Sept. Recipe Exchange Favorites: Breads

We have a church recipe exchange once a month. This month's theme was bread. I'm posting my favorites so I can have them easily accessible.

Artisan Bread Loaf (I loved this one. Probably my fav. Great crumb)

By:  Ruth Judd

Recipe:

3 cups (430g) flour 1½ cups (345g or 12oz) water ¼ teaspoon (1g) yeast 1¼ teaspoon (8g) salt olive oil (for coating) extra flour, wheat bran, or cornmeal (for dusting)

Two medium mixing bowls 6 to 8 quart pot with lid (Pyrex glass, Le Creuset cast iron, or ceramic) Wooden Spoon or spatula (optional) Plastic wrap Two or three cotton dish towels (not terrycloth) 

Process: Mix all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add water and incorporate by hand or with a wooden spoon or spatula for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Lightly coat the inside of a second medium bowl with olive oil and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest 12 hours at room temperature (approx. 65-72°F).

Remove the dough from the bowl and fold once or twice. Let the dough rest 15 minutes in the bowl or on the work surface. Next, shape the dough into ball. Generously coat a cotton towel with flour, wheat bran, or cornmeal; place the dough seam side down on the towel and dust with flour. Cover the dough with a cotton towel and let rise 1-2 hours at room temperature, until more than doubled in size. Preheat oven to 450-500°F. Place the pot in the oven at least 30 minutes prior to baking to preheat. Once the dough has more than doubled in volume, remove the pot from the oven and place the dough in the pot seam side up. Cover with the lid and bake 30 minutes Then remove the lid and bake 15-30 minutes uncovered, until the loaf is nicely browned. 

*I used the baking directions from a similar recipe and put the loaf on a baking stone that had been preheated in a 450 degree oven. Right before I placed the loaf on the stone I sprinkled some cornmeal on the stone. I baked the loaf for 20 minutes, and had a pan with a cup of hot water under the stone to steam the loaf while it baked. Try the other method as well though. Each will make a great loaf.

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bread (Not overly sweet, which I liked)

By:  Melissa Smith

For the bread:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. grated lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
1/2 milk (or buttermilk)
1 cup fresh blueberries

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 egg

For the glaze:
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 lemon)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a mixing bowl, fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 1-2 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until incorporated. Add vanilla and lemon zest and mix together. Alternately add the dry ingredients with the milk, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix well. Fold in the blueberries.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add all the ingredients for the filling and whisk together.

Prepare a loaf pan by coating with cooking spray. Spoon about half of the batter into the pan, then spread the filling over the top. Spoon the remaining batter on top of the filling; you may want to drop by spoonfulls to get an even distribution as it will be hard to spread over the filling.

Bake bread for about 55-65 minutes, checking for doneness after 55 minutes. While bread is cooking, prepare lemon glaze. In a small saucepan, bring to a boil lemon juice and sugar. Stir until completely dissolved. Remove from heat. When bread is done, remove to a cooling rack and spoon on warm glaze. Let cool 10-15 minutes in the pan then remove the loaf to a cooling rack to cool completely. Resist the urge to cut into the loaf while it is hot, it needs time to set up.

Overnight Rolls (Crescent Rolls I'll probably use for Thanksgiving this year)

By:  Marci Preece

1 ½ c. warm water, divided                                    ½ c. shortening

1 TBS. yeast, (1 package)                                2 eggs

Pinch of salt                                                     1 tsp. salt

1 cup canned evaporated milk                  1 tsp. baking powder

6 cup flour                                                       ½ tsp. baking soda

½ cup instant mashed potato flakes               ½ TBS. sugar

1/3 cup sugar

In a small bowl add ½ cup of warm water, yeast, and ½ TBS. sugar.  Set aside to dissolve.  In a large bowl (or your electric mixing bowl) mix warm milk, 1 cup warm water, 2 cups flour, instant potato flakes, sugar, shortening, eggs, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Add yeast mixture and remaining 4 cups of flour.  Knead well.  Crisco a large bowl and place dough in it.  Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and place in the fridge overnight.  Remove from fridge and flour the counter top very well.  Flour dough, and roll out.  There are many ways you can shape these.  Use a pizza cutter to cut strips and tie into knots.  You can also separate dough into 2 balls and roll out like a pizza.  Cut into slices and roll from wide end to the tip for crescent shapes.  Place on cookie sheets and let rise three hours.  Preheat oven to 400.  Brush with butter and bake for 10-12 minutes (or brush with melted butter after they are cooked).

3 hour French Bread

This was the second time I made this, and I decided it was definitely a good enough recipe to keep and link.

I got the original here. That link has lots of helpful photos, so I suggest you go there. I do add some sugar because I just can't fathom using yeast without sugar...

3 Hour French Bread - makes 2 small loaves
2 tsp active dry yeast*
1 1/2 C. warm water
2 tsp sugar

2 tsp kosher salt
4 C. bread flour

1. Proof the yeast in the warm water with the sugar in a large bowl (I do this in my Kitchen Aid). Wait 10 min. for it to foam up.
2. Put 1/4 cup of bread flour on your clean counter top and reserve. Add the flour, mixed with the salt, to the yeast mixture 1 cup at a time with a paddle. Once the dough comes together in a mass, switch to the dough hook. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Dough should clear the sides but stick to the bottom. If it is too sticky, add 1 T of flour at a time. If too dry, add 1 T of water to dough to adjust. After 2 minutes, let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
3. Turn the mixer on again and mix for 3 minutes. Take the dough out and place on the 1/4 cup of flour that we reserved flour We’ll use it now. As you knead the dough by hand, incorporate more flour as you need. You might not need it all. Knead by hand until the dough is very satiny, smooth, tight and formed into a nice, compact ball.
4. Place this dough in a large lightly oiled bowl (I use Pam spray). Turn dough over so that all sides have a thin coating of oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set in warm place for 1 1/2 hours. Dough should almost double in size.
5. About 1 hour into the rest stage, preheat your oven to 450F (convection 425F). Place your pizza stone, inverted baking sheet or covered cast iron pot into the oven to heat up.
6. Cut the dough into half – you’ll shape one half at a time (keep the other piece under wraps) Pick up the dough – stretch it out until it forms a big rectangle. On your counter top dusted with flour, fold each long side in toward the middle, slightly overlapping.
7. Now do a little “karate chop” lengthwise down the middle of the bread and stretch out the long ends again. Fold over in half lengthwise and pinch all sides shut. This is important – you want to make sure that all ends including the short ends are pinched tightly to create a seal. This allows the bread to rise & expand up and out evenly. If the bread looks a little lopsided, you can try to fix it by letting it rest 5 minutes and gently stretching it out again. Just don’t knead the dough again – you’ll pop all the beautiful gas that took 1.5 hours to create!
8. Turn the bread over so that its seam side down. Cover the loaf with a damp kitchen towel. Repeat with the other dough halve. Leave the loaves to rest on your well-floured pizza peel or cutting board for 30 minutes. After resting, take a sharp paring knife and make 3-4 shallow, diagonal slashes on the surface of the loaf. This allows the steam in the bread to escape so that it expands evenly during the baking process.
9. When you are ready to bake, remove your baking vessel. Carefully slide the gorgeous loaf into or onto your baking vessel. I like baking one loaf at a time. The most important equipment to have is an instant read thermometer to measure temperature of the bread.

If you are using pizza stone or inverted baking sheet: You can probably fit both loaves on it at the same time if you wish. -> Get a 1/2 cup of water ready next to the stove. Open the stove, put your bread in the oven and throw the water on the oven floor. Immediately close the oven door. This creates your steam. -> Bake 20-25 minutes. Check temperature of the bread – internal should be 190-210F. Remove and let cool before cutting into it.

If you are using a long cast-iron pot or covered baker: -> Before closing the lid on your pot/baker, put 1/4 cup of water directly in the pot. Cover immediately. Put pot in oven. -> Bake 10 minutes. Remove lid of pot. Bake another 14 minutes. Check temperature of the bread – internal should be 190-210F. Remove and let cool before cutting into it. Repeat with other loaf. (For convection ovens- bake 8 min covered, 10-12 min uncovered. Check temperature of bread) To re-crisp the crust, put in 375F oven for 5 minutes. Eat one loaf, share the other loaf with a friend!

*I have tons of active dry yeast, so I always use this and proof it with the water and sugar before adding the other ingredients. If you have the instant or rapid rise yeasts, you can follow the directions on the link.

A better burger bun

I've made buns before, but I tried a new recipe today (see a trend?) and it was FABULOUS. It's pretty much a King Arthur's Beautiful Burger Bun recipe, but I used bread flour instead of All Purpose. Oh, and since I didn't have instant yeast I proofed mine in warm water with the sugar. The result was super delicious.

A better burger bun- 8 buns

3/4 C. water
2 Tbsp butter
1 large egg
3 1/2 C. bread flour
1/4 C. sugar
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp yeast

Directions

1. If using active dry yeast, proof it in the water with the sugar and add the rest of the ingredients after it bubbles. If using instant yeast, just add all the ingredients at the same time.
2. Knead by hand or mixer. (If using a mixer, know mine was a stickier dough and did not clear the sides of the bowl. I had to scrape it down a couple times.) Form it into a ball if it isn't already.
3. Place it in a greased (I used spray) bowl and cover it for 1 hour or until double.
4. Gently deflate the dough and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a 1"(ish) thick and about 3 in. across.
5. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover, and let rise 30-60 min. or until very puffy.
   
6. Lightly brush with an egg wash.
7. Bake at 375* for 12-15 min. or until golden.

Alton Brown's Biscuits

I have tried lots biscuit recipes with lots of failures. This is my favorite at the moment. The original recipe is here. The best, though is the kneading tip from his show that's not on his recipe. You always hear "don't over mix the dough!" but I never really knew how much was too much. I often didn't mix mine enough so they turned out crumbly. His suggestion helped out. It has amazing texture and my only minor complaint is that it has a very slight baking powder taste. They're still the best yet though.

Alton Brown's Southern Biscuits: makes about 12
2 C. flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp shortening
1 C. chilled buttermilk (or 1 C regular milk mixed with 2 tsp. white vinegar works fine too)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 450*
2. Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Add butter and shortening and cut in with knives, forks, or a pastry cutter. You can use your fingers too if you want.
3. Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk.
4. Stir the wet and dry ingredients until they just come together. It will be sticky.
5. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 10 times by folding it on itself. (His tip from the show.)
6. Press into a 1 in. thick round and cut out with a 2 in. cup or cutter. (just reform the scraps and cut until you've used everything)
7. Place biscuits on a sheet so they just touch and cook at 450* for 15-20 min. or the tops are lightly golden brown. (I've had best results with the air cushioned pans used for cookies.)

Cheesy Breadsticks

Matt requested cheesy bread to accompany our dinner tonight. Since he rarely has requests, I thought it best to comply forthwith. So I went to looking for a recipe. I was disappointed in the lack of cheesy bread recipes online! Almost everything I found called for canned biscuits or frozen pizza/roll dough.

So, I got out my trusty recipe collection and decided to create a cheesy variation of a fast bread stick recipe I got from a friend last year at a recipe swap. (Thanks Amy!) It worked so fabulously. I got one of the best compliments EVER from Matt. He said it made him think of something off of the food network (possibly a Diners, Drive-in, and Dives episode) where people say, "I come from miles away just for this bread". Yeah. It was good.

So, here's the recipe.

Easy Cheesy Breadsticks
Ingredients
1 Tbsp yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus some for sprinkling the top
1 1/2 C warm water (around 110*)
Approx. 3+ C BREAD flour (Trust me!! This makes a HUGE difference in the final texture of the bread!)

a little butter
a cup or two of cheese: I used mozzarella and cheddar inside and parmesan on top

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400*
   
2. Dissolve yeast and sugar in the water. (Don't add the salt in yet because at this point it can kill the yeast.) Let it sit about 5-10 min. to bloom.
   
3. In a stand mixer (or by hand), knead in the 3 cups bread flour and salt. Mix for a couple min. The dough is a bit sticky with just 3 cups. At this point I took the dough out of my mixer and kneaded in about 1/4 cup more flour by hand, just enough to get it not sticky and to a point where you can roll it out. You can probably keep it in the mixer and add a little flour at a time until it pulls off of the side of the bowl.
   
4. On a floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle, approx. 15 X 12. Put this onto a greased cookie sheet or baking pan (I bet a pizza stone would work nicely too, though the cooking time would change a bit if you did that).
   
5. Sprinkle the cheese over half the bread vertically, leaving about 1 in. on the edges cheese free.
6. Fold the un-cheesed (short) side over the cheesed side and press the edges closed. You will have a long strombli/calzone like bread.
   
7. Brush the top with some butter, grate as much parm cheese as you'd like, and sprinkle the top with kosher salt. I didn't let the dough rest or rise any more than the time it took me to fill it and get it ready for baking.
   
8. Bake at 400* for about 15 min.
9. Let it rest about 5-10 min. after pulling it out so the cheese doesn't just goo out everywhere when you cut it.
10. Cut it into 1-2 in. strips and serve as a breadstick.

* Just so you know, this dough doesn't have any butter or oil in the dough. The means it doesn't keep as long. You can always add in 1-2 Tbsp of EVOO or canola oil if you find you don't eat it quickly enough before it spoils.*