Almost No-Knead Bread

In my quest for the perfect loaf of bread – crusty, sour, easy to make, and relatively healthy – this comes pretty close. The only thing you need out-of-the-ordinary is a Dutch oven with an oven-proof lid. I got the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. 

You’ll want to start this the night before, but it’s so easy that doesn’t matter. 

Almost No-Knead Bread

3 cups flour (I used 1 ½ cups white flour and 1 ½ cups whole wheat - the whole wheat makes the loaf a bit more dense, but I love the flavor)

1 ¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. yeast

¾ cup plus 2 tbs. water, room temperature

1/3 cup mild-flavored lager, room temperature (see note below)

1 tbs. white vinegar 

Note: I don’t drink beer nor do I cook with it even if the alcohol cooks off. Actually, all the alcohol doesn’t cook off, so I just used my sourdough start. I added about 1 cup of sourdough start and adjusted the water to a bit less.

Whisk flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl. Add water, beer (or sourdough start), and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from the bottom of bowl, until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.

Lay 18x12” sheet of parchment paper inside a 10” skillet and spray with cooking spray. Transfer dough to a lightly floured counter and knead by hand 10 to 15 times. (I just kneaded it in the bowl.)Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer loaf, seam side down, to prepared skillet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size – about 2 hours. Dough should barely spring back when poked with knuckle.)

Fifteen minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place Dutch oven (with lid) on rack and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and, using a sharp knife or single edge razor blade, make one 6” long, 1/2” deep slash along top of dough.

 

 

Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up loaf by lifting parchment corners and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge).

 

 

Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until crust is deep golden brown – about another 20 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven.

Carefully remove loaf from pot; transfer to wire rack, discard parchment, and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours, before slicing.

Isn't this beautiful?

Ok – this 2 hour rule… Seriously? I could not wait that long! So I cut a nice thick slice, slathered it with butter while the bread was still warm and was in baker’s heaven for a time.

 

 

If you don’t eat the whole loaf that day, you can recrisp the crust – place the bread in a 450 degree oven for 6 to 8 minutes. You can also play with adding flax seed, rosemary, roasted garlic, or anything that strikes your fancy when you are mixing the dough!

So easy, delicious, crusty, and wonderful! Enjoy!

Sausage Bread Pudding with Shiitakes

 

We have a plethora of eggs these days (I love that word – plethora. It’s just so excessive). Our chickens have kept laying all winter and are just the busiest girls. Fortunately, I’ve discovered a cookbook, The Fresh Egg Cookbook, by Jennifer Trainer Thompson. She has some great innovative egg recipes for when you get tired of scrambled eggs, omelets, quiche, or frittatas. Eggs are the building blocks for so many recipes, and are no longer the nutritional taboo they once were. For lots of information on egg nutrition, check out: http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/good-eggs-for-nutrition-theyre-hard-to-beat

 

This wonderful bread pudding is great for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner, or leftovers. It goes together quickly, and is so delicious! This is a great recipe for anytime of year, but would be especially good the end of the summer when onions, tomatoes, peppers and basil are in season.

Sausage Bread Pudding with Shiitakes

4 eggs

1 cup 2% milk

2 tbs. Dijon mustard

1 tbs. minced fresh basil

1 tbs. chopped fresh parsley

¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

2 links Italian turkey sausage, casings removed

½ c. chopped red bell pepper

½ c. chopped shiitake mushrooms

½ c. chopped yellow onion

4 c. Italian bread, cut into 1” cubes (about 8 ounces or 4-6 slices)

2 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced

½ c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Serves 4

Note: You may do all the prep and then refrigerate the pie plate for up to 4 hours before baking the bread pudding.

Also, this is a time for confession. Ok – I didn’t have Italian turkey sausage because I wanted to use sausage from the pig we bought last fall. So I used about ½ lb. of pork sausage. And I didn’t have a shiitake mushroom because I couldn’t find one at the store, so I substituted a Portobello mushroom. And I had a jalapeño in the refrigerator so I threw that in too. It made the flavor more interesting and complex. I think that’s all I have to confess…

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9” pie plate or small casserole dish.

Whisk the eggs and milk in a medium bowl, then whisk in the mustard, basil, parsley and black pepper.

 

Crumble and cook the sausage in a skillet over medium heat until no longer pink.

 

 

Add the bell pepper, mushrooms, and onions and cook until tender, 7-10 minutes, then let cool.

 

Toss the bread with the vegetable mixture, then add the egg mixture and toss well to coat.

 

Transfer to the pie plate or casserole dish, push down to compact, and layer the tomatoes

 

 

around the edge, making a ring.

 

Cover with foil and bake 40-45 minutes, until the custard has set.

Uncover, sprinkle with Parmesan, and continue baking 15-20 minutes longer, until golden on top.
 

Let cool 15 minutes before serving.

 

Like I said – delicious!

Sourdough Sandwich Bread

When I made toast this morning, I realized (horrors!) that I wouldn’t have enough bread for toast tomorrow morning. I also had some melted butter that needed used up. So I went to my old friend, the internet, and looked for a new bread to make. I found this bread recipe on a very cool website called The Fresh Loaf.

I used a combination of flours - white, garbanzo bean (I'm trying to cut down on refined flours) and whole wheat. I've tried bread flour and I honestly can't tell the difference between it and all-purpose flour. The garbanzo bean flour turned the bread a lovely shade of gold.

Also, this uses a sourdough starter, so you'll need to feed up your starter or see the previous sourdough blog, to make this.

SOURDOUGH SANDWICH BREAD
Night before baking:
Combine 1 c. starter with 4 c. bread flour (or any flour you choose) and 2 c. warm water at room temp. Stir, cover with plastic wrap and leave out overnight.

Day of baking:
Pour sponge mixture into mixer bowl and add 1/4 c. melted butter, 2 tsp. yeast, 2 tbs. sugar, 2 tsp. kosher salt, and 1 c. flour.

Mix until combined. Then add enough flour until dough is fairly stiff. The dough will clear both the sides and bottom of the bowl.

Knead at for about 4 minutes or until dough is smoother and elastic. Transfer to oiled bowl, turn to grease the top,

and let rise in warm place until doubled, around 2 hours.

Shape into loaves. The way I do it - divide the dough into portions. Shape each portion into a disk. Flatten each disk with your hand or a rolling pin. Roll the dough up as you would cinnamon rolls. Tuck the ends under so the log of dough fits in the bread pan.

Place into greased pans.

Let rise for about an hour, or until light and risen nicely, then bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Brush with butter for a nice buttery top.

This is delicious bread! Enjoy!