Pecorino Cheese Bread

When we were down at Reading Terminal Market last week, we stopped off at MeltKraft for grilled cheese sandwiches before heading home. While waiting for them to cook, I tasted a piece of Pepato from Valley Shepherd Creamery - a sheep's milk cheese with peppercorns - similar to a pecorino - and aged at least 5 months. I bought a hunk. Nothing says impulse-buy like a taste of cheese.

That taste led to today's loaf of bread...

Victor made homemade papardelle and I had a chunk of guanciale - also picked up at Reading Terminal Market - so tonight's pasta dinner was calling for homemade bread. I checked out my mom's cook cook for a recipe, and while there were a few that were close, but nothing that was calling my name, so i decided to take one of her recipes and just redo it, completely. And Pecorino Cheese Bread was born!

Pecorino Cheese Bread

  • 1 pkg active dry yeast
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1/3 cup cream
  • 3 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded pecorino cheese
  • 1 egg white mixed with water
  • sesame seeds

Mix yeast with water and cream to proof. In a stand mixer, add half the flour and begin to mix. Slowly add the grated cheese and the rest of the flour, mixing until it all holds together. Continue mixing for about 10 minutes or until a firm, smooth dough is made.

Form into a ball, rub a bowl with oil, coat dough, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and let rise until doubled.

03-06-16-cheese-bread-2

Punch down, turn out to counter, and let rest about 15 minutes.

Divide into three pieces and form each into a rope about 18" long. Braid ropes together, tucking ends under. Place ona baking peel liberally coated with corn meal. Cover, and let rise until doubled.

03-06-16-cheese-bread-3

Preheat oven with baking stone to 375ºF (190°C).

When dough has risen, brush with an egg white mixed with water. Sprinkle liberally with sesame seeds and bake for 40-45 minutes or until nicely browned and hollow-sounding when tapped.

Cool on wire rack.

03-06-16-cheese-bread-4

The cheese really came through! The texture is that of a traditional loaf of bread. The flavor is cheesecheesecheese! It was the perfect foil for the pasta.

I can't wait to have it toasted for breakfast tomorrow!


Walnut Raisin Bread

It's been snowing now for 24 continuous hours. One of the best snowfalls I've seen in years. Feet and feet of snow - with drifts over 5 feet. It's incredible.

I started shoveling the drive but said hell with it less than a third of the way out. I don't have to be anywhere until Tuesday afternoon. I'll take my time.

Food-wise, we're doing well. Scones for breakfast, meatball sandwiches for lunch, and pork chops for dinner - with a loaf of walnut raisin bread. The bread definitely took the blue ribbon - it's one of the better ones I've made. Really crunchy crust with a perfectly light crumb. Just enough walnuts and golden raisins for sweetness and a bit of extra crunch. I slathered three slices with butter during dinner.

01-23-16-walnut-rasin-bread-1

And, because man does not live by bread alone - although there are times when I almost do - we had pork chops with a balsamic reduction for the actual dinner.

01-23-16-pork-chops

Just browned in a skillet, pulled out, added chicken broth and balsamic vinegar, boiled it down a bit, added the chops back in to finish cooking, and then reduced the juices a bit more. Really simple.

Dessert is going to be Pecan Pie, because... what the heck. It's still snowing!

One thing to note about the bread - it needs a starter, so make sure you make the starter the day before you want to make the bread!

Walnut Raisin Bread

starter

  • 2 tsp active dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup water 110°
  • 1 3/4 cups flour

Sprinkle yeast into the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in flour. Cover bowl with clean towel and leave at room temperature for 2-3 days.

dough

  • 1 tsp active dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup water 110°
  • 1 cup starter
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup rye flour
  • 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

Sprinkle yeast into water in mixing bowl. Stir to dissolve. Add starter, flours, and salt.

Mix on low speed with dough hook for about 5 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Add raisins and walnuts and continue mixing another 5 or so minutes.Knead by hand for a minute or two on a lightly-floured surface to make sure the nuts and raisins are evenly distributed.. Place the dough into a clean bowl and cover with a kitchen towel.

Let rise until doubled – up to 2 hours. Punch dough down and let rest for about 10 minutes before forming the loaf.

Shape the dough into a cylindrical loaf and place on a bread peel generously coated with coarse cornmeal. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise again until doubled – about an hour.

Preheat oven with baking stone to 425°.

Dust loaf with flour and then make three parallel slashes across the top. Slide dough onto stone and bake for about 1 hour.

Replenish starter with about 3/4 cup flour and 1/2 cup water.

Oh... AND... I won the snow pool at work. I said 19".


Pane all'Olio

This is an adaption of Pane all'Olio from Carol Field's The Italian Baker. I have used and abused this book for 30 years and love every recipe and page!

I made this bread for our Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes in 2015. It's excellent!

The dough is rolled into balls and placed on cookie sheets to form rings - or wreaths...

Pane all'Olio

Olive Oil Bread
adapted from Carol Firld's The Italian Baker

  • 2 1/2 tsp yeast
  • 1 1/4 cup warm water
  • 3 1/3 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 tsp lard, melted and cooled
  • 3 3/4 cups flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • olive oil and sea salt for topping

Sprinkle yeast over water and let sit about 5 minutes or until it gets creamy. Stir in the oil and the lard and then with dough hook and mixer on low, slowly add the flour and salt.

Knead with machine 5 to 7 minutes or until dough is velvety and elastic.

Place dough in a lightly-oiled bowl and cover with a kitchen towel and let rise until doubled.

Punch down and divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll into tight balls and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet - 6 per sheet - in a ring - about 1-1 1/2 inches apart.

Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise again until doubled.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Lightly brush rolls with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake 30-35 minutes.

 

 


Milk Bread and Daisy Organic Flour

 

Finally a recipe from Bon Appetit that I feel like making! The magazine has changed too much for me. I don't like the layout, the photography, or the lack of page numbers. I get that I'm not the demographic, anymore, but...

So... as I was perusing the September issue, I found a recipe for Milk Bread. I do love my bread and I love baking new recipes, so this one was a natural. And since I have 10 pounds of Daisy Heritage Lancaster Red Wheat Flour in the pantry, this seemed like the perfect place to start.

I've bought Daisy Flour in the past, but this is the first of the Lancaster Red that I've bought. It doesn't get much more local - it's grown and milled just 50 miles from us. And it is awesome flour!

daisy-1

My 'everyday' flour is Antimo Caputo "00" from Italy.Yes, I use imported Italian flour for everyday use. I've reached that age and point in life where it just doesn't make sense not to. I like how it feels, tastes, and bakes. End of discussion.

flour-1The Lancaster Red also has its roots in Italy. It was brought over to the US from Genoa in the early 1800s. It is hearty without being heavy. Local, heritage, and organic. It doesn't get much better.

Back to those rolls...

I followed the recipe pretty much as written but when it came to putting the dough into "Six Jumbo Muffin Tins" I had enough dough for 12. I have no idea the size of the tins they were using, but these rolls are huge as it it - a double amount would be a loaf of bread!

Size or no, they came out fantastic!

They were light-textured, rich in flavor, and had a great, chewy crust! Everything I like in a loaf of bread!

I don't often make breads with milk, but this one shall be a keeper, for sure! They worked on every level.

Because the recipe is available all over the web, I'll go ahead and reprint here, as well...

Kindred Milk Bread

  • 5 1/3 cups bread flour, divided, plus more for surface (Kindred uses King Arthur)
  • cup heavy cream
  • 1/3 cup mild honey (such as wildflower or alfalfa)
  • tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder (such as Alba)
  • tablespoons active dry yeast (from about 3 envelopes)
  • tablespoons kosher salt
  • large eggs, divided
  • tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature
  • Nonstick vegetable oil spray
  • Flaky sea salt (optional, but shouldn't be)

Cook ⅓ cup flour and 1 cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until a thick paste forms (almost like a roux but looser), about 5 minutes. Add cream and honey and cook, whisking to blend, until honey dissolves.

Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and add milk powder, yeast, kosher salt, 2 eggs, and 5 cups flour. Knead on medium speed until dough is smooth, about 5 minutes. Add butter, a piece at a time, fully incorporating into dough before adding the next piece, until dough is smooth, shiny, and elastic, about 4 minutes.

Coat a large bowl with nonstick spray and transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

If making rolls, lightly coat a 6-cup jumbo muffin pan with nonstick spray. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and divide into 6 pieces. Divide each piece into 4 smaller pieces (you should have 24 total). They don’t need to be exact; just eyeball it. Place 4 pieces of dough side-by-side in each muffin cup.

If making a loaf, lightly coat a 9x5" loaf pan with nonstick spray. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and divide into 6 pieces. Nestle pieces side-by-side to create 2 rows down length of pan.

If making split-top buns, lightly coat two 13x9" baking dishes with nonstick spray. Divide dough into 12 pieces and shape each into a 4"-long log. Place 6 logs in a row down length of each dish.

Let shaped dough rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size (dough should be just puffing over top of pan), about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°. Beat remaining egg with 1 tsp. water in a small bowl to blend. Brush top of dough with egg wash and sprinkle with sea salt, if desired. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until bread is deep golden brown, starting to pull away from the sides of the pan, and is baked through, 25–35 minutes for rolls, 50–60 minutes for loaf, or 30–40 minutes for buns.

f making buns, slice each bun down the middle deep enough to create a split-top. Let milk bread cool slightly in pan on a wire rack before turning out; let cool completely.

Do Ahead: Bread can be baked 5 days ahead; store tightly wrapped at room temperature.

 

These will also make great burger buns. Maybe there will be a Last Hurrah BBQ before the snow falls!

Around here, anything is possible...

 


Spaghetti and a Loaf of Bread

 

bread-pasta-3

Sunday easy livin'...

We took a trip down to West Chester to pick up some seasonal items to plant in the new vegetable garden. Our timing probably could have been better - it's still hot and we're off on to the West Coast on Thursday - but when ya have a new toy, ya gotta play.

We have several different greens, beets, and garlic in the ground. The garlic will just set there over the winter. The beets and greens are definite fall crops. Beets. This should be interesting because Victor has always disliked beets - well... of the canned variety, anyway. I'm thinking a roasted beet soup when it's cooler. And a way to can them without pickling... We shall see.

In the meantime, we're setting up a sprinkler so Donna - our Nonna-sitter - can just turn a faucet while we're gone.

I was off work early on Saturday, so I made a biga - an Italian starter for bread - and baked fresh bread on Sunday after we got back.

Biga

  • 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (or 1/10 package fresh yeast)
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 1 1/4 cup water (room temperature)
  • 3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Stir the yeast into the warm water and let stand until creamy – about 10 minutes.  Stir in the remaining water and then the flour, one cup at a time.

Mix with the paddle attachment on the mixer at the lowest speed about 2 minutes.

Remove to a slightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise at cool room temperature for 6 to 24 hours.  The starter will triple in volume and still be wet and sticky when ready.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

While that was sitting on the counter, I made a pot of sauce.

 

bread-pasta-2

No recipe. It just has all sorts of stuff in it - onions, garlic, roasted red peppers, ground beef, roasted eggplant, fresh and canned tomatoes...

Ya just make this stuff. Really. Throw things in a pot, let it all simmer, and serve it over spaghetti. Really.

And then the bread.

bread-pasta-1

The Pane Pugliese really is one of my favorite rustic Italian breads. Crusty crust, light, tender crumb. Bake some! The recipe comes from my favorite Italian Bread Book, The Italian Baker by Carol Field. Buy a copy - you will not be sorry!

Pane Pugliese

adapted from The Italian Baker by Carol Field

  • 1 packet dry yeast (or 1/2 package fresh yeast)
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 3 cups water; room temp
  • 1 cup biga
  • 7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp salt

Proof the yeast in the warm water. Add 1 1/2 c water and the biga, mix till blended. Add flour and salt, mix till dough comes together and pulls off the sides of the bowl. Knead 3-5 minutes in a mixer, longer by hand. Dough will be very soft and elastic. Let rise about 3 hours, shape into 2 small round loaves or 1 big flattish one. If you have baking stones, place loaves on baking peel or on baking sheets sprinkled corn meal. Let rise about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 450°, and 10 minutes before baking flour the loaf tops and dimple them with your fingers. Bake 50-60 minutes for big loaves, 30-35 minutes for small. Tap the loaves to test for doneness (hollow=done) and cool on a rack.

 

 

 


Pane al Pistacchio

05-31-15-pane-al-pistacchio-4

One of my go-to books for Italian breads is Carol Field's The Italian Baker. I have had her book for probably 30 years and it's still one of the best books out there for making rustic Italian breads. The recipes are all easily adaptable and if you make bread on any sort of regular basis, you can easily play with them and get outstanding results every time.

Today, I took her Walnut Bread and turned it into a Pistachio Bread.

I love baking bread on hot, humid days. The weather is perfect for proofing bread outdoors - Mother Nature's Perfect Proofing Box.  Since I've been day-dreaming about Sicily, I thought a loaf of bread with pistachios was in order. Sicily has some excellent pistachios - grown mostly in the volcanic soil around Mount Etna. They don't export many, but I can pretend my California nuts are their Sicilian cousins...

The recipe is pretty straightforward. There are no starters - biga - in this bread, so you can get it done start-to-finish in just a couple of hours.

A couple of things to note... When chopping the nuts, I used a food processor and made them fairly fine, but made sure there were still some chunks. Also, after the first rise, you take the dough out of the bowl and form it into a ring without punching it down or kneading it. The dough is also just a tad sticky. Resist the urge to add more flour.

The end result is outstanding!

This is the dough right out of the mixer, ready for the first rise. Note the chunks of pistachio.

05-31-15-pane-al-pistacchio-1

It's then formed into a ring on a cornmeal-sprinkled bread peel and left to rise, again, until doubled.

05-31-15-pane-al-pistacchio-2

And here it is right out of the oven.

05-31-15-pane-al-pistacchio-3

Half of this is going into the freezer.

It's actually quite a quick recipe. Most of the time is waiting for it to rise - and on nice, hot, humid days, it does it quite quickly.

Pistachio Bread

adapted from Carol Field's The Italian Baker

  • 2 cups roasted, unsalted pistachios
  • 2 1/2 tsp or 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup cane syrup or honey
  • 1 1/3 cups warm water
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt

Chop them to coarse crumb in a food processor.Stir the yeast and cane syrup or honey into water in a large mixing bowl; let stand until foamy.

Combine the flour, salt and pistachios and stir into the yeast mixture. Mix until the dough looks brownish and coarse. Knead for 8-10 minutes. The dough should be soft, moist and fairly dense, but easy to work, although not elastic.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover tightly and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. WITHOUT PUNCHING IT DOWN OR KNEADING IT, shape it gently into a log and join the end to make a ring.

Place on a cornmeal-dusted bread peel. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Pre-heat the oven with baking stone to 400° F. Slide bread onto stone and bake for 10 minutes; reduce the heat to 350° F and bake 40 minutes longer.

If you don't have a peel and baking stone, you can place the loaf on a cornmeal-dusted sheet pan, let it rise, and then place the pan in the oven to bake.

But I really do recommend getting a peel and stone. They're not that expensive and they really do make for a better loaf of bread!


Onion Poppy Seed Bread

It's been a week and a half since I last baked any bread. I'm slipping!

Bread is pretty much my most favorite thing to make. It just boggles the mind how many different things you can create using just a few basic ingredients. Flour, water, salt, and yeast. Switch a few things out here and there, and another gastronomic goody is born.

Besides, there's no such thing as a bad loaf of homemade bread. And it's easy.

Today's bread came straight out of my Mom's Cook Book. It came from a magazine - although I have no idea which one. As I've been going through every single recipe and getting them on their own site, the one recurring theme is where did this come from?!? Some are definitely the now-defunct San Francisco News Call Bulletin or the shadow-of-its-former-self San Francisco Examiner, but the magazines?!? She read too many of them to ever be able to pin down a source.

But source isn't as important as taste. And this is one tasty bread! It makes a large loaf, so make sure you have plenty of folks over to share it with.

Onion Poppy Seed Bread

Bread

  • 1 pkg active dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 4 1/2 to 5 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine, me;ted
  • 1 cup warm milk
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 egg

Filling

  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
  • 3 tbsp poppy seeds
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 egg, beaten - for glaze

In large mixer bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add 2 cups flour, melted butter, milk, sugar, salt, and 1 egg. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. With wooden spoon, stir in enough additional flour to make a stiff dough - about 2 cups. Spoon onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turn to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from draft, until double in bulk, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare filling: In small bowl, combine onion, melted butter or margarine, poppy seeds, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; set aside.

Punch dough down. On lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 20x8-inch rectangle. Cut in half from 8-inch side, forming two 20x4-inch rectangles.  Spread onion filling onto each to within 1/2 inch of edges. Pinch seams to seal forming a long rope. Repeat with remaining dough. Twist the ropes together. On lightly greased baking sheet, form dough into a ring. Cover and let rise, in warm place, free from draft, until double in bulkm about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush dough ring with the remaining egg. Sprinkle with additional poppy seeds and chopped onion, if desired. Bake for 40 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when tapped with fingers. Cool slightly on wire rack. Makes 1 loaf, about 28 1-inch slices. About 150 calories per slice.

I had more than one slice.

Here are a few photos of the making. I usually forget to do these. This is the two 20" by 4" pieces before folding.

 

Here we have the ring formed and getting ready for the second rise.

 

Brushed with egg and sprinkled with poppy seeds, it's ready to go into the oven.

 

And then we have the finished product.

 

This really was good. It's like a stuffed Challah bread. It's another bread I shall be making again. And again.

Here's the recipe from Mom's Cookbook!


Barmbrack

We're having a bit of a green food contest at work Tuesday during our store meeting. My entry is going to be a Barmbrack.

Barmbrack is a traditional Irish spiced fruit bread.  I found this recipe years ago and made it for my father’s cousins on St Paddy’s Day when they were visiting San Francisco almost 30 years ago. That was a pretty legendary dinner with about a dozen of us eating Beef Braised in Guinness and consuming a couple  I've been making it ever since. It’s delicious sliced, toasted and buttered – or you can eat it on its own.

Traditionally, the fruit is soaked overnight in 2 cups of strong Irish tea.  Being the non-traditionalist I can sometimes be, I soak the fruit in 2 cups of Irish whisky overnight.  I’ve made it both ways and really prefer the whisky version the best!

This year, I also have Irish flour and Irish butter for the making.

Wish me luck!

Barmbrack

  • 3 ½ cups mixed dried fruit (raisins, golden raisins, sultanas, currants, candied peel)
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 tsp active dry yeast
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup butter (Kerrygold or Plugra European style butter!)
  • 1 beaten egg
  • 2 tsp mixed spices (allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon…)

Soak the dried fruit in 2 cups of Irish whisky (or strong Irish Tea) overnight.

Warm the milk slightly (no more than 110°.) Stir in the teaspoon of sugar and the yeast and let proof about 10 minutes.

Mix the flour, salt and brown sugar in a large bowl. Rub in the butter or margarine. Add the yeast, the beaten egg and the spice. Drain any remaining liquid from the fruit and add the fruit to the mixture. Mix well to make a smooth dough (add more flour if the mixture is too wet).

Turn the dough onto a floured board and knead it thoroughly.  (I use my KitchenAid and mix about 6 minutes.) Place the dough in a well-greased 8”-9” springform pan, cover with a cloth, and leave in a warm place to rise for 45 – 60 minutes or until doubled in size.

Place the pan in a preheated 350° oven and bake for about 50 minutes. The loaf will be ready when it sounds hollow when you tap on it.

Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack before serving.


Bacon and Tomato Swirl Bread

03-05-15-burger

It's snowing outside, so I stayed home from work, today. I actually had every intention of going in, but when I went out at 6:30am to check things out, our driveway and street were sheets of ice, and my neighbor across the street had her car stuck in the middle of the street. A few pushes and grunts got her back into her driveway, but it set the tone for my drive down the hill to work. Down the hill. A winding, 2-lane road-hill.

At 23, I would have jumped into the car and slalomed into work. At almost 63, I'm no longer quite as reckless. The mind is willing but the recovery takes so much longer...

So... with a free day off and nowhere to go, I decided it was time for some baking. I'm still working on getting my mom's cook books together and one of the recipes I have rediscovered is for a Bacon and Tomato Swirl bread. It's another one that is extremely easy and totally rocks. The recipe makes 2 loaves or 12 buns. Or, in my case, one loaf and 6 buns.

Bacon and Tomato. In bread. I mean, really. How could one resist? Did I mention it was an easy dough to make?

Naturally, I had all the ingredients necessary, so I set to work.

I didn't think to take pictures of the making of the bread and rolls, but suffice to say that it's pretty effortless.

The rolls came out great, albeit a bit irregularly shaped.

03-05-15-bacon-and-tomato-swirl-1

But boy-oh-boy were they good!

03-05-15-bacon-and-tomato-swirl-3

Really light with lots and lots of flavor. I see more of these in our future. They held together perfectly and would definitely lend themselves to any number of fillings.

I haven't sliced into the loaf, yet. I'm saving it for dinner...

03-05-15-bacon-and-tomato-swirl-2

As is typical of me, I more-or-less followed the recipe. The key to this one is watching how much flour goes in - and that is going to be determined by the amount of bacon fat and liquid in your tomatoes. I used just under 4 cups of flour and had a relatively soft dough.

And since I made buns, I decided that I needed to grill hamburgers for lunch.

Damn the snow!

03-05-15-snow

The grill is covered.

03-05-15-grill

Cold, but covered. We do grill year-round, especially during snow-storms. It's kinda a rule.

The burgers were excellent. I loaded mine up with sprouts. Victor and Nonna won't touch them, but I love 'em.

As for the bread... the recipe calls for "1 can (1 pound) tomatoes." I used a 14 1/2 oz can of diced tomatoes in juice. Worked just fine.

bacon-and-tomato-swirl

 


Blushing Tomato Bread

I've been working on reworking my mom's cook books into something a bit more user-friendly.

The originals are two loose-leaf binders that she glued, taped, or otherwise affixed recipes she found in newspapers, magazines, from family, friends, along with many of her own hand-written creations. Over the years she added, subtracted, moved things around, crossed things out, made notes and comments... Things were spilled... They're real, working books with a lot of history.

I was always a bit curious why she gave me the books and not one of her four daughters but the answer was pretty much right there - four daughters. One recipe collection. She took the easy way out. She didn't have to choose which one of her girls got them.

The first thing I did when I got them was to scan them all and put them on discs for my siblings. I have the originals but everyone has a copy. And then when I started the recipe site, they went online, as well.

The problem with scanned images is they're not searchable. Some pages could have a dozen recipes on them but if you were to type in "chicken" in the search box, only the index would appear. And clicking on a specific recipe in the index brings up the page the recipe is on - you then have to find it on the scan.

My goal is to change that by taking every recipe and putting it on its own page and adding categories and tags. It's the perfect wintertime project.

I have already completed going through and creating the individual recipes. That was a long trip down Memory Lane! I actually went through every single recipe in the books. It gave me enough dinner and dessert ideas to last several years. Going through every recipe again and giving it its own page and tags shall take a bit longer, but as I said... it's the perfect wintertime project.

Mom baked a lot of bread and one recipe that caught my eye right off was for Blushing Tomato Bread.

blushing-tomato-bread

In true Mom-Fashion, I didn't have all of the ingredients and I only wanted one loaf, but that didn't stop me! First, I cut the recipe in half. I didn't have tomato juice so I used tomato sauce and a squirt of catsup. I added a bit of water to thin, and then added some garlic powder and black pepper along with the salt. I mixed it in the KitchenAid for about 8 minutes.  Voila!

I have to say, it was a pretty damned good loaf of bread. Nice crust and a really soft, fine-textured crumb. I could easily see this baked in loaf pans as a sandwich bread.

01-18-15-blushing-tomato-bread-4

So... off to toast some for breakfast... and then back to working on tags and pages and categories - and dinner ideas!

 

 


Crusty Italian Bread

 

The New Year needs to start off right - and that means a fresh loaf - or two - of bread.

I love my fresh-baked bread. There really is nothing better for making a dinner complete. It amazes me a bit that - after all of the thousands of loaves of bread I have made in my lifetime - I still enjoy making it so much. But I do. I really do.

This particular dough needs to slow-rise in the refrigerator overnight, so make the dough before you go to bed and bake it the following day! The slow rise adds character to the bread by allowing the yeast and bacteria to develop flavor. There's also talk that slow-rising, as well as using sourdough starters, are beneficial to people with issues with commercial breads. I dunno, because I have no food allergies or intolerances, but, if ya do, you may want to look into it.

This is a really basic bread - flour, water, salt, and yeast - my favorite four ingredients. It's rather amazing how these same ingredients can be combined just slightly different, shaped differently, and have such dramatic differences in flavor, crust, and texture. It's one of the reasons I love bread-baking so much.

This really is an easy bread to make and the dough is easy to work.

The origin of this particular bread eludes me. I have a ton of recipes on my computer dating back to the early days of home-computing - most in .txt files. Some of them are transcribed from a cook book my old Tahoe roommate Steve Johnson and I were once trying to write. It was the "Scraped off the Wall Cook Book" and the original files were lost in a computer crash in the early '90s. While some of the recipes survived, I've never been able to get up the energy to start it, again. This could be one of them. Or not.

Crusty Italian Bread

Makes two 14-inch loaves

  • 3 1/2 cups bread flour
  • 1 tsp active dry yeast
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • cornmeal

Combine the yeast and water in a mixing bowl and allow to proof. Add the salt and flour and mix, forming a somewhat smooth ball. Continue mixing about 5 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto the counter, knead by hand for a few seconds, shape into a ball, and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, turn it to completely coat with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes, then refrigerate for 24 hours. The dough will double in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to bake, return the dough to room temperature.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Cut it into 2 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Cover with a towel and let rest for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven with a baking stone in it to 450°F.

Pat 1 ball of dough into a rectangle about 4" x 5". Fold in half, sealing the dough with your palm. Spin, and fold in half, again, also sealing with your palm.

Fold the resulting piece in half, again, sealing the edges with your fingertips. Roll into a 14-inch-long cylinder with slightly tapering ends.

Place on peel that has been liberally sprinkled with cornmeal.

Repeat with the remaining ball of dough.

Cover with a towel and set aside to rise at room temperature for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Make three diagonal slashes with a very sharp knife. Sprinkle lightly with flour and slide onto the baking stone.

Lower the oven temperature to 425°F.

Bake the bread for 25 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp, misting with water from a spray bottle 3 times during the first 10 minutes.

Cool the bread on a rack and serve at room temperature.

Eat one loaf tonight and freeze the other for another time when you want a quick loaf. Reheat in the oven - wrapped in foil - about 10 minutes at 350°F.

01-01-15-italian-bread-2

Edited to add...

WOW! This is one crusty and light loaf of bread! The slow-rise - along with the misting in the oven - gave it a great crust and texture. I'll be making this one, again, for sure!


Cheese & Onion Bread

11--15-14-onion-cheese-bread

Feeding a cold can be a real pain, sometimes. The taste buds are a bit dull so flavors need to be a bit sharp. And since I'm feeling a bit dull, sharp is somehow eluding me...

But when I'm feeling a bit under the weather, a perfect place to go is to Mom's Cook Books... When I was a wee tyke she'd make me tea and toast - her magical cure-all. Sometimes cut in little squares, sometimes in triangles. And depending on the illness, sometimes with a bit of cinnamon sugar on top. It always seemed to work - part of a mother's magical powers, I guess. While she's no longer here to make me tea and toast, she did give me her cook books. It's not quite the same as her telling me everything will be better in just a little while, but I can evoke her spirit just by picking up the books.

I wanted some fresh-baked bread and turned to her book for a bit of inspiration. I came across Cheese and Onion Bread and thought it would be perfect.

I was right. It was.

11--15-14-onion-cheese-bread-1

It was really easy to throw together and packed the wallop I needed, flavor-wise.

I'd love to know where she got all these recipes - which magazines or newspapers, the dates... what other recipes were there that never made the cut?!? Newspaper-wise, I'm pretty sure most of them came out of the San Francisco Examiner or the sadly-defunct San Francisco News Call Bulletin. Magazine-wise, it's anyone's guess. Mom loved her magazines, and had all of the Ladies magazines back in the day - Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Woman's Day, Good Housekeeping... As you can see by the recipes, dinner was never dull at our house!

And this bread wasn't dull, either.

11--15-14-onion-cheese-bread-2

It was perfect - and just the Mom-fix I needed!