Archive for the ‘Breads - Yeast Breads’ Category
When I think of a rustic bread, I picture long, slow rises and large holes punctuating the chewy interior of a dark, crispy loaf. It has to be hand-shaped, too. I don’t generally think of short rises and a fine crumb or texture. I chose to call this bread semi-rustic because it seems to have properties of both categories.Both the feel and flavor of the bread give it a sense of rusticity. There are no large, chewy holes here, but the bread does have a medium, fairly open crumb. It is a darker loaf with a crisp crust, and cutting it into wedges gives it a very casual edge when it comes time to serve it. Of course, it is still fairly quick to put together, with no overnight rises and the use of active dry yeast.
The secret to the bread is that I added some masa harina – the finer, lime-treated type of cornmeal used in tortilla making – which gave the bread a slightly coarser texture than most breads and a hint of corn tortilla flavor. The hint of lime (as in limestone, not the citrus) is what really makes the bread different.
Rustic or not, this bread is unusually tasty. It is particularly good with butter or used to sop up soup (try a spicy soup with it). You will get the best results with bread flour, as the higher protein content will help the bread to rise .
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I love yum cha/dim sum (and have always heard the terms used fairly interchangeably). I love how the food arrives so fresh and piping hot at your tableside, where you can pick and cheese what you want to eat. My favorite is definately the steamed buns (bau) filled with barbeque pork . I have not had any sort of yum cha in some time and, in fact, have had great difficulty even finding a dim sum restaurant that I like, so it seemed as though my only altlernative was to try making these at home.
Before anyone tells me that these aren’t traditional, something which is immediately apparent because my buns are gathered at the bottom and not the top, I already know. Frankly, I don’t even think it is important that a dish be called “tratitional” at all; the taste is the most important part of any dish, whether traditional, original or inspired by something else. I used Maki’s recipe, from i was really just very hungry, and she mentioned that these are the Japanese style of the traditional pork bun. They were absolutely fantastic. Not only was I surprised that I was able to steam them so successfully myself, they were some of the best buns I’ve had in a very long time. The dough was easy to make and a dream to handle. I used bleached all purpose flour to ensure that my buns were really white, but unbleached will give you the same textural results. They were light, soft and fluffy, with a nice bit of chew. You can see in the photo above that I left one unfilled to give you a better idea of the crumb/texture of the bun. This project also gave me a chance to use my bamboo steamer, which has been sitting unused in my cupboard for some time now, too.
For the filling, I made two types: one with pork and one using a vegetarian meat. Instead of going to all the trouble of making some sort of barbeque, I just used a favorite bottled sauce with a few additions and stirred it into my meat. Whether you do or do not like bottled sauce, you certainly can’t beat it for convenience. I am looking forward to trying these buns with other fillings, like chicken and perhaps a sweet custard. The leftovers make a great lunch. You can either freeze them or store them in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for a day. Leave the plastic on and “steam” them for a 30-60 seconds in the microwave for a quick meal.
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I definately like versatile bread recipes and, for me, they usually tend to be slightly sweet. Breads that have a hint of sweetness often compliment both savory dishes and sweet ones, as well as being delicious on their own. A cheese bread just doesn’t really work with blueberry preserves on it.
On the other hand, breads that tend toward the savory can be complex and interesting. They can really work well with savory dishes, even when they’re not the ideal choice for french toast.
This bread is of the slighlty savory variety. It is a variation on the popular sour cream and onion flavor, using yogurt and green onions. The finished bread has a delicious, mild onion flavor blended with a hint of tang from the yogurt. The loaf has a very soft, moist interior with a hint of crispness in the crust. The onions in my loaf were very evenly distributed, so I think I managed to find just the right amount of them. I can’t say whether this would make a good sandwich, since that depends on your personal preferences toward the softness of your bread, but it goes great with soups and would probably make an outstanding grilled cheese sandwich.
Store a cut loaf cut-side down on your countertop to prevent the crust from loosing its crispness.
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After seeing an article in my local newspaper for Martha Stewart’s Dried Fruit Focaccia, I wanted to make it. I love focaccia and one that is lightly sweetened and packed with dried fruit sounded delicious in general, as well as seeming like a good winter bread.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the recipe in my rather large pile o’ newspaper clippings and, eventually, opted to abandon my search and just wing it. To my dough I added dried tart cherries and golden raisins, both of which I remembered seeing in Martha’s version (which I finally found here, if you’re curious), and some cinnamon. I didn’t use sugar, used far less oil and ended up with a smaller bread than Martha’s. But, particularly considering I looked at the original recipe for about 30 secondes, it came out really well and was a very tasty bread. Since it is thinner than your average focaccia, it is also crisper. In fact, I discovered that this makes excellent toast, tasting just like cinnamon raisin bread – hardly suprising given both the cinnamon and the raisins in the recipe. The cherries were particularly delicious.
To get a softer version of this bread, I would shape this into a round, 9-inch focaccia, pressing it into an oiled cake pan. This would be thicker than my rectangular version, but at least equally tasty. Cooking time for a round will be the almost the same, but closer to the higher end of the range.
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Not only was this a healthy and delicious bread incorporating one of my favorite grains, quinoa, it gave me a chance to use an ingredient I haven’t used before: vital wheat gluten. Vital wheat gluten is the protein found in wheat that has been (mostly) isolated from the wheat itself. It is useful, because it can be added to breads that contain low-gluten flours, like rye or whole wheat as opposed to all purpose or bread flours, to improve their rise and lighten the texture of the final loaf. These baguettes all rose beautifully, so I think it’s safe to say that it worked.
The recipe is from another of Beth Hensperger’s books, The Pleasures of Whole Grain Breads
, which I’ve had for some time now without using. It has recipes using more unusual grains, like quinoa, millet and teff, and specialty flours, like chestnut, potato and chickpea. Every bread and muffin recipe sounds delicious, even though I will probably have to hunt down ingredients to try a few of them.
I did modify the recipe, of course. I didn’t use an overnight rise and let the dough double for about 2 hours at room temperature. I also didn’t process the quinoa until fine, as the recipe indicated. Not because I didn’t try, mind you, but it simply wouldn’t process in my Cuisinart. After about 2 mintues I gave up and just added them whole. I also added a bit of honey because I think that whole wheat breads are just perfect with a bit of honey.
The quinoa on the exterior turned crunchy, while the interior stayed moist. The effect was similar to adding oatmeal, except perhaps slightly more obvious, since quinoa is more resiliant than oats. The resulting bread was less heavy than an oatmeal bread and nicely light in tuxture, proably due to the wheat gluten. Next time, I think I will try baking this as a loaf instead of individual baguettes, because it would make fantastic sandwiches, particularly with peanut butter or egg salad.
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