The Daily Bread: National Bread Day Edition

"Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one." - Nikolai Berdyaev

Happy National Bread day to everyone! Hope the day was splendid and full of tasty bread. Get out there and bake a loaf. And if you can't do it today, make sure to do it this weekend. At the very least you can eat artisan bread for dinner. I'm eating a pugliese boule with my dinner. 

The Daily Bread

"In the Lord's Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach." - Woodrow Wilson 

The Daily Bread

"Bread is the king of the table and all else is merely the court that surrounds the king" - Louis Bromfield 

The Daily Bread

"You shall find out how salt is the taste of another man's bread, and how hard is the way up and down another man's stairs." - Dante

The Daily Bread

"It is well to remember that a single musty egg will spoil a ton of cake or anything else it is put into." - Frederick T. Vine 

The Daily Bread

“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.” - Robert Browning

God Bless America Apple Pie

This pie will be the talk of any party or family get together. It is a great dish to welcome the cold weather. The cream cheese crust adds depth to a simple butter pie crust. It is flaky and tender, exactly what you want to see in a pie crust. It does take several hours to make but is worth it in the flavor you get from the pie and crust.

I used Jonathan apples for the filling but any tart apple will work well in this pie. If you can go to a local orchard your apples will taste better and therefore your pie will taste better. Always try and get the best ingredients available. I also used a lot of cinnamon in my pie so you can cut it in half.

God Bless America Apple Pie
Supplies

• 9-inch pie pan
• Pie shield
• Baking stone wrapped in aluminum foil
• Several mixing bowls
• A rolling pin 

Ingredients
For the Cream Cheese Crust

• 12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
• 2 cups all-purpose flour or pastry flour if you have it
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 4.5 ounces cream cheese
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar

For the Pie Filling

• 6-7 medium, tart apples, peeled and cored, sliced into 1/4 inch thick
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar (if really tart apples double the amount of sugar)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Steps

For the pie crust

1. Put a mixing bowl in the freezer to chill. Meanwhile cut the butter into small 3/4 inch cubes, wrap the butter in plastic wrap and refrigerate for thirty minutes. 
2. Place flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl, mix to stir together. Add the cream cheese and rub the cream cheese into the dry mixture with your fingers. Spoon the mixture and the cold butter into a resealable galleon plastic bag. Seal the plastic bag. Use a rolling pin to flatten the butter into flakes. Place the bag into the freezer for ten minutes or until butter is firm.
   
3. Transfer the cream cheese mixture to the chilled bowl. Pour the cream and cider vinegar over the mixture. Mix lightly with a rubber spatula. 
4. Spoon half into the plastic bag. Knead the pie dough in the bag by pressing it form the outside using your knuckles and heels of your hands. Knead until it holds in one piece and feels slightly stretchy. Repeat this for the other half of the dough.
5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, flatten into two discs. and refrigerate for at least an hour preferably overnight. 

Putting together the pie

1. Remove one of the pie dough discs and roll it out between two lightly floured pieces of parchment. It should be 1/8 inch thick or less and about 12 inches in diameter.
   
   Transfer it to the greased pie pan, trim the dough to be even with the pan's edge. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for thirty minutes to no more than three hours.
   
2. In a large mixing bowl, put the apples, lemon juice, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Stir to coat the apples. Allow the apples to sit at room temperature for thirty minutes to three hours.
   
3. Transfer the apples and the juice produced into a colander suspended over another bowl. It should yield about 1/2 cup or more of juice. Transfer the apples back to a their mixing bowl. Heat a small saucepan over medium high heat and boil the juice from the apples and the butter to 1/3 cup or slightly more. The juice needs to be syrupy and slightly caramelized. 
4. Pour the boiled juice over the apples and mix together gently. 
5. Now roll out the top of the pie crust to 12 inches in diameter. 
6. Scoop the apples to the prepared pie pan and put the top pie crust over. Crimp the edges with a fork to seal the pie. Cut five slashes into the pie, allowing steam to release when baking. Now cover the pie with plastic wrap and put it back into the refrigerator for an hour to rest and relax the pastry before baking. It is worth it to do this to keep the pie crust tender.
   
7. Preheat the oven to 425 F twenty minutes before baking. Have an oven rack on the lowest level and the baking stone set on the rack.
8. Set the pie on the baking stone and cook for 45 minutes or until the juices are bubbling and apples are tender but not mushy. After twenty minutes use the pie shield to prevent overbrowning. Cool the pie on a wire rack for about three-four hours before cutting. 

Now get out there and bake some pies!

The Daily Bread

"I am proud to be an American. Because an American can eat anything on the face of this earth as long as he has two pieces of bread." - Bill Cosby 

The Daily Bread

“I would say to housewives, be not daunted by one failure, nor by twenty. Resolve that you will have good bread, and never cease striving after this result till you have effected it. If persons without brains can accomplish this, why cannot you?” - Marion Cabell Tyree 

Pie Crust

I have never made an apple pie but it is the season. So with a source of fresh apples from Jackson's Orchard and a recipe for a cream cheese crust I am setting out on this adventure. This pie has to be perfect, it is American through and through and one of my favorite pies. I'm making the crust today and baking the pie tomorrow. I should have a recipe up either tomorrow or the next day.

Until then, enjoy the work in progress of the crust.

The Daily Bread

 "If you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy a lily." - Chinese proverb

The Daily Bread

“Bread is the king of the table and all else is merely the court that surrounds the king. The countries are the soup, the meat, the vegetables, the salad, but bread is king.” – Louis Bromfield

The Daily Bread

"For less than the cost of a Big Mac, fries and a Coke, you can buy a loaf of fresh bread and some good cheese or roast beef, which you will enjoy much more." - Steve Albini

The Daily Bread

"Two things only the people desire: bread, and the circus games."  --Juvenal

Hope everyone is having a good day without the federal government existing. We still have the state governments though. We will make it. Belgium lasted for 400 days without a government. Let's see how long this lasts

The Daily Bread

"I was taught from childhood the sanctity of food. Not a piece of bread could be thrown away without kissing it and raising it to one's eyes as with all things holy." -Attia Hosain

The Daily Bread

“‘A loaf of bread,’ the Walrus said, ‘is what we chiefly need: Pepper and vinegar besides are very good indeed.’” - Lewis Caroll

The Daily Bread

“The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Daily Bread

“A slice of bread eaten is a million times more nourishing than a loaf of bread imagined.” - Mokomoma Mokhonoana 

The Daily Bread

“What must you break apart in order to bring a family close together? Bread, of course.” - Jodi Picoult, The Storyteller 

The Daily Bread

"Cou cou, tu as pris le pain?"  translates to, "Hi there, did you pick up the bread?" - French Campaign slogan to eat more bread. 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/09/23/224059675/got-baguettes-bakers-lobby-tells-france-to-eat-more-bread 

The Daily Bread

“Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,

A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness -

And Wilderness is Paradise enow.” 

 - Omar Khayyám 

The Daily Bread

"The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread." - Mother Teresa

I will now for sure keep up with the Daily Bread and blog now that I am back from the trade show in Atlanta. Keep baking and eating my friends.

Trade Show

Sorry about no Daily Bread today but I was at a trade show today for gourmet food items and gift items. It was overwhelming and awesome at the same time. So many great products out there for baking and cooking and it makes me want to buy them all. Here is a picture of one of the cool products I saw. 

That's right America bakes and the Statue of Liberty supports America's baking habit. 

The Daily Bread

"I judge a restaurant by the bread and the coffee." - Burt Lancaster 

The Daily Bread

                                                                Solitude 

HAPPY the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.
Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire;
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.
Blest, who can unconcern’dly find
Hours, days, and years, slide soft away
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day.
Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix’d, sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please
With meditation.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie. - Alexander Pope

The Daily Bread

"Here is bread, which strengthens man's hearts, and therefore called the staff of life." - Mathew Henry

The Daily Bread

"My bread is sweet and nourishing, made from my own wheat, ground in my own mill, and baked in my own oven." - Tobias Smollett, Humphrey Clinker

Let's just say I look forward to the day when I can get my very own mill. Then I will be able to really do some baking. Don't get me wrong I love using King Arthur Flour and only use other flours when KAF is not available (like on short notice). It is the Porsche of flour but milling your own flour is the Rolls Royce of flour and nothing can compare with the freshness of it.

The Daily Bread

"Corn and oats is much the same as saying people and horses." - F. Braudel

The Daily Bread

"The great thing about baking with yeast is the difficulty of failure." - George and Cecilia Scurfeild, Home Baked

The Daily Bread

"Unless you have experimented you cannot realize the difference in the flavour, volume, tenderness, and texture between a bread dough allowed to rise slowly and gently and a dough quickened by the use of too much yeast or heat." - Dorothy Allen-Gray

The Daily Bread

"The final weight of a loaf of bread is in God's hands as much as the baker's." - E. S. Gaskell

The Daily Bread

"The judging of bread by its whiteness is a mistake which has led to much mischief, against which the recent agitation for 'whole meal' is, I think, an extreme reaction" - W. Mattieu Willams (1885)

Baking with Christine Part Two: Two Bite Pretzels

    It's Football Time!! And that means weekly parties on Saturday/Sunday. Christine's family is heavily involved in Tennessee football and I attended a party at her house. I whipped these wonderful pretzels up in two hours just in time for kickoff. They are good served with plain mustard or if you have a beer cheese dip.

   Maybe you are going to a party but you want to bring something but want something different than that normal dip you make. These pretzels are made using only a few ingredients, and will make everyone rave about your baking skills. They are even in little football shapes so it will fit in great with the decor. You could probably use them to toss around the house if you want of course.

   Now on to making the pretzels for your party.

Supplies:

• Baking Sheet
• Baking Stone
• Stand or Hand Mixer

Ingredients: 

• Bread Flour - 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons
• Yeast - 3/4 teaspoon
• Malt Powder (if you have it this time I did not use it) - 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt - 1 1/8 teaspoons
• Water - 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons
• Unsalted Butter - 1 tablespoon
• Egg White Glaze

Steps:

1. Mix together the flour, yeast, salt, and malt powder. With the mixer turned on low, pour in the water until all the flour is moistened. Add the butter, raise the speed to medium and knead for seven to ten minutes. The dough should form a smooth ball in about five minutes if not add more water. You will get a stiff dough that is slightly elastic. 
   
   
   
2. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter and shape into a ball. Let it rise, covered for 1 hour. It will not double just relax and spread out some.
   
3. Divide the dough into twenty or so equal pieces. You can divide into any amount you need but don't get them too small. I made twenty.
   
   Roll each piece into a ball then using your hands shape into a tapered football about three inches long or so and about one inch high. Set on the greased cooking sheet a couple inches apart from each other.
   
4. Cover the footballs with oiled plastic wrap and let sit for thirty minutes, just to rise a little bit. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 400 F. Oven shelf at the lowest shelf with a baking stone and pan on the floor of the oven.
5. Make two long, diagonal slashes in each roll. Whisk together 1 egg white and 1/2 teaspoon cold water. Brush each roll with the egg white twice. Then sprinkle the top with sea salt.
6. Set the baking sheet on the hot baking stone immediately after putting the salt on the top of the pretzels. Toss 1/2 cup ice cubes in the pan on the bottom of the oven and close the oven door quickly. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, they should be deep golden brown. 
   
7.  Remove the bread form the pan and let cool until warm. Serve and enjoy (also take in the praise you will get for your baking prowess. 

Tell me how your football parties go and how the pretzels are received. Happy Baking!

The Daily Bread

"It is important to realise that whenever one reads of a mill in the Old Testament or in Homer one must picture a saddle quern...for no other type was known." - Dr. E. Cecil Curwen

The Daily Bread

"...as Bread is the best nourishment of all other, being well made, so it is simply the worst being marred in the ill handling." - Thomas Muffett 

The Daily Bread

I have been behind on posting The Daily Bread but I am back on track now. More posts to come.

"Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf." - G. K. Chesterton 

The Daily Bread

"Things to be observed in the well making if Bread - whereof we must have great choice and care: 1) of the Wheate itself, 2) of the Meal, 3) of the Water, 4) of the Salt, 5) of the Leaven, 6) of the Dough or Paste, 7) of the Moulding, 8) of the Oven, 9) of the Baking" - Thomas Muffett 

The Daily Bread

"What man  is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?" - Matthew 7:9

The Daily Bread

"and wanderers of the street, to whom is dealt
The bread which without industry they find." - William Wordsworth 

The Daily Bread

We who cry Peace and treasure life and cling
To cities, happiness, or daily toil
For daily bread, or trail the long routine
Of seventy years, taste not the terrible wine
Whereof you drink, who drain and toss the cup
Empty and ringing by the finished feast; -Edgar Lee Masters

The Daily Bread

LOVE, we have dipped Life’s humble bread
Into the stars’ flame-bubbling springs;
We’ve knelt before the Moon’s white face,
While around us whirred Night’s purple wings.

                                                               - J. Corson Miller

Dinner Table Yeast Rolls

   These yeast rolls are perfect for any meal and not just at the dinner table. They are also very easy to make and heighten the taste of any meal. You can eat them plain, with butter, with slices of cheese, or form a little sandwich out of them. You will find them perfect accompaniments to any dish.

Supplies

• Large Bowl
• Mixer
• 11x7 in baking pan

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg

Steps

      1. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour and yeast. Whisk the salt into the flour mixture

      2. Heat the milk, sugar, and butter in a saucepan on low heat just until the butter is melted, let cool for a few minutes then whisk in the egg. 

      3. Using the mixer's dough hooks, mix the flour mixture and the egg mixture. Knead until the dough is smooth and just a little sticky when touched. Scrape the dough into a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap to rise until doubled about an hour

      4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter and separate into golf size pieces, there should be around twenty-four. The easiest way to do this is to roll into a log and divide in half and repeat until you get the right size for the rolls. Put the formed rolls into the greased 11x7 baking pan in rows and make sure the rolls touch each other. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled or about an hour.

      5. Preheat the oven to 350 F toward the end of the rising time. Put the pan on the center rack and bake for 15 mins or until the rolls are golden brown. Unmold and let cool on a wire rack for a few minutes. You will want to eat these while they are still warm. 

The Daily Bread

"There’s something about smelling bread that touches the atavistic impulses inside of us and comforts us."-Judith Norell, owner of Silver Moon Bakery. 

Learn more about her from this video here. 

Expect a new recipe tomorrow

    Readers, I haven't been able to post a recipe in the past few days because my body decided to catch a cold yesterday. I am feeling much better today. I'm making warm rolls tomorrow and will post the recipe in honor of feeling better. They will be perfect for any meal you eat.

The Daily Bread

"Accompanied by their respective retinues dressed in corresponding attire, they went through all the streets of the village, halting before the houses and singing staves of old songs, for which they received presents of bread, eggs, and fruit." - Sir James George Frazer 

The Daily Bread

"After the sedition of St. Martin’s, and the following day, it seemed that abundance had returned to Milan, as by enchantment. The bread shops were plentifully supplied; the price as low as in the most prolific years, and flour in proportion." - Alessandro Manzoni 

The Daily Bread

Fairy Bread

COME up here, O dusty feet!
Here is fairy bread to eat.
Here in my retiring room,
Children, you may dine
On the golden smell of broom
And the shade of pine;
And when you have eaten well,
Fairy stories hear and tell.            - Robert Louis Stevenson

The Daily Bread

"And as it is always pleasing to see a man eat bread, or drink water, in the house or out of doors, so it is always a great satisfaction to supply these first wants." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Baking with Christine: Part One-Perfect Focaccia

    My girlfriend, Christine, created a list of ten breads that we have to bake together. We made our first bread off the list a few weeks ago. I strongly recommend baking with someone, it helps past the time as the bread is rising, the other person can help read the ingredients, or get something for you when your hands are covered in flour and dough. At the end of the baking you can share a slice of the bread you just made together.

    It was a perfectly crisp on the outside, soft on the inside focaccia layered with herbs. It was extremely close in taste to the great Bread and Bagel focaccia of my childhood (read about it here.) If only it was their actual recipe!

    The bread is a tad technical but still easily in reach to those who are just starting out. The hardest part will be the actual kneading of the dough but do not worry it is within reach. Without further ado here is the recipe to make your very own focaccia and be transported to an Italian Villa.

   Supplies:

• A baking stone or a baking sheet 
• A baker's peel or strong metal spatula 
• Parchment paper that is heavily floured'
• Rolling Pin

   Ingredients:
          For the Dough

• All Purpose Flour - 1 1/4 cups
• Durum Flour - 1 cup and three tablespoons
• Instant Yeast - 1/2 teaspoon
• Water, room temp - 1 1/4 cups
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon
• Salt - 1 1/2 teaspoons
• Fresh Herbs of your choice - 1 cup (Use a medley or just one herb, remember to remove any hard stems.)

          For the Topping

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1 tablespoon
• Course Sea Salt - 1/2 teaspoon

Steps 

1. In a bowl whisk together the all-purpose flour, durum flour, and yeast. Add the water and oil and with your fingers mix until just uniformly combined. Don't worry the dough is supposed to be very sticky. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow it to rest for 20 minutes. 
2. Sprinkle the salt on top of the dough and mix it in with your fingers. Put the dough on an unfloured counter and began to knead. For ten minutes squeeze the dough between the thumbs and fingers of both hands moving down the length of the dough. When you get to the end of the dough flip and repeat the process. Do not add any flour even though the dough will not really stay together. As the dough is worked it will become smoother but still pretty sticky. Use your bench scraper to bring the dough together when needed. 
3. Put the bread in an unoiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise a little for 30 minutes. 
4. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured counter with an oiled dough scraper. Dust lightly with flour and gently deflate the dough but not completely deflate the dough. Fold all four sides to make a tight package, return it to the bowl, cover, and allow to rise for another thirty minutes. 
5. Repeat step four but let sit and rise for two to three hours, until doubled instead of thirty minutes. It will spring back when touched. 
6. Put the dough gently onto a floured counter and flour the dough well. Tuck in the sides of the dough. Flour again and cover with plastic wrap to rest for 10 minutes. With generously floured hands, stretch the dough into a 11x6 inch rectangle about an inch thick. Transfer the dough to floured parchment and flour the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll out one-quarter of a long side into a thin flap, the flap should be large enough to cover the unrolled portion of the dough. Use flour to keep the dough from sticking. Brush off extra flour and brush lightly with water. 
7. Wash the herbs and arrange them close to each other on the unrolled portion of the dough. Fold the thin portion over the herbs. Tuck the edges of the dough under all around the dough. Dust the top with flour and roll the dough a little but do not let the herbs break through the top of the dough. Roll both directions to keep an even rectangle shape.
8. Dust with flour and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for 2 hours or when pressed lightly the indentation slowly fills in.
9. The oven should be preheated to 450 F 1 hour or so before baking with a baking stone/baking sheet set in the upper third and pan set on the floor of the oven.
10. Brush off any flour from the surface of the dough. Brush on the olive oil and press with your finger slight indentations into the dough. Scatter the sea salt on top of the dough.
11. Use a baker's peel to slip the bread with the parchment onto the baking stone/baking sheet. Toss 1/2 cup ice cubes into the pan on the bottom and quickly shut the oven. Bake for ten minutes, remove the bread from the parchment, turn it around, and set back onto the baking stone. Bake for about five minutes more or until golden.
12. Remove the bread from the oven with a baker's peel and let cool on a wire rack until warm.
13. Serve and enjoy with friends and family. 

Enjoy this recipe and tell me your results. 

The Daily Bread

"Such was the size, O master, of the nastus,
A large white loaf. It was so deep, its top
Rose like a tower quite above its basket.
Its smell, when that the top was lifted up,
Rose up, a fragrance not unmix'd with honey
Most grateful to our nostrils, still being hot." - Nicostratus, 370 BC

The Daily Bread

" Who was the first Author or Inventor of making Bread, I will not take it upon me to determine." - Thomas Moffett

Touching in with my Scottish Roots

     The reason I named the blog the Kilted Baker was of how proud I am of my Scottish ancestry. Yesterday I celebrated that culture and history by attending the Bardstown Highland games. I got to wear my kilt, meet family members, and enjoy the athletic events. I was impressed with the games even though they are only four years old. Each year they have grown and expect even better things next year. I was also hoping to eat tasty Scottish food like haggis (it is better than you think and don't knock it til you try it), scones, and shortbread. None of these delicious foods were present which was quite the bummer, I don't come across haggis that much in South Central Kentucky unless at a Highland Games. I joked around with a dear friend about opening up my own booth next year to serve scones. We had fun discussing the finer details of serving scones with strawberry jam and devon cream. Alas, we will probably not open up the booth and share the moist and tender scones that I bake.

     This scones are possibly the best scones on the planet! I get requests to make them all the time. Moist, buttery, and warm, they are the perfect after dinner dessert or great with afternoon tea. Sometimes I steer away from the plain and add fresh blueberries, under duress I will cook chocolate chip cookie scones. Hopefully one day you on the internet will be able to taste these scones whether through the mail or if I ever open up my own bakery. I wish I could share the recipe with you so you can make your own tasty scones but I can't. It's a secret family recipe that I guard closely. I can direct you to an okay version of scones here! With these basic recipe you can add ingredients like ginger chips, dried apricots, or other additions. Also, I  might replace the milk/half-and-half with buttermilk. I think the tangy taste that buttermilk gives is a better complement to the jam and cream that will be generously topped on the scone.

     I will give you a few tips to making scones below:

1. Always, always, always be gentle with the scone dough. You want the least amount of gluten to develop. Each time you mess with the dough more and more gluten develops which will make your once tender scone very tough. 
2. Add the liquid slowly and mix in little by little. You could quickly use too much liquid which will cause the scone to be a little too moist. 
3. Pat the scones out into the desired shape to bake, using a rolling pin might compress the dough and not let the scones rise as much as you want. 
4. Let the scones rest before putting them in the oven so they relax the little amount of gluten formed. 
5. Eat the scones quickly after removing them from the oven. They are better still warm and not reheated. 

Hope this helps and comment with your own tips or ask questions if you want more help. 

     
   

The Daily Bread

"He who tampers with the currency robs labor of its bread." - Daniel Webster in a speech delivered at Niblo’s Saloon, New York City, March 15, 1837

The Daily Bread

"BREAD is the most important article of food, and history tells of its use thousands of years before the Christian era. Many processes have been employed in making and baking; and as a result, from the first flat cake has come the perfect loaf. The study of bread making is of no slight importance, and deserves more attention than it receives." - Fannie Farmer

The Daily Bread

"Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all food; and good bread with fresh butter the greatest of feasts." - James Beard

Easy White Sandwich Loaf

As promised here is the full recipe for the soft sandwich loaf I started last night. Make and you can enjoy your very own loaf that will look like this

Basic Soft White Sandwich Loaf - Makes one loaf
Supplies: One 8.5"x4.5" loaf pan, sprayed with cooking oil
                Baking Stone
Ingredients: For the sponge

• All-purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups flour
• Water, room temp - scant 1 cup
• Honey - 1 tablespoon and 3/4 teaspoon
• Instant Yeast - 1/2 teaspoon

For the flour mixture and dough

• All-purpose flour - 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons
• Dry milk - 1/8 cup
• Instant Yeast - 1/2 teaspoon
• Unsalted butter, softened - 4.5 tablespoons
• Salt - 1 teaspoon 

Steps:

1. Make the sponge - In a mixer bowl, combine the four sponge ingredients and whisk until smooth like pancake batter. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside. 
2. Combine the flour, dry milk, and instant yeast with a whisk. Dust evenly over the liquid sponge. Cover with plastic wrap for 1-4 hours on the counter. (For more flavor, you can refrigerate after 1 hour up to 24 hours in the fridge.)
3. Mix the dough - Add the butter and mix on low speed with the dough hook attachment until all the flour is moistened and rough dough forms. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest for about 20 mins. After sprinkle on the salt and knead the dough with the dough hook attachment on medium speed for 7 mins or until the dough is shiny and smooth. You can add flour if the dough is not stiff enough or water if the dough is not sticky. 
4. Dough Rise - Scrape the dough into an oiled bowl or rising container and let rise covered until doubled about 1-1 1/2 hours. After rising, scrape the dough onto a floured counter and form a rectangle. Give it two business letter turns and out it back into the bowl. Oil the surface, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled about 1-1 1/2 hours. 
5. Scrape the dough onto a flour dusted counter. Gently press the dough into a rectangle not worrying about size. The long side should be facing toward you. Fold the right side a little past the center and then take the left side and overlap with the right side. Press down to seal the dough. Turn a ninety degree angle, at the top of the dough roll toward you three or four times and seal each turn with your thumbs. The outer skin of the dough should be tight and the dough log should be as long as the pan. If not, gently press both hands on the log and roll back and forth  working from the center to the ends. Make sure not to tear the outer skin, but it should remain tight. Slip the dough log into the prepared loaf pan and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Let rise for 1-1 1/2 hours.
6. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Oven shelf should be at the bottom level with baking stone and pan on the floor of the oven.
7. Quickly and gently set the pan on the baking stone and throw 1/2 cup ice cubes into the pan on the floor. Instantly shut the door. Bake for around 20-25 mins and medium brown and skewer inserted comes out clean. (If you have a fancy instant read thermometer the center should read 210 F. Turn the pan around halfway through baking to allow for more even cooking.
8. Remove the bread from the oven, unmold and let cool on a wire rack for one hour. (You can brush the top with melted butter as a nice glaze.

Hope you will take time and make this simple loaf. It tastes wonderful for all sandwich needs and very little hands on time.  

The Daily Bread

"The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight" - M.E.K. Fisher

Real Wonder Bread

I started a basic soft sandwich loaf tonight. Just mixed up the sponge and will finish it tomorrow. It makes delicious grilled cheeses, BLTs, and classic club sandwiches. I will post the full recipe tomorrow. For now, y'all can enjoy a picture of the sponge. 

The Daily Bread

The Daily Bread post is a daily quote about bread. The quotes could be funny, serious, historical, or anything as long as it deals with bread. 

"All sorrows are less with bread." -Miguel de Cervantes 

A trip to baker's paradise

     King Arthur Flour Company is a great company for bakers on any skill level. They offer pans, tools, and flour for every baker's needs. They offer great support and classes to enhance your skills. I had the privilege of going on vacation to visit their flagship store in Vermont. This was a dream come true! Better than Disney World for a baker. I spent several hours roaming the shelfs, picking out merchandise, and came back later that day to take a biscuit and scone class.

    If I was driving I probably would have bought bulk flour and even more goods that are hard to find in Bowling Green. Instead the airplane had weight constraints that I didn't want to pay to overcome. But I did have an extra bag to fill. So I bought hard to find tools and supplies for my kitchen.

At the entrance

     Since I got to visit this perfect place on my birthday I even got a cake from their bakery and it was tasty. And better than that I got to take a class. A dream come true. The class was on making biscuits and scones which added another level of awesomeness to the pilgrimage. 

   Here I am mixing up the biscuit dough and enjoying a great baking lesson. I learned that not all biscuits have to have butter/lard in them to be delicious and that Northerners can make okay biscuits. Nothing like a good southern biscuit but passable. It strengthened my techniques in making scones and biscuits. And reminded me that I love to bake. Still working on finding that great biscuit recipe but I am getting closer. 

What Bowling Green is missing

     Bowling Green, Kentucky is home. This reasonably sized town has most of the comforts of a larger city. Though the one thing I still find missing is an artisan bakery. We have a Panera and they have good artisan loaves. Not the same though as some place that is exclusive to Bowling Green. We had a good bakery in Bread and Bagel. It is now a tattoo parlor after changing hands and purposes many times. Then a Great Harvest appeared, slightly better than a Panera but not as good as the local Bread and Bagel.

     Bread and Bagel was the place I went for my afternoon snack twice a week, getting an everything bagel with plain cream cheese. I'd then sit with this delectable treat watching Redwall on PBS and wishing I was at the feasts that the mice were having. Later after I could drive myself, I would stop by before school and eat. It was a part of my experience growing up and enhanced my love of baked goods. Nothing could beat that warm bagel torn and dipped into the cool cream cheese. They had more than bagels of course, the focaccia was the perfect thing to take for a day on the lake. Take a hunk of focaccia, a slice of cheese, and a cluster of red grapes and that is lunch on the lake. The worst day was when Bread and Bagel turned into an Irish Pub that no longer served bread.

     That is about the time that Great Harvest opened. I had high hopes for Great Harvest. It lived up to some. It could make great rolls and soft sandwich loaves. It failed at providing a place to get a French Boule or really any type of Artisan loaf. It recently closed and another place to get fresh bread in Bowling Green died with it.

     Someone in Bowling Green please start a new artisan bakery, I'd visit you daily to get bread/pastries. I would still make my own bread but sometimes you can't reproduce a baguette baked in a professional oven.
   
   

Scales

    This morning I had a slice of the delicious cinnamon raisin loaf warm and slathered with butter. A great way to start out the day.
    I get happy and proud when my dishes come out to the correct taste and consistency. It is a sign of my progress and that the recipe is a hit. I know after baking a loaf, I can follow the same exact steps as the last time and get perfect loaves again and again. Sometimes though the environment works against you but the baker must try to recreate the same environment day after day. This is why the scale I use to weigh measurements is so important. The scale is a way to ensure consistency because a pound of flour one day is the same as a pound of flour the next. I use a Soehnle digital kitchen scale with 33 lb capacity. Any digital scale is a must in a baker's kitchen.

Remembering my first loaf

      I currently have a cinnamon raisin loaf raising and it reminds me of the first loaf I made a little over a year ago. Now the first loaf was not this swirled loaf but it was a sandwich loaf. When I first started I never thought it would turn into something that I would want to do everyday. The first loaf turned out pretty well even though I made several non-fatal mistakes. The mistakes mostly consisted of not spending enough time kneading or letting the bread rise for a few minutes longer than necessary. I made plenty of worse mistakes later that ruined the outcome. Bread baking though is not foolproof messing up a step or leaving out an ingredient is terrible in this exact cooking science.

                                           My first loaves. Simple sandwich loaves.

The wonderful food

     Bread: the most delicious way to eat grains. It is versatile food product that can be simple like a rustic french boule with only four ingredients to exotic breads like chocolate chip zucchini bread. Bread is used as a holder for other food or simply lathering it with butter. The smell of freshly baked bread signifies a warm, comfort place about to feed you.

     Bread in some sort or fashion links us to humans in every culture. It also connects us to so much of the past at least 30,000 years. Jesus passes the bread on the night he died and bread was and still is used as a staple for many. I am trying to continue this tradition of bread in our lives. If you like the whitest sandwich loaf at the grocery store or the most dark and organic loaf at the local artisan bakery, you are apart of the tradition of bread.

      I will post on this blogs my struggles and successes with bread. Reviews of equipment, must haves for the bakers kitchen and other sundry topics. Join me on an adventure through baking (you are sure to eat well)!