Baking Bread - Easy Oat Bread

Nope, I haven't stopped baking kneadless bread. Since we came back to San Miguel, I've made several loaves but they were from recipes that I had made before so I didn't blog about them. This last week.....a new recipe....Easy Oat Bread from Nancy Baggett's book Kneadlessly Simple. It was easy to make but you do have to do a bit of coordinating with the bread's rising schedule and your own schedule. The bread has some leeway on rising times. I end up counting backward to figure the time I need to stir the ingredients together. Right now the house is still fairly cool so I need all of the rising time but in another couple of months in San Miguel's hot season, I'm sure that I can reduce the rise times. This recipe made two nice loaves and here you can see one in the last rise and almost ready to pop in the oven.

The next time we are back in Texas, I'm going to get another oven thermometer because I think mine is just a bit off. My gas oven is well insulated and will hold a temperature but it is a little tricky to get it set right on 375 degrees or what ever it is that I need. These two loaves were just a little over-cooked. I was going by the bake time in the recipe and I should have been watching so I could take them out just a little sooner.

I had thought that the bread would have had more of an oaty taste but the only oat taste that I got was from the oats garnished on the crust. Still it made great sandwiches and toast.  

Farmhouse Potato Bread with Dill and Chives

I know the bread looks a little green but that is because of the dill and chives. I could take the green out with Photoshop but it would not be true to this marvelous savory bread that I made yesterday, Farmhouse potato bread with dill and chives.

I was planning to write that the aroma of the bread baking was so savory that I kept peaking in the oven to get a better whiff. And that I cut a slice for me just as soon as it had cooled a little bit. Then I read Baggett's description of the bread in Kneadlessly Simple and that is almost the same thing she said.

As you can see the crust is a little crisp and the interior is moist and a bit chewy. The yogurt adds just a bit of
a sourdough taste to the bread but the potatoes and herbs really shine though.

Although we ate the bread with a roasted red pepper tart Baggett suggests that it pairs well with roasted chicken, baked fish or tomato soup. I think it would be perfect with those suggestions but sometimes you gotta cook what you gotta cook. I bought a big bunch of dill at the organic farm this week. I don't often find dill here so I had to use it....perfect for the bread recipe. The flawless large red peppers were in a tienda on Mesones. I had to buy them because they were so beautiful.....perfect for the roasted red pepper tart.

Sometimes I like a muffin for breakfast but let me tell you that I toasted this savory bread for breakfast and it was really good.

English Muffin Loaf

I'm back to my bread baking from Kneadlessly Simple. The first one I had to make was one that I had tried to make before we went to Texas, English muffin loaf. We love English muffins and so I thought that maybe this bread would work for us since we can't readily find English muffins here.

The first try was a mess. The recipe called for non-fat powdered milk. I couldn't find it here so I had to have it brought down to me when someone came from the States. Now the recipe calls for high-quality non-fat powdered milk but at that point I did not know the difference between low-quality and high-quality. Actually, what I now think that it means is a high heat dehydrated milk that bakers use, not the instant non-fat milk that you add water to to make milk.

My first try with the bread was bubbling along through the first rise but when I vigourously stirred in the "instant crystals," it seemed to lose all its gluten and just became a sticky glob. I went ahead and baked it, but it was very flat and tasteless.

Although the recipe was in Kneadlessly Simple, I called King Arthur Flour's help line and talked with a baker. He asked me what page the recipe was on, he pulled the book and we talked about how what happened. He felt that the problem was the powdered milk that I used. He also told me that King Arthur had a very popular English muffin loaf recipe and also a real English muffin recipe. The muffin recipe calls for mixing in a bread machine but I think it could be done in a stand mixer because after the dough is together then you roll it out and cut the muffins.

I still had visions of English muffins for breakfast, right out of my oven so I brought back the powdered non-fat milk from King Arthur Flours. Time to give the English muffin loaf recipe from Kneadlessly Simple another try. This time when I added the non-fat powdered milk the dough became a bit sticky but it didn't become a glutenless sticky glob although it was impossible to do as the recipe directs and cut with an oiled knife to divide it into two portions. Still I managed to get it into the loaf pans. It turned out "okay." I took one of the loaves to friends and they said it was good. Ned said it was good but not really like an English muffin. The crust was kind of a crisp chewy and the interior wasn't as textured or chewy as an English muffin. It did make a decent sandwich though. I thought that it was more trouble and time than the end result provided. I like a high return on my investment of time so I doubt that I will give this recipe another try.

My next bread may be the Potato Chive and Dill recipe. I found a beautiful bunch of dill that you usually can't find in San Miguel. I have chives growing on the terrace so it seems like I should be set. But wait.....I also need low-fat or non-fat yogurt. None of the tiendas around me nor Espinos have low-fat or non-fat yogurt. At least not yesterday. I'll need to make a trip to Mega and see if they have it. If I can find the yogurt before the dill goes bad, the potato, chive and dill loaf will be made and reported on.       

Crusty Seeded Pale Ale Pot Boule

Nancy Baggett says, in her book Kneadlessly Simple, that this bread has a hearty flavor, faint bitterness, and the same light yeasty aroma that always seems to hover in brew pubs. I got the hearty flavor and yeasty aroma but not the faint bitterness. The recipe calls for a pale ale or beer. I didn't have a pale ale so I used a Corona Barril beer. I don't know if a pale ale would have given me the faint bitterness or not.

What I loved about the bread was the nuttiness and crunch of the crust. The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds or poppy seeds, or tablespoon each sesame, poppy and flax seeds blended togther, for garnish. I used a combination of sesame and poppy seeds. Ned who doesn't really like a hard crust, liked the crust on this bread. So did our dinner guests. They have eaten several of the breads I've made and they declared this one the best.

Easy White Bread Loaf

Another experiment with bread from the Kneadlessly Simple cookbook. The recipe makes two loaves.

I followed the recipe and did a refrigerator rise of about eight hours, then let it rise overnight for about 17 hours. After that I stirred it down, cut it into two pieces and put them in two loaf pans. The recipe says to let them rise until the dough is about 1/2 inch above the pan. When I went back to look at them after two hours they were overflowing the edges of the pan. So I punched them back down and let them rise again which didn't take long at all.

The issue I'm having in baking breads is with my propane oven. It takes longer to heat but it seems to be very well insulated. Baggett suggests heating the over to about 25 or 50 degrees higher than you want to cook the bread and then reducing the heat when you put the bread in. The markings on the oven dial are in celsius and are not marked very well. I use a thermometer in the oven to adjust the temperature. When I turn down the heat after putting the bread in, the temperature doesn't start down for quite some time. So I'm thinking that I'm just going to start the oven a little earlier and get the temperature stablized at the temperature for the bread to cook. All of this would be easier with digital controls. Then I wouldn't have to hover over the oven until I get the baking temperature stabilized.

The house smelled very yeasty while the bread was baking. It is the first bread that I have made that rose quite a bit in the oven and the next time I will be sure to take out the top rack because the top of the bread came very close to it. The loaves turned out fine with a nice crust and a fine texture. I took one loaf to a friend and we made toast with the other this morning. It was really good toast . . . soft but still chewy. Next up, a sandwich from this loaf.

Rustic Cyprus-style Herbed Olive Bread

While this bread was cooking, our housekeeper kept sniffing the air and saying "muy rico." I agreed with her. And I'm glad that I'm taking it to a dinner party so that it will be out of the house or else I might nibble it to gone.

The herbs in this bread are cilantro, chives and mint. I'm not a big fan of rosemary and I find it used so often in any bread with herbs that I just had to try this pot bread to see how it would turn out. The recipe says that the dough should be very stiff. When I mixed it I thought it seemed a little wet so I added two additional tablespoons of flour, one at a time. Then it was stiff enough that I found it difficult to incorporate the olives using a spoon or spatula so I ended up using my hands to mix them in. Some people use their hands to mix the bread from start to dough. Also this is the first bread that I have made that included an oil in the dough.

After a nine-hour refrigerator rise, I left the bread to rise in the microwave overnight. Nancy Baggett suggests a timeframe of 12 to 18 hour rise. When I looked at the bread the next morning after a 14 hour rise, it was apparent that this bread was ready for the next step. This pot bread was different because the second rise was in the pot not in the bowl and you did not heat the pot before you turned the dough into it. I worried about the wetness of the bread during this rise but decided that I should follow the recipe rather than trying to trouble shoot before I knew if it would work or not.

I used the excuse of cutting a slice in order to photograph it for you before I took it off to the dinner party but actually I wanted to taste it. It is delicious. I really like it better than the olive loaf I made from my other no-knead cookbook. Everyone at the dinner party seemed to like the bread as well.

I am having so much fun making these breads.

Roasted Garlic Parmesan Bread

We need smell-0-blogging for this bread. Roasted Garlic Parmesan Bread. Another bread from Kneadlessly Simple by Nancy Baggett. This isn't the pungent smell of garlic sauteeing in olive oil but the earthy smell of roasted garlic. It is the soft, mellow, buttery smell of garlic. Close your eyes, deep breath.....Mmmmm. Isn't that fabulous?

This time I managed to stick to the schedule in making the bread. I knew I was going to make it so the day before I started it while I had the oven on for something else, I roasted the head of garlic and squeezed out all the soft garlic so I was ready. Baggett cautions against adding extra garlic no matter how much you like garlic but at the same time when the recipe just calls "1 large head garlic" how large is large or how small is small. Sometimes here the garlic heads are not very large. I found some maybe 3" diameter full firm heads of garlic and roasted one. It seemed to be not too much or too little.

The next day it took about 5 minutes to mix the bread. Although Baggett didn't suggest it in her recipe I stirred the garlic and parmesan into the cold water before adding it to the flour because I was worried about getting them mixed through the dough. That seemed to work just fine. About 10 AM on Friday I put the dough in the refrigerator to rise or ferment or whatever it does in this additional step that she suggests to add flavor to the bread. At 6 PM, I took it out of the refrigerator and put it in my microwave. I don't turn it on or put a hot cup of water in there. I just set the bowl in the microwave and closed the door. It seems like a place where the temperature will be even and the bowl will be undisturbed.

The dough sat in the microwave from 6 PM on Friday until 10:45 AM on Saturday. Yes, almost 17 hours. The rise time for this particular bread is from 12 to 18 hours. I can already see that as we move more into the hot season in San Miguel, I will need to adjust the rise time. I'm glad I started making the bread when the kitchen was more in the 72 degree range so that I have a handle on what the risen bread looks like. Of course, you can find several videos on youtube that will also show you how the bread should look at each stage.

Next step was to lift and fold the dough in the bowl and then let it rise again. Have you noticed how easy this is.....ONE BOWL, no flour tossed on the cabinet, no big clean up. Within 5 minutes the bread is once again in the microwave for the second rise of 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 hours.

At the end of this second rise, I had heated the oven and the pot, I plopped the dough into the pot and sprinkle it with a bit of grated parmesan and it goes into the oven. I grated the parmesan with a micro-grater into a small bowl and then tried to sprinkle it over the bread. The cheese didn't sprinkle. It clumped. So the next time I would grate the cheese with a larger grater or I would grate with the micro-grater directly over the bread.

This is really a beautiful loaf of bread. The crust is golden brown and crisp but not crackly, the crumb is a little more fine than a rustic loaf of pot bread. The garlic taste is definitely there but it isn't overpowering and between the roasted garlic and the parmesan cheese the buttery taste is fabulous. It is going to take discipline on my part to keep cooking through the book and not double back to make this bread another time or two.

Next up is the English Muffin Loaf if I can find an instant nonfat powdered milk in San Miguel. It is probably here but I have never looked for it before.

Crusty White Peasant-style Pot Bread

Another bread report... And this baking experience convinces me that I do want to learn to bake bread from Nancy Baggett's book Kneadlessly Simple cookbook over Jim Lahey's, My Bread cookbook. I have both of the books. What is the difference between the two books? Baggett's book suggests a refrigerated rise of 3 to 10 hours for best flavor or for convenience. Because of the refrigerator rise, I do have more flexibility in the timing of making bread. The flexibility just seems to fit better with my schedule.I also like that she has a lot more breads in her cookbook.  But most of all I think that the breads from Baggett's book have more flavor. This may be a premature opinion because I have cooked only two breads from each book. The other bread that I cooked from her book was the Cheddar and chiles bread.

This loaf didn't get my full attention but it still turned out okay. The crust may have been a little too dense but then I didn't follow the timing on the recipe exactly either. I mixed up the dough at 10:00 AM on Tuesday and put it in the refrigerator. I planned to take it out about 4:00 PM, a six hour rise and she suggests a 3 to 10 hours rise. I forgot about the dough until 9:00 PM. Oops, now I have let it rise for 11 hours. I think it will be okay. Next rise is 18 to 24 hours but I wanted to get it in the oven for dinner at seven. Doubtful. But after 18 hours, (3:00 PM)  I fold it until almost deflated and left it to rise for 2 hours. I forget about it again so when I look at it at 3 hours later it looks to me like it has over-risen. I read her trouble shooting tips. She recommends to stir it down and let it rise another time. I did that and I was surprised at how fast this extra rise was. Now it is 7:00 PM when I finally get it in the oven. It is suppose to cook in the covered pot for 55 minutes and then for 15 to 20 minutes longer with the lid off. Poor bread! I forgot it again. It baked for another 30 minutes after I took the lid off after the initial 55 minutes.

Are you confused with all these times? Here is what it boils down to. I didn't follow the timing worth a damn and I still got a decent loaf of bread. Although the crust was a little dense the crumb was lovely and it was flavorful. I took most of the loaf out to my friend's rancho. She had invited me to see her lavendar farm and have lunch. There were no complaints about the bread.

I'm encouraged and I'm going to try some more recipes from Baggett's bread cookbook. Stay tuned.

Pane all'Olive - Olive Bread

I've been puttering around in the kitchen today. I made a loaf of olive bread right out of Jim Lahey's My Bread cookbook. It is another one of the no-knead breads so actually I had to start it last night but "starting" it only takes long enough to measure out a few ingredients and mix them with water. Then you cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for 12 to 18 hours. So while I'm sleeping all those little yeasty organisms are working away.

Lahey says that any pitted olive will "yield something worth eating." But he makes some specific suggestions for the best olive bread. I had a partial jar of kalamata olives that had been sitting on the shelf in the fridge for a while and I had a couple of packs of pitted green olives....totally non-special. So that is what made up the 1-1/2 cups of olives that went into the bread. I hope it yields something worth eating.

I'm dying to cut into the bread to check it out but I'm taking it to a dinner party tonight. I think it makes a better presentation as a whole loaf. My friend Pat always told me that if it looks special then everyone will think it is delicious. I'm not sure that this loaf looks special but people are always impressed with a homemade loaf of bread, so maybe that will make it taste delicious. I'll report back tomorrow on how it tasted.

Bread with Chiles and Cheddar

I tried another no-knead bread recipe from Nancy Baggett's book, Kneadlessly Simple and it was easy peasy. The only thing I changed was the amount of chiles I added to the bread. I cut them in half because I already had made a spicy bean soup and I thought that it might be a little too much. Oh, and I also was using canned serranos because I haven't seen any cans labeled "green chile" like I can find in the USA. I was worried about the amount of cheddar in the bread. Three cups/8 ounces of cheese is a lot of cheese for one loaf of bread. I had visions of the bread not rising and just being a gooey lump but it rose beautifully. In fact it makes a large 9x5 loaf of bread.  

The texture of the bread is very nice, good crust, and the cheddar taste comes through. It was good with the bean soup and I made a ham sandwich with it today.....delicious.

The no-knead breads take some advance planning because of the slow rise so you need to start them about 20-24 hours before you want to eat them but they are so easy. Basically, it takes about 5 minutes to mix them up in a bowl, cover and start the rise (in the same bowl.) Most of Baggett's recipes call for a refrigerator rise and then you take it out and let it rise at room temperature for 12-20 hours depending on the recipe. Then you dump it in the pan, usually another rise and into the oven. One bowl, one pan and no clouds of flour scattered across the counter. And when you serve it to friends, they think you are a great baker.

How great is that!