Recipe - Quick Walnut Bread

This recipe is by Martha Rose Shulman -- martha-rose-shulman.com

This savory quick bread is easy to make and versatile. Try it lightly toasted for breakfast or tea, or drizzled with a little honey. You may also slice it thin and serve it with cheese.

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
3 tblsp olive oil
3 tblsp walnut oil
1 cup (3 oz) chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Move the rack to the center of the oven. Butter or oil a loaf pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Whisk in the buttermilk or yogurt and the oils. Quickly whisk in the flour, and fold in the walnuts. Scrape into the bread pan.

3. Bake 50 minutes to one hour, until nicely browned and a tester comes out clean. Remove from the heat, allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Then reverse onto a rack and allow to cool.

Yield: one loaf
Advanced preparation: This bread will keep for a couple of days wrapped airtight. It freezes well.

My note: I'll probably make this in the next day or two, but first need to get some buttermilk or yogurt from the store. I don't have walnut oil, so will probably just use safflower oil since I have it on hand. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy Baking!

Zucchini Bread Results

The zucchini bread turned out really well. It is extremely moist, almost like spoonbread, and I think that's due to the large amount of shredded zucchini in the mix. The walnuts were a nice touch. When you think of how moist it is, while it's cooking, and when it's done, you may think that it will be too doughy, but it isn't. I did let it bake for 60 minutes. I checked it with a toothpick inserted into the center after 50 minutes, but it needed just another little bit longer to get completely baked. And then at 60 minutes, the toothpick did come out clean. The sugar coating from the loaf pan adds a nice touch, and makes the crust a little chewy/crunchy, and a nice brown color. I did let it sit a while in the loaf pan before taking it out so it would set up a little, and it came out of the pan easily. And then let it cool on a wire rack. And the sweetness in the bread is not overpowering, like the recipes you sometimes run across when making a quick bread.

OK - enough of the critique for today. Hope you all enjoy this recipe. I'm on to bigger and better things for the day.

Zucchini Bread

This recipe is by Ashley Christensen http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/zucchini-bread/

Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour - I used a mix of white and wheat flours
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup canola oil - I used safflower oil since that was all I had
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 lb zucchini, coarsely shredded

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter an 8 1/2-by-4 inch loaf pan and coat it with sugar. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In a medium bowl, whisk the canola oil with the eggs, sugar and vanilla. Add the shredded zucchini. Stir the zucchini batter into the dry ingredients.

2. Pour the zucchini bread batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the zucchini bread cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

I also added about a cup of chopped walnuts to the batter.

I'm making this as I write this post. I'm baking it in a cast iron bread pan. I'll let you know later how it turns out, and if I had any unforeseen problems, etc.

Happy Baking!

Easy No Knead Bread

Taken from the book A Family Raised on Sunshine by Beverly Nye pg. 54

Makes 4 large 9 x 5 loaves or 7 small loaves

In a large bowl, pour 5 cups warm water. Add 2 pkgs. dry yeast.

When yeast is dissolved, add:

8 tbsp sugar or honey
8 tbsp shortening
8 tsp salt
6 cups flour

Beat on high speed for 3 minutes, with a mixer.

Add:

6 more cups flour

Stir in with spoon. Let rise. Spoon into pans. Let rise again. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes in large pans, 30 minutes in small. Take from pans immediately, brush with butter, and let cool on racks.

Sourdough Bread Recipe

OK -- here is the bread recipe for the sourdough sponge that I wrote about yesterday. Unlike most sourdough sponges, you do use all of the sponge in this recipe for the bread.

So, take your fermented sponge and stir it down, then add 3 cups of flour (white or wheat or a mix) -- add 1 cup at a time until it all comes together being careful not to add too much flour and make the dough too stiff & dry. You can use a KitchenAid mixer to mix and knead the dough if you like. You would knead with the dough hook until the dough forms a ball on the hook, and is no longer very sticky. If you knead by hand, add enough flour so that it is no longer sticky, and when pinched a little, the dough feels like an earlobe. You'd knead by hand for about 10 minutes.

Grease a wooden, glass, or stoneware bowl, put the dough in, then turn over the dough so that the greased side is up. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and/or with a towel. If you like, while you're kneading the dough, turn your oven on to 150 degrees and let it warm. Place the bowl with the dough into the oven and leave the oven at 150 degrees, also, you can place a shallow pan of water in the warmed oven to aid in the dough rising. Let the dough rise about 60 to 90 minutes until double in size. Punch down, and divide the dough into two 8 x 4 inch bread pans (cast iron bread pans work great), cover with a towel and return to the warm oven. Let rise until double, which will take about 60 minutes.

Take the bread pans out of the oven as well as the shallow pan of water if using, and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. You can leave the dough loaves as is, or you can take a very sharp knife and make 3 shallow diagonal slices on the top of the loaves so that the tops don't crack while baking. This is just optional. Place the bread into the oven when it is heated up, close the door of the oven, wait 15 seconds, open the oven door and spritz a little water onto the floor of the oven, close the door, wait 30 seconds and repeat with another spritz of water. This will give the crust a texture of French bread when finished baking. Bake the bread for about 35 to 40 minutes, checking at about that time to see if it's done. Rap on the loaves and if they sound hollow and are browned, then they are done. Remove bread from pans immediately, and place on a rack for cooling, and cover with a towel.

Hopefully soon I'll get my digital camera up and rolling and be able to post some pix of when I make this bread and other recipes.

Happy Bread Making!

Sourdough Starter and recipe

Here is a sourdough starter recipe that I have tweaked for my own uses. Tomorrow I will give the sourdough bread recipe.

2 Cups warm water
1 tbsp dry active yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
3 Cups flour (white or wheat or a mix of both)

Before putting the 2 C of water in the bowl, let the bowl fill a little with very warm water, and fill up your measuring cup with warm water and let sit for a few minutes. This will allow the 2 C of warm water for the mix to not cool down too much.

OK - measure your 2 C of warm water into the empty bowl, put in the tbsp of yeast, and the tbsp of sugar. Let sit for 5 to 7 minutes until the yeast activates and becomes foamy.

In another bowl, whisk together the 1 tbsp of salt and the 3 C of flour. Then put the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and whisk together into a sponge. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a towel and sit it in a warm area of your home to sour. Alternatively you can put the sponge in a large jar, place a piece of cheese cloth or an old t-shirt rag overtop and secure with a rubber band or canning jar band. This will allow air to get to it to ferment. Let the sponge sit for 24 hours or up to 5 days to sour. Each day stir the sponge down, as liquid will normally form on top, and a thick flour/water mix on the bottom.

Tomorrow I'll continue with the bread recipe you can use the sponge for.

Happy Baking.