Kitchen Notes: Yeast, Part II

The type of bread yeast used depends marginally on the type of breads you are making and how controlled the environment is for bread making (bread machine vs oven). If you're not an avid baker, you are not going to know the difference between the types of yeast nor should you (there really is no difference, unless you need the yeast to ferment faster in a shorter span of time). Is it a noticeable difference in taste? Hmm, that'd be like comparing the taste differences in same flavor carbonated water of different brands where the mineral ratio of different water sources and final product pH are what makes the taste difference.

Did you know that the company that makes SAF also makes Red Star?

Types of Bread Yeast

• Active Dry Yeast (what I use in all these recipes) - requires warm water to activate
• Instant Yeast - does not need to be proofed before using; also known as Fast-Rising, Rapid-Rise, Quick Rise, or Bread Machine Yeast
• Fresh Yeast (this is exceptionally hard to find in the US) - same organism as the active dry or instant yeast and packaged in small bars or cake form; short shelf life
• Osmotolerant Yeast - specific to sweet doughs, such as cinnamon rolls, danishes, or brioche rolls; SAF Gold Instant Yeast

What about Nutritional Yeast? Well sorry, you can't use it like the aforementioned bread yeasts. This yeast is for eating. It's high in B-vitamins and is sometimes used as a flavor replacement for dairy cheese in some vegan recipes. It brings a savory taste to some dishes, such as popcorn-style (breaded and deep fried) cauliflower florets.

Brands of Yeast Commonly Found in the US:

• Red Star
• SAF
• Fleischmann's (typically in 3-pouch packets and 4-oz jars)

Additives in Yeast (and what they do):

• alpha-amylase (food enzyme that helps in processing starch)
• ascorbic acid (weakens the gluten in longer fermented breads, helps the dough relax and increases a faster rise); you'll know if a miller has added it to the flour because it'll be listed on the ingredient label (required by law)
• calcium sulphate (yeast food; also, this is Plaster of Paris)
• sorbitan monostearate (abbreviation SMS), or Span 60, is an emulsifier esterified from sorbitol and stearic acid with the European food additive

Examples of Yeast with Additives:

• SAF Red Instant Yeast: Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), sorbitan monostearate, ascorbic acid
• Hovis Yeast: Dried Yeast (92%),Stabiliser (Calcium Sulphate),Emulsifier (Sorbitan Monostearate),Flour Treatment Agents (Ascorbic Acid, Enzyme (Alpha Amylase)
• Red Star Organic Instant Dry Yeast: Organic Yeast, Ascorbic Acid. Contains: wheat
• SAF Gold Label instant yeast: Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), sorbitan monostearate, ascorbic acid

Uses:

• SAF Gold Instant Yeast for doughs with 10% or more by weight added sugar
• SAF Red Instant Yeast or Red Star Instant Dry Yeast for regular "lean" breads, less than 5% sugar
• Fresh yeast for a long, slow rising time

Alternatives to Commercial Bread Yeast:

• Barm, a beer-making byproduct from the 1st or 2nd fermentation stage that's usually tossed by the brewer; used extensively in pre-19th century cooking; learn how to do this at The Fresh Loaf, My Love of Baking, or Joe Pastry
• Wild Yeast, probably not going to happen in an urban environment or if you live in a downtown metropolitan area; useful in making a brewing starter, sourdough starter, or homemade natural sodas
• Make a wild yeast starter using juniper berries
• Fruits with wild yeast: juniper berries, elderberries, wild grapes, blueberries, figs, Oregon grape berries
• Substitution: per 1 tsp yeast = 0.5 tsp lemon juice and 0.5 tsp baking soda -- this produces a chemical reaction (carbon dioxide) in the dough that causes the bread to rise. You can use this in sweet breads (not offals) such as banana bread or a quick bread.

Kitchen Notes: Yeast, Part I - Active Dry Yeast

You may have noticed this year that not only did 5, 10, and 20 lb bags of all purpose flour (white and wheat, bleached and unbleached) flew off the grocery store, restaurant grocery outlet, and big box store shelves (e.g., Walmart, Costco), but also all types of bread yeast all but disappeared in the last three months. The last time I saw a brick of Red Star Yeast (active dry) at Costco was back in March. It reappeared briefly on Costco.com in late August this year, but has since then disappeared and never actually showed up on the shelves at my local Costco. Forget supermarkets, they have been out of yeast for months. I guess people are just going to be stuck with non-yeast recipes to use with all that flour. It isn't a bad thing. Recipes such as pancakes, crepes, scones, crackers, some flatbreads (spring onion pancakes), tortillas, cookies, etc., don't use yeast at all.

A reasonably priced 1.5 lb to 2.0 lb brick should cost you roughly $5 at Costco (versus $7-10 for that 4-oz jar at the grocery store), or between $7-10/brick at an online retailer who sells to consumers, such as King Arthur Flour; though, you might not appreciate the minimum $69 order at KAF to qualify for free shipping. And, forget about ordering via Amazon. Who knows how old that stuff is or how it was stored.

Stop buying those 3-pocket packages and 4 oz jars of yeast from the grocery store. If you bake a lot of yeasted items (or brew a lot of ginger beer), you're better off cost-wise to buy a yeast brick. It's called a brick because of how the yeast is packaged. It's vacuum sealed and has a dry shelf life of 2 years.. or longer after you open it if you do the following:

• store in a freezer-safe freezer jar in the freezer (bring up to room temp before using)
• store in a glass jar in the refrigerator, use as needed

I am still using active dry yeast that I bought that had originally expired (according to its manufacturing label) in 2016. But, while I'm an avid baker, I do not make yeasted bread items on a regular basis.

You might have noticed that hardly anyone touched the gluten-free flours or already made gluten-free breads at both the grocery and big box supermarkets, or the bulk retailers. That is probably because all that gluten-free nonsense is just that.. marketing nonsense. Though, it's estimated that there are 18 million Americans with gluten sensitivity.

Apricot Oatcakes

Makes: 8 oatcakes

Ingredients

3 c old-fashioned rolled oats
2 c all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg white
1/3 c plain yogurt
1/2 c sugar
12 c honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c dried apricots, chopped
1/4 c roasted nuts, chopped (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 F

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Pulse oats in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Add flour, baking powder, and pulse to combine.

In a bowl, whisk egg white until frothy, then add yogurt, sugar, honey, and vanilla extract.

Add oat mixture to wet ingredients. Add apricots and/or optional nuts.

Divide into 8 portions. Roll into balls and flatten slightly on the baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy warm or cold.

Tapioca Pudding

This recipe ratio comes from Bob's Red Mill and the pudding has a really fluffy texture; of course, this is from beating the egg whites. I would post a pic but it's just a vanilla pudding with tapioca in it.

Makes 6 (1 cup) servings

Ingredients

1/3 c small pearl tapioca, soaked in 3/4 c water for 30 minutes
2 1/4 c whole milk
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 c sugar, divided
2 eggs, separated
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Soak tapioca in water in a saucepan that can hold at least 2 quarts. Don't drain any remaining water.

Add milk, salt, 1/4 c sugar, and stir frequently over medium heat until boilings. Then simmer over very low heat for 10-15 minutes.

In a small dish, beat the egg yolks. Temper the egg yolks by gradually adding some (maybe a tablespoon?) of the tapioca mixture to the yolks and stirring before adding the egg yolks+tapioca to the pot. Whisk together This is what gives the pudding its yellow-ish color.

As it is cooking over very low heat, beat the egg whites in a separate bowl with 1/4 c sugar until soft peaks form.

Once the tapioca has thickened, turn off the heat (momentarily). Stir or whisk in the beaten egg whites, about 1/4 cup at a time until it is well combined.

Turn heat back on to a low setting and cook for 3 minutes.

Remove from heat. Whisk in vanilla extract. Let cool before eating.

Kitchen Notes: Sourdough Starter

Part of the reason to make your own is so that you don't buy the cup of refrigerated starter from some (un)known company at the grocery store for what amounts to a lot of time and an inexpensive amount of flour. I probably should have started this in say.. summer, when the ambient temperature of my kitchen was in the 70s. Alas, I suppose it'll take longer than the week proposed by King Arthur Flour. They have a non-refrigerator/non-freezer method of preserving your starter too. Which, by the looks of it, reads like it is better than the valuable storage space in the refrigerator/freezer...basically you take the finished sourdough starter as if you were going to use it and dry it out at room temp across several days on parchment paper, then store the dried starter in an airtight container.

Anyhow. Back to the starter. I am not reposting KAF's instructions, but I am going to detail what I am doing with this attempt. Previous tries at sourdough breads have resulted in my killing the starter after I used a portion of it to bake a sourdough bread. It feels bad to waste food ingredients; but alas, you can use discarded starter in a number of recipes that call for bread dough: pizza crust, pretzels, etc.

Day 1, Jar 1:
1/2 c dark rye flour + 1/2 c warm water

Day 2, Jar 1:
Half removed, added 1 scant cup AP flour + 1/2 c warm water

Day 2. Jar 2 (essentially, now I have two Jar 1s):
Jar1 Discard + 1 scant cup AP flour + 1/2 c warm water

Day 3, Jar 1 & Jar 2:
Half removed from each jar and placed in Jar 3 (which will be refrigerated for later use)

and so on, so far, I am only on Day 2.

Quick Hamburger Buns

Made this to go with the pulled pork. Don't let the dough rise. That's all I have to say. Although, it'll rise somewhat after shaping the buns as the oven heats up to temperature. The first batch, I have no idea what happened. It turned into some lumpy, soupy mess. But the second time around, the dough came together just fine. The order of operations certainly is a factor here. Onto the recipe...

From mixing to kneading to forming into buns to baking, the prep takes less than an hour.

TheFoodening Blog - hamburger buns

Makes: 7 buns (at 4 oz to 4.25 oz raw dough)

Ingredients

1 c warm water
2 tbsp active dry yeast
1 large egg
1/3 c olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp + 1 tsp organic granulated sugar
3 cups all purpose flour + more for kneading
(optional) 1 egg + 2 tbsp water, for brushing tops of buns

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, add yeast to warm water plus 1 tsp sugar. If the yeast does nothing within 10 minutes (e.g., does not foam or make bubbles), toss it out and try again with fresher yeast.

Add the oil, sugar, and salt. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.

Whisk in the egg.

One cup at a time, whisk in three cups of flour. By now the dough should be a little runny but smooth. Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead until it isn't sticky any more.

At this point between flouring the board and kneading, I may have added up to a cup more flour.

If you don't have a kitchen scale, divide the dough into six equal pieces. If you do have a scale, make 4 oz balls of dough. Place buns a couple inches apart on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Brush tops of buns with egg wash.

Bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Note: if you divide the dough into 12 pieces, you'll be making buns large enough for sliders

Note2: It would appear this is the second time I've written this recipe up. Although, the buns came out really good and not small like what happened before.. 

Quick Buns for Sliders or Burgers

An hour or so before dinner, your friend says that he feels like grilling hamburgers but has neither hamburger buns nor tomatoes. Thanks to GirlVsDough, a beautifully warm day, and the first recipe title I stumbled upon with a quick Google search, I made these in just under an hour.

TheFoodening Blog - Hamburger Buns

I used a digital kitchen scale to divide the dough. The total mass was roughly 2 lbs, and divided by 12 would have yielded 2.67 oz per ball of dough. As laziness would prevail, some balls of dough were 2.5 oz while others were 2 oz 7/8 oz. The smaller balls could pass for slider buns, and the larger balls were just about the right size for a grilled average hamburger patty. I also didn't have any milk on hand so I watered down some heavy cream instead.

Note: if you do a lot of bread baking, I recommend picking up the 2 lb block of yeast from Costco. At roughly $4, it really brings down the cost of making bread. Plus, you can store 8 oz of it in the freezer in a freezer jar and some in a pint jar in the refrigerator. 

Ingredients

3 1/2 c all purpose flour, plus more for dusting/kneading
2 tbsp active dry yeast + 1 cup warm water (115 F)
1/4 c sugar
1/3 c olive oil, or neutral smelling vegetable oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp sea salt
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)

Egg wash (for making buns golden brown):

1 egg yolk
1 tbsp heavy cream
1 tbsp water

-or-

1 egg yolk
2 tbsp whole milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

1. In a 2-cup measuring cup, dissolve yeast in warm water, then add the sugar.

2. In a large mixing bowl, egg, salt and oil. Whisk together. Add yeast water. Add flour.

3. With a wooden spoon, stir to combine.

4. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes. Weigh dough and divide equally by what you want to make:

3 oz = medium sized hamburger bun
2.5 oz = slider sized bun
If you chose the latter, one batch of dough will make 12 slider buns.

TheFoodening Blog - A classic hamburger with grilled bacon

5. Form balls of dough. To make a smooth surface on one side of the ball, bring all the odd edges of the dough to the center and pinch it together. Place folded side down onto parchment paper or a silicone mat. Let rest for 10 minutes. I didn't cover these and it didn't seem to matter. Also, my oven takes 10 minutes to heat up to 425 F.

5.1. If you are using an egg wash to make the buns a nice golden brown color, brush the egg wash onto the buns using a pastry brush.

6. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack.

7. To use, simply slice each bun in half with a serrated knife (e.g., a bread knife).

Blueberry Lemon Bread

Cloudy weather is perfect for sipping hot tea. What makes this even better? A slice of cake. I'm not sure what the difference is between cake and this particular recipe other than the lack of frosting. I feel like I should eat another slice, but I will finish writing this post. 

I am down to my last quart of frozen blueberries; picked last summer at Majestic Farms. Fortunately, blueberry picking season is just around the corner. The berries themselves are very sweet and I could have reduced the sugar in the recipe. If you are using frozen berries, thaw them in a measuring cup. 1.5 cups of frozen berries turns into 1 cup of thawed berries. Alas, onto the recipe..

A slice of almost perfection: blueberry lemon bread

Ingredients

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 c organic granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 eggs
1/2 c almond milk (or regular cow's milk)
zest of one lemon
6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 c fresh or thawed blueberries

Streusel Topping

3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp organic granulated sugar
1/3 c all purpose flour
1/4 c (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 F.

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, and lemon zest.

2. Add eggs, milk and butter and stir together until well combined.

3. If you are using thawed blueberries, transfer just the blueberries (not the liquid) to the batter and gently fold it in until all the blueberries are covered.

To make the streusel topping, whirl topping ingredients together in a food processor.

4. Butter a loaf pan and fill with batter. Evenly top the batter with the streusel.

5. Bake for 1 hr and 15 minutes. The topping will be crispy and golden brown.

New York Styled Bagels

Fresh baked bagels from a hot oven is definitely the way to go for future bagel eating. Simply, wow. The dough is airy and soft like a pillow. Its underside is a nice golden brown color and when you tear the bagel apart, it has that classic bagel-tearing-texture. How else to describe it..? I've never been to New York and I've always been skeptical of bagels sold west of New York state. The style has less to do with the ingredients in the dough than how the dough is prepared, specifically the boiling time of the bagels. This recipe was adapted from the Sophisticated Gourmet blog.

New York Style Bagels from Scratch

Ingredients

3 1/2 c all purpose unbleached wheat flour (minus 3 tbsp)
1 1/4 c warmwater (or whey), heated to 115 F
3 tbsp Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten
1 1/2 tbsp organic granulated sugar
1 tsp sea salt
plus more flour for kneading

Gluten Free Buttermilk Cornbread

The texture of this is a little grainier than say a cornbread made with wheat flour. The egg helps it stay together pretty well and it has a nice crumb texture. The amount of batter looked far too much for an 8" round cast iron skillet, so I used an 8" x 8" baking dish instead. I get my stone ground cornmeal from the Cedar Creek Grist Mill during their open house events; Bob's Red Mill or your grocery store's bulk yellow cornmeal will suffice as a substitute.

Ingredients

2 c stone ground yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 c buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten
4 tbsp raw honey
4 unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

0. Prepare an 8" x 8" baking pan by lining it with parchment paper. It is not necessary to butter the parchment.

1. Sift dry ingredients together. Set aside.

2. In a small saucepan, heat butter and honey together.  Let cool. Stir into dry ingredients.

3. In a 2-cup measure, whisk egg and then stir in buttermilk. Stir in butter and honey.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir until combined.

5. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Olive Oil and Rosemary Dinner Rolls

Seems like the amount of bread that goes into turkey stuffing is one of those "invisible" carbs. These rolls went quickly. I only made one batch (a dozen) for a T-Day gathering of twice that. While the rosemary shrub is winter hardy in the Pacific Northwest, I'm glad that the house where I made these rolls has their rosemary potted and on the patio. I used a stand mixer to bring all the ingredients together; though I didn't use it to knead the dough. Maybe that's why the dough really didn't start to double in size until the second rising. And, the rolls didn't rise again after being formed and rested on the baking tray before going into the oven. As for the amount of unsalted butter that is melted so that it can be brushed on top of the rolls, well. it is too much for what the original ratio calls for. I ended up with a lot of leftover butter. 

Also, there wasn't any bread flour so I used all-purpose flour, substituting out 3 tbsp flour for 3 tbsp vital wheat gluten. Bread flour plus yeast makes your rolls rise higher. The vital wheat gluten adds more wheat-based protein to all-purpose flour.

Ingredients

1 c warm water (about 100 degrees F)
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast + a pinch of granulated sugar

3 1/2 c all-purpose flour (minus 3 tbsp)
3 tbsp vital wheat gluten
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves, roughly chopped, divided
1/4 c unsalted butter, melted (for brushing tops of rolls)
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Directions

Personally, while dinner rolls typically don't call for sugar, I think adding a pinch of it to the yeast helps the yeast bloom faster. You'll see if your yeast is still alive if it starts to foam and bubble in the warm water.

0. Take half of the prepared rosemary and let it steep in the olive oil for at least 30 minutes.

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer: add the yeast water (after bubbles appear, 5-10 mins). Mix in the flour, half cup at a time until it is all incorporated. Add the vital wheat gluten, the oil+rosemary, and salt. Mix until the dough gathers into one mass. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula.

2. Add the other half of the rosemary and knead the dough until it forms a smooth ball. Either use the stand mixer to knead the dough for 2 minutes, or work it by hand for 10.

Empty the dough into a resealable plastic bag, close, and let it sit in a warm place in the kitchen. Let the dough double in size twice (check each hour for two hours). 

Divide dough into equal pieces. You can make a dozen small rolls with this recipe. Roll the dough into balls and place onto a baking tray. Cover with linen (lint free) kitchen towel until ready to bake.

Preheat oven to 425 F. Brush tops of rolls with the melted butter. Bake rolls for 10 minutes. This gives the rolls a nice golden brown color.

Reduce heat to 350 F and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and place in a kitchen-towel lined serving container (maybe a bread basket?).

Enjoy.

Chinese Steamed Buns (mantou)

I have apparently made this before and this version one doesn't use dried milk. The metric recipe ratio comes from the China Sichuan Food website. I'm not sure why the measurement for liquid milk was done in grams, so I used a kitchen scale and measured it out by weight. My Imperial conversion of the recipe is as follows:

Makes 8 buns

Ingredients

10 oz (by weight, roughly 2.25 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp organic granulated sugar
1/2 c whole milk, warmed to 110 degrees F
1/4 c water, warmed to 110 degrees F

Directions

1. To ensure that your yeast is still alive. Proof the yeast in warm water with 1 tsp of sugar. After 10 minutes, if the yeast is foamy then it is still active.

2. In a large bowl, add flour and stir yeast water with chopsticks to combine.

3. In a small pot, heat milk and remaining sugar until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat before the milk comes to a boil. Let cool to 110 degrees F before adding it to the flour.

4. Gently knead flour into a ball and cover bowl with a plate. Let rise for about an hour until it has doubled in size.

5. Roll dough on a silicone mat or on a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll out each half into a log and use a dough scraper to divide the log.

6. Dab a little olive oil to the bottom of each bun before placing onto a 2" square of waxed paper. This step is optional. It helps you remove the paper after the buns are steamed.

7. Bring a large stockpot with a steamer basket set inside to a boil. Add enough buns so that they are spaced at least 1/2" apart. Steam for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and enjoy.

These are best eaten right after they're cooked, otherwise the buns will get hard if left out too long.

Herbed Focaccia Bread

This year I have been making a lot of different breads. In a 4-person household, we have already gone through more than 50# of flour this year, though not all of it from my bread making experiments. This recipe ratio and process comes from the Herbfarm Cookbook. The HerbFarm is a farm-to-table restaurant on Seattle's eastside.

Herbed Focaccia Bread, fresh from the oven

Ingredients

2 cups lukewarm water (110 degrees F)
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh rosemary (two large sprigs, stems removed)
2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh sage
1 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh thume
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
4 1/2 c King Arthur bread flour, plus more if kneading by hand
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Directions


1. Add yeast to warm water and let sit for a few minutes to bloom (foam up); then add half the herb mix to it. Set aside.

2. Measure out 4.5 cups of bread flour and whisk together in a large mixing bowl with kosher salt.. Pour in yeast-herb water. From outer-to-inner, use a rubber spatula to gently combine the water and flour together. This makes a very shaggy looking dough. On a lightly floured surface, turn the dough out and knead 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. For a warm, humid day, this dough came together surprisingly easy. Roll it into a ball and put it into a clean mixing bowl. Set a large plate on top and let it rise until doubled in volume for 1.5 hours.

3. In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together olive oil and remaining herbs. After the first rise, empty the dough into the bowl with the herbs and punch down. Let rise a second time for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F with a pizza stone or tile.

4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour out blob of dough from the bowl onto the parchment paper. The herbs and oil should be on the top part of the dough. Spread out the dough so that it is rectangular or oval. Use your fingers to create dimples in the dough.

5. Transfer the dough with the parchment paper to the pizza stone and bake for 25 minutes.

6. Let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Kitchen Notes: Rosemary Sourdough Bread

What a time consuming recipe, and I'm not just talking about the sourdough starter (recipe) that I started on Monday. It still had to be mixed into a dough and risen twice, and then baked for an hour. Regardless of its appearance fresh from the oven, the bread smells so good. I want to hack into it now and slather it up with the garlic butter I melted earlier for the artichokes.

Batch #1: Rosemary Sourdough Bread,
Problem: no glossy sheen to the crust
Resolution: oven needs more moisture at 400 degrees F

You know how SF sourdough has that particular crust that kind of looks like it has this magical sheen to it? I need more moisture in the oven. Fortunately, I have procured a spray bottle for the water for the second loaf that I'll get around to attempting tomorrow.

Here's what went into this loaf:

2 c all purpose unbleached flour
1 1/2 c sourdough starter
1 tbsp vital wheat gluten (Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 fresh rosemary leaves, whole and chopped
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp olive oil (for the bowl that the bread will rise in)
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted (to brush the top of the loaf before baking)

Mix all the ingredients together except for the olive oil and butter until the dough is elastic and no longer sticks to itself, the mixer, or the bowl. In a stand mixer, this took maybe 10 minutes on a very low speed. Remove dough to an oiled bowl and cover with a plate, kitchen towels, or plastic wrap. Let rise for 1.5 to 2 hours.

While you are doing this next step, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it again, this time, shape it into a shape you want to bake it in. I was aiming for a square and got a boule (ball shaped) again. Let this rise a second time for an hour. Score the top with a sharp knife and brush on melted butter.

Baked uncovered in a Dutch oven (Emeril just uses a baking stone or heavy baking sheet) for an hour. It still needs moisture, so use a spray bottle and mist the sides of the oven and the top of the bread maybe every 20 minutes until the bread is done. You are aiming for a chewy, golden brown crust with a spongy, sour bread inside. Misting the oven can help achieve a glossy surface on the loaf.

About that sourdough starter...

I took 1.5 cups of starter out from the jar and replaced it with 1.5 cups of AP flour plus 1.5 cups of warm water (just heat the water in the microwave for 30 seconds in a glass Pyrex measuring cup, it'll be at the perfect temp for the poolish).

The previous night (Friday), I was starting to get concerned about the starter since I hadn't actually been feeding it all week. I added in 1/3 cup warm water and 1/3 cup all purpose flour. I swear my eyes and nose could not tell the difference in the before and after. The starter still had a sour-ish, almost alcoholic smell to it (that's the yeast's byproduct). Most starter recipes will tell you to refrigerate it, well, you could also leave it out on the kitchen counter in a jar covered with a kitchen cloth if it is 50 degrees F outside and damp; inside the house during the day the temp is about 65 degrees F. When you read other people's comments on this particular recipe on AllRecipes with the yeast growing at a ridiculous rate, the ambient temperature of one's kitchen is probably above 70 degrees F.

I have the notion that once the starter successfully ferments, that's when you add in more flour+water to the starter and put it in the refrigerator. As scary as it sounds, the "wild" yeast and bacteria in the starter should be strong enough to fight off any other bacteria from growing. When it can't, like the temperature just isn't kosher for the yeast anymore (like it's too hot), that's when bad things happen (turns pink, smells rotten, grows things other than yeast, etc.) and you have to throw the starter out.

Also, if you think you have a good thing going with your starter, reserve half a cup of it and freeze it. That way if your master batch ever goes wonky, dies, or someone in the household mistakenly tosses the starter, you'll still have some to grow again. You just need to thaw it for 24 hours and add more flour+warm water to it in a glass jar so that it comes alive again; and wait at least three days for it to really get itself going again, or so I've read.

Sourdough Starter Batch #1

Hopefully it'll ferment in time to make some loaves for this weekend's BBQ. This particular starter recipe doesn't make you feed it every day. This is fortunate because the slacker in me doesn't want to do that. Instead, the fermentation time is 4-8 days and you need to check the starter for signs that it is not doing well, like the entire mixture turns pink (bad sign! toss it out and start over). You only start to feed the starter once you take a cup of it out for a bread recipe.

Starter Recipe Ratio

1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
2 c all purpose unbleached flour
2 c warm water (between 105 and 110 degrees F)

Maintenance Ratio

1 c warm water
1 c all purpose unbleached flour
+ a pinch of sugar

I started the starter in a large wide-mouth glass jar and covered it with a kitchen towel secured by a rubber band. At the moment, it is sitting in a corner of the kitchen counter.

(Mock) Rosemary Sourdough Bread

Is it possible to circumvent the slow feeding cycle of a sourdough starter? This recipe method attempts a possibility by substituting some of the water in the dough with plain yogurt to give it a sour taste. Don't know if it'll actually work. So far, the dough hasn't risen nor doubled in bulk in the usual amount of time allotted to the first rise. 

To make a true sourdough bread with a sourdough starter today, I could either buy a premade starter or make one from scratch several days in advance. While milled, unbleached flour is still inexpensive (< $5 for 10#), it seems like a waste to toss half the starter after the first day. Each time the starter is fed, half is thrown out. I suppose you could also just start other starters and that would require more math and patience than I have time for this particular experiment.

I am baking this using a Dutch oven pot in an oven. This baking method seems to work well with getting a moist inside with a hard, crispy crust (without having to spray the bread with water during is baking cycle). The ingredient ratio comes from a few sources. This is my third attempt at a Dutch oven-baked bread; the first two simply did not taste salty enough. I have added a sprinkling of additional kosher salt to the part of the recipe where you roll the dough in flour before baking. In the previous loaf of rosemary bread, I couldn't taste the rosemary, so this one has a full 1/4 cup of fresh whole and chopped rosemary.

Ingredients

1 tbsp active dry yeast + 1/2 c warm water
2-4 c all-purpose unbleached flour, separated
1 tbsp vital wheat gluten flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1 tbsp raw honey
2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 c fresh rosemary leaves, mostly whole and partially chopped
2 c plain whole milk yogurt

Directions

1. Prep the yeast. Add yeast to 1/2 c warm water (110 degrees F) and let bloom for 10 minutes before adding to the flour.

2. Prep the dough. Combine 2 c flour, salt, honey, and yeast-water in a bowl and mix until well combined. Knead using a stand mixer for 8-10 minutes, or by hand, until the dough becomes smooth and elastic; incorporate up to two more cups of flour so that the dough is less runny.

3. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Turn the dough once so that all the sides of the dough become oiled. Cover with a plate or plastic wrap. Let rise for 1.5-2 hours, until doubled in bulk.

4. Sprinkle some flour and some kosher salt onto a large plate. Empty the dough out onto the plate and gently roll around until the dough is lightly covered with flour.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Let Dutch oven pot warm up as the oven heat up.

5. Remove pot from oven and place dough inside. Using a sharp knife or edge of a spatula, make decorative marks across the dough. Replace lid on Dutch oven and bake for 30 minutes covered. Then remove lid and bake for an additional 12 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Dutch Oven No-Knead Bread

If ever there was a bread dough that had a minimal amount of effort, this one is up there. The dough is a little bit harder to work with because it is very sticky. But, after an hour in the oven, I have this beautiful, rustic-looking boule. A minute in the microwave is enough to heat 1.5 cups of water to just under 110 degrees F in a Pyrex glass measuring cup. I started the dough at night and baked the bread in the morning. Makes a 1 lb 10 oz loaf.

Ingredients

3 c all-purpose flour
1 tbsp Vital-wheat gluten
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 c warm water

Directions

1. In a 5-quart mixing bowl, whisk together flour, yeast, wheat gluten and salt. Gradually pour in water and stir to combine. Be sure to get all the flour incorporated, but don't overmix. Cover mixing bowl with plastic wrap or put a plate on top of the opening. Let sit for 12 hours, or overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place cast iron pot (the dutch oven) with its lid into the oven and let the pot heat up for 20-30 minutes.

3. On a heavily floured surface (~ 1/4 c flour), turn out risen dough onto some flour and shape into a rounded mass, like a boule. Carefully add the dough to the hot pot and replace the lid. Bake for 30 minutes covered, then for an additional 10 minutes uncovered.

4. Carefully remove bread from pot and let cool on a wire rack. The bread should make a hollow sound when tapped.

Nut and Seed Bread (no sugar, no flour)

This comes out looking and tasting like a very dense, protein-rich bread. It is held together by the emulsion power of the ground flax seeds and eggs in the dough. With a food processor and seed grinder, this "bread" is really easy to prepare. You don't even need a special seed grinder to mill the flax into a flour, just use an electric coffee bean grinder. A decent one will run you about $15.

This recipe ratio comes from a Croatian food blog called Istine i laži o hrani (Google translates this as "The truth and lies about food"), which I found referenced to three generation links from its original source. I don't know what oat bran does for this recipe, but seeing how it only called for 2 tablespoons of it, I didn't see the need to make a special trip to the grocery store for it. Also, while all the seeds and nuts should be raw to start with, this batch used roasted sunflower seeds that were leftover from another meal, and sweetened shredded coconut because that's all I could find at the store.

Ingredients

1 c raw or roasted sunflower seeds
1 c raw almonds
1/2 c flax seeds, ground
1/2 c shredded unsweetened or sweetened coconut
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
4 eggs, lightly beaten
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tbsp olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 340 degrees F.

1. In a food processor, combine sunflower seeds, flax seeds, coconut, almonds, salt and cinnamon. Pulse until fine crumbs form. It's okay if the almonds don't grind all the way.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine mix wet ingredients together, then add dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

3. On a baking tray lined with a Silpat or lightly buttered parchment paper, pour out batter onto tray and gently form into a boule or oblong shape with your hands.

4. Bake for 45 minutes. When done, let cool on a wire rack before slicing.

New Orleans Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

Bam! Emeril really knows how to kick a dish up several notches. I made a 9x13 bread pudding with a half batch of the whiskey sauce and there are no leftovers. Devoured. *poof* In one evening party. Strangely enough, despite Trader Joes having a lot of different types of freshly made bread, it is all sourdough based. I wanted just a general "white" bread that didn't scream, I'm a white bread. You know? 

Ideally day-old French or Italian bread would have done it, so I picked up a loaf of shepherd's bread. Trader Joes either changed their supplier or the recipe ratio for their private label shepherd's bread. It's no longer one of those rustic-looking, mop-up-the-stew loaves of bread. It looks -and tastes- like it was mass manufactured. Anyhow. It did the trick for this bread pudding.

This recipe ratio comes from the cookbook: Emeril's Potluck (HarperCollins, 2004). The whiskey used for the sauce was Makers Mark; though, I suppose any whiskey could do or bourbon.

Already hacked into before I could photograph it.

Ingredients

3/4 loaf shepherds bread (originally 24 oz), sliced into cubes (about 14 cups)

2 c (1 pint) organic heavy cream

4 c organic whole milk

6 large eggs

1 1/2 c brown sugar

4 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 c raisins

1 tbsp unsalted butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Place bread in a large bowl. Grease a 9" x 13" baking dish with unsalted butter.

2. In another large bowl, combine cream, milk, eggs, sugar, spices, salt, and raisins. Whisk to mix. Pour this into the bread bowl. Stir to combine. You can let this sit at room temperature for 30-40 minutes or until you're ready to bake.

3. Transfer bread mixture to baking dish and bake for 50-60 minutes, until the center has set.

4. Pour some of the whiskey sauce (see below) over the top of the bread pudding. Reserve the rest in a small bowl so that guests may add more sauce if they like.

Vermont Cornbread

The ingredients that go into a state or region's traditional cornbread recipe are what sets it apart from everywhere else. In the America the Beautiful Cookbook, the Vermont version of the classic cornbread recipe includes ingredients such as buttermilk, warm bacon lard, drippings, and maple syrup. I suspect it will be a far more moist, buttery tasting cornbread than the other cornbread I typically make as a turkey stuffing component.

As far as looks goes, it looks like cornbread; though the batch I took out of the oven today is of a paler yellow than traditional cornbread and that is because I used a combination of fine white cornmeal and a medium grind yellow cornmeal to make the bread. I fried some bacon for this and let the oil cool to about 130 degrees F before adding it to the batter.

A 9" cast iron skillet can be used instead of a baking dish.

Bacon makes everything taste better, including cornbread.

Ingredients

1 c fine white cornmeal
1/2 c medium-ground yellow cornmeal
1/2 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 c buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp bacon drippings, warmed

Directions

In a bowl, mix together flour, cornmeal, buttermilk, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Drizzle in maple syrup, one lightly beaten egg, and bacon drippings. Mix until well combined.

Pour into a greased 8" x 8" baking dish and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool before serving. Cornbread should be lightly browned on top and shouldn't jiggle in the center. If it does, simply turn the oven off and let the cornbread sit in the cooling oven for an additional five minutes.