Chocolate & Walnut Sourdough Bread

Jeff made a loaf of Chocolate & Walnut Sourdough Bread using a recipe from the Pantry Mama website. 

I didn't remember to take a good photo of the loaf before we cut into it. 

Jeff followed the recipe, but he omitted the instant coffee. We don't like coffee.

The loaf was reasonably good, but a little strange. It just wasn't a flavor combo we're used to. We might make it again, but more likely we'd just make brownies because they would have enough chocolate to satisfy our need for chocolate.

Sourdough Honey Quinoa Bread

We decided to highlight Quinoa as an ingredient during the month. We have tons in our pantry and it would be nice to use some of it up.

The original recipe is available here at the King Arthur Baking Company website.

As for changes, Jeff omitted the dry milk and water and instead used almond milk. 

It was tasty. If we were to make it again, we would make it exactly the same way!

Naan

Gave naan bread a try. Sharon found a recipe using sourdough. The one tweak I made was to use white whole wheat for all but one cup of the flour, which was bread flour. Cooked them up on two cast iron pans with the burners set to 6/10. Two minutes on first side, a smidge less on second. 

Had a couple with burrito fillings. Folded up like a soft taco. 

Next day made bbq chicken naan pizza. 

More double bagged in the freezer for later. 

They turned out well.

Next time: I might go with more white flour next time for a little softer bite. 

Noom it up: Bread

Bread has been tricky for me. I get the nutsiest twigsiest bread I can find, and try to just have a slice or two a day.

Dave's Killer Bread is great as is Grand Central Baking (here in Portland, OR). I also get some good stuff at the farmer's market.

I've done well with the Franz Everything bagel and the Franz totally whole wheat English muffin.

I always try to break down the package into smaller portions when I get it home and put most in the freezer: 2, 4, or 6 slices in a package. Double bagged.

The bread itself seems to be ok, but it really seems to wake up my hunger. And I don't have a strong intuition for when to stop.

The sandwich: I usually eat my bread in some kind of sandwich.

Condiments: Mashed avocado, hummus, dressing, the most flavorful mustard you enjoy... 

Green it up: 
Thinly sliced apples, roasted potatoes, cucumbers, ...
Salad greens (I like mine shredded).
Herbs (fresh basil!)
Pickles. (There are pickled veggies other than cucumbers too)

Always keep an eye out for how to sneak in more Greens: Side of fruit; Side salad; Carrots and celery...

Red Rebel Alliance: 
Red foods are not bad, they just need to be treated with care. There are options between LOTS OF CHEESE and NO CHEESE.
Red foods are the most important to weigh or measure carefully since Noom's "slice" may not be your "slice." Once you get the hang of it, you can estimate based on experience. And eventually, just rely on your intuition.
If a sandwich isn't a sandwich without mayonnaise, use a thin layer.

Mix it up: 
Do you love salami, but find turkey boring?  Try Turkey and Salami. Measure, log, pay attention.
Want less bread? Make half a sandwich and stack the fillings. Or have it open-faced.

To log condiments: 
Weigh bread before and after, or
weigh the knife with and without, or
weigh the container before and after.

New to whole grains?
Also, if you are new to eating whole wheat or whole grain bread: slow down while chewing. Give it some time and the enzymes in your mouth with break down some starch and provide a lot more flavor.

French bread pudding

I got this recipe from my good friend Dawn who says it is a combination of ones she found in The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts and one from a Better Homes & Gardens recipe.

Site assembled brick oven

Wouldn't camping with a thousand of your closest friends be more fun with an on-site assembled oven? Of course it would, as I found out last weekend.

The design is based off directions for a backyard pizza oven found on You Tube, with added angle iron structure for more stability. Wonderboard is placed on saw horses for the base. Then one layer of 12 fire bricks make up the bed of the oven. Then courses of ordinary red clay bricks, not cement brick , are built up with angle irons to hold everything in place.

Courses across the top are supported by angle irons. Extra pieces of wonderboard serve as wind screens, a top, and a door.

Toasted Cheese Sandwich Lesson

Today I had an opportunity to provide a cooking lesson for Rachel: how to make a toasted cheese sandwich.

First we discussed how a toasted cheese sandwich was similar to and different from a pancake: Similarities

• Tools: Same pan, same spatula
• Heat transfer fluid: butter the pan
• Process: Cook, flip, remove

Differences

• You could eat the cheese sandwich without cooking it
• The pancake batter, not-so-much

Vorax Egg Muffin

A friend brought us some sourdough English muffins from the Bay Area. So, we had to come up with some special way to enjoy them. I had some leftover lunchmeat and cheese so I decided to make a breakfast sandwich.

This is not gluten-free, vegetarian, locavore, paleo, low-carb, low-fat, or raw food. But it is quite tasty and satisfying. And maybe every once in a while, life should just be tasty and satisfying.

First assemble the ingredients. Then realize you forgot the turkey after you took the picture. I had some nice pastrami from Grocery Outlet that were the ends from large deli rolls.

Proofing Yeast and Baking No Knead Bread

Progressing through Cooking for Geeks, I got to do an interesting experiment with yeast. To test if your yeast is good put 2 tsp of yeast and 1 tsp of sugar in a half-cup of warm (105 degree) water. Then wait for it to bubble up.

And bubble it did.

Cinnamon bread tree

Sharon found a recipe for a festive looking cinnamon bread.

As written the recipe makes four trees each of which would serve 8-10.

I found this approach simpler than the more traditional cinnamon roll.

No knead bread

Sharon found a recipe for No Knead Bread that I thought I would try. Here is the first attempt ...

It was very tasty with jam and butter. Has also made good sandwich bread.

"Shatterdough" rolls

Don't do

Sourdough rolls

I mentioned before that I wanted to experiment with increasing the humidity in the oven while baking my sourdough rolls. Here is the way not to do that.... Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a pyrex pie pan on the the shelf below your baking shelf. Then add hot (190 degree) water. Observe the pie pan dramatically shatter from the sudden 260 degree differential thermal shock.

OK, plan B.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a metal baking sheet on the the shelf below your baking shelf. Then add hot (190 degree) water. It still doesn't like it, but it seemed to deal with it.

Anyway, it did cook a nice roll. Though the browning was uneven which didn't seem to happen without that addition of the water to the oven.
Next Time: Probably best would be to not bother to preheat the pan but rather place it in an already hot oven, then add the hot water. I should make sure the pans are centered, and I could try turning the pan half way through.

The experiments continue....

Sourdough Sandwich Rolls

Started another batch of Classic Sourdough Bread to use to make  more sandwich rolls. I actually started the sponge last night with a cup of starter and three cups of white whole wheat flour plus 3 T of wheat gluten and 1 1/2 cup warm water. This morning I added two more cups of flour, 1 T each of sugar, salt, and orange juice. 

After kneading in the stand mixer it is resting. Next I will divide it into eight parts and form them into balls. They get to rise again in the pan on the silicone mat. We'll see if I can remember to slit the tops before they go in the oven this time. 

The photos are from the last batch I made. Since the recipe is for two loaves, I bake until the internal temp is 190 and I have some nice browning.