June 15th Whole Wheat Bread w/ Olive Oil, Pizza and Ciabatta

Assignment:

I full Recipe of Whole Wheat Bread Dough with Olive Oil

Pesto Pizza w/Grilled Chicken on the Gas Grill, pgs 213-215

1 loaf Seed Encrusted Pita Bread, pgs 223-224

Oven Baked whole grain Pizza w/Roasted Red Peppers & Fontina cheese

While we can not put the recipe on our blogs, due to our agreement with the authors of Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, we can share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.
 
I've been using Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois two books, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day since they books came out. I love the ease of the recipes, and the wonderful way they come out. I very seldom buy bread anymore.

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Substitutions:

5c WWW (white whole wheat) for the whole wheat

2c AP (All Purpose) for 2 c of the WW (whole wheat) measurements

Instead of pesto I used fresh herbs from my garden that will be listed out below

Thank you to all those who wished me luck on my final exam for the SQL class I completed mid-June.  I got a B for the semester!  Woohoo!  Then shortly after that I had to travel to Pittsburgh for my job.  So I am just now getting back to participating in the HBin5 Bread Braid! 
 

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Pesto Pizza w/Grilled Chicken on the Gas Grill

 
When we made the Pesto bread back around St. Patrick's Day, I decided I didn't care for the pesto in the dough.  So for this recipe I put fresh herbs in the dough when I first mixed it.  I am very fortunate to have a few herbs growing in my back yard!
 
Clockwise from the top:  thyme, basil, rosemary, oregano and garlic in the center.  The garlic is the only herb not from my garden.

 
I also added a full cup of Kraft Parmesan Cheese (in the shaker). 
 

Since I had mixed the dough using my Kitchen Aid mixer I let it rise in the bowl.  Then transferred it to a Hefty Jumbo bag.  I have been wanting to try this for a couple of years. A few years ago I stood watching the gals at one of the pretzel stands in a local mall.  I noticed that the gal took her pretzel dough out of a plastic bag and then started cutting the dough into pretzel size chunks.  Since my frig was packed I decided to give it a try this time.   

 

As you can see in the two pictures above the plastic bag works great!  It still allows room for the dough to expand and conforms to the shape of area alloted to it on the shelf.  Of course it does look as though it was trying to slither down in the bottom picture!  LOL. 

The next day I made pizzas.  I didn't try grilling the chicken or the pizza due to the thunderstorms in our area, plus I still had some roasted chicken in the frig to use up. 

                                               

                                 

I warmed up about 4 ounces of goat cheese and spread it on the dough, then added sliced onions, mushrooms, black olives, and roasted chicken thigh pieces.  I then sprinkled Reggiano parmesan cheese that I had shredded very fine, and finally topped it all with mozzarella.  It only took 15 minutes to bake the two personal pizzas in a 500 degree oven.  Wonderful flavor and crust! 

Whole Wheat Bread w/Olive Oil Ciabatta

Ciabatta is one of my favorite forms of bread!  Especially the way I make it.  In this case I used a portion of the same dough I used for the pizzas.  I flatten it out on a cookie sheet that I put a Wilton silicon mat.  I usually spray the mat but I don't think it's really necessary.  I do roll the basic shape out on the counter first, transfer to the silicon mat, and then press out the dough to fit the pan as much as I can. 

Since I was using the herbed dough, the only thing I did to the ciabatta dough was dimple it with my fingertips when it had risen sufficiently, and sprinkle olive oil on the dimpled dough.  Finally I sprinkle a bit of kosher salt on.  Just before putting in the oven I score the dough into squares.  This makes for easy breaking after it's baked.  I do add hot water to a pan in the oven to get a good steam and nice crisp crust.  You can see in the pictures below how nice and flaky the bread comes out.  What a delicious bread! 

                                 

                                 

                                 

I didn't have time to try the pita bread.  That will have to come later. 

 

Please be sure to check out the other bakers blog in our HBin5 group.  Just click on the link below:

HBin5