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I spent Sunday afternoon baking, a perfect occupation for rainy, cool weather. I baked a new pumpkin bread recipe, “Pumpkin Maple Loaf,” which appeared in the November 2018 issue of Cooking Light that I bought last year to help get me through the holidays on a low-saturated fat diet. (Note: you can find the recipe online by googling the title and Cooking Light). I didn’t find the issue that helpful, but I had marked this pumpkin bread recipe—What’s not to like about maple?--and decided to bake it today. I hadn’t been sure about the flour content, so I did some googling, hoping to find reviews. I didn’t find any, but various bloggers had baked it. I also found a different recipe, from a Canadian blogger at Kitchen Heals Soul, and while I saw no reason to prefer her recipe, I liked the idea of sprinkling maple sugar on top of the bread and not roasting the pumpkin seeds. I made a few other changes to the Cooking Light recipe. I added ¼ cup powdered milk and 3 Tbs. flax meal and used ¼ tsp. salt in place of the Kosher salt. I deleted all spices except for 1 tsp. cinnamon, and I also deleted the vanilla and added ¼ tsp. maple extract, because if I’m using maple syrup, I want to taste it! I’m saving the last of my dark maple syrup for other purposes, so I use a lighter one. Instead of a 9x5 inch pan, I used a Kaiser pan that is longer and narrower. (That idea was inspired by a recent KAF blog post.) I sprinkled about 1 ½ Tbs. maple sugar on top, then not quite 2 tbs. pumpkin seeds. It baked for 55 minutes. I let it sit for 10 minutes, then turned it out by putting a piece of waxed paper over my left hand in the baking glove and using my gloved right hand to tip it out sideways, before righting it on the rack. Most of the topping stayed put!
While my pumpkin-maple bread was baking, I mixed up a recipe of my cornmeal seeded crispbread. It bakes at the same temperature, so when the bread came out, that baking sheet went in.
For Friday’s dinner, I made a red cabbage slaw/salad, using Deb Perelman’s Buttermilk salad dressing recipe that I used a couple of weeks ago. The small red cabbage came from the farmers market. I think that dressing needs something. I made a half recipe and increased the sugar by ½ tsp., and I added ¼ tsp. celery seed and some pepper, but it seems slightly bland.
I also made applesauce, using some “seconds” from the farmers market. It was a different variety from what I used when I made some a few weeks ago, but they too made good applesauce. I’ll try to get some more seconds tomorrow. I also made that roasted fingerling potatoes recipe again.
My husband cooked boneless pork ribs (nothing fancy, just dry in the nonstick pan) to accompany the meal. We were both noting how much easier it is now for the two of us to work in the redesigned kitchen.
I baked a new recipe on Thursday, “Light-As-Air Seed Bread,” which is on the KAF site and was also featured in the August catalog in a doubled version for the long Emile Henry Baker, which I have and like to use. I made a few changes. I substituted in 1 cup of white whole wheat flour for that much bread flour. I substituted in 1 ½ cups buttermilk for that much of the water. I reduced the salt to 1 ¾ tsp.
I used active yeast, so I proofed it with a pinch of sugar, before adding the buttermilk and the semolina, white whole wheat flour, and about half the bread flour. I mixed it, then gave it a fifteen-minute rest. I mixed in the rest of the flour with the salt, then mixed in the olive oil. Once all was combined, I switched to the bread hook, and because the dough was a little dry, I added 1 Tbs. water. II kneaded on speed 2 for 4 minutes and had a lovely windowpane.
The dough rose for an hour to double, then I turned it out, formed a rough oval, covered it, and let it rest 5 minutes. I shaped it into a log, then placed it in my greased—and liberally sprinkled with farina—Emile Henry long baker, covered with the top and let rise for 45-minutes. (I checked it at 35, and it needed longer.) I slashed, spritzed with water, then sprinkled with a mixture of 1 Tbs. sunflower seeds and 1 tsp. each sesame seed and chia seed. Next time, I will sprinkle on the sesame seed and chia seed after sprinkling on the sunflower seed. (KAF uses one of its blends, but I want a bread that will work for a variety of sandwiches this time, or I might have tried my free sample of their Bagel Blend.)
I started in a cold oven, as specified. My oven took 18 minutes to reach 425F. When I took the cover off at 35 minutes, as specified, that was too soon. After 5 minutes, the bread was only at 145F. I let it go another 10, and it was 174. After an additional 4 minutes, with temperature reduced to 400F, the bread was over 200F. The bread browned nicely, but the seeds on the top are somewhat burned. This recipe depends on how long it takes the oven to come to temperature. Next time I bake it, I would leave the bread covered for at least 40 minutes before uncovering it.
Otherwise, it is a lovely loaf. I'll post tomorrow about taste and texture.
Happy (Belated) Birthday Mike!!
I don't post very often but do read almost daily. I wanted to make sure I wished you a Happy Birthday and to say thank you for all you do! Your Texas Sheet Cake sounds wonderful and it's on my list of recipes to try one of these days... 🙂
Buttermilk Sourdough Bread submitted by PaddyL to the Baking Circle
This is an edited version of Wharrison's Buttermilk Sourdough Bread. The full recipe, with his notes, can be found under Members' Recipes, Wharrison. This is my version, with my little changes, but the original idea is the same.
3 cups buttermilk
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. active dry yeast (If you're using instant yeast, just 2 tsps. should do.)
1/4 cup honey
In the morning, mix all the ingredients in a large bowl and cover. (I had one of those big glass jars you see in cafes with biscotti in them, so I used that and didn't have any spill-over problems, but you could use a large bowl.) This is really active so will have to be stirred down several times during the day. It gets quite exciting, watching it rise then stirring it down only to have it rise again. In the evening, put the whole mess into a least a 2-1/2 quart container with a slightly loose-fitting top and put it into the fridge. If you're worried about spill-overs, put a plate underneath it. For the first few days, you may or may not have to stir it down. By the 4th or 5th day it should have levellod off. A couple of days later, say the 7th, you can use it to make the bread. I keep it in an empty plastic 2 litre ice cream container, with the lid on, and I've written "Brigid" on the lid, because that's what I called her and I'll always know that's my buttermilk starter.
I named her "Brigid" because I first mixed her up on St. Patrick's Day, 2008.
To make the bread, you must mix a primary batter the night before you plan to bake. Put the entire starter into a large bowl, and add 2 cups of buttermilk and 2 cups of flour, mix it well, cover with plastic wrap, and put it in a warm place (I use the top of the fridge for this.), on a counter out of drafts is fine, overnight.
In the morning, or whenever you can get to it the next day, take 2 generous cups of the primary batter and put them into a large bowl, returning the rest to a container to put back into the fridge.
2 cups sourdough starter (from the primary batter as above)
3 cups milk (I use reconstituted dry skim milk powder.)
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (I use vegetable oil.)
1/2 cup honey (or 1/3 or even less. I have used maple syrup when I found myself out of honey, and you can't taste the difference.)
4 tsps. salt
2 tsps. instant yeast
10 to 12 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I have used bleached flour with no apparent difference in either mixing or texture.)
Put the 2 cups of starter in a large bowl, and put the rest back into the fridge. Add the milk, lukewarm, the butter or oil, the honey, and the salt. Mix instant yeast with a cup of the flour and add that, followed by the rest of the flour, or as much as you can work in, beating well until you have a shaggy mess. Tip it out onto your work surface and knead it till smooth and elastic. Once I've got it all together in a less shaggy mass, I put the bowl over it and give it, and myself, up to 30 minutes rest. Go back to the dough, pick it up and slam it down on the work surface a couple of times, and you'll find the rest of the kneading much easier. Since it's such a massive amount of dough, you should give it, all told, about 12 minutes of kneading, but you can let it rest from time to time. Then plunk it in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise till double, up to a a couple of hours. Punch it down, knead it a bit, cut and shape it into however many loaves you would like, or rolls , or cinnamon buns. Put it in the greased pans, cover, and let rise till double, about an hour, depending on how warm your kitchen is.
Preheat the oven to 350 deg.F. and bake your fully risen dough for about 40 minutes for loaves, half that for rolls.
Variation:
After adding the above ingredients to the starter, and while it's still batter-y rather than dough-y, I take out a good four cups and place them in another large bowl, then stir about 1-1/2 cups, plumped, dark and light raisins, sometimes some pumpkin seeds, into one of the bowls of batter. Cover the bowl and work on the other half till it's ready to be put to rise, then go back to the raisiny bowl and work on that one. You have two bowls of dough rising. When it has risen.....
I shape the plain dough into rolls, or loaves. For the raisin bread, I divide that dough in two, roll each out, brush lightly with water, sprinkle on a cinnamon/sugar mix, then roll it up and put it into greased pans.
