BBA Challenge: Italian Bread

Every time I take a bite of freshly baked bread, I wonder why I don't bake it more often. There is just nothing like it. It has to be one of the most satisfying - in more than one way - processes from start to finish.

This Italian bread is similar in many ways to the French bread I made not too long ago, but there is one very big, very noticeable difference: the crust. The French bread crust is, well, crusty! The Italian bread has a crust that is much softer and definitely easier for little people to chew.

Despite major problems which I will describe in a second, this bread was fabulous. To bake this bread - and many others, including the French bread - you set an empty pan on the floor of your oven while you preheat it. Then, when you place your dough on the baking sheet - also in the oven during the preheat - you pour water into the empty pan, thereby creating steam. It is this steam that creates the more defined crust. Well, when I poured my water in, all of the steam blew my pilot light out! I kept checking my bread, and wondering why it wasn't baking more quickly, then, after about 15 minutes, my oven had cooled down noticeably and I realized the problem. I was afraid that my bread would be ruined, but it came out of the oven looking like nothing at all had gone awry! I was so proud.

I need work on my slashing. The French Bread was slashed too shallow, this is too deep. Ah well. The bread is delicious, regardless. I made 4 torpedo rolls, and one loaf. The recipe calls for water as the liquid in the loaves and milk in the rolls, but since I did both I went with milk.

In addition to the tender, yet chewy crust, the Italian bread has a very soft interior with a tight crumb and a slightly sweet flavor. So far, we've used the bread for toast and sandwiches. I'm planning on French toast in the morning.

The recipe for this Italian Bread can be found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.

I know I promised to post the SMS chocolate piecrust today, but I didn't really like it, so I'm going to skip posting about it.

BBA Challenge: French Bread

Now that I'm back in the bread-baking groove, I can't stop! Fresh on the heels of my focaccia, I whipped up a batch of this French Bread. I am so happy to be baking bread again, because I just love it.

Earlier this year, before I started my blog, I had never baked a loaf of bread. All of a sudden, however, I decided it was something I was going to get into. I was a little nervous, the whole thing seemed daunting. I bought a few bread books, but didn't really make anything. Until I joined The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge.

Since joining, I've made things I never thought would be coming out of my oven; Brioche, English Muffins, Ciabatta, Focaccia, Cinnamon Rolls, the list goes on and on! I am so grateful for this group, especially the Slow & Steady sub-group, because when I've been dragging my heels, inevitably one of the lovely ladies inspires me to forge ahead. I also think I'm very fortunate to have gotten into bread baking through this amazing book, because it is so specific in its instructions that it really gives you the confidence to make anything!

I love making bread, especially kneading by hand. It is amazing to feel the dough transform over the course of a few minutes from something stiff and restricted to something smooth, elastic, relaxed. It is such a gratifying experience to mix the ingredients together, knead and nurture the dough over a period of time - often two days with Peter Reinhart's recipes - form it into loaves and then entrust it to the oven, where it becomes that nourishing, satisfying thing we call bread. How in the world did someone figure out how to make this stuff?!

I have a difficult time describing the taste of bread, but this French Bread is among the best I've ever had. It had such a depth of flavor that I kept thinking there were things in and on it that weren't there - cheese and butter, namely. The crust was very thick and crunchy as French Bread crust should be, the inside tender and creamy.

I ate a lot of it plain, but also made some into superb crostini topped with olive oil, goat cheese, roasted cherry tomatoes, onions and garlic with coriander and sea salt. Oh my goodness was it amazing. It was gobbled up so quickly I didn't get any photos, but I will definitely make it again so that I can share it with you.

The recipe for this bread can be found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. A must-have book for every home baker.

Even the littlest member of my family loved it!

BBA Challenge: Focaccia

I'm finally feeling back in the swing of things with the BBA Challenge. I had an English Muffin flop a couple of months ago that put me into a bread baking slump. But after my second - and very successful - attempt, I'm happy to say that I'm back in the bread baking groove.

Actually, I made the focaccia several months ago when I had some leftover poolish that I needed to use up. The last two pictures are of my first batch. With that focaccia, I used all unbleached white flour, and topped the bread with basil oil. It was so long ago I honestly don't remember many fine details of it, but I do remember loving it. We made lots of sandwiches with it and it was gone in about 1 1/2 days.

I didn't have any poolish around this time, so I thought I'd give the non-poolish version a shot. I also wanted to use part whole wheat flour - I used 2 cups whole wheat and 3 cups unbleached white.

Once you've had homemade focaccia, store-bought - even bakery-bought in many cases - is basically inedible. This is delicate and tender and flavorful, as opposed to tough and dry and bland.

I can't say that I have a preference one way or the other between the two versions I made. I loved them both. I will say that the non-poolish version doesn't require a preferment, so you don't have to plan ahead when you decide to make it. It does require an overnight rest in the fridge, however, so you will still have to wait a day before enjoying this delightful yeasted creation.

The recipe for this focaccia can be found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. If you don't already have this book you should put it on your holiday wish-list, because it is amazing.

BBA Challenge: Whole Wheat English Muffins

I've always enjoyed English Muffins, but they aren't something I ever remember to buy. I was really excited to make my own for the BBA Challenge. They looked simple enough, and they are cooked in a skillet before being transferred to the oven to bake through which looked like a lot of fun to do.

English Muffins were supposed to have been posted oh, I don't know, a month or so ago... I made them on schedule, but they were a total flop. I felt defeated and deflated and hadn't made bread since. Then I saw Nancy's post on her English Muffins and I was inspired to try again.

Everything that went wrong the first time - they were huge and round like rolls, they burned on both sides in the skillet, they had no flavor - was remedied this time around. To combat the lack of flavor, I used 5oz whole wheat bread flour and 5oz unbleached white flour. This added a wonderful complexity that was earthy, a little sweet, and very hearty. Once I put my risen dough balls into the skillet, I pressed them down with a spatula to flatten them. I may have lost my nooks and crannies that are typical of English Muffins, but I much preferred them this way. I think I may have had my burner on too high the first time around, hence the burning, so I was very careful to have a rather low flame for their time in the pan. I also used salted butter instead of oil, and let me tell you what a brilliant idea that was! It added just a hint of saltiness, that played so well off of the crunchy caramelized spots on the crust. So, so good.

I am very pleased to say that I really look forward to making these again. Though I'll probably double the batch and freeze some, because they are already gone (and were only baked last night!).

The recipe for these English Muffins can be found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. A must-have book if you enjoy baking bread at home.

BBA Challenge: Date Pecan Rolls with Orange Caramel Sauce (formerly known as Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread)

This was the first recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice that I have not been terribly excited to make. Until I saw these, that is. Di had a brilliant idea to make rolls out of her dough instead of braided loaves, and I decided to steal it. After looking at Di's creation, I couldn't wait to make this bread.

The recipe is actually for cranberry walnut bread, but dried cranberries aren't my favorite dried fruit and anyway, I couldn't find any that were both organic and sugar-free. I love dates in baked goods, so that is what I went with. There are few nuts that I'm not crazy about, and while walnuts are not one of them, I didn't have any. What I did have was a few pounds of chopped pecans. Dates and pecans sounded like a delicious combination, especially when I read through the recipe and discovered that the recipe contained orange extract.

Ah yes, orange extract. The recipe calls for a full tablespoon of orange extract. That seemed like overkill to me, so I used 1 teaspoon and the zest of one orange. It was plenty orangey. In fact, I could have gone with less extract and it still would have been plenty orangey.

My plan for these was to add the chopped dates and pecans to the dough during the last 2 minutes of kneading. However, as soon as I put them in the mixer, the dates became one sticky mass, even though I had carefully tossed them in flour in hopes of preventing this. My solution was to take the date-pecan blob out of the mixer, finish kneading the dough, then roll it out, and spread the date mixture in a thin layer over the dough (as you would the cinnamon-sugar in a cinnamon roll. I then rolled it up, cut it and baked it as planned.

I made a caramel sauce out of the juice of the orange I zested, palm sugar, heavy cream and butter. Which turned out to be a perfect complement to the rolls.

I think my idea of the date/nut layer needs some refining - perhaps a bit of liquid to make it slightly more fluid - but overall it was very successful. I did not love the flavor of the bread itself, I could taste the orange extract too distinctly and I thought it would have been much better with zest only. So, I won't be making this recipe again as written - not that I did this time - but it has certainly given me inspiration to tinker with my date & nut orange rolls until they are just right.

BBA Challenge: Cornbread

Being from the south, I have eaten my fair share of cornbread. I can say without a doubt that I do not like it sweet. Now don't get me wrong, I'll certainly slather a warm piece with butter and honey, but it just isn't right to put sugar in the batter. So when I saw that there was not one, not two, but three different sweeteners in this recipe, I knew changes would have to be made.

I eliminated the brown sugar, granulated sugar and honey - yeesh! - and upped the salt a bit. The recipe also calls for bacon. I'm a lifelong vegetarian, so needless to say I didn't use that either. I wanted a little punch to the cornbread, so I added sage, and browned my butter. The recipe calls for buttermilk, but I didn't have any so I substituted yogurt as I often do.

When I got a bite with sage, it was delicious, though I should have added more. The flavor of the brown butter didn't come through, though there is only 2 tablespoons of butter in the recipe so i didn't have terribly high hopes for it.

Two unusual elements of this recipe are that it starts with an overnight soaker of cornmeal and buttermilk, and it contains fresh corn kernels. These were two of my favorite aspects of the bread. The soak made the bread incredibly moist and creamy, and I loved the flavor and crunch of biting into a sweet juicy kernel of corn.

When it comes down to it, though, I probably won't be repeating this one. The extra work that goes into this cornbread just isn't justified by the final product. It isn't bad, it's actually quite tasty. Just not any tastier than my usual recipe. In addition, it takes a long time to make - not necessarily active time, but due to the soaker it has to be planned for in advance - and it uses an inordinate number of bowls. My go-to recipe can be whipped up in about 5 minutes in one bowl.

The recipe for this bread can be found in the wonderful book The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.

Be sure to enter my GIVEAWAY for a wonderful 8x8 square baking dish. Here's how.

BBA Challenge: Cinnamon Raisin Pecan Bread

It's time for the next installment in the BBA Challenge, and what a tasty one it is!!! I ate 1/2 a loaf while it was still cooling...

I loved everything about this bread. It wasn't too sweet, the crumb was lovely, the crust was soft, just delicious. One of my favorite things about this bread is the amount of raisins and nuts in it. I can't stand it when a raisin bread is raisin poor...

I attempted to make a cinnamon-sugar swirl, though it was not terribly successful... It was more of a cinnamon-sugar arc. Ah well, it tasted great...

Once again, I used palm sugar in place of cane sugar. and it worked perfectly.

I have found that with the recipes in this book, I am always adding large amounts of additional flour to get the dough to the right consistency. This time, I added less liquid to begin with - 1/4 cup of water instead of 3/4 cup. I still had to add some flour, but it was only a few tablespoons.

I'm sure I'll be making this bread again, it was a big hit in my house.

The recipe for this bread can be found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.

BBA Challenge: Cinnamon Rolls

Though this was the first time I ever made cinnamon rolls, it certainly won't be the last. These were amazing. Without a doubt the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had.

They were relatively easy to make, I didn't encounter any problems. Though they do take a few hours (of agonizing anticipation).

I used palm sugar in place of cane sugar in the dough and with the cinnamon so that my son - who has never had cane sugar - could eat them. It was my first time baking with palm sugar, so I wasn't sure what it would do, but they couldn't have turned out better. I made the glaze as written, using vanilla extract for flavoring, and left it off of the ones my son ate. Everyone loved them.

My mom's birthday is this weekend. I'm having a brunch for her at my house, and I'm thinking that I might just have to give the sticky bun version of these a whirl for the occasion...

If you'd like the recipe for these amazing cinnamon rolls, you can find it in The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.

BBA Challenge: Ciabatta

This is one of the breads that I was really looking forward to - though it took me a while to get to it! It's been weeks since I baked any bread!

Well, it was certainly worth the wait. This is delicious ciabatta. Tender crumb, golden crust, wonderful flavor. It came out of the oven looking so beautiful I knew I was in for a treat. Then I cut it open... Something was missing... Where are my holes?! They say a good ciabatta is measured by the size of the holes - one case where bigger is actually better. My holes were tiny, almost non-existent. It was a bit of a disappointment. Though it tasted so good, I suppose I could have much bigger complaints...

We made sandwiches with it - come back tomorrow for a fried green tomato sandwich - and french toast, and ate it unadorned. It was fantastic. I'll be making it again, and striving for more prominent holes!

If you don't already have The Bread Baker's Apprentice, go get a copy! It is an amazing book, and in it you will find the recipe for this ciabatta.

BBA Challenge: Casatiello

I wasn't going to make this bread. Casatiello is a brioche-like bread that is Italian in origin, and traditionally contains salami and cheese. I'm a life-long vegetarian, so the salami was definitely out, but for some reason I couldn't think of a substitute. Of course after I made the bread it dawned on me that sun-dried tomatoes would be fabulous, but since it didn't occur to me at the time - plus I didn't have any - I used toasted walnuts.

This was a delicious bread. The nuts and cheese complemented each other beautifully, and the bread itself was amazing. Light and rich at the same time, with a nice crunch from the nuts and wonderful little cheese pockets. I made a large loaf in a 9" pie pan - which made great sandwiches - and 6 rolls. I'm so glad I went ahead with this one, and I can't wait to make it again with sun-dried tomatoes.

BBA Challenge: Challah

The next bread we were supposed to make in the BBA Challenge was actually casatiello - an Italian bread containing salami and cheese. I'm a life-long vegetarian, so I was planning on tweaking the add-inns anyway, but I needed a bun to take to 4th of July dinner, and it didn't seem as appropriate as challah. So, I'm going out of order here, and I hope to make the casatiello sometime soon.

Back to the challah. This is something I've never made, and honestly, never eaten much of.

This bread was amazing. It made equally wonderful buns and loaf, and let me say that it makes spectacular French toast.

It was easy and fun to make, and I'm sure I'll make it again!

To the other BBA slow and steady bakers: I know I jumped a little ahead here, I just couldn't help myself!!! I'll get back in step with the next bread...

BBA Challenge: Brioche

The next bread to come along in The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is brioche. 

Brioche is a wonderfully rich French bread, and we had three versions to choose from: Rich Man's, Middle Class and Poor Man's. The difference in them being their butter content. I went middle of the road with the Middle Class (which still contains a none too shabby 1/2 pound of butter! Yikes!)

This was a really fun and easy bread to make. The dough is made in the mixer, then refrigerated overnight to harden the butter enough to make it workable. It is then formed into loaves or brioche a tete (pictured). Clearly, I need a little practice shaping my brioche a tete, but I'm certain I'll get it, because this bread was delicious and I'll definitely be making it again! It was delicious, and my son loved it. 

I should add that the recipe called for 2 tablespoons of sugar and I replaced it with agave. Since it was such a small quantity, I didn't alter the amounts of any of the other ingredients.

BBA Challenge: Bagels

Bagels. I love bagels. Bagels are one of those foods that never occurred to me to attempt to make at home. Until I started following food blogs, that is. I saw them on so many blogs, and they were all so perfect and bagel-like, I was determined to try my hand at them. 

Thank goodness they're in the Bread Baker's Apprentice, because without the commitment to bake every recipe from the book, I might not have gotten around to baking them for a very long time. That would have been a real shame, because these bagels are amazing. 

They are by far the best I've ever had. My husband even loved them, and he's never met a bagel he loved. They were light and flavorful, really fun to make - though a little time consuming, just chewy enough, and not at all dry or tough. Better than I ever thought a bagel could be, and I love bagels. 

I know I will make these over and over again, and can't wait to try different flavors - this time I kept it simple with sesame seed - my favorite, and plain. 

The recipe for these fabulous bagels can be found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice. 

Christopsomos

Here is my second bread for the BBA Challenge: a Greek celebration bread called christopsomos. 

For this bread, we had a choice between three versions of Greek celebration bread. Once I saw the addition of figs in the christopsomos version, I knew which one I would be making. 

This bread begins with a pre-ferment called poolish. It is a mixture of flour, water and yeast that is made in advance and later added to the other bread ingredients. My poolish was a little thicker than a pancake batter - the consistency the recipe stated it should have - though it still worked wonderfully. 

There are a number of spices in the christopsmos dough, though I only had allspice and cinnamon, so that's what I used. I replaced the honey with maple syrup and added more zest than the recipe called for. I also omitted the raisins, and used more figs and walnuts.

Peter Reinhart gives special instructions for forming the christopsomos loaf, but I decided to go with a simple braid - for some reason it just appealed to me more... I was very pleased with how it came out - especially since it was my first bread braid!

We loved this bread, and ate it toasted every morning for several days with butter (and sometimes honey). The recipe does say that it's a large loaf, but wow was it enormous!!!

The recipe for this bread can be found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Next up in the BBA Challenge: bagels! 

Anadama Bread

There is a relatively new baking group that I've decided to join - The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge - started by Nicole of Pinch My Salt. The group is baking through Peter Reinhart's book in order - which happens to be alphabetical. Most of the group is posting weekly - I think this is officially the 4th week - though I doubt that I'll be able to do that. I don't plan on sticking to a schedule, just baking as my time allows. The first recipe in the book is for Anadama bread - a traditional New England bread with cornmeal and molasses.

I am not an experienced bread maker - something that I'm trying to remedy. I'm determined to make all of my family's bread from now on, and I think I'm off to a pretty good start!

I started making the anadama before I left for work one morning, and got as far as shaping the loaves. The recipe says the dough can be put in the refrigerator at this point. When you want to bake it, it says to let it sit for 4 hours, or until it rises to the top of the pan. I had my husband put it a couple of hours before I left work, thinking that it would probably be late before it was baked and ready to eat, but when I got home, it was fully proofed. Over proofed, in fact. So the loaves both fell a bit in the oven. They also baked more quickly than the recipe stated - they were done in 30 minutes. 

We all loved this bread - my 2 1/2 year old especially. It is a very light bread, slightly sweet, delicious toasted with butter and honey. I'm sure it would make great sandwiches as well, but we haven't tried it yet. 

The only change I would make would be to omit the cornmeal on top of the loaf or use a finer one, as mine was very coarse - locally grown and ground organic grits, actually - and hurt the roof of my mouth a little when I chewed it. A minor problem... Other than that it was delicious, and I was rather proud of having made it! 

You can find the recipe here.