bread « The Sprout and The Bean Catering

August 4, 2010

Anadama Bread, Two Ways

Filed under: bread — saehee @ 8:35 pm

SAM_0619

SAM_0612

I recently saw a post on Simply Recipes for anadama bread. I’ve only had anadama bread once in Cambridge with Saeyoung at an adorable breakfast place called The Friendly Toast. The Simply Recipes post made me miss baking bread. Baking bread is a labor of love since you can easily buy an excellent loaf of bread for under $3. Yeast-risen breads are so romantic. I love that you have to feed yeast, that you have to shock it into life with warm water, that it makes flour bubble and expand.

This morning we had a Les Figues meeting and I baked to loaves of anadama bread to bring with me, one with cinnamon and raisins and one that was plain. The combination of molasses and cornmeal is really wonderful in this bread. I adapted the recipe by replacing about 2 tablespoons of molasses for honey just to give it an extra sweetness.

The bread was deliciously tender with a very elastic crumb. I’m so excited for this bread! I want to make another batch, maybe with a cinnamon sugar swirl.

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January 28, 2010

Biscuits with Honey Butter

Filed under: bread, breakfast — saehee @ 10:45 am

Morning comforts.

This is a James Beard On Bread Recipe. That James…he sure is good.

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons of butter

1 1/4 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

* I halved the recipe to make 7 biscuits

1. preheat oven to 450

2. sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt

3. melt butter and set aside

4. add about 1 1/4 cup of heavy cream to the flour until the dough holds together but isn’t too sticky. Use the reserved 1/4 cup heavy cream if necessary

5. on a lightly floured surface form the dough into a disc about 3/4 inch thick

6. use a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits. you will have to re-form the dough a few times after cutting out a few rounds to maximize the dough

7. brush the tops with the melted butter

8. bake for 10-15 minutes

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January 24, 2010

Carrot Currant Bread

Filed under: bread — saehee @ 11:43 pm

Add this to the list of things I adore

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January 21, 2010

Peanut Butter & Jelly Bread

Filed under: bread — saehee @ 11:50 am

A continuation of my new found love of bread baking. I made 2 peanut butter & jelly loaf : one for Nancy for being kind enough to drive me to the airport and one for Marcus and his students.

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January 2, 2010

No-Knead Bread

Filed under: bake, bread — saehee @ 2:48 am

Friends, I might give up baking sweets altogether. My new love is bread. I want to make potato rosemary bread, and pizza dough, and baguettes, and brioche, and ciabatta, and raisin bread, and roasted garlic bread.

I want bowls of rising dough covered in cheese cloth in every corner of my apartment. Warm bread every morning with honey and bananas and matcha green tea.

Right now, bread is pretty much as exciting as it gets. This bread bakes in an enamel cast iron pot in the oven. The pot sings when the bread is baking. It sings!

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December 30, 2009

Olive & Fig Fougasse

Filed under: Uncategorized, bake, bread, cook books — saehee @ 1:25 am

The Rolniks very kindly gave me a book on Provencal cooking for Christmas this year. I was immediately excited about the recipe for a basic fougasse dough. Yeasted breads are fascinating to me. Amazing how dough grows and expands and doubles in size given the right temperature and a certain amount of time.

I don’t think I like bread machines. They seem like the kind of gadget that we’ll look back on in 50 years and laugh about as completely ridiculous and unnecessary, kind of like the fat jiggling work out belts that jostle the excess weight off of while the lazy person is stationary and doing something equally stupid like eating a donut (actually, I love donuts). These things exist right? Am I making this up?

And besides, isn’t it thrilling to check on dough every 30 minutes, see it grow up and out and press up against its bowl? Kneading can be fun, but mostly just makes my arms feel gelatinous. Maybe if I feel like I need exercise, I will knead bread instead.

For my first fougasse attempt I made 2 olive loaves and 2 fig loaves. Not a terrible first attempt but definitely could use some refining. My bread felt suspiciously dense. I suspect that bread making is something that takes practice. And I’m excited for the practice. I can feel a new hobby starting to form. Baking bread made me feel warm and happy and gave my hands something to do. I immediately went out and bought Jim Lahey’s “My Bread”, which I’ve heard so much about. Currently two boules are yeasting in their 9th hour.

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December 11, 2009

Persimmon Bourbon Bread

Filed under: bread, fruit, loaf cakes — saehee @ 10:52 am

Wonderful Nikki Darling has a persimmon tree and invited me to pick from it the other day. Amazing–picking fruit from trees. It was elating! I might quit writing altogether and wander the world, picking fruit where I can find it. They were so ripe that a tug too hard and they’d just explode jam everywhere. I took quite a few due to Nikki’s generosity and made a ton of persimmon bourbon bread. The key ingredient in this bread is maple syrup—also the bourbon, obviously.

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October 28, 2009

Bourbon Pecan Banana Bread

Filed under: baked goods, bananas, bread, breakfast, catering — saehee @ 3:35 pm

a variation on the banana bread I made over the weekend. I replaced the rum with bourbon (smells phenomenal), used 1/4 cup less of banana and replaced it with 1/4 cup sour cream. Also I used regular granulated sugar instead of brown sugar and added 2 tablespoons of maple syrup.

oh! and mini loaves!

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October 24, 2009

Rum Pecan Banana Bread

Filed under: baked goods, bananas, bread, breakfast — saehee @ 3:57 pm

Banana bread is one of those things that are incredibly adaptable, baker friendly, and almost fool-proof. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a truly bad banana bread.

This recipe is exceptionally easy–one mixing bowl. And feel free to add in any interesting mix ins according to your preferences. You can easily switch out the rum for bourbon and the pecans for walnuts. Add dried cranberries, or golden raisins, or even dried cherries. Consider this recipe a template and start experimenting, it’s that forgiving.

Ingredients

1 ripe large bananas

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

1/3 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons of rum

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup chopped pecans

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup light brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. preheat oven to 350, grease and flour a parchment lined loaf pan

2. mash the ripe bananas

3. add melted butter and mix until the butter is absorbed into the bananas

4. mix in rum, vanilla, egg and brown sugar

5. add cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt

6. gradually fold in the flour

7. pour into a loaf pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes

8. let cool in pan for 10 minutes and then invert

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