Cinnamon Pull-apart Bread

Posted on June 1, 2012 by bilrob

bread

Cinnamon Pull-apart Bread

Is it really June 1 already? That is what the calendar says but I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the speed at which my days pass. Anybody else feeling the same way? Since starting to blog on the Times-Gazette website, I have shared recipes that I previously posted on my own blog, My Daily Bread Body and Soul. Today however, I am sharing a recipe I am posting here first! The recipe for Cinnamon Pull-apart Bread has been surfacing around the internet for some time. Even though I make Monkey Bread, Cinnamon Rolls and other types of breads, I hadn’t ever made a bread in this exact fashion, until now. The finished look of this bread totally intrigues me. The bread raises in the oven until it falling over the edge, bubbling with cinnamon and sugar.

pullapart before frosting

See what I mean about the picture being intriguing? This bread made by mouth water even BEFORE I added frosting! The recipe makes one large loaf pan and six large muffin-size cinnamon pull-aparts. Enough to easily serve 8 to 10 people easily.

Pullapart Dough

The dough is sort of a standard yeast bread, but yet with the addition of baking powder and baking soda. I made the dough the night before I wanted to serve the rolls for breakfast. The dough stays in the refrigerator over-night and in the morning it was 1 1/2 hours from the time I took it out of the refrigerator to the table.

Pullapart cut even pcs

Once the dough is rolled out and covered with butter, cinnamon and sugar it is cut into 3″x3″ pieces. I don’t estimate very well and even using a measuring guide my pieces turned out different sizes. These little pieces are then stacked sideways in a bread pan. The key is not too “over-stuff” them or you will have a sugary mess in your oven! I cut 18 pieces, used 12 pieces in the bread pan and the other six I cut in fourths and baking in a regular size muffin pan.

pullapart and quiche

Since I made a quiche to go with them for breakfast the timing was just perfect. My family was thrilled with the new breakfast treat and I will definitely make them again.

pullapart raising

If you are new to making bread or cinnamon rolls this is an easy recipe to start with. If you are a veteran then you will recognize how good these are and easy too!

pullapart muffin

Ah! I almost forgot to include the recipe …. that wouldn’t be very nice of me. Read on!

Many blessings and happy cooking! Have a great weekend.

Mom and baby deer

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

Ingredients

2 cups Milk, whole or 2%

1/2 cup Canola Oil

1/2 cup Granulated Sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast (1 package)

4 1/2 cups All-purpose Flour

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder, heaping

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda, scant

1 1/2 teaspoon Salt

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

1/2 cup Granulated Sugar

Ground Cinnamon to taste

Glazed Frosting

8oz Powdered Sugar

4 tablespoons Butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Enough Milk to make desired consistency

Directions

In a microwaveable bowl combine milk, sugar, and oil. Microwave on high about 3 1/2 minutes until mixture reaches 180 degrees. Remove from heat. If you have lots of ice handy, dump some in a larger bowl and place the scalded milk bowl over the ice.

Cool the mixture to 105 to 110 degrees. If you don’t have extra ice, just set milk out to cool. When the milk has cooled, remove from ice and sprinkle yeast over the milk mixture. Stir only to mix. Allow to stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in 4 cups of flour and cover. This can be done with a mixer or with a spoon by hand. Dough is very soft, more like a batter at this point. Allow to stand for 1 hour.

Mix in remaining 1/2 cup flour with baking soda, baking powder and salt. Sprinkle over dough and mix well, again via the mixer or by hand. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Grease a 9″x5″ loaf pan and a small muffin tin. Set aside. When you are ready to use the dough, turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out with into a rectangle about 18″ wide and 9″ tall. Spread with 4 to 6 tablespoons softened butter. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup sugar and and even sprinkling of cinnamon. More or less according to your taste.

Using a pizza wheel, cut the dough into 6 3″ strips. Stack the strips 3 high (so you have 2 piles). Cut each of the stacks into three 3″ squares. Place the squares sideways, cut side up (not the flat sugared side) into the prepared pan, being careful not to stuff too much dough into the pan. Leftover dough pieces can be cut into fourths and baked in a muffin tin.

Melt remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and drizzle over the loaf. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and sugar. Cover and allow to rise for 30 minutes. While loaf is rising, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bake for 25 to 35 minutes (or until baked through). Remove from oven and cool slightly. Whisk together the glaze ingredients until smooth and desired consistency is reached. Place the glaze in a ziploc bag, snip off a small corner of the bag and drizzle over the loaf and muffin tin.

Enjoy!

Bread Making with Bill & Sheila

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Bread Makers – Why your Kitchen is Begging for One

Posted on May 6, 2012 by bilrob

Bread Makers – Why your Kitchen is Begging for One

That noise that you hear is your kitchen begging for a bread maker. You may think that a bread maker is something you can live without, but until you actually try one you will never know. Out of all the kitchen appliances that you can buy, a bread maker is probably at the bottom of the list. But this is because you do not know the benefits of bread makers.

One of the biggest benefits of bread makers is the fact that they can make your life in the kitchen much easier. Have you ever wanted fresh baked bread just to find that the bakery is closed? Are you tired of paying bakery prices for bread that does not meet your standards? If you answered yes to these questions, a bread maker is your answer. They offer an easy way to get fresh, home baked bread in as little as an hour.

If you are one of those people that would love a bread maker but cannot seem to make the room on your countertop, you are in luck. Most bread makers are compact enough to fit on the counter without taking up a lot of space. In fact, a compact bread maker is no bigger than a toaster oven. This means that you can easily find a spot on your counter. And even if you cannot, why not keep it in a cabinet until you need it? After all, it will not be taking up a lot of space.

And of course, bread makers are not as expensive as some people think. You can purchase an inexpensive bread maker for as little as $40. Don’t you agree that this is a small price to pay for the benefits that you will receive?

Even if you do not want to cook homemade bread right now, it may be a good idea to buy a bread maker that you can use if you are ever caught in a bind. Bread makers are not expensive, and they do not take up a lot of room. So for the most part, you can buy one and forget about it until you need fresh baked bread.

Do yourself a favour and give your kitchen what it wants. Sooner or later you will be glad that you have a bread maker on hand.

Here is a simple recipe which we make every few days. Sometimes we make a 2lb loaf using the bread machine, or if we are having a barbecue we make focaccia in the oven – the recipe is the same. If you are making focaccia, just set your machine to the dough setting then transfer to a flat tray, let it do it’s second rise then put it in the oven at 200f for about half and hour. Simple – no kneading or mess on the worktops.

Simple bread recipe

500g bread flour
300ml water
15g fresh yeast
7 grams of dried yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoons of salt
two tablespoons of olive oil.

Put the lukewarm water in the breadmaker pan and add the crushed fresh yeast and a few pinches of sugar. Let it stand for about half an hour until the yeast is well activated and frothy. Add the flour. put the sugar at one end of the pan and the salt at the other, add the dried yeast to the pan – nearest the sugar and away from the salt. Add the olive oil to the front centre of the pan.

Set the machine for either basic bread or dough – whichever you are making. Switch on and sit back with a glass of vino.

Bread Making with Bill & Sheila

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Home-baked bread

Posted on May 5, 2012 by bilrob

Home-baked bread

Brett Kelley, curator of The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, is baking bread in an outdoor oven to demonstrate how bread was baked for troops during the Civil War.

He got the idea from his brother in Vermont.

View full sizeDonald GillilandNational Civil War Museum curator Brett Kelley bakes bread in an outdoor oven to demonstrate how Union soldiers got warm bread on the front lines during the siege of Richmond.

“Every time I go back to visit, he’s out there baking, happy as a clam,” Kelley said.

As manly pastimes go, the barbecue is out and the backyard bread oven is in, according to Carl DePaulis, a retired food service professional and amateur baker from New Bloomfield. “It’s what men do now,” he said.

You can watch Brett Kelley baking bread in his outdoor oven every day through Saturday. Kelley is living the life of a Civil War soldier in a log hut behind The National Civil War Museum in Reservoir Park, off State Street in Harrisburg. He begins mixing dough in the museum’s professional kitchen shortly after sunrise. By 10:30 a.m., he has the ovens fired and crusty loaves baking away. The bread is being donated to the St. Francis Soup Kitchen.

1. Welcome respite from hardtack

When Union soldiers were encamped for an extended time, the government baked them “soft bread” — a welcome break from the standard ration of hard crackers known as “hardtack.” John D. Billings, in his 1887 memoir “Hard Tack And Coffee,” recalled that at one point during the war, “the vaults under the broad terrace on the western front of the Capitol were converted into bakeries, where sixteen thousand loaves of bread were baked daily.” Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered bakeries built at City Point, Va., during the siege of Petersburg and Richmond in 1864. Those bakeries, according to Billings, produced more than 120,000 loaves of bread a day, and because of specially built railroad supply lines near the bakeries, soldiers often got warm loaves on the front lines.

2. Simple ingredients, complex flavors

View full sizeDonald Gilliland

Basic bread is simply flour, salt, yeast and water, but a range of flavors can result from altering the type of flour and process of letting the yeast grow. Bread flour has more gluten, which gives the dough elasticity. Whole wheat and rye flours add more complex flavor as well as nutrients. Modern bakers increasingly use instant yeast, which is mixed with the dry ingredients. Sourdough breads employ a liquid yeast “starter” that has been kept growing for months and sometimes years. In between are “artisan” breads that often “pre-ferment” a portion of the dough. Salt controls the growth of the yeast and adds flavor.

3. Kneading: A workout

View full sizeDonald Gilliland

“You know how to kill a volunteer!” DePaulis told Kelley last Saturday. DePaulis was kneading a large batch of dough to develop the springy texture necessary for bread. The dough must be elastic so that it will expand as it traps the gasses (mainly carbon dioxide) released by the yeast as it eats sugars in the flour. “It’s all organic chemistry,” DePaulis said. (Warm temperatures for the yeast to thrive and time for the dough to rise.) After an initial rise, the dough is carefully divided and shaped into loaves. Round or oblong, the shape is largely a matter of tradition and personal preference. The key is for the loaf to have surface tension so as it rests — or proofs — it will rise.

4. Firing the oven

View full sizeDonald Gilliland

Bread requires a hot oven. Outdoor brick ovens are fired with wood. A fire is built inside the oven and stoked until the surrounding brick is good and hot. The fire is then allowed to go to coals, which are raked out of the oven. A quick swabbing with a wet mop clears the way for the loaves, which are cooked by the residual heat from the surrounding bricks. Kelley built his outdoor oven based on Daniel Wing and Alan Scott’s 1999 book “The Bread Builders” and several how-to videos on YouTube.com. For the less ambitious, the kitchen range produces good results as well.

5. The baking begins

View full sizeDonald Gilliland

Steam is the key to a crusty bread. A wet mop helps create steam in the outdoor oven, as well as wet towels over the door. In the home kitchen, simply heat the oven to 500 degrees and place a steam pan below the shelf where the bread is to bake. Add a cup of water to the steam pan when the loaves go in, and reduce the heat to 450 degrees. Loaves are done when they are golden brown and emit a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.

The Recipe:

National Civil War Museum curator Brett Kelley took his bread recipe from Peter Reinhart’s award-winning 2001 book “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.”

Pain de Campagne is a simple, old-fashioned loaf that he said was probably quite similar to what Civil War bakers would have produced.

The recipe employs the two-step fermentation process, in which a part of the dough and yeast is allowed to develop in advance of the main batch. This adds flavor and flexibility to the result, as the “starter” can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three days after the initial rise.

For the starter:
1 1/8 cup each of unbleached all-purpose flour and unbleached bread flour
3/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast
3/4 cup of water at room temperature

Mix all the dry ingredients. Add water, and knead for 4 to 6 minutes until slightly tacky but not sticky. Add a little extra water if dough is too dry. Put it in a greased bowl and allow to ferment for two hours. This can be used immediately or stored overnight (and up to three days) in the refrigerator.

For the main batch:
If refrigerated, allow the starter to return to room temperature. Cut starter dough into pieces and place into mixing bowl with dry ingredients:
1 3/4 cups unbleached bread flour
1/3 cup whole wheat or rye flour
3/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast

Mix starter and all dry ingredients together.

Add 3/4 cup of lukewarm water and knead for 8 to 10 minutes until elastic and satiny. Put dough in greased bowl and let rise for two hours.

Remove from bowl gently, and divide into three parts being careful to let as little gas escape from the dough as possible. Shape into loaves gently, then cover with wet towel or cling film and let loaves proof for another hour.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place an empty steam pan below loaf rack. Pour a cup of water into steam pan, add loaves, reduce temperature setting to 450 degrees and bake until golden brown (bread should hollow when tapped on bottom), about 25-30 minutes.

Bread Making with Bill & Sheila

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Grandma's bread recipe

Posted on April 25, 2012 by bilrob

Grandma’s bread recipe

Q: Sometime in the early ’70s (1970-1974) the Tribune published “Grandma’s bread” recipe. I made it several times and loved it. As I recall, the recipe contained whole wheat, rye, cornmeal and probably white flours. The bread baked to a warm golden brown. I’ve lost my copy and would be delighted if the Tribune would republish it. My grandma took issue with the title as she baked only white bread and thought someone was making time with her title.

—Helen Pachay, Villa Park

A: The Chicago Tribune published the recipe at least twice in the early 1970s. It ran Nov. 4, 1971, as a “$5 Favorite Recipe” submitted by Margaret Linhorst of Clinton, Iowa. The recipe resurfaced in a story focusing on wheat germ called “Tasty cookies for your organic grocery bag” that was published on March 14, 1973, by Mary Meade, then the pen name of the Tribune’s food editor.

Here’s the recipe as written (except I’ve replaced the “thoroly” used by the Tribune then with the more universally recognizable “thoroughly” of today). Recipe makes two large loaves.

Grandma’s bread

2 cups warm water

1/2 cup molasses

2 packages dry yeast

4 egg yolks

1/3 cup oil

1 cup instant non-fat dry milk

1/2 cup each: rolled oats, corn meal, wheat germ

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup whole rye flour

2 1/2 cups white flour, about

Combine water, molasses and yeast in large bowl of electric mixer; let stand 10 minutes. Add egg yolks, oil, dry milk, oats, corn meal and wheat germ; beat until blended. Add whole wheat flour and rye flour; beat thoroughly. Beat white flour in gradually. Turn out on floured pastry cloth; knead until smooth and elastic. Place dough in a greased bowl; cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. Divide dough in half; form into two loaves. Place in two greased 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes; lower heat to 350 degrees and bake 25 minutes longer.

Do you have a question about food or drink? E-mail Bill Daley at: [email protected]. Snail mail inquiries should be sent to: Bill Daley, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 60611. Twitter @billdaley.

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The History of Bread and Cakes

Posted on April 24, 2012 by bilrob

The History of Bread and Cakes

The first bread would have been hard and flat, made from the local ground grain, and baked on hot flat hearthstones by the fire. The flat metal griddle or girdle, which is suspended over the fire, is an example of this method. The word is thought to come from the name for hot stones in the Celtic language, greadeczl, and the use of the implement is common to all the Celtic countries, from northern France to Ireland and Scotland. Today, the northern bannock or oatcake is the nearest equivalent to that earliest type of bread.

Quite early on, the leavening or raising power of ‘barm’, consisting of fermented liquor containing airborne yeasts, was discovered, and so a lighter bread could be baked, either directly on hot hearthstones or in the hot air under a clay dome set over the stones, the earliest oven. Ovens, however, were not common, and for centuries small, plain, yeasted and non-yeasted bread continued to be the most common. The much later sweetened descendants of these are drop scones, pancakes, crumpets, muffins and the Welsh pikelets.

Bread of this type were still made at home. For bread which needed to be baked in an oven, doughs would have to be taken to the manorial oven or to a public baker. The rich would have white breads, made from the finest wheat flour. This was the ‘manchet’, for eating, whereas the ‘trencher’ (a slice of bread used as a plate) would be of less fine brown bread. These trenchers were always a few days old, so would have been fairly hard, thus more able to absorb fats and liquids. By the end of the sixteenth century, wooden and metal plates had been introduced — as well as the fork — so the trencher ‘plate’ was discontinued. Bread was still used, though, as sops in the bottom of soup or as sippets, little pieces of bread or toast arranged on top of or around a dish. Breadcrumbs, too, were added — and still are — to sauces as a thickener, and to sausages, stuffings, drinks and desserts.

The poor, however, would have to make do with the husks of wheat in their inevitably coarser brown bread, or use other local grains such as rye and barley. These both contained much less natural gluten than wheat so were dense, dark and hard bread, making a much less digestible product.

For special occasions from the Middle Ages on, basic doughs were often enriched by honey, spices or dried fruits, and these mark the beginnings of tea bread, loaves and buns — as well as cakes. In later years, eggs and butter were often added to the dough, the beaten eggs allowing enough air to be incorporated without the addition of yeast. When chemical raising agents were introduced in the nineteenth century, many yeast-raised doughs were abandoned. Bread evolved into cake.

As far as biscuits are concerned, the earliest were rusks, pieces of baked bread put back into the oven to dry out. Later, finer mixtures would be used and baked in an oven or dried. Biscuits like these, cut into animal and human shapes, were known as ‘fairings’ because they were sold at local fairs.

The baking tradition in Britain seems to have always been at its strongest in the north and west, and in Ireland. This may be because these areas were furthest from outside influences, including France and elsewhere, and bread recipes and traditions were able to be retained. High tea, for instance, demands a variety of baked goods, and high tea is a tradition that is quite rare in the south. But the fuel needed for baking was at one time more plentiful in the north than in the south, and this may be another contributing factor. The glory of English cakes, however, is entirely due to the gentry’s adoption of the new meal, afternoon tea. Happy baking!

Simnel Cake

Simnel is a traditional British cake made during Lent, and for a while became associated with the fourth Sunday of that period — Mothering Sunday. Many years ago, young women away from home, probably in service, were allowed home to visit their parents on that day, and would take this cake with them as a gift. It’s basically a rich fruit cake baked with a layer of marzipan running through it, and topped with almond paste too. Traditionally it is then garnished with eleven small marzipan balls arranged in a circle on top of the cake, which are lightly toasted to a golden brown. These balls represent the eleven faithful disciples.

MAKES A 20 CM (8 IN) ROUND CAKE
225 g (8 oz) plain flour
1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
175 g (6 oz) butter
175 g (6 oz) light brown soft sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon golden syrup, warmed
175 g (6 oz) sultanas
175 g (6 oz) currants
50 g (2 oz) glacé cherries, chopped
50 g (2 oz) mixed peel, chopped
2-3 tablespoons brandy
Milk, if necessary
600 g (1 lb 5 oz) marzipan
1 tablespoon warmed apricot jam, strained
1 egg, for glazing

This recipe will need a 20 cm (8 in) diameter, deep, round cake tin, greased and double-lined with greaseproof paper. Pre-heat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Roll 200 g (7 oz) of the marzipan into a 20 cm (8 in) disc.

Sift the flour with the dried spices and salt. Cream together the butter and soft brown sugar until light and fluffy. The eggs can now be poured from a jug slowly while being beaten into the butter mix. Add the golden syrup, with the sifted flour. Add all of the fruits and brandy. The cake mixture should not be too loose. If very thick, soften with milk. Spoon half the cake mix into the lined tin. Smooth completely flat, making sure there are no air bubbles. Place the marzipan disc on top. Pour on and smooth the remaining cake mix. Because of the long cooking time it’s best to wrap and tie brown paper around the tin. The cake can now be baked in the pre-heated oven for 1 1/2 -2 hours. After 1 ½ hours, check every 10 minutes by pressing in the centre; the cake should feel firm when it’s ready. (The cake should not be tested with a skewer. This will simply lift the warm marzipan and give the impression the cake is not cooked.)

When the cake is done, remove from the oven and rest for 30 minutes. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack. The cake must be absolutely cold before topping with more marzipan. Once cold roll another 200 g (7 oz) of marzipan into a 20 cm (8 in) disc. Brush the top of the cake with the warm, strained apricot jam. Place the marzipan disc on top and trim around for a neat finish. The top can now be score-marked for a criss-cross pattern or left plain. Brush with some of the beaten egg and colour under a pre-heated grill to a light golden brown. The remaining 200 g (7 oz) of marzipan can now be shaped into eleven small balls. Place the balls on a baking sheet, brush with egg and also glaze under the grill. Sit the balls on top and the simnel cake is ready. The cake can now be left as it is or finished with a ribbon tied around it and some small marzipan flowers or leaves arranged on top. Happy Easter!

Twelfth Night Cake

Twelfth Night, 6 January, is the last night of the Christmas feast, and long ago there were always festivities before the work of the New Year began in earnest. This cake — very like a Christmas cake, in fact — was made as part of the celebration, and often a bean would be inserted into the mixture. Whoever was given the slice containing this was named King of the Bean, which meant good luck was theirs for the coming year.

The cake is usually covered with royal icing, but I prefer to keep it plain or top it with a fondant icing, the recipe included here. This whole recipe is very quick and easy to make. l’ve also added chopped dates to give the mixture a fuller fruit flavour. It’s not essential to include these; simply replace their weight with extra dried fruits.

MAKES A 20 CM (8 IN) CAKE

175 g (6 oz) butter
175 g (6 oz) caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175 g (6 oz) plain flour
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
175 g (6 oz) currants
175 g (6 oz) sultanas
175 g (6 oz) dates, preferably Medjool, chopped
50 g (2 oz) blanched almonds, chopped
4 tablespoons brandy

For the Fondant
50 ml (2 fl oz) warm water
350 g (12 oz) icing sugar, sifted

This recipe requires a 20 cm (8 in) round or square cake tin. The tin needs to be greased and double-lined with greaseproof paper. Pre-heat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Pour the beaten eggs from a jug a little at a time, mixing them into the sweet butter. Stir in the flour and spices, followed by the fruits and chopped almonds. Mix all together well, adding the brandy. Spoon the mix into the cake tin, smoothing and levelling the top. The cake can now be baked in the pre-heated oven for 1 hour. If the cake is not quite ready, this can be checked by inserting a skewer or small sharp knife; once almost totally clean, the cake is ready. lf not, return to the oven and cook for a further 30 minutes. It’s important to keep an eye on the cake while it’s cooking. If it’s becoming dark, cover with foil. This will prevent it from burning.

Leave for 20-30 minutes to relax in the tin before turning out and leaving to cool. For the fondant icing, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. Stir in the warm water a little at a time until the sugar has reached a thick, coating, fondant consistency. Most cakes are decorated on the base, turning it over for that flat finish. This cake is best left sitting on its base, with the fondant poured and spread on top. I like to see the fondant just falling around the sides and not completely covering the cake.

Note: Classically, the top is decorated with glacé cherries and angelica.

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Easter Egg Bread

Posted on April 4, 2012 by bilrob

Easter Egg Bread

Talk about one that’s sure to become an Easter tradition for years to come! Mr. Food’s eye-catching Easter Egg Bread is a pull apart sweet bread that bakes up with colorful Easter eggs nested in it.

There are a lot of recipes around for this speciality Easter egg bread, mostly in the USA but is seems to be becoming more popular all around the world – especially with kids. Here is one recipe that we think you may like. It should make a bit of a difference to your usual holiday table.

Yields: 1 loaf

Preparation Time: 1 hr 15 min

Cooking Time: 25 min

Ingredients

2 cups plus 2 teaspoons water, divided

4 teaspoons white vinegar

4 different food colors

4 eggs (see Note)

1 pound frozen bread dough, thawed

1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

1. In each of 4 cups or small bowls, combine 1/2 cup water and 1 teaspoon vinegar. Add about 1/4 teaspoon of a different food color to each cup.

2. Place 1 egg (in shell) in each cup and allow to sit until the desired color is attained, turning eggs occasionally with a spoon. Remove to paper towels to drain and dry completely.

3. Divide dough into thirds. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Braid strips together then place on a baking sheet and form into a ring, pinching ends together to seal. Tuck colored eggs into the braid, spacing them evenly. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden; allow to cool slightly.

5. In a small bowl, combine confectioners’ sugar and the remaining water, stirring until thoroughly blended. Brush warm bread with sugar glaze, being careful not to coat the colored eggs. Serve warm, or cover and chill until ready to serve.

Note: Feel free to decorate the eggs any way you like, but remember: they need to be raw when you start (so they don’t overcook).

Bread Making with Bill & Sheila

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My Favourite No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread

Posted on March 21, 2012 by bilrob

My Favourite No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread

I’ll be forever indebted to Mark Bittman, NY Times food editor, for bringing light to the world when he published an article about Jim Lahey from the Sullivan Street Bakery, and his “minimalist bread making technique.” I don’t love this bread just because it requires no kneading. I love it because of the hard crispy crust and the soft spongy crumb. It’s remarkably close to many European style brick oven round loaves. One loaf in particular that comes to mind is the Spanish hogaza. After I made the first loaf following Jim’s method I went straight out and bought his book My Bread.

I’ve been baking bread for a long time: muffins and quick breads, challah, black bread, rye, white sandwich, French bread, bagels, sour-dough breads, whole grain, and whole wheat …you get the idea. After discovering Jim’s method I was satisfied that I’d found the perfect bread. It’s easy to make and absolutely soul satisfying to eat.

Jim has a recipe in his book for whole wheat, but it only has a small amount of whole wheat in proportion to the white flour, so I created a modified version, making a larger loaf that calls for 100% whole wheat.

Time is an important factor for this type of bread. I’ve found that the longer it sits, the better the flavor and tenderness of the crumb. I used to let the bread sit 12 hours before letting it rest a second, but now I let it sit 18 hours. Try it both ways to see what you like better. You may never buy bread again!

Prep Time: 3 minutes
Total Time: 15-20 hours
Yield: 2 pound loaf

Equipment needed:
A 5-quart Dutch oven (Le Creuset, cast iron, or ceramic Dutch oven)
Important Note – Remove the handle of your ceramic pot if it is not ceramic or cast iron, or the high temperature will melt it. Also, the oven may change the colour of your Le Creuset pot. It happened to my brother’s.

Ingredients:
4 cups whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour)
2 cups water plus 3 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons salt
½ plus 1/8 teaspoon salt

Procedure:
1) Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl just until they are thoroughly mixed. Cover the bowl with plastic and set the bowl aside for 12 to 18 hours.

2) After the first rising, lightly flour the counter top and use a spatula to remove the dough from the bowl and put it on to the counter top. Fold the dough over on itself from left to right, turn the dough 90° and fold it again.
Lightly shape and dough into a ball and place it on a well-floured tea towel. Fold the towel flaps over the dough to cover, and let it rise for an hour and a half.

3) Allow the dough to continue rising on the counter top while you heat the oven. Turn the oven temperature on to 475° and put the covered pot into the oven. Let it the pot and the oven warm for 30 minutes.

4) Set out 2 cookie racks; one for the lid and one for the pot. Take the pot out of the oven and set it on the first cookie rack, remove the lid and place it on the second cookie rack. Slide the dough off the tea towel and into the pot. Cover the pot, place it back in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.

5) After the 30 minutes is up, remove the lid from the pot and place it on a cookie rack to cool. Set the timer for another 12 to 15 minutes and continue cooking the bread.

6) Take the pot out of the oven and use a large spatula to remove the bread. Let it cool on a cookie rack about 15 to 20 minutes before cutting into it. Waiting to taste it is the hardest step in the whole recipe, but if you cut into the bread too early it will not finish cooking properly.

*Note – Jim cooks the bread an additional 20 to 30 minutes, but I find that it gets too burned. The trick will be finding the right amount of additional time so the crust stays hard and crispy without burning the bottom and top of the bread too much.

Have fun with this bread and then experiment with different flavours or additions to the dough.

Bread Making with Bill & Sheila
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Baking sourdough bread

Posted on March 21, 2012 by bilrob

Baking sourdough bread

When I was a youngster, I enjoyed reading books about American pioneer families, and I have always remembered a story about a family whose fire had gone completely out in the middle of a snow storm. A neighbour woman trudged through the dangerous storm carrying embers from her own fire in a cast iron pot and delivered them to the family to help them start a new fire from her smouldering embers.

After reading that story, I told my grandmother all about it, and she turned it into a lesson about sharing and broadened the meaning by explaining that pioneer families also shared the yeast starter for bread. Without the starter, which she called sponge, there would have been no bread baking.

None of that bread baking story mattered to me until I was a young wife in the 1970s, and one of my farm wife neighbours gave me a cup of sourdough bread starter. I followed her instructions and fed it with more flour, sugar and milk; within a couple weeks, I had my own version of that pioneer loaf of bread. I stood in my kitchen, recalling my grandmother’s story thinking of the hardships of the kind of life that did not include the ability to buy a loaf of bread at the supermarket.

I kept my sourdough yeast starter going for three years, baking bread each week and gaining the pounds that went along with it.

Although sourdough bread baking dates to the times of early Egyptians, it is the American Old West that is most often discussed when studying its history. According to information from www.foodtimeline.org, gold prospectors in 1850s California and 1890s Yukon protected their stash of sourdough bread starter as closely as they protected their stash of gold. They were sustained by their sourdough bread, flapjacks and biscuits. San Francisco was the central location for California gold mining and was the point of departure for the ships carrying miners to the Alaskan Klondike Gold Rush. We shouldn’t be surprised that the first sourdough bread bakery, the Boudin Bakery, opened in 1849 in San Francisco and is still producing a French version of the bread today.

You can be a sourdough bread baker. It is really very easy. Today, I’m sharing the recipe for the starter sponge and once you have made that, you can bake breads, biscuits, cakes, cookies and muffins once a week, using the yeast starter. I’ve developed a series of recipes, one of which will be included on this page on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month.

Today, I’ve included the recipe for Lemon Zinger Hot Rolls, so when your starter sponge is 7 days old, you’ll be able to bake and enjoy these treats.

Sourdough Friendship Bread Starter Sponge

2 tablespoons white sugar
1/3 cup warm water
2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups milk
1 cup white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar and the dry yeast over the warm water. Let this stand for 10 minutes until the sugar and yeast dissolve and it begins to bubble. Mix this yeast combination with milk, white sugar and flour. Mix it well and put it in a glass or plastic container, which has a lid. Cover it and let it stand on the kitchen counter for 24 hours. Remove the lid and stir the sponge. Cover the container, and place it in the refrigerator. You should stir the sponge daily, always using a plastic or wooden spoon. Never use a metal container or spoon. If you forget one day to stir the sponge, don’t despair; it still works.

On the seventh day, the sponge is ready to be used for baking. You will remove 1 cup of the sponge to use in your baking recipe, but you always have to feed the sponge when you remove some of it. So, on that day, remove the cup of starter, but replace it by adding 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of milk and ½ cup sugar to the starter combination. Stir it well; cover it and put it back in the refrigerator.

Now you have started the process all over again, so you stir it daily and on the seventh day, take out your cup to use in a recipe. Feed the original batch of sponge again with 1 cup of four, 1 cup of milk and ½ cup of sugar. If you do this every seven days, you can keep your starter sponge going forever!

Lemon Zinger Hot Rolls

1 packet of active dry yeast
3 tablespoons canola oil
1½ cups warm water
1 cup of Friendship Bread Starter
1 cup of all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
4 additional cups of all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons lemon infused olive oil *
Canola oil for to grease the bowl

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add canola oil. Let this stand for a few minutes until it is bubbly. In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast mixture with 1 cup of the Friendship Bread Starter. Blend in 1 cup of flour, ½ teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Cover this and let it stand in a warm place for approximately 1½ hours, until it is doubled in size.

Knead in another 4 cups of flour and knead for a few minutes until the dough forms a smooth ball. While you are kneading the dough, add 2 tablespoons lemon infused-olive oil to it. Put a big drizzle of canola oil in the bowl you are going to use to let the bread rise, then turn the ball of dough in the oil until it is coated all the way around. Cover and let rise again until double. This may take 2 hours.

Divide into 24 rolls; place in an oiled baking dish; cover and let rise for 30 more minutes. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 25 minutes. While still hot, brush the tops with melted butter to form a soft top crust.

Tip: I let my bread rise in a warm oven. I pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees then turn it off, but I leave the oven light on because it generates constant heat. Place your covered dough in the oven, close the door and let it rise.

* Note: If you can’t find lemon-infused olive oil, use regular olive oil and add a half teaspoon of lemon extract to it before you knead it into the dough

Bread Making with Bill & Sheila
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Erin go bread is a traditional dish to St. Pat's feast

Posted on March 17, 2012 by bilrob

slideshow

Erin go bread is a traditional dish to St. Pat’s feast

If you are planning a St. Patrick’s Day feast, add Jamie Gorey’s Irish soda bread to the menu. She shares two versions, brown spiced Irish bread and Catherine’s Irish soda bread.

Gorey started making Irish soda bread after marrying her husband, Andrew, whose parents were born and raised in Ireland. When the family moved to the U.S., the staple recipes came too. Gorey shares recipes that originate from her mother-in-law and sister-in-law who live in New York and New Jersey, respectively.

“Both my in-laws grew up in big Irish families. They grew up on rural farms and worked hard,” Gorey said.

She said the Irish typically made things quickly and worked with small ovens. “(The breads) are fast, easy and inexpensive,” she said.

Both breads have been adapted to family tastes and use one egg. “Some (Irish) breads require more things. These don’t,” Gorey said.

“(Irish soda bread) was the only bread they really had at their house. This was their mainstay bread. This was the bread they ate at breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was also for teatime,” she said. ““I call these all-day eating breads. They’re so good.”

Catherine’s Irish soda bread, the recipe of her sister-in-law, is different from the traditional Irish soda bread. “Catherine’s is a little denser and it’s a little softer. It’s sweeter,” Gorey said.

“(Catherine’s version) is one of my favorites. I probably make 15 loaves around St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a simple bread that everyone can eat,” she said.

Gorey, a food blogger and co-author of “Two Chicks from the Sticks Back Home Baking,” recommends serving the bread with good Irish butter. “Anybody overseas will tell you that there’s nothing better than Kerrygold Irish butter. It’s delicious,” she said. “Making Irish soda bread is a fun thing to do.”

Brown Irish Spiced Bread

2 cups raisins

1 cup sugar

1¼ cups water

½ cup butter or margarine

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

2½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

In a large saucepan, combine raisins, sugar, water, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well. Over medium-high heat, bring mixture to boiling. Boil 1 minute; reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat; let cool for one hour. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour and baking soda three times. Add 1 egg to the saucepan with cooled raisin mixture; beat well. Add flour mixture to the raisin mixture in five additions, mixing well after each addition. Spread batter in prepared pan.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Transfer loaf to cooling rack and cool completely.

Yield: 1 round loaf or 12-14 servings

Note: All the mixing for this bread is completed in a large saucepan. My mother would say, “This is a “good thing.”

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Catherine’s

Irish Soda Bread

2½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup sugar

½ cup butter or margarine, room temperature

1 egg

1¼ cups buttermilk

1 cup dark raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan; set aside. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add sugar, mix well. Cut in butter; set aside.

In a small bowl, combine egg and buttermilk; mix well. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture, mixing just until moistened. Fold in raisins. Pour dough into prepared pan. Tap pan to spread batter evenly.

Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350°F and bake for 45 minutes longer, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Transfer pan to a cooling rack; cool 10 minutes. Run a straight-edged knife around the outside edges of the loaf; gently turn bread out of the pan and onto the cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.

Yield: 1 round loaf or 12 to 14 servings

Bread Making with Bill & Sheila
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Diabetes Risk: White Rice Joins White Bread

Posted on March 17, 2012 by bilrob

Diabetes Risk: White Rice Joins White Bread

Eating more white rice may up the risk of type 2 diabetes, especially for Asian populations, researchers said.

Patients who ate the greatest amounts of the grain had a 27% greater risk of developing the disease than those who ate the least, and the relative risk was higher among Asian patients, Qi Sun, PhD, of Harvard, and colleagues, reported in BMJ.

“Although rice has been a staple food in Asian populations for thousands of years, this transition [to more sedentary lifestyles and greater availability of food] may render Asian populations more susceptible to the adverse effects of high intakes of white rice, as well as other sources of refined carbohydrates, such as pastries, white bread, and sugar sweetened beverages,” they wrote.

The glycemic index of white rice is higher than that of other whole grains, largely due to processing. It’s also the primary contributor to dietary glycemic load for populations that consume rice as a staple food, such as Asians.

Sun and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of four prospective cohort analyses in Asian and Western populations, totaling 352,384 patients with follow-up ranging from 4 to 22 years.

During that time, there were 13,284 incident cases of type 2 diabetes.

Asians generally had a higher level of white rice consumption than Western populations.

Overall, Sun and colleagues found a positive association between white rice intake and type 2 diabetes (RR 1.27, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.54, P=0.001), which was stronger in Asian populations.

Asians with the highest intake had a 55% greater risk of diabetes than Asian patients who ate the least rice (RR 1.55, 95% CI 1.20 to 2.01).

The risk was also heightened in Western populations, but the confidence interval straddled 0 and wasn’t significant (RR 1.12, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.33).

The researchers noted that study heterogeneity in these analyses was low.

They also found a dose-response effect — with each increase in rice serving per day, risk of type 2 diabetes rose by 11% (95% CI 1.08 to 1.14, P0.001).

In secondary analyses, the association appeared to be more pronounced in women than in men, they added.

They cautioned, however, that the meta-analysis was limited by the observational nature of the included studies and by their reliance on food frequency questionnaires to assess dietary intake. Also, they did not analyze consumption of brown rice, since only one of the four studies examined this food.

Still, they concluded that the dose-response relationship may indicate that “even for Western populations with typically low intake levels, relatively high white rice consumption may still modestly increase risk of diabetes.”

In an accompanying editorial, Bruce Neal, MD, of the University of Sydney in Australia, cautioned that the “interpretation of the observed association, and, in particular, determination of the likelihood of causality, are problematic.”

Neal warned that the highest and lowest levels of rice intake varied greatly between studies, and that what’s really needed is a “more sophisticated analysis based on primary rather than summary data.”

He continued that there are “few immediate clinical implications,” since “further research is needed to develop and substantiate the research hypothesis” — even though funding is likely a challenge.

“Public health nutrition awaits the discovery of the model that will secure the investment needed to answer questions about the role of nutrition in health using large randomised studies,” Neal wrote. “Until then, the effect of the consumption of white rice on the development of type 2 diabetes will remain unclear.”

A researcher was supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Neither the researchers nor the editorialist reported any conflicts of interest.

Diabetes & Diabetic Recipes with Bill & Sheila
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