Carrot Bread

   Next in my "batter breads" chapter of the Bread Bible was carrot bread. Flour, sugar, oil, baking powder and soda, salt, eggs, grated carrots and raisins. I didn't have any raisins but several bags of cranberry raisins so I substituted those. I sifted the dry ingredients together and then mixed the eggs, sugar and oil in my mixer on speed 2. I added the dry ingredients a cup at a time, mixing on low. Then the carrots - 3 1/2 cups! It seemed a bit much to me but I followed the directions. I folded the craisins in with a wooden spoon.
   In a well greased loaf pan - emphasis on well greased since the last loaf recipe practically came apart when removing it because it was stuck to the pan - pour the batter and fill the pan 1/2 inch from the top. Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven on a rack just below the middle. 55 minutes and BING! Perfect consistancy. Very moist but not undercooked-goey. I allowed it to cool overnight.
   In the morning, Ian and I both had a slice. To my surprise, very tasty! I'm not a big fan of carrot cake, so I was unsure of the carrot bread. It's slightly less sweet and has about twice the carrots as the cake version. It made for a very good breakfast bread and the office loved it! At the end of the day, I brought home what was left - only a 2-3 slices size piece. I ran to Wal-Mart for some things and by the time I got home, the whole thing was gone. I guess Ian really liked it too :)

French Bread Flop

   Ian and I were invited to dinner by his boss and wife at their home. They are fun people so we gladly accepted. I didn't want to come empty handed so I thought of bringing a bruschetta. Of course I would make the bread from scratch! Rarely can I bring myself to BUY bread from the store anymore. The French bread recipe in the Bread Bible required an overnight process I didn't have time for so I found a recipe online that I could do in less than 3 hours. How - you might ask - could one recipe require 2 days and the other, only 2 hours? The answer: The quick version is never the better version.
   I combined the simple ingredients of flour, yeast, salt and water. Seems simple enough? No. First of all, 6 cups of flour and 2 whole packages of yeast sounds disproportionate. But, I did it anyway. The dough was too dry from what I could tell as it kneaded in my Kitchen Aid mixer. I took it out and kneaded it by hand for about 10 minutes. In an oiled glass bowl, I covered the lump of dough with a kitchen towel and left it to rise for an hour. After it doubled in size, I punched it down and split the dough in half. It kind of "chunked apart" instead of stretching like elastic, as bread should. Right there, I knew it was too dry. As I rolled each chunk out to a rectangle, I kept my hands wet in an attempt to moisten the dough. After stretching it out, I rolled the rectangles length wise and tucked the ends in, placing the long loafs on the baking sheet, seam down. Also, I sprinkled the baking sheet with corn meal.
   I basted the tops with egg whites and with a sharp knife, made 4 slits in each loaf. I let them bake for about 20 minutes and then basted them again. The recipe said bake 40 minutes total. They were still pretty light in color so I gave them an extra 8 minutes. When I took them out of the oven, they were nice and hard on the outside. They LOOKED perfect, so I was excited. I cut an end piece only to find the center was really dense. Too dense for French Bread. It was like Playdough. I took a small piece to Ian and he wouldn't even eat it!
   I placed both loaves in a food storage bag - I don't know, thinking magic would happen overnight? This morning, the bread was exactly the same. Dense, heavy, bland and unappetizing. I was not serving this to Ian's boss and family who had graciously invited us over for a steak dinner!
   I threw it in the trash. But I am not discouraged! In the Bread Bible, the author talks about French bread and baguettes in several places and admits that it took her 25 attempts before she perfected French bread. I will try again. But today, it looks like I'll be stopping at Publix to grab a loaf for dinner.

Cinnamon Crumb, Yum!

   I have been making bread, randomly picking recipes from the Bread Bible in no particular order, just what sounds good. And now I'm having trouble keeping track of what I've made when, and what I'll make next. So, I have decided to go back to my original idea of baking my way through the book, cover to cover. The very first recipe was for a cinnamon crumb cake with apple filling. This was perfect for two reasons: 1 - We had family staying in town Tuesday night and the crumb cake would make a perfect Wednesday morning breakfast with coffee. 2 - A very good friend of mine was celebrating her last day at work as she is moving north for a better job opportunity. I made a second loaf to take to work for a morning snack. Also, this friend is one of my biggest bread fans and therefore deserved her own "going away bread."
   This recipe came from the "batter breads" section of the Bread Bible. It was a quick mix and bake. Ingredients included flour, white and brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon, lots of butter, vanilla, and sliced apples. I started by making the crumble topping, combining the walnuts, cinnamon and sugar in a food processor until the nuts were cousely chopped. I reserved a cup of this mixture and set it aside and then added the butter and pulsed it a little longer to form the crumb. Then I let the crumb sit in the fridge to firm up a little while I made the batter.
   In 2 greased loaf pans, I poured half the batter, sprinkled the reserved nut mixture, layered the sliced apples and then covered it with the remaining batter. With a fork I sifted the crumble and topped the batter in the loaf pans. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 for perfection. However, I suppose I could have been more generous with the Pam when I greased the pans, because after cooling, the loaves were very difficult to get out of the pans. Ian "came to the rescue" and tried separating the bread from the pan with a knife. I was using a spatula. The crumble was crumbling! It was a mess. Our guests came into the kitchen to see what the fuss was. We couldn't let the delicious crumb topping go to waste so all four of us began scurrying around the counter, picking at the crumbs like little mice. It took a lot of self control to not pick apart the whole loaf and just eat it that way.
   The second loaf came out looking a little more presentable, so I took that one to work. My bread fans say it was the tastiest bake so far. Four days later, there is a small piece left in the bread container, and it's still very moist and delicious!

One Potato, Two Potato

   Ian and I are on this new diet. It's going good so far. Before we started it, I had bought a couple sweet patotoes that we are now not allowed to have. Instead of throwing them away or letting them go bad, I decided to make sweet potato bread - similar to potato bread but just a different kind of potato. I had 2, so I made a double recipe.
   We had a house project to do so I wrapped the sweet potatoes in tin foil and let them bake while we worked on the patio. I set a timer but left it in the kitchen, not wise. I totally forgot about it and by the time I remembered, I came in to check on them and the timer had gone off for so long it stopped itself and the sweet potatoes were pretty mushy. I peeled them and set them aside to mash. I prepared the sponge with flour, water, yeast and honey to ferment in the fridge for several hours. Back to the patio.
   In the afternoon I mixed more flour, dry milk and yeast and sprinkled it over the sponge. After letting it rest an hour, I added the butter and mashed sweet potatoes. With my Kitchen Aid mixer and dough hook, I kneaded it for 7-10 as the recipe called for. The dough was still very wet, almost like batter so I added more flour. Knead 1 minute. Still too wet, more flour. Knead 1 minute. Still too wet, more flour. Knead 1 minute. After what I thought was too much flour, I just dumped the orange goo into a greased glass bowl to be done with it. I was certain I had done something wrong....perhaps baking the potatoes too long and they were too soft? I don't know.
   The goo doubled in size within an hour and firmed up just a little. I added a bit more flour and gave it one last punch down before seperating it into 2 loaf pans. I covered it with plastic wrap and let it rise over night. This morning, it was all over everywhere. The oventop was covered in orange dough that had spilled over out of the loaf pans. What a mess to deal with at 6 am. (Dough is not fun to clean up) I preheated the oven to 475 with a baking stone in it. After my shower, I set the loaf pans in the oven on the piping hot baking stone and let the bread form a crisp outside. Five minutes later, I turned the oven down to 375 and finished baking the bread for 20 minutes.
   The loaves looked a little pathetic and I thought they wouldn't be cooked all the way in the middle because of how moist the dough had been. Much to my surprise, when we sliced a loaf to taste, perfection inside. The bread had an orange tint, but didn't really taste like sweet potato at all. The texture was dead on though - moist and chewy. My bread fans at work gave it a thumb's up.
   Baker's note: I would half the salt ingredient and sub sugar for the other half, just to give it a touch of sweetness. It seemed a tiny bit salty to me. Other than that, I'll make it again, the same way.