It’s a BFN Day! Yay!

27 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, baking, Baking for Neighbors, BFN, community, food

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baking, Baking for Neighbors, BFN, bread, community, food, Sourdough Grain Bread

You can read more about Baking for Neighbors Day on this post. Today was BFN for the 4th neighbor and I sure enjoyed it!

It has been a long time since I baked for neighbors. I got a bit derailed when we got an anonymous note in the mailbox over a year ago. An anonymous neighbor put a pretty blue envelope in our mailbox. Inside was a cute card with dogs on the front. And inside the card was written “Keep your #$%&* dog out of our yard. We’re tired of it dragging your recycled beer bottles into our yard too. You’ll be glad to know that we’re moving because of you. #*#%@ “… etc.

If that neighbor knew us, they would have known that we’ve never owned a dog. They would know that we don’t drink and we do our own recycling so there are no bins of bottles. If our neighbor knew us, they would have known that I broke my back and was doing a great job of recovering. And they would have known how much I love to bake.

So instead of being discouraged and scared of meeting that anonymous neighbor that hates us, I decided to keep going with Baking for Neighbors. Today I handed the fourth neighbor a loaf of steaming hot, fresh from the oven, Sourdough Grain Bread.

Sourdough Grain Bread

When I handed her the foil-wrapped bundle, she was surprised and delighted. That made me so happy! I guess she’s not the neighbor who put that note in our mailbox.

All wrapped in napkins and foil, tied with string – a big loaf of Sourdough Grain Bread fresh from the oven for neighbor 4.

I’m all encouraged now to keep going with BFN Day! Four neighbors down, 67 to go. ::big smile::

Sourdough Breadstick Cobras

19 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, recipe, tutorial

≈ 1 Comment

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bread, bread dough, breadsticks, food, meal, recipe, salad, sourdough bread dough, Sourdough Breadstick Cobras, sourdough starter, summer supper, supper, tutorial

We were scraping the bottom of the barrel for supper tonight. Things went from bad to worse when he forgot to put the yeast in the bread dough. He forgot to add the honey too and I forgot to check the dough, so much later we found the forlorn little lump in the bottom of the bread machine bowl. I was going to throw it out but decided to try breadsticks and called him out to help.

“What are we doing?” he called from the other room.

“Making bread sticks,” I called back. “Help me roll all these snakes.”

And so he did. I watched as he coiled up his snake like a … snake.

So then I figured we might as well make a bunch of snakes, cobras, actually, with little flat heads and perky tails. They were delicious and adorable!

The recipe is my Sourdough Grain Bread recipe, found here, but WITHOUT adding yeast or honey and using the starter cold, straight from the refrigerator unfed.
These chewy breadsticks need a tiny little rise so it’s essential to use a good sourdough starter in the recipe.

SOURDOUGH BREADSTICK COBRAS

Prepare a shallow muffin tin by greasing the muffin cups. Place a tart tin upside down as shown next to each muffin cup. Roll a small piece of tin foil into a ball and place in each muffin cup.
Roll a piece of sourdough bread dough, about the size of a small egg, 16″ long, with a little taper at one end for the tail.

Lift the long piece of dough and place the tail over the muffin cup edge. Slowly lower the long piece of dough into the muffin cup, around the foil ball twice and then back up out of the muffin cup, draping the end over the tart tin. Pinch the end flat to form the cobra head. Ours puffed up more than I thought in the oven so next time I will flatten them even more.

The sourdough “snakes” are formed into snakes and positioned over a foil ball and tart tin.

Beat one egg white and use a small brush to brush the cobras. Sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. (NOTE: Ours seemed barely underdone so next time I will quickly remove the foil balls and pop them back in the oven for another minute.)

Bake at 375 for 15 or so minutes.

Remove from oven and remove from the muffin cups. Pull out the foil balls. Ours didn’t stick, even though they weren’t greased.

Aren’t they adorable?

Who could complain about a sorry-lettuce salad, canned beans and fried egg yolk supper when there were Sourdough Breadstick Cobras?

Salad with beans and Fried Egg Yolk and a Sourdough Breadstick Cobra

Perfect for a warm summer evening. So what started as a recipe fail ended up as an Oh my goodness “play with your food” meal!

BFN Day – To the Third Neighbor I gave Sourdough Grain Bread

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, Baking for Neighbors, BFN, community, food, recipe

≈ 5 Comments

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Baking for Neighbors, BFN, bread, bread machine, bread machine recipe, food, recipe, sourdough, Sourdough Grain Bread, sourdough starter

I was determined to get in a third Baking For Neighbors day, despite the cold, the rain, the busy holiday and especially my pain.
So I set my will and did it before anything could stop me.
I took Sourdough Grain Bread, a beautiful crackly-topped loaf, hot from my oven to the third neighbor.

Sourdough Grain Bread

The process is simple but time consuming. It takes 1 hour 50 minutes to make the dough in the bread machine, another 45 to raise and another 50 minutes to bake, plus other minutes for prep. So to make this bread, I have to start the loaf 4 hours before giving or serving. It’s an amazing bread and well worth the effort.

I made up this recipe. It took trial and error to get the texture just right. The crust is awesome, crisp and crackly. The interior is the perfect combination of hearty and soft and makes great slices for sandwiches or french toast. It keeps very well too and is good even two days after baking, although the crust will be more chewy than crisp at that point.

There are two specialty items needed to make the bread – a good sourdough starter and a baking cloche. These are explained further down this post.

The recipe:
SOURDOUGH GRAIN BREAD
1 cup water
1/4 cup good aged sourdough starter
2 tsp yeast
1/2 Tablespoon honey
2 1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil

The process:
Place all ingredients in the order listed in a bread machine.
I use a sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour. I can’t remember when we got it, perhaps 4 years ago? 5? It stays in a stoneware crock in the refrigerator door all the time. It’s an excellent starter. I’ve forgotten to feed it for over 10 months but it stays great, even with neglect.

Sourdough starter

Use the standard dough setting to make dough. We use a Zojirushi Bread Machine that takes 1 hour 50 minutes to make the dough on a standard setting. We’ve had this machine for over six years and use it three or four times a week. Best bread machine we’ve ever had!

When the machine beeps at the end of the cycle, the dough is ready. It fills the bread machine pan.

The dough is smooth on top but rough on the bottom when it is turned out of the pan.

I fold it over a couple times on a floured surface.

Cornmeal is sprinkled in the bottom of the cloche and then the smooth, floured ball of dough is placed in the center of the cloche. There are a variety of cloches available for bread baking. I picked this one for the size and good reviews. You’re not supposed to soak it before using or it may crack in the oven. It is to be used dry. After baking the bread, all I have to do is wipe out any remaining dry corn meal with a paper towel and the cloche is ready for another loaf.

The cloche lid is placed on top.

The cloche is placed in a cold oven and the oven door shut.
I turn on the oven light to provide a small amount of warmth in the oven and set the timer for 45 minutes for the dough to raise.

And then… without opening the cloche or removing it from the oven, I turn the oven to 400 degrees.
That is right, the cloche goes from raising the dough in the oven, straight to baking in the oven and the cloche is never moved! As the dough is baked, it makes steam inside the cloche, emulating a professional steam-injected oven. That’s what makes the crust so amazing!

I watch the oven temp and as soon as it reaches 400 degrees, set the timer to bake the bread for 40 minutes.
When the timer goes off at 40 minutes, the cloche lid is removed from the oven and the bread continues to bake for 10 more minutes to crisp the crust.
Here is a finished loaf.

My favorite way to enjoy the bread is hot, with butter and honey and cinnamon powder straight from the spice jar.

I’ve made mistakes with this dough, forgetting it was in the bread machine, raising it too long, forgetting to set the timer when the oven reached temperature, and still the bread turns out. Here is a loaf where I did everything wrong. I love the cragginess of the crust.

Here is the loaf torn open, steam arising.

I don’t have a photo of the loaf I took to Neighbor 3. My back hurt so bad that night that I didn’t want to carry a camera. As soon as the loaf came out of the oven, I wrapped it in paper towels and then foil and walked down the street. Neighbor 3 came to the door in a wheel chair and I handed him the still-hot loaf. He held the warm bundle as he thanked me. I was so very glad I went to the effort to take the loaf to my third neighbor. May he and his household be blessed!

The first BFN Day… To the First Neighbor, I took Butterflake Herb Rolls

04 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, Baking for Neighbors, BFN, community, food, Inspirational, recipe, Uncategorized

≈ 10 Comments

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baking, Baking for Neighbors, BFN, bread, community, food, neighborhood, neighbors, recipe

And also to the Second Neighbor!

It started several weeks ago. I don’t like admitting this, especially to myself, but my recovery seems sooooo s. l. o. w.! sigh. (I actually sighed after typing that sentence.) I broke my back on July 16th, 2012 and got scoliosis surgery in October. It’s been over a year. So come on, what’s with this tedious recovery? Alas, my research proves that I’m normal and doing well. But it still takes me days to recover from a simple outing because riding in a vehicle is just not friendly to my concrete spine. Not yet.

On the plus side, my stamina is better than it’s been in years. I’m tackling long overdue tasks, such as sorting through bins of old papers and organizing shelves. I’m rearranging rooms and overseeing remodeling. And I’m back in the kitchen cooking and baking. But I want to do more. I want to be involved in Community.

Since I can’t get out easy, I’ve decided to serve my own neighborhood. I call the service …

BFN – Baking for Neighbors.

Instead of bye for now, my BFN is Baking for Neighbors. I think there are 71 houses in my neighborhood. I barely know four of them so just one or two at a time, I’m going to bake something for all my neighbors. Baking for Neighbors will give me an excuse to bake, encouragement to walk outside (which is still slow and painful), and I’ll get to meet new people. It’s a win-win situation!

Several days ago I declared my first BFN Day. I took Butterflake Herb Rolls. This recipe has been in my family for decades. It was from an old Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbook my mom had. I wrote up the recipe on a blank card, which is now all stained from use.

Butterflake Herb Loaf recipe

Herb Butter Recipe

I rarely make these rolls so I’m not sure why I started with them. It just seemed like the right recipe and I was at peace. And they are delicious! With each recipe I pick, I’m going to pray that it will be ok with the neighbor and perhaps even be just what they need.

Butterflake Herb Rolls

Most yeasts no longer needs proofed but I did it anyway. 4 1/2 tsp (two packets) of yeast are softened in 1/4 cup warm water.

Dry yeast is sprinkled on warm water.

In a large mixing bowl, place 1/3 cup shortening, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp salt and 1 cup hot scalded milk. Cool to lukewarm.

Blend in 2 eggs and the softened yeast. I also mix in two cups of the flour at this point and beat till the batter is smooth. Gradually add 2 1/2 to 3 more cups of flour.

The first two cups of flour are beaten in, making a nice smooth batter.

On a floured surface…. And here I pause. I wonder if all bakers enjoy sprinkling a surface with flour. There’s just something magical about scattering that soft powder over the counter and then spreading and smoothing it out with your bare hands. I love the dusty flour on my hands.

Knead the dough on a floured surface till smooth and satiny. This was the first time in over two years that I kneaded dough so I ran out of steam fast. I wasn’t able to get it to “smooth and satiny” but it still turned out.

I put the dough in a greased bowl and place it in the cold oven. Then I turn on the oven light. The light from the lightbulb is enough heat for the dough to rise. While the dough is raising, I make the herb butter. I usually leave out the onion and just used fresh or dried garlic. Sometimes I add a little more of everything if I want a stronger herb roll.

We were out of Cayenne Pepper so I scraped the last little bit of Chipotle Pepper from the jar. There was about 1/8 tsp. We were out of fresh garlic too so I ground up dried garlic with a mortar and pestle.

I used to use a saucer and cut around the rolled-out dough with a sharp knife to make nice tidy circles. But it’s a lot faster to just use a bench knife to divide the dough up into little pieces. I cut the dough in half, then half again, etc until the lumps of dough are about the size of a small egg, about 32 rolls.

Each piece of dough is rolled out flat. It doesn’t matter if the piece is perfectly round or not. Herb butter is spread on half the dough piece and then it is folded in half.

Herb butter is again spread on the top each folded roll and then they are slightly overlapped on a parchment covered baking sheet.

The loaf is left to raise. Again, I put them back in the oven and let it stay warm with just the oven light on.

After they raised about double in size, the loaves are taken out of the warm oven and the oven is preheated to 350F. Then they are baked for 20 to 25 minutes.

For giving, I placed a hot loaf, fresh from the oven, on a paper napkin on a sturdy paper plate and wrapped it in foil. And then I carried it next door. :)

I asked the first neighbor if I could take a picture of her holding the plate and she didn’t mind. The reason the foil is left on is because the rolls are keeping warm. But most important of all, it’s NOT about the rolls, it’s about the neighbor. The hands in this photo are more important than what’s on the plate. I want to keep it that way.

Blessings to you, Neighbor 1!
And here is the second neighbor. Blessing to you too, Neighbor 2!

I don’t know if they’ll ever see this blog. But I was so happy to finally be able to do something for my neighbors.

I shall be posting all my BFN days. 2 down, 69 to go.

Torn Bread Crisps for fondue or dip

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, recipe

≈ 3 Comments

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bread, fondue, food, leftover bread, recipe, roll recipe, torn bread crisps

These are addicting! We scarf the entire batch so fast. They’re good even plain.
Start with leftover rolls. We used homemade rolls. (Recipe follows if you’re interested.)
Tear rolls into ragged bite size pieces and scatter on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, stirring once. Stir pieces again and lower oven temperature to 300 and bake 5 more minutes.
The Torn Bread Crisps will be deliciously toasted and irresistibly crispy, delightful plain or dipped. (Say that one fast, ha!)

Torn Bread Crisps after baking. The quantity shown here is two baking sheets worth.

Torn Bread Crisps after baking. The quantity shown here is part of two baking sheets worth.

Tonight we didn’t fuss for supper. We made a quick cheddar cheese sauce and steamed some broccoli. Then we ate with our fingers, dipping the broccoli and bread crisps in the cheese sauce. Supper was yummy, light and fun.

This is our Everyday Rolls recipe. We make them a couple times a week, using the bread machine on Dough Setting. I’ve made them a couple times by hand and they turn out great but the bread machine makes the job super easy.

In bread machine, place:
1 c. water
1 egg
3 1/4 cup bread flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 c. unsalted butter
2 tsp yeast

Use the dough setting to prepare the dough. When ready, remove dough from the machine.
On a floured surface, divide dough in about 24 pieces. We don’t usually make tidy round rolls, we just drop the chunks of dough on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and place them in the cold oven and turn on the oven light. The little bit of heat from the oven light bulb is enough to raise the rolls.
Let the rolls rise 45 minutes and remove from the oven.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Bake rolls 15 minutes. Serve warm or cold.
The rolls may be eaten immediately or cooled and stored in airtight plastic bags overnight.
Perfect for making Torn Bread Crisps. Each roll can be torn into six or seven bite size pieces, allowing two or three rolls per person, depending on what other foods you have for the meal.
And yes, you can use them as croutons. We don’t season these because they’re more versatile, such as using to dip in peanut butter and jam. They’re also wonderful dropped in a bowl of soup.