursery rhyme pops into my head every time I think about this Aloo Paratha. I suppose it’s because it’s stuffed with a mixture of peas, potatoes and curry. I even had my boyfriend singing the rhyme the other night while I was making it. We were quite the pair.

This is another bread I almost didn’t make. It’s not that I didn’t want to. I had all the ingredients and I had even made the ghee, but I just wasn’t in the mood the night I planned to make it. However, I had invited my boyfriend over for dinner and he thought the Aloo Paratha sounded really good so I made it anyway. I’m glad I did. We both enjoyed it!

This version of Aloo Paratha is made using the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes 100% Whole Wheat Olive Oil Bread dough.

Making ghee (clarified butter)

Aloo Paratha uses ghee (instead of butter) which I thought might be hard to find until I learned how easy it is to make. Ghee is basically just clarified butter. To make it, just heat unsalted butter until it melts, bring it to a boil and cook until it is frothy. Then cook it gently until the milk solids float to the bottom of the pan. Strain it, cool completely, then put it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it. It will last for a month in the refrigerator.

Making the Aloo Paratha

I had already weighed out the dough a couple of days earlier when I made the 100% whole wheat with olive oil bread so I just took out the remaining piece and formed it into a ball.

Then, I used my palms and the rolling pin to get the dough rolled out to about 1/8-inch thick. I also put it on a greased piece of parchment so it would be easier to work with and transfer to the baking stone.

Then I spread the mixture of mashed potatoes, curry, ghee, neutral-flavored oil and peas on one side. I used frozen peas and didn’t even have to thaw them. I thought it might make it too watery but it didn’t. I kind of spread it over more than half, but it was ok.

Then I brushed the outside edges with water and folded the other half over and sealed it by pinching it closed with my fingertips.

Then, I brushed the top with more ghee and sprinkled on more curry.

Using a serrated knife, I cut 3 slits in the top crust, all the way through the top layer of dough.

Then I slid it onto the baking stone (in the preheated oven) with the steam pan underneath.

And, baked it for about 35 minutes, until it was golden brown.

Here it is. I think it’s kind of neat with the mashed potato mixture peeping out from under the slits.

It turned out a little bit crunchy on the outside which I liked because if offset the soft inside. My boyfriend and I were very pleased with this bread. We really liked the flavor. It was filling as well. It wasn’t too filling, but we didn’t need anything else with it and we only ate half of it.

I really liked this version of Aloo Paratha. It had a wonderful flavor. However, I’ve never had this before so I would like to try an authentic version. It just so happens that one of the other bakers in the HBinFive group is from India and she has a more traditional version of Aloo Paratha, on her blog My Diverse Kitchen. I’ll have to try that one. It sounds really good.

Thanks for joining us in the bread-baking blog. Look for more breads from the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes Baking Group.

About the HBinFive Baking Group

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Whole Wheat Olive Oil Bread with Home-Milled Flour: HBinFive

2010-02-27T23:50:00.001-05:00

For the March 1st Bread Braid, our mission was to make several different types of breads using the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes 100% Whole Wheat Olive Oil Dough: 1 loaf of 100% Whole Wheat Bread with Olive Oil; 1 loaf of Aloo Paratha; and 1 loaf of ~~Southwestern Focaccia~~ Whole Wheat BBQ Pizza.

Due to my busy schedule the past couple of weeks, particularly with baking 27 breads for the STIR IT 28 Atlanta Event last weekend, I had to wait until the last minute to make the breads for the bread braid. I’ll be honest, I almost blew this one off. I was so exhausted at the beginning of the week, I didn’t want to think about bread much less make any for awhile. Plus, I kept doing stupid things like dropping a whole pan of taco meat on the floor while I was trying to put it away. But, that’s a story for another day…

My bread-baking reprieve didn’t last very long – two days to be exact. By Wednesday, I was having withdrawals. So, I decided to make a half batch of the whole wheat with olive oil dough.

100% Whole Wheat Bread with Olive Oil
You can find the recipe here.

I’ve been doing some more research on home-milling and using different types of grains. According to my new book (Flour Power: A Guide to Modern Home Grain Milling by Marietta F. Basey), hard red spring wheat has a higher protein content than hard red winter wheat due to the shorter growing cycle, but hard red winter wheat has a better flavor due to the longer growing season (they are both harvested in the summer) so I decided to use a mixture of both.

I used 1 cup of flour made from hard red winter wheat, 1 cup of flour made from hard red spring wheat and 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour I got from the farmer’s market. I used more of the farmer’s market flour mainly because I didn’t have enough home-milled flour to make the 3 1/2 cups. The flour from the farmer’s market didn’t specify the type of wheat (only that it was Kansas wheat), but I’m pretty sure it was red winter wheat.

The home-milled whole wheat flour had also been sifted once to separate the bran and germ. The resulting flour is called clear flour. Clear flour still retains some of the finer bran fiber from the outer endosperm of the wheat berry and is thus coarser and contains higher levels of ash. We used this technique in the BBA Challenge for the Marbled Rye Bread. It is usually made from very high-protein wheat and is used for whole-grain and high-fiber breads.

I made up the dough and let it ferment on the counter for a few hours. However, I didn’t put it in the refrigerator for the overnight retard. The consistency of the dough looked, smelled and felt so good, I decided to go ahead and bake part of it.

I weighed out two portions. Each piece weighed slightly under a pound, but it was close enough. I used one piece for this bread and saved the other one for the Aloo Paratha.

Then I shaped the dough into a ball and let it rest for a couple of minutes. Picture is fuzzy for some reason. Probably because my brain was fuzzy when I took it. ;)

Then I shaped the ball into an elongated oval, placed it on parchment paper, and let the dough rest on the counter for about 90 minutes.

Right before baking, I made three slashes in the loaf using a serrated knife.

Then, I sprayed the loaf with water and sprinkled a mixture of seeds on top. After that, I sprayed the loaf with spray oil to try and keep all (some) of the seeds from falling off.

Then, I placed it on the baking stone with a steam pan underneath and baked it for about 30 minutes. It had good oven spring.

Here is the finished loaf.

I really liked this bread. It was very flavorful, not dense at all. It tasted really good as a PB&J. As I’ve mentioned before, my test of whether a bread is good or not is if it tastes good with PB&J or at least with peanut butter. This one passed the test with flying colors.

I loved the flavor of this bread. It’s one of my favorites so far. I think part of it is because of the flour I used. It was fresh and had a wonderful flavor. All I know is that I’ll definitely be making this bread again and using this flour mixture.

Thanks for joining me in the bread-baking blog. I’ll discuss the other two breads next time. Check out Michelle's blog on March 1st to see what everyone else baked with this dough.

About the HBinFive Baking Group

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

STIR IT 28 – Food Bloggers join together to benefit Haiti!

2010-02-25T23:56:00.001-05:00

On Sunday, February 21st, Chefs, Restaurants and Food Bloggers came together to raise money for the people of Haiti. The event was held in 4 cities across the nation – Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Manhattan. The Atlanta event was fabulous! The food was great, the atmosphere electric and the people were wonderful!

What is STIR IT 28?

STIR IT 28 is 3-part fund-raising effort to help in the relief of Haiti's devastating earthquake. 3 food bloggers came together to bring awareness and raise money for the island! 100% OF MONEY RAISED GOES DIRECTLY TO SHARE OUR STRENGTH AND YELE HAITI!

Baking Breads for STIR It 28 – Atlanta

I had the privilege of baking breads for the Atlanta event. I decided to make some of my favorite breads. I practiced all week to make sure they were just right. I baked 27 loaves of bread last week – 19 for the event. Whew! Now I know what it would feel like to run a bakery. Well, not really!

It involved a lot of bread-baking, but it was an honor to participate in such a wonderful event. The funniest part to me was that time after time, visitors to my table would ask me where my storefront (bakery) was and how much I sold my bread for. My response was that I didn’t normally sell my breads, I was just participating in the event to support this worthy cause. They just looked at me funny so maybe I should rethink the idea of selling my breads - or, not!

This one guy kept coming up to my table and asking me how much I sold my breads for. It made my night, so I ended up giving him some of the Potato Rosemary Dinner Rolls to take home at the end of the evening.

This is a photo of my table before the event started. My stash of breads is on the ledge behind the table.

Here are the breads I brought with me (from left to right) Potato Rosemary, Whole Wheat with herbs (made with HBinFive Master dough), and Pane Siciliano. In the back left is Cranberry Walnut Celebration bread and on the right side hidden under a cloth are the Potato Rosemary Dinner Rolls. I also served fruit and cheese, homemade Festive Marmalade and Citrus Marmalade and some oil and spices for dipping.

On to the event…

Mark, from LeahandMark.com took some wonderful photos that captured the essence and spirit of the event. He graciously allowed us to download some of the photos to share with our visitors. His photos look better than mine so I decided to use them.

This is one of my favorite photos. It’s such a great shot! Everyone was enjoying the music.

Now, on to the food!

Here is my table during the event. I never knew my breads could look so good! That’s thanks to Mark, of course.

That’s the Pane Siciliano in the foreground of the photo. It’s one of my favorite breads from the BBA Challenge.

It tastes really good with homemade Festive Marmalade and Citrus Marmalade. Just ask the nice lady sitting down in the photo. She tried some of the Pane Siciliano with the Festive Marmalade and loved it! Or, so she said. She and her boyfriend were there representing Montaluce Winery.

Montaluce Winery donated some wonderful wine for the event. They are located in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains and I can’t wait to go for a tour soon. Lovely and very generous folks!

In the photo below, is Christina of melecotte.blogspot.com (left), Bren Herrera of flanboyanteats.com (middle), and Christina’s friend (right). Bren was the host extraordinaire of the Atlanta event and part of the trio, along with Chrystal at The Duo Dishes and Courtney at Coco Cooks, that put together STIR IT 28. She did a fabulous job! Thank you Bren!

Christina had the table right beside me and showcased some of the most wonderful-looking and tasty sweets. Every part was edible. I sampled some of the chocolate cakes below and they were scrumptious. My eyes went cross-eyed when I tasted one, it was so good!

Both of our tables were near the front door so as everyone entered, they would take a look at Christina’s table of sweets, then at my table of breads and just shake their heads because they couldn’t decide what to choose. Most of them came back for some of each – probably more for the sweets. I don’t blame them, with all the great food around, it was hard to decide.

That’s Dwight Eubanks in the photo above with his personal chef Deborah Van Trece. Dwight is the outspoken and flamboyant stylist on “HouseWives of Atlanta.”

Another fellow food blogger, Gwen of www.bunkycooks.com stopped by to sample some bread. She’s a baker, but doesn’t yet feature bread on her blog. She wants to start baking bread and I hope she does. In the meantime, she features a lot of other great food.

Tara, the event floor manager and taster extraordinaire, is asking me about some of the breads.

What she really wanted was some of the Cranberry Walnut Celebration bread so she was waiting for me to cut it.

Here is Bren Herrera of flanboyanteats.com again (on the left) and Cecille of adoseoffrosting.blogspot.com (on the right). Cecille is also participating in the BBA Challenge. Bren looks like she’s having a great time. She worked hard putting everything together so she deserved it!

Cecille brought some fabulous cupcakes. I tried one of her Cardamom-Carrot Cupcakes with Citrus Cream Cheese (pictured below) and it was to die for. Yummy!

I didn’t try any of her chocolate cupcakes but they looked fabulous!

Here is my new friend Tara coming back for some more Cranberry Walnut Celebration bread. She’s waiting patiently while I cut some more slices.

I must say the Cranberry Walnut Celebration bread was a big hit! I decided at the last minute to make it. I thought it would make a lovely presentation. Well, it did! Everyone took one look and said “what’s that!” Needless to say, it was one of the first loaves to be eaten.

There were so many wonderful chefs and bloggers at the event and so much delicious food. Of course, I didn’t get to sample all of it. My boyfriend and I got stuffed as it was.

I did try some of the House smoked salmon slides with capers from Serpas True Food (Exec Chef Scott Serpas- www.serpas.com). Scott is a James Beard winner and his restaurant was recently named top 10 Best New Restaurants in the U.S. by G.Q. magazine.

I can understand why! Those smoked salmon slides were delicious! Spicy, but really good!

I even tried some sushi from Maru Sushi Restaurant (Chef @marujoe in Smyrna, GA). The chefs were at the table directly across from me so I had to try their sushi, with some prompting from my boyfriend I might add. I don’t normally like sushi, but I liked this. We both liked it! It was really cool the way they made the sushi. I guess that’s what was so tempting.

It was a wonderful experience!

The whole experience was truly amazing and rewarding. I feel so honored to have had the opportunity to give of my time and energy to benefit the people of Haiti.

I could go on and on about all of the fabulous food, the wonderful people and music and the venue, but I’ll let you check it out for yourself. Click here to see more photos of STIR IT 28 - Atlanta.

Thank you Mark of LeahandMark.com for taking such great photos!

I would also like to send a big thank you to Bren at http://www.flanboyanteats.com, Chrystal over at http://www.duodishes.com/ and Courtney at http://www.cococooks.blogspot.com/ for putting together this fabulous event across the nation.

You still have time to donate to this worthy cause!

You still have a few more days to donate if you haven’t done so already. Click on the PayPal button on the right side bar of http://www.flanboyanteats.com/.

The entire month February has been designated as one of solidarity and fund-raising. As of Feb. 1 and through Feb. 28th, you can donate in any increment amount. We’d like a minimum of $5.00. Maybe donate what you would normally spend to create a dish for a post or give the amount you’d spend on a lunch or dinner out with friends. It’s not about how much you give, but the spirit in which you decided to help others and be selfless. We understand that economic times are hard, but even $1 from each of 500 or more bloggers WILL make a difference.

Join our Directory of Home Bread Bakers!

2010-02-22T20:48:00.001-05:00

We're creating a directory of home bread bakers. There are so many talented home bakers out there; we want to showcase your talents!

We invite you to join our directory of home bread bakers if you have a blog or site dedicated to bread-baking or regularly feature bread on your site.

Once your information has been submitted and approved, we’ll feature you in the directory and highlight your bio on a new section of The Bread Experience homepage called the Bread Baker’s Corner. Check out who we’re featuring this week! You could be next!

Come be a part of the Bread Experience!

If you would like to be listed in the bread-baking directory, just submit your answers to the questions below. Click here to access the form.

Please tell us a little about yourself?
What is your blog/site name? Please include url.
What can readers find on your site/blog?
Do you focus on a special type of bread - i.e. artisan breads, sourdough, rolls, enriched breads, yeast breads, gluten-free breads, quick breads, or just breads in general?
What is your favorite bread to make and why?
If you could summarize bread making into one quote, what would it be?

Join the directory here.

View the directory here.

Thanks for sharing your information. We look forward to showcasing all of the talented home bread-bakers out there.

Pickled Baby Carrots: tigress can jam #2

2010-02-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

The theme for this month’s tigress can jam is carrots. I was so excited when Doris and Jilly announced it on their blog. I had the perfect recipe that I had been wanting to make since the Holidays. However, that recipe takes a little while to make and I just haven’t had the time. So I opted for something a little less time consuming.

Since we’re doing different fruits or vegetables each month, and I still have a bunch of jars from my canning adventures this past Fall, I decided to get a book on small batch canning. It seemed like the practical thing to do. The book has some cool recipes and I found a fast and easy recipe for pickling baby carrots. I’m not really used to anything pickled except cucumbers, but this recipe sounded delicious so I thought I’d give it a try!

Picked Baby Carrots with Oregano and Peppers
Makes: 2 Pint Jars

The recipe is from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard. The book has over 300 recipes that can be made year-round so I’ll probably be using more of the recipes throughout this challenge.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano or 1 tablespoon dried (I used dried. My fresh oregano is a little worse for the wear right now)
2 tablespoons each: chopped sweet red and green pepper
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
2 small cloves garlic
1 lb peeled baby carrots
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon pickling salt

Here is everything you need to get started. I put the vinegar and the water in the same measuring cup.

Directions:

Combine oregano, peppers and hot pepper flakes.

Remove hot jars from canner and divide pepper mixture between them.

Add 1 clove garlic to each jar and fill each with half the carrots leaving 1/2 inch headspace.

Meanwhile, combine vinegar, water and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour hot liquid over carrots to within 1/2 inch of rim (headspace).

Process 15 minutes for pint jars. If you live in a higher altitude or need more detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions at the National Center for Home Preservation.

See, I told you it was easy! Now, we just have to wait a little while before we can eat them. Most pickles need a few weeks to mellow before they are ready to eat. Serve pickles cold and refrigerate pickles after opening.

Pickling Tips:

When pickling, be sure to follow the instructions and use the appropriate amount of vinegar. Vinegar is the essential ingredient in the pickling process. It provides the acidity necessary to preserve produce as well as adding piquant flavor. Never use a vinegar that is less than 5% acetic acid. White vinegar is most commonly used because it does not affect the color of the condiment.

It is important to use only pickling salt. Table salt contains iodine that can turn the condiment dark, as well as anti-caking agents that can give a cloudy appearance.

Sugar is generally added for flavor, but it also helps to keep the preserved condiment firm. Most recipes call for white granulated sugar, but brown sugar and maple syrup may also be added for their flavors.

I'm participating in the tigress' Can Jam during 2010. We'll be making jams and pickling for a whole year. Follow my progress on this blog. Stay tuned for the February Can Jam Roundup…

Happy Canning and Baking!
Cathy

In addition to my new book on small batch canning, here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:

Valentine Bread with Cherries and Almonds

2010-02-15T23:04:00.001-05:00

February is the month for love and lovers. Did you know that in many parts of Europe, there is an ancient tradition of giving Lover's Bread?

These gingerbreads were heart-shaped and extravagantly decorated with colored spun-sugar flowers. As the tradition goes, once the gingerbreads were given, the heart was bespoken and the young man who ate them with the woman who represented his heart's desire was committed for life. This sort of gift disappeared from France around the time of the First World War but in other European countries, the tradition still exists.

Source: The History of Bread by Bernard Dupaigne

For Valentine’s Day, I decided to recreate this old tradition and give the gift of bread to my Sweetie. Rather than trying to make an elaborate gingerbread heart, I chose this beautiful Lacy Valentine Bread Heart. It’s made with enriched dough, filled with chopped cherries and slivered almonds and glazed with a delicious almond glaze.

Lacy Valentine Coffee Cake

Printer friendly version

Makes: 2 coffee cakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water (100 to 110^oF)
2 envelopes Active Dry Yeast
1/2 cup warm milk (100 to 110^oF)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter or margarine, softened
2 large eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
4-1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped maraschino cherries, drained
1/2 cup chopped slivered almonds, toasted

Almond Glaze: In small bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted; 1/2 teaspoon almond extract; and 2 to 3 tablespoons milk. Stir until smooth.

Directions

Place warm water in large warm bowl. Sprinkle in yeast; stir until dissolved. Add warm milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter, eggs, salt, and 1-1/2 cups flour; blend well. Stir in enough remaining flour to make soft dough.

Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 4 to 6 minutes.

Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top.

Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Pat maraschino cherries between paper towels to remove excess moisture. In medium bowl, combine maraschino cherries, almonds, and 1/4 cup sugar; set aside.

Punch dough down. Remove dough to lightly floured surface; divide in half.

Roll 1 half to 24 x 7-inch oval.

Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter; brush half over dough to within 1/2 inch of edges.

Sprinkle half of cherry mixture over dough.

Beginning at long end, roll up tightly as for jelly roll.

Pinch seam to seal;

gently roll back and forth to stretch to 26-inch rope.

Place, seam side down, on greased baking sheet.

Form into ring; pinch ends together to seal.

Shape into heart.

With sharp knife (I did this with scissors), cut slits, starting at outside edge of heart, two-thirds of the way through dough at 3/4-inch intervals. Turn each section on its side to show filling. Cover with plastic wrap.

Let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Bake at 350^oF for 20 to 25 minutes or until done, switching positions of sheets halfway through baking time for even browning. Remove from sheets; let cool on wire racks.

Frost with Almond Glaze.

Then decorate and give the bread to your Sweetheart and watch him or her smile. I added some candied hearts because I like them. :o)

Instead of making two heart coffee cakes, I used the rest of the dough to make sweet rolls (buns actually) for my other two sweeties (aka my sons). The buns were really good, but I didn’t get a photo.

This bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

Thanks for joining me today in the bread-baking blog. I hope you enjoyed your bread experience.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources for your bread-baking enjoyment:

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Valentine Breads: HBinFive

2010-02-13T09:02:00.001-05:00

For the February 15th HBinFive Bread Braid, we made several breads to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day: Chocolate Espresso Bread, Chocolate Tangerine Bars and Red Beet Buns.

I decided to get creative with the Chocolate Espresso Bread and bake it in a flower pot. The result was a dark brown bread that looks like dirt. I’m okay with that! It adds to the effect! The bread cracked a little bit at the top which I also think adds to the effect.

Here is the Chocolate Flower Pot Bread all dressed up for Valentine’s Day! I thought it looked more festive to keep it in the pot for the photo.

Would you like to learn how to make flower pot bread?

View my May 2009 post on Flower Pot Bread. It includes the recipe and instructions for making some delicious Flower Pot Bread.

Next …

We made Chocolate Tangerine Bars using the Chocolate Espresso Bread dough, along with a few additions – bittersweet chocolate, tangerine zest and dried cranberries. I liked the flavor of the bars. The dried cranberries and tangerine zest really provide a burst of flavor, but the bars were a little bit dry.

My taste tester thinks these bars would taste good made into bread pudding, but I decided they would taste really good crumbled over some vanilla ice cream.

My son got a great score on his SAT so we bought some ice cream the other night to celebrate. We crumbled one of the chocolate tangerine bars over the top and added some cherries. It was delicious, but I forgot to take a picture.

Wow! This has become a high calorie post. We went from chocolate bread to ice cream topped with chocolate bread. The good thing is there are no calories in these photos so you’re safe. The other good thing is that I only ate a couple of bites of the ice cream so I’m safe too. My son runs track so he can afford the calories.

Moving right along…

The final bread for this bread braid is Red Beet Buns. I wasn’t going to make them because they just didn’t sound good, but I changed my mind after reading some of the other posts. After all, what’s the point of participating in a bread-baking group if you don’t try new and different things, right? I definitely wouldn’t have chosen this on my own volition, but I’m glad I made them. They have a beautiful color!

My youngest son and I ate them as dinner rolls with homemade vegetable soup. We didn’t have high hopes for them, but we were pleasantly surprised. We had the buns warm with butter and they were actually pretty good. My son even said so. I could taste the onion flavor and my son said they tasted a little bit sweet.

I shared a bun with my taste tester (aka BF) and he loved them. He took some to share with his family. I always have so much bread around, I’m only to happy to share with willing taste testers. ;)

That’s about it for the Feb 15th Bread Braid! Thanks for joining us in the bread-baking blog. Look for more breads from the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes Baking Group.

About the HBinFive Baking Group

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Stollen: BBA

2010-02-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

I wanted to make Stollen, the 36th bread in the BBA Challenge, in December since it’s a Holiday bread, but decided not to skip ahead. I’m glad I waited because I got a little bit tired of all of the enriched breads during the Holidays.

We’ve been making sourdough breads for the past few weeks in the challenge so this enriched bread is a nice change from all of the sourdough.

The first time I made this bread was during the Holidays in 2008 and it turned out huge! I think I over proofed it. The dough hardly fit on the baking sheet and it was a bear trying to get a decent photo.

This time, the Stollen was more photogenic.

I outlined the process in my 2008 post so I won’t go into all that again. Please refer to the Traditional Christmas Stollen post for the instructions on how to make this delicious bread.

I used dried cranberries, apricots and golden raisins this time instead of candied fruit. I also only baked this bread until it was golden brown. I don’t particularly like a deep mahogany color for breads I bake in my oven because when the bread gets to that point, it’s usually burnt. I’m glad I didn’t bake it any longer, it turned out just right!

My substitutions must’ve worked because my taste tester told me that it’s the best enriched bread that I’ve made so far. I still prefer the Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread, but this one is really good.

I’ve been enjoying this bread toasted for breakfast. It doesn’t even need butter.

So there you have Stollen! Now, it’s on to the next bread in the challenge, Swedish Limpa (page 257 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice).

Thanks for joining us this week in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Be sure to Follow along with other bakers in the challenge
And, join the BBA Challenge Facebook Group

You might also enjoy some of the other breads that we've featured in the Bread Baking Blog.

Feel free to leave a comment about this blog, or submit your own bread experience. We'd love to highlight your story on The Bread Experience site.

Sunflower Seed Rye: BBA

2010-02-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

The next bread in the BBA Challenge is #35 Sunflower Seed Rye. I loved making this bread! The dough is wonderful and so easy to work with and the flavor is extraordinary. I think I found my favorite bread! I could eat this bread and nothing else all day. Really!!!

I had been under a lot of stress due to a project at work last week, but when I got my hands on this dough, my stress just melted away. I like to mix and knead the dough by hand whenever possible. There’s just something about kneading and working the dough…

The fermentation time was only 90 minutes for the first rise and another 90 minutes after shaping so I was able to make this bread after work. I so needed (kneaded) that.

I really like the addition of sunflower seeds in this bread. Since the bread is called Sunflower Seed Rye, I decided it would be fun to shape one of the loaves like a sunflower. It’s actually a couronne with vertical cuts like an Epi but it looks like a flower to me so that’s what I’m calling it. The other loaf is shaped like a couronne.

This dough utilizes an overnight soaker made with coarse whole-rye (pumpernickel-grind) and water. I wasn’t able to find pumpernickel-grind and I didn’t want to order it, so I used stone-ground rye flour. However, I like this bread so much I just may have to order some.

Once all of the flour has been hydrated, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it out overnight at room temperature. The rye soaks up the water really quickly which is pretty cool.

You’re supposed to make the soaker the day before you want to bake the bread. However, I have a confession to make. I did this part and let the soaker sit overnight and most of the next day, but was too exhausted the next evening to do anything with it. So I put the soaker in the refrigerator overnight and took it out again the next day to warm to room temperature. So instead of using it the day after making it (Sunday evening), I used it the 2nd day after making it (Tuesday evening). I wasn’t sure how it would work, but it performed beautifully!

The day before, also make a firm starter using the barm (starter), bread flour or high-gluten flour and water.

The firm starter rests on the counter for 4 to 5 hours and is then refrigerated overnight and used within 3 days so I didn’t have to worry about this one.

The next day, or two days later in my case, remove the starter from the refrigerator 1 hour before making the dough.

Sprinkle a little flour on the counter and transfer the starter to the counter. Cut it into 8 to 10 pieces with a pastry scraper. Mist with spray oil, cover with plastic wrap, and let it sit for 1 hour to take off the chill.

Now, it’s time to make the dough by stirring together the dry ingredients, then adding the soaker and starter pieces and water.

And mix until the ingredients form a soft ball.

Transfer the dough to the counter sprinkled with flour and knead the dough until it feels soft and supple, tacky but not sticky. This needs to be completed in 4 minutes so that the dough doesn’t get gummy.

Add the sunflower seeds by gradually working them into the dough within 2 minutes.

The total mixing time should be no more than 6 minutes, if possible.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil.

Cover it with plastic wrap.

And let it ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until it doubles in size.

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with flour, taking care to minimize degassing it.

Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and gently form them into boules.

Let the boules rest on the counter for about 5 minutes, then shape them into a couronne.

Do this by poking a hole in the center of the ball.

Gently stretch it into a large, circular, doughnutlike shape.

Lay it down on a counter that has been dusted with flour.

Then, crease all four quadrants with a dowel or thin rolling pin. I used a dowel.

Dust the cracks with flour to prevent them from sealing closed. Set it aside for proofing.

For the 2nd loaf, I followed the above instructions for shaping a couronne.

Then let it rest on the counter sprinkled with flour for a few minutes.

I then made vertical cuts in the dough like you would for an epi. It was supposed to look like a wreath, but ended up looking like a flower, but I’m ok with that since this is sunflower seed bread.

Transfer the dough to a parchment lined baking sheet and mist the dough with spray oil. Then cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Proof the dough at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until it increases to about 1 1/2 times its original size.

Prepare your oven for hearth baking by placing a baking stone on the middle shelf and a steam pan on the bottom shelf of the oven. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Rather than baking the bread directly on the baking stone, I opted to place the baking sheet (with the dough on it), on top of the baking stone. This prevented the bottom of the loaf from burning.

At this point, pour 1 cup of hot water into the steam pan and close the door. After 30 seconds, open the door, spray the walls with water, and close the door. Repeat twice more at 30-second intervals, then lower the oven setting to 450 and bake for 10 minutes. Check the breads and rotate them 180 degrees for even baking

Lower the oven setting to 425 and continue baking until the loaves are golden brown. This should take about 15 to 25 minutes longer.

Remove the loaves from the oven and cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing and serving.

Waiting was really the hard part on this one. The loaves looked so good, I wanted to taste them right away.

Here is the couronne!

And here is the Sunflower with a view of the crumb.

I really like this bread! It has a delicious, nutty flavor. I’ll definitely be making this one again. And soon!

This bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

Thanks for joining us this week in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Stollen (page 252 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice).

Be sure to Follow along with other bakers in the challenge
And, join the BBA Challenge Facebook Group

Happy Baking!

Cathy

You might also enjoy some of the other breads that we've featured in the Bread Baking Blog.

Feel free to leave a comment about this blog, or submit your own bread experience. We'd love to highlight your story on The Bread Experience site.

Fastest Homemade Pizza Ever

2010-02-07T10:35:00.001-05:00

Friday night was pizza night at my house. I had company over for dinner and a movie and decided it would be fun to make homemade pizza.

I thought about making Pizza Napoletana from the BBA Challenge, but it tastes best when you let the dough rest in the refrigerator overnight. Another one of my favorites is Brick Oven-Style Pizza made with a poolish and baked on a baking stone. This one also requires an overnight or at least an all day rest in the refrigerator. Since I was doing this at the last minute, neither one of these options would work.

I could’ve made No Knead Deep Dish Pizza, another one of my favorites. However, it only makes one pizza and my BF (a non-meat eater) was coming over so I needed a recipe that would make enough crust for a couple of pizzas that we could top with different toppings.

I decided to make the Fastest Homemade Pizza Ever. I had picked up some Italian-type 00 Flour from the Farmer’s market a few weeks ago so this was the perfect opportunity to use it.

2/10/2010 Update: This is a very versatile pizza dough. I made a couple extra balls of dough and put them in the refrigerator for a couple of days. I took one out Monday night and made a barbeque chicken pizza with green peppers and onions. It was a masterpiece! My son’s face lit up when he took a bite. What a nice feeling! I’ll be making this version again soon.

Here is the recipe and instructions for making this delicious and easy thin crust pizza!

The Fastest Homemade Pizza Ever
Makes: Two 12” thin-crust pizzas

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon Pizza Dough Flavor (optional, but tasty)
1 tablespoon Easy-Roll Dough Improver or nonfat dry milk
3 cups (11 ounces) Italian-style 00 flour*
3/4 cup (6 ounces) lukewarm water
2 tablespoons (7/8 ounce) olive oil

*You can substitute White Whole Wheat flour for half of the Italian flour, if you desire.

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients together in the bowl until it forms a round ball.

Remove the dough to the counter and knead for 5 minutes. You don’t need to sprinkle the counter with flour. The dough has oil in it so it won’t stick to the counter.

Knead until the dough is soft and supple.

Divide the dough in half,

Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let rest and relax for 15 minutes or up to an hour if necessary to fit in with your schedule.

Grease two 12” squares of parchment paper. Use greased fingers to press each piece of dough on the parchment into an 11” to 12” circle about 1/8” thick.

Brush or spray the crusts with olive oil, and let them rest for about 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 450 degrees with a pizza stone inside.

Dough for 1st pizza.

Dough for 2nd pizza.

Place the crusts with their parchment directly on the stone, or onto a baking sheet. As you can see by the picture, I made some extra dough. I plan to freeze it and use it another day.

Bake until the crusts are just starting to brown around the edges, about 4 minutes. At this point, everyone was standing in my kitchen waiting on the pizza. I was a little bit distracted so I didn’t get photos of some of the steps in the process.

Remove from the oven and top with your favorite toppings.

For the teenagers, I made one pizza with lot’s of pepperoni and cheese. Since my BF doesn’t eat meat, I topped the other one with bell peppers and onions and a mixture of mozzarella and freshly grated parmesan cheeses.

Bake for an additional 6 minutes, till everything’s warm and bubbly.

Next step is to enjoy the pizza. We did!

Here is the pepperoni pizza that my youngest son and his girlfriend enjoyed.

This is the veggie pizza that my boyfriend ate.

I enjoyed a slice of both pizzas along with a delicious salad. All in all, it was a good evening.

Thanks for letting me share my bread experience with you.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some Tools & Resources for making homemade pizza:

Choose a recipe from our collection of homemade pizza recipes.
Check out the pizza ingredients section for some special products to make your pizza taste even better.
Browse the homemade pizza section for pizza peels, pizza stones, and other pizza pans and tools.
Check out our selection of pizza cookbooks.
View our selection of pizza mixes.
Refer to the tips in the how to make pizza section.
For more recipes and instructions, check out the September 2009 and September 2008 bread baking blog archives.

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Baking Bread for Haiti: STIR IT 28

2010-02-06T23:59:00.001-05:00

For some time now, I’ve been looking for a way to use my bread-baking skills to benefit the needy. I finally found it! I’m baking bread for STIR IT 28 – Atlanta. I’m so excited to be a part of this wonderful effort to benefit the people of Haiti. 100% of monies raised goes directly to Share Our Strength and Yéle Haiti.

Participating in virtual bread baking events is great and I’ve made so many wonderful breads and met so many terrific people. I given a lot of the bread away, but mostly just to family and friends. I’m really looking forward to baking for a live offline event.

What is STIR IT 28?

STIR IT 28 is a 3-part fund-raising effort to help in the relief of Haiti's devastating earthquake. Three food bloggers have come together to bring awareness and raise money for Haiti! On Feb. 21st, 4 cities, nation-wide, will host an evening of culinary adventures, featuring extraordinary food from chefs, restaurants and food bloggers in each city!

What can you do to help?

Attend the live event:

If you’re in Atlanta or one of the other participating cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Washington), we hope you’ll join the live event. Visit www.flanboyanteats.com to learn more about STIR IT 28.

To purchase tickets, go to www.flanboyanteats.com and click on the logo on the top right.

Join the STIR IT 28 Facebook Fan Page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=287071848674&ref=mf

Consider making a donation:

If you're unable to attend the live event, or don’t live near one of the participating cities, please consider making a donation! Click on the PayPal button on the right side bar of http://www.flanboyanteats.com/.

Spread the Word:

Spread the word to your friends, tell your families. The idea is to bring the food community together as a whole, so anyone who lives and loves food should get the message!

Let’s Stir It Up for Haiti!

Yeasted Banana and Chocolate Coffee Ring

2010-02-04T17:47:00.001-05:00

Bread and Chocolate! These are two of my favorite things! And, it’s the theme for the Monthly Mingle this month which is being hosted by none other than Jamie at Life’s a Feast. Jamie also hosted BBD #26. I submitted Chocolate Cinnamon Babka for that roundup.

For this event, I decided to try a new twist on a theme - Chocolate and Banana Yeast Bread! I needed to use up some overripe bananas and this recipe sounded so good. I love banana quick bread with chocolate morsels, but this sounded even better especially with the chocolate glaze on top.

The recipe is from Kneadlessly Simple by Nancy Baggett. It’s a very easy and delicious banana bread filled with chocolate morsels and walnuts on the inside; then topped with a beautiful chocolate glaze on the outside. It’s delicious and the perfect bread for a mingle.

Here’s how you make this delicious bread!

Most of the ingredients are added before the first rise and no hand-shaping is required. How easy is that!

Mix together the flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl.

Then, place the mashed bananas in a bowl and whisk in the honey, oil, and orange zest. Yes, it includes orange zest. You don’t normally find that in recipes for banana quick breads. Then whisk in the water until well blended.

Vigorously stir the mixture into the bowl with the flour, scraping down the bowl sides and mixing until the dough is well blended; it should be rubbery (and it was!)

Vigorously stir in the butter.

If necessary add some more flour to make the dough stiff so that it’s hard to stir.

Lightly brush the top with butter. Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 to 10 hours.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it rise at cool room temperature for 12 to 18 hours.

Vigorously stir the dough; adding enough flour to make it very stiff.

Gradually fold in the chocolate morsels and nuts until evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Turn the dough into a Bundt pan (or a similar tube pan) and evenly brush the top with melted butter.

Using a greased rubber spatula, press down and smooth out to even the surface all over.

Tent the pan with nonstick spray-coated foil.

Let the dough rise in the pan for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours at room temperature. When the dough nears the foil, remove it and continue the rise until the dough doubles in bulk. It took about 3 hours for it to rise. It was really cold in my kitchen when I made this bread.

15 minutes before baking time, place a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Bake on the lower rack for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top is nicely browned.

Cover with foil and continue baking for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the thickest part comes out clean. Then bake for another 5 to 10 minutes to ensure the interior is baked through. I didn’t need to use any foil because the bread didn’t brown too quickly on the top. I also didn’t bake it quite this long or it would’ve burned in my oven.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then run a knife around the coffeecake to loosen, then remove it to the rack and let it cool. I used a spatula for this part because I didn’t want to scratch my pan.

Doesn’t it look yummy! I can’t wait to try this bread. I almost didn’t make the chocolate glaze because it looked so good without it…

… but I thought it would be fabulous with the Glossy Chocolate Drizzle so I made the glaze with powdered sugar, unsweetened cocoa power, fresh hot coffee, light syrup and chopped unsweetened bittersweet chocolate. Mmmmm….

Drizzle the chocolate glaze over the coffeecake once it has cooled completely. You can sprinkle with some chopped walnuts but I didn’t have any at the time so I skipped this step.

Serve the coffeecake at room temperature. Cool completely before storing airtight in a cake keeper or plastic container. It will keep at room temperature for 2 to 3 days, and may be frozen, airtight, for up to 2 months. I did a little bit of both. I kept some out to eat and froze the rest to enjoy later.

This bread has been submitted to the Monthly Mingle. You might want to submit your own Chocolate & Bread creation. Just be sure to check out all of the other breads in the Monthly Mingle Roundup to be posted on Feb 22nd.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources for your bread-baking enjoyment:

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Pumpernickel Bread: BBA

2010-02-02T11:13:00.001-05:00

Today we’re featuring Pumpernickel Bread, the 34th bread in the BBA Challenge. I had fun making this bread! I made it during my marathon baking session last weekend. It was really easy! I also tried a new steaming technique that involves a roasting pan. Read on for more details…

“Pumpernickel bread is a form of German bread, referenced at least as far back as the 1450s. It is characterized by its dark color, virtually no crust and its rye taste. The traditional method for producing pumpernickel bread is to combine course and fine rye flour with a sourdough starter and sometimes yeast. The bread then undergoes a slow cooking process, which can last up to 24 hours. Cooking temperature is usually under 300 degrees F (149 C), and results in a dark brown or almost black colored bread.”

-- Source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-pumpernickel-bread.htm

The method we used to make this bread does not involve slow cooking it for 24 hours. However, it still produces a good loaf in my opinion.

Like some of the other bakers in the challenge, I was unable to find pumpernickel flour, so I used stone ground rye flour instead. I also used cocoa powder for the coloring rather than instant coffee. Hey! If I have a choice that involves any form of chocolate, well guess what I’ll choose!

Preparing the Starter

Begin by making the starter the day before you want to bake the bread. Mix together the barm, rye flour, and water in a bowl to make a wet, pasty barm.

Let the starter sit for 4 to 5 hours, or until it becomes bubbly and foamy. Then, put it in the refrigerator overnight.

Making the Dough

The next day, remove the rye starter from the refrigerator an hour before you want to make the dough.

Stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, and yeast in a mixing bowl.

Then add the rye barm, bread crumbs (I used the crumbs I made from the Sourdough Rye & Spelt Bread), and oil and mix until all of the ingredients form a ball. Add more flour or water if necessary.

Kneading the Dough

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with bread flour. Knead it for about 6 minutes, adding flour as needed to make a smooth and pliable dough – tacky but not sticky.

Proofing the Dough

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl. Roll it around to coat it with oil, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Let the dough ferment at room temperature for 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Shaping the Loaves

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with flour, being careful not to degas it too much.

Divide the dough into two pieces and shape them into boules. Or, if you prefer, you can shape them into loaves and bake them in loaf pans.

Preparing the loaves for baking

To bake these loaves, I decided to use a couple of different steaming techniques rather than using a baking stone and a steaming pan underneath.

For one loaf, I used my La Cloche. To prepare it, I greased the bottom with coconut oil and sprinkled it with cornmeal. Then, I transferred the dough to the La Cloche, misted the top with cooking spray, and covered it with plastic wrap and let it proof.

For the other loaf, I decided to try a method I had read about on a couple of different blogs. It involves using an aluminum roasting pan over the bread to provide steam rather than having the steaming pan underneath. Peter Reinhart had made reference to this method on his blog a few weeks ago. Then Paul with Yumarama, provided a photo tutorial and explained the technique on one of his recent posts. So I decided I would give it a go.

I placed the second loaf on parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal and covered it with plastic wrap and let it proof.

I proofed both loaves at room temperature for about 90 minutes until the dough rose to about 1 1/2 times its original size.

Baking the Loaves

I decided to bake the second loaf first since the baking stone needed to preheat. To prepare the oven, I placed a baking stone on the middle rack and preheated the oven to 450 degrees F.

Then, I scored the loaf. I decided to do something different with the slashing just to see how it would look.

Then I transferred the loaf to the baking stone

and placed the roasting pan on top.

At this point, I lowered the oven to 400 degrees and baked the loaf for 10 minutes. I checked the loaf and rotated it 180 degrees for even baking and continued baking the loaf for about 10 or so more minutes. I should’ve removed the roasting pan at this time, but I didn’t. As you can see, the loaf got a little bit too brown. Oops!

So I removed it from the oven, and let it cool on a wire rack while the other loaf was baking.

Now, it was time to bake the other loaf in the La Cloche. I removed the baking stone and the middle rack (carefully) from the oven and turned the oven back up to 450 degrees so it could preheat at the higher temperature. Then, I scored the loaf.

When the oven was ready, I placed the La Clothe on the bottom rack

Then I put the lid on to create the steam.

I reduced the heat to 400 degrees at this point and let the bread bake for about 10 minutes.

I took the lid off to check the loaf, then I let it bake for another 10 minutes or so until it was a beautiful brown color and sounded hollow when thumped on the bottom. I used cocoa powder rather than coffee granules to produce the brown coloring.

Then I removed it and let it cool on the wire rack with the other loaf.

Here are the breads side-by-side. The one on the left was baked under the roasting pan. The one on the right was baked in the La Cloche. The loaf baked in the La Cloche was a beautiful brown color. The other loaf got a little bit too browned on the bottom but it still turned out ok.

I like this bread! It’s mild, but that’s how I like it!

I also liked the crumb! It was tender and moist and the slices tasted great warm with butter. See the slice in the photo below, I had that one for my afternoon snack. Yummy!

By the way, this bread freezes pretty well. As I mentioned, I did a marathon baking session last weekend and this is one of the breads I made during that session. I froze it because I had too many breads at one time. I thawed it a few days later to get a shot of the crumb and do a taste test. The bread tasted great!

That’s about it for this bread!

This bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

Thanks for joining us this week in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Sunflower Seed Rye Bread (page 249 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice).

Be sure to Follow along with other bakers in the challenge
And, join the BBA Challenge Facebook Group

Happy Baking!

Cathy

You might also enjoy some of the other breads that we've featured in Bread Baking Blog.

Feel free to leave a comment about this blog, or submit your own bread experience. We'd love to highlight your story on The Bread Experience site.

Soft Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns and the Tunnel in the Dough: HBinFive

2010-01-31T15:00:00.001-05:00

This is a tale of two carnivores and a tunnel in the dough. The tale begins with two carnivores who wouldn’t eat the Soft Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns I made in the HBinFive baking group this past weekend because they had Black Bean Burgers in them. Of course, the two carnivores I’m referring to are my sons.

I have to give them a little credit though. My oldest son took a bite. He then proclaimed that it tasted like meatloaf and wouldn’t eat anymore. My youngest son attempted to eat one but said it tasted like he was eating a big bean. So, at this point, they both decided to go out and get a “real” burger.

So I ate the black bean burger on the soft whole wheat bun and thoroughly enjoyed it. The next day, I shared one with my non-meat-eating taste tester (aka BF) and he enjoyed it as well. We had the burgers with home canned pickles. They were delicious!

Here is the recipe for the black bean burgers.
They really are good even if my carnivores don’t like them!

The morale of this story is don’t bother wasting your culinary experiments on two carnivores that would rather eat a burger from a fast food joint than “real” food. Just kidding! I knew they wouldn’t eat them! But it sure was fun watching them squirm.

Remind me to tell you about the meatball episode! I will never let my oldest son forget that one! Sure wish I had gotten it on video. It would be all over uTube now.

But I digress…

Here is a picture of the whole wheat buns. I think these would also taste good as warm rolls with nothing but butter.

Moving right along…

The next part of the tale involves the tunnel of love, I mean dough.

In the HBinFive bread baking group, we also made Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread from the same Healthy Bread in Five Minutes Soft Wheat Dough. I really like the fact that you can make several different breads from the same dough.

The loaf was very soft and fluffy and I had very high expectations for it. This is what it looked like when I first sliced it (see below). I was really looking forward to enjoying it with peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam. I used my PB&J test, but it didn’t pass. It tasted eggy! It’s made with 5 eggs for goodness sake! I thought I just didn’t like the bread, but soon found out what had happened.

It was gummy and not completely cooked and it had a tunnel in it. There’s a name for this phenomenon - baker’s cave or something. I don’t think I’ve ever had this happen so I decided to share it. Looks pretty cool, huh! Except it doesn’t taste very good and it’s hard to make a sandwich with a hole in the middle of the bread.

I read somewhere what causes this, but I couldn’t seem to put my fingers on that information to share with you. I’m pretty sure I overproofed the dough and didn’t cook it long enough. I used a skewer to test the doneness but I must not have put it completely in the middle. Next time, I’ll use a thermometer.

Unfortunately, this one is going to the birds. Fortunate for them, I suppose. They like me!

Oh yeah! We were also supposed to make Apple Strudel Bread in the baking group, which I’m sure is delicious, but I didn’t get to that one. Please visit some of the other HBinFive bakers to find out how they liked that one. I’ll post the link to the roundup in a few days so you can view them.

Thanks for joining us today in the bread-baking blog. Look for more breads from the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes Baking Group.

About the HBinFive Baking Group

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Making Jam: Grapefruit Marmalade

2010-01-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

If you’re looking for a refreshing change from orange marmalade, then I’ve got just the thing; Grapefruit Marmalade! It’s delish!

This grapefruit marmalade has become one of my favorites. It ranks up there with Citrus Marmalade. I almost submitted this as my entry in the tigress' can jam, but decided at the last minute to make Lime Marmalade instead.

I wanted to make this marmalade over the Holidays with ruby red grapefruit because I thought it would make a beautiful and festive gift. However, I was hesitant to make it because of the way the Grapefruit Cranberry Marmalade turned out. That one was really bitter!

I’ve heard that marmalade is supposed to be bitter, but I don’t particularly like bitter. My favorite jam, Citrus Marmalade (made with oranges, lemon and a grapefruit, including the rinds) is really good (and not bitter), so I just couldn’t accept that other marmalades had to be bitter – unless of course, you like them that way.

I had almost given up on the idea of making grapefruit marmalade when I found this recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. With their method, you soak the rinds overnight to get rid of a lot of the bitterness. What a great idea! Wish I had known about that when I made the Grapefruit Cranberry Marmalade. If I ever make that one again, I’ll use this method. It makes all the difference – to me at least!

Grapefruit Marmalade

Makes: about three 8-ounce jars

One of the things I really like about this marmalade recipe is that you can make a small batch if you just want a little bit or you can make a bigger batch if you want more. How easy is that!

Ingredients:

1 large grapefruit (I used ruby red)
Water
Granulated sugar

Directions:

Wash grapefruit, score skin into quarters and remove peel.

With a spoon, scrape bitter white pith from peel and discard.

Slice the peel thinly.

In a large, deep stainless steel saucepan, combine peel with water to cover generously. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat and boil for 10 minutes. Drain and discard liquid. Return to saucepan.

Working over a bowl to catch juice and using a sharp knife, separate grapefruit segments from the membrane.

Add segments and juice to peel in saucepan. Squeeze any juice from membrane into saucepan. Discard membranes and seeds.

Add 4 cups water to peel mixture.

Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

Cover and let stand in a cool place for 12 to 18 hours.

The next day, prepare your canner, jars and lids for water-bath canning. For detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions on the National Center for Home Preservation's site.

Return saucepan to medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Boil until peel is tender, about 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and measure fruit mixture. Return to saucepan and bring back to a boil. Maintaining a boil, gradually stir in 1 cup sugar for each cup of fruit.

Boil hard, stirring frequently, until mixture reaches gel stage, about 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and test gel.

If gel stage has been reached, skim off foam. Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot marmalade.

Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight. I didn’t have quite enough marmalade to fill 3 jars so I put the half-filled jar on the right in the refrigerator. I’ve been enjoying it!

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to boil and process for 10 minutes. I only had 2 jars to process so I just used a big pot with trivets on the bottom instead my big canning pot.

Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

I kept this batch for myself. I’ll have to can some more to share.

Happy Canning and Baking!
Cathy

Here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:

Here are some delicious breads that would go well with this jam!

Pain Poilâne: BBA

2010-01-27T17:08:00.001-05:00

We’re moving right along in the BBA Challenge. I finally made it to the bread on the cover of the Bread Baker’s Apprentice book: Poilâne-Style Miche (#33). Poilâne Miche is a naturally fermented country bread created by Lionel Poilâne, a famous baker in Paris. He calls his bread a miche but it is referred to as Pain Poilâne by others. Poilane has a very unique (and interesting) system for making his bread and his apprentices are specially trained in the craft.

My goal was to create a reasonable facsimile of this bread in my kitchen. I liked the way the bread looked on the cover but wasn’t sure how it would taste or if I could recreate it in a manner worthy of it’s fame; particularly given my not so pleasant results with the Sourdough Rye/Spelt Bread. I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a beauty! It is a somewhat dense and chewy bread, but the flavor is really good.

Since I’m pleased with how my Poilâne-Style Miche turned out, I decided to submit it to YeastSpotting, a weekly bread roundup hosted by Susan of Wild Yeast. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

Poilâne-Style Miche

I had fun making this bread. It is made with whole wheat flour that is sifted to a partial whole wheat, a 90 to 95 percent extraction rate (which, according to Peter Reinhart, means that much, but not all, of the bran is still in the flour). I used freshly milled organic red winter wheat and was able to extract a good bit of the bran because home-milled flour is coarser than commercially-milled whole wheat flour and the bran separates more easily.

This is the sifted home-milled flour. See all the bran that’s left after the flour is sifted out. This process is way cool!

The day before you want to make this bread, make a firm starter with a mixture of sifted medium-grind whole-wheat flour, water and barm (or mother starter) that has been fed.

Mix until it forms a ball, then transfer the dough to the counter and knead the mixture for about 3 minutes until all the flour is hydrated and the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and roll it around in it to coat it with the oil.

Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough ferment at room temperature for 4 to 6 hours, or until the dough doubles in size. Then refrigerate it overnight.

The next day, remove the starter from the refrigerator 1 hour before making the dough.

Cut the starter into about 12 small pieces with a pastry scraper. Cover the dough pieces with plastic wrap and let them sit for 1 hour to take off the chill.

Stir together the sifted whole-wheat flour (all 7 cups of it), salt, and starter pieces. A Danish dough whisk works really well for this part but you can also use a large metal spoon.

Add enough water to bring all of the ingredients into a soft ball. Adjust the flour and water as necessary.

Next, sprinkle some flour on the counter and get ready to knead it and I mean knead it. I hope you’ve been working out because this is the tough part. The dough is way too heavy for most stand mixers so you have to do this by hand and it takes about 12-15 minutes.

I put on some music and got a good workout with this one. However, I didn’t take pictures of that part. ;)

The dough should be supple and tacky but not sticky. Lightly oil a large bowl and place the dough inside, rolling it around to coat it with oil.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature for approximately 4 hours, or until the dough nearly doubles in size. I let it sit for about 5 hours I think.

Transfer the dough to the counter and form it into a boule.

Proof the dough in a banneton (if you have one) or do what I did and use a large bowl covered with a cloth that has been sprayed with spray oil and sprinkled generously with flour. The bowl should be big enough to hold the dough when it rises to nearly double in size. My bowl may have been a little bit too big but it worked just fine.

Place the dough seam side up, in the bowl and mist the top with spray oil.

Cover with a cloth or plastic wrap. I opted for plastic wrap. Proof the boule at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, or until the dough grows 1 1/2 times in size.

Prepare the oven for hearth baking. For my oven, this means placing a baking stone on the middle rack and a steam pan on the bottom rack. If I put the baking stone any lower, then the bread burns on the bottom. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Carefully remove the top layer of cloth or plastic wrap from the dough 10 minutes before baking. Dust the back of a peel with semolina flour or cornmeal. I used cornmeal.

Turn the dough out gently onto the peel and carefully remove the cloth liner from the dough.

Score the dough with a large pound sign.

Slide the dough onto the baking stone. Pour 2 cups of hot water into the steam pan and close the door. Immediately lower the temperature to 450 degrees F.

After 25 minutes, rotate the loaf 180 degrees and lower the oven setting to 425 degrees F. And to think, the Poulane bakers have to do this by feel; they don’t have thermometers on their ovens.

Continue to baking for another 30 to 40 minutes, until the bread is done.

It should be deeply browned. It’s a beautiful color!

Transfer the loaf to a wire rack and let it cool for at least 2 hours before slicing or serving.

This bread tastes great warm or toasted with butter. Store the bread in a brown paper bag. It will keep for about 5 to 7 days. I made it last Saturday and the bread still tastes pretty good (on Wednesday). Just serve it warm with butter. I haven’t tried this yet, but I think it would also taste great with cheese and meat.

I didn’t get a shot of the crumb. I was so proud of the shot of the loaf, I forgot to take a picture when we sliced it. Oops!

Thanks for joining us this week in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge.

The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Pumpernickel Bread (page 246 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice). I liked that one too. I’ll be posting about it soon.

Be sure to Follow along with other bakers in the challenge
And, join the BBA Challenge Facebook Group

Happy Baking!

Cathy

You might also enjoy some of the other breads that we've featured in Bread Baking Blog.

Feel free to leave a comment about this blog, or submit your own bread experience. We'd love to highlight your story on The Bread Experience site.

Pepperoni Pizza Rolls

2010-01-25T17:55:00.001-05:00

Are you looking for an easy and delicious appetizer/snack for the big game? These pepperoni pizza rolls are delicious and easy! They melt in your mouth like cinnamon rolls, but are savory rather than sweet. These rolls taste great hot or cold and make great appetizers for the big game or any special get together with friends. I made them over the Holidays and they were a big hit!

Tools & Resources for making homemade pizza:

Choose a recipe from our collection of homemade pizza recipes.
Check out the pizza ingredients section for some special products to make your pizza taste even better.
Browse the homemade pizza section for pizza peels, pizza stones, and other pizza pans and tools.
Check out our selection of pizza cookbooks.
View our selection of pizza mixes.
Refer to the tips in the how to make pizza section.
For more recipes and instructions, check out the September 2009 and September 2008 bread baking blog archives.

Pepperoni Pizza Rolls Recipe

Makes: 12 to 18 rolls

Recipe from: A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman.

Ingredients:

Dough
1 1/2 cups warm water
5 teaspoons rapid-rise yeast
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 to 5 cups bread flour

Filling
2 cups spaghetti sauce
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, for dusting
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1 1/2 pounds shredded mozzarella cheese
8 to 12 ounces pepperoni, sliced

Finishing Touches
Olive oil
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Hand whisk water and yeast together in the mixer bowl and let stand 2 to 3 minutes until the yeast dissolves.

Briskly whisk in the oil, sugar, salt, and most of the flour.

Mix until combined, then knead with the dough hook on lowest speed 8 to 10 minutes, adding more flour as necessary to make a soft, bouncy dough.

Remove the dough hook and spray the dough with spray oil.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or a large food grade plastic bag) and let the dough rise 45 minutes.

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and gently deflate.

Let the dough rest another 20 minutes.

Roll or press dough out into a 14- x 12-inch rectangle.

Spoon on spaghetti sauce, garlic, and olive oil; dust with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.

Sprinkle on the cheese and scatter the pepperoni.

Roll the dough jellyroll-style and place it on the baking sheet. Refrigerate or freeze for 20 minutes. Chilling the dough makes it easier to cut the slices without squishing the dough.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator or freezer (I used the freezer) and cut it into 1 1/2 inch slices.

Place the slices on prepared baking sheet. Leave some space between the slices so the rolls have room to rise.

Brush the tops with olive oil and dust with Parmesan cheese. Cover the baking sheet loosely with plastic wrap and the let the dough rise for 20 to 35 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake until cheese is melted and bubbly and the buns are golden, about 20 to 25 minutes.

They’re getting bigger but not quite done yet.

Now they’re done!

Here are the delicious rolls ready to eat! Enjoy! They won’t last long.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Sourdough Rye and Spelt Bread: BBA

2010-01-22T10:08:00.001-05:00

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, as the saying goes. The same principle applies to bread. When life (or your oven) gives you a bread that is dense and dry, you make bread crumbs. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

It's Day 32 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, and the bread of the day is 100% Sourdough Rye Bread. After reading the comments from some of the other bread bakers who were not too impressed with this bread, I decided to try something different.

I used a mixture of spelt and rye flours - mostly spelt. I’ve been wanting to try spelt for a while. The commentary in the book mentioned you could substitute spelt for the rye so that's what I did. I used a mixture of organic spelt and organic coarse rye flour.

To begin with, I made the firm starter with a mixture of spelt flour, water and the barm (or mother starter).

The rye soaker is made with a mixture of coarse rye flour and water.

The final dough is made with additional spelt flour, the firm starter, the soaker, salt and water. I omitted the caraway seeds.

This is the final dough after fermenting for 2 – 3 hours and right before shaping.

The bread turned out really dense due to the low gluten content of both the spelt and rye flours. You can tell by the slashes that it didn’t rise very much at all. It wasn’t very photogenic either.

I liked the flavor, but it was a little bit dry. This was my first time using spelt so it was a little hard to gauge how the flour would absorb the water. This is supposed to be a 100% whole wheat bread (rye and spelt) but I think adding some higher-gluten wheat flour would improve it, but that’s just me.

This isn't my favorite bread from the challenge for sure, but it wasn't bad. It's just dense and chewy; which is fine if you like that sort of thing. I prefer soft or crusty bread, but I do like some dense breads especially if they’re healthy. That way, I can justify eating them.

I won’t let this bread go to waste. I plan to use the rest of it for bread crumbs. Here you go…

The pumpernickel bread and the black bean burgers I’ll be making to go with the HBinFive Hamburger Buns (both coming up soon) use bread crumbs so this was good timing. See I told you something good would come of it!

Thanks for joining me this week in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. I definitely plan to experiment with spelt some more but probably not with this formula. For now, it’s time to move on in the challenge.

The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Poilâne-Style Miche. This is the bread on the cover of the book. This one ought to be interesting. Turn to page 242 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice to make sure you have the necessary ingredients and equipment.

Be sure to Follow along with other bakers in the challenge

Or, join the BBA Challenge Facebook Group

Happy Baking!

Cathy

You might also enjoy some of the other breads that we've featured in Bread Baking Blog.

Feel free to leave a comment about this blog, or submit your own bread experience. We'd love to highlight your story on The Bread Experience site.

Chocolate Cinnamon Babka: BBD #26

2010-01-20T10:15:00.001-05:00

This month's Bread Baking Day is hosted by Jamie at Life's a Feast and we're baking special breads for her birthday party. I decided that Chocolate Cinnamon Babka would be the perfect bread to bring to her virtual birthday party. It's a festive and delicious bread filled with chocolate and cinnamon.

I thought I had gotten enriched breads out of my system during the Holidays, but when I saw this babka on another blog (sorry, I don't remember which one), it reminded me that I hadn't made any breads yet from Peter Reinhart's new book Artisan Breads Every Day.

So you know what that meant ... I had to make this bread and this was the perfect occasion.

Babka is a rich, yeasted cross between bread and coffee cake. The name is derived from the Russian baba, which means grandmother. The American version is usually formed as a twisted loaf, but I decided to try the Israeli version, known as kranz cake, because I thought it looked really cool.

**Chocolate Cinnamon Babka (Kranz style)**

Makes: 1 Large (make that huge) loaf
This bread is from Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day.

You might also enjoy this Chocolate Babka recipe.

To make the bread:

Whisk together the yeast and lukewarm milk until dissolved, then set it aside for about 5 minutes before mixing it into the dough.

Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.

Add the vanilla to the egg yolks and whisk lightly to break up the yolks.

I used homemade vanilla extract made with vanilla beans and rum (you can also use vodka). The mixture needed to sit in a dark cabinet for a couple of months before it was ready to use. It wasn't quite ready in time for Holiday baking but now I'll have a never ending supply of vanilla extract. I'll just need to add more rum as the supply diminishes and a new vanilla bean every once in a while. I got the idea from The Hungry Mouse. Thanks Jessie!

Then add the yolks and mix until the mixture is fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Stop mixing and add the flour and salt

Then pour in the milk/yeast mixture. Begin mixing again at low speed, for 2 to 3 minutes to make a soft, supple, tacky dough.

Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and knead it by hand for about 2 minutes, adding more flour as necessary to make the dough pliable. I had to add a good bit more flour.

The dough will be a beautiful golden color and will feel soft and supple. Like butter. Yummy!

Form the dough into a ball.

Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl

Cover it tightly with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for about 2 1/2 hours. It will rise somewhat but won't double in size.

While the dough is rising, prepare the filling. Grind frozen chocolate morsels in a food processor until nearly powdered. Then add cinnamon and pulse a couple of times to incorporate. I just got a bunch of cinnamon sticks at a very good price from the farmer's market so I added a cinnamon stick instead of cinnamon powder.

Cut the butter into 8 to 10 pieces, add it to the food processor, and pulse until the butter is evenly dispersed into the chocolate mixture.

Once the dough has risen

Roll it into a 15 by 15-inch square on a lightly floured surface.

You may need to lift the dough frequently (using a metal pastry scraper) and add more flour underneath to prevent it from sticking to the counter.

Sprinkle the chocolate mixture evenly over the dough, leaving a 1/4-inch border.

Roll up the dough like a jelly roll and place it seam side down on the counter.

With gentle but firm hands, rock the log back and forth to extend its length to about 18 to 24 inches long.

To make the Kranz shape, use a metal pastry blade to cut the log down the middle lengthwise.

Cross one piece over the other, then continue to criss-cross the pieces in both directions to form a braid.

Place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. The loaf was so big, it barely fit on the baking sheet.

Cover the loaf loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, until it has increased to about 1 1/2 times its original size.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the loaf for 20 to 25 minutes, then rotate the pan for even baking.

Bake until the top is a rich dark brown, the sides are a rich golden brown, and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom. Total baking time is about 50 to 60 minutes.

Cool for at least 90 minutes before serving. It is best served at room temperature once the chocolate has had time to set.

The loaf was too big to fit on my cooling rack so I had to put it on the Dining room table across two racks.

See how long this loaf is – it’s huge!

I hope Jamie enjoys this virtual Chocolate Cinnamon Babka. My family (well mostly me) has been enjoying the real version. It’s delicious! I started going to the track again so maybe that will offset the extra calories.

I baked this bread for Bread Baking Day #26. Check out all of the fabulous breads in the BBD #26 Roundup.

Learn more about BBD #26

This Chocolate Cinnamon Babka has also been Yeastspotted! Go on over to Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup. You’ll be glad you did.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources for your bread-baking enjoyment:

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Lime Marmalade: Tigress Can Jam #1

2010-01-19T22:43:00.001-05:00

The Tigress' Can Jam has begun! I'm so excited to be participating in this challenge! I'm looking forward to learning more about the canning process and making some more delicious jams. We'll also be doing some pickling … another experience to enjoy. I've made pickles from cucumbers but that's about the extent of my pickling adventures so far. So look out! Here we come...

The theme for this month is citrus fruits (oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, clementines, kumquats, etc). I love citrus so I had a hard time deciding which one I wanted to use. Plus, I've already made citrus marmalade, tangerine marmalade, festive marmalade, and grapefruit marmalade.

I thought about making a marmalade with a mixture of citrus but decided at the last minute to use Persian limes. Well, wouldn't you know it! Tigress, the gracious host of this challenge, decided to use limes as well. I had already started the process when I read her post or I might've chosen a different citrus. I guess it's no biggie though. As many participants as there are in this challenge, some of us are bound to pick the same fruit. It'll be fun to see all of the different jams that everyone makes.

My oldest son was so excited when he found out I was making this marmalade. He loves anything green - especially limes. He walked in the door and said, "I smell cinnamon and citrus!" I was baking a chocolate cinnamon babka and peeling these limes the same night so he had it right! Check out the chocolate babka here.

Lime Marmalade (with Persian Limes)

Yield: About 3 1/2 Pints or Seven 8oz Jars

Original recipe from: http://homecooking.about.com/od/jellyrecipes/r/bljelly34.htm.

This recipe makes a huge batch so I adjusted the ingredients to make it more manageable. It still made enough marmalade to share, but I think 3 1/2 pints is more manageable than 10 pints - yikes!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds Persian limes (about 9)
4.5 cups water
3 pounds (6 cups) sugar

I started following the instructions included with the recipe, but partway through decided I liked the process for making grapefruit marmalade from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving better so I used that process for making this marmalade instead.

Preparation:

This simple lime marmalade uses only 3 ingredients. The recipe is easy, but plan ahead for the limes to soak overnight to remove bitterness.

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Peel the limes and cut the zest into thin strips.

Cut the peeled limes in half and squeeze the juice. Set the juice aside. I put the juice in with the lime zests.

Here’s what the recipe says to do next: Scrape the pulp and seeds from the lime halves. Place in a cheesecloth bag. Place the cheesecloth bag, zest, juice, and water in a 6-quart saucepan, then cover them and soak overnight, or for about 8 hours.

My limes didn’t have any seeds and I wanted to use the pulp so …

This is what I did: I put the zests, juice, water, and pulp in a large pot and brought it to boil over medium-high heat.

I boiled the mixture gently for 10 minutes. Then I covered the pot and let it sit at room temperature for about 18 hours to remove the bitterness.

After the mixture had rested for about 18 hours, I prepared the canner, jars and lids for water-bath canning. For detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions on the National Center for Home Preservation's site.

Then I brought the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. I let it boil about 15 minutes, until the peel was tender.

Then you remove it from the heat and measure the fruit mixture. Return the mixture to the pot and bring it back to boil. Maintaining boil, gradually stir in 1 cup sugar for each cup of fruit. I had almost 3 pounds of fruit mixture so I used 3 pounds (6 cups) of sugar. Boil hard, stirring frequently, until the mixture reaches gel stage, about 30 minutes.

According to the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, there are three different methods for determining when it reaches gel stage. I chose the candy thermometer test because this is the one the book said is the most reliable. Maybe I’ll try the sheet test or the refrigerator (actually freezer) test next time to compare.

To reach gel stage, the mixture should register 220 degrees on the thermometer when it is placed in a vertical position. Make sure it does not contact the surface of the pot.

Once the mixture has reach gel stage, skim off the foam. This is the fun part because I get to eat the foam. Mmmm…It sure tastes good!

Ladle marmalade into clean jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Remove air bubbles if necessary and adjust headspace. I had to remove the air bubbles. You can see them in the jar in the photo below.

Wipe the rim. Center lid on jar.

Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to boil and process for 10 minutes, up to 1,000 feet altitude. If you live in a higher altitude or need more detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions on this site: National Center for Home Preservation.

Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars from water. Let the jars sit on the counter overnight until they seal. Once the jars have cooled and completely sealed, move them to a cool dry place for storage. If any jars do not seal, put them in the refrigerator to eat.

You’ll probably want to give some of this marmalade away but be sure to keep some for yourself.

1/29/2010 Update: After all was said and done, this jam didn’t set as well as I would’ve liked. It turned out a little bit runny so I put it in the refrigerator to store. I just opened a jar and had some on a piece of sprouted wheat toast. It tastes wonderful! No bitterness, just a delicious lime flavor. Yummy!

I'm participating in the tigress' Can Jam in 2010. We'll be making jams and pickling for a whole year. Follow my progress on this blog. View the January Can Jam Roundup.

Happy Canning and Baking!
Cathy

Here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:

Here are some delicious breads that go well with this jam!