January 15th Bread Braid with HBin5

It is the start of our Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day assignments! We were to do a full Master Recipe on Pages 53-59. With that dough we were to make

1 "regular" loaf,

1 Epi or Wreath shaped bread ( pgs 71-73), &

1 batch of crackers (pgs 233-234).

We can make substitutions, but need to share that with the group in our blogs.

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The first substitution I made was swapping the measurements of the white whole wheat flour for the all purpose flour. As I have mentioned before in my blogs, Ken doesn't like whole wheat, in fact he equates it to sandpaper! So unless I don't plan to give him any of the bread I lighten up on the whole wheat. I used:

2 c of WWW( white whole wheat) and 2 c of WW (whole wheat),

&

3 and 1/2 c AP (all purpose) flours.

I also increased the kosher salt from 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp,

&

added 1/4 honey.

I'm anxious to see how everyone did, especially with their crackers!
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For the regular loaf I flattened out my dough and sprinkled it with a cinnamon and splenda mixture, and cran raisins. Then I rolled it up like a log, pinched the seam and ends to seal them and set them in a loaf pan to rise. That loaf came out looking great as you can see in the picture below and best of all Ken loves it! Matter of fact he ate 4 slices and didn't know it had whole wheat in it! LOL.

Next I tackled the Epi. While this is a shape to make me sigh with delight, I had not attempted it previously. Being a bit nervous about it, I looked up the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day website to see if they had more pictures on how to do it. I wasn't seeing any that really helped so next I viewed a video on YouTube to get a better idea of how it's done. Then I made my basic baguette shape as seen below.

I have had problems before with my baguettes spreading too much, even when making the envelope shape first. Usually I flatten out the dough and then roll it tightly which works better. But this time I decided to try supporting the sides like I've seen in the King Arthur Baking book that I have. In KAB book they show that the shape is formed by placing the formed dough onto a floured towel that has a stiffness to it, then folding a section of the towel up on each side to support the baguette. I didn't have any of that material type towel, so I used a rolling pin on one side and my loaf pan (with the cran-raisin dough in it) on the other side.

Once the dough rose enough I made the scissor cuts at a very shallow angle as the instructions say and the video showed. I was a little concerned that the shape wouldn't come out right, so reshaped a few ends with my fingers. Just before baking I sprinkled sesame seeds and poppy seads on one of the loaves, but left the other plain just to see how they came out.

I was extremely pleased with the results! The only thing I would say is the next time I make them I will make the baguette bigger, I'd like to have all loaves with full size "leaf-buns" instead of half size.

Finally I started on the crackers. I've made crackers many times, but usually with dough that is stiffer. First I tried rolling out the dough on the floured counter. I sprinkled the dough with Penzey's Southwest seasoning. When I went to remove the cracker sections of dough I ran into a problem. The dough stretched completely out of shape! I tried removing the dough with the dough scraper and that was even worse.

I was having more and more trouble with losing the shapes, so I finally just scraped up all the dough and kneaded it together for a minute. I formed it into a round boule and flattened it out. Then I sprinkled it with a four cheese Mexican cheese blend, rolled it into a log and set it aside to rise. When baked it came out very good with just enough flavor from the Penzey's Southwest seasoning!

I tried once more with the crackers. This time I rolled out the dough onto a silicon mat, sprinkled the same seasoning on and then using my dough scraper I cut it into squares. I transferred the entire mat into the oven and placed it on my baking stone. I had rolled the dough as thin as I could and docked it all over with a fork, but you can see how the crackers still puffed up. I found that most of the "crackers" were not to my liking. They were too puffed up. Even after cooling for 1/2 day I found I still didn't like the puffiness and ended up throwing half the batch out and only keeping the really crisp ones.

As I've stated before, I love to share my baking and cooking with friends, neighbors and associates. In this case I took down the biggest loaf of Epi to Carla. She works at our favorite Batteries Plus and has helped us with batteries on a number of our techy devices. Most recently she had one of the guys replace the batteries in my Scooba. While talking to her that time I explained I really needed the Scooba working to help clean the kitchen floor after my baking exploits. We talked about breads and I found out that Carla loves whole wheat bread! To make sure the Scooba worked before I picked it up, they ran it over part of the floor in the shop. That was all it took to convince her she should get one for her mother in the near future!

She loved the Epi as you can see by her smile in the picture!

Osso Bucco as a symbol for a great New Year!

May you have an Osso Bucco year! 

In other words, may it be a richly flavored, easy type of year for you!

I love the symbolism of starting a new year. Ken and I are very lucky because we enjoy two New Year’s! We celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish New Year usually sometime in September or October. THAT New Year tradition is filled with honey and challah. The common New Year has always posed a dilemma however. What to eat to symbolize the New Year?

Here in Central PA, my friends and neighbors celebrate with pork and sauerkraut. While we love sauerkraut, especially the homemade version that I get from Dorothy ( a wonderful Mennonite woman) at the Eastern York Farmers Market, we don’t eat pork at all.

I had to think about what kind of year I want 2010 to be. I decided I want it to be a year filled with the living and enjoying of life, rich and flavorful with new wonderful adventures, and tender moments, that started with a sizzling heat! Yeah, that’s it! And the days after are to be even better, more rich and full bodied. Hmmm. Sounds like Osso Bucco to me, so that’s what I made. We had Osso Bucco at a friend’s house down in Florida a few years ago (not for New Year’s) and I’ve never forgotten what a wonderful meal that was. Great conversation, lots of laughter, and a fabulous dining experience put on by our hosts Brad and his wife, Suzy.

Julia Child’s "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" probably has the perfect recipe for it. Alas, I don’t have my own copy yet. I’m trying to find one at a used book store. If no luck there I’ll order on sometime the first part of 2010. In the meantime I perused James Beard’s Theory and Practice of Good Cooking. No luck there. Joy of Cooking has a braised lamb shanks recipe but she doesn’t call it Osso Bucco. I finally got online and looked at several recipes, and decided that Giada De Laurentiis' was the recipe that best epitomized what I want in 2010.

Although Giada makes hers with veal shanks, I found some very nice looking lamb shanks at BJs. Lamb is a favorite for Ken and I, and we make it numerous ways throughout the year. The shanks were really meaty and plump and the price was within my budget so I snatched them up!

Giada’s recipe ingredients were perfect for me. I had everything except the fresh parsley. But that I could leave out this time I figured. I wasn’t going out to the store again.

I started by cutting fresh rosemary and thyme out of my little herb garden in the back. That in itself was a minor miracle since we again have snow on the ground! At least this time it only snowed three inches!

Scupper surveying the snow

Here are the ingredients list for Giada’s Osso Bucco

1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 dry bay leaf
2 whole cloves
Cheesecloth
Kitchen twine, for bouquet garni and tying the veal shanks
3 whole veal shanks (about 1 pound per shank), trimmed
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
All purpose flour, for dredging
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1 small carrot, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1 stalk celery, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
3 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon zest

I cut the sage leaves so I can dry them, but the rosemary and thyme went into the bouquet garni, along with the cloves and bay leaf. I filled the cheesecloth with the herbs and then tied it all up with butchers twine.

I quickly diced the carrots, celery and onions and set them aside in a bowl. I measured out a tablespoon of tomato paste from the squeeze tube. By the way if you haven’t tried the tomato paste in a tube, do so at your earliest convenience. I love the stuff! I seldom need more than a tablespoon or two at a time and have wasted too many cans of it in the past. Now I buy it in the tubes and keep it in the frig once I’ve opened it.

I went ahead and measured out the Martini & Rossi Vermouth and chicken stock while I was at it. I wanted to be able to move from step to step without stopping.

After taking the lamb shanks out of the package I rinsed them quickly, patted them dry, and trimmed some of the fat. Harking back to my days in Alaska and rendering bear fat, I put the trimmings in the pot and let the fat ooze out as the little pieces of meat became nice and crispy. Yes, I have actually eaten bear, matter of fact we were very happy to have it one winter as that was just about our only red meat that year. That was years ago when I hunted with my former husband. I haven’t hunted in years but still conjure up my cooking techniques from those days every once in awhile.

While the fat was rendering I wrapped each shank with twine to keep the meat on the bones when it became oh-so-tender. I seasoned with salt and pepper, and then dredged in flour. Once I had garnered as much fat as possible out of the gribbins (that is what I call it) I removed them then added olive oil instead of vegetable oil and heated it up. I dropped in the shanks and browned them all over.

Once the shanks were browned I put them on a plate to the side, I dropped the vegetables in and sautéed those until the onions were translucent. In went the tomato paste next and I stirred it until it was blended in. Then it was time to drop in the shanks. I poured in the vermouth and cooked it down to reduce the liquid to half. It doesn’t take long, so I had to monitor it closely. Finally I dropped in the bouquet garni, and added the chicken stock. I felt the College Inn Bold Stock Rotisserie Chicken Broth would be best for this since it is rich, and full bodied.

I brought the liquid up to a full boil and put it into an oven at 325 degrees. Giada says to simmer it on the stove, but Joy of Cooking said to put it in the oven, so I chose J of C for the final part. I checked it about every 20 minutes and did add a bit more broth about half way through. The idea is to keep the liquid about ¾ ways up the shank according to Giada. After about 1 ½ hrs I took it out of the oven and put it on a low burner to keep it warm.

Since I had a batch of “light” semolina” Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day dough (1 cup of semolina pasta flour in place of one cup of All Purpose flour) in the frig I decided to bake a few loaves of ciabatta and serve some with the Osso Bucco.  About ½ hr before taking out the Osso Bucco I cut off a grapefruit and orange size of dough. I quickly flattened the two sections of dough out on the floured counter, and then covered them with plastic wrap that I had sprayed with Pam. I only let them rise for about 20 minutes.

Once the Osso Bucco was out of the oven I turned the heat to 450 degrees, and put my baking stone back in to warm up. Just before baking, I wetted my fingers and quickly and deeply jabbed the risen dough with my fingertips, making sure to go to the ends. Then I spread on olive oil, sprinkled some freshly ground sea salt, and some chopped fresh rosemary on the dough. At last, I slid the parchment paper with the two loaves of ciabatta on it into the hot oven. I poured a cup of water into a pie pan in the bottom of the oven and closed the door. Ciabatta doesn’t take as long to bake as a big loaf of bread, so it was ready after only 23 minutes.

Because I had a variety of some small potatoes in the frig I decided to boil them up while the bread baked. I also took this time to zest a lemon for the final plating.

Once a simple salad and a glass of my homemade Chilean Carmenere/Acabernet Sauvignon 2007 were on the table, I was ready to plate the Osso Bucco.

I had to be careful with the lamb though as once I cut the twine I knew it would want to fall off the bone. So first I scooped out the vegetables with slotted spoon, and put them on the plate, then carefully lifted out the lamb shanks and placed them on top. Using a ladle I poured some of the sauce over the shanks. I cut the twine with a few quick snips, added the drained boiled potatoes, dropped the lemon zest onto the lamb shanks and added two pieces of bread to each plate.

Our dinner was everything I hope 2010 to be; richly flavored, tender and juicy. The fresh bread sopped up the sauce with the added flavor of the rosemary. AHHHHHH.

Dessert was just a dish of vanilla ice cream which Ken drizzled with our chocolate raspberry port.

What a delicious feast and a wonderful way to toast in 2010!  May we all have an Osso Bucco Year! 

Cranberry-Orange Challah with wholewheat

Another successful bread recipe from "Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzbert, M.D. and Zoe Francois!  Actually this recipe was provided by Jeff to our HBin5 google group for our December bread recipe.  So let me jump right in with the details!

First I have to confess, my husband is NOT a fan of whole wheat...to the point where if he KNOWS whole wheat is in the recipe he doesn't even want to try it.  But I coax him to try it, and occassionally he is delighted with the results of my efforts. 

For this reason I switched the all purpose and whole wheat flours around.  Instead of 5 cups of whole wheat and 3 cups of all purpose flour, I used 3 cups of whole wheat and 5 cups of all purpose flour.  The other substitution I made was flax seed meal for the wheat germ.  This was one of the substitutions that Michelle posted and it worked fine.  I just hadn't had time and the memory to get wheat germ, but had the flax seed meal. 

The texture of the dough was spot on.  I've been making challot (plural of challah) for about 20 years now.  I love Jeff and Zoe's recipe for it in the original book "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" and had switched to it last year.  Previous to that I was doing the "old fashioned" type of recipe that was time consuming, albeit a good bread. 

My kitchen is very cold this time of year.  Matter of fact I am sitting here with an undershirt on under my Chanukah tee shirt, and a sweatshirt with a hood on it typing this!  I could turn up the heat, but let's face it, since I pay the utilities I am too cheap to do that!  LOL. 

The point of that paragraph is that it takes longer for my dough to do the first rise.  So I just let it sit there for about 3-4 hrs.  When I came into the kitchen to check the dough just before retiring for the evening I found that my dough was pushing the lid off!  It's a very active dough!  I jiggled and then pushed the dough down a bit to where it was about 3 inches below the top of my container and put it in the frig.  Checked it again in the morning and lo and behold had to jiggle it down again!  Hm.  Didn't know what I was going to come home to at this point! 

When I took it out of the frig to start working with it, it was once again up to the top of the container, but hadn't pushed the lid up.  Working with the dough was very easy.  Some of the ABin5, and the HBin5 doughs are very soft and loose but this challah dough was just right. 

First thing I decided to make was "sufganiots" or jelly donuts.  I don't make donuts usually, and only buy donut holes every once in a blue moon.  But one of our HBin5 group members had suggested using the dough for the jelly donuts and I decided to try it.  After looking up several sites on the web about how to get the jelly in the donuts I chose to attempt the "wrapping the dough around the jelly" method and then frying them.  It was NOT successful.  All the jelly leaked out in the frying! 

Although I had bought two different kitchen gadgets to try stuffing the donuts, I decided not to attempt it until later.  Just running out of time, and energy since I was also cooking latkes for the first night of Chanukah for my hubby, Ken, and I, after a full day of work! 

When frying the donuts, which looked more like small cannon balls, I found it very difficult to tell when they were cooked through inside. I don't make donuts, remember?  Eventually I took them out before they burned.  Then rolled them in sugar and set them aside. 

We ate the donuts as part of our Chanukah meal last night for dessert.  Whle they were good, and the texture was quite acceptable, Ken just didn't care for the dough done that way.  He also made a comment about the whole wheat! 

This morning I made the rest of the dough into two challot, putting both into the standard 3 braid.  After reviewing all the different braiding techniques I decided to stick with my traditional 3 strand braid.  But one thing I did different was roll the ends of the three stands together instead of tucking them underneath.  On the larger loaf I made an indent, moistened the dough, then placed a very small challah on it. 

Just before baking I put the orange zest and sugar on the top of the smaller loaf.  But I had put the sugar and orange zest together in a bowl thinking that that would help the orange zest dry out.  Think again!  It just made a gunky mess.  I couldn't really sprinkle it on top, instead I kind of dropped it on top and then used my egg wash brush to schmear it around on the top of the braided dough.  I just did a regular egg wash on the other one.  Both baked up beautiful! 

On Saturday mornings I go to Wayne and Wanetta's house, my neighbor's, for breakfast.  Wayne makes great poached eggs for me and we all have a great time talking and laughing.  This morning their daughter Denise was there also and it's always fun to see her!  I took down a stack of latkes, the cran-raisin, orange zested challah, and some great Dundee orange marmalade that Denise had picked up at Trader Joe's for me.  I had already sent down some of my homemade Rosh Hashanah apple sauce for the latkes the night before.  So we had a feast for breakfast! 

The challah had just the right balance of orange zest and cranraisins in it.  The texture of the bread was  between cake and bread.  The crumb was excellent.  It all held together extremely well when applying butter, no tearing or having to be ever so gentle with the spreading knife. 

Wanetta, my neighbor cutting the challah.  I always take down a loaf of any of my breads to her and her husband, Wayne.  Denise checking the crumb of the bread.  By the time I left, we'd devoured half the loaf!  Oh bother, now I have to make Wanetta another one!  LOL.  BTW Denise loved the donuts!

Ken enjoying the Cran-raisin and orange zest challah! 

Pumpkin Pie Brioche and Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day google group

It's cold and dreay outside, and sprinkling most of the day.  GREAT DAY TO BAKE!  Yippee! 

Plus it's time for HBin5 to make the first bread!  Tomorrow I have to post my pictures of Pumpkin Pie Brioche.  Funny thing is I couldn't remember ever having a brioche and certainly have never seen a Pumpkin Pie Brioche.  Sheesh.  Here we go again, making something I have never had a taste of. 

First I had to go to the store to get the ingredients...had no pumpkin, and had run out of white whole wheat flour by King Arthur.  So off I went.  I was also hoping to find an example of brioche!  LOL.  Forget that idea in York!  At least it was not at the Giant grocery store I went to.  Even though I had skimmed the recipe for the ingredients I would need I hadn't read up on brioche so was just at a loss. 

By the way, let me give you an idea of the lay of the land here in York, figuratively speaking.  I love to make deli rye bread for my husband.  That of course means I need rye flour right?  Do you think I can find rye flour here in York?  Think again!  Occassionally one of the stores might have a small bag of it, certainly that store will not be Walmart.  But I can tell you what I will find...a one gallon bucket of lard!  Argh! 

So I guess I should consider myself lucky that I can find KA white whole wheat flour, eh?  And I do.  But I still grouse.  I can travel 25 minutes to Mechanicsburg and hit Wegman's and find rye flour there, and I think I can even find it in their bulk section if I remember correctly.  Wegman's is an upper class grocery store, and one I love to go in to.  Their breads are fabulous, but frankly my breads are just as good these days.  What they do have that I don't make are pastries to die for.  I mean you gain 5 pounds just standing there looking at them and drooling down your chin!  They have a lot of high end items like duck confit, duck proscuitto (both of which I have made).  One of the things I love is their kosher style deli where they even roast kosher chickens!  Why do they have to be 25 minutes away!  WAH! 

Or I can travel 25 minutes in another direction and have it milled at Sonnewald's health food store, which I have done.  When I buy it at Sonnewald's though I have to put it in the freezer.  But it's really nice having it freshly milled!  They also carry a good supply of semolina flour, another item difficult to come by here in York. 

Anyhow, back to the Pumpkin Pie Brioche.  I thought about buying some "fresh spices", nutmeg, allspice, and ginger for the recipe...but hate to spend $4 and $5 for a tiny little jar of McCormicks.  I'll order it from Penzeys over the holidays, thank you very much (http://penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.html).  I also looked for fresh pumpkin puree but no such luck.  They have it at the Eastern York Market, but I wasn't able to get there either on Friday, the only day of the week they are open.  Work gets in the way again!  LOL. 

OK.  So I come back with the groceries and jump right in to the recipe.  You can find it on page 284 of Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  All in HBin5 group have agreed to NOT publish the recipes online.  Instead we will bake the breads, post pics, and stories about how it went but y'all have to buy the book or go to http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/.  They have a chocolate brioche that sounds fabulous, and a beef wellington wrapped in brioche dough as well!  OH YUM! 

I got the dough all together and it is really almost soupy, it is so loose!  I worried about that but had followed the recipe to the letter (for once!).  Then I sat down at the computer to read up on brioche.  OH MY!  We are in a for a real treat!  I hadn't paid much attention while pouring the ingredients in but it did register in my brain that with 4 eggs it was going to be very challah like.  I used oil instead of butter, but think I will have to try the regular brioche with the butter next time!  I could taste the buttery richness and feel that velvetty softness just reading about it!  LOL.  I think I have had brioche, but this is definitely the first time making it! 

When looking up the history of Brioche I found the following at La Gourmandise:

The history of the "Brioche"

The word brioche first appeared in print in 1404, and this bread is believed to have sprung from a traditional Norman recipe. It is argued that brioche is probably of a Roman origin, since a very similar sort of sweet holiday bread is made in Romania ("sărălie"). The cooking method and tradition of using it during big holidays resembles the culture surrounding the brioche so much that it is difficult to doubt same origin of both foods. It is often served as a pastry or as the basis of a dessert, with many local variations in added ingredients, fillings and toppings. It is also used with savory preparations, particularly with foie gras, and is used in some meat dishes.  http://www.lagourmandise.net/history.htm


Stand by for the next post!  The dough is in the frig now and I will bake it up about 6 or 7 pm tonight.

Pizza Party!

Ah the ubiquitous pizza party. Kids love them for their birthdays. Companies offer them as incentives for sales and jobs well done. But most of the time the pizzas are more like cardboard, ordered in great numbers for price not taste or a tender crust.

We did a pizza party at our house this past weekend for our neighbor Barb. She’s celebrating 60+ yrs and the kind of woman that finds humor and joy in all that she does…so why NOT a pizza party?!

When I discussed the party with Barb a month prior to the event, we decided it would be fun to build the pizzas as well as eat them as part of the party. And it truly was! As part of the prep for the party I had roasted and cut yellow, red and orange peppers, fresh mushrooms, big heads of garlic, and white onions. I also chopped black olives. For the sauce I provided basil and tomato pasta sauce that I use jars and jars of each month for spaghetti, Italian subs, etc.

The night before I mixed up the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day (ABin5) olive oil pizza dough recipe (page 134) left it rise the 2 hours, and refrigerated it for our use the next evening.

I love ABin5 recipes because they mix up so quickly and are ALWAYS consistently good. Once it’s mixed you just let it sit on the counter for a few hours, then pop it in the frig. Next day or multi-days later take it out and shape it into bread, pizza, rolls, flatbreads, etc. For the pizzas you don’t even have to let it rise! Yippee! Just layer your ingredients on top and pop it in the oven.

I love, love, love Greek style pizzas, so often make my version of it. I’ll slather the patted out pizza dough with butter, the roasted garlic, put some fresh tomatoes down, then layer on fresh mozzarella. Voila! Yummy pizza, with no red sauce. I love the inclusion of pine nuts but sometimes use walnuts in fresh pesto.

This fall when I harvested my pesto basil, regular and purple basil from the garden I made up numerous batches of pesto and froze it in vacuum seal bags.

So when I took it out for the party all I had to do was let it thaw and snip off a corner and squirt it out. Heavenly aromas filled that kitchen!

My neighbor Wanetta and Wayne, along with their son Don, were guests and Wanetta brought her homemade tomato sauce, cooked hamburger and turkey pepperoni.

I passed out grapefruit sized portions of the dough to Wanetta and Barb for them to start patting out in the aluminum foil covered pizza and cookie sheet pans.

I guess I gave Wanetta too much as she said later that she couldn’t get her crust thin enough. Wanetta made a ½ and ½ pizza; one side had her sauce and hamburger, onions, and shredded mozzarella cheese. The other side had the turkey pepperoni and cheese.

Barb used the red sauce I provided and added peppers, mushrooms, onions and olives to it, and then smothered it all in shredded mozzarella cheese. Barb, the guest of honor realized what was missing from my preparations was a green pepper so she had to run home and grab one. Thank goodness the traffic was light in the neighborhood…but then it always is, since we live in condos and only 100 feet from door to door! LOL.

My pizza was ½ and ½ also. This time I put my homemade pesto made with my homegrown basil on ½ of the pizza I made, and the other half was the butter, garlic and fresh mozzarella cheese.

Wanetta and I listened in fascination to Barb talk about the Julia Child exhibition at the Smithsonian that she had been to. The trip was Barb’s birthday present from her husband George. We didn’t know if Julia Child ever made pizza (I’ll be she did), but we had a ball hearing all about the exhibit and little things about her life that Barb had discovered.

Once the pizzas were made and done cooking we sat down with our men folk and ate a nice salad and then the pizzas. My latest wine, New Zealand Merlot really rounded out the meal. What a lively conversation it was with everyone joining in talking about their culinary discoveries in France, Sweden, Germany, Alaska, and York, PA!

Wanetta had made a German Chocolate Cake for Barb, and Don had decorated it. It was the perfect end to the meal. Richly chocolate and moist! What a fun evening!

Barb having a great laugh as she blew out the candles.

What, When, why of bread

Today I made two loaves of bread. But before I tell you what kinds, let me tell you about my baking experience.

First why bake bread when it's so plentiful and you can even buy artisan bread in Sam's Club, Costco and BJs now? For one thing, I like knowing HOW to do things, and prefer to be self-sufficient. If I have flour, water, yeast and salt, I can make bread almost anywhere very easily. Second, I like to know what is in what I am eating. I don't want a lot of preservatives, too much salt, the wrong kinds of sugars, etc. I've studied the history of making bread, am fascinated how it was done centuries ago, and how it came to be in the first place.

I've been baking bread for ump-ti-ump years and have tried all kinds of techniques, recipes and ingredients. About 4 years ago I found a book called Secrets of a Jewish Baker by George Greenstein. I've made many of his recipes, especially his challah. About 3 months ago I bought The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion, have a copy of James Beard on Bread, and of course The Joy of Cooking has great info on bread making.

I've tried all kinds of flours, including going to Sonnewald's Healthy food store here in Central PA for fresh ground flour. The best flour for bread making and most baking of any kind though is King Arthur. Yes, it's more expensive, but if you watch the sales you can stock up when the price is more affordable. The thing is, it really is a better flour.

I also use Hodson's and Red Mill when buying semolina (no KA semolina here in York), and rye. We have several good farmer's markets and from them I can get a good pumpernickel flour. So you can see I am serious about what I put into our breads. But frankly, my breads never came out as what I would classify as Artisan until the last month or so. That's when I heard about a technique and bread book that has become my favorite!

I first heard about Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day on the Food Preservation group on yahoo groups. It was just an obscure little post...go to this link to see bread with no kneading. I love trying new techniques and even though I use a Kitchen Aid to mix and knead my breads I was intrigued when I saw the video!

Now I really feel like I can make artisan breads...so do my neighbors Wanetta and Wayne, my friends, and of course my husband! I love the ABin5 book because it really does require NO kneading, instead it's just some quick mixing, which frankly I do with my Kitchen Aid mixer in just a few minutes.

To illustrate how serious I am I was recently in Wegmans (it's a must-see tour spot for my friends visiting from Alaska now) and I stood looking at their fresh bread section going "hm, I've made that, that, and oh yes, this one was good..." and I didn't even long for any of theirs! Now that is saying something for me because I love bread! I love seeing it, smelling the earthy grains, the mix of herbs in some of them, taking that first bite without any butter or jam, or spread of any kind. I want to feel the texture of the crumb, taste the bitter and sweet.

OK, so on to today's batch. ABin5 has two wheat bread recipes, one for light wheat and one for whole wheat. I made the light wheat earlier this week, and it was good. Matter of fact one of my friends took a loaf home and ate the whole thing for lunch the next day (it was a small loaf thank goodness)! But I wanted something with a bit more wheat. So today I did 3 C of KA white wheat flour and 3 1/2 C of KA all purpose flour. It came out much better! What a good crumb, crust and taste!

I also did a pumpernickel for my hubby Ken. He loves a good Russian pumpernickel. Most that I have bought in the stores have been a very dark soft bread with a good rich flavor. Course the commercial bakeries use coloring to get that darkness, matter of fact King Arthur sells it in a powder form. Plus some of those breads have espresso coffee and dark cocoa in them. A few years back I had tried a recipe like that but Ken did NOT like the cocoa addition.

For today's attempt I used 1 C of pumpernickel flour and 1 C of rye flour, even though ABin5 called for just the 1 C of rye. It didn't come out as dark as I hoped, but the loaf looks very professional and artisan and the flavor is very good. I put in the powdered espresso but Ken nixed that for the next time...it's very good don't get me wrong...but he'd rather have more molasses and no espresso.

Next I'll try the English muffins. Good thing I also like salads with lots of leafy greens wouldn't you say?

So all in all it was a successful day of baking bread.