Green Drinks February: Bread Tasting!

What a delicious evening! Thanks to everyone for bringing unique and scrumptious bread. We tasted, baguette, sour-dough, whole wheat, no knead, and multi-grain breads. We were also treated to brie cheese, sausage and homemade jam.

We all decided that the recipes should be shared so have a look below for some well-tested, delicious bread recipes!

 

Ruth's Whole Wheat Bread

5 cups water

2/3 cup oil

1/2 honey (or 1/3 or /14)

2 tbsp. salt

2 tbsp yeast

2 tbsp dough enhancer/conditioner (Available at Stoneybrook Pantry)

4 cups white flour

1 cup bran flour

1/2 cup ground flax

7-8 cups whole wheat flour (or a mix of various flours)

1. Mix all wet ingredients.

2. Mix salt, yeast, dough enhancer/conditioner with one cup flour. Add to wet mixture.

3 Add rest of the flour.

4. Knead.

5. Bake @ 400 degrees. For buns - 20-25 minutes, for loaves 30-35 minutes.

Jacinthe and Wade's No-Knead Bread (Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery, The New York Times)

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting

1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

David's Baguettes

4 cups all-purpose white flour

1+ cup warm water

1 cup sourdough starter

1 1/2 tsp instant dried yeast

2 tsp salt

Mix and knead to a smooth dough.

Allow to rise.

Knock down and divide into 200 gm pieces of dough. Flatten these and form into a little "log." Place onto parchement paper on a cookie sheet and leave for gluten to relax for at least 30 mins.

Then take each "log" in turn, pat it to de-gas and fold it over twice before rolling to fit a second parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

Allow to rise well.

Make a few diagonal slashes with a sharp knife.

Bake 450 for 30 min.

David's Flax and Sunflower Seed Bread

Method: Before going to bed:

1. Put 1/2 cup ground flax in a BIG bowl and add 1 cup boiling water.

2. When cool add:

2 1/2 cups warm water

3 cups white all-purpose flour

2 tsp instant dried yeast.

Stir well, cover and leave overnight in a warm place.

3. In the morning, butter 2 large bread tins.

4. Then add to the overnight batter:

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cups sunflower seeds (unslated, natural)

1 tsp salt

Knead into a smooth dough - may require a little more flour. Divide into 2 and place in the pre-buttered tins. Allow to rise well above the top of the tins.

Bake 15 min at 425 F then reduce heat and bake another 30 min at 375 F.

Makes 2 loaves each with 2 1/4 pounds of dough.

Tam's Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes

(Artisan Free-Form Loaf)

Makes 4 x 1-pound loaves

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1⁄2 tbsp granulated yeast (1 1⁄2 packets)

1 1⁄2 tbsp coarse kosher or sea salt

6 1⁄2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour

Cornmeal for pizza peel

For instructions see link in this recipe's title.

Rebecca's 100% Rye Sourdough Bread (From Bread Alone by Daniel Leader and Judith Blahnik)

2 cups/18 oz Rye soudough starter

3 cups/24 oz water

6 cups/2 lbs rye flour

1 tbsp salt

Mix the starter and water in a 6-quart bowl. Break up starter until water gets frothy. Add the salt and gradually add the flour and mix until well combined. The dough will be more like a thick batter then a bread dough. Let the dough rise for 5-6 hours. Divide the dough into two well greased bread pans, level the tops with a knife. Cover pans with greased plastic wrap and leave to rise 2-3 hours. Bake the loaves at 300 F for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Check with a toothpick to make sure the bread is completely cooked. Pop the breads out of the pans and let cool on a metal rack. Flavor improves after 12 hours.

Gabe's Whole Wheat

2 cups of water at 42-45 °C
1.5 table spoon of honey
1.5 table sponn of yeast
4 table spoon (60ml) of organic cold pressed sunflower oil
2 tea spoons of sea salt
4 cups of room temperature organic whole wheat flour(fresh home ground in my case)
1 egg

disolve honey in water, add yeast and mix gently with a wisk, wait 5 min., add salt and oil and mix, add half of the flour and the egg, beat it 200 times with the wisk or up to 3-4 min. with the mixer.  The goal of it is to add oxygen to the mix.  Gradually add and mix the rest of the flour.  This gives you a sticky dough. Pour an extra cup of flour and spread it on the counter, detach the dough from the bowl with a spatula, add more flour on top, spread it, knead it in and add more flour as needed until the though do not stick anymore. Let it rise until it doubles or so. Knead it again, add more flour if sticky, cut as needed and shape it the way you like. Place in molds, or on a cookie sheet, let is rise until it doubles, put it in the oven at 350 °F in a regular oven or 325 in a convection oven. Let it bake for 45-50 min.