Thursday, November 3, 2011

Dough. Bread. Love.

My last post showed off the Pumpkin Apple Oat Bread I made recently. What I didn't say in that post was anything about the process involved in devising my own fancy bread recipe. It's just been in the last month or so that I began to make homemade bread, and I started off with regular un-spruced-up bread.
I give all the credit to my sister, Bethany, who shared her "Easiest Bread Dough Ever" recipe and taught me how to make loaves of wonderfulness. From scratch. In all its glorious FOUR ingredients:

Yeast.
Salt.
Water.
Flour.

Yup. That simple. No eggs, milk, butter, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, additives or preservatives.





And this is how you do it.

Directions:
1. Measure 1 1/2 Tbsp salt and 1 1/2 Tbsp yeast into a large bowl
2. Add 3 cups hot water (about 100 degrees F - this is about the hottest temperature that you can get straight out of the faucet.), and stir until dissolved.
3. Mix in 3 cups of white flour and 3 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour. It will be a sticky wet dough that sticks to the sides of the bowl.
4. Cover loosely (such as with a plate, to allow gas to escape) and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 2 weeks.

To elaborate on Step 3: Don't try mixing it with your hands...

...just get a spoon and be persistent. Or, if you're fortunate to have a fabulous mixer like this, it will make the dough-making process a lot faster, easier and less messy! (The white attachment in the middle that looks like a hook is the one to use for mixing bread dough. Quite an amazing invention I'd say.)







To elaborate on Step 4: Once the dough is all mixed up - either through muscular or electrical effort - put a loose cover on the bowl and stick it in the fridge.




When you take it out later (later that day or later that month, whenever you need a fresh loaf of bread!), it will look like this:




All puffed up, pretty much doubled in size. This recipe should make four 1-pound loaves. I usually make 3 slightly larger loaves. As the dough ages in the fridge, it will gain flavor and "richness" - think more sour dough-tasting.

To Bake:
1. Put a baking stone (something like this) in the oven. Place a thin layer of flour on a piece of parchment paper set atop a regular cookie/baking sheet. (Or, if no parchment paper and/or no baking stone, place a thin layer of flour on a section of your counter top, and flour the top of a baking sheet or the inside of a bread pan.)
2. Dust your hands with flour, and cut or pull off a grapefruit-size hunk of dough from the bowl (about 1/3 of the dough).
3. Create a mound out of the dough by folding under the sides a couple times, and set it on the floured parchment paper atop a baking sheet or inside the floured cookie/baking sheet.
4. Allow dough to rise for 40 minutes. (If using a baking stone, place the stone in the oven and set a timer to start preheating the oven at 450 degrees F so that it's ready to go in 40 minutes. The baking stone needs to heat up as the oven heats up; a bread pan or regular cookie/baking sheet doesn't.)
5. Cut slits in the top of the dough to allow the bread to expand.  If using a baking stone, slide the dough and parchment paper off the cookie/baking sheet onto the hot baking stone inside the oven. Otherwise, stick the dough in whatever pan it's in inside the oven.
6. Cook for about 30 minutes at 450 degrees F. (You can take it out early and insert a knife on the underside; when it comes out clean, the bread is done.)
7. Turn loaf out onto a cooling rack. Eat warm if you like or give it some time to cool down. Any bread not eaten right away, once completely cooled, can be stored in a paper bag, with a plastic bag over top, to keep it fresh. Eat within a few days because these babies have no preservatives!

Appreciate the ease of a works-every-time mixer if you have one, but embrace the individuality of each bake you loaf. That's right. Part of the fun of making your own bread is shaping the loaves. The shape is more or less completely out of your control. Give it a whirl, and you'll get a kick out of the various shapes that come into existence of their own accord.

Shape it:

Slice it:

Then name it:







"Cracked Up Laughing Loaf"

"Merry-Go-Round"

"Bone Bread"

"Kissing Sisters"

Besides myriad shape options, there are endless ways to eat bread. Not that you needed me to tell you that! But here are a few pics to get the ball rolling.
With soup:

Creamy Potato Dill Soup

As a sandwich:

Snobby Joe Sandwich

As a late-night snack:

PB&J on Toast

As an anytime snack that is veeeeery addicting:

Bread dipped in Olive Oil & a Spice Blend

As dinner:

Veggie & Herb Pizza

Or as leftovers turned lunch:

Open-Faced Sandwich With Hummus & Last Night's Grilled Veggies

So, while I didn't post as many times as I intended during October - Vegan MOFO (Vegan Month of Food) - I will remember it as the month that I learned to make bread and discovered a plethora of ways to eat it! Good luck to all of you who try making your very own homemade bread!

Vegan Pumpkin Apple Oat Bread


Fiiiiinally I got around to baking something with all those Autumn flavors that have been swirling around in my head! Pumpkin! Apple! Ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon! With the bonuses of walnuts, flax, oats, and, imagine this - coconut milk!

I got my inspiration from this recipe on vegweb.com, while making some adjustments in order to make my autumn dream come true. (And based on the ingredients I had available that day!) Here are all the dry ingredients.
I decided to use agave instead of sugar. So I probably should have put the "wet" agave in with the wet ingredients, but didn't think of that at the time! The recipe called for 2 cups of sugar, which would be one cup of agave. That's a LOT of that expensive syrup! So I cut it down to just half a cup, which worked out fine, because I wasn't going for a really sweet cake-like bread anyway.
Yeah, here are the wet ingredients, all mixed up in the blender, where the agave should have gone!










I LOVE the color of pumpkin!




All mixed up...
And then scooped into four mini-loaf pans.




I sprinkled some oatmeal on top for decoration and texture. No eggs, no yeast, (no milk or butter for that matter), and they rose very nicely into moist, plump loaves!

A mug of tea went very nicely with all the warm spices of nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and ginger, not to mention the pumpkin, flax and vanilla.





I loved the crunch of the oats on top and the walnuts on the inside. The apple bits brought some nice sweetness. Overall, each slice was moist and chewy with enough density and cakiness to make you say yummm.


I gave a few loaves to friends and family, all omnivores, and all loved it!





Even though this bread was a bit of an experiment, I think five rave reviews (plus my own) is enough to warrant a public posting of the recipe!

Dry Ingredients:
1 c. oatmeal (plus more to sprinkle on top)
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. white flour
2 Tbs. ground flax
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2  tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. chopped apple (about 1/3 of a large apple; use the rest with the wet ingredients)
1 c. chopped walnuts

Wet Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. pumpkin puree (about 15 oz)
1 1/2 tsp. fresh grated ginger
1 c. chopped apple (about 2/3 of a large apple, what you have left over from the wet ingredients)
1/2 c. agave (or 1 c. of sugar)
3/4 c. coconut milk (half of a can)
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour four 5" x 3" loaf pans (or two 8" x 4" pans).

2. In a large bowl, stir together all dry ingredients except the walnuts and 1/2 c. chopped apple.

3. In a blender, blend together all wet ingredients (including the 1 c. chopped apple).

4. Mix the blended pumpkin puree into the dry ingredients. Once almost completely combined, add the chopped walnuts and apples. Mix until just combined.

5. Divide the batter evenly between the loaf pans. Sprinkle oatmeal on top of the batter and press the oats into the batter a little bit.

6. Bake for about 27 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (I'm not sure about cooking time if you're doing two 8" x 4" pans, but I guess it'd be longer.)

7. Remove from oven, and cover loaves (still inside their pans) tightly with foil. Allow to steam for 10 minutes. Remove foil, and turn out onto a cooling rack. Cool completely, if you can wait, then slice and eat!


Thursday, October 27, 2011

See You Again Soon, Florida!





Florida is definitely different than Pennsylvania. Besides the abundance of long-legged, long-beaked water birds, here are a few other things I love:
 The beach.




Orange groves.





Pirates!
And Banyan Trees! Ok, so this tree is NOT native to Florida. It comes from East India. But this particular giant came to reside here when Thomas Edison decided to include it as part of his estate. At first, the area was his family’s summer home, but eventually they lived here year-round, and so did the family of his friend, Henry Ford.


They had a great big house, a great big yard with lots of trees, and ocean less than a minute’s walk away.

I was reminded of Thailand while walking through the estate, not just because of the beachfront, but because of the different varieties of plants and fruit trees: bamboo, lychee, avocado, mango, longan, and…


kumquat! It's like a tiny orange, but oblong, and you eat the whole thing – peel and all!

Speaking of kumquat, one time in Thailand, I ate them as a chaser to tequila shots. It was a great combo! And speaking of tequila, I even found an agave plant (from Mexico), which is where tequila comes from!


Of course, Thomas Edison had a laboratory as well, which he later shared with Henry Ford.
These two masterminds must have spent 1000s of hours here, experimenting, inventing and discovering.





Ford has gone down in history for inventing the automobile (which he called the quadricycle because it was originally made with four bicycle tires), and Edison for inventing the lightbulb.  But Edison had many more inventions, such as batteries, high chairs, cement, mimeograph and the first talking doll.







History and perfect weather. And then lunch at the Banyan Cafe!

This self-proclaimed "street food" style cafe on wheels is temporarily parked on the Edison & Ford Estate grounds while their regular cafe is undergoing renovations.


There's a nice sitting area, under the shade of a banyan and other trees. Besides burgers and other meat options, I was happy to see that there was one vegetarian option and one vegan option! Everything was made right there on the spot, so it took a few minutes, but was well worth it! I got a wrap with grilled portabello mushrooms, fresh spinach and sun dried tomato pesto - a great combo of flavors that was nice and tasty!

Yay for having veg options!
Until next time, in the words of the salutation I’ve acquired from George:


“Happy Day!”


Edison & Ford Estate, Ft. Myers, Florida