Archive for the ‘Breads – Yeast Breads’ Category
I mentioned Dutch Crunch Bread on my list of five things to eat before you die. The name comes from the distinct and unusual topping on the bread, which is made with rice flour, yeast and a little bit of oil, salt and sugar. On its own, the topping is pleasant, but when paired with some good bread, the contrast is amazing.
Thanks to some of my commenters, we know that this bread is called Tijgerbrood, or “tigerbread” in Holland, named after its striped and textured appearence. I didn’t stripe mine, which I suppose you could do by running a fork through the mixture before baking, but appearace doesn’t take anything away from the fantastically crunchy texture and the ever so slightly yeasty taste that complements so many sandwich fillings. It also makes excellent toast.
Sandwiches are my favorite things to make with this type of bread and if I’m at a deli (only in the SF Bay area, the only places I’ve seen them) that sells them, I will always get it. So, when I make the rolls at home, I like to make them big so that they make hearty, filling sandwiches. The size also provides enough bread to not make the topping overwhelming. The topping can be used on other types of bread, including as a topping for regular sandwich loaves, if you only want a little bit of the “crunch” per serving.
By the way, if you have leftover rice flour at the end of this, just go ahead and make another batch. I usually do. Alternatively, you could use it to make some gluten-free crepes instead.
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I have made breadsticks before, and though they were tasty and easy to make, I have wanted to pin down a good recipe for yeasted breadsticks. I wanted to get that nice texture that you just can’t seem to get with a quickbread (non-yeast) type of recipe. Many recipes for homemade breadsticks are really just elongated dinner rolls, tending towards softness. Truthfully, I like those types of breadsticks, but I really wanted something crunchy, but not too hard, and flavorful. These seem to fit the bill. The recipe starts with a yeast dough that has dried herbs added to it, adding a relatively mild flavor that would complement many dishes. The dough is smooth and easy to handle. To shape it into those lovely twists, I just rolled the dough into long snakes, folded in half, and twined the loose ends together.
The trick to getting them crispy is in the baking. It seems that you need a high temperature and a relatively long baking time, compared to the size of the breadstick. I ended up baking them at 425F until they were a dark, golden brown all over. This produced sticks that were wonderfully crunchy on the outside and still a bit soft at the center. The long baking time did dry the center of the breadstick slightly, but this is a breadstick that is meant to be dipped in soups and sauces, soaking them up and adding a texture contrast. In short – it doesn’t matter.
If you are a die-hard soft breadstick person, only bake them for 15-20 minutes, until they are light golden, firm to the touch and sound hollow when lightly tapped. Also, if you know your oven has hot spots in it, I recommend rotating the pan once during baking to avoid over-browning (a.k.a. burning) any of the breadsticks.
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For some reason, yeasted pancakes don’t seem to be quite as popular as yeasted waffles. This might have to do with the fact that pancakes are not supposed to be quite as “light” as waffles and that you can usually lighten the batter by beating the egg whites separately, if you simply want to get a puffier pancake.
I wanted a yeasted pancake recipe just to add to my collection, so I turned to this recipe from Bob’s Red Mill, which is known for its various whole grain products, mostly sold at natural food stores. I added fresh blueberries and topped them off with some more of the blueberry syrup that I made earlier this week, leftover from dumpling making.
The pancakes themselves were delicious, light and fluffy. The baking soda stirred in at the end really raised them up. I would consider cutting the butter back to 1 tbsp in the future, but given that this recipe makes 6 generous servings (with blueberries), the overall fat content isn’t really too high to be concerned by.
I will make a note about adding blueberries to pancakes. Once the pancakes have cooked on one side, put the berries in by hand and lightly dot each of them with batter. This will not only secure the berries in the pancakes, but the less time they spend on the griddle, the smaller the odds of them popping and discoloring the pancakes are. Some moisture will come out of the berries no matter what you do, so the pancakes will take longer to cook than berry-less ones .
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As a general rule, I don’t deep fry things very often. In fact, I rarely eat anything that is deep fried. I do enjoy frying because I think it’s fascinating to be able to watch the food cook and dough, in particular, puff up and take on a lovely golden color. So, I am willing to make fried foods when I have a special request.
My brother requested doughnuts, and I made beignets. Close enough.
Earlier this year, I made cake doughnuts, which use no yeast. I prefer them to yeasted doughnuts because they seem more substantial, but beignets have something special about them.
Beignets are a traditional pastry in New Orleans that are made with a yeasted dough. The dough is rolled out into squares and deep fried. The unique thing about them is that they have pockets in the center, making them incredibly light. Unfortunately, the one I cut in half for the photo had only a small, off-center pocket, but the rest really did have them! More often than not, they are sweet, but savory versions of beignets do exist and are very popular in some places.
I like this recipe, which I got from eGullet because it allows for an overnight rise in the fridge. This means that aside from heating up the oil, there is minimal work to be done in the morning. Since beignets are part of a tasty – if not exactly balanced – breakfast, this is a particularly good feature of the recipe. The beignets are usually served with a dusting of powdered sugar, though anything from jam to syrup can be eaten with them. A cup of coffee or hot chocolate is, in my opinion, a vital part of the dish.
Mine were very light and fluffy in the center and slightly sweet. The outside is pleasingly crisp fry the frying and, thanks to some thorough draining, they didn’t seem greasy at all. I will say that they were a bit thicker than some of the commercially made beignets that I have had, but with this sort of pastry, practice will produce a more perfect product.
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It may look strange, but I assure you that this bread is perfectly normal. In fact, it’s simply a white, sandwich-type bread that I dyed red and blue in honor of the 4th of July.
It was actually really fun to make this bread. I mixed up three small batches of dough, all at the same time, and added food coloring to get the colors dark enough. I had to add quite a bit of food coloring to get the colors nice and dark. I didn’t measure it, but I’ll estimate that it was 1/2 tsp per color.
The bread had an excellent, fresh flavor, with a soft texture and crisp crust. It made wonderful toast, sandwiches and, if there were any left, I have no doubt that it would have made wonderful french toast, too.
Happy Independence Day.
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