Where did Summer Go?

Adam laughing from being tickled on the grass in our back yard. Despite the gray skies and lower temperatures we got outside to play!

In the last week our weather has not been very "summer-like." We have had a lot of rain and colder temperatures. This past Sunday it was barely 60 degrees and I had to wear a sweater and a rain jacket! I refused to put my boots on and decided to still wear my flip flops though! I want to at least acknowledge that it is supposed to be summer. It was nice to finally have more time to get outside today since it didn't rain and the weather was at least dry. It has been awfully dreary but we have hope that someday soon there will be enough sun for our tomatoes to grow!!

Some daylilies that are blooming in our back yard. I love their vibrant color!

Suburban Garden Report:

My plants in the garden have been growing very well. However, I know that they need more sun to really accelerate their growth. I think this is especially true for tomatoes and peppers as well as herbs such as basil. You can see in the pictures below that all of the plants are very lush and green but I would like some tomatoes to start forming!

Finally my gigantic tomato plants are starting to flower!



My one bell pepper plant is slowly getting bigger. It really needs more sun!

An apple on our dwarf apple tree. These apples are looking great and growing fast!


My lavender plant has put out several flowers and is looking pretty.

Well, at least the lettuce is thriving in the cooler weather! We've been enjoying lots of salads!

It was fun to teach Adam how to pick lettuce. Now every time we go out into the garden he picks a piece or two and eats it! It is a very healthy "salad to go!"

Adam eating some lettuce. He really enjoyed learning how to pick it!

At least the rain has been very kind to my growing side yard and the flowering plants are really growing and thriving there. Very soon the Black Eyed Susan daisies will be coming out! I can't wait! Here are some pictures of some of the lovely flowers in that area:

I really love the sunset color on this begonia in the side yard!

A bloom on a hardy fuchsia plant in my side yard that came back by surprise! It is so pretty!

Adam spotted a few ripe blueberries today which he promptly ate. I hope with a bit more sun there will be quite a few for him to nibble on. The bushes are looking very healthy and full of blueberries for their small size.

A blueberry that Adam found- there are a few that are ripe enough to eat now.

A sweet little surprise flower- this is a plant that is now starting to thrive from 2-3 years ago.

A while ago I read an article on container gardening. It suggested to group your pots in groups of 3-5 pots or more on your deck or patio area. Before I had my pots scattered too much and the flowers looked too sparse. The technique of grouping them really makes the flowers stand out and it gives a much "lush" effect. I am really liking the look now! I think it is great to read and learn new things every day!

A grouping of flower pots on our deck.

Finally, as Adam and I were wandering into the corner of our back yard I spotted these lovely foxglove plants! I just love the colors and they are so pretty! What a nice surprise!

A volunteer foxglove plant in our back corner.

Country Garden Report:

This week's country garden report is going to be a short one. Last week I was busy getting ready for a baby shower we threw on Saturday so I didn't have a chance to go to the country garden and visit. Also, we had been sick the past week when we visited the garden and so then my parents, brother and sister in law also got sick from the virus that we had! I do know that before she got sick my mom worked on picking and freezing as many wild cherries that she could off of a very large tree that my dad cut down. It was so full of such lovely, red cherries! They will surely be a treat to eat and to use in preserves, etc. Hopefully in a week or two I will have more news from my parent's garden.

Celebrating a Baby to Come:

A tiered tray of lemon cupcakes for the baby shower.

This past Saturday, July 16th we had a couples baby shower for some friends who are adopting a baby very soon. They are such a nice couple and we are so excited for them. I had a lot of fun decorating and coming up with a menu for the shower! It was a brunch theme and it was wonderful! Fun was had by all!

I made some breakfast casserole along with a green salad, tomato salad, fruit salad, scones and lemon cupcakes for dessert.

Following are the recipes for the shortbread cookies and the cream scones. Enjoy!

A platter of homemade cream scones- plain, chocolate chip and cranberry for the shower.

Cream Scones:

This is the scone recipe that we used for our farmer's market bakery booth "Farmer's Tea." They were a big hit at our booth for breakfast. Some of the flavors that we used to make were: hazelnut/chocolate chip, coconut, cranberry orange and blueberry among others.

Yields: 16 small scones

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
11 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whipping cream

1 cup mix in: dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, etc), chocolate chips, coconut, etc. (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly butter baking sheet or cover with a sheet of parchment paper.

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder together in a medium size bowl.

3. Cut in small chunks of butter with a fork or with a pastry blender. Blend until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

4. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the cream. Stir just until moist. Add the "mix-in" ingredient if you are going to use one.

5. Transfer dough to a floured surface and gently knead until smooth, about 8 turns.

6. Divide dough in half. Transfer these to the prepared baking sheet and pat each portion into a 3/4 inch thick round. Cut each round into 8 wedges. Brush tops with remaining cream.

7. Bake scones until light brown 10-15 minutes.

These can be made ahead and freeze very well. Let them thaw on the counter overnight or a few hours before serving. Enjoy!

A teddy bear shortbread cookie that I made as favors for the baby shower.

Shortbread Cut Out Cookies:

This is one of my favorite cookie recipes. I love that the cookies turn out so professional looking and they are so delicious too! When I bake this the whole house smells like vanilla! Yum!


Yields: 17-18 large cookies or 24 small cookies

2 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour with the salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Stir in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 300 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface roll out dough to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes. Place on the prepared baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes. This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked.

Bake for 20 minutes.

You may frost, glaze or dip the cookies in chocolate and/or sprinkles to make them festive!

Enjoy this week!

Summer Projects and Summer Fun!

One of my heirloom roses in full bloom. I love how the petals look like velvet.

Another busy week flew by! Progress is being made in both gardens and many other projects are under way. The weather is still very lackluster here. It seems like summer is like an airplane that flutters in fits and starts rather than flying full speed ahead. We have had a couple of sunny days in the 70's but today was rainy and in the mid 60's. It seems it bit cold for summer!

However, we are plugging along and enjoying what sun comes our way!

A close up shot of the boysenberries forming. There is going to be a good crop this year!

Country Garden Report:

Last Friday Adam and I headed out to my parent's house to see how the garden was coming along since my Mom planted the rest of the seeds and also to help plant some annuals in the deck planters. As you can see in the photo above the boysenberries are very healthy. They are growing quite well and we'll enjoy a lot of berries from their vines this summer!

Some blueberries on one of the bushes in the country garden.

Also, the blueberries are looking quite healthy. It is exciting to see that there will be a variety of berries to enjoy later on in the season. All of the seeds that my Mom planted including the corn, beans, and melons are coming up nicely. It will be exciting to see at the end of this week how much they have grown. Below you can see photos of some of the other plants progressing well in the garden. We are certainly off to a better start this year than last, despite the colder weather.

The vigorous grape vines in the country garden.

A pepper plant that is growing quite nicely.

One of the purple cabbages that we planted.

Some pea plants growing tall.

Lastly, we also observed the pretty wild flowers that my Mom has been cultivating in pots near the house. Here are two photos of them. They are quite lovely and unique.

A sweet little bloom on one of the wild plants my mom has been growing.

One of the other wild flowers about to bloom!

To close this section on the country garden I would like to mention that Seed Savers Exchange of which we are members was featured in an article by National Geographic recently. They point out in the article how important it is to save seeds and grow heirloom varieties of vegetables and fruits. It may be what saves us all! Here is a link to the article:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/siebert-text

Enjoy!

Suburban Garden Report:

Our garden is coming along quite well this week. I was able to spot a few red strawberries on the plants a day or two ago which I will take pictures of for the next post. I finally planted my basil and cherry tomato seedlings into the garden as I felt they were ready and big enough to hold their own. The raspberry plants and the rhubarb grow ever bigger! We have also started to replace a lot of the boards in our deck to get ready for some barbecues we are having. I also hope to finish the gravel "moat" around the garden in the next couple of weeks. There are always projects to do in the yard, but it is fun!

Below are some photos of some of the plants that are coming along nicely in the yard.

A fern that I moved to a shadier spot a while back. It sure seems to thrive here!

Some of the huckleberries forming on the bush! I am excited to eat these later on!

One of the perennials that my Aunt Janet gave me. It is in full bloom and so pretty!

Also, I have started to harvest some of my rhubarb and thus made a delicious rhubarb bread out of some of it. I will be looking for lots of ideas on how to use more rhubarb soon as I have a bumper crop this year!

Some of the thick stalks on my rhubarb plant.

Below you will find the recipe for the rhubarb bread. Also, I have included a recipe for a brine for barbecued chicken. It is a great recipe and very versatile. I used it to barbecue some chicken this past weekend and it was delicious!


Rhubarb Cinnamon Streusel Bread:

I found this recipe on the website for Taste of Home magazine. I added some cinnamon to the bread and also added more butter and cinnamon to the topping. Yum!

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar



• 1/2 cup canola oil



• 1 egg



• 1 cup buttermilk



• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract



• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour



• 1 teaspoon baking soda



• 1 teaspoon salt



• 1 tablespooon cinnamon
  



• 1-1/2 cups chopped fresh or sliced frozen rhubarb



• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans ( I usually skip the nuts)
  



• 
  TOPPING:



• 1/2 cup sugar



• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon



• 2 tablespoons cold butter

Directions:

• In a large bowl, combine brown sugar and oil. Beat in egg. Beat in buttermilk and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into brown sugar mixture just until combined. Fold in rhubarb and nuts. Pour into two greased 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pans.



• For topping, in a small bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon and butter until crumbly; sprinkle over batter.



• Bake at 350° for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.



• Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Cut with a serrated knife. Yield: 2 loaves (16 slices each)

Brine for Barbecued Chicken:

This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated Magazine.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup kosher salt
1 quart water
4 chicken leg quarters or 8 chicken thighs

(this recipe also works for boneles, skinless chicken breasts- about 4-6 large ones which can be cut up into smaller pieces if needed)

Instructions:

1. In a gallon size zipper lock plastic bag, dissolve sugar and salt in 1 quart water. Add chicken, pressing out as much air as possible; seal and refrigerate until fully seasoned, about 1 1/2 hours.

2. Heat your gas grill on high or light the charcoal on your charcoal grill in a chimney starter. Allow the charcoal to burn until the flames have died down and all charcoal is covered with a layer of fine gray ash. Make a two layer fire by placing half of the coals on one side of the grill to within 3 inches or so of grill rack for medium hot fire. Arrange remaining coals in single layer on other side of grill for medium low fire. Return grill rack to position; cover grill and let rack heat 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, remove chicken from brine, dry thoroughly with paper towels, and season with pepper.

4. Cook chicken, uncovered over medium hot fire, extinguishing any flames with a squirt bottle, until seared, about 1-2 minutes on each side. Move chicken to medium low fire; continue to grill uncovered, turning occasionally, until chicken is dark and fully cooked, 12 to 16 minutes for thighs, 16-20 minutes for whole legs.

For a gas grill as I have- put the chicken on an oiled grill. Turn heat down to medium high. Grill 5-8 minutes on each side with the grill covered between turning the chicken. Check for doneness with a thermometer. It should read 180 degrees.

Enjoy!

A New Bread for Fall

I combined a couple of recipe to create this lovely pumpkin cranberry bread for a potluck my husband was having today at work. The theme was "healthy eating" and one of the categories was gluten free. So, I decided to make this bread since I had some pureed fresh pumpkin and fresh cranberries from the farmer's market on hand.

And....I won a $20 cash prize for this bread in the gluten free category! It was fun and exciting to win!

This wonderfully moist gluten free, dairy free, soy free bread is so delicious it is more like cake! You could never tell it is gluten free or made in any other way than the traditional way of baking.

I know that this will become one of the favorite fall treats in our household.

I learned a lot about gluten free baking when we had Farmer's Tea- selling our baked goods at a farmer's market. There were many customers who came to appreciate our growing selection of gluten free treats. So, I love to combine recipes and create many new gluten free baked goods to try. Also, since we have a couple of friends who need to eat gluten and dairy free- having these types of things on hand is always great!

Enjoy this lovely bread!

First of all- before baking you need to create a special flour mix. If you live locally (in Oregon) I have found all three of the flours available at New Seasons- or if you go to Bob's Red Mill in Milwaukie, Oregon you can buy these flours in bulk which saves a lot of money.

The flour mixture is as follows (I usually mix up a large batch and store it in a zip lock bag or a storage container) I got this mixture idea from "Gluten Free Baking Classics" by Annalise G. Roberts. It is a wonderful book and a great one for coming up with baking ideas.

Small Batch of Gluten Free Flour:

2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca flour

Large Batch of Gluten Free Flour:

6 cups brown rice flour
2 cups potato starch
1 cup tapioca flour

The only other ingredient that is essential to gluten free baking is xanthan gum which helps hold the flours together and helps prevent baked goods from being too crumbly. It can be found in most stores. It is expensive but only a bit is used in each recipe and it lasts a long time. Below you can see a photo of all of the ingredients laid out:


Gluten Free Pumpkin Cranberry Bread:

Makes three 8x4 loaves- they freeze wonderfully!

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:

• 3 cups brown rice flour mix (if you don't need to make this gluten free substitute all-purpose flour)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 3 cups granulated sugar
  
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree (or use fresh pumpkin that you have baked and pureed yourself- be sure to use a pie pumpkin or other sweet pumpkin for this
  
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries-chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 8x4-inch loaf pans.
2. Combine flour, spices, xanthan gum, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Set aside.
   
3. Stir together sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and orange juice in bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.
4. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Enjoy a lovely slice of fall!!

I "Hallah" for Challah!

This week since I hadn't made bread in a while I decided to make something different. Also, I had a lot of eggs to use and I wanted to use them in a delicious way! I had made this recipe before- given to me by my cousin Helen who clipped it out of the Oregonian newspaper a while back and sent me a copy. However, I think that my "new and improved" version is even better!

This is one of the softest, best tasting, fluffiest breads I have ever made! And, it is so easy to make!

The original version is not whole wheat and it also contains less yeast than my version. I have found that adding more yeast helps a bread rise more, be softer and fluffier- so I decided to double the amount of yeast in the recipe and got fabulous results!

Try it for yourself and you will see!

This is great hot out of the oven with butter on it, or toasted the next day- or for sweet sandwiches such as peanut butter and jelly. Enjoy! Below you can see a picture of the loaves ready to be put into the oven! Yum!


Whole Wheat Challah Bread:

Makes 2 large loaves

1 1/2 cups very hot tap water
8-9 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons sea salt
4 eggs plus 1 additional egg yolk (divided)
4 cups unbleached white bread flour (I used King Arthur)
2 cups whole wheat flour (Again I used King Arthur)
1 tablespoon water

Sesame or poppy seeds

1. In a large bowl combine warm water, yeast and brown sugar. When the mixture is foamy and bubbly, add canola oil, honey, salt, 3 eggs and the additional egg yolk.

2. Stir in 3 cups of the bread flour and 2 cups of the whole wheat flour 1 cup at a time. I stirred this mixture by hand with a wooden spoon. Stir until the dough begins to stretch as it is stirred. You can also use an electric mixer if you like. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand. Work in an additional cup of the bread flour. Be sure to only add as much as needed to make a smooth dough.

3. Oil a clean bowl or spray it with nonstick spray. Roll the dough around the bowl to coat the surface. Cover the dough with a clean, damp cloth and let it rise for about 2 hours. Punch down the dough.

4. Shape the dough into 2 loaves. I left my 2 loaves very large. I didn't stretch them out into long, skinny loaves. I divided each loaf into 3 "strands" and braided them loosely. Cover the loaves and let them rise for another 45 minutes to an hour.

5. Make an egg wash by beating the remaining egg with the 1 tablespoon of water. Brush the egg wash over the loaves.

6. Heat the oven to 375F. I have a convection oven so mine was set to 350F. Bake the loaves for 15 minutes on the middle rack. Then, brush with more egg wash and sprinkle the loaves with sesame or poppy seeds. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. Be sure to check the loaves often so that they don't over bake. The loaves should be golden brown. Cool on wire racks.

Enjoy your bread!!

Blueberry Bagels!

This week I really wanted to be able to add fresh blueberries to bread and still be able to toast it for breakfast. This is quite difficult but I think I may have found the trick in making these bagels.


I used a recipe that I found on the blog The Fresh Loaf which was adapted from the book The Bread Bakers Apprentice.

Here is my version of the recipe along with my notes.



Light Whole Wheat Cinnamon Blueberry Bagels-
- Adapted from The Bread Bakers Apprentice

Makes: 12-17 bagels (I made 17 bagels with 1 recipe)

Sponge:
1 teaspoon instant yeast
4 cups bread flour
2 1/2 cups water- warm from the tap

Dough:
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
2 cups bread flour
2 cup whole wheat flour
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons malt powder
OR
1 tablespoon malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar- I used honey

Mix in struesel:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
6 tablespoons softened butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup frozen blueberries. ( I bought fresh ones, washed them and put them in a freezer bag when my dough was just about done- about 20-30 minutes later they were frozen enough to put into the dough)

Finishing touches:
1 tablespoon honey for the water
Cornmeal for dusting the pan
Egg wash for the bagels- 1 egg- beaten mixed with 1-2 tablespoons water

The Night or Late Afternoon Before:

Stir the yeast into the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and stir until all ingredients are blended. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for two hours. As you can see in the photo above the sponge gets very bubbly.- I let it rise slightly longer than two hours because I wanted to finish eating dinner before I made the dough. I think that any recipe that starts with a sponge is going to turn into a lighter, fluffier, more flavorful bread because it seems like the yeast gets a good head start in rising.

Remove the plastic wrap and stir the additional yeast into the sponge. Add 2 cups of the flour, the 2 cups of whole wheat flour, the malt powder or honey and the salt into the bowl and mix until all of the ingredients form a ball. You may need to work in the additional 3/4 cups of flour to make the dough less sticky, either while still mixing in the bowl or while kneading. The dough should be stiffer and drier than normal bread dough, but moist enough that all of the ingredients are well blended.

At this point I also made the struesel by mixing together the butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Knead each half of the dough for about 10 minutes on a floured board. After the dough is kneaded work in small bits of the struesel mixture and mix in well to create a "swirled" cinnamon dough.

Right after kneading, divide the dough into a dozen small pieces around 4 1/2 ounces each. I used a kitchen scale to measure out each ball. If you don't have a kitchen scale, try to divide the dough as evenly as possible into 12-14 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and set it aside. When you have all 12 pieces made, cover them with a damp towel and let them rest for 20 minutes.

Shaping the bagel is very simple. Punch your thumb through the center of each roll and then rotate the dough, working it so that the bagel is as even in width as possible. As you shape the bagels "poke" in several frozen blueberries into each bagel. I left some of the bagels plain too.

Place the shaped bagels on an oiled sheet pan or pans, with an inch or so of space between one another. If you have parchment paper, line the sheet pan with parchment and spray it lightly with oil or pan spray before placing the bagels on the pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for about 20 minutes.

After about 20 minutes of rising time, place the baking sheets in the refrigerator overnight. This will develop the flavor in the bagels. This time with the blueberry bagels I forgot to do the extra 20 minute rising, I think that is why they are not as round and puffy, but they are still yummy!

The Next Morning:

Preheat the oven to 500F. I decided to use the convection feature on my oven- so it was set at 475F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add one tablespoon of honey to the pot.

When the pot is boiling, drop a few of the bagels into the pot one at a time and let them boil for a minute. Use a large, slotted spoon or spatula to flip them over and boil them on the other side.

Before removing them from the pot, sprinkle corn meal onto the sheet pan. Remove them one at a time, set them back onto the sheet pan. At this point you can top the bagels with seeds, etc. if you wish while they are still wet. Otherwise you can leave them plain, or brush an egg wash on them.

Place the sheet pan into the preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to 450 degrees, (or 425 in a convection oven) rotate the pan, and bake for another 5 minutes until the bagels begin to brown. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool. I let the bagels bake a total of 15 minutes with a couple of rotations because the temperature was a bit lower and I wanted them to brown a bit more.

Enjoy! Below is a picture of my split and buttered bagel. Yum! These bagels were very light, moist and flavorful. I might experiment with putting a blueberry compote in them or something else another time, but overall they were great!

Raising Raisin Bread

This week's bread was inspired by a photo I saw in a bread book I got last week at a thrift store with my Mom. She found this wonderful British bread book for me while I was watching Adam in the appliance section of the store. The book is called "The Color Book of Home Baking" edited by Hilary Walden. It is an old book from 1978 and it is the kind of old cook book that I truly love! It has photos that really inspire you to bake the breads and try new methods of baking.

I was really in the mood for a bread that would make lovely morning toast and the picture of this bread really made me want to make it. Of course, I had to change the recipe I slight bit as always but I am happy with the end result- the loaf above. The recipe made 2 loaves and they rose very high in the oven. Below is a picture of my baker's apprentice- Adam- my son who loves to sift flour and put it in a bowl, dump it out, taste the dough, etc. It is great fun and such a joy!


The original recipe called for whole wheat flour and rye flour but I used unbleached white flour in place of the rye since I didn't have any and I don't really like the taste of rye unless it is for a deli type sandwich.

Also, the original recipe called for simmering the raisins in white wine, but I had some coffee liqueur that my mom gave me leftover from our Farmer's Tea baking business days and I thought that the raisins would taste really good simmered in that.

Here is the recipe & my notes on what happened and what I might do differently next time.

Whole Wheat Raisin Bread

Makes-2 small loaves- tall but narrow

2 cups raisins
6 tablespoons coffee liqueur + 3 tablespoons extra for mixing with the yeast
3 tablespoons yeast
2 cups warm milk
3/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup light brown sugar
4 cups whole wheat flour
4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1. Simmer the raisins in the coffee liqueur on low for 20 minutes.

2. Mix the yeast with the 3 tablespoons of liqueur in a small bowl.

3. Pour the milk and butter over the molasses in a separate bowl and mix thoroughly. Stir in the brown sugar.

4. Mix the flours and the salt in a large bowl separately. Make a well or hole in the center and add the yeast, milk mixture and raisins. With a spatula mix the flours and the liquid until the dough comes away cleanly from the sides of the bowl.

5. Turn onto a floured board and knead for 8-10 minutes by hand until the dough is elastic and smooth. Put the dough into a clean, oiled bowl and cover with a damp kitchen towel. Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk- about 2 hours.

6. After this first rising, knead the dough about 3-4 minutes then divide the dough into 2 parts. Form 2 loaves and place them into oiled small loaf pans. Make sure to oil the tops of the loaves. Then, place them in a large plastic bag (I used an "oven bag" used for cooking roasts). Set these aside for 30-40 minutes to rise a while.

7. Bake at 475F for around 9-10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 425F and bake for 30-40 minutes. After lowering the temperature put foil on top of the bread so that it does not brown so much. I did not do this but I recommend it because the bread browned a bit more than I'd like even though the inside is very tender.

8. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

This bread is heavenly as toast. One of my loaves has a hole in the middle of it and it is very tender in the center, but it makes fabulous toast! See the picture below of a slice of the bread. I love it!! Enjoy!

Peachy Keen!

This week's bread was inspired by the local fruit now in season...peaches! I love peaches and since they are only around for a short time each summer I wanted to feature them in a bread. I was able to get some small, sweet peaches at the Beaverton Farmer's Market last Saturday so on Monday they were ripe and ready to use in the bread pictured above.

Since I had a lot of luck making the classic whole wheat Tassajara bread I decided to try the egg variation. I followed the basic recipe but I added a bit of whole wheat flour and whole milk to it. This bread braid turned out to be so pretty and so delicious that even my son Adam who usually doesn't each much bread has been eating "peach bread" all week! 'Below is the recipe and my notes and photos of the process.

Whole Wheat Egg Bread- Peach Braid & Loaf:

Makes: 1 large peach braid loaf and 1 regular loaf of sandwich/toasting bread

I. Sponge:

2 1/2 cups whole milk
3 tablespoons yeast
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs beaten
2 cups unbleached white flour (I used a whole wheat white flour)
2 cups whole wheat flour

II: Bread:

4 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup softened butter
2 cups unbleached white flour
1-2 cups whole wheat flour

For the Peach Braid:

2 cups peeled and sliced peaches
1/2 cup brown sugar
1-2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


Directions:

1. Put milk into a glass measure. Microwave for about 1 minute to warm it up. Pour this mixture into a large bowl and dissolve the yeast in it. Stir in the brown sugar. Then, stir in the beaten eggs.

2. Then, stir in the unbleached white flour and the whole wheat flour. This will make a very thick batter. Stir the mixture with a spoon about 100 strokes.

3. Let the sponge rise about 45 minutes. Then, fold in the salt and butter. Do this very gently and carefully. Fold in the additional 3 cups of flour. Add in up to 1 cup more of flour during the kneading process.

4. Knead on a lightly floured board, use more flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the board. Knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough is smooth.

5. Let the dough rise about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk then punch it down.

6. Let the dough rise again for another hour.

7. Divide the dough in half. Shape the dough into1 loaf and place it into a small oiled loaf pan.

8. Take the other half of the dough and make a large rectangle as shown in the picture below. Take a bench scraper or butter knife and score the dough into 3 sections.

9. In the middle third of the dough place the peach sections. Then, sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon over the peaches.


10. On either side of the middle third make diagonal cuts in the dough about every 2 inches or so.

11. Fold the strips over the peaches alternating sides. Pinch the ends to seal. Slide the braid onto a baking sheet covered in cornmeal.

12. Let the loaves and peach braid rise for another 25 minutes while you are heating up the oven to 350F.

13. Slash the loaf with a sharp knife and then brush both the peach braid and loaf with an egg wash made from 1 egg and 1-2 tablespoons of water mixed thoroughly.

14. Place the peach braid on the bottom rack of the oven with a drip pan underneath to catch any fruit juices that leak out. Bake the loaf of bread on the top rack. Bake the loaf and peach braid in a 350F oven for 1 hour, or until golden brown.

15. Remove from pans and let cool. Below is a close up of the yummy peaches in the bread:


Enjoy!!

Bagels- Two Ways

This week I was in the mood for bagels. They are really my favorite breakfast bread and also make great savory sandwiches, so I decided to make 1 batch of bagels two ways- one sweet and one savory. The picture above shows one of the sweet bagels- a cinnamon raisin Scottish oat one. I decided to try a new recipe and a new method of making bagels and then add my own twist on it. The result was a very soft, chewy bagel with a nice crust on the outside. They are so delicious! It was a big treat to enjoy a freshly made bagel this morning.

I used a recipe that I found on the blog The Fresh Loaf which was adapted from the book The Bread Bakers Apprentice.

Here is my version of the recipe along with my notes.

From this basic recipe I made cinnamon sugar bagels and garlic bagels.

Scottish Oat Bagels- with variations- Adapted from The Bread Bakers Apprentice

Makes: 12-14 bagels (I made 14 bagels with 1 recipe)

Sponge:
1 teaspoon instant yeast
4 cup all purpose flour (the original called for bread flour, but I did not have any)
2 1/2 cups water- warm from the tap

Dough:
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
2 cups bread flour- or all purpose flour
1 cup Scottish oats
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons malt powder
OR
1 tablespoon malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar- I used honey

1/2 cup sugar + 2 teaspoons cinnamon for the cinnamon sugar bagels
1 teaspoon garlic powder for the garlic bagels

Finishing touches:
1 tablespoon baking soda for the water
Cornmeal for dusting the pan
Toppings for the bagels such as seeds, salt, onion, or garlic- I did not top my bagels

The Night or Late Afternoon Before:


Stir the yeast into the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and stir until all ingredients are blended. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for two hours. As you can see in the photo above the sponge gets very bubbly.- I let it rise slightly longer than two hours because I wanted to finish eating dinner before I made the dough. I think that any recipe that starts with a sponge is going to turn into a lighter, fluffier, more flavorful bread because it seems like the yeast gets a good head start in rising.

Remove the plastic wrap and stir the additional yeast into the sponge. Add 2 cups of the flour, the 1 cup of Scottish oats, the malt powder or honey and the salt into the bowl and mix until all of the ingredients form a ball. You may need to work in the additional 3/4 cups of flour to make the dough less sticky, either while still mixing in the bowl or while kneading. The dough should be stiffer and drier than normal bread dough, but moist enough that all of the ingredients are well blended.

At this point I divided the dough in half and added 1/2 cup of sugar + 1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon for the cinnamon sugar bagels to one half of the dough. Then, to the other half I added 1 teaspoon of garlic powder to make the garlic bagels.

Knead each half of the dough for about 10 minutes on a floured board.

Right after kneading, divide the dough into a dozen small pieces around 4 1/2 ounces each. I used a kitchen scale to measure out each ball. If you don't have a kitchen scale, try to divide the dough as evenly as possible into 12-14 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and set it aside. When you have all 12 pieces made, cover them with a damp towel and let them rest for 20 minutes. In the photo below you can see the size of the balls of dough on a tray before resting the dough.


Shaping the bagel is very simple. Punch your thumb through the center of each roll and then rotate the dough, working it so that the bagel is as even in width as possible.

Place the shaped bagels on an oiled sheet pan or pans, with an inch or so of space between one another. If you have parchment paper, line the sheet pan with parchment and spray it lightly with oil or pan spray before placing the bagels on the pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for about 20 minutes. My formed bagels are pictured below:


After about 20 minutes of rising time, place the baking sheets in the refrigerator overnight. This will develop the flavor in the bagels.

The Next Morning:

Preheat the oven to 500F. I decided to use the convection feature on my oven- so it was set at 475F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add one tablespoon of baking soda to the pot.

When the pot is boiling, drop a few of the bagels into the pot one at a time and let them boil for a minute. Use a large, slotted spoon or spatula to flip them over and boil them on the other side.

Before removing them from the pot, sprinkle corn meal onto the sheet pan. Remove them one at a time, set them back onto the sheet pan. At this point you can top the bagels with seeds, etc. if you wish while they are still wet. Otherwise you can leave them plain, or brush an egg wash on them.

Place the sheet pan into the preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to 450 degrees, (or 425 in a convection oven) rotate the pan, and bake for another 5 minutes until the bagels begin to brown. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool. I let the bagels bake a total of 15 minutes with a couple of rotations because the temperature was a bit lower and I wanted them to brown a bit more.

Enjoy!

Loftier Pursuits

After making a rather dense but delicious loaf of sourdough broiche bread a while back I was in the mood for a lighter whole wheat bread made with yeast. I am also reviving my sourdough starter as it was a bit neglected for a few days. It is springing back to new life as it bubbles in a jar on the counter. Meanwhile....

My Mom has given me several of her bread books and old cookbooks which I am thrilled with. One of these books was the 25th Anniversary Edition of the Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown. This book gave me new inspiration for my baking!

Although this might not be the most ideal day for baking because it is in the 90's outside, it is a great day for raising bread dough, so I went for it. I wanted to make one loaf plus a batch of rolls to save for a family dinner this weekend. This worked well and I got two projects done at once!

The result of my baking today was the lovely loaf above. It is one of the prettiest loaves I've ever made. It has a nice crust on the outside that is not too tough and it is nice, soft and light inside! Just what I was after! The rolls (pictured below) are also beautiful and delicious! I can't wait to serve them!


I really enjoyed learning some new techniques and hand work in making bread with this recipe. I changed the recipe a bit from the original but it is close.

Light and Fluffy Whole Wheat Bread: Adapted from the 25th Anniversary Edition of the Tassajara Bread Book

Makes: 2 small loaves in 4x8 pans or 1 small loaf and about 11-12 rolls or about 24 rolls

I. Sponge:

2 cups whole milk
1 cup warm water
3 tablespoons yeast
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups unbleached white flour (I used a whole wheat white flour)
2 cups whole wheat flour

II: Bread:

4 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup softened butter
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour


Directions:

1. Put milk and water together in a glass measure. Microwave for about 1 minute to warm the liquid up. Pour this mixture into a large bowl and dissolve the yeast in it. Stir in the brown sugar.

2. Then, stir in the unbleached white flour and the whole wheat flour. This will make a very thick batter. Stir the mixture with a spoon about 100 strokes.

3. Let the sponge rise about 45 minutes. Then, fold in the salt and butter. Do this very gently and carefully. Fold in the additional 3 cups of flour.

4. Knead on a lightly floured board, use more flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the board. Knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough is smooth.

5. Let the dough rise about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk then punch it down.

6. Let the dough rise again for another hour. Shape the dough into loaves or rolls and place in pans or on a greased baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal (if you are doing rolls). Let the loaves or rolls rise for another 25 minutes while you are heating up the oven to 350F.

7. Slash the loaves or rolls with a sharp knife and then brush them with an egg wash made from 1 egg and 1-2 tablespoons of water mixed thoroughly.

8. Bake the loaves in a 350F oven for 1 hour, or until golden brown. If you are baking rolls at the same time bake them for only about 20 minutes, then take them out and let the loaf continue baking.

9. Remove from pans and let cool.

Enjoy!!