You Too Can Bake Bread 8 Five bloggers share their favorite bread recipes, tips, and time savers.
Milling About 14 Take your baking a step further with a home grain mill
14 Adobe Stock/dusk
that produces delicious flour.
To Bake the Best Bread, Grind Your Own Grain 18 Healthy reasons you should consider grinding your own grain at home.
Easy, No-Knead Artisan Bread 22 Methods guaranteed to make everyone a baker! Guide to Whole-Grain Baking 28 Use these 10 whole-grain baking techniques without fear of ruining your favorite recipes.
22
Daily Breads: Potato, Oatmeal, White, 32 and Rye With a Starter Make flavorful sandwich bread out of quality ingredients to save money and warm a gathering or just your kitchen for the day.
Back-to-Basics French Bread 38 Whether you enjoy it as sippets, bread pudding, or toast with butter and jam, bake this historic bread recipe, based on English and classic American cookbooks.
32
Sourdough Simplified 42 Make delicious homemade bread with these
42
easy-to-follow instructions.
Cast Iron for the Country Kitchen 48 Make your kitchen cookware count with the most useful pieces of cast iron.
Cook It In Cast Iron 52 Create mouthwatering meals using your cast-iron cookware. www.Grit.com
1
Homemade Bread the Easy Way 54 With an aroma to please any soul, freshly baked bread is the hallmark of a country kitchen.
Good to the Last Slice 58 Make the most of your daily bread with these hearty, homey
54
recipes that transform leftover to luscious.
Baking Bread in Five Minutes a Day 62 How one wife, mother, farmer, freelance designer, and writer puts fresh homemade bread on the dinner table daily.
Beehive Baking 68 Put down the sugar bowl and switch to honey with these wholesome recipes.
Unleavened Bread 74 Non-yeast breads lend themselves to a variety of menus.
68
Baking Bread in a Dutch Oven 78 Why does this technique work so well? A Tisket, a Tasket, Sandwich Herbs in a Basket 80 Spread the flavor with savory blends from your garden. Shoofly and Other Pies from Pennsylvania 84 Sweet dessert a traditional treat for early German colonists.
78 87
Gluten-Free Goodies 87 Going gluten-free is easier than you think. Backyard Bread Oven 90 Build this easy adobe cooker in a weekend. Recipe Index 94 A list of all the recipes that appear in this year’s baking guide. Recommended Resources 96 Everything you need to start baking the best bread in your own kitchen.
2
Grit’s Guide to Home Baking
sounded too good to be true … but as it turned out, it wasn’t. The following method of bread making takes a bit of forethought, some mixing, and a lot of time in between. It’s a “slow rise” method in which the flavor is a result of slow fermentation, and the texture is the result of baking in a cast-iron pot. The yeast is eased to life over 12 to 18 hours, rather than shocked to life with warm water and sugar (this type of bread doesn’t require any added sugar at all). The ingredients are pure and simple — the white loaf calls for flour, salt, yeast, water — and most are probably already in your pantry. Due to the nature of slow fermentation,
you’ll need to start your bread the day before you want to consume it. This may be hard to get your mind around, but the effort is well worth it. There isn’t space in this article to go over the culinary science and reasons behind this method — from fermentation to singing (the wonderful crackling sound the loaf makes as it’s removed from the oven that signals the beginning of the important cooling process) — so for that, please get a copy of Lahey’s book and commit it to memory. My method slightly deviates from Lahey’s. After baking several hundred loaves at the time of this writing, I found a few things that worked better for me
in my home kitchen, resulting in less cleanup and better results. I’ve detailed two methods here for baking. The first is the most commonly used; the second is for use with recipes calling for buttermilk — dairy products burn more easily at higher temperatures. Feel free to take liberties with these recipes to determine what works — or tastes — best in your kitchen, and to come up with new flavors. Bread is a forgiving medium for experimentation … whenever you combine flour, yeast, water, and heat, you’ll usually end up with bread in some form, regardless of your kitchen credentials.
Basic White Bread 3 cups bread flour 11⁄4 teaspoons salt 1 ⁄4 teaspoon active dry yeast 11⁄2 to 13⁄4 cups cool water, divided Coarse cornmeal for dusting
Bread Baking Method 1: 1 Whisk flour, salt, and yeast in large mixing bowl. 2 Add 11⁄2 cups water, and stir with rubber spatula. Add
remaining water (and possibly more) as needed until you have a thoroughly mixed, wet, sticky mass of dough. (The dough will not be like any other bread you’ve made — this will be much wetter and will not form a ball.) 3 Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, for 12 to 18 hours. 4 After 12 to 18 hours have passed, your dough should be dotted with bubbles and more than doubled in size. (It may also have a strong alcohol smell to it, but don’t mind that, it will burn off in the baking.) Dust wooden cutting board with bread flour and, using plastic dough scrapers, scrape dough loose from sides of bowl and turn out onto board in one piece. (Dough will be loose and sticky, but do not add more flour.) Dust top of loaf lightly with a little flour, and cover with clean cotton or linen tea towel (terry cloth will stick and leave lint on the dough). Let dough rise for another 1 to 2 hours. 5 About 30 minutes before second rise is complete, place cast-iron pot, without lid, on rack positioned in lower third of oven — not at the very bottom — and heat oven to 475 F. 6 Once oven has reached 475 F, remove pot using heavy-duty potholders (be very careful at this stage, as the pot and oven are extremely hot). Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon coarse cornmeal evenly over bottom of pot.* 7 Uncover dough and, using 2 plastic dough scrapers, shape dough into a ball by folding it over onto itself a few times. With scrapers, lift
dough carefully and let it fall into preheated pot by slowly separating scrapers. Dust top of dough with coarse cornmeal.** Cover pot and bake for 30 minutes. 8 After 30 minutes, remove cover from pot, and continue baking for an additional 15 minutes, or until loaf is browned but not burned. 9 Remove pot from oven. With sturdy wooden or metal spatula, pry loaf from pot and transfer to cooling rack. Let bread cool for a minimum of 1 hour before slicing. (This cooling time completes the process and should not be overlooked!) * For rye bread, sprinkle rye flour on bottom of pot. ** For wheat bread, dust top with wheat bran; for rye, dust top with rye flour; for oat raisin, dust top with old-fashioned oats; and for cardamom cherry, do not dust top with anything.
www.Grit.com
23
Try substituting a new-to-you whole grain flour for a small amount of your standard white flour to gain nutrition without losing familiar lightness in baked goods.
above: Tim
Nauman /courtesy Voyageur Press
in a recipe with a nonwheat flour if the recipe contains either baking powder or baking soda, or if it gets its rise from a mixing method that incorporates lots of air bubbles — you can spot these if the instructions require you to cream butter with sugar; to whip cream before incorporating it; or to whip egg whites into soft or stiff peaks before folding them into the batter gently. Nutritious gluten-free flours include amaranth, buckwheat, corn, millet, oat, quinoa, rice, sorghum, and teff. To reap the biggest dietary benefits, incorporate a number of them into your cooking rotation. Learn more about the different flour options in “Types of Flour” on Page 30.
White Flour’s Slow Decline
The first record of bread was a flatbread made around 6700 B.C. By 3000 B.C., the Egyptians had learned to leaven it. By the time of the Roman Empire, millers could make a version of white flour, which quickly became popular.
That white flour, made by sifting out some of the coarsest pieces of bran but retaining most of the healthful germ, was a distant cousin to today’s commercial white flour. I love that kind of white flour. I make it all the time. Homemade white flour — which is actually tan — is not to be confused with today’s commercially refined white flour, which contains only about threequarters of the original wheat that entered the mill, plus some extra junk wheat has never possessed. What has been removed? Nutritious bran and germ. What has been added? Chlorine, nitrogen oxide, acetone, peroxide, ascorbic acid, and potassium bromate, to name just a few of the 30-plus chemicals that brighten, moisten, condition, aerate, preserve, sweeten, and, sadly, add flavor. As science learns more about the makeup of a healthy diet, one fact has become clear: Refined grains are bad for our health — and our waistlines. Saying
that a grain is “whole” means that it has three essential parts: the endosperm, the bran, and the germ. Unlike the refined white flour in processed food and in most of our pantries, in which the nutritious bran and germ have been removed, whole-grain flours contain plenty of fiber, vitamins, and minerals, plus healthy plant compounds such as lignans, phytoestrogens, and phenolic compounds. These important nutrients can help us maintain a healthy weight and reduce the risk of numerous diseases, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, respiratory dysfunction, gout, osteoarthritis, and some cancers. This article is adapted from Whole Grain Baking Made Easy: Craft Delicious, Healthful Breads, Pastries, Desserts and More by Tabitha Alterman, Voyaguer Press. Order from the Grit Bookstore. www.Grit.com
31
DAILY BREADS
Potato, Oatmeal, White, and Rye with a Starter Make flavorful sandwich bread out of quality ingredients to save money and warm a gathering or just your kitchen for the day. By Wendy Akin
Baking
bread is something people have practiced for centuries but have partly forgotten in modern life. It’s a skill worth relearning for the pride and joy of putting a lovely loaf on the table, knowing it was our care and skill that made this beautiful bread for family and guests. When we bake our own bread, we know what’s in our food. In today’s world of unpronounceable ingredients, this is reassuring. We purchase the best flour available and combine it with only the healthful ingredients of our choice. The breads we bake at home have more flavor because we allow the loaves time to develop, so they never have that odd processed aftertaste.
We can also save money by baking our family’s sandwich bread. You can make a very basic sandwich bread loaf with high-quality flour for about 70 cents. Adding organic milk, butter, and eggs will bring the cost up to nearly $1.50. Even so, that’s savings. Expanding into more fancy artisan breads can yield even more savings. As home bakers, the entire world of breads is available to us — we can duplicate the breads of any culture right in our own oven and all at a modest cost. A day spent baking bread is a good day. Great satisfaction comes with seeing loaves out of the oven, cooling on the rack. The house smells fabulous. For some, bread baking starts with just a basic loaf for family sandwiches. Success can
lead to passion — for creating the perfect artisan loaf, the perfect pizza, the perfect sticky bun. The more we learn, the more we want to learn.
Getting Started
I figure, if you’re going to get all the ingredients out and make a mess, you might as well bake a lot of bread, especially on a cold day. I certainly don’t want to have to wash the bowl in between! The following recipes include mixer instructions, but as home bakers have mixed bread for centuries, you can certainly mix any of these by hand — which will take longer but will build your arm strength. I hope you enjoy the process, fill your table, and warm your kitchen with these breads.
Above left: Bakers use a bench knife — also called a bench scraper, dough scraper, or pastry scraper — to slice and move dough or scrape a work surface. Above right: A lame (pronounced “lahm”) is used to slash the dough, allowing it to expand during baking. A very sharp knife or razor blade also works. www.Grit.com
33
SOURDOUGH
Simplified
By Victoria Redhed Miller
I’ve bread, which is so basic to most
often wondered how it is that
of the world’s food cultures, has turned into something that we are intimidated to make ourselves. Homemade bread is often much more nutritious, and certainly less expensive, than so-called “artisan” breads available commercially. As farmers, homesteaders, or sustainability-minded city dwellers, we not
42
Grit’s Guide to Home Baking
Make delicious homemade bread with these easy-to-follow instructions.
only want to learn to do more for ourselves, we want to be more economical in our use of resources. In other words, we don’t want to waste time, money, or effort. If you’ve been to one of my presentations at the Mother Earth News Fair recently (www.motherearthnewsfair. com), you’ve heard the story of how I
used to get up at 2 a.m. to shape and proof bread dough. Being naturally thick-headed, it took me more than a few rounds of this to figure out that I was, frankly, out of my mind. For goodness’ sake, I’m not a professional baker! Plus, I never slept well after those nocturnal trips to the kitchen. Interrupting a night’s sleep like that, all for the sake
Contrary to popular belief, cast-iron cookware isn’t much more difficult to maintain than modern Teflon-coated or aluminum pans. Is cast iron heavy? Yes. Does it require a little TLC now and then? Yes. However, the results of your recipes will far outweigh these little “inconveniences.” If you are interested in cooking with cast iron, start out with some basic pieces such as a skillet, muffin tin, and the always popular Dutch oven. You can find discarded pieces at yard sales, auctions, or in your grandmother’s attic. With a little elbow grease and some care, you can bring your piece back to life. Modern pieces such as Lodge come pre-seasoned. In both cases, once you’ve tasted a recipe prepared on cast iron, I’ll bet you will become hooked. The following recipes use the basic cast-iron pieces I mentioned above. These recipes are easy to fix and are a favorite of those who visit our farm.
Cook it in
CAST IRON Create mouthwatering meals using your cast-iron cookware. Article and photographs by Dawn Marie Crocker
Cast-ironopinion, the secret cookware is, in my
“ingredient” to great-tasting food. I cook and bake exclusively with cast iron, and whether it’s golden French toast or perfect pan-fried steaks, I always reach for one of my more than 50 pieces of vintage and modern cast-iron cookware. I scout out discarded and abandoned
52
Grit’s Guide to Home Baking
pieces of cast-iron cookware at yard sales and auctions. A 100-year-old rusty Griswold muffin pan came home with me for a pittance at a local auction. After a thorough scrub with coarse salt and a halved potato, I wiped it out with a damp dish towel to remove all the salt and then generously coated the muffin pan with bacon grease. After baking it in the oven at 325 degrees for three hours, the result was an amazing transformation and muffins slide out with ease every time.
Starboard Farm Classic Maine Blueberry Muffins Yields 12 muffins.
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 ⁄4 teaspoon salt 1 cup vanilla yogurt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 large egg 1 ⁄2 cup coconut oil or cooking oil 1 ⁄2 cup sugar, plus additional for garnish 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup fresh (or frozen and slightly thawed) Maine wild blueberries, or locally available variety 1 Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease cast-iron muffin tin. 2 In large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. 3 In medium bowl, combine vanilla yogurt and baking soda; set aside. 4 In large bowl, beat egg. Add oil, sugar, and vanilla, stir to combine. Alternate adding flour and yogurt mixtures to egg mixture, stirring until just blended. Carefully fold in blueberries.
48-Hour No-Knead Ciabatta
Many recipes exist for Italian “slipper” bread (so called for its resemblance to a slipper). The flattened oval shape makes it the perfect loaf to split horizontally for a large sandwich. The inside is chewy and filled with holes, ideal for dipping in olive oil.
STARTER:
FINAL DOUGH:
1 packed cup (5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour 1 ⁄8 teaspoon instant yeast 3 ⁄4 cup water, room temperature
21⁄2 packed cups (121⁄2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour 13⁄4 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon sugar 1 ⁄8 teaspoon instant yeast 1 ⁄2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, room temperature 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 Prepare starter 48 hours before you plan to serve the bread. In 1-quart bowl, stir together flour, yeast, and water. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. 2 Start final dough 24 hours before serving time. In 2-quart glass measure, whisk together flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Add starter, water, and oil, and stir with dough whisk or large spoon until mixture just comes together into wet, sticky dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 19 hours on countertop. 3 Stir down dough (just a couple of strokes). Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 2 hours. 4 Lightly spray half-sheet pan or large baking sheet (mine is 17-by-11-by-1-inch) with baking spray. Place 17-inch length of parchment on baking sheet and lightly flour (about 1 teaspoon) paper in spots where loaves will go. 5 Turn dough out onto floured countertop and sprinkle with lots of flour as you shape it into a log. Cut log in half and transfer to parchment-lined pan. Set halves parallel with short end of pan and press dough out to 10-by-4-inch rectangles. Dimple surface with floured fingertips. Sprinkle each rectangle lightly with flour and cover with floured, smooth kitchen towel or oil-sprayed plastic wrap. Let rise for 2 hours. 6 About 20 minutes before you put the bread in, heat oven to 450 degrees. 7 Uncover pan and place in oven. Reduce heat to 425 degrees and bake for 30 minutes, or until crust is golden. Remove and let cool on wire rack for 1 hour. If not eating right away, you can recrisp crust in 350-degree oven for 10 minutes. It’s best the day it is baked; the bread can be kept wrapped in foil at room temperature for up to 2 days. Yields two 15-ounce loaves.
Old-Fashioned White Sandwich Bread
2 tablespoons olive oil or melted unsalted butter
5 packed cups (25 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, divided 1 tablespoon sugar 21⁄2 teaspoons salt 11⁄2 teaspoons instant yeast 2 cups water, room temperature, or 2 cups milk, scalded and cooled to room temperature
1 In large bowl (a straight-sided 4-quart bowl makes it easy to tell when dough has doubled), whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, salt, and instant yeast. 2 With dough whisk or large wooden spoon, stir in water and oil until thoroughly mixed. Stir for 2 minutes, then stir in 21⁄2 cups flour, 1⁄2 cup at a time. Finished dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 1 hour at room temperature, then refrigerate for 24 hours. 3 Remove dough from refrigerator and let rest for 1 hour to warm up a bit. Scrape dough out onto lightly floured (using remaining 1⁄2 cup flour) surface. Knead for
My grandmother made this bread on the farm. When she was making bread frequently, she would just keep back a small piece of dough from one batch to leaven the next, which also added flavor. In this updated version, I’ve added flavor by mixing the dough the day before.
56
Grit’s Guide to Home Baking
5 or 6 minutes, adding additional flour as needed to keep dough from sticking. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest a few minutes while you clean out and oil bowl for second rise. 4 Flatten out dough and continue kneading for another 5 or 6 minutes, or until dough is soft and smooth. Place dough in oiled bowl, turning dough to oil surface and pressing it flat. Cover with plastic wrap and set in warm (82 degrees is ideal) place to rise until doubled, about 1 hour. If house is cool, heat oven to 200 degrees, allow to heat for 2 minutes, turn off oven and put dough in to rise. 5 Lightly oil two 81⁄2-by-41⁄2-by-21⁄2inch loaf pans. Turn risen dough out onto lightly floured (from remaining 1⁄2 cup) surface, flattening gently to break up any
large bubbles. Divide dough into two equal pieces. Press each piece into a 9-by12-inch rectangle. Fold in short ends of dough until piece is about 6 inches long. Roll from one rough edge, pinch seam to seal, and roll gently to form a tight log the length of pan. Place seam-side down in prepared pans and press dough into pans so that it reaches sides, ends and corners. 6 Cover loaves with oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 1 to 11⁄2 hours, or until dough rises just above top of pans and springs back just a little when lightly poked with a floured finger. (I put the pans and a mug of hot water under an 11-by-17-inch baking sheet held up by a 1-pound can in each corner and covered with a towel.) 7 During the last 20 minutes, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put loaves in oven and reduce heat to 375 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes, or until loaves are golden brown,
shrink from sides of pans, and bottoms of loaves sound hollow when tapped. 8 Immediately remove from pans and let cool on wire rack for 1 hour. Wrap
tightly in plastic wrap as soon as bread has cooled thoroughly. Store at room temperature or freeze in zipper freezer bags. Yields 2 loaves.
Quick and Easy Spoon Rolls Even if you have just an hour and a half or so until dinner, it’s not too late to make old-fashioned spoon rolls. Since they require no kneading or shaping, you can get on with other things during the two quick rises. Such an easy, foolproof recipe makes a perfect introduction to yeast baking. 33⁄4 packed cups (183⁄4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour 1 ⁄4 cup sugar 21⁄4 teaspoons (1 package) instant yeast 11⁄4 teaspoons salt 2 cups water 1 ⁄2 cup unsalted butter 1 large egg, lightly beaten 1 In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, yeast, and salt until thoroughly combined. 2 On stove or in microwave, heat water and butter together until butter is melted and mixture reaches 120 to 130 degrees. With dough whisk or large wooden spoon, stir into flour mixture along with beaten egg until blended. The dough will be very sticky. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 35 to 45 minutes. 3 Stir down dough (just a few strokes). With a 1⁄4-cup measure, scoop dough into well-greased or cooking sprayed muffin tins, filling two-thirds full (scant 1⁄4 cup). Let rise, uncovered, 20 to 30 minutes, or until dough has risen to top of cups. During last 15 minutes, heat oven to 400 degrees. 4 Bake for 20 minutes, or until rolls are golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes and remove from tins. Yields 24 rolls.
www.Grit.com
57
Apple Quick Bread
Yields 2 loaves.
3 cups all-purpose flour 1 ⁄2 teaspoon baking soda 1 ⁄2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 11⁄2 cups milk 1 cup honey
2 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla 2 cups peeled and finely diced Granny Smith apples (or other tart apple) 1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans; set aside. 2 In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. 3 In large bowl, whisk together milk, honey, eggs, and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients until just blended. Stir in apples and pecans. 4 Divide batter between prepared pans and bake for about 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. 5 Cool in pans for 15 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack. Serve with butter and honey, if desired. Store in plastic bag.
following the instructions for mixing in the eggs, as well. If the eggs are introduced to the heated mixture too abruptly, they will cook before being completely combined. 1 cup milk 1 package (8 ounces) light cream cheese, softened 1 ⁄2 cup brown sugar 1 ⁄4 cup honey 2 eggs 1 cup pumpkin purée 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon allspice 1 teaspoon cinnamon Whipped cream, optional Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 6 ramekins or custard cups; set aside. 2 In saucepan, combine first four ingredients. Cook slowly over low heat, stirring constantly, until honey dissolves; do not scald or curdle mixture. 1
In small glass bowl, beat eggs. Whisk a few ladlefuls of heated mixture into eggs to temper the eggs before pouring egg mixture into saucepan. 4 Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in pumpkin and spices. 5 Pour mixture into ramekins, filling about 3⁄4 full. Place ramekins in larger baking dish with 1 inch water, and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. 6 Serve warm or chilled, topped with sweetened whipped cream, if that's preferred. 3
Pumpkin Spice Pound Cake
By Dawna Edwards and Marci O’Brien Serve this spice cake warm with a serving of Pumpkin Custard (previous recipe). Yields 12 to 16 servings.
11⁄2 cups pumpkin purée ⁄2 cup brown sugar 1 ⁄2 cup honey 2 ⁄3 cup oil 2 eggs 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 ⁄3 cup whole-wheat flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 ⁄4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 ⁄2 cup oats 1 ⁄3 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger 1 ⁄4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional 1
1 Preheat oven to 350 F. 2 In mixing bowl, thoroughly blend
together pumpkin, brown sugar, honey, oil, and eggs. 3 In separate bowl, sift together flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir in oats and ginger. www.Grit.com
71